Image Schemas Research Articles

利用意向表示及‘Stage Model’理論分析韓 · 中存在句

Based on Korean · Chinese existence sentences as the research object, try using Langacker ‘Stage Model’ theory analyze and illustration Korean · Chinese existence sentences in cognitive perspective of comparative. The purpose of this paper is through the contrast analysis, it is concluded that in the process of human cognitive Korean · Chinese existential sentence’s Image schema and its Stage Model. And explained the Korean · Chinese existence sentences on the fundamental cognitive difference as well as the structure of existential sentence in the presence of similarities and differences. Korean sentence ‘L에 T이/가 있다’ and Chinese sentence ‘L有T’ is basically in conformity with the principle of ‘integral part’ in the cognitive order. The areas with a larger cognitive range are in the presence of the smaller presence of people/things. But there are differences between the two languages. Korean ‘L에 T이/가 있다’ existential sentence attaches great importance to the existing ingredients. However, the Chinese ‘有’ existential sentence attaches great importance to the place ingredients. The similarity between Korean and Chinese lies in the same cognitive order. The difference is that the Korean language is due to a change in the order of observation in which the syntactic components are changed. In Chinese, it is because the profile has changed, which leads to the main profile, namely the change of the trajector. But in Korean the trajector is always existing ingredients.

Some design aspects of a cognitive user interface

We report on research conducted as part of the Universal Cognitive User Interface (UCUI) project, which aims at developing a universal, autarkic module for intuitive interaction with technical devices. First, we present an empirical study of image schemas as basic building blocks of human knowledge. Image schemas have been studied extensively in cognitive linguistics, but insufficiently in the context of human-computer-interaction (HCI). Some image schemas are developed early at pre-verbal stages (e.g., up-down) and may, thus, exert greater influence on human knowledge than later developed image schemas (e.g., centre-periphery). To investigate this for HCI contexts, we applied a speech interaction task using a Wizard of Oz paradigm. Our results show that users apply early image schemas more frequently than late image schemas. They should, therefore, be given preference in interface designs. In the second part of this contribution we therefore focus on the appropriate representation and processing of semantics. We introduce novel theoretical work including feature-values-relations and Petri net transducers, and discuss their impact on behaviour control of cognitive systems. In addition, we illustrate some details of the implementation regarding learning strategies and the graphical user interface.

LAYERS AND LEVELS: What a Column of Water Tells Us about Human Cognition

The notion of levels can be found in many everyday expressions, such as top-level destination, entry-level sales, low-level panic, high risk level, basic-level research, high level of care, level of meaning, level of knowledge, level of freedom, and level of importance. I argue that these are metaphorical expressions in which the respective abstract concepts can be understood in terms of the more palpable experience of the levels to which we are accustomed through the handling of liquids. By looking at the interaction between SCALE and ITERATION image schemas, this article examines an embodied interpretation of levels, layers and water columns in the context of containers to facilitate a better understanding of these experiences and their use as a source domain for conceptual metaphors in language, science and mathematics. The conceptual analysis in this paper is limited to English expressions.

Students’ Responses to CL-Based Teaching of English Prepositions

Purpose: Most EFL textbooks suggest the use of vivid pictures and verbal explanations in teaching English prepositions. However, this word class appears in collocations, and rote-learning does not really help learners retain and use this word class successfully. Cognitive linguistics (CL) has implications for English language teaching as it rests against the relationship between the human mind and language. Several experimental studies have aimed to investigate the effects of CL-based treatment on learners’ retention of target foreign or second language. However, most of these studies have not placed an emphasis on the learners’ opinions of CL-based teaching. This current study aimed to collect college students’ responses to CL-based teaching of English prepositions. Research Methods: The study was conducted for four weeks, with a 90-minute session each time per week. The students learned the spatial meanings and then the metaphorical meanings of the ten prepositions above, among, at, behind, beside, between, in, in front of, on, and under. Questionnaires were administered before the study to collect the participants’ opinions of the traditional teaching (primarily based on vivid pictures and verbal explanations) and after the study to collect the participants’ opinions of the CL-based teaching of the prepositions. The participants’ responses to the questionnaires were subject to comparison. Their responses in the interview after the study provided an in-depth qualitative analysis of the quantitative findings from the questionnaires. Results: All students generally showed positive opinions of the treatment and believed that the instructions were appropriate and positively affected their memories of the prepositions. They especially appreciated the use of image schemas to teach the semantics of the prepositions. Implications for Research and Practice: Most participants became more confident in both understanding and using the prepositions under CL-based teaching

