Compendium of Cognitive Linguistics Research

213 Pages·2012·4.351 MB·English

by  Li, Thomas Fuyin

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

C C
OMPENDIUM OF OGNITIVE
LINGUISTICS RESEARCH

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ANGUAGE AND INGUISTICS

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LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

C C
OMPENDIUM OF OGNITIVE
LINGUISTICS RESEARCH

THOMAS FUYIN LI
EDITOR

New York
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Compendium of cognitive linguistics research / editors: Thomas Fuyin Li.
p. cm. -- (Cognitive linguistics in the year 2010 / (Laura A. Janda) -- conceptualization, symbolization and grammar
(Ronald W. Langacker) -- Conceptual combination: models, theories and controversies / (Bing Ran and P. Robert
Duimering) -- Water networks, the Chinese radical, and beyond /(Rong chen) -- Construal operations of the English
progressive construction / (Kim Ebensgaard Jensen) -- The pronoun it: a study in cognitive grammar / (Zeki Hamawand) --
Iconicity, subjectification, and dominion in Portuguese concessive clauses: conceptual differences between concessive
clauses introduced by apesar de and embora /(Rainer Vesterinen).)
Includes index.
ISBN: (cid:28)(cid:26)(cid:27)(cid:16)(cid:20)(cid:16)(cid:25)(cid:21)(cid:20)(cid:19)(cid:19)(cid:16)(cid:27)(cid:21)(cid:24)(cid:16)(cid:24) (eBook)
1. Cognitive grammar. I. Fuyin Li, Thomas.
P165.C664 2012
415--dc23
2012015321

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York
CONTENTS

Preface vii
Chapter 1 Cognitive Linguistics in the Year 2010 1
Laura A. Janda
Chapter 2 Conceptualization, Symbolization, and Grammar 31
Ronald W. Langacker
Chapter 3 Conceptual Combination: Models, Theories and Controversies 65
Bing Ran and P. Robert Duimering
Chapter 4 Water Networks, the Chinese Radical, and Beyond 91
Rong Chen
Chapter 5 Construal Operations of the English Progressive Construction 117
Kim Ebensgaard Jensen
Chapter 6 The Pronoun It: A Study in Cognitive Grammar 143
Zeki Hamawand
Chapter 7 Iconicity, Subjectification and Dominion in Portuguese
Concessive Clauses: Conceptual Differences between
Concessive Clauses Introduced by Apesar De and Embora 169
Rainer Vesterinen
Index 193

