Brings together perspectives from cognitive linguistics, language acquisition, discourse analysis, and linguistic anthropology. This book examines language processing and first language learning and illuminates the insights that discourse and usage-based models provide in issues of second language learning.

The unifying theme is studying how language is used in context (unlike the generative Chomskian approach), in interactions between at least two people in order to achieve some purpose. This book explores thus explores how lanugage is shaped by the nature of human cognition and social-cultural activity. It brings together perspectives from cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, and first and second language acquisition research. These fields traditionally have not cross-fertilized their ideas, although all are engaged in usage-based approaches, so linking all three is a creative idea. This volume contains selected contributions from the 2003 GURT. Some of the names are prominent (Adele Goldberg, Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig, Susanne Niemeier, Ann Wennerstrom)