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Description:
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Cognitive English Grammar is designed to be used as a textbook in courses
of English and general linguistics. It introduces the reader to cognitive
linguistic theory and shows that Cognitive Grammar helps us to gain a
better understanding of the grammar of English. The notions of motivation
and meaningfulness are central to the approach adopted in the book. In four
major parts comprising 12 chapters, Cognitive English Grammar integrates
recent cognitive approaches into one coherent model, allowing the analysis
of the most central constructions of English. Part I presents the cognitive
framework: conceptual and linguistic categories, their combination in
situations, the cognitive operations applied to them, and the organisation
of conceptual structures into linguistic constructions. Part II deals with
the category of things and their linguistic structuring as nouns and noun
phrases. It shows how things are grounded in reality by means of reference,
quantified by set and scalar quantifiers, and qualified by modifiers. Part
III describes situations as temporal units of various layers: internally,
as types of situations; and externally, as located relative to the time of
speech and grounded in reality or potentiality. Part IV looks at situations
as relational units and their structuring as sentences. Its two chapters
are devoted to event schemas and space and metaphorical extensions of
space. Cognitive English Grammar offers a wealth of linguistic data and
explanations. The didactic quality is guaranteed by the frequent use of
definitions and examples, a glossary of the terms used, overviews and
chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading, and study questions
(with solutions, available online at: http://www.benjamins.com/).
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