Language, Mind, and Brain by Ewa Dabrowska

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Language, Mind, and Brainby Ewa Dabrowska

• Chapter 10 The cognitive enterprise

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1. Towards a psychologically realistic grammar

• Q What do we know about
• language processing?

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1. Towards a psychologically realistic grammar

• Q What do we know about
• language processing?
• A It is flexible, fast, robust, and relies on
  low-tech, general-purpose mechanisms, including
  ability to perceive, categorize, and store
  information.

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1. Towards a psychologically realistic grammar

• Q How do we account for these facts?

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1. Towards a psychologically realistic grammar

• Q How do we account for these facts?
• A
• fast because it relies on chunks
• flexible and robust because of redundancy
• intimate relationship between grammar and lexicon
• These facts should constrain our linguistic
  theory, and the best choice is Cognitive Grammar.

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2. A crash course in Cognitive Grammar
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2.1 Linguistic expressions are symbolic units

• Q Whats a symbolic unit?

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2.1 Linguistic expressions are symbolic units

• Q Whats a symbolic unit?
• A A pairing of a phonological form and a
  meaning. A unit can be simple or complex (varying
  levels of abstractness, partly or wholly
  schematic).

Plural
kæt s kæts
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2.2 Imagery

• Q What is a base and what is a profile?

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2.2 Imagery

• Q What is a base and what is a profile?
• A A base is a knowledge structure (often
  referred to as extralinguistic knowledge)
  within which an expression is understood. A
  profile is a substructure designated for a
  concept within the base.

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2.2 Imagery

• Q What is a landmark and what is a trajector?

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2.2 Imagery

• Q What is a landmark and what is a trajector?
• A A landmark is the ground against which a
  trajector stands out as the figure, or most
  salient entity.

I put my lipstick in my handbag.
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2.2 Imagery

• Q What factor decides which element will be the
  trajector and which one the landmark?

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2.2 Imagery

• Q What factor decides which element will be the
  trajector and which one the landmark?
• A Construal! There are some strong trends
  (animate or moving or most salient entity), but
  speakers can manipulate this distinction.

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2.2 Imagery

• Q What do we know about categorizing
  relationships?

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2.2 Imagery

• Q What do we know about categorizing
  relationships?
• A We can understand the same things at different
  levels of abstractness, both at the level of the
  superordinate schema and the subordinate
  instantiation, and this is true for all kinds of
  linguistic units (phonological, lexical,
  syntactic)

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2.3 Things, processes and atemporal relations

• CG can provide a semantically based account of
  grammatical distinctions which in other theories
  are dealt with by means of arbitrary syntactic
  features.
• Thing a region (set of interconnected entities)
  in some domain, where are domain can be, for
  example time (week), color (blue), etc.
• Process a temporal relation (profiled by a verb)
• Atemporal relations profiled by prepositions
  adjectives, adverbs

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2.4 Constructional schemas

• Q What is a constructional schema?

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2.4 Constructional schemas

• Q What is a constructional schema?
• A A symbolic unit which is both complex and
  schematic. Constructional schemas capture the
  types of relationships described by rules in
  other theories.

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2.4 Constructional schemas

• Q How does the CG account of syntax differ from
  that in other theories?

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2.4 Constructional schemas

• Q How does the CG account of syntax differ from
  that in other theories?
• A CG represents lexical and syntactic
  information in the same way, rather than as
  separate different functions. Lexicon and syntax
  differ only in their degree of specificity vs.
  schematicity.

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2.5 Language as a structured inventory of
conventional linguistic units

• In the CG framework, linguistic knowledge is
  seen as a complex, richly interconnected network
  (structured inventory) of linguistic units.
• Q What three types of units are there?

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2.5 Language as a structured inventory of
conventional linguistic units

• In the CG framework, linguistic knowledge is
  seen as a complex, richly interconnected network
  (structured inventory) of linguistic units.
• Q What three types of units are there?
• A Phonological, semantic, and symbolic.

