cognitive+linguistic

Overview of the course; Theoretical foundations and early research: The importance of theory, history, and research methods Required readings:

de Saussure, F. (1972). Linguistic value. In C. Bally & A. Sechehaye (eds.), Course in general linguistics. Open Court La Salle, Illinois. pp. 111-120

Wang, W. S-Y. (1978). The Three Scales of Diachrony. In B. B. Kachru (ed.). Linguistics in the Seventies: Directions and Prospects. Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois. pp. 63-76.

Dirven, R. & Verspoor, M. (1998). Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Chapter 1: The cognitive basis of language: language and thought. pp. 1-24

Recommended readings:

Evans, V., & Green, M. (2005). Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. Chapter 1. pp. 1-33. Janda, L. (2000). Cognitive Linguistics. SLING2K Position Paper

What is Cognitive Linguistics

Cognitive Linguistics is a new approach to the study of language that emerged in the 1970?s as a reaction against the dominant generative paradigm (Ruiz de Mendoza 1997). Some of the main assumptions underlying the generative approaches to syntax and semantics are not in accordance with the experimental data in linguistics, psychology and other fields

E.g., Mental images, general cognitive processes, basic-level categories, prototype phenomena, the use of neural foundations for linguistic theory and so on, are not considered part of these grammars.

The Line of Research in Cognitive Linguistics

To examine the relation of language structure to things outside language: cognitive principles and mechanisms not specific to language including principles of human categorization pragmatic and interactional principles functional principles in general

e.g., iconicity and economy

Cognitive Linguistics is not a totally homogeneous framework.

Three main approaches: Experimental view

the Prominence view

the Attentional view of language

(Ungerer and Schmid, 1997) The Experiential view

This view pursues a more practical and empirical description of meaning

It is the user of the language who tells us what is going on in their minds when they produce and understand words and sentences.

The first research within this approach - the study of cognitive categories led to the prototype model of categorisation (Eleanor Rosch et al.,1977, 1978)

The knowledge and experience human beings have of the things and events that they know well is transferred to those other objects and events, which they are not so familiar with, and even to abstract concepts.

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) were among the first ones to pinpoint this conceptual potential, especially in the case of metaphors.

The Prominence view

It is based on concepts of profiling and figure/ground segregation, a phenomenon first introduced by the Danish gestalt psychologist Rubin (1886-1951).

The prominence principle explains why, when we look at an object in our environment, we single it out as a perceptually prominent figure standing out from the ground.

This principle can also be applied to the study of language; especially, to the study of local relations (cf. Brugman 1981, 1988; Casad 1982, 1993; Lindner 1982; Herskovits 1986; Vandeloise 1991; among others).

It is also used in Langacker?s (1987, 1991) grammar, where profiling is used to explain grammatical constructs and, figure and ground for the explanation of grammatical relations.

Figure-ground is another Gestalt psychology principle. It was first introduced by the Danish phenomenologist Edgar Rubin (1886-1951). The classic example:

The Attentional view

This view assumes that what we actually express reflects which parts of an event attract our attention.

A main concept of this approach is Fillmore?s (1975) notion of ?frame?, i.e. an assemblage of the knowledge we have about a certain situation.

Depending on our cognitive ability to direct our attention, different aspects of this frame are highlighted, resulting in different linguistic expressions (Talmy 1988, 1991, and 1996). The Tenets to Follow in Cognitive Linguistics

The design features of languages, and our ability to learn and use them are accounted for by general cognitive abilities, kinaesthetic abilities, our visual and sensimotor skills and our human categorisation strategies, together with our cultural, contextual and functional

parameters (Barcelona 1997: 8).

The Modularity Hypothesis (cf. Chomsky 1986; Fodor 1983)

The ability to learn one?s mother language as a unique faculty, as a special innate mental module

Language is understood as a product of general cognitive abilities.

Embodiment as the most fundamental tenet in the Modularity Hypothesis According to Johnson 1987; Lakoff 1987; Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 1999

Mental and linguistic categories are not abstract, disembodied and human independent categories

We create them on the basis of our concrete experiences and under the constraints imposed by our bodies

Three levels - the ?embodiment of concepts? (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999)

The ?phenomenological level? “consists of everything we can be aware of, especially our own mental states, our bodies, our environment, and our physical and social interactions” (1999: 103).

