Cognitive Linguistic Research Research Articles

Towards a critical cognitive–pragmatic approach to gender metaphors in Advertising English

This paper investigates the methodological convenience of a critical cognitive–pragmatic approach to gender metaphors in Advertising English. We begin by reviewing recent research in cognitive linguistics, pragmatics and critical discourse analysis (CDA) with regard to advertising metaphors and gender, then proceed to characterize advertising gender metaphors as indirect cognitive–pragmatic devices used in Advertising English to give rise to often covertly sexist communicated interpretations. Next, we present a description of advertising gender metaphors, subtypes (cases of metaphorical gender, universal gender metaphors and cultural gender metaphors) and cross-categorization in a case study of 1142 advertisements published in British Cosmopolitan (years 1999 and 2000). Finally, we argue that a critical cognitive–pragmatic approach to advertising gender metaphors is of most salience since it permits to (1) help the audience's search for cognitive efficiency, (2) unmask the advertiser's rhetorical intentions to make certain non-neutral assumptions more manifest to the target audience without making public its intention to do so and (3) call for action on the part of the addressee to overcome negative social consequences of its use in Advertising English.

The English Change Network: Forcing Changes into Schemas (review)

Reviewed by: The English change network: Forcing changes into schemas by Cristiano Broccias Rong Chen The English change network: Forcing changes into schemas. By Cristiano Broccias. (Cognitive linguistics research 22.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2003. Pp. 408. ISBN 3110176467. $100.80 (Hb). This monograph deals with change construction, an umbrella term that includes both the traditionally recognized resultative construction and the at-construction (‘John kicks at the door’). These two broad categories of constructions are grouped together because they share a change phrase, which (a) is a nonverbal phrase, (b)is neither a subject noran object, and (c) refers to a state, position, or circumstance possibly achieved by an entity involved in an event. To account for these diverse change constructions, Broccias first proposes a force change schema (FCS). The semantic pole of this schema contains two components: the event component (E) and the change component (C). The E component represents a unidirectional force—energy flow—from one entity, which the author calls ‘manipulator’ (M), onto another—‘manipulee’ (m). The C component, by contrast, consists of an entity, called theme (TH), as moving from a location S (source) into a location T. For B, location is metaphorical, referring to both state and position. Therefore, John rocked the baby to sleep would be analyzed thus: John (M) carries out the act of rocking, hence sets in motion the energy flow to the baby (m). The baby, furthermore, is also the TH, which moves from S, the state of not being asleep, to T, the state of being asleep. Second, B proposes an event change schema (ECS), containing the same C and E components as the FCS. There are two differences, however. First, M in the FCS is replaced with a trajector (tr) in the ECS. Second, TH, instead of standing alone in the FCS, is linked to tr, meaning that it could be coreferential or bearing a part-whole relationship with tr. Based on this schema, The mansion burned down can be analyzed this way: the event of burning, which involves the mansion (tr), causes the change of state (to the state of being destroyed) of the TH, which is also the tr. TH and tr happen to be linked through identity in this particular sentence, but this may not be the case in a different sentence such as The kettle boiled dry (where it is the water that boils, so that the TH and the tr bear a part-whole, or container/ contained, relationship). How about sentences such as Sally punched out, which do not fit either the FCS or the ECS? B blends the two schemas into an event force change schema. The emergent schema, like its original schemas, contains the E and C components. The former is a simplified version of its counterpart in the FCS: a unidirectional energy flow and a change of state in the m, which is not realized syntactically. The C component is much like its counterparts in the original FCS and the ECS, except that the entity that undergoes the change, TH, is an abstract entity, not expressed in the syntax of the language. Sally punched out, therefore, is quite convincingly analyzed as the energy from Sally (M) flowing to timecard (small caps indicating not being syntactically realized), resulting in the change of Sally—both the tr and the TH—from working to going off work. In the rest of the book, the author demonstrates how these three schemas can account for a host of constructions that involve a change on the part of an entity. The book carefully considers previous work on similar constructions, the author’s arguments are coherent, and the analysis given is valid and mostly convincing. Rong Chen California State University, San Bernardino Copyright © 2005 Linguistic Society of America

New perspectives on language development and the innateness of grammatical knowledge

