Lexicography and cognitive linguistics

Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses ◽  
Szilvia Csabi

The lexicon of a language is not an unstructured list of words. In this paper, we exemplify some of the basic conceptual structures that cognitive linguists work with and we discuss their potential applications to lexicographic work. Specifically, we focus on the possible advantages of using cognitive linguistics as a theoretical background in the structuring of entries, meanings, and idioms in dictionaries. In connection with these organizational issues, we discuss the knowledge-based organization of the mental lexicon (known as conceptual frames), and a type of organization of the mental lexicon that seems to be much more characteristic of Hungarian than of English: organization according to certain “root morphemes.” We also deal with the conceptualization of an element within a topic area through another element within the same topic area (known as conceptual metonymy), the conceptualization of a topic area in terms of another topic area (known as conceptual metaphor); and the internal organization of the various senses of a word-concept (known as polysemy). We devote a section to idioms and their role as well as possible arrangement in the dictionary. Such thematic structures have, on the whole, remained outside the focus of everyday lexicographic practice. Here, we hope to demonstrate their importance and usefulness.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Sullivan

Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) aims to represent the conceptual structure of metaphors rather than the structure of metaphoric language. The theory does not explain which aspects of metaphoric language evoke which conceptual structures, for example. However, other theories within cognitive linguistics may be better suited to this task. These theories, once integrated, should make building a unified model of both the conceptual and linguistic aspects of metaphor possible. First, constructional approaches to syntax provide an explanation of how particular constructional slots are associated with different functions in evoking metaphor. Cognitive Grammar is especially effective in this regard. Second, Frame Semantics helps explain how the words or phrases that fill the relevant constructional slots evoke the source and target domains of metaphor. Though these theories do not yet integrate seamlessly, their combination already offers explanatory benefits, such as allowing generalizations across metaphoric and non-metaphoric language, and identifying the words that play a role in evoking metaphors, for example.


Author(s):  
Rodney Oudan

Electronic commerce is changing the traditional way of doing business and furthermore the growth of the Internet is creating new opportunities for business.  This paper discusses how the nature of electronic commerce affects strategic decision-making. First, some features of electronic commerce are identified that distinguish it from traditional business - new markets and knowledge-based competition.  This is followed by a review of literature on the theoretical background of e-commerce an academic consideration on what are e-commerce strategies.  This paper then introduces some of the most common strategic tools used in decision –making, concepts for creating competitive advantage and value chains. Porter’s Value Chain Theory, Five Forces Model is examined in the emerging world of e-commerce, as well as generic competitive strategies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-93
Author(s):  
Marcos Gonzalez

Problematizamos o conceito de informação, sob a perspectiva da Linguística Sociocognitiva, em especial da teoria da metáfora conceptual e da teoria dos frames semânticos, a fim de verificar se a terminologia predominante da Ciência da Informação (CI) é próxima do “senso comum”, como querem alguns autores da área. De fato, pudemos descrever o esquema cognitivo em que o conceito de informação é produtivo. Identificamos um componente da metáfora do canal, a metáfora INFORMAÇÃO É CONTEÚDO, capaz de confirmar a suspeita dos epistemólogos da CI e ir além: ela revela uma maneira mecânica de “falar sobre comunicação” que é de um “senso comum” desde há muitos séculos. Qual “senso comum”? Argumentando que a metáfora INFORMAÇÃO É CONTEÚDO faz mais sentido no contexto da comunicação escrita do que na falada, sugerimos uma revisão crítica dos efeitos que o letramento em massa aos seis anos poderia estar provocando na mentalidade ocidental: ao valorizar a escrita, tecnologia fundamental para a sustentabilidade das “sociedades da informação”, estaremos negligenciando a oralidade e, em consequência, negando nossa humanidade? THE COMMONSENSE OF INFORMATION: TEMPESTIVE QUESTIONSAbstractWe problematize the concept of information, from the perspective of socio-cognitive linguistics, especially that from the conceptual metaphor and semantic frames theories, in order to check whether the prevailing terminology of the Information Science (IS) is close to the “commonsense”, as some authors whish. In fact, we describe a cognitive scheme in which the concept of information is productive. A component of the conduit metaphor, INFORMATION IS CONTENT, seems to confirm the suspicion of IS epistemologists and more: it reveals a mechanical way to “speek about communication” that is a “commonsense” for centuries. Which “commonsense”? Arguing that the metaphor INFORMATION IS CONTENT makes more sense in the context of written language than in spoken one, we suggest a critical review of the effects that mass literacy at age six could be causing in Western mind: giving prestige to the writing language, a key technology for the sustainability of “information societies”, are we neglecting orality and therefore denying our humanity?


