Abstract
Advances in Cognitive Linguistics have focused on the centrality of meaning and conceptual structure in human language (Evans & Green, 2006; Geeraerts, 2006), placing phenomena such as metaphor as central to human cognition (Lakoff, 2006; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). This paper analyzes the process of meaning construction of a metaphorical print advertisement in which cognitive operations of conceptual integration (cf. Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) can be mapped through the interplay between verbal and nonverbal language. Seeing that adverts can provide learners with real-life communicative opportunities for language development due to theirup-to-date language, cultural-bound content, and creative discourse techniques (Mishan, 2005; Picken, 2000; 1999), this paper additionally provides four pedagogical applications of the chosen advertisement in English Language Teaching, drawing on the principles of the theoreticalframework presented.
Highlights
Meaning is at the core of human communication: an interaction situation, in speech or in writing, is grounded in a variety of elements from which meaning is constructed as communication unfolds
A number of other elements needs to be accounted for: gestures, facial expressions, and intonation, for speech, and graphic features and non-verbal language, for writing. In this complex and dynamic process, several cognitive operations are at play, from the visual or auditory perception of symbolic units of form and sound, to the speed at which such information is mentally processed, and the interplay between the knowledge triggered by linguistic expressions and non-linguistic input – a usually unconscious, interconnected, and highly abstract mental procedure
Salomão (1999) states that contextual clues are paramount for meaning construction, sometimes even composing the core of interpretation, and defends that linguistic forms and the different semioses arising from a communicative event should be taken into account in this process: linguistic expressions are just one of many clues that contribute to comprehension, and nonverbal language is oftentimes at the heart of meaning construction
Summary
Meaning is at the core of human communication: an interaction situation, in speech or in writing, is grounded in a variety of elements from which meaning is constructed as communication unfolds This presupposes the notion that meaning is neither static nor ready-made: it is created from within the context in which interaction takes place, rendering comprehension dependable upon linguistic expressions, and on discourse features, such as intention, genre, the interlocutors’ social role and the medium through which interaction is held. In this aspect, a number of other elements needs to be accounted for: gestures, facial expressions, and intonation, for speech, and graphic features and non-verbal language, for writing. Language is understood as context-bound, with meaning emerging from the interplay between linguistic and non-linguistic signs and contextual information. Salomão (1999) states that contextual clues are paramount for meaning construction, sometimes even composing the core of interpretation, and defends that linguistic forms and the different semioses arising from a communicative event should be taken into account in this process: linguistic expressions are just one of many clues that contribute to comprehension, and nonverbal language is oftentimes at the heart of meaning construction
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