Title: Chapter Six Language and Cognition
1Chapter SixLanguage and Cognition
21. What is Cognition?
- Mental processes, information processing
- Mental process or faculty of knowing, including
awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.
3- The formal approach structural patterns,
including the study of morphological, syntactic,
and lexical structure. - The psychological approach language from the
view of general systems ranging from perception,
memory, attention, and reasoning. - The conceptual approach how language structures
(processes patterns) conceptual content.
42. Psycholinguistics
- Psychological aspects of language.
- Psychological states and mental activity with the
use of language. - Language acquisition, language production
comprehension.
5Related fields
- Structural linguistics
- Cognitive psychology
- Anthropology
- Neurosciences
6Six subjects of research
- Language acquisition (L1 / L2)
- Language comprehension
- Language production
- Language disorders
- Language and Thought
- Neurocognition
72.1 Language Acquisition
- Holophrastic stage
- Languages sound patterns
- Phonetic distinctions in parents language.
- One-word stage objects, actions, motions,
routines.
8Two-word stage around 18m
9(No Transcript)
10- Three-word-utterance stage
- Give doggie paper.
- Put truck window.
- Tractor go floor.
11Fluent grammatical conversation stage
- Embed one constituent inside another
- Give doggie paper. ?
- Give big doggie paper.
- Use more function words missing function words
and inflection in the beginning but good use
(90) by the age of 3, with a full range of
sentence types. - All parts of all language are acquired before the
child turns four.
122.2 Language comprehension
- Mental lexicon information about the properties
of words, retrievable when understanding language - For example, we may use morphological rules to
decompose a complex word like rewritable the
first few times we encounter it and after several
exposures we may store and access it as a unit or
word. - It means that frequency of exposure determines
our ability to recall stored instances.
13- Connectionism readers use the same system of
links between spelling units and sound units to
generate the pronunciations of written words like
tove and to access the pronunciations of familiar
words like stove, or words that are exceptions to
these patterns, like love. - Similarity and frequency play important roles in
processing and comprehending language, with the
novel items being processed based on their
similarity to the known ones.
14Word recognition
- Cohort theory
- Marslen-Wilson Welsh (1978)
- The first few phonemes of a spoken word activate
a set of word candidates that are consistent with
the input.
15- Interactive model
- Higher processing levels have a direct,
top-down influence on lower levels. - Lexical knowledge can affect the perception of
phonemes. There is interactivity in the form of
lexical effects on the perception of sub-lexical
units. - In certain cases, listeners knowledge of words
can lead to the inhibition of certain phonemes
in other cases, listeners continue to hear
phonemes that have been removed from the speech
signal and replaced by noise.
16- Race model
- Pre-lexical route computes phonological
information from the acoustic signal - Lexical route the phonological information
associated with a word becomes available when the
word itself is accessed - When word-level information appears to affect a
lower-level process, it is assumed that the
lexical route won the race.
17- Factors involved in word recognition
- Frequency effect the ease with which a word is
accessed due to its more frequent usage in the L. - Recency effects the ease with which a word is
accessed due to its repeated occurrence in the
discourse or context. - Cotext We recognize a word more readily when the
preceding words provide an appropriate context
for it.
18Lexical ambiguity
- All the meanings related to the word are
accessed. - Only one meaning is accessed initially.
19- Are you engaged ?
- My friend drove me to the bank.
- They passed the port at midnight.
- Please give me a camel.
- ??
- ???
20- The clerk (entering) Are you engaged?
- Augustus What business is that of yours?
However, if you will take the trouble to read the
society papers for this week, you will see that I
am engaged to the Honourable Lucy Popham,
youngest daughter of. . . - The clerk That isnt what I mean. Can you see a
female? - Augustus Of course, I can see a female as easily
as a male. Do you suppose I am blind? - (George Bernard Shaw Augustus Does His Bit)
21Comprehension of sentences
- Serial models the sentence comprehension system
continually and sequentially follows constraints
of a languages grammar - Describe how the processor quickly constructs one
or more representations of a sentence based on a
restricted range of information that is
guaranteed to be relevant to its interpretation,
primarily grammatical information. - Any such representation is then quickly
interpreted and evaluated, using the full range
of information that might be relevant.
