Cognitive grammar

Cognitive grammar is a usage-based approach to grammar that emphasizes symbolic and semantic definitions of theoretical concepts that have traditionally been analyzed as purely syntactic. It is associated with wider movements in contemporary language studies, especially cognitive linguistics and functionalism. The term was introduced by American linguist Ronald Langacker in his two-volume study Foundations of Cognitive Grammar (Stanford University Press, 1987/1991).

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. Gram- mar is not a distinct level of linguistic representation, but reduces instead to the structuring and symbolization of conceptual content. All grammatical units are symbolic: Basic categories (e.g., noun and verb) are held to be notionally definable, and grammatical rules are analyzed as symbolic units that are both complex and schematic. These concepts permit a revealing account of gram- matical composition with notable descriptive advantages.

An Introduction to Cognitive Grammar

Despite the diversity of contemporary linguistic theory, certain fundamental views enjoy a rough consensus and are widely accepted without serious question.

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