Читать книгу Multiple Preverbs in Ancient Indo-European Languages - Chiara Zanchi - Страница 13

In this work, I adopt the theoretical framework of Cognitive Grammar, in which grammatical forms are conceived as meaningful: the difference between grammatical and lexical meanings essentially lies in their degree of abstractness. Thus, syntax and semantics are understood as a continuum: “lexicon and grammar form a gradation consisting solely in assemblies of symbolic structures” (Langacker 2008: 5). The meanings of the elements of grammar emerge as the concepts associated with linguistic expressions. Such concepts are grounded on elementary semantic structures, which in turn are based on humans’ perception and spatio-physical experience (cf. e.g. Talmy 1983; Lakoff 1987; Langacker 1987), as shown in Section 1.1.