Cognitive Linguistics

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The Republic of Iraq


Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research
University of Al-Kufa /Faculty of Arts
Department of English

Cognitive Linguistics

A presentation Prepared

By

Alya'a Monther Abdul Wahed

Fatima Naji Hameed

Supervised

By

Asst. Prof. Dr. Alaa B.Jebur Alkhazaali

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Cognitive linguistics . Anti- Chomskyan

3. Cognitive linguistics and Psycholinguistics

4.Cognitive linguistics and Functional linguistics

5.What do we mean by cognitive linguistics?

5.1 Cognitive linguistics hypothesis

5.1.1 Perception and categorization

5.1.2 Conceptualization

5.1.3 Frequency of the constructions

References

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1. An introduction:

Cognitive linguistics is a modern school of linguistic thought that


appeared in the early 1970s as a resentment movement against the
formal approaches. In other words, it grew out of the work of a group
of researchers who were very interested in the relation of language and
mind and refuse to follow the linguists who explain the linguistic
patterns by means of structural properties internal to and specific to
language. Thus, cognitive linguists separate syntax from the rest of
language and start to examine the relation of language structure to
things outside language not to syntactic components such as: cognitive
principles and mechanisms not specific to language, including principles
of human categorization; pragmatic and interactional principles; and
functional principles in general, such as iconicity and economy.

The most influential linguists who focused centrally on cognitive


principles and organization were Wallace Chafe, Charles Fillmore,
George Lakoff, Ronald Langacker, and Leonard Talmy. Each one of them
developed his own approach to language description and linguistic
theory, depending on a particular set of phenomena and concerns. But,
all of them shared the same assumption that meaning ,not the
structure, is so central to language that it must be a primary focus of
study. Linguistic structures serve the function of expressing meanings
and hence the mappings between meaning and form are a prime
subject of linguistic analysis. Linguistic forms, in this view, are closely
linked to the semantic structures they are designed to express. From
abovementioned view, cognitive linguistics is not a theory but a
movement because it has adopted a categorized principles,
assumptions, perspectives ,leading to a wide variety of overlapping
theories and assumptions.
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2.Cognitive Linguistics

Cognitive linguistics is a modern school of linguistic thought and


practice. It is concerned with investigating the relationship between
human language, the mind and socio-physical experience. (Evans. V. ,
Bergen. B. & Zinken. J. 2007)

Cognitive linguistics attempts to explain how someone's knowledge of


language comes to be through the language uses (experience with
language). Which means to study language in terms of cognitive
processes such as;

-Categorization

- Schematization

- Analogy

- Cognitive linguistics is anti- Chomskyan although there are some


shared assumptions between the two approaches, in other words both
Cognitive linguistics and Generative Grammar agree on;

1. Knowledge of language is the primary object of study.

2. A key aim of linguistics is to explain why some sentences are


grammatical while others are not.

3. Rejections of generative assumptions;

-Children are not endowed with a universal grammar

- The 'grammar and dictionary' of linguistic knowledge is rejected.

- Knowledge of language emerges from language use.

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Cognitive linguistics attempts to describe what speakers know when


they know a language ( words and construction). And to relate that
knowledge to general cognitive processes (categorization, schema
formation and analogy) then, explains how that knowledge comes into
being through language use.

3. Cognitive linguistics and Psycholinguistics


Cognitive linguistics and Psycholinguistics both deal with the relationship between
language and the mind. While the cognitive linguists study how language reflects
the working of the mind, psycholinguists study how the mind handles the working
of language.

-The main differences between Psycholinguistics and Cognitive linguistics;

Psycholinguistics Cognitive linguistics

- How does the human mind handle - What does language tell us about the
language. mind.

- Language processing, production and - Language structures and language


acquisition. representation.

- Not tied to a single language. - Conceived as a theory of language.

- on-line data: reaction times, eye -off-line data: linguistic examples,


movements, brain imaging, etc. grammaticality, judgments, corpus data.

- Divide and conquer; - A theory of everything;


Word recognition, parsing, sentence How language is represented in the mind,
comprehension, anaphora resolution. how it is learned and used, how it
changes, the universe and all the rest.

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4.Cognitive linguistics and Functional linguistics


Cognitive linguistics is functional

the basic assumption that language is the way it is because it is used for
communication. So it is a tool for getting things done in the world which means
the structures and forms of language in the way that we are see because of the
way they are used. So, form follows function and this clashes with formal
approaches which hold that the structures of language are determined by formal
principles that are independent of functional pressures.

-Example of functional pressure in language;

Why the words that we use the most pronouns, articles, prepositions and things
like that are so short?

Words that you use often tend to be very short and words that we use less often
can be longer.

- From a functional point of view this makes total sense because the things that
you use often they need to be quick and handy and you need to be basically using
them very fast and so well.

Language is efficient because its usage based its functional. It is used for
communication.

e.g., This is the report that I filled before my reading. grammatical

* I filled the report before reading . ungrammatical

Although the second sentence is understandable but still ungrammatical.


According to formalists language has nothing to do with function, it has all and
everything to do with form.

