Constructional Idioms Across Languages

Dear Colleagues,

As Guest Editors, we are pleased to announce the Special Issue “Constructional Idioms Across Languages” in Languages. The study of idiomatic expressions with semi-schematic structure has been central since the early days of constructionist approaches to language. Foundational work on “formal or lexically open idioms”—such as the “let alone” construction—by Fillmore, Kay, and O’Connor (1988) and “idiomatic constructions”—like What’s X doing Y?—by Kay and Fillmore (1999) established the study of idiosyncratic structures as a key domain for exploring the interface between lexicon and grammar, as well as the importance of context and its illocutive potential for a proper description.

In later research, several functionally equivalent terms were adopted to capture this phenomenon, including “constructional idioms” (Booij 2002), “schematic idioms” (Croft and Cruse 2004), “partially lexically filled phrasal patterns” (Goldberg 2006), and “phrasal patterns” (Michaelis 2019). Such constructions can be defined as “syntactic constructions with a (partially or fully) non-compositional meaning contributed by the construction, in which—unlike idioms in the traditional sense—only a subset (possibly empty) of the terminal elements is fixed” (Booij 2002: 301–302; see also Mellado Blanco in press).

Recent developments have demonstrated the central role of these patterns in bridging construction grammar and phraseology. Research within this interface has shown that semi-schematic and productive patterns occupy a pivotal role along the lexicon–syntax continuum (Dobrovol’skij 2011; Mellado Blanco 2022; Ivorra Ordines fc.). In this context, it has been shown how idiomaticity, far from being an anomaly, reflects regular, systematic principles of linguistic organization, revealing productive patterns that challenge the traditional notion of fixedness in phraseology.

This Special Issue seeks to advance the study of constructional idioms across languages by bringing together theoretical, empirical, and corpus-based perspectives. We invite contributions that explore the formal, semantic, pragmatic, and cognitive properties of semi-schematic constructions in a wide range of languages. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:

• Theoretical and interdisciplinary contributions to the notion of constructional idioms or equivalent concepts within construction grammar and related frameworks;
• Empirical studies addressing the productivity, creativity, and degree of schematicity of constructional idioms across typologically diverse languages, whether at the individual or community level;
• Corpus-based studies addressing the frequency, preferences, or restrictions of the slots, and contextual realization of constructional idioms, including quantitative and collostructional methods;
• Monolingual or cross-linguistic studies on semantic–pragmatic and discursive dimensions, exploring how constructional idioms convey conventionalized meanings and how prosodic features contribute to their interpretation and expressive force.

We invite you to contribute to our Special Issue with submissions on any of the topics mentioned above, or any other topic related to the notion of constructional idioms. Although the cognitive strand of construction grammar will be central to the volume, other constructionist approaches as well as other related frameworks such as word grammar, lexical construction model, pattern grammar, and functional grammar are also welcome. Submissions should be anonymous and follow the guidelines for authors.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors (c.mellado@usc.es and pivorra@unizar.es) or to the Editorial Office of Languages (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors to ensure proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Tentative completion schedule:

• Abstract submission deadline: 15 March 2026.
• Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 May 2026.
• Full manuscript deadline: 15 November 2026.

References

Booij, G. (2002). Constructional Idioms, Morphology and the Dutch Lexicon. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 14: 301–329.

Croft, W., Cruse, A. (2004). Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fillmore, C. J., Kay, P., O’Connor, M. C. (1988). Regularity and Idiomaticity in Grammatical Constructions: The Case of Let Alone. Language 64 (3): 501–538.

Dobrovol’skij, D. (2011). Phraseologie und Konstruktionsgrammatik. In Lasch, A. And Ziem, A. (eds.), Konstruktionsgrammatik III. Aktuelle Fragen und Lösungsansätze. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, pp. 111–130.

Kay, P., Fillmore, C. J. (1999). Grammatical Constructions and Linguistic Generalizations: The What’s X Doing Y? Construction. Language 75 (1): 1–33.

Goldberg, A. E. (2006). Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ivorra Ordines, P. (Forth.). Comparative constructional idioms in Spanish, English and French. A corpus-based study. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Mellado Blanco, C. (ed.). (2022). Productive Patterns in Phraseology and Construction Grammar. A multilingual approach. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Mellado Blanco, C. (In press). Constructional idiom. In Wen, X. and Sinha (eds.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Michaelis, L. (2019). Constructions are patterns and so are fixed expressions. In Busse, B. and Möhlig-Falke, R. (eds.), Patterns in Language and Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 193–220.

Prof. Dr. Carmen Mellado Blanco
Dr. Pedro Ivorra Ordines
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.