Review of Cognitive Linguistics. Published under the auspices of the Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association - Volume 22, Issue 2, 2024

Abstract

Second/foreign language (L2) learners appear to remember figurative idioms relatively well if they are informed of the literal underpinning of the expressions, that is, the context in which the expressions were (or still are) used in a literal sense. In the present exploratory study, ESL learners read texts accompanied by glosses which did or did not mention the literal underpinnings of idioms used in the texts, and their recollection of the idioms was tested immediately after the reading task and again one week later. The mean test scores were very similar across the gloss conditions, suggesting no mnemonic benefits of giving literal underpinnings. However, retrospective interviews with the participants revealed considerable variation in the way they had engaged with the materials. For example, several students who were not given information about the literal underpinnings speculated about those underpinnings spontaneously, while those who were given this information did not always understand its relation to the idiomatic meanings. The interviews also revealed considerable variation in the students’ perception of the purpose of the glosses, with some treating them as support for text comprehension and others treating them as input for deliberate vocabulary study. The findings illustrate how mixed-methods research that looks not just at aggregated learning outcomes but at individuals’ learning processes can help to finetune expectations about the efficacy of an instructional intervention and, ultimately, perhaps help to optimize the intervention itself.

Abstract

Empirical testing is a challenging aspect of L2 classroom-based research, especially when exploring the multifaceted nature of figurative language, such as metaphorical idioms. Typically, studies in applied linguistics involve language learners from convenience samples of intact classes. This approach can pose problems as these classes represent non-random, often small, samples of participants. Despite these challenges, appropriate precautions and considerations, such as addressing overlooked idiom-inherent variables, contemplating counterbalancing, managing time-on-task, and making well-informed treatment and data collection design choices can minimize confounding variables and enhance a study’s design and resultant validity. The author of this article offers a reflective commentary based on a previous study (Ramonda, 2022) to expound on these considerations and provide modest proposals for improving future study quality in this domain.

Abstract

This review study focuses on the challenges faced when conducting effects-of-instruction research in Applied Cognitive Linguistics. It offers an overview of relevant research that has sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of a cognitive-based approach to second language (L2) pedagogy and provides illustrations from previous work in L2 Spanish by the author and colleagues of some of the factors that can influence findings in quasi-experimental research. More specifically, the study addresses some of the difficulties encountered in the design of materials and assessment tests, during the pedagogical intervention and the data collection and data analysis phases. These include choice of assessment, test effects, sample size, withdrawal, and time-on-task, among others. Along with these methodological issues, a discussion of possible solutions as well as pedagogical and methodological implications are discussed.

Abstract

Second/foreign language grammar studies usually focus on the validation of grammatical conceptualizations with learners, sometimes overlooking the paramount need to test these conceptualizations against users’ judgements and corpus searches as a way of verifying the relevance, frequency and suitability of the items, examples or explanations before the experimental phases. This paper deals with three pre-experimental validation criteria employed to measure the pedagogical potential of Cognitive Grammar descriptions for the Spanish pluperfect: (1) learner corpus searches based on caes – Corpus de Aprendices de Español –, (2) native-speaker corpus searches by means of EsTenTen-18-subcorpus from Sketch Engine, and (3) language users’ judgements. This tense rarely receives enough attention in learning materials due to its apparent simplicity in terms of both morphology and functional import. However, learner corpus searches show certain instability in its use. This paper explores the steps taken within the research project imagine in relation to this tense, including grammatical descriptions developed within the Cognitive Grammar framework and from a temporal-epistemic perspective in an attempt to account for the variety of uses of this tense.

Abstract

Applied Cognitive Linguistics (ACL, henceforth) offers a vision of language closely tied to our experiences and views of the world, showing great promise for foreign language teaching and learning. Building upon this meaning-centered perspective, this paper discusses an interventional, quasi-experimental study assessing the effectiveness of incorporating animated images into materials for teaching comparative constructions in L2 Spanish. Conducted in three phases with varying participation rates (69 students in the first, 18 in the second, and 27 in the third), the study faced numerous factors that hindered data collection process and thereby influenced the results. Although the findings were not statistically significant, they suggest a slight improvement in post-test performance in both the experimental and comparison groups. While the potential of ACL in second language teaching and learning is undeniable, so are the challenges faced in L2 classrooms. This underscores the need for further empirical research to bridge the gap between theoretical principles and their practical implementation in real classroom settings.

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the shortcomings and challenges of Applied Cognitive Linguistics (ACL) in L2 classrooms and research. It examines the main issues and presents a case study with three quasi-experimental classroom studies. These experiments taught the Spanish past simple tenses using approaches informed by Cognitive Linguistics and Communicative Language Teaching, plus a control group, through a pretest/posttest design. Results favored cognitive-pedagogical instruction, but only in one production task (Alonso-Aparicio & Llopis-García, 2019). Subsequent studies replicated and extended the first, with further changes in instruction and assessment design, but found no significant differences between experimental groups in the posttest. The discussion highlights the steps taken to ensure study success, pointing out shortcomings in traditional assessment tests that favor notional-functional instruction. We suggest alternative testing tasks that consider cognitive-based approaches and new avenues for future research, aligning with Martín-Gascón et al. (2023).

