Regularity and Idiomaticity in

Grammatical Constructions:
The Case of Let Alone
Charles J. Fillmore, Paul Kay, Mary Catherine
O’Connor
1988
Report for Syntax Course
2008.12.30
 The purpose of this paper

• This what is called ‘idiomatic’ is a

very large repository
• To prove that it is necessary to
describe the idiomatic expressions
from different angles, not only the
syntactic one
• Create a model of linguistic
competence, in which idiomatic
 Constructions

• Like nuclear family they spread to

the ‘wider ranges of the sentential
tree’
• Constructions provide syntactic,
lexical, semantic and pragmatic
information
• Lexical items may be viewed as
constructions themselves
• Constructions may be idiomatic
 Linguistic competence
• The speakers of the language posses the
knowledge of the words, i.e. information about
their function in phrases, in what context they
appear, what they mean and what their
pronunciation is.
• Speakers know one or more grammatical rules,
according to which they construct simple
phrases
• Speakers know the basic semantic
interpretation principles by which the meanings
of the phrases and sentences can be
constructed out of the meanings of their
constituent words and phrases
• Speakers are able to make connection between
 What is idiomatic?
• An idiomatic expression or
construction is something that a
speaker could fail to know.
 Idioms
• Decoding idioms: expressions, which
the language user couldn’t interpret
with complete confidence, if they
hadn’t learned it separately.
• Encoding idioms: expressions, which
language users may not understand
without prior experience.
 Idioms
• Every decoding idiom is an encoding
idiom, but not every encoding idiom
is the decoding one.
• Both decoding and encoding idioms:
kick the bucket, pull a fast one
• Only encoding idioms: answer the
door, wide awake, bright red
 Idioms
• Grammatical idioms: words that fill in
proper and familiar grammatical
structures: kick the bucket, spill the
beans, blow one’s nose (verbs and
nouns show at the predicted places)
• Extragrammatical idioms: have
anomalous structure: first off, sight
unseen, all of a sudden, by and large,
so far so good
 Idioms
• Substantive idioms: all previous
examples belong to this group, idioms
which are lexically specified.
• Formal idioms: syntactic patterns
dedicated to semantic and pragmatic
purposes. Formal idioms can serve as a
host to substantive idioms.
• The more careful you do your work, the
easier it will get.
• The bigger they come, the harder they
 Idioms
• Idioms with pragmatic point:
expressions that have special
pragmatic purpose:
• How do you do?, Once upon a time
• Idioms without special pragmatic
purpose: all of a sudden, by and
large
 Idioms
• Formal idioms, eg. X-er the Y-er type
can be more or less free of pragmatic
purpose. Unlike the sentence: Him be
a doctor? – serves the pragmatic and
rhetorical purposes.