A constructionalist approach to language change is proposed, with focus on the development of signs in a usage-based model. The book's explore the interconnections between grammatical and lexical constructions in the language network, and the way in which language use affects the representation of constructions and schemas over time. Language change is shown to proceed by micro-steps that involve closely related changes in syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse functions. Examples are drawn from electronic corpora representing the one thousand five hundred year his ... More

A constructionalist approach to language change is proposed, with focus on the development of signs in a usage-based model. The book's explore the interconnections between grammatical and lexical constructions in the language network, and the way in which language use affects the representation of constructions and schemas over time. Language change is shown to proceed by micro-steps that involve closely related changes in syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse functions. Examples are drawn from electronic corpora representing the one thousand five hundred year history of English from earliest times to the present. The book is organized in six chapters. The first outlines the authors’ approach and the questions they address. The second reviews usage-based models of language change. The third considers the relation between grammatical constructionalization and grammaticalization. The fourth considers the relation between lexical constructionalization and lexicalization, and proposes that lexical constructionalization includes word formation. Chapter 5 focuses on the role of context. The final chapter draws the book’s arguments together in a series of conclusions and outlines prospects for further research. The book rethinks key issues in historical linguistics research (including grammaticalization, lexicalization, reanalysis, analogy and unidirectionality) by adopting a constructional approach to the architecture of language.