Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Symbols -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction: the argument of this book -- 1.1 Overview: the relationship between syntax and semantics -- 1.2 Predicate-argument structures -- 1.3 The metaphysics of thematic roles -- 1.4 The structure of this book -- Part I: Research programme -- Introduction -- 2 A Culturalistic Pragmatist research programme -- 2.1 Research programmes -- 2.1.1 On research programmes in general -- 2.1.2 The need for a new research programme -- 2.2 A new research programme -- 2.2.1 The subject-matter of the programme -- 2.2.2 The "individual" level in the model -- 2.2.3 Observable facts, observations, and heuristics -- 2.2.4 Implementing the data level -- 2.2.5 Excursus: converging evidence -- 2.2.6 Multidisciplinarity -- 2.2.7 Species, community, and sciences -- 2.3 Excursus: a brief sketch of "Chomskyan Linguistics" -- 2.4 Action-theory grounded in lifeworld differentiations -- 2.5 Summary of part I -- Part II: Grounding the linking competence in subcompetences -- Introduction -- 3 Perception, conceptualization, and action -- 3.1 Perception -- 3.1.1 Grounding the talk about perception in practicaldifferentiations -- 3.1.2 The significance of perception for the linking competence -- 3.1.3 Sensation -- 3.1.3.1 The eye -- 3.1.3.2 The lateral geniculate nucleus and the primary visual cortex -- 3.1.3.3 The integration of basic visual features -- 3.1.3.4 Two visual pathways -- 3.1.3.5 Motion/movement perception -- 3.1.3.6 The embodied nature of the percept -- 3.1.4 Determinants in identification (I) -- 3.1.4.1 Salience and the power of the stimulus -- 3.2 Identification and conceptualization: actional notions and their grounding.

3.2.1 Identification in perception and conceptualization for action -- 3.2.1.1 Determinants in identification (II): pertinence and the power of the perceiver -- 3.2.1.2 Features, affordances, relations, and the power of frequency -- 3.2.1.3 Causality as the enhancement of constant conjunctions and stimulus generalization -- 3.2.1.4 The actor/cognizer as (limited/self-serving) pragmatic -- 3.2.2 Action competence and intersubjectivity -- 3.2.2.1 Action competence -- 3.2.2.2 Intersubjectivity and understanding action -- 3.2.2.3 Reasons and causes -- 3.2.3 The significance of attribution for the linking competence -- 3.2.4 Case study: attribution in precarious events -- 3.2.4.1 The research project "Syntax of Hessian Dialects (SyHD)" -- 3.2.4.2 Scenario D -- 3.2.4.3 Scenario B -- 3.2.4.4 Scenario F -- 3.2.4.5 Evaluation -- 3.3 The conceptualization of spatial relations and their coding in language -- 3.3.1 The significance of spatial relation conceptualization and coding -- 3.3.2 Motivation and exploitation in trajector/landmark-syntactic structure mappings -- 3.3.3 Hypostatization and the relationship between trajector/landmark and thing/circumstance -- 3.3.3.1 Conceptual metaphor and the status of target domain "concepts" -- 3.3.3.2 Affordances again -- 3.3.3.3 Competing motivations, instances, and generalizations -- 3.3.3.4 How linguistico hypostatization feeds back to conceptualization -- 3.3.4 The status of spatial schemas: what relational expressions designate -- 3.3.5 Manner and path in relational expressions -- 3.3.6 Fixing reference in acquisition -- 3.3.7 Fixing reference in motivated and exploited language use -- 3.3.8 Limits of hypostatization -- 3.3.9 Spatial relations and syntactic constructions -- 3.4 The grounding of temporal relations and their coding in language.

3.4.1 Temporal relations and their significance -- 3.4.2 Syntactic structures suggesting another adicity than there is conceptually -- 3.4.3 The temporal organization of circumstances in sensation -- 3.4.4 The temporal organization of circumstances in identification/ conceptualization -- 3.4.5 The temporal organization of circumstances in attribution -- 3.4.6 Coding the temporal organization of circumstances -- 3.4.7 Transitions and the identity of states, processes, and activities -- 3.4.8 "Event headedness", "co-composition", and "boundedness" -- 3.5 On the significance of verbs and circumstances -- 3.6 Summary of part II -- Part III: The linking competence -- Introduction -- 4 Linking syntax and semantics -- 4.1 The division of labor of the formal constituents -- 4.1.1 The "bare" construction (irrespective of inflectional morphology) -- 4.1.2 The "bare" noun in the NP and PP (irrespective of inflectional morphology) -- 4.1.3 The "bare" verb (plus preposition) (irrespective of inflectional morphology) -- 4.1.4 Agreement morphology -- 4.1.5 Phrase order -- 4.1.6 Case morphology -- 4.1.6.1 Case in general -- 4.1.6.2 Case study: the German dative -- 4.1.7 The multilayered instruction -- 4.2 Reducing the remaining formal underspecification -- 4.2.1 The PSC preference as an epiphenomenon of a (responsible) causer preference -- 4.2.2 Animacy and the RCP -- 4.2.3 Individuation and the RCP -- 4.2.4 Person and the RCP -- 4.2.5 Empathy and the RCP -- 4.2.6 The RCP and indexical instructions -- 4.3 Linking in performance -- 4.3.1 Motivated construction-conceptualization mappings -- 4.3.2 The utterance as instruction - obeying the instruction -- 4.3.3 The utterance as instruction - building up the instruction -- 4.4 Some German linking phenomena.

4.4.1 "Unergative" versus "unaccusative" constructions -- 4.4.2 Auxiliary choice -- 4.4.3 Conditions on passivization and imperativization -- 4.4.4 The dative alternation -- 4.4.5 The locative alternation -- 4.4.6 The conative alternation -- 4.4.7 The partitive alternation -- 4.4.8 Resultative constructions -- 4.4.9 Weather verbs -- 4.4.10 A note on coercion -- 4.5 Future prospects: predictions and consequences -- 4.6 Summary of part III -- 5 Conclusion -- Glossary -- Appendix: The status of traditional semantic notions in the present theory -- References -- Subject index.