8. Cognitive Grammar

1991 ◽  
pp. 275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald W. Langacker
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Grammar

Attitude Datives in Social Context – The Analytic Tools

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef A. Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
Present Material ◽  
Situational Context ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
Activity Types ◽  
Contextualization Cues

This chapter defines attitude datives as evaluative and relational pragmatic markers that allow the speaker to present material from a specific perspective and to invite the hearer to view the material from the same perspective. It identifies three types of context that are pertinent to the analysis of these datives. These are the sociocultural context (e.g., values, beliefs), the situational context (i.e., identities, activity types), and the co-textual context (e.g., contextualization cues). The chapter draws on Cognitive Grammar and Theory of Stance and puts forth a sociocognitive model called the stancetaking stage model. In this model, when a speaker uses an attitude dative construction, she directs her hearer’s attention to the main content of her message and instructs him to view this content through the attitude dative as a filter. In this sense, the attitude dative functions as a perspectivizer and the main content becomes a perspectivized thought.

Tvorbeni Potencial Glagolskih Novotvorjenk Na -Ing + -Irati V Slovenščini

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 572-580
Author(s):  
Irena Stramljič Breznik
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Slovene Language

Abstract The paper focuses on new verbal formations in Slovene coined from borrowed nouns ending in -ing with the Slovenian morpheme -irati (e.g. šoping-irati) on the basis of analogous phonological and semantic structures in the language, and examines their spread in the sphere of informal language use. The word­formational potential of such verbs is further examined with the basic categories of cognitive grammar, such as morphemic transparency, schematicity of the word­formational pattern and the established status of the phonemic sequence *ingira* in the previously existing lexical units of the Slovene language.

Fossilized mistakes in Spanish relative clauses learned by Chinese students

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Guijarro Sanz
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Restrictive Relative Clauses ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This article demonstrates how Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar can prevent Chinese students learning Spanish from fossilizing mistakes in restrictive relative clauses at the A2-B1 level of the European Framework of Reference for Languages. To address this issue, first, relative clauses in Spanish and Chinese were contrasted and, second, tailored solutions based on Cognitive Grammar were proposed. Among the cognitive based tailored solutions, certain geometry forms, colours and basic mathematics metaphors were compared with syntactic characteristics such as noun order, subordination hierarchy or resumption. To elucidate the impact of such teaching methods, an experiment with 74 Chinese students was performed. The results indicate that the efficacy of the proposed materials is statistically significant and as such, the Chinese students avoid fossilized mistakes while producing subject, object and locative relative clauses in Spanish.

World-switch and mind style in The Barracks: a cognitive approach to ideology

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Salvador Alarcón-Hermosilla
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
World View ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Linguistic Level

Abstract The aim of this paper is to take a close look at John McGahern’s mind style through the language of the heroine Elizabeth Reegan and other characters, in his 1963 novel The Barracks. Specifically, attention will be drawn to how the linguistic choices shape the figurative language to cast the author’s controversial views on the religion-pervaded puritan Irish society that he knew so well. This will be done from two different perspectives. One perspective is through the breast cancer afflicted heroine, who asserts herself as a free thinker and a woman of science, in a society where priests have a strong influence at all social levels, and most women settle for housekeeping. The other is also through Elizabeth, together with other minor characters, who dare question some of the basic well-established ideological assumptions, in a series of examples where the author skilfully raises two parallel dichotomies, namely, FAITH versus REASON, and DARKNESS versus LIGHT. At a linguistic level, the present analysis relies on precepts from Frame Semantics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Cognitive Grammar. These insights prove a most useful method of approach to a narrative text while unearthing the author’s ideological world view.

How Saussure is misinterpreted in Cognitive Grammar

Semiotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (239) ◽  
pp. 243-264
Author(s):  
Yanfei Zhang ◽  
Shaojie Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Ferdinand De Saussure ◽  
Internal Relation ◽  
Inherent Nature

Abstract As the father of modern linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure influences all aspects of linguistic development with no exception of Cognitive Grammar. A scrutiny of how Saussure is understood in Cognitive Grammar indicates that Saussurean linguistics is misinterpreted in terms of five core ideas: (1) langue, rather than parole, is given highest priority; (2) the internal relation of “signifier-signified” counts as the pairing of “form-meaning”; (3) “arbitrariness” is contradictory to “symbolicity”; (4) “arbitrariness” means “unmotivatedness”; (5) arbitrariness is not the inherent nature of morphological and syntactic structures. This paper is intended to reassess these five ideas and argue that they depart further from Saussure’s thought.

