Study of cognitive linguistics

Study of cognitive philology sooner we go to cognitive philology, we should react somewhat questions, which argon in truth central to those who make a study of linguistics. Everybody cognises that there be umpteen rules in actors line. , for example, is enjoyment to show our warmth to tidy sum , , -, -, However, is used to indi sanctifye goodbye , , -, , (Cant anese), (Cantonese, said to someone who goes cycling), etc. Because these rules in Chinese do non exist in English, we toiletnot advance *Come in quickly, *Sit down quickly, or *Walk slowly. Rules like this atomic number 18 relate with use of talking to. At the self akin(prenominal) time, there ar rules in grammar. In English, for example, I is followed by am, and you by atomic number 18, and he by is.1) Are such(prenominal) rules in spoken expression figureed gradually through anyday use or prescribed by linguists? (It is very important for us to answer such questions correctly before we ar engaged in making a study of linguistics.)2) All phrase users can verbalise their breed tongue correctly, fluently and appropriately. An illiterate woman in Guangzhou, for example, can speak Cantonese correctly, fluently and appropriately. Do you think she knows Cantonese grammar?3) Some multitude, even some university teachers asseverate that many great scholars redeem made a lot of look into and published many binds on linguistics and grammar. These people think that the renowned scholars have solved all language problems and theres nothing left for us to make a study. Whats your opinion about this?4) address is al courses changing. It is one of the properties of language. Do you think it is possible to avoid its change or it is infallible to do so?5) There atomic number 18 many linguistic schools canvass language in the world. Can you explain why there argon so many schools?(Cognitive linguistics is one of the so many schools. I dont know if you are interested in it or not. For me, I steadfastly believe it and excessively interested in it, because it can explain many phenomena in language. The explanations from the perspective of cognitive linguistics help us know about how language is formed and why it is formed in this way instead of the other way. Most importantly, such explanations can help twain teachers teach foreign languages and learners learn them effectively.)6) Where is pie-eyeds?In order to empathize these designates we must call upon our knowledge about the world, which does not reside in the sentences or in any of the address of the sentences. (Scollon Scollon 2000 7)we tend to look for convey in denominations themselves, solely we are incorrect if we think that intelligence operations possess significance. It is more accurate to swan that people possess center and that words promote these moments. (Samovar et al 2000 123) voice communication does not itself do the cognitive railway carriage-it plainly accept us minim al, tho sufficient, clues for finding the domains and principles appropriate for building in a given situation. Once these clues are combined with already existing configurations, available cognitive principles, and background framing, the appropriate construction can take backside, and the result far exceeds any overt explicit development.This outset harmonic property of language is counterintuitive In our folk theory, it is the words that persist the meaning We say what we mean, we regularise meaning into words, and so on. The difference between the folk-theoretic conception and the actual (backstage) reality goes un abide byd for very interesting reasons. We notice unaccompanied the tip of the iceberg lettuce-the words-and we attribute all the rest to common smack. (Fauconnier 1994 xviii) Language does not carry meaning, it guides it. As Mark Turner felicitously put itExpressions do not mean they are prompts for us to construct meanings by working with processes we alr eady know. In no sense is the meaning of (an) annotation right there in the words. When we understand an utterance, we in no sense are understanding sightly what the words say the words themselves say nothing independent of the richly detailed knowledge and powerful cognitive processes we bring to bear (Turner 1991 206)Language, as we use it, is but the tip of the iceberg of cognitive construction. As discourse unfolds, much is going on rear the scenes New domains appear, links are forged, abstract mappings operate, internal structure emerges and spreads, sales booth and focus keep shifting. Everyday talk and commonsense reasoning are supported by invisible, highly (p. xxii) abstract, mental creations, which grammar helps to guide, but does not by itself define. (Fauconnier 1994 xxiii)On this beguile, words do not really have meanings, nor do sentences have meanings meanings are something that we construe, using the properties of linguistic elements as partial clues, on base non-linguistic knowledge, information available from context, knowledge and conjectures regarding the state of mind of hearers and so on. (Croft Cruse 2004 98)The magnetic core idea in Cognitive Linguistics is that meanings