New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics
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Volume24
New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics
Edited by Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie Pourcel
New Directions
in Cognitive Linguistics
Edited by
Vyvyan Evans
Stephanie Pourcel
Bangor University, UK
John Benjarnins Publishing Company
Amsterdam I Philadelphia
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New directions in cognitive linguistics I edited by Vyvyan Evans, Stephanie Pourcel.
p. em. (Human Cognitive Processing, ISSN 1387-6724; v. 24)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.
Cognitive grammar. 2. Linguistics. I. Evans, Vyvyan. II. Pourcel, Stephanie.
P16s.N48
2009
2009010214
415--dc22
ISBN
978 90 272 2378 4
(HB;
ISBN
978 90 272 8944 5
(EB)
alk. paper)
© 2009 -John Benjamins B.V.
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Table of contents
Contributors
IX
Acknowledgements
XI
Introduction
Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie Pourcel
Part I. Approaches to semantics: Theory and method
Meaning as input: The instructional perspective
Peter Harder
15
Semantic representation in LCCM Theory
Vyvyan Evans
27
Behavioral profiles: A corpus-based approach to cognitive semantic analysis
Stefan Th. Gries and Dagmar Divjak
57
Polysemy, syntax, and variation: A usage-based method for Cognitive Semantics
Dylan Glynn
77
Part II. Approaches to metaphor and blending: Theory and method
Solving the riddle of metaphor: A salience-based model for metaphorical
interpretation in a discourse context
Mimi Ziwei Huang
107
When is a linguistic metaphor a conceptual metaphor?
Daniel Casasanto
127
Generalized integration networks
Gilles Fauconnier
147
Genitives and proper names in constructional blends
Barbara Dancygier
161
VI
New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics
Part III. Approaches to grammar: Theory and method
What's (in) a construction? Complete inheritance vs. full-entry models
Arne Zeschel
\\'ords as constructions
201
Ewa Dqbrowska
Constructions and constructional meaning
225
Ronald W Langacker
Partonomic structures in syntax
Edith A. Moravcsik
Part IV. Language, embodiment and cognition: Theory and application
Language as a biocultural niche and social institution
Chris Sinha
Understanding embodiment: Psychophysiological models in traditional
medical systems
311
Magda Altman
Get and the grasp schema: A new approach to conceptual modelling
in image schema semantics
331
Paul Chilton
,\lotion scenarios in cognitive processes
371
Stephanie Pourcel
Part V. Extensions and applications of cognitive linguistics
Tm,·ard a social cognitive linguistics
395
1\'i//iam Croft
Cognitive and linguistic factors in evaluating text quality: Global versus local?
421
Ruth A. Berman and Bracha Nir
Reference points and dominions in narratives: A discourse level exploration
of the reference point model of anaphora
Sarah van Vliet
441
Table of contents
vn
The dream as blend in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive
Johanna Rubba
"I was in that room!": Conceptual integration of content and context
in a writer's vs. a prosecutor's description of a murder
Esther Pascual
Index
499
517
Contributors
Magda Altman
University of KwaZulu- Natal
Stefan Th. Gries
University of California, Santa Barbara
Ruth Berman
University of Tel-Aviv
Peter Harder
University of Copenhagen
Daniel Casasanto
Max Planck Institute for
Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
Mimi Ziwei Huang
University ofNorthumbria
Paul Chilton
University of Lancaster
William Croft
University of New Mexico
Ewa Dqbrowska
University of Sheffield
Barbara Dancygier
University of British Columbia
Dagmar Divjak
Science Foundation Flanders &
University of Sheffield
Vyvyan Evans
Bangor University
Gilles Fauconnier
University of California, San Diego
Dylan Glynn
University of Lund
Ronald W Langacker
University of California, San Diego
Edith Moravcsik
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Bracha Nir
Haifa University
Esther Pascual
Groningen University
Stephanie Pourcel
Bangor University
Johanna Rubba
California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo
Chris Sinha
University of Portsmouth
Sarah van Vliet
VU University Amsterdam
Arne Zeschel
University of Southern Denmark
Acknowledgements
For three windy days in October 2005, nearly 180 cognitive linguists descended upon
Brighton, on the South coast of England, for the UK's inaugural cognitive linguistics conference. The conference, held between October 23rd and the 25th was entitled New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics. The make-up of delegates who attended the conference was
truly international in nature, coming from all over the globe, including both North and
South America, Northern and Southern Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, Australia,
and from Western, Central and Eastern Europe. The conference, held on the campus of
the University of Sussex, was full of excitement, intellectual curiosity and good humour,
which achieved an acme, of sorts, with a final gala dinner and karaoke next to Brighton's
famous Royal Pavilion. The volume you hold in your hands represents a selection of peerreviewed papers, based, for the most part, on contributions from the conference. It captures some of the diversity and excitement of the ideas discussed and presented at the conference. In all cases, the papers contained here represent, in various ways, new directions
in cognitive linguistics. Needless to say, the present volume would not have been possible
without the participation and involvement of the delegates at the 2005 event. We gratefully
acknowledge and thank all who attended and presented at the conference. In addition, we
also wish to acknowledge the financial support of the British Academy, which, in part,
made the conference possible.
