THE NOTIONS OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

Abstract

Cognitive linguists like other linguists, study language for its own sake; they
attempt to describe and account for its systematicity, its structure, the functions it
serves and how these functions are realised by the language system. However, an
important reason behind why cognitive linguists study language stems from the
assumption that language reflects patterns of thought. Therefore, to study language
from this perspective is to study patterns of conceptualisation. Language offers a
window into cognitive function, providing insights into the nature, structure and
organization of thoughts and ideas. The most important way in which cognitive
linguistics differs from other approaches to the study of language, then, is that language
is assumed to reflect certain fundamental properties and design features of the human
mind. As we will see throughout this book, this assumption has far-reaching
implications for the scope, methodology and models developed within the cognitive
linguistic enterprise. Not least, an important criterion for judging a model of language
is whether the model is psychologically plausible.