Null se constructions in Brazilian and European Portuguese: morphosyntactic deletion or emergence of new constructions?

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Augusto Soares da Silva ◽  
Susana Afonso ◽  
Dafne Palú ◽  
Karlien Franco
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Important Predictor ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Multivariate Statistical Methods ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
The Moment

Abstract Se constructions designate a set of polysemous constructions along a transitivity continuum marked by the clitic se that perform various functions: reflexive/reciprocal, middle, anticausative, passive, and impersonal. A counterpart of these constructions without the clitic – the null se construction – is also attested. Based on an extensive usage-feature and profile-based analysis, and using multivariate statistical methods, we analyze, considering Cognitive Grammar, the conceptual, structural, and lectal factors that determine the choice between overt and null se constructions. The results of the study show that the null constructions are far more frequent in Brazilian (BP) than in European Portuguese (EP). In BP, the focus on the moment of change is a crucial factor for the overt/null variation in reflexive/reciprocal, middle, anticausative, and impersonal constructions. If the moment of the change of state is profiled, the overt se construction is usually produced. If the moment of change is not profiled, the null se construction is preferred. External factors also play a role in the variation. Register is an important predictor for the observed variation of the anticausative construction, and the only predictor for the overt/null variation in the case of the passive construction. In EP, the null se variant is mainly limited to anticausative constructions. In all cases of null constructions, there is a shift to an absolute construal, which has an impact on the way that the transitivity continuum is conceptualized.

The grammar of temporal motion: A Cognitive Grammar account of motion metaphors of time

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Huumo
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Metaphorical Meaning ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Temporal Function ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Metaphorical Expression

AbstractRecent groundbreaking work in cognitive linguistics has revealed the semantic complexity of motion metaphors of time and of temporal frames of reference. In most approaches the focus has been on the clause-level metaphorical meaning of expressions, such as Moving Ego (We are approaching the end of the year) and Moving Time (both Ego-centered, as in The end of the year is approaching and field-based, as in Boxing Day follows Christmas Day). The detailed grammatical structure of these metaphorical expressions, on the other hand, has received less attention. Such details include both elements that contribute to the metaphorical meaning and those that have a non-metaphorical temporal function, e. g., tense and (central features of) aspect. I propose a model for the analysis of metaphorical expressions, building on earlier work in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG). I approach the grammatical structure of metaphorical expressions by analyzing the interplay between veridical and metaphorical systems of expressing temporal relations. I argue that these systems relate to two relevant conceptualizations of time. Veridical time (VT) is the non-metaphorical conceptualization of time, where the processual profile of the clause-level metaphorical expression resides. A metaphorical path (MP) is the metaphorical conceptualization of time as a path occupied by the metaphorical motion. A motion metaphor of time tracks the mover’s changing position on the MP against VT. I show how metaphorical expressions based on a motion verb differ from those based on a prepositional construction in grammatical and semantic terms, and how tense and aspect contribute to the conceptualization of the motion scenario. I argue that tense grounds the metaphorical motion event with respect to the speech event. All the participants in the motion event, as well as the metaphorical path itself, are present in each subsequent configuration tracked against VT by the conceptualizer. Thus tense has a wide scope over the motion scenario with Ego’s ‘now’ as a reference point, while Ego’s ‘now’ cannot serve for grounding of tense. This is why expressions such as *The meeting is difficult ahead of us are not acceptable.

Dutch manner of motion verbs: Disentangling auxiliary choice, telicity and syntactic function

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maaike Beliën,
Keyword(s):  
Local Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
General Consensus ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Syntactic Function ◽  
Syntactic Status

AbstractDutch manner of motion verbs play a prominent role in the literature on unaccusativity. As these verbs can take both hebben ‘have’ and zijn ‘be’ as their perfective auxiliaries, they are considered to show both unergative and unaccusative behavior. The general consensus is that these verbs normally take hebben, yet occur with zijn if they are ‘telicized’ by an endpoint, and that the auxiliaries are diagnostics for the syntactic status of prepositional phrases (PPs). The paper presents attested data that reveal that this generalization is untenable: there are examples that take the opposite auxiliary from what the generalization predicts. To account for the full set of data, the paper takes a cognitive-grammar perspective, arguing that auxiliary choice, telicity and syntactic status of PPs are independent issues requiring their own explanations. Auxiliary choice is analyzed in terms of alternate construals of a motion event: with hebben as a type of act and with zijn as a change of location. In this manner, the paper adds to a growing body of literature that questions the usefulness of the coarse unergative–unaccusative distinction, advocating a ‘local analysis’ instead.

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