Seminars

Seminar 1

Theme: Linguistic paradigms. Revealing of scientific researches towards the investigation of language phenomena. Text analysis viewed from structural linguistics.

Aim: learn the students to make an observation of scientific works:

1. review the scientific articles by G. Lakoff, G. Fauconnier, V. Vinogradov, Y. Lotman, V. Shklovskiy.

2. learning of writing an annotation to the proposed articles.

Main problems: Modern linguistics: the notion of scientific paradigm, school and approach. The problem of identification of an object of linguistic research and main principles of its analysis. Descriptive, structural, semantic, cognitive approaches to the studying of text.

Seminar 2

Theme: The analysis of the text in post structural paradigm.

Aim: to provide the students with methods of conceptual analysis.

Main problems: the theory of conceptual tropes as the foregrounding of conceptual analysis of a literary text. The methodology of linguistic analysis and interpretation of a literary text. Text as a unity of different spaces. Conceptual space of a literary text. Conceptual analysis and its types.

Students must be ready to present the scientific materials on the mentioned topics.

Seminar 3 (Supplement 1)

Theme: Image space of a poetic text

Aim: to provide the student with the basic theoretical knowledge and empirical tools of some of the most relevant approaches to the analysis of image space of any poetic text.

Main problems: the research of image space, the specifics of imagery space of a poetic text clarified via linguistic and cognitive analysis of the types of verbal images, the dominant types of verbal poetic images: paradoxical, ambivalent or parabolic.

Seminar 4 (Supplement 2)

Theme: Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice.

Aim: to provide the student with the basic theoretical knowledge and empirical tools of some of the most relevant approaches to the analysis of discourse.

Main problems: Discourse analysis, speech acts and genres, registers, the methodology of discourse analysis. Text, context, contextual analysis.

Students must acquire the basic necessary knowledge and skills for analyzing any type of discourse.

Self-evaluation questionts

Choose the answer.

1. Modern Linguistics has introduced a concept of text that…

a) is very restrictive.

b) includes all types of utterances.

c) includes only written discourse.

2. De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981)…

a) view Text Linguistics from a broader perspective than that of

Crystal’s (1997).

b) define text in terms of three main criteria.

c) define text as a grammatical category.

3. According to Tischer et al. (2000), the first two criteria that

define text (De Beaugrande & Dressler, 1981)…

a) are text-external.

b) belong only to “pure” Text Linguistics.

c) are text-internal.

4. The tradition in Discourse Analysis has always been to…

a) give more importance to the text-external criteria of

intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and

intertextuality.

b) give more importance to the text than to the context.

c) consider context as playing a subsidiary role.

5. According to Schiffrin (1994) and other authors, Discourse

Analysis…

a) involves only the study of context.

b) is devoted to the study of text.

c) includes the analysis of both text and context.

6. De Beaugrande & Dressler’s (1981) definition of Text

Linguistics…

a) differs widely from Schiffrin’s (1994) definition of Discourse

Analysis.

b) does not substantially differ from Schiffrin’s (1994), Fasold’s

(1990), Brown & Yule’s (1983) or Candlin’s (1997) definition of

Discourse Analysis.

c) is exactly the same as Schiffrin’s (1994).

7. The tendency in Text Linguistics has been to…

a) present a more formal approach than that of Discourse Analysis.

b) present a more functional approach than that of Discourse

Analysis.

c) be less formal than any other approach.

8. Functionalists see language…

a) mainly as a mental phenomenon.

b) as a predominantly social phenomenon.

c) as an acoustic phenomenon.

9. Many discourse analysts, like Schiffrin or Slembrouck …

a) integrate both the formal and functional approaches in their study

of discourse.

b) do not mix the formal with the functional approach.

c) prefer the formal to the functional approach.

10. Discourse studies are…

a) restricted to the field of Linguistics.

b) devoted mainly to social phenomena.

c) essentially multidisciplinary.

11. Functionalism, Cognitive Linguistics, Sociolinguistic,

Pragmatics, Text Linguistics and Discourse Analysis are…

a) all relatively new disciplines which are interrelated.

b) completely different from one another.

c) very easily distinguished from one another.

12. Many scholars’ studies, like those of van Dijk or de

Beaugrande…

a) have not changed substantially with time.

b) have evolved from Text Linguistics to Discourse Analysis.

c) do not show a natural flow of beliefs or ideas.

13. The current and main aim in Discourse Analysis is to…

a) study the formal aspects of texts.

b) discover the functions of language.

TERMS

A mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain. Many elements of target concepts come from source domains and are not preexisting. To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing. The same idea of mapping between source and target is used to describe analogical reasoning and inferences.

