To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Cognitive grammar. Semantics.
Journal articles on the topic 'Cognitive grammar. Semantics'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 journal articles for your research on the topic 'Cognitive grammar. Semantics.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse journal articles on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Evans, Hywel. "Simpler semantics for computational and cognitive linguistics." Investigationes Linguisticae 41 (December 11, 2019): 17–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.14746/il.2018.41.2.
Full textAbstract:
Certain consequences are considered regarding a simpler, more cognitively plausible treatment of semantics in SignBased Construction Grammar, a cognitive, unification- based theory of language. It is proposed that a construction grammar may be able to improve its coverage of core linguistic phenomena in line with minimalist goals (Chomsky 1993). Suggestions are offered regarding relative clauses and wh-expressions to show that a more straightforward account is available, one that allows a unified treatment of scope for quantifiers and wh-expressions.
2
Feldman, Jerome A. "Advances in Embodied Construction Grammar." Constructions and Frames 12, no. 1 (2020): 149–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/cf.00038.fel.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract This paper describes the continuing goals and present status of the ICSI/UC Berkeley efforts on Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG). ECG is semantics-based formalism grounded in cognitive linguistics. ECG is the most explicitly inter-disciplinary of the construction grammars with deep links to computation, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Work continues on core cognitive, computational, and linguistic issues, including aspects of the mind/body problem. Much of the recent emphasis has been on applications and on tools to facilitate new applications. Extensive documentation plus downloadable systems and grammars can be found at the ECG Homepage.1
3
Peng, Yuhai. "On the Integrated Descriptions of Metaphorical Sememes of Verbs." Russian and Chinese Studies 5, no. 1 (2021): 62–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.17150/2587-7445.2021.5(1).62-72.
Full textAbstract:
Cognitive metaphor is an important way and mechanism of semantic derivation of verbs, the resulting large number of verbal metaphorical sememes has different expressions in their semantic features, formal syntax, communicative structure and even modality and pragmatics. This paper thoroughly and carefully discusses the problem of semantic change of verbal metaphor in terms of the integrated description method of the Moscow Semantic School. Thus, we will create a unique and innovative framework and theoretical model of generalized formal feature analysis, we will also try to introduce formal semantic description and micro-level semantic interpretation into the analysis system of semantic change of the verbal metaphor. Furthermore, we will describe in detail and characterize a number of changes caused by metaphorical semantic change of Russian verbs from the perspective of multi-dimensional integration. This study breaks down the barriers between semantics, cognition, pragmatics and grammar and the traditional analysis pattern of semantic derivation which contributes to significant broadening of the theoretical semantic vision and deepening of the research of cognitive semantics problems of verbal metaphor. It also helps explore innovative analytical methods and strategies for the study of Russian lexical and syntactic semantics.
4
Rundquist, Eric. "The Cognitive Grammar of drunkenness: Consciousness representation in Under the Volcano." Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 29, no. 1 (2020): 39–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963947020908622.
Full textAbstract:
Cognitive Grammar analyses the semantics of linguistic features in relation to human cognition; Free Indirect Style allows authors to represent their characters’ cognition with language. This article applies Cognitive Grammar to the analysis of a character’s mind that is represented with Free Indirect Style. In the tradition of mind style analysis, it aims to use linguistics to reveal some of the underlying cognitive processes and proclivities at work in the character’s psychology. The character in question is the protagonist in Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano, an alcoholic who is largely characterised by his drunken behaviour and ideation. This article therefore focuses on the linguistic features that serve to represent his inebriated state of mind. It analyses the semantic effects of those features primarily in terms of attentional focus, drawing on Cognitive Grammar concepts, such as objective construal, specificity, scope, profile and domain, and relating these to the protagonist’s cognitive proclivities for solipsism, partial awareness, delayed reaction, attenuated experience and self-delusion. The article also discusses the theoretical background for mind style analysis, arguing for the continued importance of focusing on the relationship between the text and a character’s mind, alongside the focus on the reader’s mind that has come to dominate cognitive stylistics.
5
Seuren, Pieter. "Essentials of Semantic Syntax." Cadernos de Linguística 2, no. 1 (2021): 01–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.25189/2675-4916.2021.v2.n1.id290.
Full textAbstract:
Semantic Syntax (SeSyn), originally called Generative Semantics, is an offshoot of Chomskyan generative grammar (ChoGG), rejected by Chomsky and his school in the late 1960s. SeSyn is the theory of algorithmical grammars producing the well-formed sentences of a language L from the corresponding semantic input, the Semantic Analysis (SA), represented as a traditional tree structure diagram in a specific formal language of incremental predicate logic with quantifying and qualifying operators (including the truth functions), and with all lexical items filled in. A SeSyn-type grammar is thus by definition transformational, but not generative. The SA originates in cognition in a manner that is still largely mysterious, but its actual form can be distilled from the Surface Structure (SS) of the sentences of L following the principles set out in SeSyn. In this presentation we provide a more or less technical résumé of the SeSyn theory. A comparison is made with ChoGG-type grammars, which are rejected on account of their intrinsic unsuitability as a cognitive-realist grammar model. The ChoGG model follows the pattern of a 1930s neopositivist Carnap-type grammar for formal logical languages. Such grammars are random sentence generators, whereas, obviously, (nonpathological) humans are not. A ChoGG-type grammar is fundamentally irreconcilable with a mentalist-realist theory of grammar. The body of the paper consists in a demonstration of the production of an English and a French sentence, the latter containing a classic instance of the cyclic rule of Predicate Raising (PR), essential in the general theory of clausal complementation yet steadfastly repudiated in ChoGG for reasons that have never been clarified. The processes and categories defined in SeSyn are effortlessly recognised in languages all over the world, whether indigenous or languages of a dominant culture—taking into account language-specific values for the general theoretical parameters involved. This property makes SeSyn particularly relevant for linguistic typology, which now ranks as the most promising branch of linguistics but has so far conspicuously lacked an adequate theoretical basis.
6
Langacker, Ronald W. "A view from cognitive linguistics." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22, no. 4 (1999): 625. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x99392141.
Full textAbstract:
Barsalou's contribution converges with basic ideas and empirical findings of cognitive linguistics. They posit the same general architecture. The perceptual grounding of conceptual structure is a central tenet of cognitive linguistics. Our capacity to construe the same situation in alternate ways is fundamental to cognitive semantics, and numerous parallels are discernible between conceptual construal and visual perception. Grammar is meaningful, consisting of schematized patterns for the pairing of semantic and phonological structures. The meanings of grammatical elements reside primarily in the construal they impose on conceptual content. This view of linguistic structure appears to be compatible with Barsalou's proposals.
7
Marmaridou, Sophia. "Cognitive, cultural, and constructional motivations of polysemy and semantic change." Pragmatics and Cognition 18, no. 1 (2010): 68–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pc.18.1.04mar.
