An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics

1. Review: basic concepts and its defining criteria 2.1

1 Gestalt perception
2 The existence of large correlated bundles of attributes
3 Goodness-of-example ratings
4 Morphological simplicity of basic level words
5 They come to mind first and are acquired by children they before they learn related
words
Parasitic categorization
1.1. From a cognitive point of view most linguistic expressions are based on the perception of
objects or situations in the real world.
1.2. Rosch definition of cognitive economy: the largest amount of information about an item
can be obtained with the least cognitive effort.
1.3. Gestalt perception
1.4. Word field
2. Metaphors and metonymies
2.1. Metonymy involves a relation of ‘contiguity’
2.2. P170 Thornburg and Panther attempt to explain conventionalized indirect speech acts like
the classic Can you pass me the salt as instantiations of metonymy +ABILITY FOR
ACTION+. That is to sy, one can use a question concerning the ability to carry out an
action to ask for the performance of the action itself
2.3. Metaphor has traditionally been based on the notions ‘similarity’ or ‘comparison’ between
the literal and the figurative meaning of an expression

TENOR = TARGET CONCEPT

VEHICLE = SOURCE CONCEPT
GROUND = MAPPING SCOPE
喻体和本体存在相互制约的关系。
“Lean mapping between specific concrete source concepts and concrete target concepts is
primarily used to highlight individual aspects of the target concept”
“Rich mapping between specific concrete source concepts and abstract target concepts, plus
additional mapping from generic concepts, is primarily used to supply a tangible conceptual
structure for abstract target concepts.”

( conventionalized, lexicalized or ‘dead’ metaphor)

3. 3 major components of mapping scopes
3.1. Image schemas
Firmly grounded in our bodily experiences. In-out/inside-outside/front-back
3.2. Basic correlations: cause<>effect, action/change<>motion
3.3. Culture-dependent evaluations
4. P133 “we rely on concepts of the concrete world to conceptualized abstract phenomena.”
So is it possible to distinguish concrete words from abstract ones by their metaphysical
functions?
5. Generic metaphor
6. Explanatory metaphor/constitutive metaphor: is an integral part of theorizing about these
problems
7. 转 化 法 the process of conversion, i.e. occurrence of formally identical words in several
word classes as mail (N/V) or backup (N/V)
8. Figure and ground
8.1. Figure/ground segregation
8.2. Orientational image schemas: over/under, up/down, in/out
8.3. Trajectory: the figure of most prominent element in any relational structure while the
landmark: refers to the other entity in a relation
8.4. P189 what on earth is the most prominent grammatical position/slot in a
sentence……..subject or object? “Linguistically, the way to manifest prominence is to put
the preferred element into subject position.”
8.5. Role archetypes
All attempts to use roles or cases in syntactic analysis have a common aim, which is to
establish a list of semantically based roles that permits a satisfactory classification of
all non-verbal elements of clause patterns.
The roles are not just a linguistic construct, but part of the range of cognitive instruments
which we use for linguistic, and also for non-linguistic, mental processing.
8.6. Action chain
8.7. Fillmore (1968:33) the choice of subject is governed by a hierarchy of :
Agent > instrument > patient
8.8. All grammatical elements have a conceptual content.
8.9. Cognitive intake, cognitive units and domains
8.9.1. Domains are contexts for the characterization of a semantic unit, and the most elementary
domains are space and vision, temperature, taste, pressure, pain and color.
8.10. Langacker suggests that the choice of word class is linked to and even determined by our
cognitive abilities, in particular our ability to scan the cognitive input.
8.11. The selection of syntactic units is governed by role archetypes, action chains and mental
interactions between participants, with the additional provision that the setting can be
included as container for a participant.
8.12. The three principles guiding cognitive processing: prominence, specificity and perspective.
8.12.1. The principle of specificity determines the level at which we interact with the world
around us.
8.12.2. The perspective, which is more often called viewing arrangement, manifests itself through
the relationship between offstage observer and onstage event.
8.13. Figure/Ground
8.14. Langacker also develops an elaborate conception of grounding, i.e. how the relationship
between onstage event and ground is established by tense, mood, nominal determiners and
indefinite pronouns.
9. Frames and constructions
9.1. Frame
The notion of frame was introduced into linguistics by Charles Fillmore in 1970s, which
denotes a configuration of interacting categories./any system of linguistic choices, the
easiest cases being collections of words, but also including choices of grammatical rules or
linguistic categories/ specific unified frameworks of knowledge, or coherent
schematizations of experience/ cognitive structures, knowledge of which is presupposed for
the concepts encoded by the words
Minsky (1975): A frame is a data-structure for representing a stereotyped situation.
9.2. Frames and cognitive models and scripts
Cognitive models are of a more general nature than frames, so frames are just one of a
variety of cognitive models which also include the ‘scenarios’, domains and interactive
networks. A frame is to be seen as a type of cognitive model which represents the
knowledge and beliefs pertaining to specific and frequently recurring situations.
Scripts are knowledge structures that are particularly designed for frequently recurring
event sequenes
9.3. According to the rules of English grammar the definite article is used when one assumes
that the hearer knows which specific person or thing one is talking about.
In order to understand the definite references we need to make inferences that are based on
our world knowledge.
9.4. 6 cognitive components playing a role in the motion event-frame
FIGURE, GROUND, PATH, MOTION, MANNER AND CAUSE
Talmy (2000:259) A set of conceptual elements and interrelationships that… are evoked
together or co-evoke each other can be said to lie within or constitute an event-frame, while
 the elements that are conceived of as incidental – whether evoked weakly or not at all- lie
outside the event-frame
9.5. Windowing of attention
The cognitive process of foregrounding certain portions of an event-frame. The reverse
process in which conceptual material is backgrounded is labeled gapping.
9.6. The stages of causal event-frames

