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* [http://markturner.org/coglingSpring07.html Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics] (Mark Turner).
* [http://markturner.org/coglingSpring07.html Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics] (Mark Turner).
* The [http://www.gestalttheory.net/linguistics/ Gestalt Theory and Linguistics Page] deals with the relationship between Gestalt theory and cognitive linguistics.
* The [http://www.gestalttheory.net/linguistics/ Gestalt Theory and Linguistics Page] deals with the relationship between Gestalt theory and cognitive linguistics.
* The [http://zakros.ucsd.edu/~trohrer/metaphor/metaphor.htm Center for the Cognitive Science of Metaphor Online] is a collection of numerous formative articles in the fields of conceptual metaphor and conceptual integration.
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20040603065415/http://zakros.ucsd.edu/~trohrer/metaphor/metaphor.htm Center for the Cognitive Science of Metaphor Online] is a collection of numerous formative articles in the fields of conceptual metaphor and conceptual integration.


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Revision as of 07:23, 10 August 2017

Cognitive linguistics (CL) is the branch of linguistics that focuses on language as an instrument for organizing, processing and conveying information.

Within CL, the analysis of the conceptual and experiential basis of linguistic categories is of primary importance. The formal structures of language are studied not as if they were autonomous, but as reflections of general conceptual organization, categorization principles, processing mechanisms, and experiential and environmental influences. Since cognitive linguistics sees language as embedded in the overall cognitive capacities of man, topics of special interest for cognitive linguistics include: the structural characteristics of natural language categorization (such as prototypicality, systematic polysemy, cognitive models, mental imagery, and conceptual metaphor); the functional principles of linguistic organization (such as iconicity and naturalness); the conceptual interface between syntax and semantics (as explored by cognitive grammar and construction grammar); the experiential and pragmatic background of language-in-use; and the relationship between language and thought, including questions about linguistic relativity and conceptual universals. To summarize, what holds together the diverse forms of cognitive linguistics is the belief that linguistic knowledge involves not just knowledge of the language, but knowledge of the world as mediated by the language.[1]

In addition, cognitive linguistics argues that language is both embodied and situated in a specific environment.

Three central positions

Cognitive linguists deny that the mind has any module for language-acquisition that is unique and autonomous. This stands in contrast to the stance adopted by Noam Chomsky and others in the field of generative grammar. Although cognitive linguists do not necessarily deny that part of the human linguistic ability is innate, they deny that it is separate from the rest of cognition. They thus reject a body of opinion in cognitive science suggesting that there is evidence for the modularity of language. Departing from the tradition of truth-conditional semantics, cognitive linguists view meaning in terms of conceptualization. Instead of viewing meaning in terms of models of the world, they view it in terms of mental spaces.

They argue that knowledge of linguistic phenomena — i.e., phonemes, morphemes, and syntax — is essentially conceptual in nature. However, they assert that the storage and retrieval of linguistic data is not significantly different from the storage and retrieval of other knowledge, and that use of language in understanding employs similar cognitive abilities to those used in other non-linguistic tasks.

Embodied and situated

Areas of study

Cognitive linguistics is divided into three main areas of study:

Aspects of cognition that are of interest to cognitive linguists include:

Related work that interfaces with many of the above themes:

  • Computational models of metaphor and language acquisition.
  • Dynamical models of language acquisition
  • Conceptual semantics, pursued by generative linguist Ray Jackendoff, is related because of its active psychological realism and the incorporation of prototype structure and images.

Cognitive linguistics, more than generative linguistics, seeks to mesh together these findings into a coherent whole. A further complication arises because the terminology of cognitive linguistics is not entirely stable, both because it is a relatively new field and because it interfaces with a number of other disciplines.

Insights and developments from cognitive linguistics are becoming accepted ways of analysing literary texts, too. Cognitive Poetics, as it has become known, has become an important part of modern stylistics.

Controversy

There is significant peer review and debate within the field of linguistics regarding cognitive linguistics. Critics of cognitive linguistics have argued that most of the evidence from the cognitive view comes from the research in pragmatics and semantics, and research in metaphor and preposition choice. They suggest that cognitive linguists should provide cognitive re-analyses of topics in syntax and phonology that are understood in terms of autonomous knowledge (Gibbs 1996).