Full textAbstract:
Within the framework of cognitive linguistics and construction grammar (as in Lakoff 1987; Langacker 2000; Goldberg 1995; and Fried and Östman 2004), it is claimed in this paper that the semantics of psuche (psyche) is motivated by cognitive, cultural, and constructional parameters of meaning. More specifically, it is argued that psyche, as the immaterial nature of a human being, and the seat of emotions and feelings in particular, is understood in terms of image-based metaphors, a cultural model of the self, and a cultural narrative of existence. It is also argued that the frequent occurrence of psyche in a number of collocations and idioms motivates and constrains constructional meaning. At the same time, constructions motivate extended senses of this word, thereby contributing to its polysemy and ultimately to semantic change. The evidence presented within this framework argues against a fixed borderline between lexical and constructional meaning. This view, long and tacitly adopted in lexicographic practice by necessity, is gaining further support within current research in the framework of lexicography (Fillmore 2008; Hanks 2008), corpus linguistics (Fellbaum 2007), lexical semantics (Taylor et al. 2003), language change (Bybee 2006a), and construction grammar (Boas 2008).
8
Singh, Rajdeep. "Derivational Grammar Model and Basket Verb: A Novel Approach to the Inflectional Phrase in the Generative Grammar and Cognitive Processing." English Linguistics Research 7, no. 2 (2018): 9. http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/elr.v7n2p9.
Full textAbstract:
Generative grammar was a true revolution in the linguistics. However, to describe language behavior in its semantic essence and universal aspects, generative grammar needs to have a much richer semantic basis. In this paper, we took a novel morpho-syntactic approach to the inflectional phrase to account for the very diverse inflectional phrase qualities in different languages. Some languages show a very different surface verbal inflection, providing evidence of a different mental processing at the semantic level. In fact, the inflectional phrase is a great representative of the mental and semantic processing layers in mind. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the inflectional phrase with a novel approach to take into account this rich verbal inflectional configuration in languages, and to describe why some languages behave in a different way in the spatial and temporal aspect. In this study, we analyzed and discussed the verbal inflectional structure of several languages, including German, Swahili, Persian, English, and Indonesian, and our result is the introduction of a semantic model which provides a much richer insight to the semantics/syntax interplay.
9
Chovancová, Katarína, Lucia Ráčková, Dagmar Veselá, and Monika Zázrivcová. "Valency Potential of Slovak and French Verbs in Contrast." Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis 68, no. 2 (2017): 156–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jazcas-2017-0026.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract The paper presents results of synchronous contrastive study of fifteen most frequent Slovak full verbs and their French equivalents by the method of corpus analysis aimed at observation and comparison of their valency potential in relation to their semantic structure. The inventory of valency structures of Slovak verbs and their French equivalents shows not only differences, but also, to a great extent, identical semantic-syntactic connectivities. The main apport of the study lies in the contrastive research perspective and the interdisciplinary character on the crossroads of grammar, semantics, syntax, cognitive and corpus linguistics. Findings can be of use to linguists, terminologists, lexicographers, authors of textbooks and grammars, translators and interpreters, as well as to French-speaking learners of Slovak and Slovak students of French.
10
Jackendoff, Ray. "Précis of Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution,." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26, no. 6 (2003): 651–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x03000153.
Full textAbstract:
The goal of this study is to reintegrate the theory of generative grammar into the cognitive sciences. Generative grammar was right to focus on the child's acquisition of language as its central problem, leading to the hypothesis of an innate Universal Grammar. However, generative grammar was mistaken in assuming that the syntactic component is the sole course of combinatoriality, and that everything else is “interpretive.” The proper approach is a parallel architecture, in which phonology, syntax, and semantics are autonomous generative systems linked by interface components. The parallel architecture leads to an integration within linguistics, and to a far better integration with the rest of cognitive neuroscience. It fits naturally into the larger architecture of the mind/brain and permits a properly mentalistic theory of semantics. It results in a view of linguistic performance in which the rules of grammar are directly involved in processing. Finally, it leads to a natural account of the incremental evolution of the language capacity.
11
Sambre, Paul. "Framing from grammar to application." Framing 24 (December 10, 2010): 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/bjl.24.00int.
Full textAbstract:
This thematic issue of the BJL presents eight contributions on the notion of framing, ranging from theoretical to applied perspectives, and reflecting a range of issues on lexico-grammatical and discourse issues. More than forty years after Charles Fillmore’s (1968, 1977) seminal work on case grammar, the general objective of this volume is to show the vividness of the linguistic debate which arose out of Fillmore’s frame semantics. We do so both by bringing together a range of empirical materials reaching from strictly grammatical and lexical to discourse patterns, and by stimulating discussions with other, cognitively or socially oriented models and applications. More specifically, the contributions in this volume cluster around two axes. The first one concentrates on how a form-meaning model of language in frame semantics interacts not only with its ‘sister theory’ of construction grammar (Östman and Fried 2004: 5) and other cognitive frameworks, but also with work on framing from a social perspective. The second axis deals with applying these sister theories to objects and corpora of different dimensions, from lexico-grammatical issues at the sentence level to larger stretches of discourse.
12
DE WIT, ASTRID, and FRANK BRISARD. "A Cognitive Grammar account of the semantics of the English present progressive." Journal of Linguistics 50, no. 1 (2013): 49–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226713000169.
Full textAbstract:
In this paper, we propose a unified account of the semantics of the English present progressive in the form of a semantic network, basing ourselves on the theoretical principles and analytical tools offered by the theory of Cognitive Grammar, as laid out by Langacker (1987, 1991). The core meaning of the English present progressive, we claim, is to indicateepistemic contingencyin the speaker's immediate reality. It thus contrasts with the simple present, which is associated with situations that are construed asstructurallybelonging to reality. On the basis of a study of the Santa Barbara Corpus of spoken American English, an inventory has been made of the more specific uses of the present progressive, temporal as well as modal. It is shown that each of these uses can be derived from this basic meaning of contingency in immediate reality via a set of conceptual branching principles, in interaction with elements in the context.
13
Peng, Yanghua. "On the Coordinate Expression “A and B” from the Perspective of Cognitive Grammar." International Journal of English Linguistics 11, no. 3 (2021): 33. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v11n3p33.
Full textAbstract:
The coordinate expression of “A and B” formed by the coordinate conjunction “and” shows a variety of syntactic features and semantic relations. Based on the research of scholars at home and abroad the paper argues that the cognitive grammatical research outweighs other theoretical views on the researches of the internal motivations of complex phenomena. It further points out that A and B are parallel in grammar and semantics，and “A and B” is polysemous.
14
Dempster, Douglas. "Is there Even a Grammar of Music ?" Musicae Scientiae 2, no. 1 (1998): 55–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/102986499800200104.
Full textAbstract:
Does the music that we know have a language-like semantics? I argue that mere agreement among auditors about their cognitive representations and descriptions of music doesn't give grounds for attributing meaning to music. I also argue that music does not have a language-like semantics not because it fails to be robustly referential, but because musical structures are not genuine grammars. The reason is that while music typically has very elaborate and regular structures - much like language - these structures do not apparently originate from nor are they in the service of the need to encode meanings - exactly unlike language. Nonetheless, the difference between languages and music is more a matter of degree than of kind. In other words, we can imagine transforming what we now call music into a language; if, by some strange necessity, music were pressed into service on a day-to day basis for the purposes of comprehension and communication, then it could without much trouble become a language. But we would very likely no longer regard the strangely melodious utterances of such a language to be real music once it came to serve, in a quite transparent way, its pragmatic communicative and cognitive functions. I explain these views as a consequence of an old-fashioned aesthetic theory of music cognition as newly formulated by Raffman (1993).
