PROF. DR. ALEXANDER ZIEM

Research network "Construction Grammar of German"

Organizer/principal investigators: Alexander Ziem (Düsseldorf), Alexander Lasch (Kiel)

** NEWS: As part of the conference "Constructions as social conventions and cognitive routines", the third meeting of the research network will be take place from August 31 - September 1, 2011, in Düsseldorf. For details see the Call for Papers (submission deadline was April 15).**

The research network "Construction Grammar of German" - from written texts to language in interaction

Although construction grammar (CxG) is well-established and well-organized in the english-speaking scientific community, there is still a considerable backlog in the German community – particularly in terms of CxG-inspired research on structures of the German language. Following the example of studies on spoken language conducted within the CxG paradigm, it is the major aim of the research network “Construction Grammar of German” to account for this shortcoming. The network has been established by Alexander Ziem and Alexander Lasch on the international conference “Construction Grammar: New Perspectives in the Study of German and English” hosted in February 2010 in Kiel. The major long-term goal is to empirically identify and describe a repertoire of constructions specific to contemporary standard German as exhaustively as possible. The network also attempts to stimulate joint research, yielding long-term collaborations in relevant areas of investigations.

The network “Construction German of German” is designed as an undogmatic umbrella organisation of linguists addressing similar research issues from possibly different (methodological) viewpoints. Analogous to the conception of CxG – understood as a general and comprehensive theory of language including its structure, its change and emergence –, the network aims at covering a wide spectrum of linguistic phenomena and topics, ranging from morphological and syntactic structures to the impact of cognitive and social factors on meaning formation. The network is open for new ideas and research topics – and for all linguists who are interested in actively shaping a rapidly growing and exciting branch of (cognitive) linguistics.

Aims

The network pursues five main objectives:

  • Critical discussion and assessment of CxG theorems: In German linguistics, methodological reflections on CxG are still missing, although there is a growing interest in CxG-related issues. Thus, one aim is to provide new insights in frequently discussed issues from a construction-based perspective. 
  • Identifying constructions in standard German. So far, there are only a few case studies investigating constructions in standard German. An important aim is thus to identify and analyze as many constructions as possible in order to arrive at a more comprehensive description of the “constructicon” constituting contemporary standard German.
  • Integrating frames in CxG: Following Fillmore’s and Goldberg’s suggestions to integrate semantic frames in CxG, an important task concerns a more comprehensive and more precise descriptions of the meaning pole of (grammatical) constructions.
  • Constructions as results of (oral) linguistic practices: Although constructions are commonly defined as conventionalized form-meaning-pairings, not much attention has been drawn to the social dimension of constructions. Following new insights from CxG-oriented studies on spoken language, the current focus of mainstream CxG should be broadened in order to take account of interaction-related facets in the pursued usage-based model.
  • Relating CxG to other approaches: CxG claims to provide a comprehensive linguistic theory covering the emergence, entrenchment, and change of basically all linguistic units. In doing so, numerous theorems and issues characteristic to other linguistic theories are adapted, modified, or refused. It seems to be necessary to relate and discuss the relation to relevant theories, in order to both assess categories postulated by CxG and integrate new categories relevant for a more comprehensive approach.

Events

After its founding in February 2010, the research network “Construction Grammar of German” came together on the panel „Constructions in German“ hosted in the fouth conference of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association in Bremen (October 5-7, 2010). As part of the conference “Constructions as social conventions and cognitive routines” (August 31 - September 1, 2011), a third follow-up event will take place in Düsseldorf. Further meetings are planned on a regular basis.

Publications

The meetings taken place so far gave rise to many fruitful discussions yielding to a couple of pioneering publications in the field of “Construction Grammar of German”. Two edited books which are currently in press document the broad application scope (Lasch, Alexander/Ziem, Alexander (ed.): Konstruktionsgrammatik III: Aktuelle Fragen und Lösungsansätze. Tübingen: Stauffenburg; Ziem, Alexander/Lasch, Alexander (ed.): Grammatik als Inventar von Konstruktionen? Sprachwissen im Fokus in der Konstruktionsgrammatik. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter). Moreover, a monograph on „Construction Grammar of German“ (authored by Alexander Ziem and Alexander Lasch) will soon be published with de Gruyter.

Contact

Scholars who are interested in joining the network can get in contact with alexanderPUNKTziemATuni-duesseldorfPUNKTde.