culture specific. As Woody Allen (1982) noted in the movieStardust Memo-
ries,he was lucky to have been born in a society that puts a big value on jokes:
“If you think of it this way ... if I had been an Apache Indian, those guys
didn’t need comedians at all, right?” (p. 342).
Frames must also include emotional states. Our emotions influence what we
say and how it is understood. When we process language, we do not merely
look for the meaning of the words—we commonly try to recognize and under-
stand the intentions underlying the words. With regard to oral discourse, under-
standing the intentions is often more important than the words themselves.
Using this analysis, we see that there are two reasons why formalist grammars
cannot explain how we understand that sentences 7 and 8 have different mean-
ings: (a) the computational system does not allow for construal and does not
provide a model of language acquisition that includes mental models of spaces,
frames, and propositions; and (b) their bottom-up model of processing is in-
compatible with the top-down mechanisms necessary for extracting the mean-
ing from such sentences. As teachers, we cannot separate form from substance
or meaning. If rhetoric tells us anything, it is that a writer/speaker must be
aware of how an audience understands the message. Yet formalist grammars ig-
nore the fact that language is a social action, that form and meaning are insepa-
rable, and that the meaning of any sentence does not reside exclusively in the
mind of the one who produces it but also exists in the minds of those who read
or hear each sentence.
APPLYING KEY IDEASAlthough it seems clear that grammar is largely a manifestation—rather than
the sole determiner—of meaning, it is equally clear that poor grammar, in the
form of ungrammatical constructions, can interfere with meaning. Ungram-
matical sentences force the audience toguessat the intended meaning. This
problem is particularly acute in writing. Using the information in the foregoing
sections, develop three activities that engage students in the connection be-
tween meaning and grammar. Share these activities with classmates and de-
velop a portfolio of lessons that can be used in teaching.
The Importance of Context
If we accept the proposal that frames greatly affect understanding, we begin to
recognize that students face significant obstacles when writing. One of the big-
ger—but often unrecognized—problems is that teachers and students usually
COGNITIVE GRAMMAR 205