BEATRIZ BERMEJO VILLAMARÍN

SUMMARY 7. COGNITIVE GRAMMAR

The term ‘grammar’ is polysemous: it has a traditional sense (grammar = syntax + morphology)
and a cognitive sense (grammar = a theory of language). In the generative/ traditional sense,
grammar makes a distinction between syntax and lexicon. However, cognitive linguistics
understands grammar as syntax and lexicon being combined in a continuum that is gradable
from specific elements to more general patterns.

Cognitive Grammar is a collection of conventional symbolic units: conventional, because it is

shared by a substantial number of individuals; and symbolic, because units are regarded as
symbols with two poles, a semantic pole (its meaning) and a phonological pole. Linguistic units
from the scope of Cognitive Grammar can be of any length, complexity and specificity (going
from specific patterns to general schemas). There are no clear boundaries between lexicon,
morphology and syntax, and they conform a continuum which is gradable (there is matter of
degree). This way, having no lists of rules, there are no exceptions and ‘strange’ cases in
grammar (for example, adding –s and creating a totally different word for plurals). Contrary to
what Traditional Grammar states about arbitrariness in symbols, Cognitive Grammar affirms
that the relationship between the two poles within a symbol is motivated. In other words, rather
than arbitrariness there is motivation in word meaning. Finally, Cognitive Grammar provides a
view of language as an integral part of human cognition rather than as an independent module.

Some ways in which grammar can be dealt through Cognitive Linguistics are these:

- Syntax: elements in a sentence can be analyzed by using the theory of Trajector and
Landmark. The subject of a clause can be the Trajector (the main focus of attention),
and complements can be seen as Landmark (or second focus of attention).
- Word class: words can be categorized by using the theory of Prototypes.
- Semantics: meanings of words (being polysemous or not) can be represented through
the theory of Image-Schema, in which words are visually represented in a schematic
way in order to better understand them.
- Mental spaces: words like computer are analyzed in a complete way trhough the Theory
of Blending  a computer is not only ‘something that computes’, but it also contains a
set of elements coming from different mental spaces that create a new word, and a new
sense. The same can be done with syntactic phrases (Noun Phrases, etc…) like, for
example, red ball.

Construction Grammar: there were so many elements that I could not understand, maybe
because my knowledge of syntax is not that broad. However, in a way to summarize it a little
bit, I would say that Traditional Grammar excluded lots of syntactic constructions because they
were not subject to fixed rules like Verb-Subject-Object. Instead, Cognitive Grammar includes
any kind of construction as a unit in the grammar of English.