MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest items from the 'Cognitive Linguistics' source. Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:18:54 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5309570&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.029 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (4): 799-825 Abstract Innovative verbs in Japanese are formed from nouns of various sources including loanwords, Sino-Japanese nouns, mimetics, and proper names. Regardless of their different origin, these innovative denominal verbs exhibit a collection of intriguing properties, ranging from phonological, morphological, to semantic and pragmatic. These properties are not strictly predictable from the component parts including the nature of the parent noun and verbal morphology. Such an unpredictable nature is suggestive of a constructional analysis. The form-meaning-function complex takes a templatic representation, which expresses the phonological and morphological characteristics, and associated with it are semantic and pragmatic properties. These phonological, m... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5309570 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:07:12 +0100 5309570 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5309569&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.028 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (4): 765-797 Abstract On the basis of synchronic English language material, Bolinger (Degree Words, Mouton, 1972) has put forward the hypothesis that intensifying meanings or “degree words” often develop from identifying expressions. This paper will empirically test Bolinger's hypothesis by means of in-depth diachronic study of the development of such—one of Bolinger's central examples—and of its Dutch cognate zulk in historical text corpora. To this aim, a detailed cognitive-functional account will first be provided of the (differences between the) identifying and intensifying uses of such and zulk, with attention for diachronic changes affecting the syntax and semantics of these uses, cross-linguistically as well as language-specifically. It will be shown... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5309569 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:07:12 +0100 5309569 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5309568&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.027 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (4): 719-763 Abstract We propose the “grammatical profile” as a means of probing the aspectual behavior of verbs. A grammatical profile is the relative frequency distribution of the inflected forms of a word in a corpus. The grammatical profiles of Russian verbs provide data on two crucial issues: a) the overall relationship between perfective and imperfective verbs and b) the identification of verbs that characterize various intersections of aspect, tense and mood (TAM) with lexical classes. There is a long-standing debate over whether Russian aspectual “pairs” are formed only via suffixation (the Isacenko hypothesis) or whether they are formed via both suffixation and prefixation (the traditional view). We test the Isacenko hypothesis using data on the co... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5309568 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:07:12 +0100 5309568 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5309567&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.026 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (4): 691-718 Abstract Krifka (The origin of topic/comment structure, of predication, and of focusation in asymmetric bimanual coordination, 2006, Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure (ISIS): Working Papers of SFB 632 08: 61–96, 2007b) suggests that asymmetric bimanual coordination and ultimately the evolution of lateralization in humans may be the cognitive basis of linguistic topic-comment structure and foreground-background structures in general. As asymmetric bimanual constructions abound in sign languages and are also found in their possible precursors, cospeech gesture and homesign, sign languages may serve as a test ground for the hypothesis. Asymmetric bimanual constructions are indeed used for differentiating foreground and background in sig... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5309567 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:07:12 +0100 5309567 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5309566&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.025 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (4): 659-689 Abstract Oceanic languages typically make a grammatical contrast between expressions of alienable and inalienable possession. Moreover, further distinctions are made in the alienable category but not in the inalienable category. The present research tests the hypothesis that there is a good motivation for such a development in the former case. As English does not have a grammaticalized distinction between alienable and inalienable possession, it provides a good testing ground. Three studies were conducted. In Study 1, participants were asked to write down the first interpretation that came to mind for possessive phrases, some of which contained inherently relational possessums, while others contained possessums that are not inherently relational. Phras... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5309566 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:07:12 +0100 5309566 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5309565&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.024 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (4): 629-657 Abstract This paper examines the suggestion that infinitival to omission errors in English-speaking children can result from competition between two constructions (Kirjavainen et al., First Language 29: 313–339, 2009a). Kirjavainen et al. suggested that the acquisition of two (or more) constructions (e.g., WANT-X and WANT-to) for verbs taking to-infinitival complement clauses can lead to infinitival to omissions, reflecting the relative frequencies of the constructions in the input. In the present study we analysed 13 English children's corpora to determine whether the presence of a variety of utterance types in the immediate discourse context preceding WANT-to-VP (e.g., I want to eat it) and erroneous *WANT-zero-VP (e.g., *I want __ drink it) constr... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5309565 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:07:12 +0100 5309565 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4974066&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.017 This study investigates metaphoric gestures in face-to-face conversation. It is found that gestures of this kind are mainly performed in the central gesture space with noticeable and discernable configurations, providing visible evidence for cross-domain cognitive mappings and the grounding of conceptual metaphors in people's recurrent bodily experiences and in what people habitually do in social and cultural practices. Moreover, whether metaphorical thinking is conveyed by gesture exclusively or along with metaphoric speech, the manual enactment of even conventional metaphors manifests dynamism in communicating metaphors. Metaphoric gestures can provide salient, additional information about the aspect of the conceptualization which is the speaker's focus of attention in real-time multimod... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4974066 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:05:24 +0100 4974066 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4974072&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.023 This study first analyzes in detail how this central metaphor is manifested multimodally through visual and aural as well as verbal discourse, thus examining it as a multimodal metaphor. The study then applies a decompositional approach, based on the distinction between primary and complex metaphors, to analyzing the central metaphor as a metaphorical compound with its internal structures and components, which is nevertheless built on a more general cognitive foundation. The study also offers a linguistic perspective on a cultural model underlying the central metaphor, which is arguably a Chinese cultural model for understanding various aspects and events of life in general. At the core of this cultural model is the widespread life is a stage metaphor, which however has a specific manifest... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4974072 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:05:22 +0100 4974072 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4974071&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.022 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (3): 569-594 Abstract In the present study we analyse a sample of Irish Child Directed Speech in terms of item-based constructions and the communicative intents which they express. The study is based on the speech of an Irish native speaker engaged in daily activities with her son (aged 1;9). The findings of the analyses indicate the high degree of lexical specificity attested in the sample; in total 35 item-based frames account for just under 70% of analysed utterances. In most cases there was a one-to-one relationship between item-based frame and communicative intent. However, of particular interest was the clustering of structurally related frames around specific functions. We propose that this relationship highlights the role of communicative intent in the orga... