Treść książki

Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
16
Introduction
structureofeventsinPolish,couchedwithinRonaldLangacker’sframeworkof
CognitiveGrammar.However,therehavealsobeentheoreticallymoreradical
proposals,suchasPrzemysławŁozowski’sideaoflanguageasasymbolofin-
dividualizedexperience.InŁozowski’spanchronicapproach,languagechange
isviewedasresultingfromanongoingactivityofhumansymboliccognition:
thistheauthorconcludeshavinganalysedKingAlfred’spersonalizeduseof
theOldEnglishcunnan,maganandmotan.Łozowskisaysthat
[being]motivatedbytheirexperiential,inferential,andself-expressivepredis-
position,languageusersprojectontolanguageasubjectivepictureofhuman
self.[Thus,]wehavecomeupwithanindividualizedapproachtogrammaticali-
zation,i.e.,alanguagechangethatisbroughtaboutbythespeaker’sspatio-tem-
poraloperationonexperienceinthecross-generationalchainofself-expressive
inferences.(Łozowski2008:177)
Althoughrespondingtoverydiferentdataandcouchedwithinavastly
diferentdescriptiveapparatus,suchisalso,initsfundamentaltenets,the
approachrepresentedbyRobertE.MacLaury,anAmericananthropologist
andlinguist,theproponentofVantageTheory.MacLaurydesignedVTin
ordertoaccountforwhatappearedtobesomewhatdeviantbutnevertheless
repetitivebehaviourofspeakersinthedomainofcolourcategorization.He
proposesanaccountofcognitionasamechanismthatenablesustotakebroad
orconstrictedpointsofviewoncategories.Thisleadshimtoreformulatethe
notionofrelativity,whichisatributednottotheinfluenceoflinguisticforms
buttotheplasticityofcognitiveproceduresthatenabletheconstructionof
categoriesaspointsofview.
ItisinthislightthattheuseoftheEnglisharticlesisconsidered:asan
expressionofspeakers’cognitiveconstrualsofthesituationsdescribed,along
withthetensionsinherentbothinthosesituationsandinthewaystheyare
conceptualized.Thisalsopertainstoidiomatic,conventionalizeduses.Con-
ventiondoesnotcomefromnowhere:frombehinditsarbitraryappearances
whichBühler(1990[1934]:346),inreferencetoGerman,calls“labyrinthine”
therefrequentlylurksadeepcognitivemotivation.Theanalyticalpartsofthe
book(partofChapter4,plusChapters5-6)aredevotedtoanaccountofthat
motivation.Thetheoreticalparts,inturn,areconcernedwiththreesubjects:
VantageTheoryasoriginallyformulated(Chapter1),linguisticapplications
ofthetheory(Chapter2andpartofChapter4)andasurveyofpreviousap-
proachestotheEnglisharticles(Chapter3).