There is also controversy and debate within the field concerning the representation and status of idioms in grammar and the actual mental grammar of speakers. On one hand it is asserted that idiom variation needs to be explained with regard to general and autonomous syntactic rules. Another view says such idioms do not constitute semantic units and can be processed compositionally (Langlotz 2006).

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics.

General references

  • Evans, Vyvyan & Melanie Green (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Evans, Vyvyan (2007). A Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Gibbs (1996) in Casad ED. Cognitive Linguistics in the Redwoods: The Expansion of a New Paradigm in Linguistics (Cognitive Linguistic Research) Mouton De Gruyter (June 1996) ISBN 9783110143584.
  • Langlotz, Andreas. 2006. Idiomatic Creativity: A Cognitive-linguistic Model of Idiom-representation And Idiom Variation in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Further reading

  • Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. Palgrave-MacMillan. ISBN 1403932921
  • Croft, W. & D. A. Cruse (2004) Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Evans, Vyvyan & Melanie Green (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Evans, Vyvyan (2007). A Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Evans, Vyvyan, Benjamin K. Bergen and Jörg Zinken (Eds.) (2007). The Cognitive Linguistics Reader. London: Equinox Publishing Co.
  • Evans, Vyvyan, Benjamin Bergen and Jörg Zinken (2007). "The Cognitive Linguistics Enterprise: An Overview". In Vyvyan Evans, Benjamin Bergen and Jörg Zinken (Eds.). The Cognitive Linguistics Reader [listed above].
  • Fauconnier, G. (1997). Mappings in Thought and Language.
  • Fauconnier, Gilles has written a brief, manifesto-like introduction to Cognitive linguistics, which compares it to mainstream, Chomsky-inspired linguistics. See "Introduction to Methods and Generalizations" in T. Janssen and G. Redeker (Eds) (1999). Scope and Foundations of Cognitive Linguistics. The Hague: Mouton De Gruyter. Cognitive Linguistics Research Series. (on-line version)
  • Fauconnier, Gilles and Mark Turner (2003). The Way We Think. New York: Basic Books.
  • Geeraerts, D. & H. Cuyckens, eds. (2007). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 0 19 514378 2.
  • Geeraerts, D., ed. (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Gibbs Jr., Raymond W. and Herbert L. Colston (1995). "The cognitive psychological reality of image schemas and their transformations". Cognitive Linguistics (includes Cognitive Linguistic Bibliography). Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 347–378, ISSN (Online) 1613-3641, ISSN (Print) 0936-5907.
  • Goossens, Louis (Oct. 2009). Metaphtonymy: the interaction of metaphor and metonymy in expressions for linguistic action. Cognitive Linguistics (includes Cognitive Linguistic Bibliography). Volume 1, Issue 3, Pages 323–342, ISSN (Online) 1613-3641, ISSN (Print) 0936-5907, DOI: 10.1515/cogl.1990.1.3.323
  • Grady, Oakley, and Coulson (1999). "Blending and Metaphor". In Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics, Steen and Gibbs (eds.). Philadelphia: John Benjamins. (online version)
  • Jackendoff, Ray (1996). "Conceptual semantics and Cognitive linguistics". In Cognitive Linguistics 7-1, pp. 93-129. Online Version.
  • Kristiansen et al., eds. (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Lakoff, George (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0 226 46804 6.
  • Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.
  • Lee, D.A. (2001). Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction (1st ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  • Rohrer, T. (2007). "Embodiment and Experientialism". In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics [listed above].
  • Schmid, H. J. et al. (1996). An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. New York, Longman.
  • Silverman, Daniel (2011). "Usage-based Phonology", in Bert Botma, Nancy C. Kula, and Kuniya Nasukawa, eds., Continuum Companion to Phonology. Continuum.
  • Taylor, J. R. (2002). Cognitive Grammar. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  • Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Harvard University Press.
  • Wolf, et al. (2006), The Cognitive Linguistics Bibliography, Mouton De Gruyter, Berlin.