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تسجيل

Cognitive approaches to grammar in context

المؤلف:  Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green

المصدر:  Cognitive Linguistics an Introduction

الجزء والصفحة:  C21-P741

2026-03-23

368

Cognitive approaches to grammar in context

Throughout Part III of this book, we have developed an insight into cognitive approaches to various topics in the study of grammar. In this chapter, we set the cognitive approach in a wider theoretical context. In particular, we compare the assumptions, aims and methodology of cognitive approaches with other influential approaches to grammar. Our discussion will focus on generative and functional-typological approaches, because the former represents the paradigm against which cognitive approaches were originally defined, and the latter shares certain core assumptions with aspects of cognitive approaches and indeed informs the cognitive approach in various ways. We begin our comparison by setting out the assumptions, aims and methodology adopted by each of the three broad traditions, and by comparing the models according to these parameters (section 22.1). We then present a comparative discussion of cognitive and generative approaches to core issues in the study of grammar, including word classes, constituency, grammatical functions and case, and tense, aspect, mood and voice (section 22.2). As we will see, cognitive and generative approaches have a great deal in common in terms of the phenomena they set out to explain, and a certain amount in common in terms of how they explain those phenomena. However, as we have emphasised throughout this book, there are important differences between these approaches in terms of their foundational assumptions. These in turn give rise to differences in descriptive terminology and in some of the phenomena that are investigated.