15
Hollmann, Willem B. "Nouns and verbs in Cognitive Grammar: Where is the ‘sound’ evidence?" Cognitive Linguistics 24, no. 2 (2013): 275–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/cog-2013-0009.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractFormalist approaches traditionally define word classes in distributional terms. By contrast, Cognitive Grammar advocates a semantic basis: nouns profile THINGS; verbs highlight PROCESSES. There is psycholinguistic support for the importance of semantics in lexical categorisation, but also for (language-particular) distributional and phonological properties. This paper focuses on phonology, whose importance is further underlined by data from language change and typology. Following a review of the psycholinguistic, historical linguistic and typological evidence, a gap in the literature is filled, i.e. an experiment involving the production of nonce nouns and verbs is conducted, providing further converging evidence for phonology. I then show how this evidence, although not currently recognised in Cognitive Grammar, can be straightforwardly accommodated as phonological sub-schemas. These sub-schemas are probably more important than the super-schemas proposed in Cognitive Grammar (which may actually be non-existent, and anyway fail to yield clear predictions vis-à-vis empirical data). I conclude that in developing the model further, a higher degree of responsibility to all the available empirical data is called for.
16
Waszakowa, Krystyna. "Wieloaspektowość pojęcia konceptualizacja w gramatyce Ronalda Langackera (spojrzenie z perspektywy użytkownika terminologii kognitywnej)." LingVaria, no. 1(29) (May 16, 2020): 9–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.12797/lv.15.2020.29.01.
Full textAbstract:
MULTIASPECTUALITY OF THE NOTION OF CONCEPTUALIZATION IN RONALD LANGACKER’S GRAMMAR: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A USER OF COGNITIVE TERMINOLOGY
 The paper presents the scope of understanding of the notion of conceptualization, a notion that belongs to the elementary toolbox of R. Langacker’s cognitive grammar. The author shows the different perspectives of viewing conceptualization, and discusses ways of defining the term. By contrasting it with other terms from the paradigm of cognitive semantics (among others, categorization, construal, profiling, conceptualizer, spekaer, addressee, usage event), which Langacker refers to while describing the processes of conceptualization, the paper reveals the placement and status of conceptualization in cognitive grammar.
17
Tyler, Andrea, Charles M. Mueller, and Vu Ho. "Applying cognitive linguistics to instructed L2 learning." AILA Review 23 (December 9, 2010): 30–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/aila.23.03tyl.
Full textAbstract:
This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental effects-of-instruction study examining the efficacy of applying a Cognitive Linguistic (CL) approach to L2 learning of the semantics of English modals. In spite of their frequency in typical input, modal verbs present L2 learners with difficulties, party due to their inherent complexity — modals typically have two divergent senses — a root1 sense and an epistemic sense. ELT textbooks and most grammar books aimed at L2 teachers present the two meanings as homophones, failing to address any systematic semantic patterning in the modal system as a whole. Additionally, ELT texts tend to present modals from a speech act perspective. In contrast, CL analyses (e. g., Langacker 1991; Nuyts 2001; Sweetser 1990; Talmy 1988) offer both a systematic, motivated representation of the relationship between the root and epistemic meanings and a rather precise representation of the semantics of each modal. To test the pedagogical effectiveness of a CL account of modals, an effects-of-instruction study was conducted with three groups of adult, high-intermediate ESL learners: a Cognitive treatment group, a Speech Acts2 treatment group, and a Control group. Results of an ANCOVA indicated that the Cognitive treatment group demonstrated significantly more improvement than the Speech Acts treatment group. The experiment thus lends empirical support for the position that CL, in addition to offering a compelling analytical account of language, may also provide the basis for more effective grammar instruction than that found in most current ELT teaching materials.
18
Fischer, Kerstin. "Beyond the sentence." Constructions and Frames 2, no. 2 (2010): 185–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/cf.2.2.03fis.
Full textAbstract:
Construction grammarians are still quite reluctant to extend their descriptions to units beyond the sentence. However, the theoretical premises of construction grammar and frame semantics are particularly suited to cover spoken interaction from a cognitive perspective. Furthermore, as construction grammar is anchored in the cognitive linguistics paradigm and as such subscribes to meaning being grounded in experience, it needs to consider interaction since grammatical structures may be grounded not only in sensory-motor, but also in social-interactive experience. The example of grounded language learning experiments demonstrates the anchoring of grammatical mood in interaction. Finally, phenomena peculiar to spoken dialogue, such as pragmatic markers, may be best accounted for as constructions, drawing on frame semantics. The two cognitive linguistic notions, frames and constructions, are therefore particularly useful to account for generalisation in spoken interaction.
19
Almeida, Marta. "Verbs of Motion: The Implications of Cognitive Semantics in Teaching Grammar." Hispania 85, no. 3 (2002): 609. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4141150.
Full text
20
Schneider, Nathan. "Computational Cognitive Morphosemantics: Modeling Morphological Compositionality in Hebrew Verbs with Embodied Construction Grammar." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 36, no. 1 (2010): 353. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v36i1.3923.
Full textAbstract:
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:This paper brings together the theoretical framework of construction grammar and studies of verbs in Modern Hebrew to furnish an analysis integrating the form and meaning components of morphological structure. In doing so, this work employs and extends Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG; Bergen and Chang 2005), a computational formalism developed to study grammar from a cognitive linguistic perspective. In developing a formal analysis of Hebrew verbs (section 3), I adapt ECG—until now a lexical/syntactic/semantic formalism—to account for the compositionality of morphological constructions, accommodating idiosyncrasy while encoding generalizations at multiple levels. Similar to syntactic constructions, morpheme constructions are related in an inheritance network, and can be productively composed to form words. With the expanded version of ECG, constructions can readily encode nonconcatenative root-and-pattern morphology and associated (compositional or noncompositional) semantics, cleanly integrated with syntactic constructions. This formal, cognitive study should pave the way for computational models of morphological learning and processing in Hebrew and other languages.
21
Torres-Martínez, Sergio. "Working out multiword verbs within an Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar framework." European Journal of Applied Linguistics 5, no. 1 (2017): 55–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2016-0003.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractThis article presents a constructionist approach to the teaching of multiword verbs. To that end, I outline a pedagogical model, Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar (ACCxG), which is deemed to provide insight into a novel classification of multiword verbs as constructions (form-function pairings). The ACCxG framework integrates four cognitively-driven rationales, namely Focus on Form, Task-based Language Teaching, Data-driven Learning, and Paper-based Data-Driven Learning. It is argued that the syntax-semantics of multiword verbs can be better understood through recourse to their relation with syntactic constructions (Argument Structure Constructions). Endorsing this rationale entails, among other things, the recognition that the same general cognitive mechanisms intervening in the construction of our experience of the world are at play during the construction of linguistic knowledge.
22
Toan, Ly Ngoc. "Lexical Expressions of Path Motion in Vietnamese: A Perspective from Cognitive Linguistics." International Journal of Language and Literary Studies 1, no. 1 (2019): 14–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v1i1.25.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this paper is to study the semantics and syntax of lexical expressions of path motion in Vietnamese. This paper is conducted on theory of lexicalization patterns which is related to the conflation of semantic components into linguistic units. The data are the expressions of motion verbs and spatial prepositions which were taken from 12 Vietnamese stories and three novels in the 20th century onward. The result of this paper presents several lexicalization patterns of semantic components conflated into the path verbs and the spatial prepositions. Moreover, this paper takes into account the construction of the grammar of the lexical expressions of path motion in Vietnamese, which refers to speakers’ knowledge of motion utilized to express motion.
