Grammar and Conceptualization

This work documents some major developments in the theory of cognitive grammar during the 1990s. It brings together 12 previous articles (not all easily accessible) which have been substantially revised and integrated to form a coherent and cohesive work. Included are basic theoretical statements, analyses and descriptions of particular phenomena, as well as a preview of future research. Among the areas examined are clause structure, tense and aspect, possessives and other reference point phenomena, generics and habituals, quantifier constructions, pronominal anaphora, complementation, "raising" constructions, and the meaning of OF. Theoretical issues addressed include the characterization of grammatical relations, the status of constituency, the grammatical role of metonymy, parallels between PERception and CONception, the nature of grammaticization, the usage-based account of learning and wellformedness, the need to posit multiple conceptual "planes", the justification of descriptive constructs, and the essential dyna-micity of conceptual structure. By further articulating the framework and showing its application to numerous domains of linguistic structure, this book substantiates the claim that lexicon, morphology, and syntax form a gradation consisting of assemblies of symbolic structures (form-meaning pairings). Grammar is thus inherently meaningful, its schematic semantic value residing in particular ways of construing conceptual content.