We also owe a significant debt of thanks to the contributors of the present volume. A
collection of this sort involves a mammoth collective effort of time, industry, and goodwill. We are extremely grateful to all the contributors for their patience and hard-work
in producing such a broad range of fine contributions, and for their generosity in being
willing to share the results of their research efforts. In addition, we are indebted to all the
scholars who graciously assisted in the review, quality-control and selection process, as
well as to our local proof-reader, Eileen Hall.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge the support of our publisher John Benjamins, particularly Seline Benjamins, Jan-Reijer Groesbeek, Kees Vaes and Hanneke Bruintjes, in
facilitating the publication of this volume.
Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie Pourcel
Bangor, October 2008
Introduction
Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie Pourcel
Since the publication of the seminal Metaphors We Live By, in 1980, cognitive linguistics
has emerged as one of the most innovative and exciting paradigms in the interdisciplinary
project known as cognitive science (see Evans and Green 2006 for a comprehensive overview of cognitive linguistics). In nearly three decades, the field has established itself at the
forefront of work on grammar, linguistic semantics and aspects of conceptual structure
and mental representation, to name but a few exemplars. The field also represents one of
the fastest growing schools in linguistics and today boasts a sophisticated and well-established international infrastructure. In addition to a series of large-scale biennial conferences, organised under the auspices of the International Cognitive Linguistics Association
(ICLA), cognitive linguistics features a significant number of national cognitive linguistics
associations, affiliated to ICLA.
One symptom of the success of cognitive linguistics has been its institutionalisation,
with a plethora of conferences and associations developed to enshrine its assumptions,
methodologies and main theoretical paradigms. Another is the by now voluminous literature, including a detailed and sophisticated body of work in the main theoretical paradigms which populate cognitive linguistics, as well as a range of textbooks (e.g. Croft and
Cruse 2004; Evans and Green 2006; Lee 2001; Ungerer and Schmid 2006), works of reference (Geeraerts and Cuyckens 2007; Evans et al. 2007), and so on, with a wide-ranging
and complex technical vocabulary (see Evans 2007 for an overview).
New directions
The key objective of this 'New Directions' volume is to further contribute to this rich body of
literature by firstly, taking stock of what cognitive linguistics, as an enterprise, has achieved,
and secondly, by examining new avenues of investigation and exploration, new methods,
new analytical means, and new ideas. The volume provides a venue for the survey of both
the state of the art and new directions in cognitive linguistics. In particular, the volume
surveys recent empirical and methodological trends, as well as applications of cognitive
linguistics to a range of issues in neighbouring and cognate disciplines, such as psychology,
sociology, anthropology, education, applied linguistics, literary studies, and more.
The papers in this volume collectively review a range of established phenomena and
theories in cognitive linguistics, including approaches to figurative language, lexicalisation
2
Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie Pourcel
patterns, meaning construction, cross-linguistic variation, grammar, and the relationship
between language, conceptual structure and experience. The volume also examines and
charts new directions in these areas. In addition, the volume showcases a representative
selection of both the state of the art and the new in terms of methodological and empirical
approaches deployed in cognitive linguistics. A further contribution made in the volume
is the exploration of new areas of research, for example, cognitive sociolinguistics, and
the e\ olutionary basis of language, as well as the exploration and presentation of recent
trends in the application of cognitive linguistics to the analysis of text, narrative, discourse,
dream, and film, as represented, in particular, in the final section of the book.