The spatial logics of justification – the case of a dispute over a car-free street in Tampere, Finland

ABSTRACTThis article develops the spatial aspect of the justification theory of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot. The aim is to show that the worlds of justification, distinct constellations of moral values and material objects, also have distinct spatial logics. To illustrate my argument, I use a case study, namely a polarised dispute related to a car-free main street in Tampere, the third biggest city in Finland. I show that the spatial logics in this dispute are ordered by different types of image schemas, recurrent and shared visuospatial patterns depicted by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. I analyse image schemas to make visible the differences and similarities between the worlds of justification concerned. Developing the spatial aspect of justification theory makes possible a novel way to study disputes related to city and space, as well as controversies that are not obviously spatial. Human thinking is multimodal and entails visuospatial metaphors, even though its subject-matter might on occasion appear non-spatial.

On the Classification of Semantic Changes in Grammatical Metaphor

In terms of the correlations of grammatical metaphor, semantics and semogenesis, grammatical metaphor is studied as regard to its influence on semantic meanings. Theory of image schema in cognitive linguistic, together with the semantic analysis in semantics, is being adopted into the classification of change in semantic meanings, which is embedded in linguistic and non-linguistic level. Later it was found out that both ideational metaphor and interpersonal metaphor can create these four types of semantic changes, namely, semantic reduction, semantic addition, semantic inconsistence, and semantic reconstruction. Some human’s cognitive characteristics and cognitive processes are also revealed by this interdisciplinary approach of combining grammatical metaphor with other fields, such as cognitive linguistics and cognitive pragmatics.

Schematy mimetyczne realizowane w gestach

The aim of the article is to discuss the concept of mimetic schemas, proposed by Jordan Zlatev, and its application in the description of the semantics of iconic gestures. The mimetic schemas are characterized by greater details, and therefore a smaller degree of abstraction than the image schemas, which are most frequently used in the study of metaphors and gestures. The article will discuss the properties of mimetic schemes and their comparison with image schemas. The analytical part will present the results of research aimed at extracting these schemas based on the observation of gestures and statements of participants during three task sessions.

Blockage Image Schema in Translating George Herbert's " The Collar" into Arabic

The paper is intended to consider the possibility of translating poetic texts in the light of Image Schema (IS) theory. The paper argues for the applicability of this theory and its ability to deal with the problems of translating the texts understudy. To verify this argument, blockage IS is applied to the translation of Herbert's The Collar into Arabic. The results of the study have verified its argument. The paper ends up with a suggested translation of the poem as well as some conclusions based on the findings of the study.

基于语料库的中国英语学习者和英语本族语者介词from的搭配差异研究

本研究基于认知语言学意象图式和二语习得概念迁移理论，以词汇搭配为切入点，通过检索WECCL和BNC语料库介词from的搭配词，对比我国英语学习者和英语本族语者介词from的常用搭配词及其异同，并分析造成这种搭配现象的根本原因。研究发现我国英语学习者和英语本族语者介词from的常用搭配词存在很大差异，根本原因在于介词from的概念范畴与汉语介词“从”的概念范畴不同，发生了母语概念迁移，导致中国学习者对介词from的概念范畴的理解偏差和使用上的差异。根据研究结果，本研究针对英语介词的学习提出了三点教学建议。 Based on image schema and conceptual transfer of second language acquisition, by means of re-trieving collocates of “from” in WECCL and BNC corpus each, this research selects lexical collocates as the entry point in order to compare the differences in collocates of “from” of Chinese English Learners and English Native Speakers and analyze the fundamental reasons of them. The research finds that there is great differences in frequently-used collocates of “from” between Chinese English Learners and English Native Speakers. The radical reason lies in that the conceptual category of “from” is distinct from Chinese preposition “cong (从)”, which gives rise to the conceptual transfer of the mother language. As a result, Chinese English speakers have a different understanding of the conceptual category of “from” and different uses. According to the research result, the research puts forward three suggestions for the teaching methods of English prepositions.

