Introduction

Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book comprises the diverse set of descriptive models developed within cognitive linguistics for the analysis of linguistic meaning, including notions like prototypicality, radial networks, conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, frame semantics, and construal mechanisms in grammar. It illustrates the key features and development in cognitive grammar. The chapter provides an overview of the theory of Construction Grammar and its sister theory Frame Semantics, both developed at the University of California, Berkeley, during the 1980s and 1990s. It overviews the theory, practice, and applications of one of the more productive and versatile approaches in Cognitive Linguistics, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach originated by Anna Wierzbicka. The book starts by outlining the development, advantage, and limitations of four categorization theories, i.e., the classical theory, prototype theory, vantage theory, and the theory of idealized cognitive models.