23
Formigari, Lia. "Modelli del pensare metaforico." PARADIGMI, no. 1 (May 2009): 15–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.3280/para2009-001002.
Full textAbstract:
- Thought Through an apparently uniform development starting from Aristotle's argumentation theory, more or less strong versions of the cognitive import of metaphor have been advanced. A first turning point can be summarized as the move from external to internal representation (17th and 18th centuries), when metaphor came to be seen, not as an optional linguistic device, but as a necessary modality of categorization, a form of conceptualization complementary to abstraction and, as such, as a primary principle of lexical semantics. A second turning point is still under way. Post-Chomskyan semantic theories have extended the power of metaphor to the formation of basic categories, such as space, time, causation, force etc., that is, to forms rather than the content of knowledge. This opens a still unexplored, or partly explored, perspective in the philosophy of grammar and the analysis of grammatical categories in natural languages. Keywords: Analogy, Categorization, Grammatical categories, Lexical semantics, Metaphor, Philosophy of Grammar
24
Välimaa-Blum, Riitta. "The English bare plural and the Finnish partitive." Languages in Contrast 3, no. 2 (2001): 181–201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lic.3.2.03val.
Full textAbstract:
To understand the use of a grammatical form in one language, it is sometimes helpful to look at another language. In this paper, I propose that the English bare plural expresses nonbounded quantity in a mental space, just as the Finnish bare partitive does. The different formal means used by English and Finnish thus converge in the cognitive unity of the grammatical structuring of the lexical content. The bare plural is not the plural counterpart of the indefinite singular, that is, it does not express the discourse status of its referent, but rather, it belongs to the quantity domain. One of the basic tenets of cognitive grammar is that grammar is motivated. I propose that the nonbounded semantics of the bare plural is based on a formal-semantic analogy with mass nouns. This same motivation operates on bare singulars as well, for they too can be used to create a cognitive image similar to that of mass nouns.
25
Rakhmankulova, Svetlana. "Cognitive Linguistics Approaches to Teaching Foreign Grammar." Nizhny Novgorod Linguistics University Bulletin, no. 49 (March 31, 2020): 86–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.47388/2072-3490/lunn2020-49-1-86-103.
Full textAbstract:
At the present time, foreign language instruction boasts a plethora of different methods and practices, with the communicative approach dominating the scene. Alongside innovative methods based on modern technologies, traditional structural methods still remain popular. The cognitive linguistics approach discussed in the paper is based on the advantages of the existing methods and seems to overcome their shortcomings. The article offers a review of Russian and foreign papers of the recent decades on the problem of integrating cognitive linguistics into theory and methodology of foreign language instruction in general and teaching foreign language grammar in particular. A distinction is made between the cognitive (linguo-cognitive, conscious) approach and methods based on the modern theory of cognitive linguistics: cognitive grammar and semantics. The article further discusses the opportunities offered by R. Langacker’s cognitive grammar for presenting grammar while teaching a foreign language: for selecting and systematizing the grammar material, for explaining the grammar system of a language, and for interpreting the meaning and usage of certain grammatical units. The author identifies the following main principles of implementing the cognitive linguistics approach: the notion of grammar as a result of a native speaker’s conceptualizing the world, as a system of “schemes” for structuring reality; the idea of grammar units as units with a definite meaning and function; the need to organize and structure the course content functionally; using a simple metalanguage based on the learners’ first language in order to explain the meaning and function of grammar units; reliance on understanding the prototypic meaning of a unit and the cognitive mechanisms of enhancing that meaning (the conceptual metaphor mechanism); viewing grammar as a non-autonomous system and interpreting grammar forms as constituents of the utterance meaning, in combination with units of other language levels; explaining the choice of grammar units in an utterance by the way the speaker is interpreting the situation and by the corresponding communicative intention. The author concludes by describing and substantiating a high practical potential of this approach in foreign language teaching.
26
Evans, Vyvyan, and Andrea Tyler. "Applying cognitive linguistics to pedagogical grammar: the english prepositions of verticality." Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada 5, no. 2 (2005): 11–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1984-63982005000200002.
Full textAbstract:
In this paper, we illustrate the merit of applying insights from Cognitive Linguistics to pedagogical grammar. We do so by examining English prepositions, long assumed to be one of the most difficult areas of acquisition for second language learners. The approach to the semantics of English prepositions we present is that developed in Evans and Tyler (2004a, b, In prep.) and Tyler and Evans (2001a, 2003). This account offers the following insights: 1) the concepts encoded by prepositions are image-schematic in nature and thus have an embodied basis. In other words, prepositions are not appropriately modelled as constituting linguistic propositions or semantic feature bundles (the received view in formal linguistics); 2) an English preposition encodes an abstract mental idealization of a spatial relation, derived from more specific spatial scenes. This forms the primary meaning component of a semantic network; 3) the idealized spatial relation also encodes a functional element, which derives from the way spatial relations are salient and relevant for human function and interaction with the physical environment; and 4) the additional senses in the semantic network have been extended in systematic, constrained ways. We discuss two key principles of extension: ways of viewing a spatial scene and experiential correlation. We demonstrate the usefulness of a Cognitive Linguistics approach by examining a few aspects of the lexicalization patterns exhibited by in and the four English prepositions of verticality, over, above, under and below. These prepositions provide good evidence that prepositional meanings are extended from the spatial to abstract domains in ways that are regular and constrained. We conclude that a Cognitive Linguistics approach to prepositions provides a more accurate, systematic account that, in turn, offers the basis for a more coherent, learnable presentation of this hitherto seemingly arbitrary aspect of English grammar.
27
Welke, Klaus. "Bedeutung und Weltwissen in der Konstruktionsgrammatik. Holistik oder Modularität?" Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik 49, no. 2 (2021): 369–415. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zgl-2021-2030.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Empirical and theoretical arguments are presented against a framesemantic grounding of construction grammar and thus against a holistic unification of meaning and world knowledge. A modular conception is the basis of the interplay between construction and projection in Goldberg (1995). Goldberg’s attempt to include frame semantics is at odds with this foundation and must be considered a failure. The same is true for the continuation by Boas (2003). The argumentation is supplemented, among other things, by the reference to the contrast of a perceptual system and a linguistic system of cognition in cognitive psychology and by the necessity to take a modular concept as a basis in the area of syntactic-semantic ambiguity of sentences.
28
Gisborne, Nikolas. "The semantics of definite expressions and the grammaticalization of THE." Theory and data in cognitive linguistics 36, no. 3 (2012): 603–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.36.3.06gis.
Full textAbstract:
This paper explores the claim that definite expressions involve universal and existential quantification from the point of view of Word Grammar, in order to establish whether the quantificational view of definiteness is compatible with a particular cognitive theory of language, and to see how it compares with the familiarity treatment of definiteness. It is argued that the quantificational approach is superior to the familiarity approach in the analysis of a number of linguistic phenomena, and a number of Word Grammar analyses are presented. The paper concludes with an investigation into the grammaticalization of the English definite article, in order to compare the merits of the two approaches, and argues that the quantificational approach delivers a simpler and preferable account.
