Review of Cognitive Linguistics. Published under the auspices of the Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association - Volume 17, Issue 2, 2019

Abstract

One of the challenges of modal particle research is the search for appropriate ways to describe the meanings these particles convey. As these meanings are subtle and situated at the abstract and non-propositional level of intersubjective meaning making, the function of the particles is notoriously hard to pin down. As a consequence, scholars also disagree on what the precise relation between different but related particles is. In this paper, I show that gesture analysis can shed new light on these issues. By looking at the gestures used with the German particles denn, ja, doch, eben, einfach, and halt, the paper illustrates how studying gestures can lead to a better understanding of the particles and their mutual relations by showing how gesture data can offer new evidence for existing hypotheses and help in finding a way out of matters of discussion.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of first language (L1) congruency, second language (L2) proficiency, and the collocate-node relationship (i.e., verb-noun, adjective-noun, noun-noun) on collocation processing by logographic L1-Chinese learners of English. Comparisons were made of accuracy rates and response times to a collocation lexical decision task completed by L1-Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) English Majors (n = 30), L1-Chinese EFL non-English Majors (n = 30), and L1-English Native Speakers (n = 26). Analysis of the data revealed that while congruent collocations were processed more accurately and faster than incongruent collocations by both L1-Chinese participant groups, the English Majors showed a processing advantage over their non-English Major peers. Further analysis revealed a processing advantage for noun-noun collocations, providing additional evidence in explaining the difficulties L1-Chinese have in acquiring verb-noun collocations. These results and other nuanced statistical findings are discussed in relation to pedagogical means of enhancing L2 collocation acquisition by L1-Chinese speakers.

Abstract

Word-formation rules of a generative type are insufficient to describe a mechanism which appears to be productive, on the one hand, but is also irregular in its productivity, on the other. Cognitive morphological accounts have stressed the importance of a wide range of more and less detailed schemas (rather than rules), sanctioning different kinds of novel formations. This article addresses the issue of morphological productivity in the context of the formation of abstract deverbal action nouns, also known as Nomina Actionis, with names of political states as derivational bases. The very number and variety of relevant lexicalized nominalizations as well as hapax legomena is impressive, which makes the phenomenon look productive. The data obtained from COCA and specialist literature show interesting tendencies and gaps in the system. Numerous nominalizations are motivated semantically and pragmatically and are sanctioned by local schemas.

Abstract

This paper argues that the cognitive usage-based model enhanced by a complexity theory perspective can provide useful insights into L2 learners’ non-target-like use of L2 phraseological chunks. Firstly, L2 chunks are conceptualized here as L2 complex form-meaning mappings subject to developmental schematization and entrenchment, as well as productive cut-and-paste mechanisms. Traces of these mechanisms at community level are interpreted as emergent patterns, a complexity theory concept in line with the cognitive usage-based model. Next, learner expressions for two task-elicited notions (depositing money and donating money) in a community of L2 English learners (N = 167; L1 Dutch) are analyzed for emergent patterns at different levels of schematicity. The findings indicate that L2 phraseological chunks are not constructed from a target-like initial exemplar that becomes entrenched or schematized. The paper concludes that within the cognitive usage-based model this is a major impeding factor in L2 learners’ target-like use of L2 phraseological chunks.

Abstract

This article examines source-path-goal image-schematic structure in gestures used to solve counting problems (gesture for thinking) and to teach children how to read a clock (gesture for teaching). The analyses illustrate how path schemas inherent in idealized cognitive models are exhibited in gesture forms and in gesture sequences and combinations, manifesting conceptual content beyond that articulated in speech. While at times the path structure is incidental, enacting part of a cognitive model that is not the focus of discourse, at other times the path structure is essential, in that listeners must perceive the source-path-goal structure in the gesture in order to construct the proper understanding. The examples support the view that image schemas at the heart of cognitive models partly motivate and structure gestures for cognitive and communicative purposes, and that listener attunement to this structure contributes to intersubjective understanding and the perpetuation of cultural practices for distributed cognition.

Abstract

The present paper is an analysis of the semantic structure of the complex spatial preposition next to. Theoretical concepts of the cognitive framework promote a deep understanding of spatial relations and their metaphorical transfers encoded by individual prepositional senses. Assuming the usage-based model of language, the study takes a closer look at corpus data which is the basis for proposing five distinct meanings of the preposition under investigation. Conceptual metaphor theory is used to explain metaphorical transfer of spatial next to to abstract domains of human experience.

Abstract

This research deals with the conceptualizations of effat in Persian and seeks to find out how this cultural key concept regulates the sexuality of Iranians. The analysis of the data collected from the Persian newspaper Kayhan indicates that effat is part of a larger cultural model that operates to restrict the sexuality of Iranians and keep the sexes segregated. The analysis demonstrates that effat exclusively functions to discipline the body and set limits to bodily desires. Within the identified cultural model, effat’s main task is to segregate men and women by creating a cover/barrier between them, blocking/concealing the ways through which sexual desire might be aroused. The results show that metaphor is the primary means of representing the functions of effat. The effat is a curtain and effat is a barrier metaphors mark the boundaries between individuals and prohibited areas of the culture. Moreover, metaphors contribute to discovering the relationship between effat and its most related concepts. Metaphorical conceptualizations of effat provide significant evidence as to how embodied experience is informed and constituted by culture. The research also finds that the body bears the imprint of effat. Compared to anthropological accounts, this research provides a more comprehensive image of this concept by simultaneously taking into account the role of bodily, cognitive, social-cultural, and discursive representations in the formation of the cultural model of effat.

Abstract

What influences how people render their moral judgment? Focusing specifically on the conceptual metaphors “moral is upright” and “immoral is tilted”, we sought to investigate whether physical slant can influence people’s harsh moral judgment. Experiment 1 induced physical slant by having participants complete the questionnaire at a tilt table. We observed a significant effect with participants who experienced physical slant rendering a less severe moral judgment than did those who wrote their responses at a level table. Using a new manipulation of physical slant and a larger, more diverse sample, Experiment 2 asked participants to complete the questionnaires with rotated text or normal text. We observed a difference between the two groups: compared to participants who read the normal text, those with a visual experience of slant lessened the severity of their moral judgments. Taken together, the results showed that the consequence of tilted experience exerts downstream effects on moral reasoning, which suggests that incidental bodily experience affects how people render their decisions.

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to define the notion of ablativity in terms of its event structure. To achieve this goal, the authors discuss the contribution of several semantic theories dealing with that conceptual class to finally propose their own definition, extensively based on the cognitive frame-based model by Wotjak (2006; 2011a; 2016). Even though the survey is mainly concerned with the theoretically relevant aspects of that semantic class, many of them are also illustrated with examples from different languages, especially from Latin, Spanish and German. Finally, the authors explain how ablativity conceptually relates to other semantic classes, such as concomitance or possession.

This article reviews Landscape and culture: Cross-linguistic perspectives

This article reviews Metonymy and word-formation: Their interaction and complementation