What we mean by meaning

Gesture ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fey Parrill ◽  
Eve Sweetser
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
The Relationship

Determining what a gesture “means” is an intuitive inferential process, which can profit from the application of a formalism which guides analysis. This paper uses a detailed exploration of a single example to illustrate the efficacy of the conceptual integration framework (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) in organizing and understanding the process of meaning construction, and particularly in helping the analyst to understand the relationship between iconicity and metaphor.

scholarly journals Conceptual integration theory and British humour: an analysis of the sitcom Miranda

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Jabłońska-Hood
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Mental Space ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
Emergent Structure ◽  
Conceptual Integration Theory ◽  
Different Levels

Conceptual integration theory (henceforth CIT), aka conceptual blending, was devised by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) as a model for meaning construction and interpretation. It is based on the notion of a mental space, which originated in Fauconnier's early research (1998). Mental spaces are structures that constitute information pertaining to a particular concept (Fauconnier and Turner 2002: 40). Interestingly, mental spaces can be linked together and blended so as to produce a novel quality not previously present. In this manner, conceptual integration serves the purpose of a theoretical model which throws light on creativity in language use. In my paper, I will apply CIT to British humour in order to use its multiway blending together with its dynamic, online running of the blended contents for the purpose of comedy elucidation. It is crucial to observe that British humour is a complex phenomenon which pertains to many different levels of interpretation, i.e. a linguistic, cultural or a discourse one. CIT possesses a well suited cognitive apparatus which can encompass the complexity of British humour with all its layers. The primary goal of the article is to analyse a selected scene from a sitcom entitled Miranda in order to show the validity of the theory in respect of humour studies. In particular, I will undertake to demonstrate that CIT, with a special emphasis on its principles such as compression and the emergent structure of the blend can deal with many processes that accumulate within British humour and result in laughter. Simultaneously, I will try to demonstrate that frame-shifting, as proposed by Coulson (2015: pp. 167-190), can be of help to CIT in humour explanation.

Implied narratives of medical practice in learning-for-doing texts: a simulation semantics approach to rhetorical analysis

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Oakley
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Semantic Approach ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Print Advertisements ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Simulation Semantics

The functional interdependence of word, image, narration, and reason is recognized as a fundamental condition of modern-day persuasion, yet a substantial gap still exists in our understanding of how static textual elements interact to generate dynamic, persuasive narratives. This article attempts to narrow that gap in understanding through the development of a simulation semantics approach to rhetorical analysis as applied to print advertisements in medical journals. Located within the broader field of cognitive linguistics, simulation semantics is a theory of linguistic meaning based on the hypothesis that language users run mental simulations of perceptual and motor content of experiences which distribute inferences from these simulations during language comprehension and production. Using the perspectives and methods of conceptual blending, a programmatic model of meaning construction developed by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) and elaborated by many associates (e.g. Brandt and Brandt, 2002; Coulson and Oakley, 2000), the article attempts to show how a simulation semantic approach can lead to cognitively plausible explanations of how persuasion works in a genre of print advertisements aimed at physicians and medical practitioners I call learning-for-doing. In addition, I seek to further refine conceptual blending theory as an interpretive framework by arguing for the need to incorporate the notion of a grounding space as well as the need to distinguish between conceptual blending and conceptual integration.

The role of echoing in meaning construction and interpretation

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-41
Author(s):  
Alicia Galera Masegosa
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Operation ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Echoic mention was initially proposed as part of the relevance-theoretic approach to irony (Sperber & Wilson, 1986). The aim of this article is to present an account of echoing as a cognitive operation that goes beyond (and yet includes) the interpretation of ironic remarks. For this purpose, we explore the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the production and interpretation of echoic uses of both ironic and non-ironic language. In the light of the examples under scrutiny, we claim that echoic mentions afford metonymic access to the echoed scenario, which is then contrasted with the observable scenario. The relationship between the two scenarios, which ranges from identity to contrast, passing through type-token similarity and metaphorical resemblance, determines the communicative purpose of the speaker, which may convey different kind of attitudes.

Blending and characters’ mental functioning in Virginia Woolf's ‘Lappin and Lapinova’

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Semino
Keyword(s):  
Mental Functioning ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
Married Life ◽  
Fantasy World ◽  
Female Protagonist ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
Emergent Structure ◽  
The Relationship

In this article I apply Fauconnier and Turner's (2002) theory of conceptual integration, or blending, to the analysis of a central aspect of the main characters’ mental lives in Virginia Woolf's story ‘Lappin and Lapinova’. The female protagonist of the story, Rosalind, has difficulties adjusting to her role as the new wife of Ernest Thorburn, and therefore constructs an alternative fantasy world where Ernest is a rabbit king called Lappin. At the beginning of their married life, Rosalind and Ernest develop this fantasy world together, and add to it a counterpart for Rosalind herself – a hare called Queen Lapinova. With the passing of time, Ernest loses interest in the fantasy, but Rosalind becomes increasingly dependent on it, so that Ernest's announcement of Lapinova's death at the end of the story also results in the ‘end’ of their marriage. In my analysis, I show how the ‘rabbit’ fantasy world can be described in terms of what Fauconnier and Turner (2002) call a conceptual integration network: a dynamic construct resulting from the interaction of different mental spaces and involving the creation of a blended space with ‘emergent structure’ of its own. In order to account for the different roles that the blended space plays for Rosalind as opposed to Ernest, I adopt Palmer's (2004) distinction between ‘intramental’ and ‘intermental’ functioning. I therefore describe the fantasy world as a multiple blend that begins as an intramental construct, develops into an intermental construct, and ends as a largely intramental construct once again, with serious implications for Rosalind's sanity and the relationship between the two main characters in the story.

