categories, metaphors, metonymy, and frames, mental schema, iconicity, etc. In
The structure of this Course
• • • • • • • • • Cognitive linguistics (CL): an introduction Prototypes and categories Levels of categorization Frames Figure and ground Conceptual metaphors and metonymies mental schema, iconicity Other issues in CL
• Cognitive linguistics …… is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it.“ (Ungerer & Schmid 1996: x) • In CL, research is shaped from the outset by what is believed to be cognitively plausible. Language as an integral part of cognition: study of language in light of what is known about the mind (experimentation, introspection, common-sense observation)
• Chomskyan linguistics ‚ cognitive linguistics and the cognitive turn in linguistics • Syntactic Structures (Chomsky 1957), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (Chomsky 1965): grammar exists in speakers’ minds; innate UG; language as autonomous component of the mind: knowledge of language forms an autonomous module/faculty independent of other mental processes
• What is CL and where does it fit in? • The term cognitive: • Cognitive means relating to the mental process involved in knowing, learning, and understanding things. (COBUILD)
Relationship between CL and other Linguistics schools:
27-31
• I. with Structural Linguistics
• II. With TG Linguistics • III. With Systematic Functional Linguistics
Physiological aspect: 认知心理学、建构主义
• 1. 近代心理学发展三阶段：内省法、行为 主义 、认知心理学。 • 2. 语言与思维的关系：自然语言是人类思 维的主要工具，但不是唯一工具。
Linguistic aspect： 生成语义学、认知语用学
• 1. 生成语义学 • 2.认知语用学： • 观点：关联性（Relevance）；认知语境 （Cognitive Context）；交际双方 （Communicator and Audience；Speaker and Hearer）；两条关联原则（2 Principles of Relevance）；语境效果（Context Effect）； 关联的程度性（Degree of Relevance）。
Historical Background of CL
• Cl grew out of the work of a number of researchers active in the 1970s who were interested in the relation of language and mind, and who didn’t follow the prevailing tendency to explain linguistic patterns by means of appeals to structural properties internal to and specific to language. • E.g. see next page.
Main Content of CL
• Sweetser (1990): Language is systematically grounded in human cognition, and cognitive linguistics seeks to show exactly how. The conceptual system that emerges from everyday human experience has been shown in recent research to be the basis for natural language semantics in a wide range of areas. Language is shaped by cognition.
• （1）从T.G.分裂出来的生成语义学家，Lakoff, Langacker, Fillmore, etc. • （2）从认知和功能角度研究语言的主要学者， Taylor, Diven, Talmy, etc. • （3）关注认知研究的哲学家、心理学家、社 会学家、人类学家，Piagget, Fauconnier, Labov, Rosch and Kay.
I. with Structural Linguistics
• 结构主义语言学的哲学基础是分析哲学并 兼有理性解释倾向，心理学基础是摒弃心 智主义的行为主义心理学 • 认知语言学的哲学基础是体验哲学，心理 学基础是建构性心智主义。
• This class aims to introduce you to Cognitive Linguistics, by explaining and applying its key concerns: prototypes, doing so, not only will you gain insight into a new approach to linguistics, but you will also learn more about how human cognition seems to work.
Cognitive Linguistics: definitions and descriptions
• [A] descriptive label for a rather broad movement within modern linguistics. It includes a variety of approaches, methodologies, and emphases, which are, however, unified by a number of common assumptions. Foremost among these is the belief that language forms an integral part of human cognition, and that any insightful analysis of linguistic phenomena will need to be embedded in what is known about human cognitive abilities.“ (Taylor 2002: 3f.)
• 王寅：（狭义）坚持体验哲学观，以身体 经验和认知为出发点，以概念结构和意义 研究为中心，着力寻求语言事实背后的认 知方式，并通过认知方式和知识结构等对 语言做出统一解释的、新兴的、跨领域的 学科。
对王寅定义的解读（P11-15）
• • • • • 一、体验认知 二、意义中心 三、认知方式 四、统一解释 五、知识结构
• 思维的隐喻性: • 1. 隐喻具有体验性。其认知基础是意象图式和 基本经验，在跨概念域的映射中起着重要作用。 隐喻是身体、感知、体验、大脑和心智的产物。 • 2.隐喻是自动的、无意识的思维模式。 • 3.隐喻推理使得大部分抽象思维成为可能。 • 因此，正是隐喻，使得我们能够正确地理解 抽象概念域；正是隐喻，将我们的知识扩展到 了新的领域；正是隐喻，把哲学中的理论连接 起来形成完整的理论体系。
Theorical Basis of CL
• Philosophical aspect: embodied philosophy
• Physiological aspect:认知心理学、建构主义 • Linguistic aspect：生成语义学、认知语用学
Philosophical aspect: embodied philosophy
• 体验哲学三原则：心智的体验性、认知的 无意识性、思维的隐喻性
• 心智的体验性形成认知语言学的一个基本 观点：在语言与现实之间存在思维或认知 这一中间层次，如果不依靠范畴知识、概 念结构和认知方式，就无法接近现实。
• 认知的无意识性指我们队心智中的所思所 想没有直接的直觉，我们即使理解一个简 单的话语也需要许多认知运作程序、神经 加工过程。。。。嗅觉、味觉、视觉、听 觉等神经加工过程是不可能被意识到的， 大部分推理也不能被意识到。