This is the level at which one can speak about the feel of experience, the distinctive qualities of experiences, and the way in which things appear to us.

The ?neural embodiment?deals with structures that define concepts and operations at the neural level

The ?cognitive unconscious? concerns all mental operations that structure and make possible all conscious experience It is only by the descriptions and explanations at these three levels that one can achieve a full understanding of the mind.

The theory of linguistic meaning

For Cognitive Linguistics, meanings do not exist independently from the people that create and use them (Reddy 1993).

All linguistic forms do not have inherent form in themselves, they act as clues activating the meanings that reside in our minds and brains.

This activation of meaning is not necessarily entirely the same in every person, because meaning is based on individual experience as well as collective experience (Barcelona 1997: 9). Thus, according to cognitive linguists,we have no access to a reality independent of human categorisation, and that is why the structure of reality as reflected in language is a product of the human mind.

Semantic structure reflects the mental categories which people have formed from their experience and understanding of the world.

Methodological Principles

Human categorisation is one of the major issues in Linguistics.

The ability to categorise, i.e., to judge that a particular thing is or is not an instance of a particular category, is an essential part of cognition.

Categorisation is often automatic and unconscious, except in problematic cases. This can cause us to make mistakes and make us think that our categories are categories of things, when in fact they are categories of abstract entities.

When experience is used to guide the interpretation of a new experience, the ability to categorise becomes indispensable.

How human beings establish different categories of elements has been discussed ever since Aristotle.

The Three Scales of Diachrony (Wang, 1978)

The microhistory of languageIs reckoned across a very thin slice of time, in years or decades.

The mesohistory of languagedeals with the middle time scale.. A classic question in language mesohistory has been the manner or means by which a change is implemented. The macrohistry of languageIn considering language change within the largest time perspective

The Cognitive Basis of Language: Language and Thought (Dirven, R. & Verspoor, M. 1998).

Some fundamental aspects of language and linguistics

Semiotics - the systematic study of signs which analyzes verbal and non-verbal systems of human communication as well as animal communication.

Semiotics distinguishes between three types of signs: indices 、icons、symbols They represent three different structural principles relating form and content.

Linguistic categories not only enable us to communicate, but also impose a certain way of understanding the world

What is a sign?

In its widest sense, a sign may be defined as a form which stands for something else, which we understand as its meaning.

Different types of signs in sign systems

raising our eyebrows -> indexical

drawing the outline of a woman by using our hands -> iconic

expressing our thoughts by speaking -> symbolic

All these methods of expression are meaningful to us as “signs” of something.

An indexical sign/index

An indexical sign/index (meaning ?pointing finger? in Latin) - points to something in its immediate vicinity

e.g.

a signpost for traffic pointing in the direction of the next town facial expressions

raising one?s eyebrows or furrowing one?s brows

“point” to a person?s internal emotional states of surprise or anger. An iconic sign/icon

An iconic sign/icon, (from Greek eikon ?replica?)

provides a visual, auditory or any other perceptual image of the thing it stands for. is similar to the thing it represents. e.g.

Temporary Conditions Warning Signs Information and Direction Signs

These images are only vaguely similar to reality but their general meanings are very clear. The gestural drawing of something (e.g., a woman?s shape with one?s hands) with one?s finger is an iconic sign. A symbolic sign/symbol

does not have a natural link between the form and the thing represented, only has a conventional link. e.g.

the traffic sign of an inverted triangle:does not have a natural link between its form

and its meaning “give right of way.” the link between its form and meaning is purely conventional. signs for money ￡ $

military emblem flag

Most of language has no natural link at all between the word form and its meaning“symbolic” used in linguistics understood in the sense that, by general consent, people have “agreed” upon the pairing of a particular form with a particular meaning

A hierarchy of abstraction amongst the three types of signs

Indexical signs

“primitive” and the most limited signs restricted to “here” and “now”very wide-spread in human communication

e.g., in body language, traffic and advertising Iconic signs

1、more complex

2、their understanding requires the recognition of similarity.

The iconic link of similarity needs to be consciously established by the observer. may be fairly similar as with icons or may be fairly abstract

e.g. pictures of men and women on toilet doors, cars or planes in road signs. probably not found in the animal kingdom.

Symbolic signs

The exclusive prerogative of humans.

Humans have more communicative needs than pointing to things and replicating things