22- Parallel models emphasize that the comprehension
system is sensitive to a vast range of
information, including grammatical, lexical, and
contextual, as well as knowledge of the
speaker/writer and of the world in general. - Describe how the processor uses all relevant
information to quickly evaluate the full range of
possible interpretations of a sentence. - It is generally acknowledged that listeners and
readers integrate grammatical and situational
knowledge in understanding a sentence.
23Structural factors in comprehension
- Comprehension of written and spoken language can
be difficult because it is not always easy to
identify the constituents (phrases) of a sentence
and the ways in which they relate to one another.
- Psycholinguists have proposed principles
interpreting sentence comprehension with respect
to the grammatical constraints.
24- Minimal attachment the structurally
simpler--structural simplicity guides all
initial analyses in sentence comprehension. - The second wife will claim the inheritance
belongs to her.
25Garden path sentences
- The horse raced past the barn fell.
- The man who hunts ducks out on weekends.
- The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in
Mississippi. - Fat people eat accumulates.
26Lexical factors in comprehension
- The human sentence processor is primarily guided
by information about specific words that is
stored in the lexicon.
- The salesman glanced at a/the customer with
suspicion/ripped jeans.
27Syntactic ambiguity
- Different possible ways in which words can be fit
into phrases. - Ambiguous category of some of the words in the
sentence.
28- John painted the car in the garage.
29- May likes the vase on the cupboard which she
bought yesterday. - The students will discuss their plan to hold a
dancing party in the classroom. - I know Simon better than you.
- Tell me if you have time.
30- My brother wasnt reading all the time.
- The chairman appointed Mr. Brown an assistant.
- The scholar wrote long thesis and books.
- Flying planes can be dangerous.
31Comprehension of text
- Resonance model information in long-term memory
is automatically activated by the presence of
material that apparently bears a rough semantic
relation to it.
32Discourse interpretation
- Schemata and drawing inferences
- Schema a pre-existing knowledge structure in
memory typically involving the normal expected
patterns of things.
33- RESTAURANT Schema
- Entering, ordering, eating and exiting.
- Entering Scene
- The customer enters a restaurant,
- looks for a table,
- decides where to sit,
- walks to the table
34- John went into a restaurant. He asked the
waitress for coq au vin. He ate it, paid the bill
and left. (perfectly understandable) - John went into a restaurant. He saw a waitress.
He got up and went home. (does not seem to make
sense)
35- Apartment for rent. 500.
- I stopped to get some groceries but there weren't
any baskets left so by the time I arrived at the
check-out counter I must have looked like a
juggler having a bad day.
36- A Would you like a coffee?
- B Yes, please.
-
- B No and no.
- A Right.
37- ??,??????????????????????????,?????????????????
????????????????,????????????????????????
38Pragmatic ambiguity
- There is a fly in my soup.
- Today is Sunday.
- Do you enjoy sitting beside me? she asked
coldly. - Oh, no, I said.
- Well, you are not wanted here.
- (W. E. B. DuBois, On Being Crazy)
392.3 Language production
- Access to words
- Conceptualization what to express
- Word selection a competitive process
- Morpho-phonological encoding target words
40- Generation of sentences
- Conceptual preparation deciding what to say a
global plan is needed - Word retrieval and application of syntactic
knowledge - Processes of sentence generation
- Functional planning assigning grammatical
functions - Positional encoding getting into positions for
each unit
41- Written language production
- Similar to spoken language.
- Orthographic form instead of phonological form.
- However, phonology plays an important role in
this process. - Writers have more time available for conceptual
preparation and planning.
423. Cognitive Linguistics
- Cognition is the way we think.
- Cognitive linguistics is the scientific study of
the relation between the way we communicate and
the way we think. - It is an approach to language that is based on
our experience of the world and the way we
perceive and conceptualize it. -
-
43Three main approaches
- The Experiential View
- The Prominence View
- The Attentional View
44Experiential view
- Car a box-like shape, wheels, doors, windows
- comfort, speed, mobility, independence,
- social status
45Prominence view
- The selection and arrangement of the information
that is expressed. - The car crashed into the tree.
