Les notions de prototype et d`invariant sémantique dans l'analyse des catégories grammaticales. La linguistique cognitive et l'enseignement des langues étrangères

Abstract

An important issue in teaching foreign languages, especially grammar, is the choice of an adequate method. Teachers often come across numerous problems connected with introducing and explaining to their students the grammatical phenomena that do not occur in their native languages. The author presents the cognitive description of the imparfait past tense and the subjunctive mood in French and shows the advantages of this method. The holistic approach toward a grammatical phenomenon and introducing the notion of the prototype and the semantic invariant can make it easier for students to grasp the nature and functioning o f the phenomenon. Thanks to it they can better use the language and at the same time see the differences in the ways different languages conceptualize the world.