scholarly journals The Role of Conceptual Integration in Christian Language on the Basis of the Use of THE LOST SHEEP IS HUMANITY Blend in Patristic Writings

Open Theology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-185
Author(s):  
Aleksander Gomola
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Cyril Of Alexandria ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Theological Language

Abstract The article investigates the role of conceptual integration in generating new theological meanings in early Christian texts. Its basic assumption is that metaphoricity and novelty of language of Christian doctrine and teaching in early Christian period should be regarded as a well attested case of linguistic creativity whose mechanisms are explained by Conceptual Blending Theory as proposed by Fauconnier and Turner. After a brief presentation of selected theological studies utilizing cognitive linguistic perspective and a brief discussion of basic notions of Conceptual Blending Theory, the article examines variants of the THE LOST SHEEP IS HUMANITY blend in selected patristic texts by Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, Pseudo-Macarius, Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa. The analysis of these variants shows that conceptual integration allowed these authors to create and develop a wide range of theological ideas representing many important aspects of Christian doctrine from soteriology, through ecclesiology to Christology. This in turn proves that cognitive linguistics may provide theologians with instruments of linguistic analysis that shed new light on many aspects of theological language and reasoning.

Conceptual Blending with moral accounting Metaphors in Christian Exegesis

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-236
Author(s):  
Aleksander Gomola
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Patristic Exegesis

The paper argues for the crucial role of conceptual blending in creating and developing of Christian doctrine. It assumes that typological patristic exegesis of the early Christian period, viewed through the lens of Conceptual Blending Theory, may be regarded as a series of conceptual integration processes, with typological blends as building blocks of Christian doctrine, including the doctrine of salvation. To prove this, the paper discusses selected Adam-Christ typological blends present in the writings of the early Christian authors, seeing in them linguistic realizations of moral accounting metaphor that underlies the doctrine of salvation and demonstrating in this way a key role of conceptual integration in shaping Christian doctrine.

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.

Defining the Boundaries of Orthodoxy: Eunomius in the Anti-Jewish Polemic of his Cappadocian Opponents

2007 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 699-723
Author(s):  
Christine Shepardson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
Christian Leaders

Scholars have long recognized that the theological arguments of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa against their opponent Eunomius helped to shape the development of Christian orthodoxy, and thus Christian self-definition, in the late fourth-century Roman Empire. The cultural and theological significance of the strong anti-Judaizing rhetoric contained within these Cappadocian authors’ anti-Eunomian treatises, however, remains largely unexamined. Recent scholarship has demonstrated the critical role of anti-Judaizing rhetoric in the arguments that early Christian leaders Athanasius of Alexandria and Ephrem of Nisibis used against “Arian” Christian opponents in the middle of the fourth century, and the implications of this rhetoric for understanding early Christian-Jewish and intra-Christian relations. Scholars have yet to recognize, however, that anti-Judaizing rhetoric similarly helped to define the terms and consequences of the anti-Eunomian arguments made by Basil, Gregory, and Gregory in the decades that followed. The anti-Judaizing rhetoric of their texts attests to the continuing advantages that these leaders gained by rhetorically associating their Christian opponents with Jews. By claiming that Eunomius and his followers were too Jewish in their beliefs to be Christian, and too Christian in their behaviors to be Jewish, Basil, Gregory, and Gregory deployed anti-Judaizing rhetoric to argue that Eunomians were significantly inferior to both true Christians and Jews. The Cappadocians’ strategic comparisons with Jews and Judaism rhetorically distanced their Eunomian opponents from Christianity and thus strengthened the Cappadocians’ own claims to represent Christian orthodoxy.

