6 Cognitive Grammar
What Is Cognitive Grammar?
The previous chapter offered an overview of transformational generative gram-
mar and the minimalist program, allowing us to examine some of their
strengths and weaknesses. T-G grammar was characterized as “formalistic” be-
cause it employs a set of rigid rules that must operate in an equally rigid se-
quence to produce grammatical sentences. Although the MP is different in
many respects, it, too, is formalistic: It has fewer rules, but they operate in much
the same fashion as T-G rules.
The issue of formalism is important because it led several scholars to ques-
tion whether T-G grammar or the minimalist program truly help us understand
the nature of language. Recall that Chomsky revolutionized linguistics in 1957
by arguing that language study should reflect a theory of mind. As a result, all
modern grammars are concerned with and influenced by studies of cognition to
one degree or another. This characteristic is one of the more important factors
that differentiate modern grammars from traditional grammar. Although
Chomsky laid the groundwork for the connection between grammar and cogni-
tion, many would argue that he did not build on this foundation. Some would
even argue that his approach is fundamentally flawed: Rather than exploring
what the mind can tell us about language, his work has focused on what lan-
guage can tell us about the mind. Such an approach may have made sense be-
fore technology gave us the means to increase our understanding of the brain’s
operations, but is it reasonable today, given the advanced state of science and
technology? The answer to this question seems clear when we consider that the
minimalist program describes a system of cognitive operations that appear to
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