SUMMARY
The objective of the paper is to highlight the interconnectedness of thefundamental concepts studied by cognitive linguistics and the character ofnarrative analysis as performed in cognitive poetics. For this reason, we dealwith only two fundamental processes underlying communication, and thereforenarrative discourse: conceptualization and categorization, both relevant forbetter understanding of how narrative construction, as well as reception,ultimately function. Cognitive and cultural models, as relevant for literaryinterpretation, are discussed for the purpose of explicating how it is possible,frstly, to achieve specifc meaning in the process of narrative progression;secondly, how these structures enable, in?uence and facilitate comprehensionboth on the level of elements and the entire discourse, but also how they guideattention and support salience – motivate the prominence of some elements asopposed to other. In this paper, cognitive poetics is discussed as an instrumentor method which facilitates the manner in which narratives are interpreted – amethodical perspective rather than a substitute for literary theory and criticism.