My main research revolves around the relationship between syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and the structure of the lexicon, which I approach from a contrastive perspective (English/German). The theoretical frameworks I work with are primarily Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics with a strong bias towards corpus-based research methods. Most recently, I have worked on Argument Structure Constructions such as Resultative Constructions (see my 2003 book A constructional approach to resultatives), Passive Constructions, and the Locative Alternation, among others. Together with members of the FrameNet team, I am currently investigating how the FrameNet-methodology can be applied for constructional annotation, eventually arriving at a “Constructicon”. More recently, I published a number of edited volumes such as Grammatical Constructions (2005, co-edited with Mirjam Fried), Contrastive Studies and Valency (2006, co-edited with Petra Steiner and Stefan Schierholz), and Contrastive Studies in Construction Grammar (2010). My current book project in his area investigates different ways of defining verb classes using frame-semantic principles. The goal is to develop a model that is capable of identifying syntactically relevant units of meaning that can be used to predict a verb’s range of conventionalized and non-conventionalized argument realization patterns. At the moment I am also editing two theme volumes on Construction Grammar: (1) Sign-based Construction Grammar (co-edited with Ivan Sag), and (2) Computational Approaches to Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics.
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