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-78
Author(s):  
Akhmad Saifudin

 Hara simply means belly, but for Japanese people it means more than physical. Hara is a concept, an important concept related to Japanese human life. This paper discusses the conceptualization of hara image for Japanese people. The study utilizes 25 idioms that contain hara ‘belly’ word that are obtained from several dictionaries of Japanese idioms. This paper is firmly grounded in cognitive linguistics, which relates linguistic expressions to human cognitive experience. The tool for analysis employed in this paper is the “conceptual metaphor theory” pioneered by Lakoff and Johnson. This theory considers human perception, parts of the body, and people’s worldview as the basis for the structure of human language. The analysis of this paper results that metaphorically, hara ‘belly’ is an entity and a container, which contains important elements for humans, such as life, mind, feeling, mentality, and physical. The concept of hara 'belly' for Japanese people is to have a spiritual, psychological, social and cultural, biological, and physical image. Keywords: conceptualization, conceptual metaphor, hara ‘belly’,  idioms, imagee.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Paliczuk

The conceptualization of space is manifested in language through diverse linguistic structures. Space, one of the most significant analytical categories not only in linguistics, introduces a variety of senses and conceptual relations in the construction of communicative meaning. While there are several approaches to linguistic studies, the most obvious choice for this type of analysis seems to be Cognitive Linguistics, with some of its theoretical currents and the Cognitive Grammar of Ronald W. Langacker (1987, 1991a, 1991b, 1995, 2008) in particular. In his works, Langacker often refers to spatial and visual relationships that provide useful illustrations to depict different conceptual structures and relationships. Indeed, the relations between visual perception and conceptualization concerns numerous aspects of the semantics of natural language (E. Tabakowska, 1999: 59). The paper aims to analyse the concept of the Italian verb ‘mettere’ (‘to put’), apparently simple and yet, as it will be shown, rich and varied in meaning.


Author(s):  
S.G. Vinogradova ◽  

The article opens with a brief overview of approaches to the study of secondary phenomena in the linguistic worldview. In particular, the author indicates the main reasons for secondary meaning formation including linguistic economy based on minimum of efforts aspiration and the associative and creative nature of human thinking. The author argues that in the framework of cognitive linguistics secondary meanings result from interpretation and the accompanying conceptual derivation and metarepresentation as processes of cognition. Such processes reflect a new understanding of the previously acquired knowledge, generating secondary conceptual structures, and choosing best ways of their anchoring in language considering cognitive dominants of linguistic consciousness as certain templates for construing reality through language. In the context of the above processes, the author examines secondary phenomena of the linguistic worldview analysing the examples of lexical and grammatical units of the English language. The discussion is focused on the outcomes of word formation in lexis, secondary interjections, secondary predicative structures, composite sentences.


Author(s):  
Samir Rohatgi ◽  
James H. Oliver ◽  
Stuart S. Chen

Abstract This paper describes the development of OPGEN (Opportunity Generator), a computer based system to help identify areas where a knowledge based system (KBS) might be beneficial, and to evaluate whether a suitable system could be developed in that area. The core of the system is a knowledge base used to carry out the identification and evaluation functions. Ancillary functions serve to introduce and demonstrate KBS technology to enhance the overall effectiveness of the system. All aspects of the development, from knowledge acquisition through to testing are presented in this paper.


