Summary of Part I

This short chapter provides a summary of Part I of the book. It emphasizes the claim that all aspects associated with usage events have the potential to become conventionalized and entrenched. These include the forms and meanings of utterances, the interpersonal and cognitive activities involved in their production and comprehension, and the cotextual, contextual, and social characteristics of utterances. The chapter also highlights the special role played by pragmatic associations as mediators between interpersonal and cognitive activities and their conventionalization and entrenchment. Forces affecting usage are portrayed as fairly stable sociopragmatic and emotive principles whose concrete manifestations are, however, subject to change.