29
Shi, Yuzhi. "Rule and Construction: The Transitivity of Resultatives in English." Cognitive Semantics 6, no. 1 (2020): 107–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/23526416-00502005.
Full textAbstract:
The resultative construction has been one of the focuses in exploring the interfaces between semantics and syntax. In the generativist tradition, constructions are regarded as the surface structures that are generated by a set of phrasal rules. In cognitive linguistics, especially the approach of construction grammar, constructions are viewed as the fixed pairings of forms and meanings that are regarded as symbolic like lexical items. This article argues that constructions are schemas determined by certain rules, and a set of subconstructions may be produced by a base construction. The article shows that the transitivity of the resultative construction is governed by the semantic relationship between the verb and the resultative phrase, which in turn determines concrete syntactic configurations. Grammar constructions consisting of two or more elements are essentially different from those atomic lexical items, a point distinguishing my analysis from construction grammar. Without the assumption of any underlying structures, unlike the generativist model, this article uncovers the surface rules that determine concrete constructions.
30
Sullivan, Karen. "Integrating constructional semantics and conceptual metaphor." Constructions and Frames 8, no. 2 (2016): 141–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/cf.8.2.02sul.
Full textAbstract:
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.
31
Andreyeva, Tetyana. "Communicative grammar in modern Ukrainian linguodidactics." Actual issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice, no. 37 (2018): 141–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.17721/apultp.2018.37.141-156.
Full textAbstract:
This article examines the notion of communicative grammar in its relations with the Ukrainian linguodidactics. This problem is related to the language competence, which serves as a component of communicative competence. The present stage of studying the numerous problems of linguistics is characterized by the fact that they are considered in a cognitive-communicative perspective. The fact of the establishment of a cognitive-communicative paradigm in modern linguistics leads to the foreground of the study, which uses the functional description of the language system and its constructive units. Application of the communicative-activity approach corresponds most closely to modern educational goals and psycho-pedagogical ideas of the present, as it creates the preconditions for the active formation of communicative competences among students, serving as the main goal of standardized language education at all levels. The communicative approach to the study of the linguistic system demonstrates the applicable nature, because it involves mastering the linguistic material as an action: acquisition of the lexical and grammatical system of language based on their communicative importance. The specificity of modern research in the field of grammar was the emergence of various types of grammar (generative grammar, communicative grammar, functional grammar). Communicative grammar is one of the areas of language learning, which combines the systematic representation of grammar and text analysis (as part of this, there is a broad term in grammar, it also includes the lexical semantics). Significant linguistic units were in the focus of the study of communicative grammar in connection with the communicative activity of the speaker. The main object of this science is the text, and its purpose is the justification of the specific text and each of its components, the creation of an explanatory model of the grammatical system (that is the definition of functional and semantic specificity of grammatical units, the identification of functional and semantic principles that underpin the organization of the grammatical system). In our opinion, the linguo-didactic elaboration of a range of issues that lie in the sphere of interest in communicative grammar is still rather small. The development of the theory of communicative grammar itself in Ukrainian linguistics, and its linguistic and pedagogical elaboration, is, in large part, a matter of scientific and methodological perspectives.
32
Shreves, Wyley B., William Hart, John M. Adams, Rosanna E. Guadagno, and Cassie A. Eno. "The complex interplay between semantics and grammar in impression formation." Cognition 132, no. 3 (2014): 455–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.05.007.
Full text
33
Stjernfelt, Frederik. "We Can't Go On Meeting Like This." Nordic Journal of Linguistics 18, no. 2 (1995): 121–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0332586500000135.
Full textAbstract:
The article investigates the meeting between linguistics and literary theory under the auspices of cognitive grammar. First, it places this recent meeting in contrast to the relation between the two under structuralism; second, it sketches the philosophical foundations of cognitive linguistics in a series of related ideal types, such as cognitivism, diagrammatism, gestaltism, phenomenology, etc.; third, it investigates the literary theory of cognitive semantics in Lakoff and Turner's More Than Cool Reason as a background for some critical remarks.
34
Zhabotynska, S. "SEMANTICS OF LINGUAL NETWORKS IN AN EDUCATIONAL COMBINATORY THESAURUS." Studia Philologica, no. 2 (2019): 17–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.28925/2311-2425.2019.13.3.
Full textAbstract:
A cognitive turn in contemporary methodologies of teaching foreign languages is primarily associated with employment of the brain / mind covert potential (memory capacities, emotional responses, particulars of the individual’s perceptions, etc.) in language learning. Meanwhile, the cognitive approach to language teaching takes little notice of such powerful tool as conceptual structures that underpin linguistic structures and, therefore, facilitate their understanding and acquisition. The nature of relations between linguistic and conceptual structures is focused on in Semantics of Lingual Networks (SLN) — a theoretical conception extended into the felds of applied cognitive linguistics, with lexicography and language teaching among them. This article demonstrates how SLN 18 ISSN 2311-2425 (Print) ISSN 2412-2491 (Online) Філологічні студії. Збірник наукових праць • Випуск 13, 2019 contributes to developing the Linguacon (Lat. Lingua + Conscientia) system of teaching English via application of conceptual schemas and conceptual ontologies. The paper proposes a brief discussion of the SLN issues, demonstrates their projection upon the Linguacon system, and describes the procedure of compiling a combinatory thesaurus which is the pivot of this system. In the Linguacon system, the combinatory thesaurus performs several functions: (1) it structures information within the topic of discussion, (2) it provides systematized sets of phrasal linguistic expressions necessary for this discussion, (3) it links teaching grammar to a thematically homogeneous vocabulary, (4) it changes the traditional “text → lexicon” vector of teaching a foreign language to the “lexicon → text” vector, when the lexicon (in its phrasal version least conspicuous in conventional teaching practices) is adopted for text production. An illustration is provided by the “SCHOOL” combinatory thesaurus. It exemplifes the data which are applied in the classroom to teach grammar and develop texts relevant for the discussed topic. Presumably, the described principles of compiling combinatory thesauri used in teaching English are applicable for compiling similar thesauri for teaching other foreign languages.
35
Thal, Donna J., Elizabeth Bates, Mary Jane Zappia, and Melinda Oroz. "Ties between lexical and grammatical development: evidence from early-talkers." Journal of Child Language 23, no. 2 (1996): 349–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0305000900008837.
Full textAbstract:
ABSTRACTCase studies are presented for two linguistically precocious children (early-talkers) aged 1;9 and 1;5, one of whom represents a striking dissociation between vocabulary size and mean length of utterance. Each early-talker is compared to controls in the same language stage; 10 in Early Stage I (mean age 1; 7) and 10 in Stage II (mean age 2; 3). Data are explored to determine if the dissociation is best characterized as one between grammar and semantics, or a difference in cognitive style. Results showed that the child who used mostly single words produced high proportions of predicates and bound and closed class grammatical morphemes, providing no evidence of a dissociation between grammar and semantics. Results also failed to support a clear contrast between analytic and holistic processing, although partial support was found for some predictions based on cognitive style. A unifying account is proposed that considers differences in auditory short term memory, a factor which could affect the size of the linguistic unit that children can store, manipulate, and/or retrieve at a particular point in development.
