Fundamental issues in cognitive linguistics

1. What is CL?

2. CL vs. other linguistic schools

3. Basic concepts in CL

4. Fundamental recognitions of CL

5. Fundamental issues of CL

6. Major hypotheses guiding CL

7. Studies in CL

1. What is CL?

CL: an approach to the study of language based upon:

(1) human perception

(2) human categorization

(3) human conceptualization of the world

= how human beings perceive, categorize and conceptualize the world and how they express their
perception, categorization and conceptualization through language

CL = a school of linguistic thought and practice, concerned with investigating the relationship between:

(1) human language

(2) the human mind and

(3) sociophysical (embodied) experience

CL= a powerful approach to the study of

(1) language

(2) conceptual systems

(3) human cognition, and

(4) general meaning construction.

3. Basic concepts in cognitive linguistics

CL addresses within language the structuring of basic conceptual categories such as:
1) Space and time

2) Scenes and events

3) Entities and processes

4) Motion and location

5) Force and causation

Categories, concepts and meanings 74

1 Introduction 74

2 The classical model of category structure 76

3 The prototype model of category structure 77

3.1 Graded centrality 77

Combining the results from a large number of subjects allows the identification of the best
examples of categories: these are typically referred to as the prototypes or prototypical members of the
category.

VEGETABLE

GOE rating

LEEK, CARROT 1

BROCCOLI, PARSNIP 2

CELERY, BEETROOT 3

AUBERGINE, COURGETTE 4

PARSLEY, BASIL 5

RHUBARB 6

LEMON 7

GOE ratings may be strongly culture dependent. (Familiarity is undoubtedly a factor influencing
GOE scores, but the scores cannot be reduced to familiarity.)

DATE British context Jordanians

 GOE score 3-5 1

(i) Frequency and order of mention.

(ii) Order of learning.

(iii) Family resemblance.

(iv) Verification speed.

e.g. VEGETABLE: CARROT, VEHICLE: CHAIR

(v) Priming.

Presenting a semantically related word, or the same word, before a test item has the
effect of speeding up subjects’ responses: this phenomenon is known as priming.

Britons, FRUIT: APPLE > DATE

Lakoff 1987:84–90, notions of goodness:

(i) Typicality/representativeness.

(ii) Closeness to an ideal.

(iii) Stereotypicality.

3.2 The representation of conceptual categories 81

Prototype theory comes in two main versions (according to the psychologist Hampton 1997). In
both versions, the linked notions of graded centrality and best examples occupy a central place.

3.3 Levels of categorization 82

3.3.1 Basic level categories

3.3.2 Superordinate level categories

3.3.3 Subordinate level categories

3.4 Shortcomings of prototype theory 87

3.4.1 Simplistic nature of feature list

3.4.2 Problem with featues

3.4.3 Boundaries in prototype theory

3.5 The frame-based account of prototype effects 91

4 A dynamic construal approach to conceptual categories 92

4.1 Category boundaries 93

4.2 Frames 95

4.3 Levels of categorization 96

5 The dynamic construal of meaning 97

5.1 Contextualized interpretation 98

5.2 Purport 100

5.3 Constraints 101

5.4 Construal 103

6 Structural and logical aspects of meaning 104

7 Part I: Concluding remarks