In essence, this volume is a testament to the wide-ranging research profile that the
cogniti\·e linguistics enterprise has developed since its inception, as well as to recent innO\·ations. It offers both a representative sample of current practice and areas of enquiry
in cognitive linguistics, as well as new trends, which seek to explore previously uncharted
realms of investigation, both within the field and beyond its traditional boundaries.
An overview of the volume
The volume is divided into five sections. The first four treat traditional areas of investigation and theory in cognitive linguistics: Approaches to semantics, Approaches to metaphor
and blending, Approaches to grammar, and Language, embodiment and cognition. The fifth
section deals with Extensions and applications of cognitive linguistics. Below we preview
each of the sections and the chapters contained.
I.
Approaches to semantics: Theory and method
This section of the book addresses theoretical, methodological and empirical issues in cognitive semantics. The first chapter, by Peter Harder, Meaning as input: The instructional
perspective, is primarily concerned with the risk of 'usage fundamentalism' in cognitive
linguistics. This concerns the assumption that only actual utterances in fact exist. According to Harder, this position stands in opposition to the classical error of situating the truth
about language at the level of abstract ideal objects. In particular, Harder is concerned
as to the way in which the term 'meaning' is being deployed in recent work in cognitive
linguistics (cf. e.g. Croft 2000; Evans 2006, this volume), and the dissociation between
'meaning' on one hand and 'mental representation' (i.e. knowledge of language) on the
other. Harder argues that if meaning continues to be equated with language use (rather
than knowledge oflanguage), and this definition becomes accepted, it is no longer obvious
exactly what constitutes the content side (semantic pole) of a linguistic unit. In order to
remedy this, Harder presents an approach focused on a tripartition of the canonical language event into input, processing and output. The idea is that in order to choose a specific
linguistic item competently, one must know what 'input content' it can add to the message.
In order to actually succeed in making a contribution, the linguistic item has to be processed by the addressee, resulting in an understanding that constitutes the 'output' (as an
Introduction
actual usage event). Knowing a language, he argues, consists of knowing the input properties of the forms selected by the language producer - whereas actual outputs can never be
known for certain in advance. Harder outlines the basic features of such an 'instructional'
perspective illustrating how this may serve a purpose in the current usage-oriented as well
as socially-oriented trend in cognitive linguistics.
The second chapter in section I, by Vyvyan Evans, is entitled Semantic representation in LCCM Theory. This paper focuses on the nature of semantic representation from
the perspective of the Theory of Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models, also known as
LCCM Theory (Evans 2006, To appear). LCCM Theory takes its name from the two central theoretical constructs adopted in the theory: the lexical concept and the cognitive
model. The lexical concept represents the means adopted in LCCM Theory of modelling
units of semantic structure. In contrast, a cognitive model is a component of conceptual
knowledge, which is to say, non-linguistic knowledge. Hence, the cognitive model models
units of conceptual structure. LCCM Theory assumes that lexical concepts and cognitive
models are types of knowledge belonging to two distinct representational systems, which
have distinct and divergent functions. These are the linguistic system, which encodes semantic structure, and the conceptual system which encodes conceptual structure. Evans
argues that the linguistic system evolved, in part, by facilitating more effective control of
the extant representations in the conceptual system - representations which evolved for
action and perception, i.e. for non-linguistic purposes. In essence, the central argument
of the paper is that the semantic representations in the linguistic and conceptual systems
interact for purposes oflinguistically-mediated communication. Together, the lexical concept and the cognitive model form a level of representation that the author refers to as
semantic representation. The paper describes the nature of the lexical concept, the nature
of the cognitive model, and the nature of the interaction between the two.
While the first two chapters were more theoretically-oriented, the final two chapters
in part I are more concerned with method. The first of these, by Stefan Th. Gries and
Dagmar Divjak is entitled: Behavioral profiles: A corpus-based approach to cognitive semantic analysis. One of the areas which has most strongly supported the emergence of
cognitive linguistics as a new research paradigm is that oflexical semantics. Early work, in
particular on prepositions, introduced the notions of prototypes, network representations
and radial categories into linguistics. These innovations of cognitive-linguistic lexical semantic analysis were later used for analysing constructional elements. While this work has
provided a wealth of insights, the approach - in particular the then widely used network
representations of word senses - was criticised for a variety of methodological and conceptual shortcomings. It is probably fair to say that, in spite of a growing recognition of
such shortcomings, cognitive linguistics is still far from having resolved all of its issues.