Image Schemas in Romantic Poetry

Image Schemas in Romantic Poetry

Visual figures of musical form between musicological examination and auditory perception based on Morgan’s analysis of the “Tristan” Prelude

While Wagner and his music have been studied extensively from musicological and music-theoretical perspectives, recent scientific approaches shed light on perceptual processes implicated in the experience of Wagner’s music, yielding important insights into the (re)cognition of musical form. Since findings from such studies are mainly discussed within the realm of music psychology and rarely find their way (back) into musicological discourses, the starting point of the present study is a specific interpretation of form in the “Tristan” Prelude (Prelude to Tristan und Isolde) with a view to engaging in an exchange between music-theoretical and cognitive approaches (such as the theory of conceptual metaphor and image schema theory) to Wagner’s music. In his article “Circular form in the ‘Tristan’ Prelude”, Robert P. Morgan developed a new music-analytical approach to studying form in Wagner’s music, proposing that the musical form of the Prelude can be understood as a circle. Morgan provides an empirically-tractable hypothesis which was tested in a listening study with 45 participants to investigate the extent to which Morgan’s analytical shape is audibly perceived. Contrary to Morgan’s circular interpretation of form in the “Tristan” Prelude, the findings of our study suggest the primacy of a different visual figure, the spiral. However, recourse to the analytic discourse suggests that the spiral can be understood as a further development of Morgan’s figure of thought, synthesizing representations of the Prelude's repetition and development by capturing its unique coincidence of both linearity and circularity. This approach to understanding the “Tristan” Prelude demonstrates how applying music-theoretical and cognitive science approaches gives rise to a fruitful dialogue for both disciplines.

The poetics of reality: Liūnė Sutema’s case

The main aim of the article is to analyze two poems by Liūnė Sutema using the instrument of Cognitive Poetics. The author of the article does not intend to present a review of poetical strategies chosen by Liūnė Sutema or to oppose the attitudes of researchers interested in her creative work, but tries to reveal possible ways of interaction of Liūnė Sutema’s poems with the reader by emphasizing particular configurations of image schemas, looking for specific textual elements which can attract the reader’s attention, and heightening the relations between the figure and the ground. Having in mind the definition of poetical iconicity suggested by Margaret Freeman, it could be said that Liūnė Sutema manages to convey the experience of precategorical reality constructing dynamic poetical images and particular landscapes, which produce the effect of emotional diffusion, and creating subtle deviations from the normal emotional energetic level. Those deviations are marked by voluminous images and their visual characteristics. The instrument of Cognitive Poetics lets us define the unique quality of Liūnė Sutema’s poetry which most often is being defined metaphorically.

Curb Your Embodiment

To explain how abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor experiences, several theories have been proposed. I will discuss two of these proposals, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Situated Cognition, and argue why they do not fully explain grounding. A central idea in Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that image schemas ground abstract concepts in concrete experiences. Image schemas might themselves be abstractions, however, and therefore do not solve the grounding problem. Moreover, image schemas are too simple to explain the full richness of abstract concepts. Situated cognition might provide such richness. Research in our laboratory, however, has shown that even for concrete concepts, sensory-motor grounding is task dependent. Therefore, it is questionable whether abstract concepts can be significantly grounded in sensory-motor processing.

Conceptualization of motion in communicative space in English

Abstract The study of space and motion in space as well as its further verbalization remains one of the topical issues of present-day linguistic research, though motion in personal space still needs a more detailed analysis. This paper analyzes English verbalization of movement in communicative space from a cognitive linguistic perspective. It aims at revealing specific features of the constructions under study by applying such a theoretical tool of cognitive linguistics as image schemas.

THE USE OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS APPROACH IN ELT: IMPLEMENTING IMAGE SCHEMA THEORY TO TEACH PHRASAL VERBS IN TOEFL PREPARATION CLASS

Dealing with phrasal verbs (PV) in TOEFL test is one of challengingpartsfor students. They usually learn PV by heart. Nevertheless, their PV mastery has not improved because implementing “blind” memorizing without knowing the concept is harder and will only stay temporarily. Besides, it cannot solve the unfamiliar PV in TOEFL test. Based on the problems, it needs a particular method to make students do not only understand PV meaning easier but also learn it meaningfully. This research is classroom action research. It aims to investigate the students’ improvement in PV mastery using cognitive linguistics approach. The research objects are beginner level of adult learners in TOEFL Preparation class. The data were collected from observation, interview and written test. Cognitive linguistics approach employed in this research was image schema introduced by Johnson and Lakoff (1987).In image schema concept, PV which has abstract meaning is construed in a concrete visualization of CONTAINER to understand the meaning more easily, practical and fun. By implementing cognitive linguistics approach in teaching PV, teachers activate students’ cognition of PV concept which is basically embodied as it arises from human’s mind and body experience. The result shows that there is significant improvement in students’ PV mastery.

