Taylor, John R.. 2004. The ecology of constructions. Book Article. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 49-74
Notes
"According to Cognitive Grammar, the grammar of a language can be characterized as a structured inventory of conventional linguistic units." - units are not encapsulated "chunks of information" rather "each unit stands at the hub of a network of relations to other units."Three types of relations: schema and its more fully specified instances; part and the whole in which it features; similarityThis paper focuses on constructions "defined as linguistic structures which ar analusable into component parts" - they are motivated through relations to other units in the language; these relations "cummulatively create a 'niche' for the construction within the language system" (| cf. Sinclair & Hunston - local grammars) - gives examples of the bang goes construction.