
Creative Construction Grammar
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 31. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
75 pages
978-1-009-63527-1 (ISBN)
Description
Constructions are long-term pairings in memory of form and meaning. How are they created and learned, how do they change, and how do they combine into new utterances (constructs, communicative performances) in working memory? Drawing on evidence from word-formation (blending, Noun-Noun-compounds) over idioms and argument structure constructions to multimodal communication, we argue that computational metaphors such as 'unification' or 'constraint-satisfaction' do not constitute a cognitively adequate explanation. Instead, we put forward the idea that construction combination is performed by Conceptual Blending - a domain-general process of higher cognition that has been used to explain complex human behavior such as, inter alia, scientific discovery, reasoning, art, music, dance, math, social cognition, and religion. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 6 mm
Weight
142 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-63527-1 (9781009635271)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Thomas Hoffmann | Mark Turner
Creative Construction Grammar
Book
approx. 01/2026
Cambridge University Press
€75.30
Not yet published
Persons
Content
1. What is 'creative construction grammar'?; 2. Why construction grammar needs a theory of creative combination; 3. Candidate theories of creative combination; 4. Blending; 5. Creative construction grammar: blending in action; 6. Conclusion; References.