Language is arguably the most important cultural tool that humans have ever invented. In this book, using English as our specific object of choice, we will look at the cognitive basis of language and discover how all aspects of it, from inventing new words to uttering full sentences, rest on one central cognitive unit: the construction. As we will see in this chapter, a core property of languages is that they are complex sign systems. I will first introduce the classic definition of words as linguistic signs, that is, as arbitrary pairings of form and meaning. Next, we shall see that even morphemes or abstract syntactic patterns are best analysed as form-meaning pairings. All of these different types of signs will be captured by the notion of the construction. Besides, instead of a strict dichotomy of words and rules, we will treat language as a system that ranges from simple word constructions to complex syntactic constructions. Finally, we will explore the basic assumptions shared by all approaches that consider the construction the basic notion of syntactic analysis (so-called Construction Grammars) and outline how these differ from Chomskyan Mainstream Generative Grammar.

Chapter 2 provides a background on the use of network models in different scientific disciplines and introduces the general architecture of the grammar network. The proposed network model has two levels of analysis: a lower level, at which linguistic signs, notably constructions, are defined by three different types of associations, or relations: (1) symbolic relations connecting form and meaning, (2) sequential relations connecting linguistic elements in sequence and (3) taxonomic relations connecting linguistic patterns at different levels of abstraction. Together the three relations define the basic units of speech, i.e., lexemes and constructions. Every unit constitutes a (local) network shaped by language use, but these networks also serve as nodes of a higher-level network that involves three other types of relations: (4) lexical relations connecting lexemes with similar or contrastive forms and meanings, (5) constructional relations connecting constructions at the same level of abstraction and (6) and filler-slot relations connecting particular lexemes with constructional schemas.

Chapter 2 provides a background on the use of network models in different scientific disciplines and introduces the general architecture of the grammar network. The proposed network model has two levels of analysis: a lower level, at which linguistic signs, notably constructions, are defined by three different types of associations, or relations: (1) symbolic relations connecting form and meaning, (2) sequential relations connecting linguistic elements in sequence and (3) taxonomic relations connecting linguistic patterns at different levels of abstraction. Together the three relations define the basic units of speech, i.e., lexemes and constructions. Every unit constitutes a (local) network shaped by language use, but these networks also serve as nodes of a higher-level network that involves three other types of relations: (4) lexical relations connecting lexemes with similar or contrastive forms and meanings, (5) constructional relations connecting constructions at the same level of abstraction and (6) and filler-slot relations connecting particular lexemes with constructional schemas.