OVERVIEW

This graduate course offers an integrated introduction to Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar, two innovative frameworks that have powerfully reshaped how language is understood, used, and learned. Cognitive Linguistics provides a compelling foundation for reconceptualising L2 acquisition and energising pedagogical practice through its focus on usage, embodiment, and conceptual organisation. Construction Grammar offers a unified model in which constructions (i.e. conventionalised form–meaning pairings) serve as the core units of linguistic knowledge. The course examines how constructional patterns across all levels of language shape usage, acquisition, and learner performance. Students develop a sharpened awareness of key cognitive mechanisms and apply these insights to English language pedagogy, with emphasis on form–function associations, L1–L2 contrasts, and construction‑based learning.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course introduces the theoretical framework of English Construction Grammar in its declination at the various levels of linguistic organization and its applications to language acquisition.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

This graduate course has a twofold aim:

1. it introduces students to cognitive and constructionist approaches to language, which are crucial for the understanding of how meaning, form, and usage interact in real communicative contexts. By the end of the course, they will be able to analyse English constructions;

2. it  enhances the students' awareness of key cognitive mechanisms (such as metaphor, metonymy, categorisation, and embodiment), and enables them to apply these insights to English language pedagogy grounded in cognitive‑constructionist principles. 

By the end of the course, students will be able to

• understand core principles of Cognitive Linguistics, including usage, embodiment, and conceptual organisation;
• explain Construction Grammar as a model in which constructions function as basic form–meaning pairings;
• analyse constructional patterns across morphemes, words, idioms, and argument‑structure schemas;
• identify key cognitive mechanisms such as metaphor, metonymy, categorisation, and embodiment;
• apply cognitive‑constructionist insights to English language teaching and materials design;
• evaluate L1–L2 contrasts and use constructional knowledge to support more effective English language  learning.

PREREQUISITES

Attainment of “Lingua Inglese I” 

TEACHING METHODS

The course includes lectures given by the professor and seminar activities conducted by the students. Lectures will be held exclusively in the classroom, but students are required to work outside of class times as well. Seminars require the active participation of students, who must engage in individual and/or group research projects and in-class presentations to their peers.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The syllabus includes key concepts in Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar, as well as their applications to second language learning and teaching, such as construal, encyclopaedic knowledge, conceptual metaphor and metonymy, embodied cognition,  construction morphology and grammar in English as a Second Language.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Littlemore, Jeannette. Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Second Language Learning and Teaching. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. (selected chapters)

- Herbst, Thomas, and Thomas Hoffmann. A Construction Grammar of the English Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2024. (selected chapters)

Further readings will be specified at the beginning of the course.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

February 2027.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The final exam of the theoretical module is assessed through a written exam paper, which includes open questions and exercises.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Assessment for attending students is calculated on the basis of both active participation in the lessons and seminar activities (50%) and the final exam (50%). This type of monitored attendance gives access to intermediate evaluations during the course and to a shorter final examination.

FURTHER INFORMATION

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