Cognitive linguistics/poetics

Cognitive Linguistics/Poetics

Cognitive linguistics/poetics is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it. Cognitive linguistics emerged in the 1970s and it is primarily interested in the conceptual level. Three main hypotheses guide cognitive linguistics:

1. Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty
2. Grammar is conceptualization
3. Knowledge of language emerges from language use

Concept, conceptual structure, and frame are three important terms in cognitive linguistics. The conceptual structure is a single level of mental representation, while a frame is a system of concepts. In order to understand one of them, you have to understand the whole.

Metaphor is one of the most important elements in cognitive linguistics. The traditional literary criticism has differentiated two main parts of a metaphor: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the familiar element, while the vehicle is the new element which is described in terms of the old familiar element.

Example:

Juliet (vehicle) is the sun (tenor). The common properties between the two elements (tenor/vehicle) constitute the ground of the metaphor.

In addition, Cognitive linguistics models the process of metaphor as a mapping of properties between the two spaces or domains.

Conceptual metaphor

In particular, a is a kind of metaphor that involves a relationship between a tenor or SOURCE DOMAIN (the source of the literal meaning of the metaphorical expression) and a vehicle or TARGET DOMAIN (the domain of the experience actually being described by the metaphor).

Ex. Fack thoughts into words – WORDS (t. domain) ARE CONTAINERS (s. domain)

Anger boiled over – ANGER/EMOTION (t. domain) IS HOT FLUID (s. domain)

Spend time – TIME (t. domain) IS MONEY (s. domain)

Life is going – LIFE (t. domain) IS A JOURNEY (s. domain)

literature

Furthermore, the first to apply Cognitive linguistics to were Turner and Lakoff (concept of metaphor in literature). According to them, people make sense of their

Experience and understand many aspects of language, through their knowledge of conceptual metaphors. Ex. Life is a journey (una delle metafore più analizzate da Turner e Lakoff).

Text World Theory aims to provide the analytical tools necessary for the systematic examination and discussion of these mental representations or texts-worlds. According to TWT, human beings process and understand all discourse by constructing mental representations of it in their minds. Therefore, TWT is a cognitive linguistic model of human discourse processing.

In TWT, a world is a rich and cognitively complex affair. A world is a language event or a discourse world (immediate situation), involving at least two participants and is the rich and densely textured real-life representation of the combination of text and context. World-builders

But, how recover time, place/location and characters?

Time (T) is recoverable from tense and aspect.

Location (L) is recoverable from locative adverbs, adverbial clauses, noun

phrases specifying a place. Characters (C) and Objects (O) are recoverable from noun phrases (proper nouns) and pronominals. Deixis is the speaker, the place and the time. There are different kinds of deixis:

1. Perceptual deixis > expressions with personal pronouns, demonstratives, articles, mental states (thinking, believing)
2. Spatial deixis > spatial adverbs (here/there), this/that, verbs of motion (come/go)
3. Temporal deixis > temporal adverbs (today, tomorrow…), verbs with -now (speaker-now)
4. Relational deixis (social viewpoint of author)
5. Textual deixis
6. Compositional deixis

Image schemas are mental pictures formed from our bodily interactions, from linguistic experience and historical context. Image schemas are locative expressions of place and time, or better prepositions, like IN IMAGE SCHEMAS or FROM IMAGE SCHEMAS.

Langacker distinguished two main elements within Image schemas: the trajector and the landmark. The trajector is the figure that traces a path (chi fa l’azione),

while the landmark is an element that has a grounded relationship with the trajector (punto di riferimento).

Deictic shift theory (DST) is formed by person, time and place + 6 dimensions:

1. Perceptual shift (personaggi, nomi ricorrenti, menzionati di frequente)
2. Spatial shift (movement verbs, spatial adverbs)
3. Temporal shift
4. Relational shift (x marcare relazioni, appellativi, markers of modality like may, will)
5. Textual shift (stile, divisione in paragrafi)
6. Compositional shift (the external presentation, ex. book cover)

Deictic shifts are push and pop. Push is moving down, flashback. Ex. entering flashback, dreams, stories told by characters. Pop is moving up, commenti dell'autore, excursus.

Cognitive grammar is based on agent, patient, instrument, experiencer and mover. The agent is the subject who makes the action (chi fa l'azione), an action participant who causes things to move. The patient is who suffers the action (chi subisce l'azione). The instrument is an element.

The experiencer is a location for a mental perception like thought, emotion, viewing.

The mover is an element which physically moves to another location.