One of the most important principles of cognitive linguistics is that meaning is central to language to the extent that it should be the primary focus. The structures of language are strongly connected to the semantics they seek to depict. Linguistic specialists seek to understand how semantics and syntax work together, and to understand the relationship between language and thinking. They also try to understand how language influences how people form concepts.
Cognitive linguists seek to understand how memory, categorization, imagery and attention affect language. They try to create psychological models for language that cover various linguistic phenomena, such as figurative language. This area of study covers multiple disciplines, such as brain imaging and language acquisition. Cognitive linguists rely on empirical observation, neuroscience and experimental psychology. They see grammar as coming from the properties of neural systems.
Cognitive linguists study and theorize about the functional principles of linguistic organization. The cognitive abilities that organize language are not exclusive to language. These capacities include viewpoint, perspective, conceptual integration and analogy. Cognitive linguists focus on conceptual categories -- like motion and location, force and causation -- entities and processes. Grammar is based on conceptual abilities, including the ability to look at a situation in abstract ways, understand the connections between different concepts, visualize situations in alternate ways and organize ideas on multiple levels.
People use metaphors to think. Many abstract concepts that people use, such as freedom and patriotism, have very different meanings to different people. Understanding how language relates to thinking can help people understand how politics operates. Cognitive linguists think about how people rely on frames to think about the world and rely heavily on emotion when reasoning. They also think about how much of the processing of words occurs unconsciously. Metaphors make mathematical, abstract, scientific, philosophical questioning and culture possible.
Cognitive linguists study not only language but also the application of language. They see language as a complex process whereby people coordinate large amounts of information, establishing connections as conversation and thinking evolve. Cognitive linguistics created the idea of mental spaces, which are conceptual packets created as people think and talk. The brain uses them in specific linguistic contexts and abandons them when no longer needed. The packets are connected together. Thought and discourse can change them at any time.