Introducing Construction Semantics (CxS): a frame-semantic extension of Construction Grammar and constructicography

Abstract

Abstract Construction Semantics (CxS) uses FrameNet frames to capture the semantic properties of grammatical constructions. It closes a gap between Frame Semantics and usage-based Construction Grammar as well as providing a uniform format to implement frames into constructicographic work. This article provides an overview of three core features of CxS. Starting point is (i) the modeling of semantic properties associated with constructions in terms of three types of frames. This makes possible (ii) the analysis of structural parallels between constructions and frames, in particular the semantic motivation of elements of a construct by frame elements. Lastly, (iii) an inventory of semantic parameters of constructions serves as a toolkit for generalizing over semantic properties of single constructs. A driving force behind CxS is the concept of frame proximity: a network of frames which allows one to distinguish lexically evoked frames that are related or unrelated to a frame associated with a construction.