Construction Grammar in the Service of Slavic Linguistics, and Vice Versa

Abstract:This paper explores the connection between Slavic languages and the theoretical tenets of construction grammar, a cognitively and functionally oriented approach to linguistic analysis. The strengths of traditional Slavic linguistics consist particularly in its focus on diachronic concerns, lexical semantics, and on issues of morphology. Constructional analysis provides a firm theoretical grounding for these traditional areas and also draws attention to phenomena and issues that have been less prominently pursued by Slavic linguists. This concerns various kinds of syntactic patterning but also the domain of discourse organization and grammatical devices that serve specific discourse functions, be it the nature of pragmatic particles, specific clausal structures, expressions of subjective epistemic stance, etc. Of interest is also the origin and evolution of such devices. This area has been generally left just about untouched in Slavic linguistics, yet it represents an enormous pool of interesting data and relates directly to theoretical questions that are presently in the forefront of general linguistic research. With respect to the evolutionary perspective, the present paper also comments on the role of pragmaticization and constructionalization and their manifestations in particular instances, including suggestions for how they can be conceptualized with the contribution of construction grammar.