ABSTRACT
Cognitive linguists, like other linguists, study language for its own sake; they attempt to describe and account for its systematicity, its structure, the functions it serves and how these functions are realised by the language system. The chapter examines the evidence for a linguistic system, introducing the notion of a conventional linguistic unit, which may be a morpheme, a word, a string of words or a sentence. It outlines the task of the cognitive linguist: to form hypotheses about the nature of language and about the conceptual system that it reflects. In almost all the situations in which we find ourselves, language allows quick and effective expression, and provides a well developed means of encoding and transmitting complex and subtle ideas. One crucial function of language is to express thoughts and ideas. Cognitive linguists explore the hypothesis that certain kinds of linguistic expressions provide evidence that the structure of our conceptual systems is reflected in the patterns of language.