are mental entities in conceptual space. Meanings are in peoples minds. They are not independent entities in the external world, as is the case in objectivist stumpers. The external world is only indirectly pertinent in that meanings are constrained by how gentleman beings perceive of the world.The second question concerns the relation between lexical gunpoints and meaning. lexical items map on to concepts, and meaning is the relation between the lexical item and the domain matrix that it activates. Lexical meaning is constrained by comprehensive knowledge, conventionalized mappings between lexical items and concepts, conventional modes of thought in varied contexts and situational frames. (In cognitive getes to meaning, all linguistic expressions are p rofiled according to a base (Langacker 1987a), or a frame (Fillmore (1982), an idealized cognitive example of a situation (Lakoff 1987) or a cycle of contextualization and decontextualization of word meaning establish on linguistic and encyclopaedic knowledge (Warren 1999). All these constructs cost presupposed information in an expression that the speaker infers in situations. In my model the appropriate construal is employed on the basis of such knowledge. See also Croft (forthcoming) for a similar approach to verbs.) Meanings are thus not inbuilt in the lexical items as such, but they are evoked by lexical items. Moreover, there is no purely linguistic level of imitation that is intermediate between concepts and lexical items, and there is no static matched relationship between lexical items and meanings. (This is the case in approaches to meaning that suck a lexicon consisting of formal features, e.g. Bierwich Schreuder (1992), Levelt (1989), Pustejovsky (1998), Borschev Partee (2001), Jackendoff (2002).) Multiple readings are natural and expected in a dynamic usage-based model. The components of the framework are shown in Figure 1.The tierce question concerns the dynamics of language in terms of synchronic flexibleness and diachronic change. Different readings in divergent contexts emerge from the intention that activates the expression or the wish to interpret the expression in a relevant way in order to obtain socially viable (capable of working, intentioning, or developing adequately capable of existence and development as an independent unit) mappings between words and concepts. In other words, cognitive processes (construals) operate on the conceptual structures on all occasions of use. These operations are the informant of all readings, conventional as well as ad hoc (used for particular proposition or immediate needs) contextual readings, and possible lexical change takes place through new conventional, entrenched links between linguist ic expressions and conceptual structures (Paradis 2003b). (Paradis, 2004 53)The precise semantic contribution of any word is a function of the utterance context in which it is embedded, and, moreover, the sorts of (conceptual) knowledge these lexical entities provide introduction to. In other words, words dont have meanings in and of themselves. Rather meaning is a function of the utterance in which a word is embedded, and the labyrinthine processes of lexical concept integration. (Evans, 2006492)More late(a)ly, a number of scholars have suggested that in fact word-meaning is less a discrete body of circumscribed knowledge. Rather, words serve as points of access to larger-scale encyclopaedic knowledge structures, which are potentially vast in scope as argued in detail below. On this view, words provide access to what I will refer to as a semantic potential, with different sorts of knowledge being potentially activated. (Evans, 2006 493) whiz way of thinking about the meaning of w ords is to see them as tools for causing speakers to access specific parts of their knowledge base (Moore Carling 198211, quoted in Lee, 20015). At any given moment, individuals have a huge stemma of knowledge available to them (Lee, 20015). Meaning is not a property of utterances but a product of the interaction between an utterance and a pitying beings knowledge base (Lee, 200112). The function of the noun cat in the utterance The cat wants something to eat is to cause the addressee to home in on (meaning to find) a very specific region of that knowledge base-specifically on those neural structures that constitute her cut in of knowledge concerning cats in general and the family cat in particular. (Lee, 20015)Meaning in language can be summarized as1) To understand words or sentences is to call upon the knowledge about the world.2) The knowledge does not reside in the sentences or in any of the words of the sentences. That is, words do not possess meaning.3) People possess mea ning and words as tools elicit meanings.2. What is cognitive linguistics?2.1 The importance of cognitive linguisticsCognitive linguistics is expected to be one of the close to important approaches in the eye socket of linguistics in the 21 century. Some linguists even say that the 21 century will belong to cognitive linguistics. Cognitive linguistics originated from the States in 1970s the expire century. Many linguists in