Incipient Productivity : a Construction-Based Approach to Linguistic Creativity.

1. Introduction; 1.1 The issue; 1.2 Aims and scope; 1.3 Structure of the book; 2. Towards a usage-based model of constructional generalisation; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Incipient productivity: From collocations to constructional schemas; 2.3 Theoretical framework; 2.3.1 Usage-based construction grammar; 2.3.2 Cognitive semantics; 2.3.3 Models of constructional generalisation; 2.4 Previous research; 2.4.1 Insights from research on construction learning; 2.4.2 Insights from research on constructional change; 2.4.3 Insights from research on constructional variation; 2.5 Chapter summary.

3. Testing ground: Intensity collocations3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Intensity and intensification; 3.2.1 Intensification as a linguistic function; 3.2.2 Intensifier variation and change; 3.3 Conceptualising intensification; 3.3.1 Intensification strategies in English and German; 3.3.2 PERCEPTION intensifiers; 3.4 Constructing intensification; 3.4.1 Construction A: Int + N; 3.4.2 Construction B: Int + Adj; 3.4.3 Construction C: Int + with/vor + N; 3.5 Objectives; 3.6 Chapter summary; 4. Lexicalisation patterns: From concepts to words; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Prerequisites.

4.2.1 The corpus-linguistic study of lexicalisation patterns4.2.2 Data; 4.3 Procedure; 4.3.1 Setting up the search space; 4.3.2 Data extraction and coding; 4.4 Results; 4.4.1 Overview; 4.4.2 Construction A; 4.4.3 Construction B; 4.4.4 Construction C; 4.5 Summary and discussion; 5. Fixed expressions: From words to collocations; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Prerequisites; 5.2.1 Formulaicity and creativity; 5.2.2 Corpus data as clues to cognitive entrenchment patterns; 5.3 Procedure; 5.4 Results; 5.4.1 Overview; 5.4.2 Construction A; 5.4.3 Construction B; 5.4.4 Construction C.

5.5 Summary and discussion6. Incipient productivity: From collocations to constructional schemas; 6.1 Introduction; 6.2 Prerequisites; 6.2.1 Problems of semantic classification; 6.2.2 Approaches to semantic classification; 6.2.3 Approaches to productivity; 6.3 Procedure; 6.3.1 Identifying item-based generalisations; 6.3.2 Identifying pockets of productive use; 6.3.3 Identifying higher-level generalisations; 6.4 Results; 6.4.1 Item-based generalisations; 6.4.2 Incipient productivity; 6.4.3 Higher-order patterns; 6.5 Summary and discussion; 7. Conclusion; Appendix; Notes; References; Index.

How do speakers vary established patterns of language use and adapt them to novel contexts of application? This study presents a usage-based approach to linguistic creativity: combining detailed qualitative with large-scale quantitative analyses of corpus data, it traces the emergence of partial productivity in clusters of conventional collocations. Synthesising insights from research on language acquisition, variation and change, it is argued that creative extensions of linguistic conventions are intrinsically bound up with aspects of memory and repetition.

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Includes bibliographical references and index.

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