scholarly journals On the Conceptual Basis of the English Adjectival Category

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Marina Antonova
Keyword(s):  
Deep Structure ◽  
Cognitive Models ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mental Characteristics

The paper focuses on the cognitive foundation of English adjectives that denote mental characteristics of human beings. Several cognitive models have been advanced in an attempt to account for the semantic structure underlying the lexical category in question. After reviewing these models, a method for determining which of them most accurately captures the “cognitive reality” of English adjectival “deep structure” is proposed. The paper concludes with arguments for the inclusion of additional “motion attributes” to Lakoff’s ICM (1987), namely, “guide’s support” and “speed”.

scholarly journals The Container Image Schema as the Conceptual Basis of English Adjectives’ Semantics

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-17
Author(s):  
Marina Antonova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Cognitive Models ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Image Schema ◽  
The Moment

This paper focuses on the cognitive foundation of the semantics of English adjectives that denote mental and moral characteristics of human beings. Research into these adjectives seems a challenging task because they denote abstract qualities that cannot be perceived through vision, hearing, or touch; and here a question arises: How are abstract qualities interpreted in English encoded through adjectives? To answer it, this study follows the idea of two-level semantics, i.e. word semantics is treated as a two-level phenomenon that comprises the semantic (external) level and the conceptual (deep) one. This study is the first to address adjectival semantics from this perspective. Here a novel approach to revealing the cognitive foundation of adjectives is introduced: given that adjectives originated from old syncretic items and a word cognitive model forms at the moment of word creation, cognitive models underlying adjectives' semantics are unearthed via analysis of their etymological data. Our contribution is two-fold. First, the approach has revealed that the image schema CONTAINER guides semantics of an array of various adjectives independent of their morphemic structure or date of origin. The examples demonstrate that abstract human qualities are interpreted via the following container features: boundary, container substance, size, hardness/softness of a container shell, etc. The semantics of affixed or compound adjectives appear to stem from the integration of concepts represented by an affix and a root or two roots, respectively. Second, the findings show that the value given to every container feature appears to predetermine the evaluation conveyed by an adjective. Container features tend to possess ambivalent value, realizing the positive or negative one due to the interaction with a frame in which the CONTAINER is incorporated, therefore the same polysemantic adjective may develop both positive and negative meanings. To reveal the whole inventory of cognitive models that govern adjectival semantics in English, further research needs to be conducted.  

Conventional Figurative Language Theory and idiom motivation

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30
Author(s):  
Dmitrij Dobrovol’skij ◽  
Elisabeth Piirainen
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Central Point ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Figurative Meaning ◽  
Actual Meaning

AbstractThe central point of discussion is how idiom motivation is reflected in the Conventional Figurative Language Theory. Most lexical units are motivated to a certain extent, i.e. they point to their actual meaning via the meanings of their parts, either parts of their structure or of their conceptual basis. Several types of motivation can be distinguished in the field of phraseology. Apart from the quite small number of idioms where no comprehensible link can be found between the literal reading and the figurative meaning that would allow for a meaningful interpretation of a given expression, all other idioms have to be considered transparent or motivated. Idioms form a very heterogeneous domain in terms of motivation. There are levels of motivation and semantic predictability both from the perspective of a speaker and from the perspective of the semantic structure of a given unit. In this paper, we present a typology of motivation that captures all types of transparent idioms. The typology of idiom motivation connects our theory to the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor and to the Construction Grammar approaches.

