Ronald W. Langacker's research while affiliated with University of California, San Diego and other places
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Publications (51)
For describing grammatical organization, metaphors based on a variety of source domains – including trees, networks, chains, paths, and windows – all appear to have some validity. In Cognitive Grammar, they pertain to facets of assemblies, where semantic and phonological structures are connected by relations of symbolization, composition, and categ...
Two fundamental aspects of conceptual and linguistic structure are examined in relation to one another: organization into strata, each a baseline giving rise to the next by elaboration; and the conceptions of reality implicated at successive levels of English clause structure. A clause profiles an occurrence (event or state) and grounds it by asses...
Morphology, the science of words, is a complex theoretical landscape, where a multitude of frameworks, each with their own tenets and formalism, compete for the explanation of linguistic facts. The Oxford Handbook of Morphological Theory is a comprehensive guide through this jungle of morphological theories. It provides a rich and up-to-date overvi...
Absolute quantifiers (e.g. many, few, three) have adjectival uses, but when initial they function as grounding elements: like demonstratives, articles, and relative quantifiers (e.g. all, most, every), they indicate the epistemic status of the nominal referent. This ambivalence is due to their being intermediate, having semantic affinities with bot...
The Cognitive Grammar analysis of English nominal quantifiers is re-examined in light of recent theoretical developments: the characterization of grammar as the implementation of semantic functions ; and the recognition of strata ? baseline and levels of elaboration ? as a dimension of structural and systemic organization. For relative quantifiers,...
Metaphor is pervasive at all levels of the linguistic enterprise: from the conception of particular phenomena, to the formulation of theories, to “world views” such as the “formalist” and “functionalist” perspectives. Metaphor is not just unavoidable but essential to the enterprise, a source of insight and creativity. But since all metaphors are in...
Many aspects of language and cognition involve an asymmetry describable in terms of a baseline (B) and various dimensions and levels of elaboration (E). The baseline has some kind of priority – being already established, in place, or under control – and is generally more substantive than elaborating elements. B/E organization is reflected in the co...
Although Cognitive Linguistics represents a recontextualization with respect to prior tradition, internally it has been diverse and grounded from the outset. In design and principle, this holds for Cognitive Grammar, which seeks a comprehensive yet unified account of structure and use. It foreshadowed the “social turn” by claiming that the speaker-...
Cognitive Grammar (CG) is a particular version of cognitive linguistic theory within the broader movement of functional linguistics. It is a usage-based approach grounded in both cognition and social interaction. An independently justified conceptual semantics makes possible an account of grammar as consisting solely in assemblies of symbolic struc...
This handbook aims at offering an authoritative and state-of-the art survey of current approaches to the analysis of human languages, serving as a source of reference for scholars and graduate students. The main objective of the handbook is to provide the reader with a convenient means of comparing and evaluating the main approaches that exist in c...
There’s a simple story, and then there’s the inconvenient truth. The simple story starts by positing a clear distinction between lexicon and grammar. In contrast to lexicon, grammar has no intrinsic meaning, being purely a matter of form. Whereas lexicon is idiosyncratic, grammar is basically regular. And while lexicon is essentially just a list of...
The book presents new issues and areas of work in modality and evidentiality in English(es), and in relation to other European languages (French, Galician, Lithuanian, Spanish). Given the complexity of the relations among modal and evidential expressions, their constant diachronic evolution, and the variation found in different English-speaking are...
Proposals are made to expand and refine previous analyses of coordination in Cognitive Grammar. The account presupposes a number of general notions established independently: (i) flexible symbolic assemblies (rather than constituency) as the basis for describing grammar; (ii) a dynamic view of structure (as patterns of activity occurring in windows...
Cognitive grammar belongs to the broader traditions of cognitive linguistics and functional linguistics. It emphasizes the symbolic function of language and the crucial role of conceptualization in social interaction. It is based on a conceptualist semantics recognizing the central importance of construal, i.e. our ability to conceive and portray t...