36
Dobrosz-Michiewicz, Karolina. "The Structure of Ambiguity Phenomena (Based on Cognitive Analyses of the Ways in Which Politicians Communicate)." Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica 35, no. 5 (2017): 75–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.35.06.
Full textAbstract:
The paper presents the ambiguity phenomena in terms of cognitive categorization and blending processes. The analyses of politicians’ programme speeches, based on Lakoff’s and Langacker’s semantics and Langacker’s grammar research, result in describing the ambiguity phenomena as sender’s or receiver’s mental concepts rather than relating it to linguistic properties of the message. Moreover, a cognitive point of view in the research on ambiguity reveals its multilevelled structure, which stems from the polysemic nature of mental categories and blends.
37
Stanojcic, Zivojin. "Semantics, analogy and alternation capacity of syntactic structures." Juznoslovenski filolog, no. 69 (2013): 245–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/jfi1369245s.
Full textAbstract:
Departing from examples found in the language of Njegos and later writers from a broader area, and on the theoretical premises of cognitive linguistics as well as on transformational grammar methodology, author is discussing the syntactic and semantic elements that enable the alternations of conjunctions gde, sto, kako and da - mutually and with other dependent clauses conjunctions the semantic basis of which are the notions ?cause?, ?space?, ?manner of an action? and ?object of an action?. According to author, in the given process, with inner linguistic semantic and analogical factors, the idiolectal experience of speaker / writer (listener / reader) and his/her knowledge of language units in the common language of the given society - have the most important role in the event of language perception.
38
Langacker, Ronald W. "The English present tense." English Language and Linguistics 5, no. 2 (2001): 251–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1360674301000235.
Full textAbstract:
It is generally agreed that the English ‘present tense’ is not appropriately analyzed as indicating present time: present-time events often cannot be expressed in the present tense; conversely, the present tense is often used for nonpresent occurrences. I will argue, however, that these problems are only apparent, arising from a failure to appreciate the numerous conceptual factors that are crucially involved. When these are properly elucidated, using notions available in cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar, the characterization ‘coincidence with the time of speaking’ proves remarkably adequate in accounting for present-tense usage.
39
TAYLOR, NICOLE, WILBERTA DONOVAN, SALLY MILES, and LEWIS LEAVITT. "Maternal control strategies, maternal language usage and children's language usage at two years." Journal of Child Language 36, no. 2 (2008): 381–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0305000908008969.
Full textAbstract:
ABSTRACTThe present study determined whether parenting style, defined by control strategies varying in power-assertion mediated the established relation between maternal language usage (grammar and semantics) and child language (grammar, semantics and pragmatics) during toddlerhood (n=60). Based upon their use of control strategies mothers were categorized into continuum-of-control groups (i.e. high guidance (HG), high control (HC) or high negative control (HNC)). Mothers in the high negative control group, who characteristically used high levels of prohibitions and commands, had children who performed relatively poorly overall on the language measures (i.e. MLU, number of bound morphemes, number of different words and use of language functions). In contrast, children of mothers in the HG and HC groups exhibited more advanced language usage overall. The relation between maternal and child language usage was mediated by parenting style for child pragmatics and partially for child grammar.
40
MAGNE, CYRILLE, MIREILLE BESSON, and STÉPHANE ROBERT. "Context influences the processing of verb transitivity in French sentences: more evidence for semantic−syntax interactions." Language and Cognition 6, no. 2 (2014): 181–216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2014.7.
Full textAbstract:
abstractThe influence of semantic context on verb argument structure processing was investigated in two experiments using both ERP and behavioral measures. Participants were presented with sentences ending with syntactically and/or semantically congruous or incongruous noun phrases and they were asked to judge the overall acceptability of the sentences. Syntactically incongruous sentences contained an intransitive verb followed by a direct object (e.g., *L’ennemi a conspiré (INTR) un complot *‘The enemy conspired a scheme’). In line with our hypothesis, results showed that the processing of syntactic incongruities was influenced by the degree of semantic congruency between the different sentence constituents (strong in Experiment 1 and weak in Experiment 2). Thus, the same syntactic incongruity was processed differently depending upon the semantic context of the sentence, thereby demonstrating the influence of semantic context on syntactic processing. We propose a linguistic account of the differential effects of verb transitivity as a function of the semantic context based upon Cognitive Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics.
41
Corballis, Michael C. "On Phrase Structure and Brain Responses: A Comment on Bahlmann, Gunter, and Friederici (2006)." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19, no. 10 (2007): 1581–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2007.19.10.1581.
Full textAbstract:
Bahlmann et al. (2006) reported an experiment on event-related brain potentials of sequences of syllables obeying two rules, one defined by AnBn and the other by (AB)n, where the As and Bs are different classes of syllables. They interpreted their findings on the assumption that AnBn are parsed according a center-embedded phrase-structure grammar. In fact, such sequences are much more likely to be parsed in terms of the repetition of element types, without reference to phrase structure. This raises a general issue about attempting to study syntactic processing independently of semantics.
42
Roitto, Rikard. "The Polyvalence of ἀφίημι and the Two Cognitive Frames of Forgiveness in the Synoptic Gospels". Novum Testamentum 57, № 2 (2015): 136–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685365-12341489.
Full textAbstract:
Depending on whether God or a human is the forgiving agent in the Synoptic Gospels (and beyond), the verb valence of ἀφίημι, “forgive,” differs in several ways. The present article argues that the differences are reflections in linguistic conventions of the cognition that only God can remove the substance of sin, while both God and humans can remit the moral debt of sin. Construction grammar, a linguistic theory which assumes that syntax and semantics are inseparable, is used in the analysis. Theological implications are discussed.
43
Levshina, Natalia. "Anybody (at) home? Communicative efficiency knocking on the Construction Grammar door." Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association 6, no. 1 (2018): 71–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/gcla-2018-0004.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract The present study focuses on the locative adverbials home and at home, which are interchangeable in some contexts, e.g. She decided to stay (at) home today. Using data from the spoken component of COCA and different multivariate statistical techniques, such as conditional inference trees and dichotomous logistic regression, I investigate the differences between home and at home with regard to several contextual variables, such as the syntactic function of (at) home, the presence of particular adverbs, e.g. back (at) home, figurativeness of semantics and the presence of presupposed arrival in the context. Moreover, special attention is paid to the variables that represent predictability of Verb + (at) home given a verbal predicate and the other way round, as well as linguistic distance between the predicate and the locative adjunct. The effects of these variables are interpreted as a manifestation of the universal tendency to maximize communicative efficiency and minimize cognitive complexity. I also argue that these effects represent an important social aspect of language use that should be taken into account by contemporary Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar.
44
Vandenberghe, R., A. C. Nobre, and C. J. Price. "The Response of Left Temporal Cortex to Sentences." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 14, no. 4 (2002): 550–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/08989290260045800.