chinaware have turned to cognitive linguistics. Papers about cognitive linguistics, papers introducing cognitive linguistics and papers analyzing language structures with cognitive approaches can be strand in almost every academic journal or mag related to language study in China in recent years. If we pay little vigilance to this approach, we are sure to lag behind. That is why we offer you the course of cognitive linguistics.2.2 The definition of cognitive linguisticsAs you know, each linguistic school has its own attitudes towards language and its own ap proach to language. So does cognitive linguistics. According to this textbook, cognitive linguistics is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and bear our experience of the world (p.F36). (Who would like to explain conceptualize our experience? When we say conceptualize our experience, we mean that we have the idea for our experience or that we form concepts of our experience.)2.3 The object lens of cognitive linguisticsThe objective lens of cognitive linguistics is to canvas and to study cognitive or mental structure and organization by analyzing cognitive strategies used by humans in thinking, storing information, comprehending, and producing language. (Bussmann, Hadumod. 2000. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. p.80. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Routledge)2.4 dickens different meanings of the term cognitive linguisticsIt is very important to notice that cognitive linguistics has both diff erent meanings, which come from the word cognitive. It has the following two meanings1) cognitive related to knowledge (This is the synthetic view. This view accepts logical rules and objective definitions.)2) cognitive related to human experience based on applicatory and empirical knowledge.(This is the cognitive linguistics we mean. Such cognitive linguistics includes tierce views or approaches the experiential view, the gibbousness view and the attentional view.)3. Experiential view Different explanations of Our car has broken down3.1 Traditional explanationTraditionally, most teachers use the following methods in class1) paraphrasing the meanings of words2) analyzing the clause mannequin3) discussing the use of the present perfect tenseHow do you help your students with this sentence? Talk about your instruct, please?If someone does not know the word car, the teacher just tells him that it means 4-wheeled labour vehicle. Usually the teacher takes into considerateness the so-called difficult points. In this sentence, the difficult point may be the phrasal verb hold down, which has at least as many as 35 meanings according to a dictionary. The first four meanings are1) to expire separated into pieces or fragments2) to arrive cracked or split3) to give way collapse4) to become unusable or inoperative/ dampen operating or functioning e.g. The television broke down.The 4th meaning is suitable to explain the phrasal verb break down, so the teacher chooses anticipate operating or functioning to replace the original phrase, such as Our car has stopped operating or Our car has stopped functioning.3.2 invoice with the logical view (of modern linguistics)In the logical view, some objective semantic features must be found. The following are a go under of objective semantic features of car1) inanimate2) concrete3) movable4) self-propellingThe meaning of car in this explanation equates objective features. This explanation seems to be cognitive, because it is related to knowledge. nevertheless it is not the cognitive linguistics we are studying. The cognitive linguistics we mean is not based on logical knowledge, but on practical and empirical knowledge.The logical view cannot explain the phrasal verb break down, because the phrase is used as a metaphor, which is excluded from the study of the logical view.3.3 Explanation with the experiential view1) Meaning is in our experience.a. attributeBefore we explain this sentences with the experiential view, we must first pay special attention to the term attribute, which is frequently used in cognitive linguistics so it is a very important term in cognitive linguistics, curiously when we explain language with the experiential view. Simply to say, attribute is characteristic of an entity (Word Web)What are the attributes of car?The answer is on P. F37, where you can see that the concept car has 9 attributes in all. Both our common experience and personal or subjective experience are rel ated to the word car. Of the 9 attributes, some are shared by most peoples experience and some others are very personal and subjective. The attributes of first love affair and injury are very personal and subjective. The meaning of car in this explanation is communal experience + personal (subjective) experience. These two types of experience equate attributes in all.b. Two important aspects of attributesa) Attributes are from laypersonsWe should notice that such attributes are collected from laypersons (common people/ persons who are not trained in linguistics) instead of dictionaries or scholars. So to a great extent, these attributes can reflect the way every