A Cognitive Grammar account of sentence types in English

SUMMARY Predicate and phrase negation marking developed from Latin non to Old French ne in pre-verbal position. During the Old French period a small number of emphatic reinforcement elements added after the verb (such as pas "step" and personne "person") became negative polarity items in contexts such as 'not walking a step', 'not seeing a [single] person'. They further developed in early modern French into bipartite negative markers as they are still in contemporary written and formal spoken styles. An on-going change is that of 'ne-drop', that is, the use of the post-verbal element (such as pas) without the preceeding ne. Negation is therefore now being expressed more and more by what was originally an ordinary (that is, non-polarized) noun. The above analysis is made in the framework of Cognitive Grammar, a semantics-based theory of language structure and function which posits, among other concepts, a radial configuration to meaning sets. The set of 'Negation', therefore, can be perceived as having incorporated, at first as peripheral and then as central, these original nouns which have become full negative elements in modern French. RÉSUMÉ La marque de négation prédicate ou phrasale s'est dévéloppée du latin non à ne en ancien français en position pré-verbale. A l'époque de l'ancien français, un petit groupe d'éléments de renforcement emphatique ajoutés après le verbe (tels que pas et personne) sont devenus éléments de polarité négative dans des contextes tels que 'ne pas marcher un pas'„'ne pas voir une [seule] personne'. Puis ils sont devenus en français moderne primitif des marques bipartites de négation, tels qu'on les trouve dans les styles écrit contemporain et formellement parlé. Un changement en cours est la 'chute de ne', c'est-à-dire, l'emploi de l'élément post-verbal (tel que pas) sans le ne précédent. La négation s'exprime maintenant de plus en plus par le moyen de ce qui était à l'origine un nom ordinaire. Cette analyse se fait dans le cadre de la Grammaire Cognitive, une théorie de la structure et de la fonction linguistiques basée sur la sémantique qui pose, parmi d'autres concepts, une configuration radiale pour les groupes de sens. Le groupe 'Négation', donc, peut être considéré d'avoir incorporé, d'abord à la périphérie et puis au centre, ces noms originels qui sont devenus des éléments de négation pleins en français moderne. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Das pradikative und syntaktische Zeichen der Negation entwickelte sich vom Lateinischen non zum Altfranzösischen ne in präverbaler Stel-lung. Während der altfranzösischen Periode wurden eine kleine Anzahl von Elementen dem Verb nachgestellt (wie etwa pas "Schritt" u. personne "person"), welche einem emphatischen Nachdruck dienten. Diese bekamen Elemente negativer Polarität in Zusammenhängen wie 'nicht einen Schritt tun', 'nicht eine [einzelne] Person sehen'. Sie entwickelten sich weiter im modernen Französischen, und zwar zu zweiteiligen Negations-Merkmalen wie wir sie in heutigen schriftsprachlichen wie gesprochenen Spielarten antreffen. Gegenwartig beobachten wir einen neuen Wandel sich vollziehen, und zwar die Tendenz, die Negationspartikel ne ganz fallen zu lassen, d.h. die Verwendung des postverbalen Elements (z.B. pas) ohne das vorhergehende ne. Die Negation wird jetzt mehr und mehr durch ein Mittel ausgedrückt, das ursprünglich ein gewöhliches (d.h. nicht-polarisiertes) Nomen war. Diese Analyse der Entwicklung wird im Rahmen der 'Kognitiven Grammatik', einer semantisch fundierten Theorie der Sprachstruktur, vorgenommen, die eine radikale Gestaltung von Be-deutungsgruppen ansetzt. Die Gruppierung 'Negation' kann daher ange-sehen werden als etwas, das diese ursprünglichen Nomina zunachst ein-verleibt hat, wenn auch periphar, dann aber spater zentral, mit dem Ergebnis, daß sie vollwertige negative Elemente im modernen Französischen geworden sind.

In this paper, we propose a unified account of the semantics of the English present progressive in the form of a semantic network, basing ourselves on the theoretical principles and analytical tools offered by the theory of Cognitive Grammar, as laid out by Langacker (1987, 1991). The core meaning of the English present progressive, we claim, is to indicateepistemic contingencyin the speaker's immediate reality. It thus contrasts with the simple present, which is associated with situations that are construed asstructurallybelonging to reality. On the basis of a study of the Santa Barbara Corpus of spoken American English, an inventory has been made of the more specific uses of the present progressive, temporal as well as modal. It is shown that each of these uses can be derived from this basic meaning of contingency in immediate reality via a set of conceptual branching principles, in interaction with elements in the context.