Full textAbstract:
The meaning of a sentence differs from the sum of the meanings of its constituents. Left anterior temporal cortex responds to sentences more strongly than to unconnected words. We hypothesized that the anterior temporal response to sentences is due to this difference in meaning (compositional semantics). Using positron emission tomography (PET), we studied four experimental conditions (2 × 2 factorial design): In one condition, subjects read normal sentences. In a second condition, they read grammatically correct sentences containing numerous semantic violations (semantically random sentences). In a third condition, we scrambled the word order within the normal sentences, and, in a fourth condition, the word order was scrambled within the semantically random sentences. The left anterior temporal pole responded strongly to sentences compared to scrambled versions of sentences. A similar although weaker response occurred in the left anterior superior temporal sulcus and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus. A subset of voxels within the left anterior temporal pole responded more to semantically random sentences and their scrambled versions than to normal sentences and the corresponding scrambled versions (main effect of semantic randomness). Finally, the grammatical and the semantic factor interacted in a subset of voxels within the anterior temporal pole: Activity was higher when subjects read normal sentences compared to their scrambled versions but not for semantically random sentences compared to their corresponding scrambled versions. The effects of grammar and meaning and, most importantly, the interaction between grammatical and semantic factors are compatible with the hypothesis that the left anterior temporal pole contributes to the composition of sentence meaning.
45
Andrighetto, Giulia. "Universali linguistici e categorie grammaticali." PARADIGMI, no. 2 (July 2009): 113–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.3280/para2009-002010.
Full textAbstract:
- In this paper I explore the consistency of an idea of language structures as both universal in their nature and empirical in their genesis. To this aim, I assume the theory of the parts of speech as a case study. I proceed from a brief historical reconstruction of 20th-century theories of grammatical categories to an analysis of the semantics of the parts of speech, with particular emphasis on Ronald Langacker's philosophy of grammar. Finally I focus on the theory of prepositions in order to explore the relations between language and perception and the function of perceptual schemas at the basis of linguistic categories.Keywords: Linguistic universals, Parts of speech, Perceptual schemas, Cognitive linguistics, Prepositions, Philosophy of grammar.Parole chiave: Universali linguistici, Parti del discorso, Schemi percettivi, Linguistica cognitiva, Preposizioni, Filosofia della grammatica.
46
Cienki, Alan. "The Semantics of Possessive and Spatial Constructions in Russian and Bulgarian: A Comparative Analysis in Cognitive Grammar." Slavic and East European Journal 39, no. 1 (1995): 73. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/308693.
Full text
47
Horsch, Jakob. "VIDÍŠ TÝM LEPŠIE, ČÍM BLIŽŠIE SA POZERÁŠ SLOVAK COMPARATIVE CORRELATIVE CC' CONSTRUCTIONS FROM A CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE." Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis 71, no. 1 (2020): 25–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2020-0010.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract The Slovak Comparative Correlative (CC) construction has received little attention, although it is interesting regarding both its semantics and its form: As discussed in Horsch (2019), CCs are characterized by their complex symmetric (parallel change over time) and asymmetric (cause-effect) semantics, which are encoded in a biclausal structure in which each clause consists of a combination of fixed material and obligatory/optional slots. Typically, the first clause (C1) encodes a cause/protasis, and precedes the second clause (C2), which encodes an effect/apodosis: [čím bližšie sa pozeráš,]C1 [tým lepšie vidíš.]C2 ‘the closer you look, the better you see.’ However, there are also structures that retain the same meaning but in which C2 precedes C1 (often referred to as CC’): [Tým lepšie vidíš]C2 [čím bližšie sa pozeráš.]C1. ‘You see the better, the closer you look.’ Additionally, there is a variant in Slovak where the clause precedes the clause-initial element and comparative element: [Vidíš tým lepšie,]C2 [čím bližšie sa pozeráš.]C1. Embedded in a Usage-based Construction Grammar approach, this is the first large-scale corpus study to investigate the C2C1 order in Slovak, and how semantics influences its formal properties. It is argued that both the significantly higher amount of C1C2 order in the corpus data and the significantly higher amount of C2C1 structures in which the clause precedes the comparative element in C2 can be explained with the principle of iconicity (linguistic form is influenced by the semantics of a construction), which makes certain strings easier to process and thus leads to performance preference. From a cross-linguistic perspective, the present investigation provides evidence in support of Goldberg’s Tenet #5 (2003, p. 219), which posits that cross-linguistic generalizations can be accounted for with general cognitive constraints.
48
Джарбо Сaмер Омар. "The Semantics-Pragmatics Interface: The Case of the Singular Feminine Demonstrative in Jordanian Arabic." East European Journal of Psycholinguistics 4, no. 1 (2017): 63–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.29038/eejpl.2017.4.1.jar.
Full textAbstract:
The aim in this study is to investigate the interface between semantics and pragmatics in relation to the use of the indexical demonstrative ‘haay’ ‘this-S.F.’ in Jordanian Arabic (JA). It is argued here that an analysis of meaning in relation to context-sensitivity inherent in the use of ‘haay’ can give evidence to the view that semantic and pragmatic processes can be distinguished from each other. I have found that the meaning of ‘haay’ consists of three distinct levels: linguistic, semantic, and pragmatic meaning. The denotational and conventional senses of ‘haay’ comprise its linguistic meaning, its semantic meaning is generated when any of the variables in the linguistic meaning is selected in relation to 'narrow context', the pragmatic meaning depends on relating the semantic meaning to an entity in the physical context of interaction. The results of this study support the view that the boundary between semantics and pragmatics can be distinctively demarcated.
 References
 
 Agha, A. (1996). Schema and superposition in spatial deixis. Anthropological Linguistics,38(4), 643–682.
 Ariel, M. (2002). The demise of a unique concept of literal meaning. Journal ofPragmatics, 34(4), 361–402.
 Bach, K. (1994). Conversational impliciture. Mind and Language, 9(2), 124–162.
 Bach, K. (1997). The semantics-pragmatics distinction: What it is and why it matters,Linguistiche Berichte, 8, 33–50.
 Bach, K. (2001). You don’t say? Synthese, 128(1), 15–44.
 Bach, K. (2012). Context dependence. In: The Continuum Companion to the Philosophy ofLanguage, (pp. 153–184). M. García-Carpintero & M. Kölbel (eds.). New York:Continuum International.
 Bartsch, R. (1996). The myth of literal meaning. In: Language Structure and LanguageUse: Proceedings of the International Conference on Lexicology and Lexical Semantics.Munster, 1994, (pp. 3–16). E. Weigand and F. Hundsnurscher (eds.). Tubingen: Niemeyer:.
 Berg, J. (2002). Is semantics still possible? Journal of Pragmatics, 34(4), 349–59.
 Braun, D. (2008). Complex demonstratives and their singular contents. Linguisticsand Philosophy, 31(1), 57–99.
 Cappelen, H. & Lepore, E. (2005). Insensitive Semantics: A Defense of SemanticMinimalism and Speech Act Pluralism. Oxford: Blackwell
 Carston, R. (2008). Linguistic communication and the semantics-pragmatics distinction.Synthese, 165(3), 321–345.
 Clark, H. (1996). Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Dascal, M. (1987). Defending Literal Meaning. Cognitive Science, 11(3), 259–281.
 Doerge, C. F. (2010). The collapse of insensitive semantics. Linguistics and Philosophy,33(2), 117–140.
 Gazdar, G. (1979). Pragmatics: Implicature, Presupposition, and Logical Form. NewYork: Academic Press.
