8 - Stories in the mind

Summary

Life is a trace in the ocean of stories.

The analyses and theoretical constructs proposed throughout this book apply to some of the more common questions raised by fictional narratives, but there is a host of more specific problems which can gradually be addressed. In this chapter, I will sum up some of the main directions the examples considered suggest and outline the general conclusions emerging.

The linguistics of literature

Stories are linguistic artifacts, but they require a language theory which allows the analyst to consider questions of meaning and form in some correlation, and deal with patterns of emergent interpretations. The primary interest of cognitive linguistics is the elucidation of form–meaning mappings and the uncovering of underlying cognitive concepts, and thus it seemed worthwhile to test it in a broad literary perspective. In the narrative context, where forms are less naturally in focus and meanings are of primary interest to readers and analysts alike, cognitive linguistics opens new avenues of investigation, with respect to both form and meaning.