In response, Gries and Divjak survey a variety of quantitative, corpus-based methods that
can be used to pursue cognitively-inspired lexical semantic analyses. After a brief discussion of the main contributions to the field, Gries and Divjak propose quantitative techniques for addressing some of the long-standing problems in the domains of polysemy
and near synonymy. In so doing, they build on previously unrelated proposals from corpus linguistics in general and corpus-based lexicography in particular. They illustrate their
proposal on the basis of two case studies: the first presents selected results from a study on
3
4
Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie Pourcel
the senses of a highly polysemous English verb run; the second applies their methodology
to nine near synonymous Russian verbs meaning try. The semantic issues investigated in
the case studies include prototype identification, the (degree of) sense distinctness, and
the structure of the hypothesised network.
The fourth and final chapter in section I, by Dylan Glynn, is entitled: Polysemy, syntax, and variation. A usage-based method for cognitive semantics. In this chapter, Glynn
addresses issues in the description of polysemy. He argues that results derived from the
Lexical Network Model (Lakoff 1987; Cuyckens 1995) have been demonstrated to be ad
hoc (Sandra and Rice 1995; Tyler and Evans 2001). He suggests that while the Principled
Polysemy framework (Evans 2005) improves on this model with a more constrained analytical apparatus, a radically different yet complementary model is, nevertheless, required.
Accordingly, Glynn presents a usage-based quantitative and multifactorial method that
adheres to the theoretical tenets of cognitive linguistics (Langacker 1987; Lakoff 1987) and
draws from existing methodologies in the study of near-synonymy (Geeraerts et al. 1994;
Fischer 2000; and Gries 2003). The method uses feature analysis of different variables and
employs correspondence analysis to reveal feature association. Glynn argues that the resulting clusters of features represent polysemic structure.
In sum, the four papers in this section represent an overview of some of the recent
theoretical controversies in the arena of cognitive approaches to semantics, and new directions, both theoretical and methodological, which attempt to resolve some of these
outstanding issues.
II.
Approaches to metaphor and blending: Theory and method
Section II of the book is concerned with the two phenomena known as metaphor, and
variously conceptual integration or blending. The first two chapters deal with metaphor,
while the second two are concerned with blending. The chapters collectively address both
theoretical and methodological issues, as well as examine these phenomena in new ways
and contexts,
The first chapter, by Mimi Ziwei Huang, is entitled: Solving the riddle of metaphor: A
salience-based model for metaphorical interpretation in a discourse context. The purpose of
this chapter is to examine how metaphor is interpreted in a discourse context. Huang employs the Graded Salience Hypothesis (Giora 1997) in order to do so. She argues that three
salient factors are decisive in metaphorical interpretation. The first is the graded salient
lexical meaning of a word or an expression, together with its semantic fields and scenarios. The second is the metaphorical mapping process contributed to by the metaphorical
source, target, co-text and context. The third salient factor is the intended metaphorical
meaning in a given context. Huang illustrates these three salient factors by virtue of an
analytical account of a short story taken from The Devils Larder (Crace 2002).
The second chapter in this section, by Daniel Casasanto, is entitled: When is a linguistic metaphor a conceptual metaphor? In his chapter, Casasanto is concerned with establishing whether conceptual metaphors have psychological reality. According to Conceptual
Metaphor Theory, metaphors are fundamentally conceptual structures - not linguistic
structures (Lakoff 1993). Yet, the majority of evidence for conceptual metaphors comes
Introduction
from analysis of linguistic metaphors. Casasanto asks whether we can necessarily infer
how people think from the way they talk. This chapter illustrates some dangers of building
a theory of concepts principally upon linguistic data. The chapter briefly reviews experimental work testing our understanding of the abstract domain of time, and then presents
experiments testing the metaphorical basis of similarity. Three experiments tested the relationship between similarity and spatial proximity predicted by Conceptual Metaphor
Theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 1999). In all experiments similarity ratings for pairs of
words or pictures varied as a function of how far apart stimuli appeared on the computer
screen, but the effect of distance on similarity differed depending on the type of judgments participants made. Stimuli presented closer together were rated more similar during 'conceptual' judgments of abstract entities or unseen object properties, consistent with
predictions based on linguistic metaphors. By contrast, stimuli presented closer together
were rated less similar during 'perceptual' judgments of visual appearance, contrary to the
conceptual metaphor SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY. Casasanto argues that these results underscore the importance of testing Conceptual Metaphor Theory experimentally, and suggest that linguistic metaphors should be treated as a source of hypotheses about conceptual
structure- hypotheses that require both linguistic and extra-linguistic evaluation.
