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摘要：As a long term goal;Cognitive Grammar envisages a unified account of linguistic structure;processing;and discourse.A key requirement is that it properly reflect the dynamicity of language;in all its aspects(including grammar).Consisting as it does in patterns of activity;language is something that happens: it unfolds through time;and how it does so is essential for its characterization.Language structure involves the complex interplay of serial and hierarchical organization.Linguistic theory has generally overemphasized the latter;as witnessed by the predominant role of grammatical constituency based on the metaphor of composition("building" a complex structure out of smaller "pieces").More promising for a unified treatment of structure;processing;and discourse is an alternative metaphor;in which a "moving window" of attention allows serial access to complex conceptions that are mostly already in place.Serial processing proceeds concurrently on different time scales;in windows of different duration.This provides a dynamic basis for hierarchical organization.Constituency arises when conceptions accessed in windows on one time scale figure in a distinct and more elaborate conception(with its own;emergent properties) accessed in a single window on a larger time scale.Based on the alternative metaphor;an approach is outlined that features serial access;windows of attention;levels of activation;and conceptual overlap.It is then applied;in exploratory fashion;to a number of grammatical phenomena.The "access-and-activation" approach directly accommodates reference point relationships;the basis for possessive and topic constructions.It lends itself quite well to the characterization of informational focus;marked in English by unreduced stress.The requisite descriptive notions are then extended and adapted for ellipsis;which has rather different properties.The same notions prove useful for handling problematic aspects of coordinate constructions.Finally;they provide a straightforward means of dealing with "zero-anaphora".The access-and-activation approach does not entail any modification of Cognitive Grammar.It simply makes explicit certain descriptive options afforded by its central claims.