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Constructions and context(s)

Benoît Leclercq, Guillaume Desagulier et Dylan Glynn

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Introduction

1Constructions have emerged as one of the foremost analytical tools for describing and explaining grammar. They have been most explicitly operationalized within the framework of Construction Grammar (CxG). This framework has gained a central position within cognitive and functional linguistics, emphasizing the connection between language and human cognition. At its core, CxG views language as a network of form-meaning pairings called constructions, reflecting the cognitive linguistic perspective that language is inherently meaningful and grounded in mental representations. This usage-based model posits that linguistic structures emerge from patterns of use. Therefore, it analyzes language in real-world settings, recognizing that the meaning and function of constructions can vary depending on the specific context in which they occur. This context-sensitive approach allows CxG to account for the creativity, flexibility, and idiosyncrasy of actual language use, making it particularly well-suited for studying language variation across different social, cultural, and communicative contexts. By incorporating concepts of motivation and frequency, contemporary CxG aligns with cognitive linguistics in rejecting strict modular divisions in language. Its cognitive foundations and focus on contextual factors have made CxG a comprehensive framework for understanding language as a complex, adaptive system intertwined with human cognition, experience, and contextual influences. While the contextual nature of linguistic knowledge is assumed by many in the field, its fundamental role in the description and explanation of grammatical constructions remains to be properly integrated and formalized in the theory. This special issue, which derives from the workshop where these papers were presented, was conceived with this objective in mind.

The workshop

2The workshop, held on November 9th, 2022, at Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, was the second in the Constructions and Context(s) series initiated by Romain Delhem, Vincent Hugou and Caroline Marty, in 2021 at Sorbonne Université in Paris. One year later, Benoît Leclercq, Guillaume Desagulier and Dylan Glynn hosted this edition to explore the relationship between linguistic constructions and their contextual environments. The primary objective was to investigate how context influences the interpretation and use of constructions. Participants examined whether constructions can resist contextual pressures and explored the semantic and pragmatic functions of constructions. Discussions also addressed the implications of using constructions primarily for their pragmatic functions, and a significant area of inquiry was how contextual factors affect construction selection within paradigms and influence potential variation in meaning. The workshop also examined diachronic aspects, discussing models for identifying constructionalization processes and tracing the evolution of links across constructions over time. By encompassing research on specific constructions across multiple languages, including English, French, Hebrew, Italian, Old High German and Spanish, the workshop fostered a cross-linguistic dialogue. The inclusion of both French and English presentations enhanced the diversity of linguistic perspectives.

The special issue

3The first part of this special issue brings together papers that aim to pin down the extent to which the interpretation of specific constructions may diverge from their conventional meanings due to extra-linguistic pressures. Central to this inquiry is the question of how context-specific meaning relates to more entrenched, abstract meanings within linguistic constructions. This is the focus of the first three contributions by Dominique Legallois (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle), Pedro Ivorra Ordines (Centro Universitario de la Defensa, Zaragoza) and Sophie Raineri (Université Paris Nanterre).

4Dominique Legallois was our guest speaker. Based on a case study of the Incongruous Sanction Construction, Legallois’s paper on “Modal scenarios topoi and incongruity in expressive constructions” demonstrates how modal scenarios and topoi contribute to qualifying incongruity and conventionalizing expressive value, while also noting that constructions lacking such qualification require context-dependent interpretation of their expressive values.

5In his study on “The extravagant nature of consecutive constructional idioms,” Pedro Ivorra Ordines explores E-creativity (enlarging/extending creativity) by examining consecutive constructional idioms in Spanish, such as una sed que me bebería el entero lago ('a thirst that could drink the entire lake'), using data from the esTenTen18 corpus. It aims to clarify the relationship between creativity and extravagance and analyze these patterns through orthotypographic markers and cognitive devices, highlighting their role in understanding the interplay between psychological-cognitive and socio-cognitive factors at the syntax-pragmatics interface.

6Sophie Raineri's paper “Can context undo constructional meaning? A Construction Grammar study of French en situation de + NOUN” investigates the impact of context on the meaning of the French expression en situation de + NOUN (e.g., en situation de handicap), revealing a clash between its inherent ‘circumstantial characterization’ and contextual interpretations. Despite contextual pressures, the construction retains distinct semantic and pragmatic properties, contributing to research on euphemism and politically correct language while emphasizing the importance of maintaining the semantics/pragmatics distinction in usage-based Construction Grammar studies.

7A second part brings together papers by Flavio Pisciotta (Università degli Studi di Salerno), Katja Politt (Universität Bielefeld), Michael Redmond (Université de Neuchâtel), and Evelyn Wiesinger (Universität Tübingen). They explore how co-textual factors condition construction choices across different languages and grammatical paradigms. Each study emphasizes the significance of context (here understood as text genre, intraparadigmatic features, distributional knowledge, or spatio-aspectual interpretations) in influencing the functional distinctions and interpretations of constructions.

