This paper introduces the topic and the contributions of this special issue. While lexical restrictions are well-studied for grammatical relations defining argument coding (case marking and indexation), they are also common with voice and valency constructions, be they morphologically coded or not. The paper defines relevant terms and sketches the development of current usage-based approaches to lexical restrictions, in reaction to earlier lexicalist and constructional approaches. It then reviews existing studies of lexical restrictions on valency-preserving and valency-changing constructions, drawing connections with the other papers in this issue. In closing, it recommends further corpus-based cross-linguistic research of lexical restrictions.