Language use and the architecture of grammar: a Construction Morphology perspective
Language use and the architecture of grammar: a Construction Morphology perspective

Summary/Abstract: This article motivates a usage–based account of morphological knowledge, and its place in the architecture of grammar. I–language, the abstract linguistic competence, and E–language, that is, actual language use, stand in a dialogic relationship. Morphology must be usage– based in order to understand the knowledge and creation of complex words. Construction Morphology is a theory about the place of morphology in the architecture of grammar that assumes a hierarchical lexicon, with various degrees of schematicity that do justice to actual language use in the domain of word formation. Since there are productive phrasal lexical constructions as well, and word formation may be based on paradigmatic relationships with such phrasal lexical units, there is no sharp divide between lexicon and grammar, although the formal distinction between syntactic and morphological constructs must be preserved. Arguments are given for second order schemas. They represent a multi–dimensional network of relationships between linguistic constructional schemas, both morphological and syntactic ones. The model of Construction Morphology is shown to allow for the graceful integration of findings concerning lexical knowledge in various subdomains of linguistics such as language acquisition, change, and processing.

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