Cognitive approaches to grammar

This part of the book is entitled ‘Cognitive approaches to grammar’ rather than just ‘Cognitive grammar’ because Cognitive Grammar is the name of a specific cognitive theory of grammar (developed by Ronald Langacker), which we investigate alongside other cognitive approaches in this part of the book. Like cognitive semantics, cognitive approaches to grammar represent a collection of approaches united by theoretical assumptions rather than a single unified theory. As we saw in Part II, cognitive semantics is more an approach to the study of conceptual structure and organisation than an approach to modelling linguistic structure and organisation, although it necessarily maps out approaches to linguistic meaning because linguistic meaning is embedded within the broader conceptual system. In contrast, cognitive approaches to grammar focus directly upon the linguistic system. Moreover, because the symbolic thesis, which is central to all cognitive approaches to grammar, entails that sound, meaning and grammar are inextricably linked, the statements that comprise the theories addressed in this part of the book apply, in principle, to all these aspects of language.

In Chapter 14, What is a cognitive approach to grammar?, we address the two guiding principles of a cognitive approach to grammar: the symbolic thesis and the usage-based thesis. We introduce the idea that a speaker’s knowledge of language is represented as a structured inventory of conventional symbolic units that subsumes both open-class and closed-class symbolic units. These represent qualitatively distinct endpoints on a lexicon–grammar continuum between specific (content) meaning and schematic (grammatical) meaning. This inventory is structured in part by schema-instance relations, which group specific instances together under a schematic representation of their shared properties. This chapter also introduces key grammatical terms and discusses the idea that the term ‘grammar’ refers not only to the structure of words and sentences but also to the ‘mental grammar’ or system of knowledge of language in the mind of the speaker, as well as to a theory of that system of knowledge.

In Chapter 15, The conceptual basis of grammar,we outline both Leonard Talmy’s approach to language structure and Ronald Langacker’s theory of Cognitive Grammar as they relate to the conceptual basis of grammar. Talmy proposes a ‘Conceptual Structuring System’ that consists of schematic systems relating to the structuring of perceptual (e.g. attentional) and kinaesthetic (force-dynamic) experience. We look at how these systems are reflected in the closed-class subsystem, for example in grammatical number and in the count mass noun distinction. In our introductory sketch of Cognitive Grammar, we explore the cognitive processes that Langacker argues underpin the division of linguistic expressions into two major categories: nominal predications (THINGS) and relational predications (PROCESSES and STATES). We also explore two of the most important theoretical constructs in Langacker’s theory: profile-base organisation and trajector (TR)-landmark (LM) organisation.

In Chapter 16, Cognitive Grammar: word classes, we look at how this approach divides linguistic expressions into two major categories: nominal predications and relational predications. The former accounts for nouns, which are schematically characterised as THING. Relational predications divide into two subcategories: temporal relations and atemporal relations. The former accounts for verbs, which are schematically characterised as PROCESS. Atemporal relations account for a number of word classes, including adjectives, adverbs, adpositions and non-finite verb forms, which can be schematically characterised as STATES. We also look at Langacker’s account of determiners and quantifiers, which are characterised in terms of their grounding function.

 In Chapter 17, Cognitive Grammar: constructions, we explore the structure of words, phrases and sentences. Cognitive Grammar defines a construction as any expression with complex symbolic structure, and approaches constituency and head-dependent relations from the perspective of valence, based on conceptual autonomy and conceptual dependence. This model of constituency accounts not only for phrase structure, but also for word structure. We also explore the Cognitive Grammar model of clause structure, and see how complements and modifiers are distinguished and how transitivity, grammatical functions and case receive a semantic account based on the action chain model. Finally, we look at passive constructions, which are analysed in terms of marked coding, which effects a figure-ground reversal.

 In Chapter 18, Cognitive grammar: tense, aspect, mood and voice, we examine the Cognitive Grammar analysis of the English verb string, and see how the properties of lexical verbs, auxiliary verbs and tense morphemes are held to contribute to the meaning of the clause. The verb string is analysed in terms of a grounding predication – either a tense morpheme or a modal verb – and a clausal head, which can include a perfect construction, a progressive construction and a passive construction, as well as the content verb. In Cognitive Grammar, auxiliaries have and be are semantically related to non-auxiliary functions of the same verbs, and the past participle is also related to adjectival categories that share the same morphology. Tense and mood receive a unified semantic characterisation in terms of the epistemic model, and the polysemy of modals is accounted for in force-dynamic terms. Perfective and imperfective aspect share the same conceptual basis as count and mass nouns, and the passive voice, which effects a figure-ground reversal, is related to the semantic proper ties of the passive participle.

