Convergence Lecture Series - ‘Pattern, Construction, System: Reconciling approaches to lexis and grammar’ by Professor Susan Hunston
CTS are delighted to announce the next lecture in our Convergence Lecture Series.
Professor Susan Hunston will present ‘Pattern, Construction, System: Reconciling approaches to lexis and grammar’
Title: ‘Pattern, Construction, System: Reconciling approaches to lexis and grammar’
Date & time: Wednesday 29 October, 14:00 GMT
Abstract: This presentation describes the outcome of a project which aims to reconcile three different approaches to the lexis and grammar of English: Pattern Grammar (from the Cobuild corpus project); Construction Grammar (from Cognitive Linguistics); and Systemic Functional Grammar (from Systemic Functional Linguistics). In the project, 50 verb complementation patterns were reinterpreted as verb argument constructions, and system networks were produced to show how numerous constructions contribute to specific semantic fields. The presentation will give examples of this work and argue that it demonstrates the advantage of finding common ground between very different approaches to language.
Bio: Susan Hunston is Professor of English Language at the University of Birmingham. She has worked previously at the National University of Singapore, the University of Surrey, and the Cobuild project. She has published in Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis, and her most recent book is Pattern, Construction, System: a unified approach to grammar and lexis (2025: Cambridge University Press). This book is available Open Access.
Participation is free, please register here