The syntax-lexicon continuum

Abstract

Abstract The lexicon is traditionally viewed as distinct from the syntax of a language. Standard accounts of the history of the English language have separate chapters on syntax and vocabulary. The underlying assumption is that the two are considered either implicitly or explicitly as separate linguistic components. However, various strands of cognitive linguistics such as Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar and Croft’s Radical Construction Grammar have argued that there are no clear-cut boundaries between what are traditionally called lexicon, syntax and morphology but, rather, that they form a continuum. This chapter first examines some of the synchronic arguments in favor of this proposal before offering some diachronic arguments. It also briefly discusses three cases studies (the way construction, the adjectival resultative construction and –ingly adverbs) which support a continuum.

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