- The tree is hit by the car.
46Attentional view
- What we actually express reflects which parts of
an event attract our attention. - The car crashed into the tree.
- How the car started to swerve
- How it skidded across the road
- How it rumbled onto the verge.
473.1 Construal
- Construal the ability to conceive and portray
the same situation in different ways
48- 1. Attention / salience
- We activate the most relevant concepts more than
concepts that are irrelevant to what we are
thinking about. - We drove the road.
- She ran across the road.
- The workers dug through the road.
49- 2. Judgment / Comparison, Figure / Ground
- We cannot attend to all facets of a scene at the
same time. - We cannot pay attention to everything. Instead,
we focus on events of particular salience. - Figure-ground organization
- The ground seems to be placed behind the figure
extending in the background. - The figure is thus more prominent, or even more
interesting, than the ground.
50 51- Figure-ground also seems to apply to our
perception of moving objects. - In order to distinguish between stationary and
dynamic figure-ground relations, some cognitive
linguists (eg Ronald Langacker) use the term
trajector for a moving figure and landmark for
the ground of a moving figure.
52- Theres a catfigure on the matground
- There are still some peanutsfigure in the
bagground - Batmanfigure was standing on the roofground
- The computerfigure under the tableground is
mine - The spacecraftfigure was hovering over
Metropolisground
53- Tarzantrajector jumped into the riverlandmark
- Spidermantrajector climbed up the
walllandmark - The birdtrajector winged its way out the
windowlandmark - Wetrajector went across the fieldlandmark
- Itrajectorm going to Londonlandmark
54- 3. Perspective generally depends on two things.
- where we are situated in relation to the scene
we're viewing. - how the scene is arranged in relation to our
situatedness. - The man is in front of the tree.
- The tree is behind the man.
55- The tree is in front of the man.
- The man is behind the tree.
563.2 Categorization
- The process of classifying our experiences into
different categories based on commonalities and
differences - A major ingredient in the creation of human
knowledge - Allows us to relate present experiences to past
ones - Three levels
- basic level
- superordinate level
- subordinate level.
57Basic level Superordinate level
Animal Horse Dog Cat
Chihuahua German dachshund
shepherdSubordinate level Vertical
organization
583.3 Image Schema
- Johnson, Mark. 1987.The body in the mind The
bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason.
Chicago University of Chicago Press.
59- An image-schema is a skeletal mental
representation of a recurrent pattern of embodied
(especially spatial or kinesthetic) experience. - They are highly schematic representations of
perceptually grounded experience. - They emerge from our embodied interactions with
the world.
60Center-periphery schema
- Involves
- a physical or metaphorical core and edge, and
- degrees of distance from the core.
- Examples (English)
- The structure of an apple
- An individuals perceptual sphere
- An individuals social sphere, with family and
friends at the core and others having degrees of
peripherality
61Containment schema
- Involves a physical or metaphorical
- boundary
- enclosed area or volume, or
- excluded area or volume.
62- Bodily experience human bodies as containers.
- Structural elements interior, boundary, exterior
- Basic logic For all A, X, either IN (X,A) or
not. - For all A, B, X, if CONTAINER (A) and CONTAINER
(B) and IN (A, B) and IN (X, A), then IN (X, B).
- The ship is coming into view.
- Shes deep in thought.
- We stood in silence.
63Cycle schema
- Involves repetitious events and event series. Its
structure includes the following - A starting point
- A progression through successive events without
backtracking - A return to the initial state
- The schema often has superimposed on it a
structure that builds toward a climax and then
goes through a release or decline.
64- Examples (English)
- Days
- Weeks
- Years
- Sleeping and waking
- Breathing
- Circulation
- Emotional buildup and release
65End-of-path schema
- An image schema in which a location is understood
as the termination of a prescribed path - Example (English) In the following sentence, it
is understood that one must traverse the hill
before reaching Sams home, which is at the end
of the path - Sam lives over the hill.
