Point-of-view Shots in Light of Cognitive Grammar

This paper explores cinematic editing within Ronald Langacker’s cognitive grammar (CG) framework, analyzing the structural and conceptual aspects of film language. By examining the juxtaposition of shots, from a linguistic perspective, the study identifies recurring schematic patterns across expressive instances. Emphasizing grammatical constructions, it delves into the connections between shots, especially in sequences involving a character’s point of view (POV). The present investigation argues for the existence of a shared conceptual mechanism used in order to make sense of verbal and visual discourse. The study employs sequences from Buster Keaton and Michael Haneke, with a primary focus on hypothetical shot juxta-positions crafted to provide visual examples. To concretize the application of Langacker’s CG to cinema image analysis, a case study on the Kuleshov effect as experimented with by Hitchcock will be presented. The principal objective of this study is to construct a theoretical framework employing the analytical tools of CG to augment and refine Noël Carroll’s concept of erotetic narration. A subsequent claim is that the juxtapositions of shots are conceptual systems bound at several levels by circular loops. Several configurations of the system coexist and the viewer has the necessary executive control for implementing alternative meaning construals.