In the past few decades, cognitive linguistics has developed into one of the most dynamic and empirically insightful frameworks within theoretical and descriptive linguistics. It represents a revolutionary, new movement in modern linguistics which includes a variety of approaches and methodologies. They are, however, unified by a number of common assumptions. Foremost among these is the thesis of "cognition and embodiment": (i) language forms an integral part of human cognition, and (ii) any insightful analysis of linguistic phenomena needs to be embedded in what is known about human cognitive abilities and embodied experience. Cognitive linguistics aims, in new and insightful perspectives, for a cognitively plausible and natural account of what it means to know language, how language evolutionally emerged, how language is acquired, how language dynamically changes, and how language is used for communication in a creative way.
This five-volume major work brings together articles on this broad subject which take up a number of crucial issues both theoretical and methodological; investigate research questions relating to phonology, morphology and grammar; explore issues relating to the semantic and pragmatic mechanism of language and communication; and outline and survey the interdisciplinary relationship between cognitive linguistics and related fields of cognitive science.