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4974071 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:05:22 +0100 4974071 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4974070&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.021 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (3): 535-567 Abstract The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the metaphor system for conceptualizing the Self in Arabic. A comparison of structural means for conceptualizing inner life in Arabic and English leads to the conclusion that although on the structural (‘grammatical’) level the differences between the two languages are indeed considerable, they become far less radical on the conceptual (‘semantic’) level. More specifically, it is argued here that in Arabic, as in English, inner experiences are for the most part conceptualized metaphorically and that Arabs seem to conceptualize their inner lives in a way similar, or at least comparable, to the speakers of English. While the article shows that on the conceptual level there are several import... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4974070 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:05:22 +0100 4974070 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4974069&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.020 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (3): 511-533 Abstract This paper is concerned with English noun phrases that denote generalized instances: they do not refer to actual spatio-temporal instances, but to virtual ones that are abstracted from a limited number of actual instances, e.g., a student in Three times, a student complained (Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume II: Descriptive application, Stanford University Press, 1991, Dynamicity, fictivity, and scanning: The imaginative basis of logic and linguistic meaning, Cambridge University Press, 2005, forthcoming). Langacker likens generalized instances to generic ones, which constitute “global” generalizations over all actual instances of a type. On the basis of authentic data, I argue that, even though the profiled instance den... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4974069 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:05:22 +0100 4974069 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4974068&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.019 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (3): 491-510 Abstract In this paper, I investigate the phonological similarity of different elements of the phonological pole of multi-word units. I discuss two case studies on slightly different levels of abstractness. The first case study investigates lexically fully-specified V-NPDirObj idioms such as kick the bucket and lose one's cool; the idioms investigated are taken from the Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms (Harper Collins, 2002). The second case study investigates the lexically less specified way-construction, which is exemplified by He fought his way through the crowd (cf. Goldberg, Constructions: A Construction Grammar approach to argument structure, The University of Chicago Press, 1995: Ch. 9), on the basis of data from the British National Corpus ... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4974068 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:05:22 +0100 4974068 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4974067&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.018 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (3): 459-490 Abstract We investigate empirically whether framing in general, and the use of Simplifying Models as a framing tool in particular, has an effect on the way topics are cognitively construed. Existing studies on framing in linguistics have either been theoretical or descriptive. Going beyond such methodologically simple approaches, we use a more rigid test design involving the use of a control group, the construction of test conditions in which different Simplifying Models constitute the major source of variation, the inclusion of independent variables like age and prior knowledge of the subjects, and the use of linear and logistic regression analysis. Our results show that our more rigid methodological approach yields a more reliable image of the effect... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4974067 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:05:22 +0100 4974067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708258&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.016 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 421-436 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708258 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708258 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708257&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.015 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 393-419 Abstract Most studies examining children's understanding of transitive sentences focus on the morphosyntactic properties of the construction and ignore prosody. But adults use prosody in many different ways to interpret ambiguous sentences. In two studies we investigated whether 5-year-old German children use prosody to determine participant roles in object-first (OVS) sentences with novel verbs (i.e., whether they use prosodic marking to overrule word order as a cue). Results showed that children identify participant roles better in this atypically ordered construction when sentences are realized with the marked, OVS-typical intonational pattern, especially in combination with case marking (Study 1). In a second study, we embedded these sentences into... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708257 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708257 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708256&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.014 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 359-392 Abstract A foundational goal of cognitive linguistics is to explain linguistic phenomena in terms of general cognitive strategies rather than postulating an autonomous language module (Langacker 1987: 12–13). Metonymy is identified among the imaginative capacities of cognition (Langacker 1993: 30, 2009: 46–47). Whereas the majority of scholarship on metonymy has focused on lexical metonymy, this study explores the systematic presence of metonymy in word-formation. I argue that in many cases, the semantic relationships between stems, affixes, and the words they form can be analyzed in terms of metonymy, and that this analysis yields a better, more insightful classification than traditional descriptions of word-formation. I present a metonymic classi... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708256 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708256 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708255&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.013 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 325-357 Abstract The development of abstract schemas and productive rules in language is affected by both token and type frequencies. High token frequencies and surface similarities help to discover formal and functional commonalities between utterances and categorize them as instances of the same schema. High type frequencies and diversity help to develop slots in these schemas, which allow the production and comprehension of novel utterances. In the current study we looked at both token and type frequencies in two related constructions in German child-directed speech: simple transitive and complement-clause constructions. Both constructions contain high frequency verbs, which potentially support the development of verb-specific schemas. However, only the fre... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708255 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708255 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708254&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.012 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 303-323 Abstract Whilst certain verbs may appear in both the intransitive inchoative and the transitive causative constructions (The ball rolled/The man rolled the ball), others may appear in only the former (The man laughed/*The joke laughed the man). Some accounts argue that children acquire these restrictions using only (or mainly) statistical learning mechanisms such as entrenchment and pre-emption. Others have argued that verb semantics are also important. To test these competing accounts, adults (Experiment 1) and children aged 5–6 and 9–10 (Experiment 2) were taught novel verbs designed to be construed — on the basis of their semantics — as either intransitive-only or alternating. In support of the latter claim, participants' grammaticality judg... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708254 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708254 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708253&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.011 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 275-302 Abstract This paper is a semantic analysis of ‘experienced action’ constructions in Umpithamu, a Paman language from Cape York Peninsula (Australia). The basic argument is that these constructions are related to the better-attested category of experiencer object constructions (e.g. Evans, Non-nominative subjects 1: 69–192, 2004), which in Umpithamu describe involuntary experience of bodily processes. Experienced action constructions extend the feature of ‘involuntary experience’ from processes within the body to actions originating outside the body, and thus provide a semantically marked alternative for standard transitive clauses. The constructions are typologically interesting because they show the need to identify different loci of experie... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708253 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708253 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708252&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.010 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 247-273 Abstract Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show a protracted period of inconsistent use of tense/agreement morphemes. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether this inconsistent use could be attributed to the children's misinterpretations of particular syntactic structures in the input. In Study 1, preschool-aged children with SLI and typically developing peers heard sentences containing novel verbs preceded by auxiliary was or sentences in which the novel verb formed part of a nonfinite subject-verb sequence within a larger syntactic structure (e.g. We saw the dog relling). The children were then tested on their use of the novel verbs in contexts that obligated use of auxiliary is. The children with SLI were less accura... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708252 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708252 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4708251&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2011.009 Cognitive Linguistics 22 (2): 211-245 Abstract Complex-transitive argument structures have received a large amount of attention from syntacticians of both formalist and cognitive-functional orientations. To account for expressions with causative resultative meanings, construction grammar has postulated a family of argument-structure constructions whose core is constituted by the Caused-Motion Construction and the Resultative Construction, exhibiting a locative complement and a predicative complement in the form of an AjP, respectively. Argument structures with NP complements, however, have been largely neglected. The present study investigates these patterns in the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB) by means “collostruction analysis”. It shows that the formal distinction between ... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4708251 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:45:42 +0100 4708251 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4131327&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.024 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (4): 765-796 Abstract This paper examines patterns of metaphor in usage. Four samples of text excerpts of on average 47,000 words each were taken from the British National Corpus and annotated for metaphor. The linguistic metaphor data were collected by five analysts on the basis of a highly explicit identification procedure that is a variant of the approach developed by the Pragglejaz Group (Metaphor and Symbol 22: 1–39, 2007). Part of this paper is a report of the protocol and the reliability of the procedure. Data analysis shows that, on average, one in every seven and a half lexical units in the corpus is related to metaphor defined as a potential cross-domain mapping in conceptual structure. It also appears that the bulk of the expression of metaphor in disc... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4131327 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:13:50 +0100 4131327 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4131326&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.023 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (4): 727-763 Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore some of the possibilities, advantages and difficulties of corpus-based analyses of semantic and pragmatic aspects of language in one particular field, namely the linguistic expression of emotion concepts. For this purpose, a methodological procedure is proposed and an exemplary analysis of the emotion concept “fear” in English is performed. The procedure combines Kövecses' lexical approach and Stefanowitsch's metaphorical pattern analysis with additional concepts from corpus linguistics such as semantic preference and semantic prosody. The results of the study show that such a corpus-based analysis of emotion words offers several advantages. Firstly, by exploring the surroundings of the search word in a... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4131326 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:13:50 +0100 4131326 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4131325&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.022 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (4): 699-725 Abstract In this article we apply one of the key concepts in cognitive linguistics, the radial category, to inflectional morphology. We advance the Paradigm Structure Hypothesis, arguing that inflectional paradigms are radial categories with internal structure primarily motivated by semantic relationships of markedness and prototypicality. It is possible to construct an expected structure for a verbal paradigm, facilitating an empirical test for our hypothesis. Data tracking an on-going morphological change in Russian documents the distribution of conservative vs. innovative forms across the cells of the verbal paradigm. A logistic regression model that takes into account the sources of variation (the frequencies of individual verbs and paradigm slots,... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4131325 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:13:50 +0100 4131325 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4131324&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.021 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (4): 663-697 Abstract Where do we recruit novel and unconventional conceptual materials from when we speak, think and act metaphorically, and why? This question has been partially answered in the cognitive linguistic literature but, in my view, a crucial aspect of it has been left out of consideration or not dealt with in the depth it deserves: it is the effect of various kinds of context on metaphorical conceptualization. Of these, I examine the following: (1) the immediate physical setting, (2) what we know about the major entities participating in the discourse, (3) the immediate cultural context, (4) the immediate social setting, and (5) the immediate linguistic context itself. I suggest that we recruit conceptual materials for metaphorical purposes not only fr... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4131324 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:13:50 +0100 4131324 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4131323&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.020 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (4): 601-662 Abstract While cognitive linguists have been successful at providing accounts of the stable knowledge structures (conceptual metaphors) that give rise to figurative language, and the conceptual mechanisms that manipulate these knowledge structures (conceptual blending), relatively less effort has been thus far devoted to the nature of the linguistic mechanisms involved in figurative language understanding. This paper presents a theoretical account of figurative language understanding, examining metaphor and metonymy in particular. This account is situated within the Theory of Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models (LCCM Theory). LCCM Theory (Evans, Cognitive Linguistics 17: 491–534, 2006, How words mean: Lexical concepts, cognitive models and meaning ... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4131323 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4131323 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3898364&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.019 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (3): 573-600 Abstract The present paper examines the variation between finite and infinitive complements of the Portuguese perception/causation verbs ver (‘see’), ouvir (‘hear’), sentir (‘feel’), deixar (‘let’) and fazer (‘make’) from a cognitive grammar perspective. It is argued that the distribution of the structures main verb + finite /infinitive complement can be explained by iconicity and subjectification. The hypothesis is put forward that the structure perception verb + infinitive complement designates direct physical perception, while the structure perception verb + finite complement designates an inferential relation between the main verb and the complement event. In addition, the structure causation verb + infinitive complement designa... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3898364 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:34:26 +0100 3898364 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3898363&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.018 This article approaches common topics in the diachronic literature on modal categories from the perspective of adjectives. It thus expands on what has been found for the better studied category of modal auxiliaries as regards sources of modal meaning and pathways of change. Most importantly, it proposes two new pathways from premodal to (dynamic) modal meaning, one followed by essential and vital, and one followed by crucial and critical. It also shows that in the four cases the development of dynamic meaning depends on the emergence of two semantic properties, viz. relationality and potentiality. Finally, this study makes it clear that the mechanisms driving the various semantic changes are not new, but rather have proved useful in explaining a varied set of developments. For the final se... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3898363 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:34:26 +0100 3898363 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3898362&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.017 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (3): 501-536 Abstract This research analyses the semantics of Spanish sentences with causal or adversative connectives using force dynamics, emotional valence and subjectivity parameters. Participants were given stimulus sentences, each followed by a connective, and were asked to generate meaningful continuation sentences. For each stimulus sentence, four versions were offered, differing only in the connective (two causal and two adversative). Participants' responses were encoded using a set of variables related to force dynamics, emotional valence, subjectivity, complexity and continuity. A discriminant analysis of the data found two main statistical functions. The Continuity-Discontinuity function (polarity) discriminated between causal and adversative sentences:... