Cognitive Linguistics Flashcards
(154 cards)
What is a metonomy?
Using one entitiy to refer to another that is related to it.
What are Categories shaped by according to prototype theory?
Categories are shaped by the linguistic system, cultural context and personal experience.
What are characteristics of the categories according to prototype theory?
Categories with fuzzy boundaries
– not ‘all-or-nothing’ affair
– fuzzy boundaries of categories
– degree of centrality of membership
– more or less representative
– family resemblance
What is the Hierarchical Srtucture of categories and tthe Hierarchy of 3 classses of categories?
- Super-ordinate classes
- Basic classes
- Sub-ordinate classes
How is meaning derived according to cognitive linguistics?
Meaning is derived from concepts and percepts!
- Meaning of a particular linguisttic symbol is linked to a particular mental representation (this representation is referred to as tthe concept)
- These concepts are based on percepts
What is a percept based on?
- A range of perceptional information (shape, size, smell etc.).
- Through conceptualization speakers have an integrated mental representation of the sign.
What are the functions of language according to cognitive linguistics?
Language has symbolic and interactive functions: It encodes & transmit ideas
What does a symbol consist of?
Symbols consist of conventionally associated form-meaning pairings.
a) The linguistic form: e.g. morphemes, words etc.
b) Meaning: conventional semantic or ideational content associated with the form.
Explain the Levels of representation
According to cognitive linguistics, what are the issues of truth-condittional semantics?
- Truth-conditional semantics eliminates cognitive organization
from the linguistic system - Words do not represent neatly packaged bundles of meaning (the dictionary view), but serve as ‚points of access‘ to vast repositories of knowledge relating to a particular concept or conceptual domain
From which different disciplines are cognitive sciences cross-fertilized?
- Psychology
- Linguistics
- Philosophy
- Computer Science
- Neuroscience
What is cognition?
The perception, thought processes and language
What is cognitive psychology?
It considers all processes pertaining to perception, memory, learning, knowledge, language and application of knowledge.
What are some basic tenets of the embodiment/”embodied mind” assumption?
- Mind & body are not separate: Human language cannot be investigated and understood independently of the human body and the experiences with the environment.
- Our experience with objects, space, time, gravity,motion, etc., influence how we perceive and understand the world and how we describe the world with language.
- How reality is perceived and ‘construed’ for communication depends on the nature or the human body.
Why is embodied cognition physically grounded?
- The view (and thus meaning) is always subjecttive
- Language does not reflect reality directly; language structures and language use reflect how we perceive and understand reality based on our body and conceptual system.
- Mental representations are grounded in internalized patterns
of multisensory experience with the physical, spatial and social world. - Physical movement and action routines are integrated into understanding of cognition and language.
Why is physical experience meaningful?
The meaning (sense) of concepts often has a sensorial basis.
The physical experience is basis for embodied image schemata.
What are the two subsystems in the cognitive representation of language?
- Grammatical subsystem: (function words [closed-class items])
- Lexical subsystem: (content words [open-class items])
What are the properties of tthe lexical and grammatical subsystems?
What is polysemy?
When one form carries several meanings
According to de Saussure, what is semiology and what does it investigate?
- A science which studies the role of signs as part of social life.
- Semiology investigates the nature of signs and the laws governing them.
According to de Saussure, what is language?
It is tthe most important of all the systems of signs
Explain the Saussurean Model of the liniguistic sign
What are image schemas?
They are abstract conceptual representations that derive from the observation of the environment and our physical experience
What is structural meaning?
The representation of structural properties of referents (persons, objects) via different schematic systems