This article combines ideas and concepts deriving from grammaticalization studies, cognitive linguistics and
construction grammar. Specifically, it takes three important ideas developed within grammaticalization research, namely
untypical context, bridging or critical context and isolating or
switch context (Evans & Wilkins 2000, 2006; Heine 2002), and remodels them with the concepts construct and
construction. This enables the definition of three salient construct types present in historical corpora that
are placed in the continuum between individual variation and language change: extensional constructs, ambiguous
constructs and adaptive constructs. Each construct type characterizes a specific phase in language
change. The data presented as illustration of the construct types stem from historical and contemporary corpora of written French,
Italian and Spanish.