9.7. “The language-specific framing of motion events has consequences for the respective
narrative style which seems to be typical of English and Spanish stories and novels.”
9.8. 括号里为法语借词

9.9. Description of Path and Manner: verb-framed vs. satellite-framed languages

Path is one of the central elements of the framing motion event.
One way of expressing the framing function of path is through the verb, as in French
“enter”. In view of this, French and Spanish can be called verb-framed languages
Conversely, path can be rendered by a particle, or by a verbal particle. Hence, English and
German can be called satellite-framed languages.
9.10. Construction Grammar
Constructions can then be imagined as specialized variants or even parts of frames that
store all three major types of knowledge together: conceptual-semantic, syntactic and
pragmatic knowledge.

The syntactic pattern itself may have a share in encoding of particular type of experience.
What this means is that we do not simply map frame components onto syntactic
constituents guided by the particular perspective that we have in mind, but pick a certain
syntactic pattern or construction wholesale from long-term memory.
Not only the syntactic make-up of construction, but also the knowledge about the kinds of
scenes and events that the construction typically encodes, is stored in long-term memory.
Therefore, the construction itself conveys some of the conceptual content to be expresses,
carries a meaning of its own which is related to the corresponding conceptual frame.
9.10.1. Argument-structure construction
Constructions in which verbs are linked with their obligatory complements or arguments

9.10.2. Just like lexemes, constructions are polysemous.

9.10.3. Shell-content construction
Linguistically represented by a combination of abstract noun and dependent clause of
infinitive
9.10.4. Fillmore et al. regard idioms as syntactic patterns dedicated to semantic and pragmatic
purposes not knowable from their form alone.
10. Metaphor, metonymy and conceptual blending
10.1. Mental spaces are small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk, for purposes
of local understanding and action… They operate in working memory but are built up
partly by activating structures available from long-term memory 在线处理受到自上而下
的调控

Unlike cognitive models, mental spaces are context-dependent and include information
about specific situations.
10.2. Input spaces/ Blended space
The projection from the input spaces into the blended space involves three processes:
Composition: fusion and blending
Completion: the activation of relevant elements in input frameworks
Elaboration: during this process the blend can be enriched by information deemed
necessary, pertinent or even just interesting. The depth of this process is in principle open-
ended and will vary among readers.