Raised on Christian Milk

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John David Penniman
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Food And Feeding ◽  
Religious Cultures ◽  
Corinthians 3

What if the idea that “you are what you eat” weren’t a simple metaphor? What if it revealed a deeper medical, moral, and religious history about the relationship between food and the soul? In the early Roman Empire, food (and especially breast milk) was invested with the power to transfer characteristics, improve intellect, and establish bonds of kinship. Ancient Jews and Christians participated in this discourse surrounding the symbolic power of food and feeding. This book explores the legacy and complex history of food, feeding, and the formation of ancient religious cultures. Highlighting the apostle Paul’s reference to breastfeeding in 1 Corinthians 3, the book argues that this metaphor must be viewed as the result of social ideologies and embodied practices focused on the feeding of infants that were prominent throughout the Greco-Roman world. Drawing upon Paul and this broader cultural context, a wide range of early Christian authors (including Irenaeus of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine of Hippo) used milk and solid food to think about how humans become what they eat—for good or for ill. In so doing, the book demonstrates the deep connection between “eating well” and “being well” for diverse models of growth, education, and identity within early Christianity.

Conceptual metaphor theory

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 168-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Standard Theory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cognitive Metaphor ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Basic Level

Despite its popularity in and outside cognitive linguistics, cognitive metaphor theory (CMT) has received a wide range of criticisms in the past two decades. Several metaphor researchers have criticized the methodology with which metaphor is studied (emphasizing concepts instead of words), the direction of analysis (emphasizing a top-down instead of a bottom-up approach), the category level of metaphor (claiming its superordinate status instead of basic level), the embodiment of metaphor (emphasizing the universal, mechanical, and monolithic aspects instead of nonuniversal, nonmechanical, and nonmonolithic aspects of embodiment), and its relationship to culture (emphasizing the role of universal bodily experience instead of the interaction of body and context). In the paper, I respond to this criticism largely based on my own research and propose a view on these issues that can successfully meet these challenges and that can be regarded as an alternative to the “standard theory.”

scholarly journals Conceptual Blending, the Second Naïveté, and the Emergence of New Meanings

Open Theology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Jason P. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
God Concept ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Conceptual Integration Theory ◽  
The Image Of God

Abstract The field of cognitive linguistics has generated a powerful set of theoretical tools for analyzing the ways in which we understand, communicate, and create concepts. In the conceptual integration theory of Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, the cognitive process known as double-scope blending provides a highdefinition model for the phenomenological hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. In particular, Ricoeur’s notion of developing a second naivete through the blending of ancient and contemporary worlds of meanings can be viewed as the double-scope integration of concepts across disparate conceptual frames. This re-modeling of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics gives it a new level of clarity and precision in cognitive scientific terms, which in turn may be utilized in service of theological and other forms of discourse. Conceptual integration theory also sheds light on other Ricoeur-inspired hermeneutical models and makes a case for the revelatory character of scripture through the meaning-making process of interpretation. The interpretation of the image of God concept in an evolutionary worldview serves as a heuristic example of second naivete as double-scope blending.

scholarly journals The role of conceptual integration and simple dynamic scenarios in the meaning construction of the mapping in mathematics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Woźny
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Formal Definition ◽  
Mathematics Textbooks ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
The World ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

The role of conceptual integration and simple dynamic scenarios in the meaning construction of the mapping in mathematicsOver the last two decades the impact of conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending on mathematics has been extensively researched (Lakoff & Núñez, 2000; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002; Turner, 2005; Núñez, 2006; Alexander, 2011; Turner, 2012; Danesi, 2016; Woźny, 2018). This paper examines the manner in which simple dynamic scenarios allow, through the process of conceptual integration, for multiple ways of constructing the meaning of a mathematical mapping. The paper analyses selected fragments extracted from two popular academic mathematics textbooks to ascertain how the authors use a number of simple dynamic scenarios to explain the concept. The paper then demonstrates how these dynamic scenarios help to avoid the problem of circularity of the (static) formal definition of the mapping. The results of the study indicate that conceptual blending may account for the flexibility of mathematics and its effectiveness in modelling the world around us. Rola integracji pojęciowej i prostych scenariuszy dynamicznych w konstrukcji znaczenia odwzorowania w matematyceW ciągu ostatnich dwudziestu lat pojawiło się wiele publikacji dotyczących roli metafor oraz integracji pojęciowej w matematyce (Lakoff & Núñez, 2000; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002; Turner, 2005; Núñez, 2006; Alexander, 2011; Turner, 2012; Danesi, 2016; Woźny, 2018). W tym artykule badany jest sposób, w jaki proste scenariusze dynamiczne wpływają, poprzez proces integracji pojęciowej, na konstruowanie wielu znaczeń odwzorowania (funkcji) w matematyce. Badane są fragmenty dwóch popularnych podręczników matematyki, w których autorzy wyjaśniają pojęcie odwzorowania poprzez proste scenariusze dynamiczne, unikając w ten sposób błędu logicznego „nieznane przez nieznane", którym obarczona jest statyczna definicja odwzorowania. Wyniki analizy mogą sugerować, że elastyczność matematyki – jej niezmienna skuteczność w modelowaniu otaczającego nas świata – jest efektem procesów integracji pojęciowej.

