‘Language and the Creative Mind’: New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics

This volume appears as the next installment in the CSLI series of edited volumes on cognitive and functional linguistics, Conceptual Structure, Discourse and Language (CSDL). The name of the series reflects the theme of the first conference, held in 1994 at the University of California, San Diego, and the title of the first volume, edited by Adele Goldberg (1996). It is now also the name of the North American organization of cognitive and functional linguists—one of the national affiliate organizations of the International Cognitive Linguistics Association. In this volume, we present selected papers from the 11 th biennial CSDL conference, held in Vancouver, Can-ada, on May 17–20, 2012. Over the years, the conferences have reflected various emerging themes and research methods, following the developments in cognitive grammar, construction grammar, frame semantics, metaphor theory, blending theory, the rise of experimental methods, the study of situated cognition, embodiment , gesture, and many other research interests. For the most part, the work presented in the volumes has focused on the analysis of language and its cognitive underpinnings, but the study of cultural artifacts and the role of the human body began to figure more and more prominently in the selections presented in subsequent volumes. In the time that has passed since the first conference in 1994, cognitive linguistics has developed not only in its theoretical sophistication, but also in its range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary interests. While focusing on the mechanisms of meaning emergence in linguistic contexts, the discipline