A sign may be defined as a form which stands for something else, which we understand as its meaning.

Different types of signs in sign systems

• raising our eyebrows -> indexical

• drawing the outline of a woman by using our hands -> iconic

• expressing our thoughts by speaking -> symbolic

Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Categorization implies that objects are grouped into categories, usually for some specific purpose. Ideally, a category illuminates a relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge. Categorization is fundamental in language, prediction, inference, decision making and in all kinds of environmental interaction. It is indicated that categorization plays a major role in programming. There are many categorization theories and techniques. In a broader historical view, however, three general approaches to categorization may be identified:

• Classical categorization

• Conceptual clustering

• Prototype theory

Cognitive approaches to grammar

• Theories of grammar that relate grammar to mental processes and structures in human cognition. (Wikipedia Encyclopedia by Sergei Starostin, 1953-2005)

• Noam Chomsky and his fellow generative grammarians

  • Grammar is an autonomous mental faculty

  • It is governed by mental processes operating on mental representations of different kinds of symbols that apply only within this faculty.

  • Proponents of cognitive linguistics

  • Grammar is not an autonomous mental faculty with processes of its own, but it is intertwined with all other cognitive processes and structures.

  • The basic claim is that grammar is conceptualization.

  • Some of the theories that fall within this paradigm

    • e,.g., construction grammar, cognitive grammar, and word grammar.

Cognitive science is a relatively new discipline that investigates the way the human mind functions and how computers can simulate these functions. The human mind is a complex system that receives, stores, processes and sends out information. All this involves cognition, which refers to perceiving and knowing.

Cognitive semantics is part of the cognitive linguistics movement. The main tenets of cognitive semantics are, first, that grammar is conceptualisation; second, that conceptual structure is embodied and motivated by usage; and third, that the ability to use language draws upon general cognitive resources and not a special language module.

Conceptual Blending (aka Conceptual Integration) is a general theory of cognition. According to this theory, elements and vital relations from diverse scenarios are "blended" in a subconscious process known as Conceptual Blending, which is assumed to be ubiquitous to everyday thought and language. Insights obtained from these blends constitute the products of creative thinking, though conceptual blending theory is not itself a theory of creativity, inasmuch as it does not illuminate the issue of where the inputs to a blend actually come from. Blending theory does provide a rich terminology for describing the creative products of others, but has little to say on the inspiration that serves as the starting point for each blend.

Conceptual categories

• Such concepts which slice reality into relevant units are called categories.

• Conceptual categories are concepts of a set as a whole.

• Languages only covers part of the world of concepts which human have or may have.

• The notion of concept may be understood as “a person’s idea of what something in the world is like’.

• The world is not some kind of objective reality existing in and for itself but is always shaped by our categorizing activity.

• Conceptual categories which are laid down in a language are linguistic categories, or linguistic signs.

The human conceptualizer, conceptual categories and linguistic signs are interlinked.

Conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another, for example, understanding quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. "prices are rising"). A conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience. The regularity with which different languages employ the same metaphors, which often appear to be perceptually based, has led to the hypothesis that the mapping between conceptual domains corresponds to neural mappings in the brain

Discourse analysis covers an extremely wide range of activities from the narrowly focused investigation of how words such as 'oh' or 'well' are used in casual talk, to the study of the dominant ideology in a culture as represented, for example, in its educational or political practices. Linguistic discourse analysis focuses on the record of the process by which language is used in some context to express intention.

Frame semantics (linguistics)

Frame semantics, developed by Charles J. Fillmore, attempts to explain meaning in terms of their relation to general understanding, not just in the terms laid out by truth-conditional semantics. Fillmore explains meaning in general (including the meaning of lexemes) in terms of "frames". By "frame" is meant any concept that can only be understood if a larger system of concepts is also understood.

Grammatical categories

• The structural framework provided by grammatical categories include abstract distinctions which are made by means of word classes, number, tense, etc.

• Most of the words classes were first introduced and defined by Greek and Roman grammarians as partes orationis ‘parts of speech’.

• The meanings traditionally associated with word classes only apply to prototypical members.

• Prototypical nouns denote time-stable phenomena, while verbs, adjectives and adverbs denote more temporary phenomena.

Illocutionary act is a technical term introduced by John L. Austin in investigations concerning what he calls 'performative' and 'constative utterances'. According to Austin's original exposition in How to Do Things With Words, an illocutionary act is an act (1) for the performance of which I must make it clear to some other person that the act is performed (Austin speaks of the 'securing of uptake'), and (2) the performance of which involves the production of what Austin calls 'conventional consequences' as, e.g., rights, commitments, or obligations. For example, in order to successfully perform a promise I must make clear to my audience that the promise occurs, and undertake an obligation to do the promised thing: hence promising is an illocutionary act in the present sense. However, for certain reasons, among them insufficient knowledge of Austin's original exposition, the term 'illocutionary act' is nowadays understood in a number of other ways.

