Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge everyone who made the research reported in this
thesis possible. I would first like to thank my advisors. Thanks to Dr. Steven
Brown for his unwavering support, input, and willingness to read every single
scrap of paper I stuck in front of him. He listened patiently while I tried (poorly)
to articulate good ideas and even more patiently while I successfully articulated
bad ones. He reassured me because he knew I needed reassurance—all the time.
Most importantly, he never let college get in the way of my learning—yes, that is
a compliment. Thanks also to Dr. Salvatore Attardo, who could have left me
behind entirely when he took up work at Texas A&M University, Commerce. He
recognized quickly that when pushed, I push back. Since discovering this, he has
never stopped pushing: Thank you. Thanks to Dr. Kevin Ball as well, who, in his
openness and respect of students’ thoughts encouraged me to be comfortable in
asserting my ideas in an academic forum.
Thanks also goes out to my colleagues for their assistance in my research.
Attilio D’Agresti, Laura Cuppone, Kelly Murphy, Nick Novosel, and Bret
Bowers have all, at one time or another, either lent me their students or a critical
eye, and have helped me in the formulation of this thesis. The process of
building a model for Cognitive Grammar pedagogy has been a long one, and it is
still going. Thanks to all those at the 2008 LAUD Symposium in Landau,
Germany who supported the work I am doing.
I would also like to thank Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin for giving
me the workspace I needed in order to finish this thesis. Likewise, thanks are
v
necessary to Ardal O’Hanlon for giving me a way out when I needed a break
from my research.