Italian split intransitivity and image schemas

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 77-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalya I. Stolova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Single Parameter ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Semantic View ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Mismatch Problem ◽  
Auxiliary Selection ◽  
Image Schema ◽  
Split Intransitivity ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

This paper explores the choice between the auxiliaries BE and HAVE with Italian intransitive verbs. Most attempts to account for split intransitivity in Italian, as well as in other Romance languages, can be roughly grouped into two categories: the syntactic perspective and the semantic view. In this article I propose that instead of attempting to identify one single parameter responsible for the choice between BE and HAVE, the Romanists should, as our colleagues in other language families have already done, consider the auxiliary selection in terms of a combination of motivations related to the speakers’ conceptualization of the event and to their access to the relevant image schema. This proposition prompts us to reassess the conclusions previously reached by researchers working with aphasic subjects. In addition, it fosters integration between cognitive linguistics and neuroscience by providing a solution to the so-called “Granularity Mismatch Problem.”

scholarly journals Image Schema-Based Instruction in English Grammar

2016 ◽  
Vol 2015 (1) ◽  
pp. 285
Author(s):  
Mayu Shintani
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Private University ◽  
Schema Theory ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Image Schema ◽  
Based Instruction

Cognitive linguistics has been aimed at revealing the very nature of language for the last several decades. One of the field’s most significant contributions has been the abstraction of the general patterns, or image schemas, underlying grammatical concepts. In this paper, we propose that English grammar-teaching methods adopting image schema theory offer strong benefits for language teaching. As schematic explanations given to learners are more visible and comprehensible than ordinary verbal-based ones, this method offers a clearer and more engaging way to understand the target grammar. We also present data collected from experiments conducted with more than 400 native Japanese-speaking students at one national and one private university that support the effectiveness of this method. 認知言語学は産声をあげてここ数十年の間，人間の言語の真の姿を明らかにすることに専心してきた。この学問分野がつまびらかにしてきた数々の言語現象のうち，最も有益な成果のひとつにイメージ図式理論の構築があげられる。イメージ図式とは文法および語彙構造のひな形となるものである。本論文は認知言語学のイメージ図式理論を応用した英文法教材の学習効果を一国立大学と一私立大学に学ぶ400人以上の日本人学部生を対象に行った実験結果をもとに実証的な知見から論じている。

Case assignment and image schemas

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Image Schema ◽  
Locative Case

The notion of image schema has received a great deal of attention in cognitive linguistics. In this paper, image schemas are applied to an analysis of case assignment in Russian temporal adverbials. My focus will be on prepositional phrases headed by v ‘in’ followed by a noun phrase in the accusative or the second locative case. This approach, it is argued, facilitates the formulation of simple generalizations. While the paper focuses on data from a single language, the proposed analysis has wider ramifications for the study of case, since it is argued that that image schema-based analyses have quite general advantages over those couched in terms of distinctive features.

scholarly journals Unaccusativity and Perfect Auxiliary Selection in Romance: Theory and an Observational Study in Second Language Acquisition

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Sams
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Observational Study ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Auxiliary Selection ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
Selection Of

The aim of this paper is to investigate the properties associated with unaccusativity and the selection of auxiliary verbs (AUX) in the perfect tenses of the modern Romance languages. The modern languages that have a split-AUX system (such as Italian and French) operate under a principle in which some intransitive verbs select the equivalent of to be as their AUX in the compound past tenses, and others select the equivalent of to have. In research I have conducted over the past decade in the Italian language classroom, Bentley and Eythórsson’s auxiliary selection hierarchy (ASH) is best suited to explain how L2 Italian learners acquire the ability to make the appropriate surface AUX selection.

Split intransitivity in English

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 557-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES BAKER
Keyword(s):  
State Change ◽  
Traditional Notion ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Auxiliary Selection ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Split Intransitivity ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

This article proposes a hierarchy of functional heads encoding the features [±control], [±initiation], [±state], [±change] and [±telic] (see Ramchand 2008). It is argued that this allows for a superior analysis of split intransitivity in English than the traditional notion of ‘unaccusativity’ – the idea that there are two classes of intransitive verbs which differ in relation to the underlying status/positions of their arguments. Rather, it is shown – on the basis of a systematic consideration of a wide range of English verbs – that the proposed diagnostics for unaccusativity in English identify multiple classes, whose behaviour can be captured in terms of the proposed hierarchy. Good correlation is found between the classes identified by the English diagnostics and Sorace's (2000) Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy (ASH), providing further support for the cross-linguistic applicability of the ASH to split intransitive patterns.

Exploring image schemas as a critical concept: Toward a critical-cognitive linguistic account of image-schematic interactions

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-Yu Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Abstract Reasoning ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Image Schema ◽  
Linguistic Account

AbstractThis article aims to advance the study of “image schemas” by drawing on insights not only from cognitive linguistics but also from critical linguistics. It highlights five specific features possessed by “image schemas”: (1) their serving as a bridge between concrete, sensorimotor experience and abstract reasoning; (2) their being emergent patterns created and evoked when people engage in understanding language; (3) their function of superimposition (i. e. interactions among image schemas); (4) their insinuation of a plus-minus parameter (i. e. the tendency of the opposing parts of an image schema to be more positively or negatively valued); and (5) their static and dynamic nature. It will also briefly address how image schemas, metaphors and socio-cultural values are entwined. The critical-cognitive perspective calls for the view of “situated” image schemas in discourse. By way of illustration, I will analyze two Chinese Zen poems. The analysis will pay special attention to imageschematic patterns and their significance in the interface between discourse, cognition, and worldview.

