Is Cognitive Grammar a Usage-Based Model? Towards a Realistic Account of English Sentential Complements

Abstract

Cognitive Grammar (Langacker FCG1, FCG2) is commonly described as a usagebased model, a label applied to grammatical approaches which purport to give “substantial importance to the actual use of the linguistic system and a speaker’s knowledge of this use” (Langacker FCG1: 494). This paper examines this claim in the light of the Cognitive Grammar research on English sentential complements, and confronts its findings with empirical data on complementation retrieved from several computerized corpora of Present-day British and American English.