Cognitive Linguistics Cognitive Linguistics grew out of the work of a number of researchers active in the 1970s who were interested in the relation of language and mind and who did not follow the prevailing tendency to explain linguistic patterns by means of appeals to structural properties internal to and specific to language a Rather than attempting to segregate syntax from the rest of language in a'syntactic component' governed by a set of principles and elements specific to that component, the line of research followed instead was to examine the relation o language structure to things outside language, cognitive principles and mechanisms not specific to language including principles of human categorization; pragmatic and interactional principles, and functional principles in general, such as iconicity and economy HomCognitive Linguistics ◼ Cognitive Linguistics grew out of the work of a number of researchers active in the 1970s who were interested in the relation of language and mind, and who did not follow the prevailing tendency to explain linguistic patterns by means of appeals to structural properties internal to and specific to language. ◼ Rather than attempting to segregate syntax from the rest of language in a 'syntactic component' governed by a set of principles and elements specific to that component, the line of research followed instead was to examine the relation of language structure to things outside language: cognitive principles and mechanisms not specific to language, including principles of human categorization; pragmatic and interactional principles; and functional principles in general, such as iconicity and economy. Home