Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 06 Cognitive Linguistics

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Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SS 06
Cognitive Linguistics
Olga Zajatchkovskaja
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Introduction
Cognitive linguistics emerged in the 1970s -is an
approach to language that is based on our
experience of the world and the way we perceive
and conceptualize it. 3 major hypotheses guide
cognitive linguistics -language is not an
autonomous cognitive faculty -grammar is
conceptualization -knowledge of language
emerges from language use
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I. Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty
The processes of speaking and understanding
language are not different from other cognitive
tasks such as visual perception, reasoning, motor
activity. - Memory is involved in the
organization of linguistic knowledge into
categories. - Attention is involved in activation
of conceptual structures - Judgment /comparison
is involved in the process of categorization
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Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty

• The act of Categorization is mental process of
  classification its products are the cognitive
  categories.
• - Applying a word, morpheme or construction to a
  particular experience to be communicated, it
  involves comparison of the prior experience,
  judging it to belong to the class of prior
  experiences to which the linguistic expression
  has been applied (W. Croft D.A.Cruse, 2004).

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Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty

• Categories of animals, plants, man-made
  objects...
• Birds parrot, sparrow, canary, hawk, ostrich,
  penguin
• the best example is a prototype (E. Rosch,
  1972)
• Furniture? Chair? Vehicle? Fruit?...
• Levels of categorization animal-dog-spaniel
• Are categories universal or culture-specific?
• fuzzy category boundaries

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Linguistic knowledge is conceptual structure

• Conceptual structure is a single level of mental
  representation at which linguistic, sensory and
  motor information are compatible (R. Jackendoff,
  1985).
• Concept is a unit of meaning (Langacker, 1987)
• it is not equivalent with the meaning of words
• color vs. political parties, cup vs. trophy,
  chair (furniture) vs. position

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Other terms

• Frame any system of concepts related in such a
  way that to understand any one of them you have
  to understand the whole structure in which it
  fits (C. Fillmore, 1982).
• Domain is a semantic structure that functions as
  the base for at least one concept (W. Croft
  D.A. Cruse, 2004).
• Domain TRADE includes the concepts of CUSTOMER,
  MONEY, SHOP ASSISTANT

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II. Grammar is conceptualization

• This slogan refers to a hypothesis that
  conceptual structure can not be reduced to a
  simple truth-conditional correspondence with the
  world.
• A major aspect of human cognitive ability is the
  conceptualization of the experience to be
  communicated

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Conceptual metaphor

• Figure of speech Juliet is the sun
  (Shakespeare)
• Conventional metaphor head of state, eye of a
  potato
• Conceptual metaphor
• Try to pack more thoughts into fewer words
• Her anger boiled over.
• How do you spend your time?
• He knows where he is going in life.

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Conceptual metaphor

• Involves a relationship between a SOURCE DOMAIN,
  the source of the literal meaning of the
  metaphorical expression, and a TARGET DOMAIN, the
  domain of the experience actually being described
  by the metaphor
• Pack thoughts into words WORDS (target domain)
  ARE CONTAINERS (source domain)
• Anger boiled over EMOTION/ANGER (target domain)
  IS HOT FLUID (IN A CONTAINER) (source domain)
• Spend time TIME (target domain) IS MONEY
  (source domain)
• Life is going LIFE (target domain) IS JOURNEY
  (source domain)

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Other examples
- She trembled in fear. - He went white in
anger. - He jumped back in terror. EMOTIONAL
STATES ARE CONTAINERS Russian Ona drozhala v
strahe /ot straha out of fear. On pobelel ot
zlosti out of anger. On otprygnul v uzhase / ot
uzhasa out of terror.
IN
v
Otout of
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Other examples

• - He exploded with laughter.
  with
• - She trembled with fear.
• ATTENDANT EMOTION/EMOTION IS A COMPANION
• Russian
• On razrazilsa smechom.
• -om is instrumental case with
• - Ona trozhala v strache / ot stracha.

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Conceptual Metonymy

• Involves a relation of contiguity (nearness,
  neighborhood) between what is denoted by the
  literal meaning of a word and its figurative
  counterpart.
• WHOLE FOR PART to fill up the car
• PRODUCER FOR PRODUCT buy a Ford
• PLACE FOR INSTITUTION talks between Moscow and
  Berlin
• MATERIAL FOR OBJECT a glass, an iron

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Other examples

• - She heard the piano (INSTRUMENT STANDS FOR
  SOUND)
• - That french fries is getting impatient (ORDER
  STANDS FOR CUSTOMER)
• - There are a lot of good heads in the University
  (HEAD STANDS FOR INTELLEGENCE)
• - We need a couple of strong bodies in our team
  (BODY STANDS FOR PHYSICAL STRENGTH)
• - Dont get hot under the collar (INCREASE IN
  BODE TEMPERATURE STANDS FOR EMOTION/ANGER)

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III. Knowledge of language emerges from language
use

• Categories and structures in semantics, syntax,
  morphology and phonology are build up from our
  cognition of specific utterances on specific
  occasion of use.
• Usage-based model (Langacker, 1987, Barlow
  Kemmer, 2000, Bybee Hopper, 2004)
• The frequency of the occurrence of particular
  grammatical forms and structures
• The meaning of the words and constructions in use.

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Conclusion

• What the words of a given language mean and how
  they can be used in combinations depends on the
  perception and categorization of the real world
  around us.
• Conceptualization can be found on all the levels
  of a language.
• The rate of learning and generalization is
  influenced by the frequency of the constructions
  in the input.

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References

• 1. Ungerer F., Schmidt H.-J. An Introduction to
  Cognitive Linguistics. Longman, 1996.
• 2. Croft. W., Cruse D.A. Cognitive Linguistics.
  Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge
  University Press, 2004.
• 3.Jackendoff R. Semantics and Cognition. The MIT
  Press, 1984.