The last decade has seen a rise in popularity in construction-
based approaches to grammar. Put simply, the various approaches
within the rubric 'construction grammar' all see grammar
(morphemes, words, idioms, etc.) as fundamentally constructions
-- pairings of form and meaning.This is distinct from formal
syntax which sees grammar as a system of atomized units governed
by formal rules. Construction Grammar is connected to cognitive
linguistics and shares many of its philosophical and
methodological assumptions. Advocates of Construction Grammar
see it as a psychologically-plausible, generative theory of
human language that can also account for all kinds of linguistic
data. The research programs it has spawned range from
theoretical morphological and syntactic studies to
multidisciplinary cognitive studies in psycho-, neuro-, and
computational linguistics. This Handbook is the first
authoritative reference work solely dedicated to the theory,
method, and applications of Construction Grammar, and will be a
res