A COMPREHENSIVE AGENTIVE COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: An Embodied Cognitive Paradigm in Dialogue with the Quirk Tradition

A COMPREHENSIVE AGENTIVE COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE An Embodied Cognitive Paradigm in Dialogue with the Quirk Tradition Sergio Torres-Martínez Why do speakers choose one grammatical construction over another when both are equally well-formed? This groundbreaking work offers a new answer. Drawing on embodied cognition, semiotics, active inference, and Construction Grammar, Sergio Torres-Martínez introduces Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar (AgCCxG), a paradigm that re-describes English grammar through the purposeful actions of language users. Rather than treating grammar as a static inventory of rules and categories, it presents constructions as dynamic patterns shaped by prediction, intention, communicative goals, and interactional experience. In dialogue with the landmark Quirk tradition, this comprehensive volume re-examines word classes, phrases, argument structure, voice, clause combining, information structure, stance, idiomaticity, and discourse. Combining theoretical innovation with formal notation, empirical methods, corpus analysis, and human–machine diagnostics, this book offers researchers, linguists, and advanced students a fresh framework for understanding not only how English works, but why speakers use it as they do.