10.3. P276 Blended property ——对状态形容词的一种解释？

10.4. Conceptual blending and morphological blends
The real testing ground for a conceptual blending analysis is two types of morphological
 blends:
1, those that fail to survive and to be conventionalized.
2, those that are intentionally conceived as a temporary and open-ended phenomenon.
10.5. In fact there is a simple test to assess the online quality of this blend. You only have to ask
yourself if you would have understood it without the information furnished above.
10.6. Hypothetical if-clauses may be the prototypical way of establishing counterfactual mental
spaces and my thus act as ‘space builders’
As defined by Fauconnier, a space builder is ‘a grammatical expression that either opens up
a new space or shifts focus to an existing space.’ E.g., once upon a time, in that story, in the
movie, my daughter thinks that, last night I dreamed that\
Once a upon a time immediately evokes a fairy tale space
Narratological frameworks?

10.7. Cognitive environment: the set of all assumptions that are manifest to participants of an
conversation because they can perceive them in their physical environment or infer them
using such cognitive abilities as memory and reasoning.
10.8. Ostensive-inferential behavior: speech, gestures, facial expression and other non-verbal
cues.
11. Iconicity
11.1. Pierce: symbol, (index and icon) are characterized by their natural grounding
Index basically has a pointing function, realized by expressing the positioning of an object
in space and time, linguistically represented by personal and demonstrative pronouns as
well as deictic adverbs of place and time, such as here, there, now and then.
Icon conveys a certain similarity with an object. 2 types of icon: image and diagram.
11.2. Iconicity interpretation of verb morphology:
In many languages, aspect markers are closer to the verb stem than tense markers, and tense
markers in turn are closer to the verb stem than modality markers
12. Lexical change and prototypicality
12.1. 3 types of lexical change
Specialization
Generalization
Metaphor
12.2. Prototype shift & prototype split
12.3. Grammaticalization
The transition of autonomous words into the role of grammatical elements/ where a lexical
unit… assumes a grammatical function, or where a grammatical unit assumes a more
grammatical function
12.4. Heine’s cognitive framework for Grammaticalization
Propositional schemas: ones represent processes and events and consist of 3 elements.
13. Conclusion
13.1. Cognitive linguistics is not a unified and monolithic theory, but rather a cluster of linguistic
approaches sharing underlying assumptions about the essence of language.

13.2.
13.3.
14. Vocabulary, Exercises and Further reading
14.1. Agent and patient 受事 instrument 工具 experiencer 与事（？）

14.2. Causative 使役
14.3. Penultimate 倒数第二的
14.4. Try to find out what the basic emotion terms in your language and culture and compare
them with the English terms discussed here
14.5. For the function of metaphor in literary discourse processing see also Steen (1994. Ch.2)
14.6. Jakobson & Halle (1956)
14.7. The study of prepositions

14.8. Discourse analysis

14.9. The literal gloss 字面意义上的注释

14.10. Slobin (1996)
14.11.

14.12. Reification 名物化 turning something into a thing: to make a whole proposition (expressed
in the dependent clause available as a noun-like concept).
14.13. Semantic non-compositionality
14.14. Incredulity 怀疑（情态）
14.15. 这个 frame-based dictionary 现在好了吗？

14.16. Narrative text analysis

14.17. Discourse-related aspects of constructions

14.18. Unobtrusive 不引人注目的

14.19. Entrenched meaning/ad hoc conceptualization
14.20. That counterfactual sentences like If I were you, I’d apply for the York position just for the
experience involve two different worlds, a factual and a counterfactual world, is general
linguistic knowledge
14.21. Anthropomorphic metaphor 拟人化的隐喻
14.22. Roland Barthes (1977)
Anchorage: text providing disambiguation and deictic support for the picture
Relay: text and image standing in a complementary relationship
14.23. 语言中充满了换喻，直指似乎是稀有事物
14.24. Misdemeanor 不良行为
14.25. Implicature/explicature
14.26.
14.27. Perpperoni 意大利辣香肠
14.28. Onomatopoeia: sound symbolism

14.29.

14.30. 小称与 generalization？

14.31. Abstract notions & syntactic environment

14.32.
14.33. Auxiliary 助动词
14.34. Imperative 祈使
14.35. Unidirectional 单向的
14.36. L2A
14.37. Pierce’s semiotics

14.38.