Ten Lectures on the Elaboration of Cognitive Grammar (Distinguished Lectures in Cognitive Linguistics #18) (Hardcover)
This book reviews the basic claims and descriptive constructs of Cognitive Grammar, outlines major themes in its ongoing development, and applies these notions to central problems in grammatical analysis. The initial review covers conceptual semantics, the conceptual characterization of grammatical categories, grammatical constructions, and the architecture of a unified theory of language structure. Main themes in the framework's development include the dynamicity of language structure, grammar as the implementation of semantic functions, systems of opposing elements to serve those functions, and organization in strata representing successive elaborations of a baseline structure. The descriptive application of these notions centers on nominal and clausal structure, with special emphasis on nominal grounding.
Ronald Langacker, Ph.D. (1966), University of Illinois, was Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, until his retirement in 2003. He has published extensively in cognitive linguists and formulated the theory known as Cognitive Grammar.