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1.Introduction
thesisandtheclaim,heldbymanyandputforthexplicitlybyFriedand
Östman(2004,p.24),thatHagrammariscomposedofconventionalas‑
sociationsofformandmeaning,”followingGoldberg’s(1995)definition
ofconstructionsaspairingsofformandmeaning,orHlearnedpairings
offormwithsemanticordiscoursefunction”(Goldberg,2006,p.5).As
willbeshowninthediscussionofeachcasereviewedinchapters3—5,
theconstructionsinquestioncannotbeaccountedforbygeneralrules
ofsyntax,andarethereforeconsistentwithCrof’scharacterizationof
constructionsasHpairingsofformandmeaningthatareatleastpartially
arbitrary”(Crof,2001,p.18).Inthissense,paternslikethewayconstruc‑
tionortheHtime”awayconstructionarereal(asopposedtobeingsome
sortofspecialinstancesofmoregeneralrules)andmustbestoredas
entriesinthementallexicon.Thesemanticefectsthatwillbepresented
belowarestrongenoughtojustifyaconstructionalapproach.TheCxG
frameworkprovidesanexplicitstructureforanalyzingsuchconstruc‑
tionsthatwouldbedimcult,ifnotimpossible,tocaptureintermsof
generalsyntacticprinciples.
However,althoughthisanalysisfullysubscribestotheviewthat
syntacticpaternscancarryspecificandevidentmeanings,itwillbe
arguedthatthemeaningsofsyntacticconstructionsareconstrained
inveryspecificways.Centralinthiscontributionistheproposalthat
themeaningspostulatedformanyconstructionswereimplausibly
richandinsomecasestheseelaborateefectscanbeshowntobe
contextualinferencesratherthanaconstruction’sinherentcontent.
Thepresentstudywillthereforeatempttoseparatetheconstruc‑
tion’srealmeaningfromthatmeaning’spragmaticconsequences
ofconversationalprinciples.Oneofthewelcomeaspectsofthisap‑
proachisthatitmakesitpossibletoanalyzethesemanticefects
ofconstructionswithoutsuspendingthelexicon-grammardistinc‑
tion,whichpresupposesadegreeofsemanticausterityforfunction
forms.
BecausemostCxGanalysesquestionthedivisionbetweensyntaxand
thelexicon,Iwillfirstreviewargumentsagainstamodularorganization
oflanguageputforthbycognitivelinguistsandconstructiongram-
marians.Iwillatempttodemonstratethatmodularityingeneralandthe
lexicon-syntaxdivisioninparticulardonothavetobeincompatiblewith
theframeworkofCxG.
