It

1

• Its Not Over When Its Over
• A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of the
• Semantics of English Prepositions
• Andrea Tyler

2
Vyvyan Evans, Yiyoung Kim and Dasha Shakhova made
invaluable contributions to this project.
3
Introduction

• CL emphasizes a number of basic tenets that allow
  us to systematically investigate areas of
  language that previous models ignore altogether
  or characterize as uninteresting.
• And it turns out that many of these
  unexplorable or uninteresting areas pose
  particularly difficult challenges to second
  language learners.

4
The Problem

• Traditional accounts have represented the
  semantics of English prepositions as highly
  arbitrary the various uses are presented as
  unorganized lists of meanings that have
  accidentally come to be associated with a
  particular preposition.
• By and large, these are the accounts that ELT
  texts and grammars are based on.

5

• a. The flag is hanging at half-mast over the
  capitol building located higher than
• b. Arlington Cemetery is over the river from the
  White House on the other side
• c. The negotiations are over completed or
  finished
• d. The ship took the troops over to the Gulf
  region transfer of an entity from one location
  to another
• e. The woman placed a gas mask over her face
  covering
• f. There are over 300,000 soldiers deployed in
  the Middle East more than
• g. The President chose intervention over
  negotiation
• Preference
• h. The picture of mom holding an apple pie is
  over/above the mantel.

6
The Alternative

• CL gives us an alternative. The multiple meanings
  associated with English prepositions can be
  represented as being systematically related
  within a motivated semantic polysemy network.
  These meanings are organized around a central,
  abstract, main meaning.
• Some of the central concepts from CL which we
  have drawn on in our analysis of the semantics of
  English prepositions are

7
Contextualized Nature of Language

• In naturally occurring language use, lexical
  items always occur in context.
• The exact understanding of a lexical item is
  always influenced by the context in which it
  occurs.
• Work in pragmatics shows us that some inferencing
  is always involved in the interpretation of
  utterances.

8
Communicative Nature of Language and
Contextualized Interpretation of Lexical Items

• Lexical item is initially used to indicate an
  established meaning
• A speaker would only use the lexical item to mean
  something different from the established meaning
  if they believed the listener had a reasonable
  chance of understanding the new meaning
• This understanding presumably would come from
  inferences arising from the contexutalized use of
  the lexical item
• Repetition --gt independent distinct senses

9
General Cognitive Processes

• Instead of assuming that there is a separate
  language module which operates under its own
  principles, Cognitive Linguists ask how much of
  language can we explain through general cognitive
  processes.
• Expect to find key principles or facets of
  general cognition also occurring in language
• EX. Basic aspects of perceptual system will be
  reflected in language

10
Humans are unique

• Many ways in which we are unique.
• Only species to develop cloth making and by
  extension to wear clothing
• Only species to develop the ability to develop
  elaborate means of deception that doesnt have
  anything to do with stimulus in the immediate
  environment
• Only species to develop trade
• Also only species to develop language.
• Wouldnt want to say we have special modules or
  genes for cloth making, trading, etc. These are
  accounted for by our general cognitive abilities.
  Perhaps language should be analyzed in the same
  way.

11
Humans do have a unique neurological and physical
architecture

• (1) Cognitively
• Incredibly good at classifying, drawing
  generalizations over several specific instances
  (which are not exact in color, shape, size, and
  other physical properties)
• Inferring on the basis of very little evidence
• Remembering past experiences and relating them to
  similar, ongoing experiences. Build up
  complicated, patterned, systematic meaning
  structures SCHEMA. Use that structure to organize
  new information
• We do not have mental telepathy

12
Humans do have a unique neurological and physical
architecture

• (2) Physically
• Stand on our hind legs
• Cannot resist gravity (in the way a humming bird
  can)
• Have an asymmetrical front/back orientation with
  our most important perceptual organs located in
  our faces

13
Humans live in a particular physical-spatial
environment.

• The ways we perceive and interact with that
  environment have important consequences for our
  conceptualizations, which are in turn reflected
  in language.
• All these elements shape our cognition.
  