8Flavio Pisciotta's study on “sembrare-constructions across a continuum of text genres” demonstrates how extra-linguistic context influences constructional choice in Italian. More specifically, it investigates the factors that influence the choice between different constructions with the Italian verb sembrare ('to seem'), focusing on the role of extra-linguistic context, specifically text genre, in comparison to linguistic factors. The research examines the alternation between impersonal constructions (mi sembra che, sembra che) and personal constructions (sembrare + infinitive) across a continuum of written and spoken text genres. Analyzing 405 occurrences from written and spoken corpora, results show that dialogicity and planning significantly affect construction choice, thus justifiying the need to incorporate text genre considerations in the description of constructions.

9Katja Politt's paper on “Co(n)texts in grammatical paradigms” examines how context influences construction choices within paradigms. It lists three types of contexts for understanding grammatical paradigms: intraparadigmatic context, co-text features, and communicative context. Using various studies, it demonstrates how analyzing these context types enhances the understanding of functional distinctions within paradigms from a usage-based perspective, ultimately shaping the paradigm's internal structure, the functional roles of its members, and their selection in communication.

10Michael Redmond revisits Old High German syntax from a constructional perspective, focusing on conditional and complement clauses introduced by ibu (similar to English if and French si). Despite their formal similarities, these clauses are rarely misinterpreted, suggesting that language users rely on distributional knowledge for correct interpretation. The research uses corpus data to demonstrate that clause order, matrix verb semantics, and resumptive adverbs are crucial for disambiguating these clause types, while also considering pragmatic effects and addressing related methodological and theoretical issues.

11Finally, Evelyn Wiesinger's paper, “Semantics and pragmatics of Spanish verb-particle constructions,” examines Spanish verb-particle constructions, particularly those with para atrás 'back(wards)'. While previous research has largely focused on the semantics of the particle and verb, Wiesinger adopts a dynamic frame-semantic approach that emphasizes the role of context. Through a case study using corpus examples, she demonstrates that these constructions are subject to variable spatio-aspectual interpretations. The paper situates these findings within the growing interest in CxG, explaining how contextual features influence semantic and pragmatic understanding and contribute to the representation of meaning in constructions.

12The third and final part of the issue consists of contributions by Ittamar Erb (Tel Aviv University) and Elena Gavruseva (University of Iowa). Both have in common that they resort to experimental approaches. Erb's paper “Prototypical low-level constructions: experimental evidence for the possessive preposition in Hebrew” investigates whether prototypical discourse profiles of productive constructions are independently stored by speakers, focusing on definite prepositional possessive constructions in Hebrew (e.g., ax ʃeli 'my brother'). The study examines the source of definiteness in these constructions through a corpus study of spoken Hebrew and an acceptability judgment task experiment. He claims that discourse profiles are independently represented, with cluster analysis suggesting these representations occur at an intermediate level of abstraction. Erb advocates for the role of low-level constructions in grammatical organization.

13Finally, Gavruseva's contribution “Let’s drop the object: An experimental study of the Implicit Object Construction in American English” explores the Implicit Object Construction (IOC) in English within the Construction Grammar framework, focusing on the acceptability of implicit objects in different discourse contexts. Two experiments were conducted with native American English speakers to assess the acceptability of IOCs in generic (no antecedent) and definite/indefinite (with antecedent) contexts. The results indicate that IOCs are preferred in contexts without antecedents, while overt objects are favored in contexts with antecedents. However, the study also finds that certain verbs allow for acceptable use of implicit objects with specific antecedents, emphasizing the importance of individual verb characteristics in speakers' judgments of IOC acceptability.

14This special issue aims not only to capture the current state of research on constructions but also underline the importance of situational and linguistic context in our attempts at describing and explaining lexico-syntactic phenomena. We hope that it will inspire further investigations and especially contribute to the ongoing development of Construction Grammar as an important framework for understanding language in use.

Acknowledgments

15We sincerely thank the authors for entrusting their work to CogniTextes. Their innovative research and willingness to engage with the themes of the workshop have resulted in a collection that significantly advances the field of Construction Grammar and usage-based linguistics. We also extend our heartfelt gratitude to the reviewers who contributed their time and expertise to ensure the high quality of the papers in this issue. Their rigorous and constructive feedback has been invaluable in shaping these contributions.

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Benoît Leclercq, Guillaume Desagulier et Dylan Glynn, « Constructions and context(s) »CogniTextes [En ligne], Volume 25 | 2024, mis en ligne le 17 novembre 2024, consulté le 16 novembre 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/cognitextes/2602 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/12rcu

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Auteurs

Benoît Leclercq

Université de Lille

Guillaume Desagulier

Université Bordeaux Montaigne

Articles du même auteur

Dylan Glynn

Université Paris 8

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