Constructions and Frames 1:1 (2009), 87–118. doi 10.1075/cf.1.1.05spe issn 1876–1933 / e-issn 1876–1941 © John Benjamins Publishing Company Lexical patterning in a construction grammar Te efect of lexical co-occurrence patterns on the infectional variation in Dutch attributive adjectives Dirk Speelman, José Tummers and Dirk Geeraerts University of Leuven / Leuven University College / University of Leuven Tis paper compares two measures that quantify lexical preference patterns in the area of Construction Grammar, namely, collostructions and (construction- internal) collocations (as conceived by Stefan T. Gries and Anatol Stefanow- itsch). Starting from a case study, infectional variation in Dutch attributive adjectives, two diagnostic calculations will be set up to analyse to what extent both association measures identify lexical preferences in this construction. In particular, the lexical patterns yielded by the collostructional and the colloca- tional association measures will be evaluated as a factor which determines the selection of the infectional alternatives of the Dutch attributive adjective. We will argue that, at least in some cases, constructions are more strongly character- ised by the (construction-internal) collocations that instantiate them than by the single items that instantiate them (as defned in collostructions). Consequently, the syntagmatic axis should become a constitutive dimension in a comprehen- sive Construction Grammar model. Keywords: collocations, collostructions, Construction Grammar, adjectival infection, variational linguistics 1. Introduction Tis paper presents the results of a comparative analysis between two measures developed by Stefan T. Gries and Anatol Stefanowitsch in order to seize quantita- tive efects in the area of Construction Grammar, as a part of Cognitive Linguis- tics. We will examine the capability of “collostructions” (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2003) on the one hand, and lexical collocations, or “co-varying collexemes” (Gries & Stefanowitsch 2004a), on the other hand to identify preferences within lexical co-occurrence patterns that instantiate grammatical constructions. Although the