In Chapter 19, Motivating a construction grammar, we look beyond Cognitive Grammar to explore how a constructional account of grammar can be motivated. We compare a constructional account with the ‘words and rules’ account assumed in most generative models of language, and establish that a constructional account rests upon a single unified representation that links together syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and phonological information, rather than viewing these as the output of distinct components of the grammar. We look at how a constructional account is motivated by the properties of idiomatic expressions, which motivates the claim that grammatical constructions can be meaningful in part independently from the content words that instantiate them. We sketch out the influential Construction Grammar model (Kay and Fillmore 1999) which, although strictly a generative model, has been extremely influential in cognitive approaches to grammar.

 In Chapter 20, The architecture of construction grammars, we explore how a constructional approach to grammar can be extended to deal with regular as well as idiomatic clausal grammatical patterns. We explore Goldberg’s (1995) constructional approach and see that she defines a construction as any form meaning pairing whose properties cannot be predicted by its subparts, a definition that includes simplex words. Like Langacker, Goldberg adopts the usage-based thesis, and assumes that knowledge of language consists of a structured inventory. Goldberg argues that certain clausal constructions have (schematic) meaning independent of the lexical items that instantiate them. Finally, we briefly compare two other constructional accounts: Radical Construction Grammar and Embodied Construction Grammar.

In Chapter 21, Grammaticalisation, we shift our focus from a synchronic to a diachronic perspective and focus on a type of language change known as gram maticalisation: a process that involves changes in the function or meaning of a linguistic unit, which evolves from content to grammatical or from grammatical to more grammatical. These changes may result in layering or polysemy at certain stages in the grammaticalisation process, and are often accompanied by correlated changes in the phonological and morphological form of the unit. We explore three cognitively oriented theories of grammaticalisation: metaphorical extension approaches, which hold that metaphor underlies the development of a new expression for a grammatical concept; Invited Inferencing Theory, which holds that the conventionalisation of pragmatic inference gives rise to new coded forms; and the subjectification approach, which takes a conceptual rather than contextual approach to grammaticalisation.

Finally, in Chapter 22, Cognitive approaches to grammar in context,we present some explicit comparisons between cognitive, generative and functional typological approaches to grammar. We set out the assumptions, aims and methodology of each approach, and compare the cognitive and generative approaches in detail by revisiting some core grammatical phenomena, which have been explored from a cognitive perspective throughout Part III of the book, and comparing the cognitive and generative analyses of these phenomena. We conclude that while there are clearly significant points of divergence, there is a good deal of shared ground between cognitive and generative theories in terms of what they attempt to account for, as well as some similarities between their analyses. Although the starting assumptions of these approaches differ rather dramatically, cognitive and generative theories are united in the objective of modelling the representation of knowledge of language in the mind of the speaker.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم الشؤون الخدمية: 2000 متطوع يشاركون في تقديم الخدمات لزائري النصف من شعبان

المجمع العلمي يقيم محفلًا قرآنيًّا في النجف لإحياء ذكرى ولادة الإمام المهدي (عجل الله فرجه)

بالتزامن مع زيارة النصف من شعبان.. شعبة الخطابة الحسينية النسوية تكرم الفائزات في مسابقة (سبيل المنتظرين)

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يفتتح محطة ثقافية بمناسبة زيارة النصف من شعبان في طريق الزائرين

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

دراسة تكشف "سر الوسادة".. ودورها في حماية البصر

بالأشعة تحت الحمراء.. "ثورة علمية" في علاج اللاعبين

مشروب أحمر يخفض ضغط الدم "بشكل ملحوظ"

الصحة العالمية تكشف حقيقة انتشار فيروس نيباه خارج الهند

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

علماء حاصلون على "نوبل": الذكاء الاصطناعي لن يستبدل الإنسان

وانغ هو: القمة العالمية للعلماء تجسد تقدير الإمارات للعلم

رئيس رابطة كبار العلماء يعلن تأسيس مقر في الإمارات

عباقرة العالم: نحن من نصنع مستقبلنا مع الذكاء الاصطناعي

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

The symbolic thesis

Guiding assumptions

What is a cognitive approach to grammar?

Cognitive semantics in context Summery

Comparison with cognitive semantics

Metaphor

Explicature and implicature

Relevance

Mutual cognitive environment

Ostensive communication

Relevance Theory

Comparison with cognitive semantics