Review of Cognitive Linguistics. Published under the auspices of the Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association - Online First

Although essential to science and health communication, metaphors can backfire. At this point, any attempt on the part of the speaker to clarify his/her intentions would ultimately prove futile because the mental situation models of speakers and their recipients may not be the same. A debate over the meaning of a metaphor, the variations in its interpretation, or constant negotiation between the interactants poses a substantial challenge to intention-based theories of implicature. A corpus analysis of the “kofta” analogy used by a senior Egyptian army doctor during a February 2014 televised news conference to announce cures for AIDS and hepatitis C and the ensuing impasse over its appropriateness shows that a metaphor designed to publicly communicate science, to confront and shatter the stereotypical image of scientists as dull and stilted people, to persuade citizens to accept the claims as fact, or to hide the speaker’s own scientific ignorance may be sarcastically repeated, extended, and elaborated (“overexploited”) by the target audience (“overdone metaphors”). The doctor or his use of the metaphor of “I give [the virus] back as a kebab skewer for the patient to feed on” has been condemned as “too lower class”. Various forms of metaphor denial and resistance are examined. The article, analyzing thousands of YouTube comments on the news conference video, provides valuable insights for interpreting tropes and has important implications both for science and health communicators and socio-cognitive pragmaticists.

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.

In recent years, a number of scholars have expressed doubts about the productivity of the concept of meaning and its associated methodology for modern lexical semantics. This article aims to examine the current situation by comparing it with the process of transition from classical to quantum physics. Empirical data that challenge classical interpretations are briefly analyzed in a special section, whilst the subsequent sections address alternative theories that propose new methodological frameworks. Particular attention is paid to the ad hoc СС & Ms theory developed by Daniel Casasanto and colleagues, though Hans-Jörg Schmid’s Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model and the Motivation & Sedimentation Model formulated by Jordan Zlatev and colleagues are also touched upon. In the final section, frame semantics, as presented by Charles Fillmore, is revisited, with a focus on his dichotomy of U-semantics and T-semantics. A significant result of the analysis of Fillmore’s perspectives is the assertion that the concept of frame in Fillmore’s construal can serve as an alternative to the concept of meaning in its classical interpretation.

How metaphors are comprehended and their pragmatic effects have long been of interest (Colston, 2019; Gibbs, 2017; Gibbs & Colston, 2012). Attending to the varied constructions where metaphors appear has also advanced our understanding (Athanasiadou, 2017). How metaphors in extra-linguistic mediums has been of particular interest of late, as have the import of embodied simulations (Bergen, 2012; Cienki & Muller, 2008; Forceville & Urios-Aparisi, 2009). But these explorations outside of language and inside the body have left some bits relatively unattended. Metaphors and their host constructions can be embedded into an array of language genres. These also bring their own idiosyncratic influences on metaphor cognition. Moreover, the target domain content that metaphors invoke adds to this complex mixture. And metaphors can be layered within metaphors. This paper presents a tour of just some of the immense fractalesque complexity invoked when we look at the full richness of metaphorical meaning.

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.

This exploratory case study contributes to the ongoing “methodological consolidation” in Applied Cognitive Linguistics (Wirag et al. 2022). It does so by examining the relationship between pre-service English language teachers’ attitudes toward grammar teaching and their acceptance of an innovative pedagogical approach to the Count/Mass Distinction (CMD) inspired by Cognitive Grammar (CG). Eleven first-year college students at a teacher-training University College in Belgium participated in the study. A questionnaire was used to determine the participants’ beliefs about grammar and grammar teaching. Elements of a CG approach to the CMD were integrated into a lesson plan and presented to the participants. The participants were then divided into two random focus groups. The interviews followed a semi-structured format, and a thematic analysis was performed on the transcripts. The data suggests that the participants’ prior knowledge and experience, the ecological validity of the innovation, and their perceived capacity to integrate the resource into their practice, all affect their assessment of a CG-informed innovation, with the latter being the most likely to impede application. The study sheds light on how pre-service teachers’ beliefs impact the adoption of innovative pedagogical methods for teaching grammar and suggests ways to make CG more accessible to practitioners.

Conceptual Metaphor Theory describes metaphorical mappings as correspondences between domains. Nevertheless, the interrelations of the mapped elements still need to be characterised. This study analyses metaphorical mappings from one situational frame in the cooking domain in American English and Peninsular Spanish. The aims are to elucidate to what extent each language primes particular semantic roles in the boiling frame for metaphorisation and explore the possible cultural implications of these cross-linguistic differences. The qualitative analysis reveals the contrastive relevance of semantic roles in frame mappings. In addition, the frequencies of boil and hervir metaphorical senses determine the degree of entrenchment and salience of metaphors cross-linguistically. The results suggest that the English boiling frame has a considerably broader scope as a source than the Spanish hervir frame. Additionally, the paper contrasts the relative saliency of the semantic roles mapped in those metaphors shared by both languages. Finally, cultural implications are discussed.

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.