Image schemas across modes and across cultures: Communicating horror in Philip Roth’sNemesisand Ridley Scott’sAlien

This paper examines two cultural texts, Philip Roth’s Nemesis and Ridley Scott’s Alien, based on cognitive linguistic approaches to figurative language in communication, cognitive metaphor theory and its pragmalinguistic applications. It explores how far very similar image schemas are functionally employed across modes and genres to communicate a certain affect, in this case horror, to a global, culturally diverse audience. The results are put into the perspective of ongoing debates about the universality and variation of metaphors and image schemas across types of texts and, in extrapolation, across cultures. The paper aims to contribute to discussions about the functions and modalities of intercultural transfers of literature and popular culture, combining the cognitive, the linguistic and the cultural dimension of literary texts communicating across cultures.

The creative mind: cognition, society and culture

This article provides an overview of the main tendencies and ideas in the embodied mind paradigm in the expanding field of modern cognitive science. The focus is not on the biological and neurological aspects of cognitive science, rather the article demonstrates how basic concepts and theories from cognitive science have influenced linguistics, sociology, the understanding of art and creativity, film and film perception, as well as our understanding of historical film narratives and mediated memories. Although these areas of humanities and social science may seem unrelated, this article demonstrates how the embodied mind paradigm has actually forged links between separate scientific disciplines. Cognitive science and the embodied mind theory have created a stronger interdisciplinary connection between cognitive understanding in social science and humanities. Metaphors and image schema, the way our brain relies on narrative structures, the dynamic ability of the brain to blend old and new schemas, and the unparalleled creativity of the brain are all part of the approaches of the cognitive social science and humanities to social interaction, communication and creativity described here. The article also discusses the relationship between the more universal dimensions of the human mind and the question of cultural and social variations. The argument here is that a cognitive and more universal theory of human beings is not the same as determinism. On the contrary, when we understand our universal commonalities and the basic functions of our embodied mind we will also be better placed to understand cultural and social differences and variations.

Image-schematic scaffolding in textual and visual artefacts

This paper expands the understanding of how image schemas, while essentially spatial in nature, allow more complex concepts involving non-spatial elements to emerge later. We suggest that the explanation requires adding viewpoint characterization to the concept of image schemas. It is their viewpoint affordances which allow image schemas to form the conceptual scaffolding which becomes subsequently enriched through frames, applied metaphorically, and/or blended with textual and/or visual representations, yielding new and complex meanings in a wide array of multimodal artefacts. As a case in point we study examples instantiating the barrier schema across a wide range of text types (poetry, prose, political discourse) as well as in visual and material artefacts such as cartoons, graffiti or film, showing how people ‘fill in’ the skeletal structure of a barrier, through frames, metaphors and blends, often resulting in a changed embodied interaction with the barrier (characterized by restricted permeability, mobility, vision, or control) or a reconstrual of its materiality, making it (fictively) permeable, transparent, etc. The cross-modality approach we adopt in this research supports the idea that image schemas are not just linguistic (i.e. prompted and maintained through language) but truly conceptual and psychologically real.

Primary metaphors: Importance as size and weight in a comparative perspective

ABSTRACTThis is a linguistic study of two primary metaphors with the same target-domain concept, “IMPORTANCE IS SIZE” and “IMPORTANCE IS WEIGHT,” in English and Chinese. It is suggested that these two primary metaphors are derived from the OBJECT image schema, abstracted from our embodied, sensorimotor experience, especially our visual and tactile perception, in dealing with physical objects in everyday life. The study focuses on size and weight adjectives in both languages and on linguistic evidence in two areas: their lexicalizations of the importance senses as found in the dictionaries, and their roles in the instantiation of the two primary metaphors in natural discourse as found in the corpora. Our further analysis also shows that the primary metaphors can be manifested without explicit use of size and weight words when relevant conceptual frames in the source, evoked by other words or images, are mapped onto the target domain, thus activating the relevant region of our encyclopedic knowledge and triggering off the primary metaphors in our conceptual system. We also construct a hypothetical mapping scheme for primary metaphors based on the OBJECT image schema, in which OBJECT is mapped onto its target via three of its fundamental dimensions: SIZE, WEIGHT, and SOLIDITY. It is hoped that this mapping scheme will benefit future comparative studies of primary metaphors across languages and cultures in a more systematic way.

An image schema to promote a better understanding of emotions of characters in narrative

An image schema to promote a better understanding of emotions of characters in narrative