Cognitive Linguistics Croft&Cruse 4: Categories,concepts, and meanings, pt. 2

4.4 A dynamic construal approach to conceptual categories Q: Is the semantic core of a category fixed?

4.4 A dynamic construal approach to conceptual categories Q: Is the semantic core of a category fixed? A: No. A category core is dynamic and ad-hoc categories have the same properties things to take on a picnic

4.4.1 Category boundaries Is a cyberpet a pet? Is a three-legged dog a dog? Is a toy gun a gun? We don’t need fuzzy boundaries – we just need variable construal of boundaries.

4.4.2 Frames Frames may also be dynamic and created ad-hoc

4.4.3 Levels of categorization The level status is also subject to construal and to speakers’ experience. What’s a basic level to you? To a specialist? To a person with little or no experience with items in a given category?

4.5 The dynamic construal of meaning Q: According to C&C, how is meaning arrived at:

4.5 The dynamic construal of meaning Q: According to C&C, how is meaning arrived at: A: Meaning is construed on-line, using clues from: linguistic elements non-linguistic knowledge context pragmatics Meaning involves: contextualized interpretation, purport, constraints, construal

4.5.1 Contextualized interpretation A linguistic sign (like a word) is merely a semantic potential, and will be interpreted differently in different contexts (the dog raised its shaggy head vs. she raised her head – we know that there are differences between girls and dogs)

4.5.1 Contextualized interpretation “A major task for the speaker is to devise an utterance that will lead to the desired interpretation forming in the hearer’s mind.” cf. the Conduit metaphor…

4.5.2 Purport Q: What is purport?

4.5.2 Purport Q: What is purport? A: The body of conceptual content associated with a lexical item, the raw material of construal and interpretation. Purport can be disjunct, as in bank. It supplies the ingredients of meaning. vs.

4.5.3 Constraints Construal of interpretations is constrained by: human cognitive capacities (universal tendencies and limitations) nature of reality convention (favoring language- and culture-specific construals) context (the common ground from linguistic context, physical context, and social context of an utterance, and also stored knowledge)

4.5.4 Construal This is the most important process in transforming purport into meaning. It is not a single discrete process (can involve multiple steps or parallel actions). There are strong default construals that help to stabilize meaning and make it seem fixed.

4.6 Structure and logical aspects of meaning Meaning is a balance between Flexibility – from the nature of purport and sensitivity of construal to context Rigidity – from default construals But what does this mean for the principle of compositionality (the meaning of a complex expression is a function of the meanings of the parts)?

4.6 Structure and logical aspects of meaning Compositionality needs to be recast: “The input of a complex expression is the result of a construal process one of the inputs to which are the construals of its constituent parts.” In other words, compositionality is more like cooking…

4.6 Structure and logical aspects of meaning Where compositionality fails: Is topless bars the intersection of the set of topless things with the set of bars? Is hot dates the intersection of the set of hot things with the set of dates? (one can go on and on in this vein…)