66Force schema
- Involves physical or metaphorical causal
interaction. It includes the following elements - A source and target of the force
- A direction and intensity of the force
- A path of motion of the source and/or target
- A sequence of causation
67- Examples (English)
- Physical Wind, Gravity
- Structural elements force, path, entity, etc.
- Interaction, directionality, causality
- Compulsion
- Blockage
- Counterforce
- Diversion
- Removal of restraint
68Link schema
- Consists of two or more entities, connected
physically or metaphorically, and the bond
between them. - Entity A Entity B
69- Examples (English)
- A child holding her mothers hand
- Someone plugging a lamp into the wall
- A causal connection
- Kinship ties
70Part-whole schema
- Involves physical or metaphorical wholes along
with their parts and a configuration of the
parts. - Examples (English)
- Physical The body and its parts
- Metaphorical The family
- The caste structure of India
71Path schema
- Involves physical or metaphorical movement from
place to place, and - consists of a starting point, a goal, and a
series of intermediate points.
72- Examples (English)
- Physical Paths Trajectories
- Metaphorical The purpose-as-physical-goal
metaphor, as expressed in the following
sentences - Tom has gone a long way toward changing his
personality. - You have reached the midpoint of your flight
training. - She's just starting out to make her fortune.
- Jane was sidetracked in her search for
self-understanding.
73Scale schema
- Involves an increase or decrease of physical or
metaphorical amount, and - consists of any of the following
- A closed- or open-ended
- progression of amount
- A position in the progression
- of amount
- One or more norms of amount
- A calibration of amount
74- Examples
- Physical amounts
- Properties in the number system
- Economic entities such as supply and demand
75Verticality schema
A
- Involves up and down relations.
- Examples
- Standing upright
- Climbing stairs
- Viewing a flagpole
- Watching water rise in a tub
B
763.4 Metaphor
- George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980). Metaphors
We Live By. University of Chicago Press.
77Conceptual Metaphor Theory
- Metaphors are actually cognitive tools that help
us structure our thoughts and experiences in the
world around us. - Metaphor is a conceptual mapping, not a
linguistic one, from one domain to another, not
from a word to another.
78- Target domain - what is actually being talked
about. - Source domain - the domain used as a basis for
understanding target - Ontological correspondence
- Epistemic correspondence
- Target domain Source domain
RATIONAL ARGUMENT
WAR
79The epistemic correspondence
80Example LIFE IS A JOURNEY
- Ontological correspondence
81Epistemic correspondence
82Structural Metaphor
- Provides rich highly structured, clearly
delineated source domain to structure target
domain. - The nature of the mapping The mapping involves
two types of correspondence between target and
source domain, which are both grounded in our
experiences in the world.
83- Example
- ARGUMENT IS WAR
- Your claims are indefensible.
- He attacked every weak point in my argument.
- His criticisms were right on target.
- I demolished his argument.
- Ive never won an argument with him.
- You disagree? OK, shoot!
- If you use that strategy, hell wipe you out.
- He shot down all of my arguments.
84Orientational Metaphor
- Gives a concept a spatial orientation
- Characterized by a co-occurrence in our
experience - Grounded in an experiential basis, which link
together the two parts of the metaphor - The link verb is, part of the metaphor, should
be seen as the link of two different co-occurring
experiences.
85- For example,
- MORE IS UP
- This metaphor is grounded in the co-occurrence of
two different kinds of experiences - adding more of a substance, and
- perceiving the level of the substance rise.
86- Examples
- HAPPY IS UP SAD IS DOWN
- That boosted my spirits
- Im feeling down
- Im depressed
- CONSCIOUS IS UP UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN
- Wake up
- He fell asleep
- Hes under hypnosis
873.5 Metonymy
- It is a cognitive process in which one conceptual
entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to
another conceptual entity, the target, within the
same domain. - The reference point activates the target.