This paper seeks to study possessive constructions in CK henceforth from the cognitive grammar perspective. One of the tenets of construal theory is that the speakers of a language deploy alternate constructions to express different conceptual contents. To do so, the humans use construal mechanism to portray and interpret a certain scene from their perspectives. To achieve the objective of the present paper, we apply reference point model, Construal and Figure and ground theories to CK possessive constructions. Possessive constructions are relational structures established by human mental ability to invoke one entity as the reference point and relate it to another entity which is described as the profile determinant. In applying construal theory to CK possessive construction, we argue that different interpretations can be assumed from ezafe (-i) and possessive clitics in conveying possession. With the application of these three theories, a new perspective has been put forward to possessive constructions in CK.

Recent groundbreaking work in cognitive linguistics has revealed the semantic complexity of motion metaphors of time and of temporal frames of reference. In most approaches the focus has been on the clause-level metaphorical meaning of expressions, such asMoving Ego(We are approaching the end of the year) andMoving Time(bothEgo-centered, as inThe end of the year is approachingandfield-based, as inBoxing Day follows Christmas Day). The detailed grammatical structure of these metaphorical expressions, on the other hand, has received less attention. Such details include both elements that contribute to the metaphorical meaning and those that have a non-metaphorical temporal function, e. g., tense and (central features of) aspect. I propose a model for the analysis of metaphorical expressions, building on earlier work in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG). I approach the grammatical structure of metaphorical expressions by analyzing the interplay between veridical and metaphorical systems of expressing temporal relations. I argue that these systems relate to two relevant conceptualizations of time.Veridical time(VT) is the non-metaphorical conceptualization of time, where the processual profile of the clause-level metaphorical expression resides. Ametaphorical path(MP) is the metaphorical conceptualization of time as a path occupied by the metaphorical motion. A motion metaphor of time tracks themover’s changing position on the MP against VT. I show how metaphorical expressions based on a motion verb differ from those based on a prepositional construction in grammatical and semantic terms, and how tense and aspect contribute to the conceptualization of the motion scenario. I argue that tense grounds the metaphorical motion event with respect to the speech event. All the participants in the motion event, as well as the metaphorical path itself, are present in each subsequent configuration tracked against VT by the conceptualizer. Thus tense has a wide scope over the motion scenario with Ego’s ‘now’ as a reference point, while Ego’s ‘now’ cannot serve for grounding of tense. This is why expressions such as *The meeting is difficult ahead of usare not acceptable.

This paper seeks to study possessive constructions in CK henceforth from the cognitive grammar perspective. One of the tenets of construal theory is that the speakers of a language deploy alternate constructions to express different conceptual contents. To do so, the humans use construal mechanism to portray and interpret a certain scene from their perspectives. To achieve the objective of the present paper, we apply reference point model, Construal and Figure and ground theories to CK possessive constructions. Possessive constructions are relational structures established by human mental ability to invoke one entity as the reference point and relate it to another entity which is described as the profile determinant. In applying construal theory to CK possessive construction, we argue that different interpretations can be assumed from ezafe (-i) and possessive clitics in conveying possession. With the application of these three theories, a new perspective has been put forward to possessive constructions in CK.

This paper intends to explain why some verbs take “to+v” as their complements while others take “v+ing” within the framework of Cognitive Grammar developed by Ronald Langacker. It is proposed that infinitives and present participles are perceived in different ways. They both lie on a continuum marked by a noun and a verb at two ends which can follow a matrix verb. However, the infinitive is more like a verb which profiles a process happening in the future, while the present participle is more like a noun which profiles a thing popping up as an immediate scope during the process of the matrix verb. Finally, two criteria are put forward to explain the reasons why verbs take “to +v” or “v+ing” as their complements. And more specific classifications and explanations about this construction are provided.