 Gibbs, R. W. (1984). Literal meaning and psychological theory. Cognitive Science, 8(3),275–304.
 Gibbs, R. W. (1994). The Poetics of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Gibbs, R.W. (1999). Speakers’ intuitions and pragmatic theory. Cognition, 69(3), 355–359.
 Gibbs, R. W. & Moise, J. F. (1997). Pragmatics in understanding what is said. Cognition,62(1), 51–74.
 Giora, R., (1997). Understanding figurative and literal language: the graded saliencehypothesis. Cognitive Linguistics, 8(3), 183–206.
 Giora, R. (1999). On the priority of salient meanings: studies of literal and figurativelanguage. Journal of Pragmatics, 31(7), 919–929.
 Giora, R. (2002). Literal vs. figurative language: different or equal? Journal ofPragmatics, 34(4), 487–506.
 Grice, H.P. (1978). Further notes on logic and conversation. In: Syntax and Semantics, 9,P. Cole (ed.). (pp.113–127). New York: Academic Press; reprinted in H.P. Grice (1989).Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
 Hanks, W. (1990). Referential practice: Language and lived space among the Maya.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
 Huang, Y. (2007). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Jarbou, S. O. (2012). Medial deictic demonstratives in Arabic: Fact or fallacy.Pragmatics, 22(1), 103–118.
 Kaplan, D. (1977). Demonstratives. In: Themes from Kaplan, J. Almog, J. Perry, andH. Wettstein (eds.). (pp. 481–563). New York: Oxford University Press.
 Katz, J. J. (1977). Propositional structure and Illocutionary Force. New York: ThomasY. Crowell.
 Kempson, R. (1988). Grammar and conversational principles. In: Linguistics,F. Newmeyer (ed.). The Cambridge Survey, Vol. II (pp. 139–163). Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
 Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal aboutthe Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 Lee, C. J. (1990). Some hypotheses concerning the evolution of polysemous words.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 19, 211–219.
 Lepore, E., & Ludwig, K. (2000). The semantics and pragmatics of complexdemonstratives. Mind, 109(434), 199–240.
 Levinson, S.C. (1995). Three levels of Meaning. In: Grammar and meaning. Essays inHonour of Sir John Lyons, (pp. 90–115). F.R. Palmer (ed.). Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
 Levinson, S. C. (2006). Deixis and pragmatics. In: The Handbook of Pragmatics. (pp.97–121), L. Horn and G. Ward (eds.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
 MacCormac, E. R. (1985). A Cognitive Theory of Metaphor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
 Manning, P. (2001). On social deixis. Anthropological Linguistics, 43(1), 54–100.
 Nicolle, S. & Clark, B. (1999). Experimental pragmatics and what is said: a response toGibbs and Moise. Cognition, 69(3), 337–354.
 Recanati, F. (1989). The pragmatics of what is said. Mind and Language, 4(4), 295–329.
 Recanati, F. (1993). Direct Reference: From Language to Thought. Blackwell, Oxford.
 Recanati, F. (1995). The alleged priority of literal interpretation’. Cognitive Science, 19,207–232.
 Recanati, R. (2002). Unarticulated constituents. Linguistics and Philosophy, 25(3), 299–345.
 Recanati, F. (2004). Literal Mmeaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Rumelhart, D., E. (1979). Some problems with the notion of literal meaning. In:Metaphor and Thought. (pp. 78-90), A. Ortony (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
 Searle, J. R., (1978). Literal meaning. Erkenntnis, 13(1), 207–224.
 Silverstein, M. (1976). Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In:Meaning in Anthropology. (pp. 11–56), K. Basso, & H.A. Selby (eds.). Albuquerque:School of American Research, University of New Mexico Press.
 Sperber, D. and Wilson D. (1986). Loose talk. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society,86(1985-6), 153–171.
 Stalnaker, R. (1972). Pragmatics. In: Semantics for Natural Language. (pp. 380–97), D.Davidson and G. Harman (eds.). Dordrecht: Reidel.
 Stokke, A. (2010). Intention-sensitive semantics. Synthese 175, 383–404.
 Sweetser, E. (1990). From Etymology to Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
 Vicente, B. (2002). What pragmatics can tell us about (literal) meaning: A critical note onKent Bach’s theory of impliciture. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(4), 403–421.
49
Dragicevic, Rajna. "On nouns functioning as prepositions." Juznoslovenski filolog, no. 68 (2012): 91–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/jfi1268091d.
Full textAbstract:
This paper analyzes semantic transformations of nouns functioning as prepositions. The semantic characteristics of prepositions are discussed, and Belic? concept of adverbial origin and meaning of prepositions is reviewed. Contrary to usual perception that prepositions have mere grammatical meaning, it is concluded in this paper that they also have lexical meaning, like adverbs. Cognitive linguistics has so far dealt with lexical meanings of prepositions, and it is up to contemporary semantics to further explore and evolve this approach. Based on this fact that prepositions have lexical meaning, it is argued that nouns functioning as prepositions retain that lexical attribute though with different semantic value, rather than it adopts grammatical characteristics. It is concluded that semantic meaning of those nouns used as prepositions could be broken into two segments: adverbial (place) and nominal (partitive). The nouns which upon occasions may function as prepositions in Serbian language as a rule denote place and they always are used with genitive case (mostly partitive), and as a consequence they often have partitive meaning. In the sentences with nouns functioning as prepositions, the act expressed encompasses the part of the localizator or it is performed on its bounds, or near it. Which meaning would prevail depends on the noun, or verb, or noun in genitive case. A noun and its related preposition are treated as two lexemes in Serbian descriptive dictionaries, independent but close in meanings, since the preposition originated from a noun in a process defined by Irena Grickat as grammar polysemy, i.e. a polysemy with the grammatical result. In some grammar books identical forms of a preposition and nominative and accusative noun forms are defined as homophoria, and those prepositions and nouns are called homophores. Since homophoria is a type of homonymy, and homonymy excludes semantic relation between lexemes, the term homophoria had to be discarded. It is suggested in this paper that only few nouns in Serbian language can function as prepositions due to fact that only those few have possibility to combine semantically high-productive spaciality with partitivity (rarely possessiveness), as a result of their obligatory usage with partitive (sometimes, possessive) genitive. The usage of nouns as prepositions in Serbian language is slowly going out because their semantics is imprecise, and in certain circumstances difficult to differentiate, which means that the process of transformation of nouns into prepositions was not complete. Thus, more frequent today are compound prepositions formed by a real preposition and a noun (navrh, uvrh, podno). Their semantics is more distinctive and more precise due to real preposition as constituents.
50
BRISARD, FRANK. "Be going to: an exercise in grounding." Journal of Linguistics 37, no. 2 (2001): 251–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226701008866.
Full textAbstract:
This paper investigates the semantics of be going to, starting from a schematic definition which interprets temporal meanings in terms of referential and epistemological attributes. The analysis is framed within the model of cognitive grammar, taking deictic syntactical constructions as instances of grounding predications and differences between them as triggered by aspects of construal and profiling. On the basis of corpus material from American and British English texts, it is concluded that be going to features a paradoxical but pragmatically plausible interpretation of the future as non-given yet present, with a pending event's being signaled or announced at the time of speaking.