Review of Cognitive Linguistics. Published under the auspices of the Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association - Volume 20, Issue 2, 2022

Abstract

The present study investigates the meaning construction emerging from figurative constructions involving ear and eye in Modern Greek. The study concerns authentic language data retrieved from a corpus search. Analysis takes into consideration the embodiment hypothesis, the development of chained metonymies and the interaction of metaphor and metonymy as the motivation for the usage patterns under investigation. The constructions analyzed reveal that the sense of vision is prioritized over hearing. Furthermore, constructional parameters of meaning show how ears and eyes are perceived in MG language and culture. Eye is attributed the agent role in the constructions, while ear is the entity acted upon. Moreover, eyes are mainly perceived as reflections of different dimensions of the selfhood, while ears are perceived as containers. A broader polysemy thus emerges for the eye than for the ear.

Abstract

The category of adverbs in Chinese, as is its counterpart in English, is featured by morphological, syntactic and semantic heterogeneity. The heterogeneity poses the questions of the categorial coherence and the conflicting criteria in identifying adverbs. This paper starts with the definition of adverbs in Cognitive Grammar and analyzes degree adverbs, temporal adverbs, scope adverbs, manner adverbs, attitude adverbs and negation adverbs in Chinese. It is found that they all profile a relationship with a relational trajector, consistent with the proposal in Cognitive Grammar, but the precise relationship has to be specified. Some adverbs can also serve as mental space builders. Moreover, the morphological and syntactic behaviors of adverbs can be motivated to different degrees by their semantic functions. The paper attempts to establish the categorial status of adverbs. It develops the semantic account of lexical categories and motivates the formal aspects of language from meaning.

Abstract

Accumulating evidence over the last two decades has established that people represent elapsing time along a horizontal or a vertical mental time line (MTL). A recent research (Hartmann et al., 2014) discovered an additional diagonal MTL which develops from bottom left to top right. The present study sought to extend Hartmann et al.’s (2014) work by exploring if the particular representations of diagonal time lines vary across cultures. Two experiments which recruited English and Arabic speakers as participants were conducted. The experimental setups measured participants’ space-time mappings along the bottom-left/top-right, top-left/bottom-right, bottom-right/top-left and top-right/bottom-left axes. Converging evidence demonstrates that there are indeed cross-cultural differences in mental representations of diagonal time lines. While English speakers displayed a salient propensity to conceive of time as oriented from bottom left to top right, Arabic speakers favored a time line unfolding from bottom right to top left. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate if diagonal MTLs are cross-culturally represented. Findings of the present study add to existing literature by highlighting the important role of cultural artifacts such as writing direction in structuring people’s MTLs. Writing directions not only bring about cross-cultural discrepancies in space-time associations along the horizontal axis (e.g., left-to-right for English speakers and right-to-left for Arabic speakers), but also affect the creation of culturally specific concepts of diagonal time lines.

Abstract

This study examines the similarities and differences regarding the perception of woman between university students in France and Serbia. The method of discrete free associations was used to reconstruct and compare models of the linguistic picture of woman in the two language communities in order to explore the extent to which these pictures reflect properties observed across languages (i.e., universal) and the extent to which they are language specific. The results show that the relationship between the primary response and the stimulus in French is antonymous (woman-man), whereas the primary response given by Serbian students indicates the stability of the concept of mother in the Serbian language and culture. Nevertheless, the conceptual classification of the responses suggests that the linguistic picture of woman in French and Serbian expresses shared stereotypic beliefs about women.

Abstract

This paper proposes to investigate the varying implications of the war metaphor in scientific publications discussing the COVID-19 pandemic. The corpus under study is composed of articles retrieved from the international scientific journal Nature, the weekly magazine New Scientist, and the international agency World Health Organisation. With a focus on three main characteristics of the pandemic – body health, medical solutions, and global impact of the virus – the present study asks to what extent the use of the war metaphor can vary to offer different viewpoints on the pandemic. The particular view on the virus – through metaphorical use – depends on the readers each publication targets, the pressure to find solutions, the editorial requirements, and the aim of the publication. We conclude that the war metaphor may not systematically be associated with disputable interpretations (as reported in literature), it also serves an explanatory function.

Abstract

Despite the fact that semantic change studies have intensively argued that intensional readings develop from the literal reading as a whole, diachronic prototype semantics proposes that intensional readings arise from the extensional subsets of the literal reading. This study empirically explored this proposal by carrying out a corpus-based diachronic study. It is proved from the semantic change of Chinese pò that: (1) There exists a corresponding relationship between extensional usages and intensional readings of a lexical item. (2) Extension and intension both converge and diverge on semantic change. Their convergence lies in the fact that extensional usages give rise to intensional readings. Extensional usages, though nuanced, motivate the emergence and development of intensional readings. Their divergence is reflected in the independent development of extensional usages and intensional readings. The subsistence or dying out of extensional usages does not constrain the appearance or disappearance of intensional readings. (3) Semantic change involves three stages, namely the extensional stage, the intensional stage, and the grammaticalization stage. These three stages constitute an interweaving continuum in the process of semantic change.

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that semantic framing can reveal bias and racism. The current study introduces a novel method for locating frames in texts, and employs this method to find frames for Muslims, Europeans and Australians in a range of texts by anti-Muslim and non-anti-Muslim authors. The study finds that several derogatory frames previously associated with racism are applied to Muslims in the anti-Muslim texts, supporting studies showing that anti-Muslim bias resembles other forms of racism. Moreover, different frames are preferred by more and less extreme anti-Muslim authors, with certain frames predominating in the manifestos of white supremacist gunmen. These frames may be a warning sign that frame users are potentially prone to violence.

Abstract

The current study aims to demonstrate that trading card games (TCGs), also called collectible card games (CCGs), represent a potentially fruitful area of research in metaphor studies. A popular trading card game called Yu-Gi-Oh! is examined, and the argument is made that players utilize the cognitive mechanisms of conceptual metaphor to conceptualize its core game mechanics. Based on the results of a survey (n = 186) it was concluded that players conceptualize such game mechanics in line with the logics inherent in the Location Event Structure Metaphor, in conjunction with the metaphors birth is arrival, life is being present here, and death is departure. This implies that it is precisely the embodied cognitive mechanisms of conceptual metaphor which allow for a shared, intersubjective understanding between players to exist regarding the meanings of various gameplay scenarios in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and possibly in many other trading card games as well.

Abstract

This study presents a contrastive analysis of antonym order in English and Chinese coordinate structures using a multifactorial corpus method. The analysis yields the following findings. First, antonym ordering in coordinate structures is driven largely by the same ordering constraints across the two languages. Chronology and Positivity are the most prominent semantic motivating constraints, and Morphology is the most important formal motivating constraint. Second, there are some differences in constraints on antonym ordering between English and Chinese. Age and Gender exert a significant effect on Chinese antonym ordering, but show no effect on English antonym ordering. Hierarchical Superiority significantly affects Chinese antonym ordering, but has only a marginal effect on English antonym ordering. Furthermore, this study explores the motivations underlying these similarities and differences and argues that there is a clear correlation between iconicity and antonym order. The exploration reveals that their similarities in semantic constraints may be attributed to the iconicity of closeness and the iconicity of temporal sequence, while their differences may be ascribed to the iconicity of cultural values and norms. Their similarities in formal constraints stem from cognitive accessibility. These findings provide further evidence that antonym order is determined by general cognitive principles.

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