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تسجيل

The architecture of the model

المؤلف:  Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green

المصدر:  Cognitive Linguistics an Introduction

الجزء والصفحة:  C14-P479

2026-02-04

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The architecture of the model

The basic architecture of the cognitive model of grammar is represented in Figure 14.3. This diagram captures the idea that the act of deploying a symbolic unit in any given usage event involves both semantic space (meaning) and phonological space(form). In this diagram, the ‘grammar’ box represents the conventionalised knowledge of language in the mind of the speaker, and the ‘usage’ box represents the usage event or utterance. In intuitive terms, a usage event consists of speech sounds and their corresponding interpretations, hence the two boxes labelled ‘conceptualisation’ and ‘vocalisation’. The horizontal arrows represent coding links or correspondences between the conventionalised units of knowledge in the mind of the speaker and the (vocal or conceptual) systems they interact with in instances of situated language use. In other words, the semantic pole of a linguistic expression corresponds to a concept, and the phonological pole of a linguistic expression corresponds to the string of sounds that realises it. The vertical arrows represent symbolic links which unite sound and meaning, or knowledge of sound and meaning. It is important to emphasise that, while knowledge of conventionalised units is represented in a separate box from usage events, this does not imply the distinction between competence and performance that is assumed in the generative approach.

According to the generative model, competence determines performance (which may also be affected by other factors). In the cognitive model, usage gives rise to knowledge, which in turn underlies usage. This is indicated by the double-headed horizontal arrows in Figure 14.3.