1. What is Cognitive Linguistics?
Laura A. Janda

2. Cognitive linguistics
Minimal Assumption: language can be accounted for in terms of general cognitive strategies
no autonomous language faculty
no strict division between grammar and lexicon
no a priori universals
Usage-Based: generalizations emerge from language data
no strict division between langue and parole
no underlying forms
Meaning is Central: holds for all language phenomena
no semantically empty forms
differences in behavior are motivated (but not specifically predicted) by differences in meaning
metaphor and metonymy play a major role in grammar

3. Language & Cognition Linguistic cognition has no special status
All linguistic phenomena can be explained via general cognitive mechanisms
Language is not divided into discrete levels or modules
phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon form a continuous phenomenon
primary motive for all linguistic phenomena is meaning

4. Prediction & Embodiment
Goal is to discover motivations rather than to formulate predictions
if linguistic phenomena were truly predictable, there wouldn’t be any variation
universals are few and non-specific, many phenomena have language-specific aspects
Meaning is grounded in physical experiences, dependent upon the architecture of our bodies, perceptual organs and brains
meaning cannot be achieved by symbols alone

5. Cognitive categories
Linguistic categories are cognitive categories and have the same structure
Established through research in psychology and neurobiology
Radial category centered on a prototype with extensions
Extension via mapping: metaphor, metonymy, blends

6. Examples of cognitive categories
The next few slides will present some items.
Try to see if there are differences among the various languages that you speak.

7. Which two items belong together?

8. How many of you chose this solution?

9. How many of you chose this solution?

10. Why did you choose the solution you did?
English: chair
Czech: židle
English: wheelchair
Czech: vozejk = ‘cart’
English: cart
Czech: vozejk = ‘cart’

11. Furniture for sitting

12. If you speak English, your chair category looks like this:
rocking chair
lawn chair
chair
high chair
armchair
wheel chair

13. If you speak Norwegian, your chair category looks like this:
gyngestol
solseng
stol
barnestol
lenestol
rullestol

14. If you speak Czech, your category is:
houpácí
židle
lehátko
židlička
židle
křeslo
vozejk

15. Russian has two different categories:
кресло-
качалка
шезлонг
высокий стульчик
стул
кресло
инвалидная коляска
(кресло-)каталка

16. The take-home lesson about chairs:
Categorization isn’t “out there” in the world, reality can be categorized in different ways
Different languages can use different strategies for categorizing experience

17. Think of all the ways that you could describe where the apples are

18. A: The apples are inside-bowl B: The apples are loose fitting-bowl
C: The apples are concave valley that faces me-bowl
D: The apples are stomach-bowl

19. The take-home lesson about apples:
Meaning is based on embodied experience
Meaning is also present in “grammatical” phenomena such as functor words (like pre- and post-positions) and case
Because the lexicon and grammar are a continuum
Different languages can recruit different embodied experiences for this purpose:
Container vs. Surface, Tight vs. Loose fit, Topography, Body parts, etc.

20. You are inside a house.
Suddenly a dog appears,
moving very rapidly
through the door.
How could you describe
what the dog did?

21. El perro entró corriendo
Hunden løp inn

22. The take-home lesson about dogs:
Meaning can be represented differently in different grammars
Verb-framed languages (like Spanish) focus on the path of motion, and the manner of motion is expressed optionally, as an adverbial
Sattelite-framed languages (like Norwegian) focus on the manner of motion, and the path is expressed in a particle or prefix

23. Cognitive linguistics is usage-based
We are interested in performance, not just competence
Much work in cognitive linguistics involves authentic language data: corpora
Language data is often analyzed via statistical models

24. What is Cognitive Linguistics?
Explanation of linguistic phenomena via general cognitive mechanisms
Meaning is the motive for language and is embodied in physical experience
Radial categories based on prototypes with extensions via metaphor & metonymy
Lexicon & grammar are a continuum, observe same patterns
Empirical (statistical) analysis of authentic language data (corpora)