Preserving the world for Christ

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Common Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

AbstractThe practices, habits and convictions that once allowed the inhabitants of Christendom to determine what they could reasonably do and say together to foster a just and equitable common life have slowly been displaced over the past few centuries by new configurations which have sought to maintain an inherited faith in an underlying purpose to human life while disassociating themselves from the God who had been the beginning and end of that faith. In the end, however, these new configurations are incapable of sustained deliberations about the basic conditions of our humanity. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology provides important clues into what it takes to make and keep human life human in such a world. The first part of this essay examines Bonhoeffer's conception of the last things, the things before the last, and what binds them together. He argues that the things before the last do not possess a separate, autonomous existence, and that the positing of such a breach has had disastrous effects on human beings and the world they inhabit. The second part looks at Bonhoeffer's account of the divine mandates as the conceptual basis for coping with a world that has taken leave of God. Though this account of the mandates has much to commend it, it is hindered by problematic habits of interpretation that leave it vacillating between incommensurable positions. Bonhoeffer's incomplete insights are thus subsumed within Augustine's understanding of the two orders of human society set forth in City of God.

scholarly journals How Thumbelina Knows

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio De Michelis
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Observation Point ◽  
Education Level ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Access To Knowledge

In this paper I take the book by Michel Serres “Thumbelina” as the occasion for a reflection on the conceptual basis of knowledge management, as it was built by Ikujiro Noanka and co-workers. The direct access to knowledge that Thumbelina practices together with her peers is, in fact, for me, a god observation point to bring the reflection of Nonaka further, towards the discovery of a new understanding of knowledge and knowing processes. If the digital revolution is third step after writing and printing, in the soft changes in the relations between human beings and knowledge, then it poses in an urgent manner the problem to deepen our understanding of what knowledge and intelligence are and to change our practice at the education level and to design new digital tools to support our knowledge management processes.

scholarly journals On Application of Metonymy in Advertisements

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Jing Sun ◽  
Yuewu Lin
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Cognitive Models ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Target Domain ◽  
Source Domain ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
The Media ◽  
Abstract Ideas

<em>Metonymy, as a thinking way, on the basis of contiguity, uses one object to replace another object to activate the association for them in the same Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM). In other words, metonymy stresses on the mentally transformed process from the source domain to the target domain in the same Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM). Idealized cognitive models are those structures which help conceptualizing some certain entities, events and even abstract ideas in his mind in a specific cultural background. There are some main characteristics of idealized cognitive models. The most principal and prime point is that ICMs are idealized and cultural-based. What’s more important, ICMs are embodied because of the interaction between human beings and the outside world. Last but not least, ICMs are a kind of complex gestalt structure due to the compositions of many cognitive models. Later, as the media and Internet have developed dramatically, the merchants want to use a brief way to promote their products so that there appears the advertisement. Gradually, the advertisement gets into our life and then it is a part of our life. The characteristics of advertisement are brief and clear to attract most of the consumers. It is universally known that there is an AIDA principle in advertisements. “A” means attention. “I’ is interesting. “D” shows desire. “A” refers to action. In the end, not only can we draw the conclusions that the application of metonymy in advertisement can help highlight the features of advertisements so that it makes the advertisement more vivid and interesting, but also that the advertisements containing metonymy can give the customers great impressions as well as they can attach to the final destination to help the boss sell more products.</em>

scholarly journals The Cognitive Aspect of English Polysemantic Adjectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-29
Author(s):  
Marina B. Antonova
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Cognitive Aspect ◽  
Evaluative Meaning ◽  
Internal Level

This paper presents an analysis of the deep language factors that predetermine polysemy of English adjectives denoting moral and mental qualities of human beings. In line with a well-established point of view in cognitive linguistics, this study treats the semantics of a word as a two-level phenomenon possessing the semantic (external) level and the conceptual (internal) level. Given polysemy belongs to the external level, this study aims to reveal the internal language factor allowing for umbrella adjectives to develop meanings of moral and mental qualities. This is the first research that has analyzed English adjectives from this perspective; it is proposed to unearth the deep language foundation of polysemy by modeling the conceptual foundation of polysemantic adjectives, which is undertaken via analysis of their etymological data. The choice of the adjectives encoding moral and mental qualities is substantiated by the following reasons: first, these words name the major human characteristics, whose recognition and verbalization can be traced back to the Pre-Old English period; second, they denote abstract qualities unperceivable by senses but estimated due to their indirect manifestation in individuals’ judgments, conduct and activity; third, since these adjectives convey evaluation of the quality, they reflect cultural axiological standards. The findings show that the semantics of the English adjectives in question is governed by a certain set of conceptual metaphors. The commonality of the adjectives’ conceptual basis seems to be the internal language factor that accounts for polysemy, i.e. an ability for an adjective to comprise meanings of mental and moral characteristics. In addition, the results demonstrate that the unearthed concepts form oppositions, namely, LIFE - DEATH, MOTION - STILLNESS, FRIEND - FOE. The opposed concepts are endowed with the positive or negative value that appears to determine the evaluative meaning of the adjectives. Besides, the research has shown that, while participating in the formation of adjectival semantics, the concepts can demonstrate ambiguous value, which enables a concept to underlie both the positive and negative evaluative meanings of an adjective; therefore, an adjective may comprise meanings of mental and moral characteristics that are opposite in their evaluation.

