Review of Sommerer & Smirnova (2020): Nodes and networks in diachronic Construction Grammar

Abstract

The constructionist approach to language has become the fastest growing linguistic and cognitive-functional approach during the past decade (Goldberg, 2019). It is generally accepted in Construction Grammar that language is a structured inventory of constructions, viz., the "constructicon" (Goldberg, 2019, p. 36), which is composed of constructional networks with nodes (constructions) and links (both vertical and horizontal ones). Nonetheless, there has hitherto been no consensus on how to design the network to represent the organization of linguistic knowledge and to model diachronic changes in the network. This is the very core issue that the volume under review intends to explore. Specifically, it addresses the nature and change of nodes and links in constructional networks, such as node creation or loss, node-external reconfiguration of the network or in/decrease in productivity and schematicity. In doing so, the volume has shed new light on the nature of the constructicon, and represents the latest state of the art in Diachronic Construction Grammar (henceforth, DCxG).The volume begins with the editors' introduction "The nature of the node and the network -Open questions in Diachronic Construction Grammar". It offers a bird's eye view of research in DCxG, with a focus on the discussion of questions unresolved. The editors enumerate seven unresolved questions concerning the design of the network, which are addressed by the contributions in this collection. The editors critically discuss issues relating to the nature of nodes and to their diachronic changes -node creation and node loss. The introduction to the papers collected in this volume is skillfully integrated into this critical discussion of current knowledge in the literature about nodes and links.The nine chapters following the introduction are organized into three sections. Section 1 is "The nodes: Creation, change and loss". In Chapter 1, Susanne Flach argues that the notion of constructionalization (cxzn), proposed by Traugott and Trousdale (2013), is ambiguous in the sense that it simultaneously refers to the gradual processes involved in the coming into existence of a new construction and the point of the emergence of the new construction itself. As such, the so-called Sorites Paradox arises: how many changes can lead to a new con-