Chomsky [Chomsky, N., 1965. Aspects of The Theory of Syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass; Chomsky, N., 1986. Knowledge of Language: its Nature, Origin, and Use. Praeger, New York] presents a series of arguments for an innate syntactic component of the language faculty. Do the arguments proposed at that time still stand, or have they been overridden by newer proposals? The current paper emphasizes three research directions among the most recent advances in cognitive science. These directions lead to alternate proposals to the generative linguistic theory of language development. First, the ‘item-based’ theory of language development, which stresses that development of language knowledge goes from specific to general and is compatible with developing research in cognitive linguistics. Second, the apparent uniformity of adult linguistic competence, which is a fundamental tenet of generative linguistics theory, may be the product of literate cultures but not of invariants of the brain, as attested by the fundamental differences found between spoken and written language. Third, artificial neural networks provide evidence against the necessity to call on algebraic rules to explain language performance and this, in turn, argues in favor of the emergence approach and of the dynamic systems approach to language development. All this calls for a renewal of language development theories and for a separation between statistical, non-algebraic, non-conscious, item-based, and usage-based structures and processes dedicated to spoken language (and to automatized written language processes), and principle-and-rule-governed, algebraic structures and processes dedicated to conscious written or formal spoken language.

Cognitive Approaches to Lexical Semantics: Hubert Cuyckens, Rene Dirven, John R. Taylor (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistic Research, vol. 23, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 2003, 502 pages, ISBN 3-11-017709-9 (hb)

Cognitive Approaches to Lexical Semantics: Hubert Cuyckens, Rene Dirven, John R. Taylor (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistic Research, vol. 23, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 2003, 502 pages, ISBN 3-11-017709-9 (hb)

When down is not bad, and up not good enough: A usage-based assessment of the plus–minus parameter in image-schema theory

Abstract Preceding research in cognitive linguistics has advanced the claim that evaluative components form an integral part of image schemas (cf. Krzeszowski 1993, 1997; Cienki 1997: 3–6). This so-called “plus–minus” (or “axiological”) parameter has primarily been discussed with regard to opposing dimensions within a range of image-schematic contexts. In the paired particles in–out, up–down, and on–off, for instance, the meaning of which is based on the image-schematic notions of CONTAINMENT, VERTICALITY, and CONTACT, respectively, the second elements are assumed to carry negative default evaluations. Additionally, the Axiological Invariance Principle (Krzeszowski 1997) claims that these evaluative components are generally retained in metaphorical extensions. This study applies the plus–minus hypothesis in image-schema theory to the analysis of semantically highly redundant verb-particle constructions in English. The hypotheses derived from this application are tested against the real usage of such constructions as documented in the British National Corpus and the Collins Online. Though the presentation of a full-blown alternative to the plus–minus assumption is beyond the scope of this empirical investigation, an important implication of this study is that the isolated, “primitive” (noncompound) image schemas traditionally dealt with in cognitive linguistic research should not be considered as the locus of evaluative defaults. It is suggested instead that axiological components are dimensions of richer, contextualized cognitive models, in which image schemas appear as complex superimpositions, i.e., image-schema groupings or compounds.

Metaphors for God: Why and How Do Our Choices Matter for Humans? The Application of Contemporary Cognitive Linguistics Research to the Debate on God and Metaphor

This article explores and critiques conservative and liberal theological understandings of metaphor in light of the contemporary research in cognitive linguistics. This assessment is followed by a cognitive examination of the biblical metaphors for God, their unconscious entailments, an assessment of why certain metaphors are more “effective” than others, and a short discussion of the implications of this “effectiveness.”

Constructing a language: a usage-based theory of language acquisition

Drawing together a vast body of empirical research in cognitive science, linguistics, and developmental psychology, Michael Tomasello demonstrates that we don't need a self-contained instinct to explain how children learn language. Their linguistic ability is interwoven with other cognitive abilities. Tomasello argues that the essence of language is its symbolic dimension, which rests on the uniquely human ability to comprehend intention. Grammar emerges as the speakers of a language create linguistic constructions out of recurring sequences of symbols, children pick up these patterns in the buzz of words they hear around them. Constructing a Language offers a compellingly argued, psychologically sound new vision for the study of language acquisition.