88- It is modeled as
- idealized cognitive models (ICMs) by Lakoff
(1987), - conceptual mappings by Radden Kovecses (1999),
- domain highlighting by Croft (2002),
- combinations of mappings and highlighting by Ruiz
de Mendoza (2000), - scenarios by Panther Thornburg (1999) and
- more generally as reference-point activation by
Langacker (1999) and Barcelona (2000).
89- On the basis of the ontological realms, we may
distinguish three categories - the world of concept
- the world of form
- the world of things and events
- They roughly correspond to the three entities
that comprise the well-known semantic triangle. - The interrelations between entities of the same
or from different ontological realms lead to
various ICMs and possibilities for metonymy. - Thus, we have three ICMs in ontological realms
Sign ICMs, Reference ICMs and Concept ICMs.
90- Two general conceptual configurations
- whole ICM and its part(s)
- parts of an ICM.
- (1) Whole ICM and its part(s)
- (i) Thing-and-Part ICM, which may lead to
- two metonymic variants
- WHOLE THING FOR A PART OR THE THING America for
United States - PART OF A THNG FOR THE WHOLE THING England for
Great Britain
91- (ii) Scale ICM. Scales are a special class of
things and the scalar units are parts of them.
Typically, a scale as a whole is used for its
upper end and the upper end of a scale is used to
stand for the scale as a whole - WHOLE SCALE FOR UPPER END OF THE SCALE Henry is
speeding again for Henry is going too fast. - UPPER END OF A SCALE FOR WHOLE SCALE How old are
you? for what is your age?
92- (iii) Constitution ICM. It involves matter,
material or substances which are seen as
constituting a thing. - OBJECT FOR MATERIAL CONSTITUTING THE OBJECT I
smell skunk. - MATERIAL CONSTITUTING AN OBJECT FOR THE OBJECT
wood for forestĀ
93- (iv) Event ICM. Events may be metaphorically
viewed as things which may have parts. - WHOLE EVENT FOR SUBEVENT Bill smoked marijuana.
- SUBEVENT FOR WHOLE EVENT Mary speaks Spanish.
94- (v) Category-and-Member ICM. A category and its
members stand in a kind of relation. - CATEGORY FOR A MEMBER OF THE CATEGORY the pill
for birth control pill - MEMBER OF A CATEGORY FOR THE CATEGORY aspirin
for any pain-relieving tablet
95- (vi) Cateory-and-Property ICM. Properties may
either be seen metaphorically as possessed
objects (PROPERTIES ARE POSSESSIONS) or
metonymically as parts of an object. - CATEGORY FOR DEFINING PROPERTY jerk for
stupidity - DEFNING PROPERTY FOR CATEGORY blacks for black
people
96- (vii) Reduction ICM. A final type of a PART FOR
WHOLE metonymy is found in the reduction of the
form of a sign. - PART OF A FORM FOR THE WHOLE FORM crude for
crude oil
97- (2) Parts of an ICM
- (i) Action ICM. It involves a variety of
participants which may be related to the
predicate expressing the action or to each other.
- AGENT FOR ACTION to author a new book to
butcher the cow - ACTION FOR AGENT writer, driver
98- INSTRUMENT FOR ACTION to ski, to hammer
- ACTION FOR INSTRUMENT pencil sharpener
screwdriver - OBJECT FOR ACTION to blanket the bed to dust
the room - ACTION FOR OBJECT the best bites the flight is
waiting to depart
99- RESULT FOR ACTION to landscape the garden
- ACTION FOR RESULT the production the product
- MANNER FOR ACTION to tiptoe into the room
- MEANS FOR ACTION He sneezed the tissue off the
table.
