Mental Spaces in Grammar

Résumé

Conditional constructions have long fascinated linguists, grammarians and philosophers. In this pioneering study, Eve Sweetser and Barbara Dancygier offer a new descriptive framework for the study of conditionality, broadening the range of richly described conditional constructions. Using a range of English conditional constructions, they explore issues such as the compositionality of constructional meaning, describing both the mental-space building processes underlying conditional thinking, and the form-meaning relationship involved in expressing conditionality. This significant contribution to the field will be welcomed by a wide range of researchers in theoretical and cognitive linguistics.