scholarly journals Choosing the Right Path: Image Schema Theory as a Foundation for Concept Invention

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria M. Hedblom ◽  
Oliver Kutz ◽  
Fabian Neuhaus
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Path Following ◽  
Schema Theory ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Creative Thought ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Image Schema ◽  
The Right

AbstractImage schemas are recognised as a fundamental ingredient in human cognition and creative thought. They have been studied extensively in areas such as cognitive linguistics. With the goal of exploring their potential role in computational creative systems, we here study the viability of the idea to formalise image schemas as a set of interlinked theories. We discuss in particular a selection of image schemas related to the notion of ‘path’, and show how they can be mapped to a formalised family of microtheories reflecting the different aspects of path following. Finally, we illustrate the potential of this approach in the area of concept invention, namely by providing several examples illustrating in detail in what way formalised image schema families support the computational modelling of conceptual blending.

scholarly journals The Role of the “Path” and the “Container” Image Schemas in Political Discourse in Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. p123
Author(s):  
Dr. Raphael Francis Otieno
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Schema Theory ◽  
Target Domain ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Image Schema

The study of conceptual interaction has attracted the attention of many scholars in Cognitive Linguistics. Primarily, the analysis has focused on the role of image-schemas in the construction of metaphors. This study explores the PATH and the CONTAINER image-schemas and the role they play in conceptual formation of metaphors in political discourse in Kenya. The study presents the PATH and its subsidiary image schemas of Verticality, Process and Force-Motion and the CONTAINER image-schema and the subsidiary image-schemas of Excess and In-Out. The analysis reveals that both the PATH and the CONTAINER image-schemas structure the relationship between the source domains (journey and container) and the target domain (politics) by activating subsidiary image-schemas in metaphors of politics in Kenya. The study further reveals that image-schemas provide the axiological value (positive or negative) of metaphorical expressions in political discourse. A positive political environment is a key ingredient for green growth and knowledge economy. The study contributes to the field of metaphor in political discourse by examining the politicians’ conceptualization of politics as a journey, which consists of four structural elements (a source, a destination, contiguous locations which connect the source and the destination and a direction) and as a container, which consists of an interior, an exterior and a boundary. The study used the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as a tool to establish conceptual metaphors used during the 2005 Draft Constitution referendum campaigns in Kenya and the Image-Schema Theory to account for the presence of image-schemas in political discourse in Kenya. Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory is the locus classicus of the image schema theory.

Morpho-syntactic Variation in Romance v: A Micro-parametric Approach

Probus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-437
Author(s):  
Ángel J. Gallego
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Parametric Approach ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
University Of Leiden ◽  
Parametric Variation ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Auxiliary Selection ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Syntactic Properties

AbstractThis paper discusses a series of morpho-syntactic properties of Romance languages that have the functional projection vP as its locus, showing a continuum that goes from strongly configurational Romance languages to partially configurational Romance languages. It is argued that v-related phenomena like Differential Object Marking (DOM), participial agreement, oblique clitics, auxiliary selection, and others align in a systematic way when it comes to inflectional properties that involve Case-agreement properties. In order to account for the facts, I argue for a micro-parametric approach whereby v can be associated with an additional projection subject to variation (cf. D’Alessandro, Merging Probes. A typology of person splits and person-driven differential object marking. Ms., University of Leiden, 2012; Microvariation and syntactic theory. What dialects tell us about language. Invited talk given at the workshop The Syntactic Variation of Catalan and Spanish Dialects, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, June 26–28, 2013; Ordóñez, Cartography of postverbal subjects in Spanish and Catalan. In Sergio Baauw, Frank AC Drijkoningen & Manuela Pinto (eds.), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2005: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’, Utrecht, 8–10 December 2005, 259–280. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007). I label such projection “X,” arguing that its feature content and position varies across Romance. More generally, the present paper aims at contributing to our understanding of parametric variation of closely related languages by exploiting the intuition, embodied in the so-called Borer-Chomsky Conjecture, that linguistic variation resides in the functional inventory of the lexicon.

scholarly journals The Path to Neutralization: Image Schemas and Prefixed Motion Verbs

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Principled Explanation ◽  
Image Schema

This paper investigates the path image schema in Russian motion verbs. It is argued that this image schema provides a principled explanation why Russian has a contrast between unidirectional and non-directional unprefixed motion verbs, but no such contrast for prefixed verbs.

Image schemas and mimetic schemas in cognitive linguistics and gesture studies

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Cienki
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Gesture Studies ◽  
Recent Theoretical Development ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Logical Extension

Image schemas have been a fundamental construct in cognitive linguistics, providing grounds for psychological, philosophical, as well as linguistic research. Given the focus in cognitive linguistics on embodied experience as a fundamental basis for language structure and meaning, the employment of image schemas in the analysis of gesture with speech is a logical extension. However, given their level of abstraction, to what degree do image schemas provide a useful explanatory tool for researching the concrete, physically embodied details of gestures? This article considers the answer to this question and then turns to a more recent theoretical development that complements the picture by encompassing a different realm of cognitive and linguistic phenomena. This research, on ‘mimetic schemas’, is shown to have great potential for thinking about some known phenomena of gesture in a new way. Schema research on these different levels thus provides a useful means to analyze behavior in another modality involved in spoken language use, namely the visual.

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