Ideological Imagination: Intertextual and Correlational Metaphors in Political Discourse

This article explores the role that metaphors play in the ideological interpretation of events. Research in cognitive linguistics has brought rich evidence of the enormous influence that body experience has on (metaphorical) conceptualization. However, the role of the cultural net in which an individual is embedded has mostly been neglected. As a step towards the integration of cultural experience into the experientialist framework in cognitive metaphor research I propose to differentiate two ideal types of motivation for metaphor: correlation and intertextuality. Evidence for the important role that intertextual metaphors play in ideological discourse comes from an analysis of Polish newspaper discourse on the tenth anniversary of the end of communism.

Cognitive Linguistics: Foundations, Scope, and Methodology (review)

Reviewed by: Cognitive linguistics: Foundations, scope, and methodology ed. by Theo Janssen, Gisela Redeker Adam Głaz Cognitive linguistics: Foundations, scope, and methodology. Ed. by Theo Janssen and Gisela Redeker. (Cognitive linguistics research 15.) Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1999. Pp. 269. The volume contains seven articles: six are revised versions of most of the plenary lectures delivered at the 5th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (Amsterdam 1997), and one is an invited contribution. As the title suggests, the articles are concerned with theoretical and methodological questions relating to cognitive linguistics (CL); however, they frequently receive support from actual analyses of language data or from applications of proposed constructs. Although no such division is made formally, the editors indicate in the ‘Introduction’ (1–12) that the first four contributions deal with the scope of interest and the methodology of CL whereas the remaining three address relevant ontological and epistemological issues. First, Ronald Langacker (13–59) presents an overview of CL in terms of its relationship to linguistics as such and functionalist linguistics in particular. While discussing justification for accepting a linguistic analysis, he proposes and subsequently illustrates the principle of ‘converging evidence’. Next, William Croft (61–93) finds parallelisms between typology and CL in terms of ‘a radical construction grammar’, i.e. viewing constructions, rather than categories or relations between them, as basic grammatical entities. He further recognizes a complex interplay between syntactic structure, semantic structure, and experience. A dynamic nature of meaning is also espoused by Gilles Fauconnier (95–127) in his discussion of conceptual integration (blending) and the notions of economy, operational uniformity, and cognitive generalizations as areas where the integrity of language and cognition is especially conspicuous. The concepts of blending and mental spaces are further elaborated by Eve Sweetser (129–62), who employs them along with active zones and frames in an account of compositionality as a major phenomenon in linguistic semantics. The first of the papers with a more philosophical orientation is Dirk Geeraerts’s (163–94) presentation of a debate, indeed in the form of a philosophical dialogue, between advocates of idealist and empiricist tendencies in CL. The debate is set against a broader background of Wilhelm Dilthey’s question of a legitimate interpretation of natural language expressions. Next, Peter Harder (195–222) ponders the ontology of language units. By drawing examples from economics, biology, and social facts, he suggests that various levels of language are best seen as ‘partially autonomous’. The volume ends with Chris Sinha’s (223–55) rejection of viewing meanings as mental objects. instead, the author proposes to treat them as motivated ‘mappings’ from conceptualization to expression, with social interaction playing a major part. On the whole, the publication must be valued for its thematic coherence. After twenty years or so of the presence of CL on the linguistic scene, the time has come to address its philosophical and methodological foundations in more depth. The articles collected in the volume seem to indicate that, indeed, CL is a mature linguistic enterprise, capable of corroborating the inseparability of language and cognition and accounting for linguistic phenomena in terms of general cognitive processing. At the turn of [End Page 206] the millenium, the ideas discussed may also be seen as possible future directions of the discipline’s development, set by some of the leading scholars in the field. Adam Głaz Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Copyright © 2002 Linguistic Society of America

METAPHOR: THE IMPOSSIBLE TRANSLATION?

ABSTRACT The linguistic concept‘metaphor’ has an established place in clinical as well as theoretical psychotherapy. It has been seen as analogous to or even fundamental to the analytic concept of transference. Metaphors have been thought to have a special role in enhancing therapist‐patient communications. By contrast, in linguistics itself, metaphor has been relatively neglected, viewed as irrelevant and unscientific. That conventional approach to metaphor has recently been challenged by Contemporary Metaphor Theory.This new theory suggests that language depends upon a largely unconscious system of conventional metaphor. Our bodily experiences are the basis of our understanding of abstract concepts such as emotions and relationships. Novel and imaginative metaphors build upon this fundamental biological structure.The traditional approach placed metaphor, along with rhetoric and, by inference, psychodynamic thinking, at the periphery of science. Cognitive linguistic research is now showing that language is fundamentally structured by metaphorical processes, which enhances the scientific status of psychoanalysis and supports and extends the view of metaphor as at the heart of language and meaning.

