On construals and vantages

Abstract

Vantage Theory (VT) and Cognitive Grammar (CG) both rely crucially on the cognitive phenomenon of categorization as well as on the semantic/pragmatic notion of participant point of view in making claims about human linguistic production and perception. In this paper these commonalities of commitment are explored, as are the differences in the ways VT and CG apply these notions in analyzing diachronic data. For this latter goal I use a well-known development from later Old English to Middle English, the change from dative experiencers (of the kind found in the now fixed expression me thinks but also some 40 other verbs of cognition and emotion) to either nominatives ( I like) or impersonal expressions headed by it ( it seems to me). The analysis will be on two levels. First, diachronic work now in progress on the construction itself will be presented, with emphasis on the change in construal/vantage which must be delineated in order to make sense, within either of these theories, of the changes in the construction. On a more abstract level, the paper considers the interaction of the theories and explores how the differences between them with regard to the place of viewpoint in linguistic analysis should be reconciled.