Schematicity

Abstract

One of the most intellectually fertile concepts of cognitive grammar has been that of schemas. This article discusses schematicity, relates it to some of the other concepts discussed in the surrounding articles of this book, and illustrates some of the many ways it is used under cognitive grammar. Particular attention is given to how it allows cognitive grammar to explicate such traditional concepts as polysemy, syntactic categories, rules, analogy, figurative language, headship and valence, and composition, in useful and intuitively satisfying ways. These phenomena under other models must be handled by separate mechanisms, but recognizing them as manifestations of schematicity allows cognitive grammar to handle them in an integrated manner. The article also examines the usages of schema by both Ron Langacker and George Lakoff; such usages have been quite influential in cognitive linguistics circles.