In linguistics, a grammatical construction is any syntactic string of words ranging from sentences over phrasal structures to certain complex lexemes, such as phrasal verbs.
In generative frameworks, constructions are generally argued to be void of content and derived by the general syntactic rules of the language in question.
In construction grammar, cognitive grammar, and cognitive linguistics, a grammatical construction is a syntactic template that is paired with conventionalized semantic and pragmatic content. In these disciplines, constructions are given a more semiotic character.
Famous quotes containing the words grammatical and/or construction:
“Figure him there, with his scrofulous diseases, with his great greedy heart, and unspeakable chaos of thoughts; stalking mournful as a stranger in this Earth; eagerly devouring what spiritual thing he could come at: school-languages and other merely grammatical stuff, if there were nothing better! The largest soul that was in all England.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)