scholarly journals The Semantic Structure of narrative discourse in the novel " The Alley of Mudaq " by Naguib Mahfouz: التشكلات الدلالية للخطاب السردي في رواية "زقاق المدق" لنجيب محفوظ

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Othman Abdalla
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Narrative Text ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Fiction Writing ◽  
Semiotic Approach

  Understanding the textual structure of the narrative construct in novels is essential in order to explore the aesthetics of fiction writing, which is also a basic factor for reading and criticism in its interpretation and hermeneutic aspects. Accordingly, this study aims to uncover the underlying principles of the narrative structure in the novel ‘The Alleys of Mudaqq’ from the perspective of viewpoint, style, description, rhetoric and language as well as the functions served by the aforementioned discourse modules semantically, formally or pragmatically depending on the semiotic approach. One of the main motives behind this study is the importance of the semantic structure in semiological studies and is considered an important aspect of discourse analysis of narrative text. Even though it goes beyond its role as analyzing the intrinsic and extrinsic meanings of discourse to occasionally serve as description and sometimes as symbolism and at other times in the form of artistic imagery. One of the consequences of semiotics in fiction analysis is that it views fiction as a narrative structure, i. e. , a larger network of relations that underlie the superstructure of a text. Thus, the approach which the semiotic analysis of the narrative discourse suggests is based on linguistic samples that determine the surface and deep structure of the narrative path. Moreover, the narrative system in ‘The Alleys of Mudaqq’ is an objective correlative the framework of which is related to an invitation to the high values and ethics of the humans, i. e. , the value of humans is not measured by the skills or the appearance he/she possesses, rather a human being’s ambitions should be built upon the skills and faculties he/she has and what he/she can actually perform.    

scholarly journals A Case Role of Verbs in the Movie Script Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret

HUMANIS ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Ni Nyoman Dewi Astari Putri ◽  
I Nyoman Aryawibawa ◽  
Ni Luh Ketut Mas Indrawati
Keyword(s):  
Deep Structure ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Case Grammar ◽  
State Process ◽  
Experiential Process ◽  
Movie Script ◽  
Action Verbs ◽  
Case Frames

This writing entitled “A Case Role of Verbs in the Movie Script Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret” was conducted in order to be able to identify the types of verb, to find out the semantic structure and the case role between the verb and its cases.The data in this study were taken directly from clauses and sentences found in the movie script. Those data were collected using the documentation method and note taking technique. In analyzing the data, Case Grammar theory proposed by Walter Cook (1979) was applied by qualitative method. In addition, in order to present the data analysis clearly and neatly, informal method was used to describe and explain the data.The result shows that there were three types of verbs found in the movie script. Those verbs are state, process, and action verbs. In addition, the semantic structure of the data is shown by using case frames. The case frames of the data are basic state, basic process, basic action, state experiential, process experiential, action experiential, state benefactive, process benefactive, action benefactive, state locative, process locative, and action locative verb. Besides, the case role of the datain surface structure is as agent, experiencer, benefactive, object, and locative. Furthermore, the analysis of deep structure showed that there are three covert case roles found in the data namely lexicalized, coreferential, and build-in.

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