Construction grammar views grammatical constructions as the basic units of syntax, where a construction is a form-meaning pairing. It denies a strict distinction between lexicon and syntax, instead proposing a continuum. There are different models of how constructions are organized in the grammar, including a full entry model with minimal generalization, a usage-based model based on inductive learning, and models with varying degrees of inheritance. Construction grammar rejects derivation and adheres to no synonymy, viewing related constructions like active and passive as distinct. Various approaches within construction grammar emphasize different aspects, such as form (Berkeley construction grammar), psychological plausibility (Goldbergian construction grammar), or embodiment. The strength of construction grammar is its claim that many grammatical units

1. PANPACIFIC UNIVESINORTH PHILIPPINES
Institute of Graduate School
CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR
MELT 104- GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH
Professor : Maria Martha Manette A. Madrid
Discussants : Maricel O. Lopez
Ailyn G. Baustista

2. WHAT IS CONSTRUCTIONN GRAMMAR?
• Construction grammar is a theory of syntax in which
construction are the central unit of grammatical
representation.
• In linguistics, construction grammar groups a
number of models of grammar that all subscribe to
the idea that knowledge of a language as based on
collection of “form and function pairings”. The
“function” side covers what is commonly
understood as meaning content, or intent, it is
usually extends over both conventional fields
semantics and pragmatics.

3. HISTORY
• George Lakoff “Syntactic Amalgams” paper in 1974
(Chicago Linguistic Society,1974) posed a chaleenge
for the idea of transformational derivation.
• Linguistic Gestalts( Chicago Linguistic Society, 1977
) was Lakoff early version of C x G, arguing that the
meaning of the whole was a compositional function f
the meaning of the parts put together locally.
Instead, he suggested construction themselves must
have meaning.
• In 1980 linguists Charles Filmore, Paul Kay, and
George Lakoff developed construction grammar in
order to handle cases that intrinsically went beyond
the capacity of generative grammar.

4. THE GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION IN
CONSTUCTION GRAMMAR
• Construction grammar is a pairing of form and
content.
• Construction id treated like a sign in which all
structural aspects are integrated parts and not
distributed over different modules as is the
componential model.

5. SYNTAX- LEXICON CONTINUUM
• Unlike the componential model C x G denies any
strict distinction between the two and proposes a
syntax – lexicon continuum, the argument goes
that words and complex construction are both
pairs of form and meaning and differ only in
internal symbolic complexity.

6. GRAMMAR AS AN INVENTORY OF
CONSTRUCTION
• FOUR DIFFERENT MODELS
1. FULL EMTRY MODEL
In the full entry model is stored redundantly at all
relevant levels in the taxonomy, which means that it
operates if at all, with minimal generalization.
2. USAGE- BASED MODEL
The usage based model on inductive learning,
meaning that linguistic knowledge is acquired in a
bottom up manner through use. It allows for
redundancy and generalization over recurring
experiences of use.

7. GRAMMAR AS AN INVENTORY OF
CONSTRUCTION
3.DEFAULT – INHERITANCE MODEL
According to this model, each central form – meaning
pairing from which all instances, inherit their features. If this
operates with fairly high level of generalization, but does also
allow for some redundancy in that is recognizes extensions of
different types.
4. COMPLETE INHERITANCE MODEL
In this model, information is stored only once at the most
super ordinate level of the network. Instances at all super
ordinate item. The complete inheritance does not allow for
redundancy in the network.

8. SYNONYMY AND MONOTOMY
• Construction grammar is based on schemas and
taxonomies it does not operate with dynamic rules
of derivation. Rather monotomic.
• Since C x G does not operate with surface derivation
from underlying structures, it rejects constructional
polysemy and adheres to functionalist, linguist
Daught Bolingerr’s principle of no synonymy, which
Adel, Goldberg elaborate in her book.
• This means that construction grammarian argue for
instance, that active and passive version of the same
preposition are not derived from an underlying
structures, but are instances of two construction.

9. SYNONYMY AND MONOTOMY
• An construction are pairings of form and
meaning, active and passive versions of the
same preposition are not synonymous, but
display differences in content in this case the
pragmatic content.
• Some of its proponent/ developers are the
Neural Theory of Language (NTL) group at IC,
SI, UC, Berkely, and the University of Hawaii,
particularly including Benjamin Berges and
Nancy Chang.

10. BERKELY CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR
• Formerly also called Construction Grammar in
upper case focuses on the formal aspects of
construction and makes use of a unification
based on framework for description of syntax,
not unlike Head – Driven Phrases Structure
Grammar.

11. GOLBERGIAN GAKOVIAN
CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR
• In terms of form and function, this type of
construction grammar puts psychological
plausibility as its highest desideration.
• It emphasis experimental results and parallels
with general cognitive psychology.
• It also draws on certain principles of cognitive
linguistics.

12. COGNITIVE GRAMMAR
• Focuses o semantic categories and relation.
• Cognitive Grammar is a conventional pairing of
a semantic structure with phonological label.

13. RADICAL GRAMMAR
• Focuses on syntactic categories and typological
universals.

14. EMBODIED CONSTRRUCTION GRAMMAR
• Adopts the basic constructional definition of a
grammatical construction, but emphasizes the
relation of instructional semantic content to
embodiment and sensorimotor experiences.
• Make use of unification based model of
representation.

15. FLUID CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR
• It acknowledge the premises that language users
constantly change and update their grammars.
• It was designed by Lee Steels for doing experiments
on the origins and development of language.
• Fluid constructional grammar is a fully operational
and computationally implemented formalism for
construction grammar, and propose a uniform
mechanism for pairing and production.
• The grammar integrates many notions from
contemporary computational linguistics such as
feature srtuctures and unification- based language
processing.

16. STREGHT OF CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR
• Its central claim is that are large number of
grammatical units, called instruction which are
basic form for the speakers to express their
meaning.

17. WEAKNESSES OF CONSTRUCTIONAL
GRAMMAR
• Nothing units students like communicating
about the demanding rules of grammar.
• Nothing appears more consistently near the top
of the list of what employers are looking for ( the
ability to think critically) than the ability to
communicate clearly in writing.

18. REFERENCE
• Wikipedea, the free encyclopedia
• En.wikipedia.org/wiki/construction grammar