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Methodology in Cognitive Linguistics Why Cognitive Linguistics is not yet as empirical as might be

المؤلف:  Dirk Geeraerts

المصدر:  Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives

الجزء والصفحة:  P39-C1

2026-11-06

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Methodology in Cognitive Linguistics

Why Cognitive Linguistics is not yet as empirical as might be

Empirical methods, even though they are receiving an unquestionably rising amount of attention, do not yet constitute the dominant tendency in Cognitive Linguistics, and considerable progress can still be made in the direction of a full-fledged implementation of the empirical research program. What could be the reasons for this situation– a situation that contrasts somewhat with the expectations that follow from the theoretical self-conception of Cognitive Linguistics? Two fundamentally different groups of reasons have to be brought into the picture. One has to do with rather more mundane, practical reasons, with the way, that is, in which Cognitive Linguistics is actually being practiced and the way it presents itself to young researchers. The other group concerns reasons of principle: could there be fundamental features of Cognitive Linguistics that slow down the introduction of empirical methods? In particular, couldn’t we say that the emphasis on meaning in Cognitive Linguistics would naturally favor the use of introspection, as the only reliable method of direct access to semantic phenomena? If this is correct, there would be a methodological tension at the heart of Cognitive Linguistics, because we established that a number of other characteristics of Cognitive Linguistics are particularly favorable towards the adoption of empirical methods. We will argue, however, that the theoretical reasons in favor of an introspective methodology are not compelling.