We have looked at heads and modifiers and at the organization of smaller units into bigger units, words into phrases and phrases into bigger phrases. We now move on to look at constructions, the relatively general patterns that recur in a given language. Since words, phrases, clauses and sentences are all built out of smaller units according to particular patterns, the concept of construction is relevant to all areas of grammar. For instance, many, though clearly not all, words are built out of smaller bits; field consists of one stem. Fielded, as in fielded the ball, and fielder, as in cricket, are built from the stem plus a suffix, field + -ed and field + -er. Further patterns consist of more than one suffix, as in educational, built out of educate + -ion + -al, or a prefix and a stem, as in overlook.

Phrases, as we saw on constituent structure, are given a special interpretation in linguistics and may consist of just one word; she and John are noun phrases. Many phrases consist of more than one word; for example our new colleague’s car, the car of our new colleague and a car of our new colleague’s. These three constructions are not equivalent in meaning; for instance, the last one is used only in situations in which the new colleague referred to has more than one car. A different choice of words brings out differences in meaning; the book of the month is the normal phrase while the month’s book is unacceptable; the idea of leaving (is ridiculous) is acceptable while Leaving’s idea is ridiculous is bizarre unless Leaving is somebody’s name.