1 / 24

What is Cognitive Linguistics ?

What is Cognitive Linguistics ?. Laura A. Janda laura.janda @ uit.no. Cognitive linguistics. Minimal Assumption : language can be accounted for in terms of general cognitive strategies no autonomous language faculty no strict division between grammar and lexicon

kira
Download Presentation

What is Cognitive Linguistics ?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. What is CognitiveLinguistics? Laura A. Janda laura.janda@uit.no

  2. Cognitivelinguistics Minimal Assumption: languagecan be accounted for in terms of general cognitivestrategies • noautonomouslanguagefaculty • nostrictdivisionbetweengrammar and lexicon • no a prioriuniversals Usage-Based: generalizationsemerge from language data • nostrictdivisionbetweenlangue and parole • no underlying forms Meaning is Central: holds for all languagephenomena • nosemanticallyempty forms • differences in behavioraremotivated (but not specificallypredicted) by differences in meaning • metaphor and metonymy play a major role in grammar

  3. Language & Cognition • Linguisticcognition has nospecial status • All linguisticphenomenacan be explained via general cognitivemechanisms • Language is not dividedintodiscretelevels or modules • phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon form a continuousphenomenon • primarymotive for all linguisticphenomena is meaning

  4. Prediction & Embodiment • Goal is to discovermotivationsratherthan to formulatepredictions • iflinguisticphenomenaweretrulypredictable, therewouldn’t be anyvariation • universalsarefew and non-specific, manyphenomena have language-specificaspects • Meaning is grounded in physicalexperiences, dependent uponthearchitectureofourbodies, perceptual organs and brains • meaningcannot be achieved by symbols alone

  5. Cognitivecategories • Linguistic categories are cognitive categories and have the same structure • Established through research in psychology and neurobiology • Radial category centered on a prototype with extensions • Extension via mapping: metaphor, metonymy, blends

  6. Examplesofcognitivecategories • The nextfew slides will present someitems. • Try to seeiftherearedifferencesamongthevariouslanguagesthatyouspeak.

  7. Whichtwoitemsbelongtogether?

  8. How manyofyouchosethissolution?

  9. How many of you chose this solution?

  10. Whydidyouchoosethesolutionyoudid? English: chair Czech: židle English: wheelchair Czech: vozejk = ‘cart’ English: cart Czech: vozejk = ‘cart’

  11. Furniture for sitting

  12. If you speak English, your chair category looks like this: rocking chair lawn chair chair high chair armchair wheel chair

  13. IfyouspeakNorwegian, yourchaircategorylooks like this: gyngestol solseng stol barnestol lenestol rullestol

  14. If you speak Czech, your category is: houpácí židle lehátko židlička židle křeslo vozejk

  15. Russian has two different categories: кресло- качалка шезлонг высокийстульчик стул кресло инвалидная коляска (кресло-)каталка

  16. The take-homelessonaboutchairs: • Categorization isn’t “out there” in the world, reality can be categorized in different ways • Different languages can use different strategies for categorizing experience

  17. Think of all the ways that you could describe where the apples are

  18. A: The apples are inside-bowl B: The apples are loose fitting-bowl C: The apples are concave valley that faces me-bowl D: The apples are stomach-bowl

  19. The take-homelessonaboutapples: • Meaning is basedonembodiedexperience • Meaning is also present in “grammatical” phenomenasuch as functorwords (like pre- and post-positions) and case • Becausethelexicon and grammarare a continuum • Differentlanguagescanrecruitdifferentembodiedexperiences for this purpose: • Container vs. Surface, Tight vs. Loosefit, Topography, Body parts, etc.

  20. You are inside a house. Suddenly a dog appears, moving very rapidly through the door. How could you describe what the dog did?

  21. El perro entró corriendo Hunden løp inn

  22. The take-homelessonaboutdogs: • Meaningcan be representeddifferently in different grammars • Verb-framedlanguages (like Spanish) focusonthepathof motion, and the manner of motion is expressedoptionally, as an adverbial • Sattelite-framedlanguages (like Norwegian) focusonthe manner of motion, and thepath is expressed in a particle or prefix

  23. Cognitivelinguistics is usage-based • Weareinterested in performance, not just competence • Muchwork in cognitivelinguisticsinvolvesauthenticlanguage data: corpora • Language data is oftenanalyzed via statisticalmodels

  24. What is CognitiveLinguistics? • Explanationoflinguisticphenomena via general cognitivemechanisms • Meaning is themotive for language and is embodied in physicalexperience • Radial categoriesbasedon prototypes withextensions via metaphor & metonymy • Lexicon & grammarare a continuum, observe same patterns • Empirical (statistical) analysisofauthenticlanguage data (corpora)

More Related