Entrenchment in cognitive grammar

• Published in: Entrenchment and the psychology of language learning: How we reorganize and adapt linguistic knowledge pp. 39 - 56
• Main Author: Langacker, Ronald W.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC, Boston, MA American Psychological Association 2017; De Gruyter Mouton
• Series: Language and the human lifespan series
• Subjects: Cognitive Linguistics; Grammar; Human; Language; Linguistics & Language & Speech; Psycholinguistics; Psychology: Professional & Research; linguistics; language; cognitive grammar; entrenchment
• ISBN: 9783110341300; 3110341301; 9783110341423; 3110341425
• DOI: 10.1037/15969-003

While linguistic descriptions have to be justified in their own terms, they should at least be plausible from the psychological standpoint. As a guiding strategy, therefore, cognitive grammar (CG) aims at maximal coverage of language structure on the basis of some minimal assumptions about cognition. It adopts the working hypothesis that a viable descriptive framework can be formulated relying only on cognitive phenomena—entrenchment being one—that are either well established or easily demonstrated. Although CG, as a linguistic framework, says nothing specific about their neural basis or psychological implementation, ascertaining their role in language contributes to their empirical investigation. The following discussion of entrenchment considers its nature, its linguistic manifestations, and some theoretical issues it bears on. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)