scholarly journals A conceptual blending analysis of a metaphorical advertisement: applications in elt

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 299
Author(s):  
Elisa Mattos de Sá
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
Print Advertisement

Advances in Cognitive Linguistics have focused on the centrality of meaning and conceptual structure in human language (Evans & Green, 2006; Geeraerts, 2006), placing phenomena such as metaphor as central to human cognition (Lakoff, 2006; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). This paper analyzes the process of meaning construction of a metaphorical print advertisement in which cognitive operations of conceptual integration (cf. Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) can be mapped through the interplay between verbal and nonverbal language. Seeing that adverts can provide learners with real-life communicative opportunities for language development due to theirup-to-date language, cultural-bound content, and creative discourse techniques (Mishan, 2005; Picken, 2000; 1999), this paper additionally provides four pedagogical applications of the chosen advertisement in English Language Teaching, drawing on the principles of the theoreticalframework presented.

Re-Picturing the Reception of the Spirit with Ritual Experience: The Role of Baptism in 1 Corinthians 12:13

2021 ◽  
pp. 014610792110452
Author(s):  
Kai Hsuan Chang
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Physical Pattern ◽  
Metaphorical Expression

In this article, I argue that the ritual experience of water-baptism plays an essential role in Paul's metaphorical expression and rhetorical purpose in 1 Corinthians 12:13. To explore the role of baptism, I use conceptual blending theory from cognitive linguistics to define and demonstrate the metaphorical ways in which ritual functions in the human mind. In so doing, I emphasize the performance of a ritual itself and the contextual perception of its performance, arguing for a metaphorical relationship between the two. I apply conceptual blending analysis to interpret the complex interplay of three metaphors in 1 Corinthians 12:13. I argue that Paul forms a conceptual blend of three metaphors in this verse, and that baptism, the water-rite, plays a pivotal role in this blend by providing the physical pattern of immersion and the cultural understanding of this immersion as a new belonging. Using baptism, Paul achieves his purpose of re-picturing the reception of the Spirit and appealing for social union. This verse thus presents an excellent case of the role of ritual in the emergence of early Christianity and the explanatory power of ritual studies to the New Testament texts.

scholarly journals Flannel and beggar’s blanket: metaphors or conceptual blends? A cognitive analysis of selected common names of mullein in English

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Bożena Mierzwińska-Hajnos
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Cognitive Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Verbascum Thapsus ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Integration Theory

The paper offers a cognitive analysis of selected common English names of mullein (Verbascum thapsus L.) motivated by the appearance of the plant. While analyzing such names as flannel and beggar’s blanket, the author strives to portray the way they are conceptualized by recalling Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Integration Theory, in particular the Brandt and Brandt six-space model of conceptual integration, also known as a cognitive-semiotic approach to metaphor. In the course of the analysis, the author also makes reference to those aspects which seem indispensable from the standpoint of cognitive linguistics, viz. (i) the role of human experience and embodied thought in the conceptualization process, (ii) the dynamic and context-dependent meaning construction and (iii) the role of linguistic worldview in decoding meaning.

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