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3.2. Cognitive Grammar
Cognitive Grammar is the theoretical framework which deals with grammatical categories, units, and constructions in their relationships to the processes of the world perception and cognition. It means that Cognitive Grammar places a great emphasis on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie grammar. In other words, Cognitive Grammar deals with the overall organization of grammar that focuses on meaning (Evans, Green, 2006).
So, the key assumption of Cognitive Grammar lies in the fact that grammar is viewed as a meaningful system, that grammatical units are inherently meaningful, that there are close links between grammar and lexicon, and that gives rise to the idea of a lexicon-grammar continuum. It means that grammar does not constitute an autonomous level, and that sound, meaning and grammar are inextricably linked. It follows from these assumptions that the term “Cognitive Grammar appears to be very close to the terms “Cognitive Linguistics” and “Cognitive Semantics”, and on the whole is used to refer to language theory. It is important to note that the term “grammar” in Cognitive Linguistics is not used in its narrow sense; it doesn’t refer to syntactical and morphological knowledge. The term “grammar” is used in the broad sense, where it refers to the language system as a whole, incorporating sound, meaning and morphology and syntax”. Nevertheless, it is to be stressed that Cognitive Grammar is characterized by its own specific features and its own subject and object of investigation inasmuch as it deals with grammatical subsystem: grammatical meanings, grammatical categories and functions. But a central place in Cognitive Grammar belongs to a complex composite symbolic structure – constructions which entail constraints upon how the units of grammar can be combined within complex constructions.
As the theoretical framework Cognitive Grammar is mainly based on the theories of two scholars: R.W. Langacker and L. Talmy. There are some fundamental principles worked out by these scholars. According to R. Langacker, grammar is not built up out of grammatical rules and lexicon; it consists of “symbolic units”, that is a conventional pairing of form and meaning (1987). The fundamental unit of grammar is a symbolic unit the form of which cannot be studied independently of meaning. So, a central assumption of the cognitive approach to grammar is that knowledge of language (the mental grammar) is represented in the mind of the speaker as an inventory of symbolic units (Langacker, 1987, p. 73). In other words, Cognitive Grammar as R. Langacker argues, underpins the division of cognitive expressions into two major classes: nominal and relational predications. Nominal predications describe entities, relational predications describe relations between entities. R. Langacker divides the category of relational predication into two subcategories: temporal and atemporal relations. Temporal relations are processes encoded by verbs. The category of atemporal relations is a more disparate category and contains prepositions, adjectives, adverbs and non-finite verb forms (infinitives and participles). Temporal relations account for finite verb forms which are schematically characterized as PROCESS. Atemporal relations can be schematically characterized in terms of STATES. As for grammatical constructions Cognitive Grammar emphasizes not structure building, but the semantic relationships between the component parts of a complex structure.
Another fundamental principle of Cognitive Grammar is the usage-based thesis. It means that knowledge of language is first of all is how language is used. In other words, the language system is closely related to how language is actually used, and the language structure cannot be studied without taking into account the nature of language use. Language use involves interaction between speakers and listeners. It follows that interactional and goal-directed aspects of language use and context are of a central concern to Cognitive Grammar. The context of use interacts with the speaker’s intentions and plays a crucial role is how the utterance is interpreted by the listener.
Accepting the idea of a lexicon-grammar continuum some linguists underline the fact that there is a qualitative distinction between the lexical and grammatical subsystems (Talmy, 2000). Each of these subsystems provides a different kind of meaning. Grammatical units are characterized by the schematic meanings. Compared to lexicon grammatical meanings are more abstract and schematic. For example, nouns are schematically characterized as “THINGS”, verbs as “PROCESSES”. Grammatical constructions are also meaningful “…sentence-level constructions themselves carry meanings, independently of the words in the sentence (Goldberg, 1995, p. 1)”. Cognitive Grammar emphasizes not structure building, but the semantic relationships between the component parts of a complex structure.
Having discussed the key principles of Cognitive Grammar, we have to outline the main areas of investigation in Cognitive Grammar:
the peculiar features of grammatical meaning;
word classes in terms of categorization;
the conceptual grounding of grammatical categories and functions;
the cognitive account of grammatical constructions;
active and passive constructions in terms of figure-ground theory;
cognitive case study (tense, mood, aspect);
● cognitive interpretation of deictic expressions, determiners, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, etc.
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