The third chapter in section II, by Gilles Fauconnier, is entitled: Generalized Integration Networks, and deals with Blending or conceptual integration. Fauconnier argues
that the systematic study of integration as a cognitive operation made many useful descriptive distinctions possible. So, within the data referred to as "blends", there are many
different products depending on the types of inputs, the links between them, the choices
for projection, and so forth. Corresponding types of blends have been distinguished, or
rather aligned on a graded continuum, going from simplex blends to mirror blends to
single-scope and double-scope blends, all dividable into further subcategories (Fauconnier and Turner 2002). While, according to Fauconnier, the description and classification
of this new data is largely uncontroversial and widely viewed as innovative and useful, a
more significant project is to explore the role of integration and compression in meaning
construction beyond these very visible blends. Accordingly, in his chapter, Fauconnier,
points out some useful generalisations that emerge from the study of integration, along
with some of the pervasive fallacies that stand in the way of making such generalisations.
Through the analysis of attested data, he discusses the notion of "generalized integration
networks" and how they allow the construction of a multiplicity of surface products in
human thought and action.
Like the chapter by Fauconnier, the fourth and final chapter in section II also addresses blending. The contribution by Barbara Dancygier entitled: Genitives and proper
names in constructional blends, presents a blending analysis of genitives, thereby providing
a theoretical and methodological illustration of the role of blending in language as well
as illustrating the utility of conceptual integration as a theoretical construct. According to
Dancygier, the genitive ( 's) form in English has long been seen as semantically puzzling.
It plays a special role as the only case in English which is morphologically marked on
nouns, and displays a very broad array of meanings and uses (Nikiforidou 1991; Taylor
1996; Rosenbach 2002). The recent view of the genitive is that it is a means of establishing a reference point (Langacker 1991; Taylor 1996) for the construct represented by the
5
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Vyvyan Evans and Stephanie Pourcel
noun being modified. In her chapter, Dancygier describes a somewhat more specific use
of the genitive, which emerges as the specific contribution of the genitive to two syntactic
constructions, both of which can be represented as conceptual integration networks. Dancygier discusses the contribution of the genitive to constructional meaning in terms of two
theoretical constructs: frame metonymy and constructional compositionality. These notions
are illustrated by virtue of an analysis of two constructions. The first Dancygier terms the
GEN-XYZ construction, exemplified by the sentence Too much of the world, Cambodia has
become "Vietnam's Vietnam." The second construction which relies on a similar use of the
genitive is One person's X is another person's Y, represented in One person's trash is another
person's treasure.
III.
Approaches to grammar: Theory and method
Section III of the book is concerned with cognitive linguistic approaches to grammar, as
in previous sections addressing and assessing recent trends and perspectives, both theoretically and methodologically, and charting new issues and avenues for exploration. The
section opens with the chapter from Arne Zeschel entitled: What's (in) a construction?
Complete inheritance vs. full-entry models. Zeschel's chapter contrasts the two most widely
assumed criteria for constructional status that have been proposed in the Construction
Grammar literature. Departing from a corpus study of a particular 'schematic idiom' of
English, the chapter presents both theoretical and empirical arguments for a usage-based
interpretation of the term grammatical construction that accords unit status to linguistic
elements that are sufficiently entrenched. Zeschel argues that the criterion of non-predictability that is often employed in computational approaches is inappropriate for accommodating the inherently flexible and creative aspects of human problem solving that are
exhibited by naturally occurring language.
The second chapter in section III also takes up the issue of the nature and status of a
construction. In her chapter entitled: Words as Constructions, Ewa D
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