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Introduction
17
Thecognitivegroundingoflanguageingeneralandspecificallyoftheuse
ofarticlesrequiresthatoneextendstheunderstandingoftheterm’setymology.
ArticlecomesfromLatinarticulus,smalljoint’(artus+diminutivesufx-culus),
ultimatelyfromProto-Indo-European*ar-tu-,from*ar-,fittogether’.Theterm
fitsverywellwiththeAncientGreekideaoflinguisticstructureas“articu-
lation”
,inthesenseofajointedstateorformation,andanaphoricwordsas
“joints”whichlinkthevariouselementsofthestructure(Bühler1990[1934]:
349).However,aswillbeillustratedintheanalysis,thefunctiondoesnotonly
pertaintolinkingtheelementsforthepurposeoftextualcoherencebutalso
tothewaytheylinkwhatisbeingtalkedaboutwithhowitistalkedabout.
Ultimately,thelinkreachesdeepintothecognitiveprocessesofthespeaker
andhowthatspeakeroperatesmentallyinrelationtothementalobjectheor
sheisdealingwith.
Itishopedthatbycombiningthetheoreticalpresentationwiththeanaly-
sis,thebookwillrevealthehugepotentialdormantinVT.Ibecamemore
andmoreawareofthepotentialoverthecourseoftime,eversincemyfirst
encounterwithitinthelate1990s.Iowetheencounter,throughreading,to
HenrykKardela.Then,atthe6
th
InternationalCognitiveLinguisticConference
inStockholm,1999,cameapersonalencounterwithRobertMacLaury.Sadly,
thescholarpassedawayshortlybeforeanotherconference,wherehewasto
giveaplenarylecture,ProgressinColourStudies,inGlasgow,UK,2004.Over
theyearsinbetween,however,weexchangeddozensofe-mailsdevotedtoVT;
Ialsobecameacquainted,thoughe-mailorpersonalcontact,withseveralother
VTresearchers,notablyKeithAllan.Withoutthehelpandpersonalguidance
ofVT’soriginator,understandingtheintricaciesofthetheoryandapplying
ittolanguagedataprovedchallenging,thankstoKeithandmanyothercol-
leaguesithasalsobeenrewarding.
Afewwordsofexplanationareinorderastowhyitistheuseofarticles
thathasbeenchosenasthetestinggroundforVantageTheoryanditsexten-
sion.Whileitmaybetruethatpotentiallyallaspectsofgrammarinvolvethe
notionsofviewpoint(recallthetitleofMaturana1987:“Everythingsaidissaid
byanobserver”),therearesomethatoferanespeciallyfertilegroundinthis
respect.InEnglish,theseincludetheuseoftenses,wordorder(ine.g.clefting,
pseudo-clefting,inversion)ormarkersofmodality.Articlesdoubtlessbelongto
thegroup:theirusehasbeenanalysedfromthelogical,functional,pragmatic
etc.angles(cf.Chapter3here)anditseemsthatwhilealloftheseapproaches
ofercrucialinsights,nonecandosowithoutleavinggapsforotherstofill.
Thisisespeciallyconspicuousinthecaseofnovel,original,surprisingand