ABSTRACT
This chapter gives the idea that the basic clausal patterns of a language represent pairings of form and function, or constructions. It is quite a familiar and uncontroversial idea that words in a language can be used metaphorically. In this view of grammar, there is no strict division between the lexicon and grammar: Both words and phrasal patterns are pairings of form and function. In fact, knowledge of language is claimed to consist only of knowledge of interrelated pairings of form and function. The semantics of the clausal patterns has been argued to be based on fundamental patterns of experience, acquired through a process of categorizing over learned instances. Once constructions emerge from the input, they can be used in a top-down fashion to facilitate the acquisition of new verbs. The semantics of particular constructions has been argued to be extended via constructional polysemy and metaphorical projection, yielding the fuller expressive power that is evident in the data.
