The place of constructions

Abstract

This study focuses on the question of the internal organization of the lexicon. In recent years, some cognitive linguists have considered the hypothesis that language forms are essentially independent of each other, thus questioning the widely accepted assumption of mental links between cognates or between constructions and their typical usage instances. The present study approaches this question on the basis of a grammatical construction (so-called Characteristic-As-Place construction) which can be considered a classic case in point: apart from a general schematic pattern, the construction is also associated with a number of concrete expressions built around the construction’s pattern. It will be argued that it makes sense to postulate some kind of mental relations between the construction’s fixed manifestations and its schematic formula. Without such relations it would be, among other things, difficult to account for innovative usage of the construction.