Complex Words Between Construct and Construction: Recent Usage-Based Approaches and Their Implications for Word Formation

Abstract

Word-formation used to play only a relatively small role in Construction Grammar for a long time. But this has changed recently, especially since Booij’s (2010) Construction Morphology. Especially with regard to diachronic perspectives on word-formation, Construction Grammar has become to a highly relevant theoretical framework. At the same time, Construction Grammar and usage-based linguistics in general have experienced a number of interesting theoretical developments concerning, among other things, the question of how the “construct-i-con” is structured, and what the theoretical and cognitive status of constructions is. In this programmatic paper I discuss the theoretical and research-practical implications that these developments have for the area word-formation, addressing a number of questions that currently still remain open.