14

Embodied Experience Concepts Are Not
Propositional in Nature

• Cognitive linguists argue that 1) human
  conceptual structure is crucially shaped by our
  human perceptions of and interactions with the
  real world and 2) language is a reflection of
  human cognitive structure.
• How perceptions of the real world are represented
  in memory is unlikely to be in terms of bundles
  of linguistic features.
• Bird feather, wings, sits on a nest, etc.
• Conceptualized spatial relations coded by
  prepositions are not likely to be represented
  conceptually by semantic features.

15
Experiential Correlation

• Humans regularly observe the recurrent
  co-occurrence of two distinct phenomena. With
  repeated exposures, the two distinct but
  co-occuring phenomena become closely associated
  in memory such that we conceptualize and talk
  about one in terms of the other.
• For example, an increase in quantity is
  associated with an increase in elevation. Thus,
  we can use language about vertical elevation to
  describe an increase in quantity.
• MORE IS UP (Grady, 1997, 2001 Lakoff
  Johnson, 1999)

16
The Central Meaning of a Preposition Denotes a
Spatial Relationship

• Prepositions code conceptual spatial relations
  between two entities, TRAJECTOR (TR) and LANDMARK
  (LM).
• Central Sense- Spatial relationship
• Prompt for spatial scene

17
Real World Force Dynamics

• As a default, speakers assume that all elements
  in a conceptual spatial scene are subject to
  real-world force dynamics, such as the assumption
  that objects are subject to gravity (Talmy, 1988
  2000).

18
Ways of Viewing a Scene

• Every spatial scene is conceptualized from a
  particular vantage point. The conceptualizer
  represents the default vantage point and is
  usually off-stage. However, the same scene can be
  viewed from different vantage points. Shifts in
  vantage points can give rise to new inferences,
  which in turn give rise to new sense. (Langacker,
  1987)

19
A Cognitive Analysis of over

• Central representation of over

We use diagrams to avoid prepositional
definitions and because prepositions in their
central senses represent spatial relations
between two objects. We make no claims about the
psychological validity of these diagrams. In the
sentence, The picture is over the mantel the
picture represents the TR and the mantel
represents the LM.
20
Extended Senses the A-B-C trajectory

• (1). In the real world we often encounter TRs
  which are in motion. Sometimes moving TRs
  encounter some impediment (LM) to forward motion
  and in order to continue their forward motion at
  some point move to a position that is higher than
  the impediment. English speakers use the
  preposition OVER in describing this motion, as in
  a sentence such as The horse jumped over the
  hurdle.

21

• (2). Only at point B, the TR, the horse, is
  located higher than the LM, the hurdle. The verb
  jump implies point A, but nothing in the
  utterance explicitly refers to point C. We infer
  point C because of what we know about horses and
  hurdles and jumping, including knowledge of
  gravity and momentum.
• Thus, we rely on our knowledge of force dynamics
  to establish a full interpretation of this
  sentence.

22

• (3). Point C in the ABC trajectory has become
  associated with a number of consequences.
• These associations have, in turn, given rise to
  several distinct non-spatial meanings associated
  with over.
• Once a distinct meaning, such as COMPLETION,
  becomes associated with point C in the ABC
  trajectory, the word over can be used to denote
  this meaning even when the original spatial
  configuration of the TR being located higher than
  the LM is no longer involved.

23
The On-the-Other-Side Sense

• When you move from point A to point C, you end up
  on the other side of the LM from where you start
  Thus the meaning ON THE OTHER SIDE, as
  illustrated in the sentence
• Arlington Cemetery is over the river from the
  White House.

24
The Completion Sense

• When the TR comes down at point C, that portion
  of the movement, or the particular action being
  considered, is completed or finished. Thus the
  meaning of completion as in the sentence The
  negotiations are over.

25
The Transfer Sense

• When an entity moves from point A to point C, the
  entity has been transferred from point A to point
  B. Thus the meaning of TRANSFER, as in the
  sentence The ship carried the troops over to the
  Gulf region.

26
Extended Senses The UP RelationThe More
Sense

• An essential aspect of the spatial relationship
  denoted by over is that the TR is in a vertical
  relationship vis-a-vis the LM and that the TR is
  in an UP relationship to the LM.
• MORE IS UP.
• We now have over 300,000 troops in the middle
  east.

27
The Preference Sense

• English speakers identify being in an UP position
  as generally positive.
• Kids usually prefer cake over broccoli.

28
OVER VS. ABOVE
29
ABOVE/OVER

• The picture is above/over the desk.
• The lamp is above/over the table.

