Lecture 2

Lecture 2: What is Cognitive Linguistics?
Cognitive linguistics is a modern school of linguistic thought that originally emerged

in the early 1970s out of dissatisfaction with formal approaches to language (Evans
& Green, 2006:3; emphasis mine).
- a broadly grounded, self-conscious intellectual movement (Langacker, 1991), rich in
various theories, which are based on common guiding principles;
- it is closely related to aspects of cognitive psychology and a growing trend to merge
already-existing theories with the new ones;
- the principles of linguistic structure should reflect what is generally known about
human cognition from other disciplines, particularly the other cognitive sciences
(philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence and neuroscience);
- the aim is to study the language for its own sake, i.e., to describe and account for its
systematicity, its structure, its functions and how they are realised in language;
- language is assumed to reflect certain fundamental properties of the human mind;
- it unveils the darkness, offering us into hidden aspects of human mind, experience,
and consequently, what it is to be human; explain how the human mind works
- cognitive linguists form hypotheses about the nature of language, and about the
conceptual system that it is thought to reflect; observing patterns; they describe these
patterns and model them with the help of various theories;
- The symbolic function of language: language expresses thoughts through symbols >
symbols have conventionally paired forms, which may be spoken, written or signed,
and meanings (form-meaning pairing);
- integrated perceptual information give a rise to a mental image (a representation
available to consciousness);
- ask them to draw a rooster on a piece of paper:
o in the past, you saw a rooster or the picture of it;
o a range of perceptual information followed and was integrated into a single
mental image;
o this gave a rise to the concept of ROOSTER in your mind;
o you also happened to hear that in English or any other language, other people
use a particular sound form to describe it;
o this is how you learned to describe it too; from there, the mental image, the
concept and the sound form of ROOSTER became a part of you;
o using your skills, you have just graphically represented the idea of ROOSTER
that is stored in your memory;
o Question: Why some of these roosters are different?
- The interactive function of language: language is used to communicate, that is to get

our ideas across and to be understood by other people;
- People are highly sociable creatures, even though you may think of yourself as an
outcast or somebody extremely shy, you still are here and a part of a larger group;
your life is also dependent on other people, which would not be possible without being
able to communicate with all of them effectively and efficiently;
- Your words and the words of other people, not only have to be send, but also
understood, which involves the construction of rich conceptualizations;
- socialising (changing the way the world is and relations between people); expressivity
(expressing our thoughts and feelings); affect (responding emotionally to other
people);
- language we use can evoke rich knowledge structures known as frames of experience
(Fillmore 1982); e.g., My wife: Barteeeek …: she is probably not in the best mood;
she wants something from me; she needs me; I need to listen to her now; if I fail to
respond to her, I will be in big trouble; it is a very important moment;
Formal approaches to language: Cognitive Linguistics emerged out of dissatisfaction with

formal approaches to language. One of such approaches was Generative Grammar, developed
by Noam Chomsky.
CL vs. GG
common structuring principles that hold significantly different structuring principles

across different aspects of language – that do not hold across different aspects of lg
generalisation commitment
identifying these common principles posit mechanical devices or procedures
lexicon and syntax as continuum lexicon and syntax as distinct modules
non-modular structure of mind modular theory of mind
it is NOT possible to study language as a it is possible to study language as a formal or
formal or computational system, without computational system, without taking into
taking into account the nature of human account the nature of human bodies or human
bodies or human experience experience
For instance, a syntax ‘module’ is an area in the mind concerned with structuring words into
sentences, whereas a phonology ‘module’ is concerned with structuring sounds into patterns
permitted by the rules of any given language, and by human language in general.
The modular theory of mind is associated particularly with formal linguistics, but is also
explored in other areas of cognitive science such as philosophy and cognitive psychology, and
holds that the human mind is organised into distinct ‘encapsulated’ modules of knowledge,
one of which is language, and that these modules serve to ‘digest’ raw sensory input in such a
way that it can then be processed by the central cognitive system (involving deduction,
reasoning, memory and so on). Cognitive linguists specifically reject the claim that there is a
distinct language module, which asserts that linguistic structure and organisation are markedly
distinct from other aspects of cognition.

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Lecture 2: What is Cognitive Linguistics?

Cognitive linguistics is a modern school of linguistic thought that originally emerged

- The interactive function of language: language is used to communicate, that is to get

Formal approaches to language: Cognitive Linguistics emerged out of dissatisfaction with

common structuring principles that hold significantly different structuring principles

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