It is hardly controversial to state that we translate meaning wholes, and that the translator must be able to identify and understand meaning wholes in order to translate a text successfully. However, only with the advent of Cognitive Grammar (henceforward CG) did meaning and conceptualization start to be perceived as the central facets of linguistic structure, which provide motivation for the grouping of formal elements into certain wholes (cf. Langacker 1987; 1990; 1991; 1999a: Ch.5). This deeply rooted intuition that meaning and form conspire to make up linguistic wholes was explicitly expressed by Langacker (1987) and Lakoff (1987) in their use of the terms “linguistic unit” and “grammatical construction” respectively to refer to form-meaning wholes of various sizes. CG with its focus on meaning, conceptualization and motivation, is particularly suitable for providing a linguistic-theoretical background for Translation Studies. The present paper examines a class of grammatical constructions that are used in Polish and English to mark the defocusing of instigator. The number of the constructions indicates that they have varied discourse functions, which, clearly, must be reflected in translation.