Lexical templates within a functional cognitive theory of meaning

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 137-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Mairal-Usón ◽  
Pamela Faber
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Logical Structure ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Internal Variables ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Role And Reference Grammar ◽  
Reference Grammar ◽  
External Variables ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship

Within the context of the Lexical Constructional Model, which provides a comprehensive account of the relationship between syntax and all facets on meaning construction, this paper is concerned with one of the major representational modules of the model, viz. a lexical template. It is claimed that a lexical template consists of a semantic specification plus a logical structure. The logical structure formalism is constructed on the basis of Aktionsart distinctions proposed in Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin & Lapolla, 1997; Van Valin, 2005). Aktionsart regularities are captured by the external variables of the template, specified in Roman characters, and by a set of high-level elements of structure that function as semantic primitives. Lexical templates also contain internal variables, marked with Arabic numerals, and formally expressed in terms of a catalogue of lexical functions. These variables capture world-knowledge elements that relate in a way specific to the predicate defined by the lexical template. In order to test the viability of lexical templates, a detailed analysis of a set of verbs within the lexical domain of cognition is included.

scholarly journals COGNITIVE MODEL OF NONCE-WORDS FORMATION IN INTERNET DISCOURSE (ENGLISH POLITICAL FORUMS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (24) ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
M.M. Chetina ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Construction Process ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Cognitive Mechanism ◽  
Pragmatic Factor

The aim of the research is to analyze the cognitive mechanism of noncewords formation in the Internet discourse. The material of the studies is English political forums. The methodology of the research is the theory of conceptual integration of G. Fauconnier and M. Turner which makes it possible to study the cognitive mechanism of nonceword meaning generation and describe the properties and structure of its concept. The specific traits of the cognitivesemantic nonceword meaning construction process are: occasionality, occasional recatecorization of the concept, sensegeneration operators, pragmatic factor.

scholarly journals Combinatorial Syntagmatics: from the Theory of Valency to the Theory of Conceptual Integration

2018 ◽  
pp. 99-111
Author(s):  
A. V. Korolyova
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Compositional Semantics ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Complicated Problem ◽  
Language Level ◽  
Structural Linguistics ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The topical and complicated problem of modern linguistics has been examined in the article. It deals with the study of the processes and mechanisms of creating new senses by the various combinations of both language signs among themselves and the transformation of the meanings of ready-made signs. This problem was begun to be solved in structural linguistics by the representatives of the theory of valency and the theory of distribution. The following conclusion has been made: developing in parallel as two directions of syntagmatics, both the theory of valency and the theory of distribution caused a lot of discussions on their correlation between them, as well as with the understanding of the problem of compatibility in general. However, their representatives agreed that these categories are in a relationship of matching: inclusion, cohesion and interdependence. They are represented with two levels of combinatorial syntagmatics: while the language level is more typical for valency, then the speech one is, predominantly, for distribution. The particular attention is paid to a new cognitive view of the essence of the valency and distribution. It helps to assume that both notions are broadly understood to be cognitive categories that reflect the ability of native speakers to associate certain language signs in a specific communicative situation, usually called the context. It is pointed out that the development of this problem was reflected in the works of representatives of compositional semantics. They first focused their attention on studying the relationship among the configurations of components of complex signs from the cognitive point of view. The arguments are given to justify a new stage in the development of combinatorial syntagmatics, developed by J. Fauconnier and M. Turner, the supporters of the theory of the conceptual integration. According to it the creation of new senses by the configuration of language signs occurs in the system of mental spaces – the mental spheres (cognitive contexts reflected in the consciousness of the carriers of a certain language), connected with the comprehension by a person of various situations and having a cognitive status, i.e. with the process of cognition of the phenomena of the surrounding reality.

A COGNITIVE THEORETICAL INVESTIGATION OF CONCEPTUALIZING HINDI SARCASM

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
Kumar Sharma Sandeep ◽  
◽  
Sinha Sweta ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Theoretical Investigation ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Computational Studies ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
The Relationship

Several influential theories have been developed in cognitive linguistics to investigate the relationship between language and mind. Conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending, two distinct but closely related theories play a significant role in the process of meaning construction especially in metaphors and other figurative linguistic tools. Metaphors are pervasively used in everyday conversation in the form of irony, satire and sarcasm, etc. where sarcasm projects profoundly negative intention. Hence, the present research studies the process of conceptualization of sarcasm and its functions with special reference to the Hindi language within the framework of conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending theories. The study is an attempt to bridge the gap between computational studies of sarcasm and the theories underlying the phenomenon of perceiving sarcasm. The findings aim to provide a theoretical understanding of how Hindi sarcasm is perceived among native speakers.

The Nature of Psychotheology: Varieties of Conceptual Integration

1976 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clinton W. McLemore
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
General Society

The necessity of advancing psychotheological integration is argued. Then, four types of conceptual integration are outlined: Applying theoretical concepts or empirical findings to help Christians individually or collectively; pointing to the ontological and cosmological bases of such concepts or findings; exploring the relationship(s) between the psychological effects of responding to the gospel and the effects of such helping processes as psychotherapy; and, integration in the service of apologetics, i.e., endorsing the Christian faith from a platform of respect within the general society. Points of articulation between this taxonomy and others which have been proposed are highlighted.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document