30

• She hung the backpack over the back of the chair.
  
• She hung the backpack above the back of the
  chair.

31
APPLYING COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS TO SECOND
LANGUAGE LEARNING

• The Key Question Is such an analysis useful for
  second language learners?
• Hypothesis A cognitive-based model of the
  semantics of English prepositions, which
  represents the many meanings associated with a
  preposition as a motivated polysemy network, has
  the potential to provide a useful, organized
  rubric for L2 learners.

32
Caveats

• A. A clever theoretical description of language
  is not a silver bullet for second language
  learning. Having a richer, more accurate
  description of the language should represent a
  valuable advance for second language learning BUT
• B. Have to attend to principles from work in
  psychology and the field of SLA, i.e. the
  importance of noticing, interestingness, role of
  pushed input, and following Ortega and Norris
  (2000) explicit instruction followed by
  communicative tasks
• C. A major challenge is to find ways to make the
  appropriate theoretical notions precise yet
  accessible to second language learners and
  teachers.

33
Current project in the preliminary pilot stage

• Subjects
• Two intact adult ESL classes at the intermediate
  level. Mixture of L1 backgrounds. Overall pretest
  scores were similar, with the Cognitive group
  scoring slightly lower than the Control group.
• Control 13 (7)
• Cognitive 14

34
Current project in the preliminary pilot stage

• Design
• Pretest
• Instruction
• Over instruction and task(s) (1 hour)
• To/For/At instruction and task(s) (1 hour)
• SPRING BREAK (not by design)
• Post Test

35
Materials
36
OVER
37
OVER

• The picture of my mother is over the piano.
• The doorknob is over the keyhole.
• The lamp is over the table.

38
ABC Trajectory
39
(No Transcript)
40
Finished
41
(No Transcript)
42
On the Other Side
43
Transfer
44
(No Transcript)
45
JUST __________!!!
46
Covering
47
(No Transcript)
48
(No Transcript)
49

• The table cloth is over the table.
• The paper is over the hole in the wall.
• The board is over the hole in the ceiling

50
More
51
Preference
52
(No Transcript)
53
(No Transcript)
54
(No Transcript)
55
TRANSFER
FINISHED
ON THE OTHER SIDE
COVERING
ABC TRAJECTORY
MAIN
MORE THAN
PREFERENCE
56
Task Matching Headlines with Short Paragraphs

• Beauty over brains?
• The movie Legally Blonde is a typical
  romantic comedy that says there's no relationship
  between appearance and intelligence. The message
  certainly is worth supporting A young woman
  learns that having good looks is not as important
  as having integrity. Elle is the prototypical
  California blonde coed energetic, cute and
  popular. She's sure that her snobbish East Coast
  boyfriend is going to propose, but he has other
  ideas. He's going back East to enroll in Harvard
  Law School to become a politician. As much fun as
  Elle has been, she doesn't fit the image he
  envisions for himself. In short, she's not smart
  enough.
• The worst is over
• The head officer of Oracle, Jeff Henley
  Tuesday said, "We're optimistic. We definitely
  think we are done with the bad times and things
  are going to start getting better." In December,
  Henley said that they believed that the company's
  business had bottomed in its recently completed
  second quarter.

57
Control group

• Subjects were shown exactly the same examples,
  but without the cognitive explanation.
• We also scrambled the order of presentation of
  the different meanings so as not to inadvertently
  invoke aspects of the hypothesized semantic
  network.
• The explicit instruction for the control group
  was approximately 10 minutes shorter. They were
  given a second communicative task to ensure that
  both groups received equal exposure.

58
Results (VERY tentative)

• A. Clear limitations
• Groups not matched for size Control 6
  Cognitive 12
• Pretest individual work Exercise -- in pairs
  and quite different in form than the pretest
• Best we can say is that the results are
  suggestive
• 1 student in the Control group scored 7 on the
  pretest and on the exercise 2 students in the
  Cognitive group scored 7 on the pretest and on
  the exercise. These students were eliminated from
  this particular analysis.

59
B. Preliminary findings
Pretest Task Gain
Control 5/7 6 0.8
Cognitive 4/7 6.7 2.7
-
Control 4(66) 0 2(33)
Cognitive 11(92) 1(8) 0