Cognitive Linguistic Studies - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2022

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of the (speaker-level) ‘cognitive how’ of (language-level) constructional attrition, defined as a systemic decrease in the occurrence of a construction in the history of a language. Presenting and analysing data from an historical idiolectal corpus on the frequency development in individual speakers’ use of a partially schematic construction instantiated by such types as be obliged to and be permitted to, it offers a first attempt to measure whether a general decline in the frequency of this construction can also be observed to be an internal development during a speaker’s lifespan. The results confirm this to be the case in a sizeable group of speakers and the paper provides an initial insight into how this may contribute to a genuinely cognitive account of the speaker-external development.

Abstract

Most languages which code possession morphologically do so by using either prefixes or suffixes. This study examines the minority of languages which employ both prefixes and suffixes in order to express the contrast between alienable and inalienable possession. The focus is on a possible interaction of affix order type and possession type. An analysis of a dozen Malayo-Polynesian languages (8 Eastern Malayo-Polynesian and 4 Central Malayo-Polynesian) reveals a surprisingly consistent pattern. Ten of these languages consistently associate prefixes with alienable possession and suffixes with inalienable possession. None of the 12 languages does it the other way around. This form-meaning relationship is argued to be iconically motivated. Suffixes are claimed to be more closely linked to their stems than prefixes are. This formal closeness mirrors the tighter relationship between possessor and possessum in inalienable than in alienable possession. Five languages make a three-way contrast among inalienable, intermediate and alienable possession. This suggests that the distinction between alienable and inalienable possession should be viewed as a continuum rather than a dichotomy. Individual languages may split up this continuum in different ways.

Abstract

The Chinese Passive Construction with Retained Object (CPCRO) has aroused extensive attention from scholars especially advocators of Generative Grammar due to its syntactic idiosyncrasy. Previous researches primarily concerned with such syntactic idiosyncrasy concentrate on issues of its syntactic derivation but fail to provide an empirically responsible and consensual explanation for all its instantiations. This paper initiates a new perspective by focusing on its semantics on the basis of Construction Grammar. It is argued that CPCRO is a construction with its constructional meaning characterized by a causative meaning that profiles the causee’s change. This passive causative meaning is elaborated by three verb-class-specific semantic variants, i.e., the passive cause-motion variant associated with motion verbs or verbs entailing motion and specifying the causee’s change of location, the passive cause-result variant associated with verbs of making or creating and specifying the causee’s change of state, and the passive cause-receive/lose variant associated with ditransitive verbs or verbs with the potential of taking double objects and specifying the causee’s change of possession. They are structured into a polysemy network in the sense that the passive cause-result variant is metaphorically extended from the passive cause-motion variant, whereas the passive cause-receive/lose variant encoding the object-dual-based conceptualization of Event Structure directly relates to the passive cause-motion variant which encodes the location-dual-based conceptualization, and indirectly to the passive cause-result variant which preserves the location-dual-based conceptualization due to the invariance principle of metaphorical mapping, through profile shift.

Abstract

While increasing efforts have been made to teach English prepositions to EFL learners from a Cognitive Linguistics (CL) perspective, the bulk of the extant research has focused on adult learners at the advanced English proficiency level and reported only quantitative results. Limited attention has been paid to elementary learners, and there has been little qualitative evidence of the pedagogical effectiveness of CL-informed approaches. This study aims to address these issues with a quasi-experiment embedded in an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. Twenty-two young Chinese learners received two types of instruction, respectively, to learn locative prepositions in, on, and at. A conceptual metaphor time as space that originates in CL was exploited as the intervention for the experimental group, whereas a data-driven approach was adopted for the control group. Quantitative data collected from the participants through a set of tests and qualitative data collected from the instructor with a semi-structured interview generally supported the effectiveness and, to a lesser extent, the efficiency of the CL-informed approach. The paper concludes with a discussion of the pedagogical implications derived from the empirical results.

Abstract

Metaphoric proverbs represent interesting cultural instances of conventional metaphors (Belkhir 2014, 2012). The ubiquity of metaphoric proverbs in language and the problems this phenomenon causes in translation is an issue that requires close attention. Translation aims at providing semantic equivalence between two languages. According to Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), equivalence constitutes the adequate method that should be used by translators when dealing with proverbs. However, no translator can provide perfect translation of a source text due to cultural specificities. The present paper offers a modest report of an experimental study conducted with a group of EFL students who have been taught translation as a subject in a higher education context (Mouloud Mammeri University). A set of English proverbs has been collected to build up the experiment that was administered to the subjects who were asked to translate them into Arabic, then into their first language, Kabyle. The question raised is whether these students are able to translate the proverbs appropriately. The study aims (1) to investigate translation strategies used by EFL learners; and (2) to show how learners’ L1 (Kabyle) and L2 (Arabic) interfere in the translation of English proverbs. The results showed that the more the students were acquainted with proverbs, the more they used equivalence in their translation. Similarly, the lesser they were acquainted with proverbs, the more they used literal translation or paraphrase. In addition, some translations provided by the participants revealed the presence of language interference.

Abstract

One of the most fundamental claims of the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor is the direction of mapping from concrete to abstract. The pervasiveness of this path of semantic change has been widely accepted among researchers interested in the study of the history and development of emotional expressions. Whereas most studies focus on the analysis of one specific target domain (i.e., one emotion or one family of emotions), less attention has been paid to the reconstruction and analysis of the set of diachronic changes that affected one single source domain. Within this framework, in this paper I have used data extracted from standard Old English dictionaries and thesauri, in order to propose a complete analysis of the set of Old English adjectives for different textural properties of physical objects (such as roughness, smoothness, softness and hardness). I am especially interested in the reconstruction and analysis of the paths of semantic change (from concrete to abstract) illustrated by this section of the Old English vocabulary. Broadly speaking, apart from the original senses for physical texture, these adjectives developed secondary meanings in the fields of feelings and emotions, which I have classified into three categories: physical sensations (such as weakness and pleasantness), sensorial sensations (such as auditive, visual or gustative sensations) and emotional sensations (such as grief, anger, compassion and empathy). Furthermore, the resulting figurative meanings (which I have analysed in terms of metonymic, synaesthetic and metaphoric extensions) can also be grouped into positive and negative sensations. The present paper supports the idea that the origin of our understanding of abstract concepts is deeply rooted in our physical experiences. This is indeed a conceptual pattern showed by the diachronic evolution of Old English adjectives for texture. This paper concludes with some remarks on the social and cultural changes that prompted some of these semantic changes, paying special attention to the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England and the introduction of Christian values.

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