language user perceives the world and interacts with it.b) Attributes help identify similar objectsTo every word dictionaries give definitions which are sometimes not helpful. The word car, for example, is defined as 4-wheeled motor vehicle. This definition cannot help people identify a 3-wheeled motor vehicle when they see such a vehicle for the first time. provided it is obvious that attributes from laypersons can do that. People can identify it as a car because it agrees with some of the attributes. That is why the experiential view is master key to the logical view.2) Meaning in figurative language.The original meaning for break down is fall apart, collapse. When it is used to express the event that the car short stops working, it is a metaphorical use because the car does not become separated into pieces or fragments. Metaphor is no longer regarded as just a rhetorical device. In logical view, metaphor is excluded from the study of linguistics. But the fact is that metaphor is frequently used by everyone in their utterances every day. It goes without saying that heart as in Beijing is the heart of China is a metaphor. So is the eye of heaven in Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare. Everybody can identify this kind of metaphor. But metaphor in cognitive linguistics is in a much broader sense. The following are also examples of metaphor(1) You appear at the head of the list.(2) the leg of a table(3) He got into tussle yesterday.In literature, get into trouble is no metaphor at all, but in cognitive linguistics it is because trouble is regarded as a container. Actually, people tend to make use of metaphor. In a metaphorical way it is easier to express abstract ideas or un well-known(prenominal) things. So concrete concepts are used to express abstract concepts and familiar things are used to indicate unfamiliar things. We can say, metaphor is permeant in language, that is to say, figurative language is everywhere in language. If a linguistic theory pays no attention to metaphor or figurative language, such a theory can be said not to be immature. A good linguistic theory should explain every phenomenon in language. Cognitive linguistics is such a linguistic theory which makes a study of every aspect of meanings in language.4. Prominence viewThe prominence view concerns the selection a nd arrangement of the information that is expressed. It is actually an explanation of how the information in a clause is selected and arranged. Compare the following pairs of examples(4) a. The garden is swarming with bees.b. Bees are swarming in the garden.In traditional grammar, the two sentences are regarded as the same in meaning. But in fact they do not mean the same because prominence in the sentences are different. (4a) means that there are bees everywhere in the garden, but (4b) means that there are bees in part of the garden.5. Attentional viewThe attentional view is an approach based on the assumption that what we actually express reflects which parts of an event string our attention (p. F39). That is, an utterance reflects what is paid attention to. In language the same event can be expressed in different shipway because of our different attentions. Take learn and teach for example(5) a. Xiao Li knowledgeable English from Mr. Smith.b. Mr. Smith taught Xiao Li English.W hen the speakers attention is on Xiao Li, he uses the first sentence, but when his attention is on Mr. Smith, he uses the second one. In paraphrase, we commonly tell the students that the two sentences are in the same meaning, but in the attentional view, their meanings are in fact different.6. The contents of this book1) This book contains six chapters, with Chapters 1, 2, 3 introducing the experiential view, Chapter 4 dealing with the prominence view, Chapter 5 discussing the attentional view and Chapter 6 briefing iconicity, grammaticalization, lexical change and language teaching.2) This book talks chiefly about the three views of cognitive linguistics.It is important for you to make clear the three views first, because they are initiated by cognitive linguistics and therefore they are basic theories of cognitive linguistics. And then you should also go on to study iconicity, grammaticalization, lexical change and language teaching. Though iconicity and grammaticalization are n ot initiated by cognitive linguistics, many scholars are working at them because the two approaches can also explain many language problems. The last section of this book also talks about foreign language learning and teaching. For us, this section may be helpful. But until now, few people have discussed this topic, so what is presented in the last section of this book is just the potential of cognitive approach to foreign language teaching. We can usefulness from the discussion about foreign language learning and teaching in this book so as to begin with our own researches of English teaching and learning.ExercisesWhat is cognitive linguistics? Whats the difference between the logical view and the experiential view?How do you understand the term attribute in cognitive linguistics? Talk about attributes of bicycle.