100- TIME FOR ACTION to summer in Paris
- DESTINATION FOR MOTION to porch the newspaper
- INSTRUMENT FOR AGENT the pen for writer
101- (ii) Perception ICM. Perception plays such an
outstand role in our cognitive world that it
merits an ICM of its own. Since perceptions may
also be intentional, the Perception ICM may
cross-classify with the Action ICM. - THING PERCEIVED FOR PERCEPTION There goes my
knee for There goes the pain in my knee - PERCEPTION FOR THING PERCEIVED sight for thing
seen
102- (iii) Causation ICM. Cause and effect are so
closely interdependent that one of them tends to
imply the other. Moreover, they probably account
for the fact that people often confuse causes and
effects. In principle, the causation ICM may give
rise to reversible metonymies - CAUSE FOR EFFECT healthy complexion for the
good state of health bringing about the effect of
healthy complexion - EFFECT FRO CAUSE slow road for slow traffic
resulting from the poor state of the road
103- (iv) Production ICM. It involves actions in which
one of the participants is a product created by
the action. The production of objects seems to be
a particularly salient type of causal action. - PRODUCTION FOR PRODUCT Ive got a Ford for car
104- INSTRUMENT FOR PRODUCT Did you hear the whistle?
For its sound - PRODUCT FOR INSTRUMENT to turn up the heat for
the radiator - PLACE FOR PROCUCT MADE THERE china, mocha,
camembert
105- (v) Control ICM. It includes a controller and a
person or object controlled. It gives rise to
reversible metonymic relationships - CONTROLLER FOR CONTROLLED Nixon bombed Hanoi.
- CONTROLLED FOR CONTROLLER The Mercedes has
arrived.
106- (vi) Possession ICM. The possession ICM may lead
to reversible metonymies - POSSESSOR FOR POSSESSED Thats me for my bus
I am parked there for My car - POSSESSED FOR POSSESSOR He married money for
person with money
107- (vii) Containment ICM. The image-schematic
situation of containment is so basic and
well-entrenched that it deserves to be treated as
an ICM of its own among locational relations. - CONTAINER FOR CONTENTS The bottle is sour for
milk - CONTENTS FOR CONTAINER The milk tipped over for
the milk container tipped over
108- (viii) Location ICMs. Places are often associated
with people living there, well-known institutions
located there, events which occur or occurred
there and goods produced or shipped from there.
Hence, we find the following metonymies - PLACE FOR INHABITANTS The whole town showed up
for the people - INHABITANTS FOR PLACE The French hosted the
World Cup Soccer Games for France
109- PLACE FOR INSTITUTION Cambridge wont publish
the book for Cambridge University Press - INSTITUTION FOR PLACE I live close to the
University. - PLACE FOR EVENT Waterloo for battle fought at
Waterloo - EVENT FOR PLACE Battle, name of the village in
East Sussex where the Battle of Hastings was
fought.
110- (ix) Sign and Reference ICMs. They lead to
metonymies cross-cutting ontological realms. In
sign metonymy, a (word-)form stand for a
conventionally associated concept in reference
metonymies, a sign, concept or (word-)form stands
for the real thing. - WORDS FOR THE CONCEPTS THEY EXPRESS a
self-contradictory utterance
111- (x) Modification ICM. It mainly applies to
variant forms of a sign apart from reduction. - SUBSTITUTE FORM FOR ORIGINAL FORM Do you still
love me? Yes, I do.
1123.6 Blending Theory
- Also known as the integration theory, proposed by
Gilles Fauconnier Mark Turner (1994, 1995). - A cognitive operation whereby elements of two or
more mental spaces are integrated via
projection into a new, blended space which has
its unique structure.
113- Blending operates on two input mental spaces to
produce a third space, the blend. - The blend inherits partial structure from the
input spaces and has emergent structure of its
own. - There are some conditions needed when two input
spaces I1 and I2 are blended
114- Cross-Space Mapping there is a partial mapping
of counterparts between the input spaces I1 and
I2.
115- Generic Space It maps onto each of the inputs.
- It reflects some common, usually more abstract,
structure and organization shared by the inputs. - It defines the core cross-space mapping between
them.
116- Blend the inputs I1 and I2 are partially
projected onto a fourth space, the blend.
117- Emergent Structure the blend has emergent
structure not provided by the inputs. This
happens in three interrelated ways - Composition Taken together, the projections from
the inputs make new relations available that did
not exist in the separate inputs. - Completion Knowledge of background frames,
cognitive and cultural models, allows the
composite structure projected into the blend from
the inputs to be viewed as part of a larger
self-contained structure in the blend.
Elaboration The structure in the blend can then
be elaborated.
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