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(2014) Approaches to language, culture, and cognition, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
There's a simple story, and then there's the inconvenient truth. The simple story starts by positing a clear distinction between lexicon and grammar. In contrast to lexicon, grammar has no intrinsic meaning, being purely a matter of form. Whereas lexicon is idiosyncratic, grammar is basically regular. And while lexicon is essentially just a list of separate items, connected by nothing more than unsystematic associations, grammar presents us with complex structures described by general rules. These latter properties suggest that grammar is theoretically more interesting than lexicon and thus of greater scientific importance.
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Langacker, R. (2014)., Culture and cognition, lexicon and grammar, in M. Yamaguchi, D. Tay & B. Blount (eds.), Approaches to language, culture, and cognition, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 27-49.
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