PREFACE

This book presents high-quality research of a theoretical and/or empirical/experimental
nature, focusing on the interface between language and cognition. This book adopts an
interdisciplinary, comparative, multi-methodological approach to the study of language in the
general cognitive perspective, as well as theory-based practical applications. It is open to
research from the full range of subject disciplines, theoretical backgrounds, and analytical
frameworks that inform the language and cognitive sciences.
Chapter 1 – Cognitive linguistics emerged as a movement in the mid-1980s. Although in
some sense it represents a new direction for linguistics, cognitive linguistics also builds upon
venerable traditions, re-connecting the discipline with its past rather than severing ties and
striking off in a revolutionary direction. Originally inspired by work by psychologists on the
structure of human categorization in the 1970s, cognitive linguistics has maintained its
commitment to psychological and neurological plausibility. Cognitive linguistics views
linguistic cognition as indistinguishable from general cognition and thus seeks explanation of
linguistic phenomena in terms of general cognitive strategies, such as metaphor, metonymy,
and blending. Grammar and lexicon are viewed as parts of a single continuum and thus
expected to be subject to the same cognitive strategies. Significant developments within
cognitive linguistics in the past two decades include construction grammar and the application
of quantitative methods to analyses.
Chapter 2 - Cognitive grammar belongs to the broader traditions of cognitive linguistics
and functional linguistics. It emphasizes the symbolic function of language and the crucial
role of conceptualization in social interaction. It is based on a conceptualist semantics
recognizing the central importance of construal, i.e. our ability to conceive and portray the
same situation in alternate ways.
A properly formulated conceptualist semantics makes possible a symbolic account of
grammar. It is claimed that lexicon and grammar form a continuum fully describable as
assemblies of symbolic structures (form-meaning pairings). Grammar is therefore
meaningful, and valid grammatical notions have conceptual import. By way of example, a
variety of evidence is cited to support semantic characterizations of subject and object.
Chapter 3 - This paper provides a comprehensive and critical review of the major theories
and models of conceptual combination, by highlighting agreements and controversies in the
literature, and identifying future directions for research.
The review summarizes the basic arguments of ten major models and then presents an
analytical framework to compare and contrast these models along four dimensions: (1) the
viii Thomas Fuyin Li
causal role of schemata in the model, (2) the role of cognitive harmony or consistency in the
model, (3) the pragmatic orientation in the model, and (4) the explanatory scope of the model.
The review identifies areas of agreement and disagreement among the various models and
theories and calls for a synthesis theory to address various theoretical weaknesses and
empirical gaps in the current explanations.
Chapter 4 - In part based on Nie and Chen [2008], this paper studies the complicated
semantic networks of WATER. It demonstrates that the concept of WATER has found its
way into all major components of the Chinese language: its writing system, its morphology,
its semantics, and its syntax. The result is a multidimensional network of networks. The
forming of these networks—and the eventual super-network—is due not only to conceptual
metaphors/ metonymies but also to other factors such as perceptual considerations and social
values. In addition, since meaning is found to exist at the level below the written word, in the
radical, the paper raises some important issues regarding the linguistic status of radicals in the
language.
Chapter 5 - The progressive construction has a tripartite symbolic structure in which the
auxiliary verb symbolically links up with the meaning component of TENSE, the main verb
with the expressed SITUATION, and the present participial realization of the main verb with the
aspectual category of IMPERFECTIVITY. The present paper focuses on each of these symbolic
links and their interplay, and investigates the meaning construction processes involved in the
symbolic structure of the progressive construction. Drawing on Croft and Wood’s [2000]
model of construal operations—revised in Croft and Cruse [2004: 40–73]—the present paper
provides an overview of construal operations that are likely to be at play in the construction of
the aspectual and actional meaning components of the progressive construction. The
discussion also involves instances of the progressive construction, which display low
semantic compatibility, as the ensuing semantic coercion involves a number of construal
operations that are revelatory to the meaning construction of the progressive in general.
Chapter 6 - This paper explores two fundamental tenets of Cognitive Grammar (CG) with
reference to the meaning of the English pronoun it. One tenet is that all linguistic elements
posited in language have conceptual (semantic) import. On the basis of this tenet, I argue that
the pronoun it is meaningful and its multiple senses can be characterised in terms of a
prototype: a central sense from which other senses are somehow derived. The other tenet is
that the meaning of a construction, as reflected in its particular morphosyntactic organisation,
evokes a particular construal (imagery) imposed on its content. On the basis of this tenet, I
argue that a construction containing the pronoun it is motivated by the construal of scope: the
array of conceptual content, narrow or broad, which the speaker chooses to characterise an
expression. In a narrow scope which is represented by a non-extraposed construction, the
speaker considers a minimal range of content in describing the situation. In a broad scope
which is represented by an extraposed construction, the speaker considers a maximal range of
content in describing the situation. The speaker’s ability to construe a situation in a variety of
ways is considered a key concept in CG.
Chapter 7 – This chapter analyses Portuguese concessive constructions introduced by
apesar de (‘in weight of’) and embora (from Old Portuguese em boa hora, ‘in good time’).
From the standpoint of Cognitive Grammar, it is argued that the constructions display a prime
example of iconicity. Thus, it is shown that iconic principles such as linear ordering, formal
complexity and formal distance explain the reason why the apesar de construction
prototypically designates a more direct concessive relation, while the embora construction