Grounding Meaning in Experience

The last decades have seen the rise of nonmainstream frameworks in the fields of linguistics and cognitive science which reject the traditional view of language as an innate, autonomous faculty. According to these approaches. language is a product of the interplay between domain-general cognitive principles and social interactions. This book introduces Embodied Construction Grammar, a recent enterprised designed to provide this conception of language as intertwined with the rest of cognition with a computational dimension. After introducing the theoretical foundations of the model at length, the author applies it to the empirical investigation of Italian caused-motion constructions, illustrating how the adoption of this approach enables the analyst to investigate linguistic phenomena at different levels, combining theoretical motivation, psychological plausibility, and a certain degree of formal precision. Though primarily directed at an audience of students and researchers in the fields of cognitive science and linguistic theories, this book might also appeal to computational linguists and computer scientists.