In his research on spatial prepositions, Vandeloise raised the basic question of whether they are really spatial in nature. He clearly established the importance—if not the predominance—of functional considerations. In the case of in, for example, the container function is at least as important as spatial inclusion; likewise, the support function i...
A general framework is sketched for thinking about problems of usage and acquisition from a cognitive linguistic perspective. It is a dynamic, usage-based approach emphasizing the temporal dimension of language structure as an aspect of cognitive processing. A variety of topics are discussed involving the abstraction of linguistic units, their ment...
Goldberg overstates the differences between Cognitive Grammar and Cognitive Construction Grammar. The former does not claim that a clause invariably inherits its profile from the verb; it has merely been suggested that the latter's preference for monosemy may have been pushed too far. The matter can only be addressed given a specific definition of...
It is quite legitimate for Broccias and Hollmann (2007) to question the characterization of verbs in terms of sequential scanning. However, they have not advanced any cogent arguments against it. Although experimental evidence is certainly to be desired, there is no doubt about the psychological status of sequential scanning: it amounts to nothing...
The description and theoretical implications of the adverbial expressions in (1) are examined from the standpoint of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008). (1)(a) It just kept on raining day after day after day after day after day. (b) Time after time he failed the exam. (c) Year after year after year they reject my abstract. This construc...
Cognitive Grammar is a radical alternative to the formalist theories that have dominated linguistic theory during the last half century. Instead of an objectivist semantics based on truth conditions or logical deduction, it adopts a conceptualist semantics based on human experience, our capacity to construe situations in alternate ways, and process...
The meanings of personal pronouns are described using basic notions of Cognitive Linguistics. Among these notions are subjective vs. objective construal, profiling, grounding, intersubjectivity, paths of mental access, and conceptual blending. Pronouns are situated with respect to other strategies of nominal grounding. It is explained how personal...
The issue of discreteness vs. continuity comes into play in all domains of linguistic analysis and at multiple levels. The distinction's experiential basis is discussed, as well as various means of discretization and continuization. Most phenomena are sufficiently complex that treatments emphasizing discreteness and continuity both have some validi...
COGNITIVE SEMANTICS: The last quarter century has seen the emergence of what has come to be known as cognitive semantics. This collective endeavor has vastly expanded and profoundly altered our view of both meaning and its relation to grammar. It offers new solutions to classic problems. More fundamentally, it reshapes the entire conceptual landsca...
The problems posed by nominal structure and nominal reference are notoriously subtle and complex. Though fairly extensive, their treatment in Cognitive Grammar (CG) has thus far been partial, preliminary, and scattered in numerous publications. The synthesis attempted here can hardly overcome the first two limitations. It may however provide a usef...
This chapter focuses on unity-in-diversity in the domain of locative expressions. It discusses why languages vary greatly in how they code this fundamental aspect of human experience. The chapter examines two languages - English and Mixtec - whose representations of spatial relationships are strikingly different. A comparison of their descriptions...
Across languages, clauses expressing possession, location, and existencc exhibit many
similarities. To capture their evident affinity, it is often claimed that possessives derive
-synclironically or diaclironically- from expressions of location/existence. This localist
account obscures a basic contrast between two broad classes of possessive constr...
Double-subject constructions in Japanese are analyzed from the standpoint of cognitive grammar. Their characterization in this framework, based on reference-point relationships and other independently attested phenomena, is unproblematic. Several grammatical properties indicate that the expressions in question--consisting of an outer subject juxtap...
Cognitive Grammar claims that grammatical structure is symbolic in nature and that constructions are the primary objects of description. A construction is an assembly of symbolic structures (form-meaning pairings) linked by correspondences. While constructions have certain characteristic features, various kinds of departure from this prototype are...
It is generally agreed that the English ‘present tense’ is not appropriately analyzed as indicating present time: present-time events often cannot be expressed in the present tense; conversely, the present tense is often used for nonpresent occurrences. I will argue, however, that these problems are only apparent, arising from a failure to apprecia...
Cognitive Grammar presupposes an inherent and intimate relation between linguistic structures and discourse. Linguistic units are abstracted from usage events, retaining as part of their value any recurring facet of the interactive and discourse context. Linguistic structures thus incorporate discourse expectations and are interpretable as instruct...