Author(s):  
Tetyana Lunyova ◽  

The article investigates the interpretative function of the concept REALITY in John Berger’s essay about Vincent van Gogh’s art by applying the methodology of cognitive linguistics. Following Nikolay N. Boldyrev, the interpretative function of the language is considered in the article as the third main linguistic function. The theoretical and methodological foundations of the study are further developed with the idea, which is expressed by several researchers (V. V. Feshchenko, Ye. A. Yelina, U. A. Zharkova), that discourse about art performs an interpretative role. The aim of the study is to reveal the linguo-cognitive mechanisms that enable the concept REALITY to operate as a means of interpretation of van Gogh’s art in Berger’s essay. The research has demonstrated that before the concept REALITY is applied to the analysis of van Gogh’s paintings and drawings, this concept is explicitly interpreted in the essay. The following linguo-cognitive mechanisms are employed to make the content of the concept REALITY clear to the reader: actualization of the commonly known sense «reality is opposed to imagination», critical discussion of this sense, introduction of the conceptual metaphor REALITY IS THE OBJECT THAT SHOULD BE SALVAGED, and actualization of the selected fragments of the philosophical world image as well as scholarly world image, especially the conception of art for art’s sake and the conceptual metaphor REALITY IS SOMETHING THAT LIES BEHIND THE SCREEN CREATED BY THE CULTURE. Thus, having been thoroughly interpreted in the essay, the concept REALITY is used as an instrument of the interpretation of van Gogh’s artistic principles and artworks. The following linguo-cognitive mechanisms support the concept REALITY in its interpretative function: applying the conceptual metaphor REALITY IS SOMETHING THAT LIES BEHIND THE SCREEN CREATED BY THE CULTURE to read van Gogh’s letters, using the conceptual metaphor REALITY IS THE OBJECT THAT SHOULD BE SALVAGED to analyse the facts from the painter’s life, introducing the conceptual metaphor REALITY IS THE CONSUMING ITSELF PHOENIX, actualizing of the concepts WORK and PRODUCTION as the key concepts in the artist’s world image, utilizing the concepts WORK and PRODUCTION to interpret several of van Gogh’s paintings, applying the actualized conception of art for art’s sake to reveal van Gogh’s artistic principles, constructing the conceptual metaphors VAN GOGH’S ART IS APPROACHING THE WORLD and VAN GOGH’S ARTISTIC REPRESENTATION OF REALITY IS DISSOLVING IN REALITY, and constructing the conceptual metaphor VAN GOGH’S PAINTINGS ARE LASERS.


Author(s):  
Hakan Cangır

The chapter starts with a definition and models of mental dictionary. It then builds on the bilingual lexical activation models and goes on to discuss formulaic language (collocations in particular). After explaining the basics of formulaic language processing, the author attempts to address the issue of lexical and collocational priming theory by Hoey, which has its roots in cognitive linguistics and usage-based language models. Last but not least, some suggestions for future research are provided in an attempt to address the needs of the lexical research literature in the Turkish setting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6821
Author(s):  
Shyam Badu ◽  
Roderick Melnik ◽  
Sundeep Singh

In biological and life science applications, photosynthesis is an important process that involves the absorption and transformation of sunlight into chemical energy. During the photosynthesis process, the light photons are captured by the green chlorophyll pigments in their photosynthetic antennae and further funneled to the reaction center. One of the most important light harvesting complexes that are highly important in the study of photosynthesis is the membrane-attached Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) complex found in the green sulfur bacteria. In this review, we discuss the mathematical formulations and computational modeling of some of the light harvesting complexes including FMO. The most recent research developments in the photosynthetic light harvesting complexes are thoroughly discussed. The theoretical background related to the spectral density, quantum coherence and density functional theory has been elaborated. Furthermore, details about the transfer and excitation of energy in different sites of the FMO complex along with other vital photosynthetic light harvesting complexes have also been provided. Finally, we conclude this review by providing the current and potential applications in environmental science, energy, health and medicine, where such mathematical and computational studies of the photosynthesis and the light harvesting complexes can be readily integrated.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document