One event – many interpretations : on scene construction in press articles and web entries

The cognitive grammar puts particular attention to the notion of imagery which is defined as the ability to present the same situation in alternate ways dependent on the mental experience of the conceptualizer. The thesis that the choice of language means used for describing a particular scene is determined by mental experience has interesting implications for the linguistic analysis of press articles. The cognitive grammar provides namely descriptive tools which enable to analyse not only which language expressions are used, but also which mental experience is reflected in a particular expression. In this article we analyse the differences in scene construal in selected press articles and web entries. We come to the conclusion that the choice of language means used for describing a particular event is highly determined not only by the objective situation, but also by the mental experience of the conceptualizer