1. Taylor 5 Linguistic & Encyclopedic Knowledge

2. Is encyclopedic knowledge important? How is background knowledge incorporated into the characterization of word meanings? “Autonomous linguistics assumes a clean separation between a speaker’s world knowledge and his purely linguistic knowledge”. According to this view, “the mental dictionary is is not an encyclopedia” BUT: Where do you draw the line?

3. What Cog Lx says about encyclopedic knowledge Word meaning “is broadly encyclopedic in scope. Our concept of dog is not independent of our knowledge about dogs.” Background information is “a network of shared, conventionalized, to some extent perhaps idealized knowledge, embedded in a pattern of cultural beliefs and practices.”

4. 5.1 Domains & Schemas Meanings are not independently existing entities. Meanings require context. “A linguistic form gets its meaning by profiling, or highlighting a particular region or configuration in the relevant domain.”

5. Examples of profiling: Monday -- a bounded region in the doman of week/time Up/down -- an axis in the domain of vertical space In/out -- a relationship in the domain of containment Wing -- a region of a domain, a part-whole structure

6. Basic domains: There are basic domains that are not reducible to other, more primitive cognitive structures: –Time-Space-Temperature –Color-Taste-Pitch –Psychological states (This might be debatable…)

7. More about domains: Many linguistic forms make reference to multiple domains; –Golfball makes reference to domains of shape, color, size, material, game of golf Sometimes one domain is more salient than others –Salt -- flavor enhancement domain is often more salient than chemical composition

8. 5.2 Frames & Scripts We have a lot of terms that mean more or less the same thing: domain, frame, script, schema, scene, scenario, ICM, stereotype Frame -- Taylor will use this word to “refer to the knowledge network linking the multiple domains associated with a given linguistic form” Script -- “temporal sequencing and causal relations which link events and states within certain action frames”

9. More about frames & scripts There is no “clear dividing line between linguistically relevant and linguistically irrelevant knowledge”. Frames “are configurations of culture- based, conventionalized knowledge”.

10. 5.3 Perspectivization [Note: most cog linguists prefer the term “construal”] A given use of a word may highlight one or another component of a frame –My birthday falls on a Monday (highlights order of days) –I have a Monday morning feeling (highlights weekend vs. workweek) –My car was made on a Monday (highlights transition from weekend to work ethic)

11. 5.4 Frames & scripts in language comprehension Encyclopedic knowledge is needed in order to correctly interpret linguistic forms. For example alligator shoes are A. made from alligator skin -Not- B. worn by alligators, C. for walking on alligators, D. worn during the alligator time, etc.

12. Computing meaning The alligator shoes example is meant to demonstrate that meaning and grammaticality cannot be computed in terms of binary features

13. 5.5 Fake Is a fake gun a gun? Note that: –Only human beings can create fakes –There has to be something at stake to motivate a deception Fake is uninterpretable without encyclopedic knowledge

14. 5.6 Real Mary’s husband is a real bachelor. Real “highlights attributes conventionally associated with a frame, while at the same time releasing the category from otherwise necessary conditions for membership” This requires encylopedic knowledge. [Note also that real has a function that is the opposite of that of technically/strictly speaking]