Patterns ‘We’ Think By? Critical Cognitive Linguistics Between Language System and Language Use

Abstract

AbstractTaking the interrelationship of language and thought as starting point, Cognitive Linguistics considers language as providing central insights into cognitive structures and processes as well as into their experiential basis. In its role as a gateway for exploring and describing phenomena at the interface between the individual and society by means of public language use, Cognitive Linguistics thus ranges between the poles of trans-situational, overarching language structures and situated, specific language use. But how exactly are system and use to be distinguished and related to one another? What range has, for example, a particular political frame detected from a sample of media coverage with regard to ‘its’ audience? When can we reliably label several instances of individual language use as an overarching language pattern or a frame? The paper aims to address these and further questions in reference to Critical Cognitive Linguistics concerning, for one thing, its own theoretical and methodological assumptions and, for another, its social role in light of current social and political phenomena and developments.