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2.5 Language as a structured inventory of
conventional linguistic units

• Q What are the three types of relationships
  between the three types of units?

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2.5 Language as a structured inventory of
conventional linguistic units

• Q What are the three types of relationships
  between the three types of units?
• A
• Symbolization the relationship between semantic
  structure and its phonological form
• Composition relationships between component
  units and the composite unit they form
• Schematicity the relationship between a
  superordinate schema and a subordinate
  instantiation
• (Note that both composition and schematicity can
  hold for both semantic and phonological units.)

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2.5 Language as a structured inventory of
conventional linguistic units

• Q What is partial schematicity (extension)?

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2.5 Language as a structured inventory of
conventional linguistic units

• Q What is partial schematicity (extension)?
• A When the specific content (phonological or
  semantic) does not fully match the schema. (E.g.
  the polysemy of fly, as in Her hair was flying in
  the wind variant pronunciations)

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2.6 A usage-based model

• Phonological, semantic, and symbolic units are
  generalizations over actual usage events. Every
  time a particular unit is used, it becomes more
  entrenched. A persons mental grammar is a
  dynamic system constantly shaped by experience
  with language.

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2.6 A usage-based model

• CG
• Is maximalist linguistic knowledge is
  represented at various levels of abstraction
• Emphasizes low-level schemas, for they are
  necessary to capture actual patterns of usage
• Higher-level generalizations may exist, but they
  have an organizing function rather than an
  active computational one.

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2.7 Meeting the specifications

• CGs conception of linguistic knowledge as a
  network of symbolic units of varying size and
  schematicity accommodates chunks.
• CG is flexible and accounts for robustness of
  language, also allows for variation in individual
  mental grammars.
• CGs sensitivity to entrenchment accounts for
  frequency effects.
• CG does not rely on any language-specific
  biological adaptions.
• CG treats lexical and grammatical information
  similarly

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3. Language production in a CG framework

• Linguistic communication involves finding the
  relevant parts of form-meaning pairing.
• New expressions can be formed by
• Juxtaposition (come here now)
• Superimposition a filler elaborates a subpart
  (slot) of a frame (want NP, NP my desk)

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3. Language production in a CG framework

• Q When constructing a novel expression, what
  types of units do speakers prefer to use?

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3. Language production in a CG framework

• Q When constructing a novel expression, what
  types of units do speakers prefer to use?
• A The most specific units that are most concrete
  and well-entrenched. Thus overgeneralization is
  avoided.

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4. A cognitive view of language acquisition

• Q What do we know about the input children
  receive?

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4. A cognitive view of language acquisition

• Q What do we know about the input children
  receive?
• A It is mostly multi-word utterances in a rich
  and fairly predictable context with clues about
  meaning, and most utterances are stereotypical
  (frequently repeated in similar contexts).

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4. A cognitive view of language acquisition

• Child hears You want milk? Do you want milk?
  Dyou want milk?
• Partial understanding of whole phrase
• Memory is content-accessible (content is both
  phonological and semantic)
• Components get entrenched, pattern gets analyzed.

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4. A cognitive view of language acquisition

• Some overall features of this system
• The capacity for grammatical productivity
  emerges gradually as result of rote-learned
  phrases and is a by-product of the way symbolic
  units are stored in long-term memory.
• Relational words and near-synonyms are learned in
  context emerge from their context

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5. More on regularity

• Q How regular are the rules that are posited by
  linguists?

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5. More on regularity

• Q How regular are the rules that are posited by
  linguists?
• A No rules are completely regular, and rules
  tend to overemphasize regularity. Most patterns
  show some lexical specificity. Note that
  languages show tendencies both for generalization
  and for emergence of irregular structures.

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6. Future directions

• Some future challenges for CG
• Account for all syntactic phenomena
• More work on phonology
• Empirical studies
• Language acquisition and processing