Brings together twelve foundational articles by leading figures in the field, each of which introduces one of the basic concepts of Cognitive Linguistics, like conceptual metaphor, image schemas, mental spaces, construction grammar, prototypicality and radial sets.

"[...] it should be immediately remarked that the coherence and unity of the book is skilfully preserved by the editor by means of a warming-up, user-friendly introduction to the field and a closing section with trajectories for further reading. [...]"Francisco Gonzálvez-García in: Funtions of Language, 2008 "[...] this collection may be highly recommended."Thora Tenbrink in: Cognitive Linguistics 2/2008 "The collection brings order into the vast field of cognitive research and highlights the foundational assumptions held in Cognitive Linguistics, which is particularly helpful for students and researchers from other disciplines."Thomas Verjans in: ICLA-website Mai 2007 http://www.cognitivelinguistics.org/Reviews/geeraerts "This volume with 12 basic readings from cognitive linguistics is a unique resource and reference instrument. It reflects and documents the most central tenets of CL: cognitive grammar (Langacker), grammatical construal (Talmy), radial networks (Brugman/Lakoff), prototype theory (Geeraerts), polysemy and vagueness (Tuggy), conceptual metaphor (Lakoff), image schemas and their transformations (Gibbs), conceptual metonymy and domain delimitation (Croft), mental spaces (Fauconnier/Turner), frame semantics (Fillmore), construction grammar (Goldberg), and usage based (psycho-)linguistics (Tomasello).In a nutshell: this is very judicious and persuasive selection of the really prototypical and most basic revolutionary insights of cognitive linguistics."René Dirven, October 2006 "The inclusion of main concepts in Cognitive Linguistics makes the present collection a valuable source for beginners as well as researchers in this domain. The editor has collected very good sources to introduce each concept and has added valuable information in his introduction to the book. By reading the book, a linguist may gain both familiarity with this fast-growing domain of linguistics and the means to delve into it further."Mohammad Rasekh Mahand in: Linguist List 18.1166 http://linguistlist.org/issues/18/18-1166.html