Cognitive linguistics explores how our minds shape language, focusing on meaning and conceptualization. It integrates insights from psychology and neuroscience to understand language comprehensively, challenging traditional formal approaches to linguistics.

This field emphasizes the connection between language and general cognitive processes. It explores how our bodily experiences and interactions with the world influence linguistic structures, providing insights into language acquisition, processing, and use.

Foundations of cognitive linguistics

• Cognitive linguistics explores the relationship between language, mind, and bodily experience, emphasizing how cognitive processes shape linguistic structures
• This field emerged as a reaction to formal approaches in linguistics, focusing on the role of meaning and conceptualization in language use
• Cognitive linguistics integrates insights from psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology to provide a comprehensive understanding of language

Historical development

• Emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as a response to generative grammar and formal semantics
• Pioneered by linguists such as George Lakoff, Ronald Langacker, and Leonard Talmy
• Influenced by earlier work in gestalt psychology and cognitive psychology
• Gained momentum through interdisciplinary collaborations with cognitive scientists

Key principles

• Language reflects general cognitive processes and is not an autonomous cognitive faculty
• Linguistic knowledge is conceptual in nature and grounded in human experience
• Grammar and lexicon form a continuum rather than distinct modules
• Language use shapes linguistic structure through frequency and entrenchment
• Meaning is encyclopedic and context-dependent, not limited to dictionary definitions

Relation to other linguistic theories

• Contrasts with formal approaches like generative grammar in its focus on meaning and usage
• Shares some commonalities with functional linguistics in emphasizing language in use
• Incorporates insights from cognitive psychology and neuroscience
• Influences and is influenced by construction grammar and usage-based approaches
• Challenges the modularity hypothesis proposed by some formal linguistic theories

Language and cognition

• Cognitive linguistics posits a strong connection between language and general cognitive processes
• This approach emphasizes how our bodily experiences and interactions with the environment shape language
• Understanding the relationship between language and cognition is crucial for explaining language acquisition, processing, and use

Embodied cognition

• Proposes that cognitive processes are grounded in the body's interactions with the world
• Sensorimotor experiences form the basis for abstract concepts and linguistic expressions
• Explains how physical experiences (up-down, front-back) structure abstract domains (happy-sad, future-past)
• Supported by neuroimaging studies showing activation of sensorimotor areas during language processing
• Challenges traditional views of cognition as purely abstract and symbolic

Conceptual metaphor theory

• Developed by Lakoff and Johnson, argues that metaphor is fundamental to human thought and language
• Conceptual metaphors map structure from a source domain to a target domain
• Common examples include "LOVE IS A JOURNEY" and "ARGUMENT IS WAR"
• Explains how abstract concepts are understood in terms of more concrete experiences
• Influences not only language but also reasoning, problem-solving, and cultural practices

Image schemas

• Pre-conceptual structures arising from recurrent bodily experiences
• Include basic spatial relations like CONTAINER, PATH, BALANCE, and FORCE
• Serve as building blocks for more complex concepts and metaphorical thinking
• Explain cross-linguistic similarities in spatial language and abstract reasoning
• Provide a link between sensorimotor experience and abstract conceptualization

Categorization and prototypes

• Cognitive linguistics views categorization as a fundamental cognitive process that shapes language
• This approach challenges classical theories of categorization based on necessary and sufficient conditions
• Understanding how humans categorize concepts is crucial for explaining semantic structure and language use

Prototype theory

• Developed by Eleanor Rosch, proposes that categories have graded membership
• Central members (prototypes) are more representative of the category than peripheral members
• Explains phenomena like fuzzy category boundaries and typicality effects
• Influences lexical semantics and the study of polysemy
• Challenges the classical view of categories as having clear-cut boundaries and equal membership

Radial categories

• Extended version of prototype theory proposed by George Lakoff
• Categories have a central prototype with various extensions linked by family resemblance or metaphorical connections
• Explains complex category structures that cannot be accounted for by a single prototype
• Examples include the category of "mother" (birth mother, adoptive mother, stepmother)
• Provides insights into the semantic structure of polysemous words and grammatical categories

Family resemblance

• Concept introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, adopted in cognitive linguistics
• Category members share overlapping features but no single feature is necessary or sufficient
• Explains how categories can be coherent without having a fixed set of defining properties
• Applies to both lexical categories (games) and grammatical categories (parts of speech)
• Challenges the classical view of categorization based on essential features

Conceptual blending

• Conceptual blending theory explains how humans combine different mental representations to create new meanings
• This cognitive process is fundamental to language use, creativity, and problem-solving
• Understanding conceptual blending provides insights into figurative language, humor, and conceptual innovation

Mental spaces

• Temporary conceptual packets constructed for local understanding and action
• Contain elements and relations activated in working memory during discourse
• Can represent real, hypothetical, or counterfactual scenarios
• Serve as input for conceptual blending operations
• Explain how humans manage multiple representations in language and thought

Blending networks

• Consist of input spaces, a generic space, and a blended space
• Input spaces contribute partial structure to the blend
• Generic space contains abstract structure shared by the inputs
• Blended space integrates and elaborates on structure from the inputs
• Can be simple (two inputs) or complex (multiple inputs and nested blends)
• Explain creative language use, metaphor comprehension, and conceptual integration

Emergent structure

• Novel structure that arises in the blended space, not present in any of the inputs
• Results from composition, completion, and elaboration processes
• Explains how blending can generate new insights and meanings
• Accounts for creative problem-solving and conceptual innovation
• Provides a cognitive basis for figurative language and humor

Construction grammar

• Construction grammar is a usage-based approach to language that aligns closely with cognitive linguistics
• This framework views language as a network of form-meaning pairings called constructions
• Understanding construction grammar is essential for explaining language acquisition, processing, and change

Form-meaning pairings

• Constructions are conventionalized associations of form and meaning
• Range from morphemes to words, phrases, and abstract syntactic patterns
• Include both lexical items and grammatical structures
• Carry semantic or pragmatic meaning beyond their component parts
• Challenge the strict division between lexicon and grammar in traditional linguistics

Usage-based approach

• Language structure emerges from patterns of use in communicative contexts
• Frequency and entrenchment play crucial roles in shaping linguistic knowledge
• Emphasizes the importance of input and experience in language acquisition
• Explains linguistic variation and change as results of usage patterns
• Challenges nativist approaches to language acquisition and structure

Constructicon vs lexicon

• Constructicon refers to the entire inventory of constructions in a language
• Blurs the traditional boundary between lexicon and grammar
• Includes both lexical items and abstract syntactic patterns
• Organized as a network with inheritance relations between constructions
• Explains how speakers store and access linguistic knowledge
• Challenges the modular view of language with separate lexicon and grammar components