A Cognitive Grammar Account of Metonymy and Its Relation to Metaphor

My early readings in linguistics included one of Chuck Fillmore’s earliest writings, Indirect Object Constructions in English and the Ordering of Transformations (originally written in 1963), which took as its primary goal ‘to construct and incorporate within the grammar of English the means for correctly generating sentences containing indirect objects’-the sentence types exemplified by He gave me an umbrella and He bought me an umbrella. In his 1977 paper ‘The Case for Case Reopened,’ Chuck dealt with, among others, sentence alternations exemplified by Bees were swarming in the garden/ The garden was swarming with bees and I loaded hay onto the truck/ I loaded the truck with hay. What is common to these phenomena is the pattern of grammatical coding of apparently peripheral event participants or physical settings as central clausal arguments.

Abstract:This article addresses the asymmetry between the two main aspectual paradigms in the Classical Greek verbal system: the imperfective and the aorist (perfective). Whereas the imperfective has separate indicative forms for present and past time reference, i.e. the ‘primary’ and the ‘secondary’ indicative, the aorist only has a secondary (‘past’) indicative. I argue that this asymmetry is not only morphological but also semantic. That is, while the secondary imperfective indicative (the ‘imperfect’) is confined to past time reference, the secondary aorist indicative is used not only to refer to the past but also to the present. It then enters into aspectual competition with the primary imperfective indicative (the ‘present’). Based on R.W. Langacker's (2011) Cognitive Grammar account of aspect, I distinguish five types of context in which a present tense form with perfective aspect is a desideratum, and argue that here the secondary aorist indicative is used to fulfil this function. Moreover, I present a diachronic account of the origin of this remarkable asymmetry, arguing that the aorist indicative was never a past tense to begin with.

This article focuses on motion metaphors of time and complements Moore's (Cognitive Linguistics 17: 199–244, 2006) analysis, which insightfully discusses time metaphors, from the standpoint of Japanese data. The present paper argues that time metaphors should be analyzed in terms of Langacker's (Observations and speculations on subjectivity, John Benjamins, 1985, Cognitive Linguistics, 1: 5–38, 1990a, Concept, Image, and Symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar, Mouton de Gruyter, 1990b) subjective/objective construal if Japanese data are considered. More specifically, the present analysis classifies time metaphors in terms of the ground's subjective/objective construal and depends on whether they are deictic or not. When the ground is placed offstage, a given expression is non-deictic and can have the order meaning. This article emphasizes that the order meaning is produced by the ground's objective construal and that this cognitive ability is crucial for comparing two events or persons. By focusing on the ground's subjective/objective construal, the difference between Japanese mae and saki can be captured. The present paper will show that the application of the Cognitive Grammar approach to Japanese temporal expressions can supplement existing metaphor theories and that the cognitive linguistic theory of subjectivity is a useful tool with respect to capturing the properties of Japanese temporal expressions.

A cognitive grammar account of bound anaphora

ANAPHORA: COGNITIVE GRAMMAR ACCOUNT VS. GENERATIVE GRAMMAR ACCOUNT

Intuition, introspection and observation in linguistic inquiry

Pitch peaks tend to be higher at the beginning of longer than shorter sentences (e.g., ‘A farmer is pulling donkeys’ vs ‘A farmer is pulling a donkey and goat’), whereas pitch valleys at the ends of sentences are rather constant for a given speaker. These data seem to imply that speakers avoid dropping their voice pitch too low by planning the height of sentence-initial pitch peaks prior to speaking. However, the length effect on sentence-initial pitch peaks appears to vary across different types of sentences, speakers and languages. Therefore, the notion that speakers plan sentence intonation in advance due to the limitations in low voice pitch leaves part of the data unexplained. Consequently, this study suggests a complementary cognitive account of length-dependent pitch scaling. In particular, it proposes that the sentence-initial pitch raise in long sentences is related to high demands on mental resources during the early stages of sentence planning. To tap into the cognitive underpinnings of planning sentence intonation, this study adopts the methodology of recording eye movements during a picture description task, as the eye movements are the established approximation of the real-time planning processes. Measures of voice pitch (Fundamental Frequency) and incrementality (eye movements) are used to examine the relationship between (verbal) working memory (WM), incrementality of sentence planning and the height of sentence-initial pitch peaks.

Descriptive problems in defining the category of copulas: syntactic and semantic distribution of the ingressive copulas VIRSTI and TAPTI