The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics Part 46. In the past decade, Cognitive Linguistics has developed into one of the most dynamic and attractive frameworks within theoretical and descriptive linguistics The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics is a major new reference that presents a comprehensive overview of the main theoretical concepts and descriptive/theoretical models of Cognitive Linguistics, and covers its various subfields, theoretical as well as applied. | This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 17 COGNITIVE GRAMMAR RONALD W. LANGACKER 1. Background Research leading to the formulation of Cognitive Grammar began in the spring of 1976. On the American theoretical scene it was the era of the linguistics wars between Generative Semantics and Interpretive Semantics. The research was stimulated by the realization that this dispute was vacuous and sterile that making sense of language required a wholly different way of thinking about it. Within three years the overall architecture and basic descriptive constructs of the new framework were established. The first published descriptions under the rubric Space Grammar were Langacker 1981 and 1982 . Its rechristening as Cognitive Grammar in the first full-length presentation Langacker 1987a was not the result of any modification. To this very day in fact changes have been matters of elaboration and refinement the basic notions remain intact. Cognitive Grammar was not derived from any other theory nor is it particularly close to any. While it does bear certain resemblances to numerous other frameworks these are limited in scope and apparent only when stated in general terms. With Generative Semantics for instance Cognitive Grammar shares only the general vision of treating semantics lexicon and grammar in a unified way. The most extensive similarities are with Construction Grammar Fillmore 1988 Goldberg 1995 Michaelis and Lambrecht 1996 Croft 2001 this volume chapter 18 . Though developed independently the two frameworks share a number of basic ideas that constructions not rules are the primary objects of description that lexicon and grammar are not distinct but a continuum of constructions form-meaning 422 RONALD W. LANGACKER pairings and that constructions are linked in networks of inheritance or categorization . Yet their extensive differences are also quite apparent. A glance at their respective diagrams reveals radically different formats symptomatic of substantially .