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3898362 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:34:26 +0100 3898362 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3898361&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.016 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (3): 443-500 Abstract This paper argues that in the context of the copular complement construction (est possible que ‘is possible that’ for example), French possesses two impersonal constructions respectively introduced by il ‘it’ and ça (c') ‘this’. This analysis runs counter to most syntactic accounts which structurally distinguish impersonals (il) from dislocated (ça) constructions. Two arguments are proposed in defense of the two impersonals analysis. First, following the Cognitive Linguistics tradition, it shows that il should not be considered a meaningless dummy but a referential (albeit general) expression. Secondly, a comparison with ceci ‘this’, a pronoun with an unquestionable cataphoric sense, reveals that ça cannot be considered a ca... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3898361 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:34:26 +0100 3898361 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3898360&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.015 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (3): 419-442 Abstract Differences between languages in count (e.g., cup) and mass (e.g., rice) nouns have been shown to impact cognition, but few studies have directly examined how the morphology associated with count and mass constructions is acquired and linked to differences in meaning. Two experiments examined the relation between English and Spanish plural morphology and the interpretation of nouns as individuated objects. In Experiment 1, English- and Spanish-speaking children and adults participated in two tasks. One task examined how participants produced plurals for nouns. Results from this task indicated that both language groups make a distinction in their use of plural morphology for count and mass nouns between 5 and 7 years of age. However, that morph... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3898360 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:34:26 +0100 3898360 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3898359&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.014 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (3): 371-417 Abstract The debate over how best to characterize inflectional morphology has been couched largely in terms of the “dual-mechanism” approach described in Pinker (Words and rules: the ingredients of language, Basic Books, 1999) versus “single-mechanism” connectionist approaches derived from Rumelhart and McClelland (On learning past tenses of English verbs, MIT, 1986). There are, however, other single-mechanism approaches. The exemplar-based or analogical models of Daelemans et al. (TimBL: Tilburg Memory-Based Learner, version 4.3 reference guide, ILK, 2002) and Skousen (Analogical modeling of language, Kluwer Academic, 1989) also model inflectional usage accurately within a single-mechanism. The most striking theoretical claim peculiar to these... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3898359 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:34:26 +0100 3898359 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675503&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.013 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (2): 349-370 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675503 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:04:13 +0100 3675503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675502&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.012 This article presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative corpus study of the use of the Dutch posture verbs staan (‘stand’), liggen (‘lie’) and zitten (‘sit’) by French-speaking learners of Dutch. In addition to providing a quantified insight into which uses of these verbs prove most problematic to the L2 learners, the study has also revealed three important tendencies. Firstly, in line with the typological differences between French and Dutch (where these verbs behave like noun classifiers), our analysis confirms the French-driven tendency of the learners for underusing these verbs. Secondly, seemingly paradoxical to the previous point, is that these learners occasionally overuse these posture verbs in contexts where no such verb is allowed. Thirdly, our qualitative... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675502 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:04:13 +0100 3675502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675501&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.011 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (2): 287-314 Abstract The present article examines children's spatial language during late phases of development. To this end, the spontaneous speech of American English speaking children between 6 and 10 years of age was analyzed within an analytical framework developed in a previous study for spontaneous speech from speakers between 10 and 19 years of age (Graf, The ontogenetic development of literal and metaphorical space in Language, Gunter Narr, 2006). The analysis defined five basic spatial categories and four levels of abstraction in spatial meaning in order to capture all spatial relations and their literal as well as non-literal uses. The results show that the spatial language of speakers between 6 and 10 years of age differs mainly with respect to speaker... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675501 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:04:13 +0100 3675501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675500&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.010 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (2): 263-286 Abstract Languages vary typologically in their lexicalization of path of motion (Talmy, path to realization: A typology of event conflation: 480–519, 1991). Furthermore, lexicalization patterns are argued to affect syntactic packaging at the level of the clause (e.g., Slobin, Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish, Oxford University Press, 1996b) and tend to transfer from a first (L1) to a second language (L2) in second language acquisition (e.g., Cadierno and Ruiz, Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 4: 183–216, 2006). Crosslinguistic and developmental evidence suggests, then, that typological preferences for path expression are highly robust features of a first language. The current study examines the robustness of preferen... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675500 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:04:13 +0100 3675500 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675499&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.009 This study examines what gestures can reveal about Dutch three- and five-year-olds' semantic representations of such verbs. The results show that children gesture differently from adults in this domain. Three-year-olds express only the path of the caused motion, whereas five-year-olds, like adults, also incorporate the located object. Crucially, gesture patterns are tied to verb use: those children who over-use leggen ‘lay’ for all placement events only gesture about path. Conversely, children who use the two verbs differentially for horizontal and vertical placement also incorporate objects in gestures like adults. We argue that children's gestures reflect their current knowledge of verb semantics, and indicate a developmental transition from a system with a single semantic component�... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675499 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:04:13 +0100 3675499 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675498&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.008 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (2): 217-238 Abstract Recent studies in language acquisition have paid much attention to linguistic diversity and have begun to show that language properties may have an impact on how children construct and organize their representations. With respect to motion events, Talmy (Towards a cognitive semantics: Concept structuring systems, Cambridge University Press, 2000) has proposed a typological distinction between satellite-framed (S) languages that encode path in satellites, leaving the verb root free for the expression of manner, and verb-framed (V) languages that encode path in the verb, requiring manner to be expressed in the periphery of the sentence. This distinction has lead to the hypothesis (Slobin, From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaki... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675498 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:04:13 +0100 3675498 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675497&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.007 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (2): 189-215 Abstract Typological analyses (Talmy, Towards a cognitive semantics, MIT Press, 2000) show that languages vary a great deal in how they package and distribute spatial information by lexical and grammatical means. Recent developmental research suggests that children's language acquisition is constrained by such typological properties from an early age on, but the relative role of such constraints in language and cognitive development is still much debated (Bowerman, Containment, support, and beyond: Constructing typological spatial categories in first language acquisition, Benjamins, 2007; Bowerman and Choi, Space under construction: language-specific categorization in first language acquisition, MIT Press, 2003; Slobin, From ‘thought to language’ t... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675497 Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:04:13 +0100 3675497 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3675496&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.006 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (2): 181-188 Abstract In this introductory chapter to the present special issue about “Space, language and cognition: developmental perspectives”, we introduce some of the main questions that are currently debated concerning the relationships between cognitive and linguistic representations in the domain of space. This collection of papers addresses these questions by bringing together contributions from different disciplines, theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches. All papers start out with the assumption that spatial cognition is not indifferent to spatial language and aim at specifying how the two might be best related by examining the development of spatial representations in children and adults through language use and acquisition. (Source... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3675496 Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3675496 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3349368&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.005 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (1): 151-179 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3349368 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:34:11 +0100 3349368 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3349367&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.004 This article analyses the nature of mental imagery in metaphoric thought as envisaged by the contemporary theory of metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics (Lakoff, Cambridge University Press, 1993). Our study of metaphor in the field of marine biology draws on two crucial aspects of mental imagery, namely dynamicity and pervasiveness. Image metaphors and behaviour-based metaphors have generally been regarded as two different types of resemblance metaphor. In our view, the dynamicity of certain mental images highlights inherent similarities between these two types of metaphor, and makes the differences between them more apparent than real. For this reason, we propose a more refined description of resemblance metaphors in terms of the static or dynamic nature of the mental images underlying them.... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3349367 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:34:11 +0100 3349367 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3349366&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.003 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (1): 75-121 Abstract We propose a constructionist approach to the polyfunctionality of the Italian focus particle magari (roughly corresponding to ‘maybe’, but also ‘I wish’). The sheer syntactic versatility of this word leads us to detect its formal regularities at the level of discourse configurations. This level of analysis, identified within the French linguistic tradition, is defined by the maintenance of a predicate-argument-adjunct structure in discourse. The salient feature of discourse configurations is their shape, which can be described by referring to a number of topological patterns: lists of elements in the same syntactic position, repetition of syntactic structures, shifting of elements from a post-verbal to a pre-verbal position and so on. T... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3349366 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:34:11 +0100 3349366 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3349365&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.002 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (1): 35-74 Abstract In relative clause extraposition (RCE) in English, a noun is modified by a non-adjacent RC, resulting in a discontinuous dependency, as in: Three people arrived here yesterday who were from Chicago. Although discourse focus is known to influence the choice of RCE over truth-conditionally equivalent sentences with canonical structure (Rochemont and Culicover, English focus constructions and the theory of grammar, Cambridge University Press, 1990; Takami, A functional constraint on Extraposition from NP, John Benjamins, 1999), Hawkins (Efficiency and complexity in grammars, Oxford University Press, 2004) and Wasow (Postverbal behavior, CSLI Publications, 2002) have proposed in addition that RCE should be preferred when the relative clause is long ... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3349365 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:34:11 +0100 3349365 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3349364&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2010.001 Cognitive Linguistics 21 (1): 1-34 Abstract This paper continues the debate about how to distinguish metaphor from metonymy, and whether this can be done. It examines some of the differences that have been alleged to exist, and augments the already existing doubt about them. The main differences addressed are the similarity/contiguity distinction and the issue of whether source-target links are part of the message in metonymy or metaphor. In particular, the paper argues that metaphorical links can always be used metonymically and regarded as contiguities, and conversely that two particular, central types of metonymic contiguity essentially involve similarity. The paper also touches briefly on how metaphor and metonymy interact with domains, frames, etc. and on the role of imaginary identif... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3349364 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3349364 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2850301&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.033 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (4): 809-811 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2850301 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:07:21 +0100 2850301 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2850300&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.032 This article investigates the structural assembly and semantics of innovative quotatives such as be like, be all and go in English. While the sociolinguistic origins and spread of these forms have received ample attention, a question that is rarely addressed is how precisely this construction is syntagmatically composed, and how it relates to more canonical forms of speech representation. We argue that the basic component structures are the be like or go clause as a whole (I'm like, he went, etc.) and the reported complement. It is the entire reporting clause, rather than the reporting verb as is traditionally assumed, which is complemented by the quoted material. The proposed interclausal dependence analysis, which applies to English direct speech constructions generally, can accommodate ... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2850300 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:07:21 +0100 2850300 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2850299&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.031 This article presents the results of an empirical study on the phenomenon of /r/-liaison (i.e., linking /r/ and intrusive /r/) in non-rhotic English from the perspective of usage-based Cognitive Linguistics. The study looks into sociolinguistic, phonetic and usage-based factors that condition variability in /r/-liaison through the analysis of news archives from the BBC World Service website (years 2004 and 2005). The paper argues that a thorough understanding of the phenomenon of /r/-liaison requires an analysis of the different aspects that condition its use and the use of empirical methods to study it. (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2850299 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:07:21 +0100 2850299 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2850298&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.030 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (4): 703-732 Abstract In current debates Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory has been charged with the circularity of the relation between the data and the hypotheses. If these charges were justified, they would be fatal for Conceptual Metaphor Theory, because circularity is one of the most serious objections that can be raised against a scientific approach. Accordingly, the paper addresses the following problems: (1) Are the charges claiming that Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory is circular adequate? (2) In what kind of metatheoretical framework can it be decided whether a given argumentation is circular? (3) Is Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory built on circular argumentation? The paper answers these questions as follows: ... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2850298 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:07:21 +0100 2850298 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2850297&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.029 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (4): 675-702 Abstract Much research about on-line sentence comprehension focuses on the contributions of individual lexical items, with specific interest in verbs. One aspect of sentence meaning that has been claimed to be rooted in verb representation is event structure. There is a growing body of evidence supporting the claim that the verb is not the sole contributor of event structure, but that the syntactic construction of a sentence is also a contributor. In this paper, we repeat a study designed to support a verb-based view using novel verbs derived from nouns. The pattern of sentence comprehension is the same for both known verbs and novel verbs, suggesting that the syntactic construction of the sentence also contributes to event structure. (Source: Cognitiv... