Ronald Wayne Langacker is an American linguist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He is best known as one of the founders of the cognitive linguistics movement and the creator of Cognitive Grammar.
The title of his invited lecture is “Toward an Integrated View of Structure, Processing, and Discourse”
Abstract:
Research in Cognitive Grammar divides into two broad phases. The first phase provided an integrated account of lexicon, morphology, and syntax as inherently meaningful structures; it offered a radical alternative to the generative paradigm based on modularity, constituency, and the autonomy of syntax. The current phase aims at a broader synthesis subsuming structure, processing, and discourse.
Linguistic structures are never self-contained, but draw upon a substrate of indefinite extent, encompassing the speech situation, the context, background knowledge, and the ongoing discourse. The substrate includes the speaker-hearer interaction, which is part of an expression’s meaning even when left implicit. Also included in the substrate are prior expressions as well as relevant portions of the conceived situation being described in the discourse. Recognition of the substrate allows a straightforward treatment of phenomena that are problematic when expressions are analyzed in isolation.
Language structure consists in flexible assemblies of semantic, phonological, and symbolic elements. Assemblies exhibit both seriality and hierarchy, with the same elements being grouped in alternate ways for different purposes. They reflect both descriptive and discursive organization and are accessed in processing windows on different time scales. Grammar and discourse form a continuum of symbolic constructions. Discursive factors, including prosody, can reinforce descriptive groupings, coexist with them, or override them. Their interaction is a key to understanding linguistic structure and language change.