Conceptual Metaphor in the Archaeological Record: Methods and an Example from the American Southwest

This paper attempts to unify recent theorizing on cultural meaning in material culture using the notion of conceptual metaphor. Research in several disciplines suggests that conventional metaphorical concepts are central to cultural cognition. Ethnographic studies and psychological experiments indicate that conceptual metaphors are expressed in numerous forms of human expression, including speech, ritual, narrative, and material culture. Generalizations on the nature and structure of metaphor emerging from cognitive linguistic research can be used to develop methods for reconstructing ancient metaphors from archaeological evidence. In a preliminary application, I argue that pottery designs from the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest were conceptualized as textile fabrics, and suggest that connections between these media derived from a worldview grounded in container imagery. The ability to decipher conceptual metaphors in prehistoric material culture opens up many new avenues for research, including the role of worldview in cultural evolution, and the discovery of cultural continuities between archaeological cultures and historic ethnolinguistic groups.

Topology of Awareness: Therapeutic Implications of Logical Modalities of Multiple Levels of Awareness.

The theory of the topology of awareness offers a model of mind integrating research in cognitive psychology, linguistics, clinical psychology, and philosophy, clarifying the implications for therapeutic techniques and our understanding of the nature of the mind. It specifies a model of mind composed of multiple levels of awareness diagrammatically presented as a pyramid. Lower levels closest to consciousness are organized according to the binary oppositions of Aristotelian logic. At this level the self and entities of the world are experienced as discrete, bounded, and independent. Higher levels, in contrast, crystallize the gestalt structure of self and world, and organize reality through dialectical logic. This logic reveals that seemingly independent discrete entities are gestalts, and each gestalt is in an intimate relation with others. The language of the higher levels includes metaphor, poetry, and narrative, promoting the expression of the tension and synthesis of opposing meanings characteristic of dialectical logic. The therapeutic disclosure of higher levels promotes the lived reality of the integrity of self and intimate relations with the world, replacing the often pathogenic experience of alienation, and control characteristic of lower level awareness. In this article the theoretical foundation for this theory sets the stage for a discussion of specific therapeutic techniques.

Put: language-based interactive manipulation of objects

Our approach to scene generation capitalizes the expressive power of natural language by separating its aptness in specifying spatial relations from the difficulties of understanding text. We are implementing an object-placement system called Put that uses a combination of linguistic commands and direct manipulation. The system is language-based, meaning that its design and structure are guided by natural language. Our approach (inspired by research in cognitive linguistics) is to analyze the natural use of spatial relations, define a well-understood class of fundamental relationships, and gradually build a coherent and natural spatial-manipulation system. Just a few simple spatial relationships, such as in, on, and at, parameterized by a limited number of environmental variables can provide comfortable object manipulation. These natural commands can be used to quickly prototype a complex scene and constrain object placement. We believe that we have an extensible, predictable, and computationally feasible environment for object manipulation. We have focused first on spatial relationships because they are fundamental to many conceptual domains beyond object placement, including motion and time. These particular domains are very important to areas of computer graphics such as animation. Uses of spatial relationships in these areas can be quite complex. We briefly introduce the complexities of understanding spatial relations and summarize related work. Then we describe the core of the Put placement system, followed by its linguistic, procedural, and interactive interfaces. We conclude by discussing future enhancements to the system.

Language and its role in understanding intentional relations: Research tool or mechanism of development?

AbstractIn our commentary we elaborate on Barresi & Moore's use of language as a tool. In particular, we highlight the importance of cognitive linguistic research with its emphasis on the relation between morpnosyntax and intentional schemes. We also speculate about how language itself might play a role in children's integration of first and third person knowledge.

The Passive Voice in Computer Manuals: A New Perspective

There is much debate and confusion about the use of the passive voice in texts in general, and in computer manuals in particular. For example, it is often stated that the passive should be avoided, but on the other hand, it may also have a clear function in a text. The aim of this article is to provide clarity by presenting a straightforward principle for the use of the passive voice in computer manuals. This “alternation principle,” in which active voice is used for user actions and the passive voice for automatic computer, is backed by results from recent functional and cognitive linguistic research. It is illustrated by means of fragments from several computer manuals, including some (apparent) counter-examples.