On allusion from a socio-cognitive perspective

Although there is no shortage of research on irony or metaphor, there is a scarcity of theoretical work on allusion. In this paper, I focus on allusion and advance a proposal that builds on earlier studies but refines them in the light of current usage-based, complexity-driven models of language. I look at allusion in the framework of the Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model (EC-Model hereafter). The EC-Model is a usage-based and emergentist model of language knowledge and convention rooted in cognitive linguistics that explains the processes underlying the intertwining of social practice and cognition. In accordance with this model, this paper considers allusion as a complex phenomenon that emerges in usage out of the interaction of the intentional activation on the part of the speaker – through linguistic markers of any length, belonging to any usage event type – of a network of entrenched associations and conventionalized conformity profiles assumed to be shared with the hearer.