We use language all the time to share our thoughts and understand others, but how do we do this? Where does language get its meanings, and how do speakers know how to use them? Study a view of meaning grounded in human cognition and social interaction, emphasizing the relations between linguistic structures and the conceptual structures employed in understanding language. Topics include the relation between lexical and constructional meaning, the role of metaphor in language and thought, and the complex relations between language, culture and cognition.