Investigations in Cognitive Grammar

Description

This volume makes accessible a substantial range of recent research in Cognitive Grammar. From disparate sources, it brings together a dozen innovative papers, revised and integrated to form a coherent whole. This work continues the ongoing program of progressively articulating the theoretical framework and showing its descriptive application to varied grammatical phenomena. A number of major topics are examined in depth through multiple chapters viewing them from different perspectives: grammatical constructions (their general nature, their metonymic basis, their role in grammaticization), nominal grounding (quantifiers, possessives, impersonal it), clausal grounding (its relation to nominal grounding, an epistemic account of tense, a systemic view of the English auxiliary), the "control cycle" (an abstract cognitive model with many linguistic manifestations), finite clauses (their internal structure and external grammar), and complex sentences (complementation, subordination, coordination). In each case the presentation builds from fundamentals and introduces the background needed for comprehension. At the same time, by bringing fresh approaches and new descriptive insights to classic problems, it represents a significant advance in understanding grammar and indicates future directions of theory and research in the Cognitive Grammar framework. The book is of great interest to students and practitioners of cognitive linguistics and to scholars in related areas. Frontmatter Contents Chapter 1. Constructions in Cognitive Grammar Chapter 2. Metonymy in grammar Chapter 3. A constructional approach to grammaticization Chapter 4. Possession, location, and existence Chapter 5. On the subject of impersonals Chapter 6. Enunciating the parallelism of nominal and clausal grounding Chapter 7. The English present: Temporal coincidence vs. epistemic immediacy Chapter 8. A functional account of the English auxiliary Chapter 9. Aspects of the grammar of finite clauses Chapter 10. Finite complements in English Chapter 11. Subordination in Cognitive Grammar Chapter 12. The conceptual basis of coordination Backmatter