Barsalou's contribution converges with basic ideas and
empirical findings of cognitive linguistics. They posit the same general
architecture. The perceptual grounding of conceptual structure is a
central tenet of cognitive linguistics. Our capacity to construe the
same situation in alternate ways is fundamental to cognitive semantics,
and nume...
The phenomena that classic transformational syntax handled by means of 'raising' rules pose an interesting challenge to theories that do not posit movement or derivation from underlying structures. An account of these phenomena is formulated in the context of COGNITIVE GRAMMAR. Raising is analyzed as a special case of the metonymy that virtually al...
This paper briefly introduces some basic notions of cognitive grammar. It emphasizes the importance to linguistic semantics of the way in which we ‘construe’ a conceived situation, and explores the reasons why the nature of the construals we impose are largely ‘invisible’ to us. They can, however, be made visible by the careful analysis of linguist...
Both image-schematic abilities and conceptual archetypes are essential to the characterization of linguistic structures. Especially significant in this regard (and so ubiquitous in our everyday experience that we are largely oblivious to it) is our capacity to invoke the conception of one entity as a cognitive reference point for purposes of establ...
Research leading to the formulation of cognitive grammar began in the spring of 1976. On the American theoretical scene, it was the era of the "linguistics wars" between generative semantics and interpretive semantics. With generative semantics, cognitive grammar shares only the general vision of treating semantics, lexicon, and grammar in a unifie...
Subjectification is a recurrent and highly important type of semantic extension and is often a central factor in the evolution leading from “lexical” to “grammatical” elements. Subjectification pertains to the distinction recognized in cognitive grammar between the subjective vs. the objective construal of an entity. This distinction pertains to wh...
The universal grammatical categories NOUN and VERB are held susceptible to notional characterization. The traditional objections to this claim are overcome by an appropriate view of linguistic semantics, one based on cognitive processing and the structuring of conceptual content. Reasonably precise semantic descriptions of the noun and verb categor...
Cognitive grammar takes a nonstandard view of linguistic semantics and grammatical structure. Meaning is equated with conceptualization. Semantic structures are characterized relative to cognitive domains, and derive their value by construing the content of these domains in a specific fashion. Grammar is not a distinct level of linguistic represent...
An important but under-appreciated aspect of grammar is the extent of the integration a grammatical construction specifies among its constitutive elements. Besides its vital role in synchronic grammar, this essential aspect of constructional meaning is a pivotal factor in grammaticization. These points will be illustrated through a variety of const...
(c) An expression can profile either a thingor a relationship(abstractly defined).
Citations
... For details, see[11].4 For details, see[18].M. Menšík et al. / Heuristics for Spatial Data Descriptions in a Multi-Agent System ...
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/550108819607552-1508167571432_Q64/Bernd-Heine.jpg)
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/279059801100330-1443544449836_Q64/Eve-Clark-2.jpg)
... Early generative grammar generally divided the territory of morphology between syntax and phonology. Modern generative frameworks such as Distributed Morphology (see Siddiqi 2019 for an overview) and Nanosyntax (see Baunaz and Lander 2018) continue key aspects of this tradition, presenting fundamentally syntactic approaches to morphological structure. Yet Chomsky (1970), devoted to word formation, and Matthews (1972), devoted to inflection, laid the foundations for a return of morphology as a field of study in its own right and acceptance of the idea that at least some aspects of morphology cannot be reduced to other 'components' of language. ...
Reference: The relational nature of morphology
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/473637158428673-1489935306414_Q64/Jenny-Audring-2.jpg)
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/278488964714499-1443408351625_Q64/Stephen-Anderson-5.jpg)
... However, a few authors allow for utterances to be put together from alreadycomplex expressions. This possibility is mentioned by, among others, Hockett (1960), Pawley and Syder (1983), Sinclair (1991) and Langacker (1997Langacker ( , 2020 and 2 A distinct phenomenon goes under the same heading of blending, and is a potential source of confusion. This is the deliberate combining of (usually word-sized) expressions that happens 'offline ', yielding what De Smet (2013: 80) calls "conscious coinages". ...