Abstract

Cognitive Linguistics offers valuable insights for second language instruction, particularly in enhancing motivated polysemy to facilitate vocabulary acquisition. This paper reports on a longitudinal, classroom-based study and analyses the design, implementation, and assessment of activities inspired by Cognitive Linguistics, elucidating the polysemous meanings of the particles IN/OUT and UP/DOWN. The study involved an experimental group comprising 81 Spanish secondary school students and a control group of 26 students. Following a pre-test/post-test design, participants completed two tests (a gap-fill particle test and a lexical depth test) designed to measure students’ command of polysemous meanings. Despite positive teacher feedback and a perceived increase in awareness of polysemy, the experimental learners showed no statistically significant improvement in the test results. We conclude that a comprehensive approach is required to evaluate learning outcomes, encompassing pedagogical experience, classroom-based research factors, and effective assessment measures.

Abstract

This study adopts a corpus-based behavioral profile approach to explore the semantic relationships among the senses of the Japanese temperature adjective atsui (‘hot’). As a result, the hierarchical cluster analysis represents the distributional (dis)similarity of the ten senses of atsui. Average silhouette width suggests a two-cluster interpretation, which reveals that senses derived from the same experience (sensory or subjective) tend to have similar usage characteristics. The discriminating properties of four subclusters and usage characteristics of each sense have been identified by means of computing t-values. Also, the structure of the hypothesized network has been represented based on the distributional (dis)similarity of the ten senses. The relationships among these ten senses and the usage characteristics identified in this study provide insight into Japanese lexicography. Moreover, as the first attempt to apply the behavioral profile to the investigation of Japanese polysemy, this study holds implications for lexical semantics in Japanese.

Abstract

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the meanings of the phrase flatten the curve before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from two corpora, the iWeb Corpus and the Coronavirus Corpus, it focuses on semantic frames (Fillmore, 1985) and frame metonymy (Dancygier & Sweetser, 2014). The investigation reveals that the construal of the phrase after the outbreak of COVID-19 requires the invocation of both bell curve and pandemic frames; that is, without the pandemic frame, the phrase would remain in the domain of statistics and refer to a change in a graph. The data are sorted into four semantic categories based on the context in which they appear (epidemiological/non-epidemiological) and on the effect they pursue regarding the flattening-the-curve scenario (rigorous/non-rigorous). The phrase’s polysemy is explained by the part of the process for effect of the process metonymy. The flatter curve, as a salient part of a scenario, serves to refer to one of the scenario’s effects. The analysis also observes a correlation between the real-world experience of the pandemic and the actual frequency of flatten the curve in that the ratio of each semantic category reflects the contemporaneous real-world significance of reducing the rate of increase of new infections.

Abstract

Religious identity is often viewed as a relatively stable construct, reflecting an individual’s personal worldview. However, individuals living within modern multi-cultural societies often must engage in extensive reflection to orient themselves to faith traditions in ways that are coherent and personally relevant. Although some work has examined the connection between narratives of religious experience, identity and cognition (cf. Richardson, 2012; Richardson & Nagashima, 2018; Richardson & Mueller, 2019), the relationship between thinking and speaking about this identity is still a developing area of enquiry, with important consequences for how religious faith and practice are understood. This article presents a detailed analysis of an interview with a UK-based Jewish woman based on the mental spaces (Fauconnier, 1994) and conceptual blending (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) frameworks. The analysis shows how mental spaces and the relationship between elements within those spaces emerge over the course of a discourse event so as to constitute a personal account of religious identity. The concluding section furthermore discusses how within- and across-space contrast links are utilized, along with general processes of compression and decompression, to develop a blend that dynamically expresses the interviewee’s religious identity as an integrated and coherent position lying between competing attractor states.

Abstract

The paper offers a cognitively oriented approach to the Spanish subjunctive. This verb form is examined in light of Langacker’s grounding theory. In my understanding, the ground is defined as the communication situation with three inherently interrelated components: temporality, modality and evidentiality. The subjunctive is then analysed in relation to these three categories. Particular attention is paid to the evidential component of the ground and its relationship to the Spanish subjunctive. I define the contexts in which the subjunctive appears as grounding inhibitors. Consequently, the subjunctive is understood as a verb form lacking temporal, modal and evidential grounding (in opposition to the indicative, which denotes fully grounded processes).

This article reviews Tastes we live by. The linguistic conceptualisation of taste in English978-3-11-062677-3978-3-11-063040-4978-3-11-062686-5

This article reviews Corpus approaches to language, thought and communication9789027209832