What do speakers of a language have to know, and what can they 'figure out' on the basis of that knowledge, in order for them to use their language successfully? This is the question at the heart of Construction Grammar, an approach to the study of language that views all dimensions of language as equal contributors to shaping linguistic expressions. The trademark characteristic of Construction Grammar is the insight that language is a repertoire of more or less complex patterns – construc...

Councillor Krespel is an eccentric violin maker who lives with the mysterious Antonia. Considered to have the most beautiful singing voice the town has ever heard; she has only sung once in her life. Krespel is renowned for making the finest violins in the world, but never sells any and plays each violin he makes only once. What is the dark secret behind this odd couple's behaviour?This classic short horror story was written by the famous German Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann and ...

Varieties of English are spoken all over the world from Africa to Asia, from Europe to America. In addition to its use as a foreign language, English in many of these countries is a first or second language variety that initially arose in a colonial setting. Currently, the most influential sociolinguistic model for the evolution of these 'Post-Colonial Englishes' is the Dynamic Model. In this Element, I outline how Construction Grammar, the most prominent cognitive syntactic theory, can pr...