... I distinguish four main types of grounding: indefinite grounding, relative quantification, possessive grounding, and definite grounding. While the description of these types owes essential insights to Langacker (1991Langacker ( , 2004Langacker ( , 2016Langacker ( , 2017, the framework I propose differs from Langacker's (2016: 8) in that he subsumes the four types under the binary contrast definite -indefinite: "Nominal grounding is mainly concerned with identification of the referent; the definite vs. indefinite distinction is based on whether the referent is identifiable given the prior discourse context. " This leads him to assess, for instance, grounding by absolute quantifiers as "atypical" because the information they give "is quite extrinsic and not very useful for identification" (Langacker 2016: 15). ...
... Como categoria conceptual, a evidencialidade exprime a fonte e a fiabilidade da informação veiculada (e.g. Cornillie 2009, Langacker 2017) e a mediatividade, entendida como subcategoria, designa o conhecimento não direto, com o consequente distanciamento enunciativo, independentemente de, tanto num caso como no outro, serem ou não expressas por marcadores evidenciais/mediativos gramaticais, (mais ou menos) gramaticalizados, lexicais ou ainda por estratégias discursivas. A necessidade de explicitar a fonte da informação ou do conhecimento traz consigo a noção de fiabilidade dessa fonte e dessa informação/conhecimento, avaliável em diferentes graus, sendo naturalmente maior a fiabilidade nos casos de evidencialidade direta do que nos de evidencialidade indireta. ...
... Another trend that has been reflected in relatively recent research is due to calls for the social turn (Croft 2009;Harder 2010) in Cognitive Linguistics; that is cognitive sociolinguistics research. The need for such affiliation between cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics has been intensified (Langacker 2016) due to the increasing usage-based inspiration within Cognitive Linguistics enterprise (Kristiansen and Dirven 2008) and its expanding works on cognitive ideology and cognitive lexical variation research. For instance, Koller's (Koller 2008) examination of corporate mission statements reveals some cognitive ideological constructions that fall under this category. ...
... I distinguish four main types of grounding: indefinite grounding, relative quantification, possessive grounding, and definite grounding. While the description of these types owes essential insights to Langacker (1991Langacker ( , 2004Langacker ( , 2016Langacker ( , 2017, the framework I propose differs from Langacker's (2016: 8) in that he subsumes the four types under the binary contrast definite -indefinite: "Nominal grounding is mainly concerned with identification of the referent; the definite vs. indefinite distinction is based on whether the referent is identifiable given the prior discourse context. " This leads him to assess, for instance, grounding by absolute quantifiers as "atypical" because the information they give "is quite extrinsic and not very useful for identification" (Langacker 2016: 15). ...
... Langacker (this volume) has broadened his definition of grounding elements, including evidentials into this system for the first time, by taking into consideration various means of grounding cross-linguistically. On this account, evidentials, together with the tense and modal systems, contribute to identifying the reality and validity of the clause being described, providing a higherlevel clause-external grounding to the event. This unified description reflects the substantial progress that Cognitive Grammar has made in recent years (Langacker 2015(Langacker , 2016a(Langacker , 2016b. 5 As Langacker (2016a: 40) himself points out, the symbolic assemblies constituting language structure are "complex and multi-faceted, with many dimensions and levels of organization". ...
... Lexicon is a language component that contains all information about the meaning and usage of words in the language (Kridalaksana, 2008). According to Langacker (2014), the lexicon must be learned. It is because of that the process of learning occurs through interactions in its socio-cultural environment, and cultural factors are quite important, so the lexicon is closely related to its supporting community culture. ...
... The two aspects to be examined include a general feature of cognition (B/E organization, cf. Langacker, 2016), and a cognitive model representing our conception of reality, both of which form a persuasive explanation of central features of English clause structure. As assumed by the scientist, linguistic structure tends to be systematised in successive levels (or strata), each being elaborated (E) on the ground of a baseline (B). ...
