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Cognitive Grammar

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Book cover The Language of Siegfried Sassoon

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Language, Literature and Style ((PSLLS))

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Abstract

This chapter starts with an overview of cognitive linguistics and cognitive stylistics before focusing exclusively on Cognitive Grammar as a descriptive language framework and method of analysis. Assuming no prior knowledge of Cognitive Grammar, the chapter outlines key aspects of Cognitive Grammar with illustrative literary examples, discusses key contemporary scholarship in cognitive stylistics utilizing Cognitive Grammar, and argues for the value of Cognitive Grammar in literary linguistics more broadly. The chapter specifically explains the Cognitive Grammar notion of construal (the meaningfulness inherent in different ways of presenting conceptual content) and outlines the four types of construal phenomena (the specific ways in which conceptual content can be viewed), which are central to the rest of the book. In the second part of the chapter, I outline what I term construal constraints, the ways in which various kinds of contexts might license construals. The chapter ends with an exemplification of First World War poetry generally as well as specifically from that of Siegfried Sassoon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Aston University, Birmingham, UK

    Marcello Giovanelli

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  1. Marcello Giovanelli
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Correspondence to Marcello Giovanelli .

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Giovanelli, M. (2022). Cognitive Grammar. In: The Language of Siegfried Sassoon. Palgrave Studies in Language, Literature and Style. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88469-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88469-7_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-88468-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-88469-7

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