Corpus-based Approaches to Constructional Change

This chapter analyzes how corpus linguistics has significantly affected our understanding of constructional change. It describes three different kinds of constructional change, including changes in a construction's frequency, in its form, and in its function. The analysis reveals that, in all cases, the data retrieved from corpora can reveal fine-grained detail regarding the gradual nature of constructional change and facilitate the quantitative analysis that typifies much work on linguistic variation and change.