Constructions of Intersubjectivity: Discourse, Syntax, and Cognition

Arie Verhagen develops a new understanding of linguistic communication focussed on cognition. He treats pragmatics, semantics, and syntax in parallel and integrates insights from linguistics, psychology, and studies in animal behaviour. He shows the continuity between language and animal communication and reveals the nature of human linguistic specialization. His powerfully argued and original explanation of the nature and operation of communication will interest awide range of scholars and advanced students in linguistics, cognitive science, and human evolution.

Arie Verhagen has been the chair of Dutch Linguistics at the University of Leiden since 1998. He received his PhD in 1986 at the Free University in Amsterdam and has taught at the Free University, Utrecht University, and the University of Leiden. His books include Linguistic Theory and the Function of Word Order in Dutch (1986) and Usage-Based Approaches to Dutch (co-edited with Jeroen van de Weijer, 2003). He was editor-in-chief of the journal Cognitive Linguistics from 1996 until 2004. His research focuses on relations between language use and language structure, synchronically and diachronically. Current topics, in addition to those addressed in this book, include causative constructions and other expressions of causation, and the organization of constructions into grammars.