The present article takes up one of the needs present in today’s Cognitive Linguistics: applying its theoretical assumptions to a detailed study of the phenomena encountered in particular languages. The instrument tested for this purpose is one of the aspects of construal offered within Cognitive Grammar – scope (Langacker 1987, 2000, 2008, etc.). It is applied to the description of several English temporal constructions in order to check both the range of phenomena which it can refer to as well as the efficiency and accuracy of such an account.

The paper investigates the issue of motivation of a subcategory of nouns called by Quirk et al. (1985: 303) and Huddleston & Pullum (2002: 345), respectively, unmarked plural nouns and uninflected plural-only nouns. These are nouns with untypical, from the perspective of the majority of English nouns, properties: their form, despite the plural designation, is singular. Adopting the general cognitive perspective on motivation in language (e.g. Lakoff 1987; Heine 1997; Radden, Panther 2004; Gibbs 2005; Panther, Radden 2011, etc.), the paper analyses whether such irregular properties of uninflected plural-only nouns can be motivated by one of the factors shaping visual experience – Gestalt principles of perception (e.g. Koffka 1936; Pomerantz 1981; Rock & Palmer S. 1990; Palmer S. 1999).

The article discusses an application, within the sphere of foreign language pedagogy, of one of the psychological mechanisms omnipresent in language – construal (Lan-gacker 2008: 4-5, Tomasello 2003: 13). In the fi rst part, the article takes up two major issues: a more detailed characterization of the construal aspects in question: profi le and base, as well as the problems often encountered in pedagogical grammar while referring to the uses of one of the English tenses – Present Perfect: the number of uses, the manner of defi ning them, and the level of schematicity at which the description should take place. The second part of the article is devoted to an analysis of the uses of Present Perfect by means of the presented Cognitive Grammar tools. In the conclu-sions this analysis is reviewed from the perspective of the above-mentioned problems and some pedagogical implications fl owing from the model proposed by the author are discussed.

Today’s discussions concerning metonymy abound in distinctions that may be far from obvious for those who would like to get acquainted with the major achievements and directions of research in this field. That is why the article aims to trace the path that metonymy has covered within Cognitive Linguistics from its initial characterisation in the publication by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) to the present day. The article attempts to provide a general historical perspective on the phenomenon trying to indicate and discuss both the major trends as well as the consecutive stages in the development of the cognitive thought on metonymy. The author identifies different directions of expansion of the phenomenon, enumerates different types of metonymy, and its most frequently discussed dimensions. The article is concluded with an attempt to summarize the key elements of progress that has been made in understanding metonymy since 1980.

The article aims to discuss the levels of application, efficiency, as well as potential dangers and methods of avoiding them which can be encountered while applying metaphors in formulating a business strategy. The theory underlying the research is the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and the analysis was based on an article presenting a new business strategy – the Blue Ocean Strategy devised by Kim and Mauborgne (2005a).

The present paper is concerned with conceptualisations of Strategic Business Units (SBUs) that appear in a specific piece of business discourse – the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix. More specifically, the authors analyse both the names and the language used to talk about the SBUs. The data for the research comes from three languages: English, Polish, and French, the fi rst of which is the source language of the terminology, while the other two are target languages into which the terminology was rendered. Since the analysed phenomena are chiefl y metaphors and metonymies, the theoretical framework was provided by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Metonymy Theory.