LSA 105: Construction grammar and typology

William Croft | session 1 | MW 8:30 – 10:15, 370 Dwinelle Hall

In this course, we will examine what the typological approach contributes to construction grammar, and vice versa. In the first week, we will examine the relationship between syntactic categories and syntactic constructions from a typological perspective, following Radical Construction Grammar, and introduce the semantic map model and multidimensional scaling. In the second week, we will examine the structure of constructions, and present a Radical Construction Grammar analysis of certain aspects of noun phrase structure. In the third week we will adapt Chafe's verbalization model for constructional analysis, and present a usage-based approach to the relationship between form and meaning.

Required reading: Selected materials available online.

Recommended reading: William Croft, Radical Construction Grammar.

Prerequisites: A basic course in syntax.

Areas of linguistics: Language and thought; Syntax, semantics, and morphology