Cover not available

In:Studies in Lexicogrammar: Theory and applications
Edited by Grzegorz Drożdż
[Human Cognitive Processing 54] 2016
► pp. 23–54

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Toward an integrated view of structure, processing, and discourse

Published online: 4 August 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.54.02lan
Research in Cognitive Grammar divides into two broad phases. The first phase provided an integrated account of lexicon, morphology, and syntax as inherently meaningful structures; it offered a radical alternative to the generative paradigm based on modularity, constituency, and the autonomy of syntax. The current phase aims at a broader synthesis subsuming structure, processing, and discourse. Linguistic structures are never self-contained, but draw upon a substrate of indefinite extent, encompassing the speech situation, the context, background knowledge, and the ongoing discourse. The substrate includes the speaker-hearer interaction, which is part of an expression’s meaning even when left implicit. Recognition of the substrate allows a straightforward treatment of phenomena that are problematic when expressions are analyzed in isolation.
References (30)
Austin, J.L. 1962. How to do things with words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, W. 1994. Discourse, consciousness, and time: The flow and displacement of conscious experience in speaking and writing. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Diessel, H., & Tomasello, M. 2001. The acquisition of finite complement clauses in English: A corpus-based analysis. Cognitive Linguistics, 12, 97–141. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G. 1985. Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge, MA & London: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fodor, J.A. 1983. The modularity of mind. Cambridge, MA & London: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hankamer, J., & Sag, I. 1976. Deep and surface anaphora. Linguistic Inquiry, 7, 391–428.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ibbotson, P., Lieven, E.V.M., & Tomasello, M. 2013. The attention-grammar interface: Eye-gaze cues structural choice in children and adults. Cognitive Linguistics, 24, 457–481. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janssen, T. 1995. Deixis from a cognitive point of view. In E. Contini-Morava & B. Sussman Goldberg (Eds.), Meaning as explanation: Advances in linguistic sign theory (245–270). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R.W. 1987. Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 1: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. Concept, image, and symbol: The cognitive basis of grammar. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 2: Descriptive application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. Constituency, dependency, and conceptual grouping. Cognitive Linguistics, 8, 1–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Grammar and conceptualization. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001a. Discourse in cognitive grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 12, 143–188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001b. Topic, subject, and possessor. In H. Gram Simonsen & R. Theil Endresen (Eds.), A cognitive approach to the verb: Morphological and constructional perspectives (11–48). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Deixis and subjectivity. In F. Brisard (Ed.), Grounding: The epistemic footing of deixis and reference (1–28). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Investigations in cognitive grammar. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Elliptic coordination. Cognitive Linguistics, 23, 555–599. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Subordination in a dynamic account of grammar. In L. Visapää, J. Kalliokoski, & H. Sorva (Eds.), Contexts of subordination: Cognitive, typological and discourse perspectives (17–72). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, C.N. 1997. On zero anaphora. In J. Bybee, J. Haiman, & S.A. Thompson (Eds.), Essays on language function and language type dedicated to T. Givón (275–300). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ross, J.R. 1970. On declarative sentences. In R.A. Jacobs & P.S. Rosenbaum (Eds.), Readings in English transformational grammar (222–272). Waltham, MA: Ginn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, J.R. 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. London & New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, L. 1988. The relation of grammar to cognition. In B. Rudzka-Ostyn (Ed.), Topics in cognitive linguistics (165–205). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Hoek, K. 1995. Conceptual reference points: A cognitive grammar account of pronominal anaphora constraints. Language, 71, 310–340. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. Backwards anaphora as a constructional category. Functions of Language, 4, 47–82.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (10)

Cited by ten other publications

Ke, Yuguo, Liang Chen & Xiaozhen Zhou
2025. Trouble spots in literary conversation learning: managing bilinguals’ cognitive expectation problems using conversational presupposition theory. BMC Psychology 13:1 DOI logo
Nielsen, Jessie Leigh, Rikke Vang Christensen & Mads Poulsen
2025. Syntactic Comprehension—A Separate Source of Individual Variance in Middle‐School Children's Reading Comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly 60:2 DOI logo
Podhorodecka, Joanna
2022. Review of Xu Wen & John R. Taylor (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (2021). New York and London: Routledge, pp. 772. Prace Językoznawcze 24:1 ► pp. 277 ff. DOI logo
Kochańska, Agata
2021. A grammatical construction in the service of interpersonal distance regulation. The case of the Polish directive infinitive construction. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 57:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Zhan, Hongwei
2020. Book review: Christopher Hart (ed.), Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Text and Discourse: From Poetics to Politics. Discourse Studies 22:2 ► pp. 247 ff. DOI logo
Möttönen, Tapani
2019. The normative basis of construal. In Normativity in language and linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series, 209], ► pp. 125 ff. DOI logo
Langacker, Ronald W.
2016. Working toward a synthesis. Cognitive Linguistics 27:4 ► pp. 465 ff. DOI logo
Langacker, Ronald W.
2020. Trees, assemblies, chains, and windows. Constructions and Frames 12:1 ► pp. 8 ff. DOI logo
Langacker, Ronald W.
2022. Trees, assemblies, chains, and windows. In Construction Grammar across Borders [Benjamins Current Topics, 122], ► pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Fictive questions in the Zhuangzi [Figurative Thought and Language, 18], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue