Chapter 7. Constructing a constructicon for German

Abstract

This chapter discusses a number of important issues underlying and motivating the development of a constructicon for German. More specifically, it presents an overview of some typologically interesting facets of German syntax such as word order, topological fields, case, and passives. Taking a contrastive view of some German constructions and their English counterparts, this chapter shows under what circumstances existing entries from the Berkeley constructicon for English can be reused to create corresponding entries in a German constructicon. Of particular interest in this context are the notions of idiomaticity, abstraction, and the continuum of constructional correspondence. Finally, this chapter introduces ongoing constructicographic efforts to create a constructicon for German. To document the current status of the project, both the methodology and the workflow guiding the German Constructicon project (GCon) are illustrated.