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5. What do we mean by cognitive linguistics?


Cognitive linguistics as its name indicates, focuses on cognitive semantics and
explanations for grammatical structure. Therefore, the topics of special interest
for cognitive linguistics include;

- The structural characteristics of natural language categorization (such as proto


typicality, systematic polysemy, cognitive models, mental imagery and 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
relativism and conceptual universals.

5.1 Cognitive linguistics hypothesis


Cognitive linguistics emerged in the 1970s. It is an approach to language that is
based on our experience of the world and the way perceive and conceptualize it.

-The major hypotheses that guide cognitive linguistics are;

1. Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty.

2. Grammar is conceptualization.

3. Knowledge of language emerges from language use.

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5.1.1 Perception and categorization


Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty

The processes of speaking and understanding language are not different from
other cognitive tasks such as visual perception, reasoning, motor activity.

-Memory ; is involved in the organization of linguistic knowledge into categories.

- Attention; is involved in activation of conceptual structures.

- Judgment /comparison is involved in the process of categorization.

The act of Categorization is mental process of classification; its products are the
cognitive categories.

- Applying a word, morpheme or construction to a particular experience to be


communicated, it involves comparison of the prior experience, judging it to
belong to the class of prior experiences to which the linguistic expression has
been applied (W. Croft & D.A. Cruse, 2004).

Example;
suppose that for the category fruit, characteristics such as sweet, soft and having
seeds are necessary and sufficient features.

The Aristotelian belief in classical definitions for categories assumes that all
members of a category, share some essential feature(s), that all category
members have equivalent status as members, and that category boundaries are
clear-cut.
But In this case, several types of fruit would remain outside the category: lemons
(which are not sweet), avocados (which are not necessarily soft) and bananas
(which have no visible seeds). Strawberries are more like rhubarb because both
grow on the ground, not on bushes or trees. Are they fruits? Why is a strawberry
a fruit, while rhubarb is not? All this fuzziness within or between categories points
to a prototype view of categorization (Rosch 1973, 1977b, 1978; Berlin and Kay
1969; Geeraerts 1989), which holds that categories do not reflect ‘objective’
assemblies of features; rather, they are approximations consisting of clear, central
or ‘prototypical’ members.

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5.1.2 Conceptualization

Linguistic knowledge is conceptual structure

- Conceptual structure is a single level of mental representation at which


linguistic, sensory and motor information are compatible (R. Jackendoff, 1985).

Concept is a unit of meaning (Langacker, 1987); it is not equivalent with the


meaning of words: color vs. political parties, cup vs. trophy, chair (furniture) vs.
position…

Other terms;

Frame – any system of concepts related in such a way that to understand any one
of them you have to understand the whole structure in which it fits (C. Fillmore,
1982).

Domain is a semantic structure that functions as the base for at least one concept
(W. Croft & D.A. Cruse, 2004).

Domain TRADE includes the concepts of CUSTOMER, MONEY, SHOP ASSISTANT…

Each lexical item may undergo different cognitive processes of meaning


extension;
a-Conceptualization grammar;

This slogan refers to a hypothesis that conceptual structure cannot be reduced to


a simple truth-conditional correspondence with the world. A major aspect of
human cognitive ability is the conceptualization of the experience to be
communicated.

b- Conceptual Metaphor;

Involves a relationship between a SOURCE- DOMAIN, the source of the literal


meaning of the metaphorical expression, and a TARGET DOMAIN, the domain of
the experience actually being described by the metaphor

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Pack thoughts into words – WORDS (target domain) ARE CONTAINERS (source
domain)
Anger boiled over – EMOTION/ANGER (target domain) IS HOT FLUID (IN A
CONTAINER) (source domain)
Spend time – TIME (target domain) IS MONEY (source domain)
Life is going – LIFE (target domain) IS JOURNEY (source domain)

c- Conceptual Metonymy;

Involves a relation of contiguity (nearness, neighborhood) between what is


denoted by the literal meaning of a word and its figurative counterpart.

Whole FOR Part : to fill up the car

Producer For Product : buy a Ford

Place FOR Institution: talks between Moscow and Berlin

Material FOR Object: a glass, an iron

5.1.3 Frequency of the constructions


Knowledge of language emerges from language use

Categories and structures in semantics, syntax, morphology and phonology are


build up from our cognition of specific utterances on specific occasion of use.
Usage-based model (Langacker, 1987, Barlow & Kemmer, 2000, Bybee & Hopper,
2004)

1. The frequency of occurrence of particular grammatical forms and structures.

2.The meaning of the words and constructions in use.

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Conclusion;
1. What the words of a given language mean and how they can be used in
combinations depends on the perception and categorization of the real
world around us.

2. Conceptualization can be found on all the levels of a language.

3. The rate of learning and generalization is influenced by the frequency of


the constructions in the input.

References;

- Evans, V., Bergen, B., & Zinken, J. The Cognitive Linguistics Enterprise: An
Overview. [First published in this volume].

- Malmkjar. K. The Linguistics Encyclopedia. Second edition 2002

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