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2850297 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:07:21 +0100 2850297 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2850296&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.028 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (4): 641-673 Abstract The topic of constructional inheritance is discussed by means of a detailed qualitative analysis of the conditional imperative construction in Dutch and in Russian. It is argued that the two distinctive features of this construction, as compared with other conditional constructions such as explicit ‘if ’ conditionals, can be motivated in a compositional approach: (i) from the directive imperative construction, the conditional use inherits intersubjective meaning; (ii) from the conditional paratactic construction, it inherits the pragmatic (context-dependent) feature that the situation in the protasis immediately leads to the situation in the apodosis. As such, we show that a compositional analysis, defined as constructional inheritance, is... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2850296 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2850296 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2698491&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.027 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (3): 627-640 Abstract A general framework is sketched for thinking about problems of usage and acquisition from a cognitive linguistic perspective. It is a dynamic, usage-based approach emphasizing the temporal dimension of language structure as an aspect of cognitive processing. A variety of topics are discussed involving the abstraction of linguistic units, their mental representation, and their activation in usage events. (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2698491 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:27:31 +0100 2698491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2698490&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.026 This study tests accounts of co-reference errors whereby children allow “Mama Bear” and “her” to co-refer in sentences like “Mama Bear is washing her” (Chien and Wexler, Language Acquisition 1: 225–295, 1990). 63 children aged 4;6, 5;6 and 6;6 participated in a truth-value judgment task augmented with a sentence production component. There were three major finding: 1) contrary to predictions of most generativist accounts, children accepted co-reference even in cases of bound anaphora e.g., “Every girl is washing her” 2) contrary to Thornton and Wexler (Principle B, VP Ellipsis and Interpretation in Child Grammar, The MIT Press, 1999), errors did not appear to occur because children understood referring expressions to be denoting the same person in different guises 3) cont... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2698490 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:27:31 +0100 2698490 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2698489&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.025 We describe three elicited imitation experiments with children aged from 4;6 to 6;9 and adult controls. Participants were asked to repeat prototypical questions (i.e., questions which match the hypothesised template), unprototypical questions (which depart from it in several respects) and declarative counterparts of both types of interrogative sentences. The children performed significantly better on the prototypical variants of both constructions, even when both variants contained exactly the same lexical material, while adults showed prototypicality e¤ects for LDD questions only. These results suggest that a general declarative complementation construction emerges quite late in development (after age 6), and that even adults rely on lexically specific templates for LDD questions. (Sourc... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2698489 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:27:31 +0100 2698489 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2698488&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.024 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (3): 539-570 Abstract In numerous comprehension studies, across different languages, children have performed worse on object relatives (e.g., the dog that the cat chased) than on subject relatives (e.g., the dog that chased the cat). One possible reason for this is that the test sentences did not exactly match the kinds of object relatives that children typically experience. Adults and children usually hear and produce object relatives with inanimate heads and pronominal subjects (e.g., the car that we bought last year) (cf. Kidd et al., Language and Cognitive Processes 22: 860–897, 2007). We tested young 3-year old German- and English-speaking children with a referential selection task. Children from both language groups performed best in the condition where the... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2698488 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:27:31 +0100 2698488 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2698487&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.023 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (3): 509-538 Abstract This paper provides a corpus-linguistic, usage-based approach to the acquisition of be-going-to-V and be-gonna-V. Based on longitudinal data from two American children, it is argued that the constructions develop on the basis of several low-level chunks of varying degrees of morphosyntactic complexity. I propose an empirical way of grouping these chunks according to their structural and developmental properties, which allows us to trace how constructional networks emerge, expand and change in early childhood. In addition, this method reveals insights into the way the historically transmitted layering of the constructions is accessed in language acquisition. In particular, I uncover and account for apparent ‘grammaticalization effects’ in c... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2698487 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:27:31 +0100 2698487 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2698486&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.022 In this study, we apply a usage-based method called ‘traceback’ to the multiword utterances of four two-year-olds to see how closely related these utterances are to their previous utterances. Data was collected from the age of 2;0 until 6 weeks later on a relatively dense sampling schedule. We attempted to match each novel multiword utterance in a two-hour corpus to lexical strings and schemas that the child had said before. Matches were found for between 78–92 percent of all multiword utterances. Between 62–91 percent of the slots in schemas created by these tracebacks were for referring expressions and were filled with nouns or noun phrases. For one child, recording continued throughout his third year and we compared his data at MLUs matched with the other three children to inves... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2698486 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:27:31 +0100 2698486 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2698485&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.021 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (3): 477-480 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2698485 Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2698485 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2559599&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.020 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (2): 425-476 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2559599 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:16:07 +0100 2559599 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2559598&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.019 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (2): 395-423 Abstract Parallelism between targets in a comparative structure is not always respected in some comparative standards in Japanese that allow the conceptual expansion of their referents, e.g., Nihon-no jinkoo-wa kankoku-yori ooi (The population of Japan is larger than Korea). We would like to investigate the conditions under which conceptual expansion is permitted. In contrast to Japanese, the standard of comparison in English adheres to the constraint of parallelism, (e.g., The population of Japan is larger than *(that of) Korea.) and other European languages follow suit. There seems to be a typological difference between Japanese and English, and the key to understanding this lies in the positioning of the mandatory morpheme designating the concept of... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2559598 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:16:07 +0100 2559598 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2559597&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.018 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (2): 367-393 Abstract We test two hypotheses relevant to the form-meaning relationship and offer a methodological contribution to the empirical study of near-synonymy within the framework of cognitive linguistics. In addition, we challenge implicit assumptions about the nature of the paradigm, which we show is skewed in favor of a few forms that are prototypical for a given lexical item. If one accepts the claim of construction grammar that the construction is the relevant unit of linguistic analysis, then we should expect to find a relationship between the meanings of words and the constructions they are found in. One way to investigate this expectation is by examining the meaning of constructions on the basis of their lexical profile; this line of research is pur... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2559597 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:16:07 +0100 2559597 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2559596&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.017 This article focuses on motion metaphors of time and complements Moore's (Cognitive Linguistics 17: 199–244, 2006) analysis, which insightfully discusses time metaphors, from the standpoint of Japanese data. The present paper argues that time metaphors should be analyzed in terms of Langacker's (Observations and speculations on subjectivity, John Benjamins, 1985, Cognitive Linguistics, 1: 5–38, 1990a, Concept, Image, and Symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar, Mouton de Gruyter, 1990b) subjective/objective construal if Japanese data are considered. More specifically, the present analysis classifies time metaphors in terms of the ground's subjective/objective construal and depends on whether they are deictic or not. When the ground is placed offstage, a given expression is non-deictic a... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2559596 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:16:07 +0100 2559596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2559595&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.016 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (2): 301-340 Abstract The article starts from the description of premodification in English nominal phrases as structured in four zones, given in Quirk and colleagues (A Comprehensive Grammar of Contemporary English, Longman, 1985). The argument is that one explanation for the zones and the zone order is in premodifiers' types of meaning (“semantic structure”), following the analysis of meaning types in Cruse (Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics, Oxford University Press, 2004). Semantic structure is distinguished from content; different senses of words can have the same core content but different semantic structures, and accordingly occur in different zones. It is assumed that syntax and other levels of language contribute to the fu... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2559595 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:16:07 +0100 2559595 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2559594&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.015 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (2): 267-300 Abstract Cantonese-, German-, and English-speaking children aged 2;6, 3,6, and 4,6 acted out transitive sentences containing novel verbs in three conditions: (1) agent and patient were cued redundantly by both word order and animacy; (2) agent and patient were marked only with word order; and (3) agent and patient were cued in conflicting ways with word order and animacy. All three age groups in all three languages comprehended the redundantly cued sentences. When word order was the only cue, English children showed the earliest comprehension at 2;6, then German, and then Cantonese children at 3;6. When the cues conflicted, none of the 2;6 children in any language comprehended in adult-like ways, whereas all of the children at 3;6 and 4;6 preferred wor... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2559594 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:16:07 +0100 2559594 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2559593&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference-global.com%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOGL.2009.014 Cognitive Linguistics 20 (2): 225-266 Abstract Positive and negative what, why and yes/no questions with the 3sg auxiliaries can and does were elicited from 50 children aged 3;3–4;3. In support of the constructivist “schema-combination” account, only children who produced a particular positive question type correctly (e.g., What does she want?) produced a characteristic “auxiliary-doubling” error (e.g., *What does she doesn't want?) for the corresponding negative question type. This suggests that these errors are formed by superimposing a positive question frame (e.g., What does THING PROCESS?) and an inappropriate negative frame (e.g., She doesn't PROCESS) learned from declarative utterances. In addition, a significant correlation between input frequency and correct production w... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2559593 Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2559593 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1318007&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2008.007 Cognitive Linguistics 19(1): 125-143 Abstract 1. Introduction Let me start by saying that I very much appreciate both the effort that Hinzen and Van Lambalgen (hereafter, H&L) have put into commenting on Constructions of Intersubjectivity (hereafter, CoI), and their comments as such. It is important for all cognitive disciplines studying language that representatives from different schools of thought try to address each other's work, in terms of both results and foundations. We may not reach agreement as a result of a discussion, but it will still be helpful in clarifying matters for ourselves and for other interested scholars, and thus for the future development of our common field of study. This is true even if the divide is deep--which is the case here in a number of respects, as H&L in... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1318007 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1318007 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1318006&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2008.006 Cognitive Linguistics 19(1): 107-123 Abstract 1. Overview Constructions of Intersubjectivity (CoI) is an important addition to the growing body of work on `cognitive' and construction-based grammars, which CoI links to evolutionary issues in interesting ways. CoI also touches upon a number of fundamental (indeed philosophical) issues in the study of linguistic communication, meaning, and human cognition; it should be applauded for the explicitness with which it does so, using language as a `window on the mind' (p. 210). A concrete vision of the evolution of language is endorsed, arising against the background of analyses of a number of seemingly disparate and scattered linguistic data. The book thus forms an excellent starting point to engage with foundational assumptions entering into the... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1318006 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1318006 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1318005&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2008.005 Cognitive Linguistics 19(1): 67-106 Abstract This paper discusses proposed characteristics of implicit linguistic and explicit metalinguistic knowledge representations as well as the properties of implicit and explicit processes believed to operate on these representations. In accordance with assumptions made in the usage-based approach to language and language acquisition, it is assumed that implicit linguistic knowledge is represented in terms of flexible and context-dependent categories which are subject to similarity-based processing. It is suggested that, by contrast, explicit metalinguistic knowledge is characterized by stable and discrete Aristotelian categories which subserve conscious, rule-based processing. The consequences of these differences in category structure and processin... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1318005 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1318005 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1318004&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2008.004 Cognitive Linguistics 19(1): 59-66 Abstract I am grateful to John Haiman and William Croft for their penetrating critiques of my claims and for the interesting challenges that they provide for them. This offers me a chance to clarify and elaborate on some of the central points of my article. This is an important debate, because iconicity and frequency are central explanatoty concepts in functional and cognitive linguistics. Even if we do not succeed in resolving the issues, our understanding will be enhanced by this discussion. (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1318004 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1318004 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1318003&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2008.003 Cognitive Linguistics 19(1): 49-57 Abstract Haspelmath argues that certain universal asymmetries in linguistic distance previously analyzed as examples of iconicity of distance are better analyzed as the result of frequency. It is argued here that Haspelmath's arguments can be countered by an advocate of iconicity of distance as an explanatory factor. Iconicity of distance is not different in kind from iconicity of contiguity, which Haspelmath endorses. Haspelmath's argument works only if one takes relative frequency instead of absolute frequency; yet it is generally accepted that economy effects are the result of absolute frequency. The empirical frequency data that Haspelmath presents is inconclusive. However, Haspelmath presents data that suggest that an iconicity of distance analysis, ... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1318003 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1318003 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1318002&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2008.002 Cognitive Linguistics 19(1): 35-48 Abstract A number of iconically motivated grammatical distinctions, among them that between alienable and inalienable possession in Japanese and Korean, are graded. Haspelmath's Zipfian frequency hypothesis may be able to accommodate these facts (lowest bulk is most frequent, middle bulk is less frequent, and maximal bulk is maximally infrequent), but until more data are forthcoming, iconicity alone makes the correct predictions in those cases, and (crucially) in others where bulk is simply not the grammatical variable at issue in signaling markedness (as for example, the distinction between nominative/absolutive and ergative/accusative in Kurdish). The productivity (not just the fortuitous correctness) of an iconically motivated more form implies more me... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1318002 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:00 +0100 1318002 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1318001&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2008.001 Cognitive Linguistics 19(1): 1-33 Abstract This paper argues that three widely accepted motivating factors subsumed under the broad heading of iconicity, namely iconicity of quantity, iconicity of complexity and iconicity of cohesion, in fact have no role in explaining grammatical asymmetries and should be discarded. The iconicity accounts of the relevant phenomena have been proposed by authorities like Jakobson, Haiman and Givon, but I argue that these linguists did not sufficiently consider alternative usage-based explanations in terms of frequency of use. A closer look shows that the well-known Zipfian effects of frequency of use (leading to shortness and fusion) can be made responsible for all of the alleged iconicity effects, and initial corpus data for a range of phenomena confirm th... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1318001 Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:00:00 +0100 1318001 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1071174&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.030 Cognitive Linguistics 18(4): 583-585 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1071174 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:00:00 +0100 1071174 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1071173&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.029 Cognitive Linguistics 18(4): 581-581 (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1071173 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:00:00 +0100 1071173 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1071172&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.028 Cognitive Linguistics 18(4): 559-579 Abstract Brigitte Nerlich, Zazie Todd, Vimala Herman, and David D. Clarke (eds.), Polysemy: Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language. (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 142.) Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2003, xii+422 pp., ISBN 3-11-017616-5. (Yoshikata Shibuya) Hubert Cuyckens, Rene Dirven, and John R. Taylor (eds.), Cognitive Approaches to Lexical Semantics. (Cognitive Linguistics Research 23.) Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2003. xiii+504 pp., ISBN 3-11-017709-9. (Cory D. Wright) (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1071172 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:00:00 +0100 1071172 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1071171&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.027 Cognitive Linguistics 18(4): 523-557 Abstract The concepts mismatch, type-shifting, and coercion are central to much recent work on cognitive linguistics. In a number of papers, Michaelis has investigated entity and event coercion (Michaelis 2003a, b, 2004 a, b). I address her question what conditions favor the diachronic development of shift constructions (Michaelis 2004a: 8) from the perspective of grammaticalization, with particular reference to the development of partitive constructions like a bit of apple into degree modifier constructions like a bit of a hypocrite. I show why these are different constructions, and conclude that the most important factors have to do with matching quantitative implicatures to already extant quantifying degree modifiers with NP heads, and with the strat... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1071171 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:00:00 +0100 1071171 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1071170&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.026 Cognitive Linguistics 18(4): 487-522 Abstract Cognitive Grammar postulates two modes of cognitive processing for the structuring of complex scenes, summary scanning and sequential scanning. Generally speaking, the theory is committed to basing grammatical concepts upon more general cognitive principles. In the case of summary and sequential scanning, independent evidence is lacking, but Langacker argues that the distinction should nonetheless be accepted as it buys us considerable theory-internal explanatory power. For example, dynamic prepositions, to-infinitives and participles (e.g., into, to enter, entered) are distinguished from finite and bare verbs in terms of summary vs. sequential scanning. In this paper, we try to show that various theory-internal and theory-external arguments do... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1071170 Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:00:00 +0100 1071170 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=903957&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.025 Cognitive Linguistics 18(3): 467-485 Joanna Gavins and Gerard Steen (eds.), Cognitive Poetics in Practice. London: Routledge, 2003, 188 pp., ISBN 0-415-27799-X. (Michael Sinding) Veronika Koller. Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse: A Critical Cognitive Study. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, xii + 244 pp., ISBN 1-4039-3291-3. (Gerard Steen) (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=903957 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 903957 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=903956&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.024 This article proposes that discourse metaphors are an important link between the two. Discourse metaphors are verbal expressions containing a construction that evokes an analogy negotiated in the discourse community. Results of an analysis of metaphors in a corpus of newspaper texts support the prediction that regular analogies are form-specific, i.e., bound to particular lexical items. Implications of these results for assumptions about the generality of habitual analogies are discussed. (Source: Cognitive Linguistics) Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=903956 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 903956 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=903955&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.023 Cognitive Linguistics 18(3): 417-443 The repeated confirmation of the hypothesis of a negativity bias in cognitive psychology invited an assumption that the general asymmetry in the automatic processing of affective information should bear linguistic consequences, for language is inseparable from human cognition and emotion. This paper shows that the lexical semantics of emotive intensifiers in German, English and Chinese can be best explained in a cognitive-affective model of negativity bias. The parallel between a higher sensitivity to potentially threatening events at the neural level and the predominance of emotive intensifiers based on threat-relevant negative emotions at the linguistic level provides further evidence of the embodiment of linguistic conceptualisation. Ultimately, beca... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=903955 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 903955 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=903954&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.022 Cognitive Linguistics 18(3): 383-415 The first half of this article presents a fairly standard cognitive-semantic account of the semantic variants of the English path expression around. Then it is argued that this account needs to be expanded to include a much more explicitly central role for an active conceptualizer in a construal relation. To begin with, the schematic meaning of around is not an objective relation between a trajector and a landmark. It is a scanning pattern in which the conceptualizer's attention moves in order to focus on the location of the trajector. That scanning pattern is the same whether the trajector is objectively moving or stationary. Another basic factor in the meaning of around is the conceptual viewpoint. That viewpoint is usually presumed tacitly to be syno... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=903954 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 903954 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=903953&cid=s_36298_52_f&fid=36298&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atypon-link.com%2FWDG%2Fdoi%2Fabs%2F10.1515%2FCOG.2007.021 Cognitive Linguistics 18(3): 339-382 Why is there grammar? The verbalization of experience can provide an explanatory model of the function of grammatical categories and constructions. Chafe's model of verbalization provides a model of how the unanalyzed, unique whole of experience is broken up into parts that are categorized into types, that is, the lexical roots of an utterance. We add further processes to Chafe's model, because the speaker also must convert the types represented by the lexical roots back to the particulars of the experience, and put the parts back together into the original whole. These additional processes express the aspects of experience that become grammaticalized. A functional classification of grammatical categories and structures in terms of their role in verbali... Cognitive Linguistics journals http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=903953 Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 903953