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FromtheEditors
ofitsbasicterminology.TedemandforthenewideasinthePolandofthe
mid-1990swasenormousandthe1995bookbecameaninstantbestseller.
Tesituationin2001wasdecidedlydifferent:CognitiveGrammarwas
alreadyamainstreammodelincognitivelinguistics,andcognitivelinguistics
assuchwasnolongerfrowneduponasanextravagantflightoffancy.Ithad
ofcoursetofacecriticism–buttheenterprisewasalreadyenjoyingthesta-
tusofamajorplayer.Accordingly,thelecturesProf.LangackergaveinMay
ofthatyearprobeddeeperbutthenetwasstillcastwideandembracedbig
notionssuchasvirtualityanddynamicity.
Morethantenyearslater,in2014,thefocusisonthespecificsubjectof
nominalsbut–ashasbeenamajorfeatureofCognitiveGrammarsinceits
veryinception–thisrelativelynarrowfocusiscombinedwithanattemptto
encapsulateawholegamutofphenomenainacoherentaccount(forexample,
byemployingthenotionofgrouping).Moreover,theselecturestestifytothe
dynamicnatureofthemodel:theauthorreferstochangesinhisthinking
andtonewanalysesofsomeoftheproblemshediscussesascomparedto
whathadbeenproposedinearlierpublications.
Becausethepresentvolumeisarecordofaseriesoflectures,thetone
andstylearedifferentfromthosetypicaloffull-fledgedmonographs.Ifwe
haveretainedsomeoftheoccasionalrepetitionsofcontentorallusionsto
peopleassociatedwithLublin,itwastogivethebookalocalflavour(for
example,thereisafairamountofrepetitionthroughtheincorporationof
handoutmaterial,whichwehavedecidedtoincludetofacilitateasynthetic
reviewofthecontentcovered).Webelievethehumanfactorisanimportant
aspectofthescholarlyexchangeofviews.Overthetwentyorsoyearsofour
acquaintancewithProf.Langackerwehavecertainlylearnedthat,indissem-
inatingideas,nothingcanbeatpersonalexposuretotheirauthor.Itisthis
kindofexposurethathasbornethefruitofwhatweconsidertobeavaluable
tradition:LublinlecturesinCognitiveGrammar.Temodel’sfreshnessand
intellectualcharmprovedirresistibleintheearly1990s;itschallengeshave
keptusalerteversince;nowweareawaitingitsfurtherdevelopments.Nat-
urally,wehopethetraditionoftheLublinlectureswillcontinueandmore
volumeslikethisonewillseethelightofday.
AdamGłaz
HubertKowalewski
PrzemysławŁozowski
Lublin,July20,2016
