A recent trend in cognitive linguistics has been a greater interest in studying the relationship between language and cognition within the realm of literary studies. In this context, The language of stories: A cognitive approach investigates the cognitive linguistic processes that underpin and drive the construction and negotiation of meaning and interpretation in literary texts. By drawing on construction grammar and blending theory, the author proposes a new cognitive approach to the analysis of the language of narratives that systematically explores the dynamicity of blending between different levels of language expressions, ranging from sentence-level lexical and grammatical choices to text-wide structural strategies, in the construction of multilevel narrative spaces.
In Ch. 1, Dancygier discusses theories and research, including cultural and evolutionary perspectives, that inform the cognitive and linguistic study of narrative meaning and comprehension and thus provide a conceptual framework for the following discussion. Ch. 2 outlines the function of blending in the cognitive construction of narratives. This chapter conceptualises narrative space as a container for independent textual input elements that are selectively integrated and elaborated and thus prompt the construction of viewpoint and the emergence of a conceptually coherent story structure.
Ch. 3 focuses on the function of narratorship. In particular, the narrator's epistemic viewpoint is conceived as a composition of various micro-level phenomena that are located within the narrative space and that contribute to the emergence of the macro-level story structure. Ch. 4 explores micro-level viewpoint phenomena and the function of representational frames as well as the concept of viewpoint compression that moderates and drives the emergent story. Ch. 5 identifies the role of referential expression in the construction of story space and viewpoint, with special attention devoted to the function of pronouns.
Ch. 6 discusses theatre discourses and how theatre-specific objects and specific language choices embody the intentions and emotions of characters and thus contribute to a compressed story blend. Ch. 7 outlines various strategies of thought and speech presentation in literary text. Particular attention is devoted to the conceptualisation of speech and thought as low-level space and its relationship to higher-level viewpoint compression and story composition. Ch. 8 presents a final summary of the discussions outlined in the previous chapters.
Overall, the book presents a stimulating and innovative contribution to cognitive linguistics and its role in the construction of meaning and interpretation of literary texts. The use of literary examples makes the author's detailed analytic discussions very accessible to the reader. The language of stories: A cognitive approach is recommended for students and researchers, including linguists, cognitive scientists, and literary critics, who are interested in the intersection of cognitive linguistics and narratives.
