Cognitive Linguistics Croft&Cruse

1. Cognitive Linguistics Croft&Cruse 3: Conceptualization and construal operations, pt. 1

2. 3.1 Introduction • Semantics is conceptualization (Langacker) • All linguistic units evoke a semantic frame • Human beings employ a variety of construal operations in language • Examples: when a language has alternative expressions for the “same” situation (dad/father, spend/waste, leaves/foliage, lives/is living, etc.)

3. 3.1 Introduction • There is cross-linguistic and language-internal variation as to whether construal plus truth-conditional semantic shift is expressed covertly or overtly. • Coercion – covert (not grammatically obligatory) expression of construal and semantic shift • Conversion – overt (with grammatical markers) expression of construal and semantic shift Example: count vs. mass is covert (coercion) in English, but overt (conversion) in Russian: soloma ‘straw’ vs. solominka ‘a straw’; kričal‘cried’ vs. kriknul ‘cried once’

4. 3.1 Introduction • Both coercion and conversion involve construal. • Talmy, Langacker (and others) have explored the possible construal operations • Image schemas impose a conceptualization of experience; they are “abstract” because they are schematic, but they are “not abstract” because they are embodied (see list on p. 45) – these relate to the possible (source) domains as well.

5. 3.1 Introduction • Croft&Cruse (p. 46) suggest a classification of construal operations : • Attention/Salience • Judgement/Comparison (identity) • Perspective/Situatedness • Constitution/Gestalt • These are 4 basic cognitive abilities • They are described in the remainder of the chapter

6. 3.2 Attention/Salience • Attention includes: • Selecting an object of attention • Having a focus of attention in a scope of attention • Selecting coarse or fine-grained attention • Fixing or shifting attention

7. 3.2.1 Selection • Selecting something = ignoring the rest • This can involve selecting the appropriate facet or domain of a word (e.g., Paris as a location, government, or population)

8. 3.2.1 Selection • Q: What is metonymy?

9. 3.2.1 Selection • Q: What is metonymy? • A: Selection of a different concept profile than the one usually symbolized by a word. The french fries is getting impatient.

10. 3.2.2 Scope of attention (dominion) • The scope of attention determines what is accessible to attention, what the search domain is. A reference point can determine the scope, as in the possessors in my watch, your anxiety, Lincoln’s assassination.

11. 3.2.3 Scalar adjustment • Q: What is a quantitative scalar adjustment?

12. 3.2.3 Scalar adjustment • Q: What is a quantitative scalar adjustment? • A: An adjustment of how coarse or fine-grained a construal is (E.g., along the road, across the road, through the road)

13. 3.2.3 Scalar adjustment • Q: What is a qualitative scalar adjustment?

14. 3.2.3 Scalar adjustment • Q: What is a qualitative scalar adjustment? • A: This is adjustment of attention along the range of schematicity, according to superordinate or subordinate categorization.

15. 3.2.4 Dynamic attention • Q: What is fictive motion?

16. 3.2.4 Dynamic attention • Q: What is fictive motion? • A: Dynamic construal of a static scene, e.g., The road winds through the valley and then climbs over the high mountains.

17. 3.2.4 Dynamic attention • Q: What is the difference between sequential and summary scanning?

18. 3.2.4 Dynamic attention • Q: What is the difference between sequential and summary scanning? • A: Sequential scanning sees something unfold through time (the bridge collapsed); summary scanning sees an event as a whole (the collapse of the bridge)

19. 3.3 Judgement/comparison • Comparison is a fundamental cognitive function, and has linguistic correlates in categorization, metaphor, and figure-ground alignment.

20. 3.3.1 Categorization • Categorization can involve full sanction – when an item is clearly a member of a category, or partial sanction – when a member is an extension of a category.

21. 3.3.2 Metaphor • Q: What is metaphor?

22. 3.3.2 Metaphor • Q: What is metaphor? • A: Metaphor is a mapping between a source domain and a target domain.

23. 3.3.3 Figure-ground alignment • Q: What properties are usually associated with figure vs. ground?

24. 3.3.3 Figure-ground alignment • Q: What properties are usually associated with figure vs. ground? • A: Figure is usually less known, smaller, more mobile, simpler, more salient, and more recent in awareness than ground. Linguistic realizations include main (figure) vs. subordinate (ground) clauses, prepositions.