Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar: Cognitive Guide to the Teaching of Modal Verbs: Applications of Cognitive Construction Grammar, #4

By Sergio Torres-Martínez

The purpose of the present monograph is to offer teachers and learners of English a comprehensive pedagogical guide to modal verbs. As such, the book presents a fresh introduction to the use of the cognitive approach in the context of pedagogical grammar. The reader will find a short introduction to the cognitive conceptualization of language. The tasks in the book amalgamate three main rationales discussed in Torres-Martínez (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020): Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), Paper-based Data-Driven Learning (PbDDL) and the cognitive dimension of language providing the systematicity required for the introduction of the tasks in the classroom. 
 I believe readers will find that this book seamlessly connects Construction Grammar theory and English pedagogy in a way that contributes to the important conversation between theory, research and classroom practice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sergio Torres-Martínez
• Release date: Jan 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393152668

Sergio Torres-Martínez

Sergio Torres–Martínez is professor of cognitive linguistics, semiotics and translation semiotics. Among his main interests are Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar, Cognitive Semantics, embodiment theory, phenomenology, Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, Peircean semiotics and the cognitive applications of construction grammar (Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar). Current research projects include the conceptualization of construction grammar as an interdisciplinary field of endeavor connecting embodiment theory, neuroscience semiotics and philosophy for the construction of a comprehensive and systematic description of constructional attachment patterns across languages. Central to this research is the need to provide linguistics with a model of the mind that complements linguistic description. 

Book preview

Applied Cognitive

Construction Grammar

A Cognitive Guide to the Teaching of Modal Verbs

Sergio Torres-Martínez

2021

Copyright © 2021

by Sergio Torres-Martínez

(http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8823-1676)

ISBN (eBook): 9781393152668

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted, translated or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or

other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing of the author.

Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar (and its translations:

Gramática de Construcciones Cognitiva Aplicada (GxCCA), Angewandte

kognitive Konstruktionsgrammatik (AKK), etc. is a term coined by the author and first utilized in an article published in 2016 in the European Journal of Applied Linguistics, De Gruyter Mouton.

Typesetting and artwork by Sergio Torres-Martínez

Cover by and © Sergio Torres-Martínez

Dedication

To my mother Nelly and my sister Jeannette for their patience and love.

Preface

The purpose of the present monograph is to offer teachers and learners of English a comprehensive pedagogical guide to modal verbs. As such, the book presents a fresh introduction to the use of the cognitive approach in the context of pedagogical grammar. The reader will find a short introduction to the cognitive conceptualization of language. The tasks in the book amalgamate three main rationales discussed in Torres-Martínez (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020): Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), Paper-based Data-Driven Learning (PbDDL) and the cognitive dimension of language providing the systematicity required for the introduction of the tasks in the classroom.

I believe readers will find that this book seamlessly connects Construction Grammar theory and English pedagogy in a way that contributes to the important conversation between theory, research and classroom practice.

Sergio Torres-Martínez

Medellín, August 14, 2020

Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Preface

Contents

PART I

Analyzing modal and hedged modal constructions within a constructionist framework

1.1 introduction

1.2 Hedged modal constructions

1.3 Conclusion

References

PART II

Introducing Modal-Verb Task

2 Introducing Modal Constructions in the ELT Classroom

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The Role of Indexical Schemas

2.2.1 Modal Agentive Constructions (MASCs)

2.2.2 Modal Referential Constructions (MRCs)

2.3 Using the Indexical Schema

2.4. Exploring Agency in Modal Clauses

2.5. The Nature of Constructional Modal Tasks

Modal-Verb Tasks

References

List of Modal-Verb Constructions

About the Author

PART I

Analyzing modal and hedged modal constructions within a constructionist framework

1.1 introduction

Modal auxiliaries have traditionally been analyzed as words conveying two basic meanings, namely root (physical, social, independent from the speaker) and epistemic (logical, that is, the evaluation of a speaker about an event). Such analyses have relied on specific modal auxiliary types associated with either local or overlapping modal meanings (e.g. Kratzer 1981, 1991; Quirk et al.1985; Biber et al. 1999; Krug 2000; Greenbaum and Nelson 2002; Giannakidou and Mari 2016). Therefore, most functional approaches consider that root modality expresses human control over events, such as is involved in permission, intention, ability, or obligation (Greenbaum and Nelson 2002: 111), while epistemic modality conveys the evaluation of a conceptualizer as to whether an event was, is, or will be likely to happen (Greenbaum and Nelson 2002: 111). In a similar