HOW TO BUILD AN ENGLISH CLAUSE

I will be examining central aspects of English clause structure from the standpoint of Cognitive Grammar (CG). Though well known and extensively studied, these phenomena have eluded definitive treatment; they still have much to tell us. Indeed, working out their theoretical basis has contributed to further development of the CG framework (Langacker 1991, 2008a, 2012). Especially relevant are two general notions: the organization of structure in terms of baseline and elaboration; and grammar as the implementation of semantic functions.