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On the subject of impersonals

Abstract

In accordance with basic principles of Cognitive Grammar, impersonal it (e.g. It’s obvious that he’s angry) is claimed to be meaningful. Three avenues of approach are followed in the characterization of it and the constructions it appears in: a comparison with related constructions; a comparison to other pronouns; and examination of a basic cognitive model called the “control cycle”. This broad perspective leads to a unified account in which the meaning of impersonal it is a special case of the general semantic value of this pronoun.

Abstract

In accordance with basic principles of Cognitive Grammar, impersonal it (e.g. It’s obvious that he’s angry) is claimed to be meaningful. Three avenues of approach are followed in the characterization of it and the constructions it appears in: a comparison with related constructions; a comparison to other pronouns; and examination of a basic cognitive model called the “control cycle”. This broad perspective leads to a unified account in which the meaning of impersonal it is a special case of the general semantic value of this pronoun.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors and contributors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Setting the scene
  6. Convergence in cognitive linguistics 9
  7. An overview of cognitive linguistics 17
  8. Part 2. Consolidating the paradigm
  9. Pattern versus process concepts of grammar and mind 47
  10. Metaphor in language and thought 67
  11. Emotion and desire in independent complement clauses 87
  12. Schematic meaning of the Croatian verbal prefix iz- 115
  13. The conceptual motivation of bahuvrihi compounds in English and Spanish 151
  14. On the subject of impersonals 179
  15. Part 3. Expanding the paradigm
  16. Do people infer the entailments of conceptual metaphors during verbal metaphor understanding? 221
  17. Corpus data in usage-based linguistics 237
  18. Cognitive linguistics meets the corpus 257
  19. Oops blush! 291
  20. Conceptual construal and social construction 305
  21. The biblical story retold 325
  22. Name index 355
  23. Subject index 359
Cognitive Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Cognitive Linguistics
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.32.12lan

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors and contributors vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Setting the scene
  6. Convergence in cognitive linguistics 9
  7. An overview of cognitive linguistics 17
  8. Part 2. Consolidating the paradigm
  9. Pattern versus process concepts of grammar and mind 47
  10. Metaphor in language and thought 67
  11. Emotion and desire in independent complement clauses 87
  12. Schematic meaning of the Croatian verbal prefix iz- 115
  13. The conceptual motivation of bahuvrihi compounds in English and Spanish 151
  14. On the subject of impersonals 179
  15. Part 3. Expanding the paradigm
  16. Do people infer the entailments of conceptual metaphors during verbal metaphor understanding? 221
  17. Corpus data in usage-based linguistics 237
  18. Cognitive linguistics meets the corpus 257
  19. Oops blush! 291
  20. Conceptual construal and social construction 305
  21. The biblical story retold 325
  22. Name index 355
  23. Subject index 359
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