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A discourse consists of usage events, and in the usage based approach linguistic units are seen as being abstracted from such events. Discourse is fundamentally interactive and necessarily dynamic. Abstracted units retain these properties to varying degrees. At both the semantic and the phonological pole, discourse unfolds in a number of channels: objective content, information structure, speech management; segmental content, prosody, gesture. Discourse presupposes an elaborate conceptual substrate which supports and makes coherent what is overtly expressed. One facet of this substrate is the context, including the speaker-hearer interaction and the ongoing discourse itself. Another is the viewing arrangement, i.e. the relation between the interlocutors and the situation described. Also involved are speech acts, based on culturally recognized scenarios of linguistic interaction; while typically covert, these can also be expressed by clauses used descriptively or as performatives (actual enactments of the scenarios). Closely related are vocatives and other kinds of expressive utterances. Being used for many purposes, discourse occurs in many spoken and written genres. Depending on the genre, various levels and dimensions of organization can be discerned. Important in conversation is organization into attentional frames: intonation groups each representing a single window of attention. As discourse proceeds, a conceptual structure is built and progressively updated. Discourse is most effective when it follows certain basic principles of structure building. Grammar is shaped by discourse, and grammatical structures serve particular discourse functions. Grammar includes not only conventional patterns for assembling complex expressions but also established ways of applying them to the ongoing discourse. Grounding is often effected in this manner.

Language is both cognitive and sociocultural, consisting in conventionally sanctioned patterns of communicative activity. These patterns take the form of schemas abstracted from usage events by the reinforcement of recurring commonalities. Conventional linguistic units are linked by relationships of composition and categorization (either elaboration or extension) and thus form intersecting networks of great complexity. Expressions are interpreted and assessed for well-formedness through categorization by linguistic units. Through a process of interactive activation, particular units are selected to categorize particular facets of an expression. The total set of categorizing relationships constitutes the expression's structural description, and whether the categorizations involve elaboration or extension determines its degree of conventionality. Despite the absence of explicit prohibitions, this model affords an account of distribution, restrictions, and judgments of ungrammaticality. One aspect of grammatical constructions is their characterization at different levels of specificity, including constructional subschemas incorporating specific lexical items. And since one aspect of lexical items is their occurrence in particular constructions, lexicon and grammar are overlapping rather than disjoint. The model accommodates degrees and kinds of regularity, which decomposes into generality, productivity, and compositionality. Regularities include higher-order generalizations, where sets of categorizations or lexical behaviors are themselves schematized to form productive patterns. Among the phenomena described in this manner are patterns of phonological extension (phonological rules), patterns of semantic extension (e.g. general metonymies), and patterns of morphological realization (like conjugation classes).

Cognitive Grammar represents one approach to cognitive linguistics, which in turn belongs to the functionalist (as opposed to the formalist) tradition in linguistic theory. Its central claim is that grammar is meaningful. More specifically, grammar forms a continuum with lexicon and is fully describable as assemblies of symbolic structures (form-meaning pairings). Lexicon varies with respect to the complexity of expressions and the degree of specifity of the meanings symbolized. Grammar varies along the same dimensions, being distinguished from lexicon primarily on the basis of being more schematic in regard to form as well as meaning. Cognitive Grammar is a usage-based approach, in which linguistic structure is seen as emerging by abstraction from usage events, i.e. the reinforcement of what is common across multiple instances of language use in interactive contexts. The theory is highly restrictive in what is posited, limiting linguistic units to structures that are either directly apprehended as parts of occurring expressions or else derive from such structures by the general cognitive phenomena of schematization and categorization.

The chapter lays the foundation for the understanding of usage events and utterance types. Usage events consist of several components, all of which can become conventionalized and entrenched: utterances (including the required motor and sensory activities), communicative goals of participants, cognitive and interpersonal activities, and the linguistic, situational, and social context. Utterance types are contingent links between communicative goals and linguistics forms. They are contingent on several dimensions: the onomasiological link between goals and forms, the semasiological link between forms and meanings, combinations on the syntagmatic dimension, and the use of utterance types in cotexts and contexts. Utterance types can be defined as multiply contingent and probabilistic connections between goals and forms. Three classes of utterance types can be distinguished with regard to their function, specificity, and size, i.e. distinctors, units, and patterns. Although the notion of utterance types is similar to that of construction, it is preferred to emphasize the dynamic and contingent nature of form-meaning relations.