Cognitive Linguistics |
Working Definition:
("the claim that there is an interrelationship between thought, meaning, and linguistic structure " Lee, Cognitive Linguistics, 2004. 1)
("the cognitivists believe that, although universal principles governing the design of all languages may well exist, they will eventually be found to be rooted in cognition."Lee, Cognitive Linguistics, 2004. 1)
Disciplinary Definitions:
"The concepts introduced in this chapter do not constitute an arbitrary set. Their interrelationship stems from the central role in Cognitive Linguistics of the notion of construal. The notions of perspective, highlighting, and framing constitute different aspects of that process, while metaphor is an important medium through which a particular 'imaging' (Langacker 1990: 5) is imposed on a given scene. In interaction with each other, these notions have significant implications for an understanding of the nature of communication. In particular, they suggest that meaning is not a property of utterances but a product of the interaction between an utterance and a human being's `knowledge base'—an idea that introduces an important relativist dimension to the process of interpretation. This view of language and interpretation brings linguistic theory much closer to related disciplines such as ethnography and cultural studies than do formally based approaches." Lee, Cognitive Linguistics, 2004. 12)
Comments:
"Whereas generative grammarians claim that there exists a rich set of prnciples of language design (Universal Grammar) that are specific to language, the cognitivists believe that, although universal principles governing the design of all languages may well exist, they will eventually be found to be rooted in cognition."Lee, Cognitive Linguistics, 2004. 1)
Cognitivists "claim that there is an interrelationship between thought, meaning, and linguistic structure." Lee, Cognitive Linguistics, 2004. 1)
Notes
Check:
Crfot and Cruse, Ungerer and Schmid for their take on CogLing
jjs
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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