Abstract

This paper provides an overview of recent developments in research on the grammar/pragmatics interface. The focus is on Construction Grammar and contextualist (neo- and post-Gricean) pragmatics, which are currently among the most dominant frameworks in linguistic theory. While it is widely accepted since the beginnings of Construction Grammar that pragmatic aspects may be part of the meaning side of a construction, it is only recently that construction grammarians engage in a more systematic debate about what counts as a pragmatic aspect, and in what ways pragmatic aspects may be related to constructions. While constructionist approaches typically take as ‘pragmatic aspects’ those aspects of the context that may be conventionally tied to a construction, the standard assumption of contextualist approaches is that pragmatics is concerned with inferential, i.e. non-conventional aspects of meaning. After introducing basic concepts of theories on the grammar/pragmatics interface, the paper summarizes the main assumptions regarding the relationship between grammar and pragmatics as held in constructionist and contextualist approaches, respectively. The main part of the paper is concerned with providing a synopsis of recent work into the role of pragmatics in the description of constructions. The work discussed is grouped into six types of approaches, namely (1) constructional approaches, (2) frame-/template approaches, (3) interaction approaches, (4) distinction approaches, (5) grammaticalization approaches, and (6) integrative approaches.