Language is an important part of this cognitive process of receiving, storing, transforming and sending out information. We often hear or read information, store what we hear or read in order to remember it, and process this information before telling, or writing to, someone about it.

Lexical categories

• Lexical categories are defined by their specific content, while grammatical categories provide the structural framework for the lexical material.

• The conceptual content of a lexical category tends to cover a wide range of instances.

• The best member, the prototypical member, the most prominent member of a category, is the subtype that first comes to mind when we think of that category.

• Alongside prototypical members of a category and less prototypical ones, we also have more peripheral or marginal members.

Linguistics is the science of language, and is thus the part of cognitive science that addresses issues of language learning, production, and understanding.

Locutionary act is the performance of an utterance, and hence of a speech act. The term equally refers to the surface meaning of an utterance because, according to Austin's posthumous "How To Do Things With Words", a speech act should be analysed as a locutionary act (ie the actual utterance and its ostensible meaning, comprising phonetic, phatic and rhetic acts corresponding to the verbal, syntactic and semantic aspects of any meaningful utterance), as well as an illocutionary act (the semantic 'illocutionary force' of the utterance, thus its real, intended meaning), and in certain cases a further perlocutionary act (ie its actual effect, whether intended or not).

Methodological principles of Cognitive Linguistics:

• Human categorisation is one of the major issues in Linguistics.

• The ability to categorise, i.e., to judge that a particular thing is or is not an instance of a particular category, is an essential part of cognition.

• Categorisation is often automatic and unconscious, except in problematic cases.

  • This can cause us to make mistakes and make us think that our categories are categories of things, when in fact they are categories of abstract entities.

  • When experience is used to guide the interpretation of a new experience, the ability to categorise becomes indispensable.

• How human beings establish different categories of elements has been discussed ever since Aristotle.

A perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect) is a speech act, as viewed at the level of its psychological consequences, such as persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise getting someone to do or realize something. This is contrasted with locutionary and illocutionary acts (which are other levels of description, rather than different types of speech acts).

The term was introduced by J. L. Austin in his work How to Do Things With Words.

Unlike the notion of locutionary act, which describes the linguistic function of an utterance, a perlocutionary effect is in some sense external to the performance. It may be thought of, in a sense, as the effect of the illocutionary act. Therefore, when examining perlocutionary acts, the effect on the hearer or reader is emphasized.

Prototype theories, investigated by Eleanor Rosch, have given some reason to suppose that many natural lexical category structures are graded, i.e., they have prototypical members that are considered to be "better fit" the category than other examples. For instance, robins are generally viewed as better examples of the category "bird" than, say, penguins. If this view of category structure is the case, then categories can be understood to have central and peripheral members, and not just be evaluated in terms of members and non-members.

Saussure’s general view about linguistics and language

• There is a distinction between language (langue) and the activity of speaking (parole).

• Speaking is an activity of the individual; language is the social manifestation of speech.

• Language is a system of signs that evolves from the activity of speech.

• language is a borderland between thought and sound, where thought and sound combine to provide communication.

• A linguistic sign is a combination of a concept and a sound-image.

• The concept is what is signified, and the sound-image is the signifier. The combination of the signifier and the signified is arbitrary; i.e., any sound-image can conceivably be used to signify a particular concept.

Saussure’s general view about linguistics and language –cont’d

• Nothing enters written language without having been tested in spoken language.

• The units of language can have a synchronic or diachronic arrangement.

• The meaning or signification of signs is established by their relation to each other.

• The relation of signs to each other forms the structure of language.

• Synchronic reality is found in the structure of language at a given point in time.

• Diachronic reality is found in changes of language over a period of time.

• Language has an inner duality, which is manifested by the interaction of the synchronic and diachronic, the syntagmatic and associative, the signifier and signified. (Scott, 2001)

Semiotics - the systematic study of signs which analyzes verbal and non-verbal systems of human communication as well as animal communication.

Semiotics distinguishes between three types of signs:

• indices

• icons

• symbols

They represent three different structural principles relating form and content.

The cognitive and linguistic sciences offer a multidisciplinary study of the mind or what might be called "natural intelligence." Cognitive science seeks an understanding of such mental abilities as perception, recognition, categorization, memory, reasoning and problem-solving, motor control, speech, language, and communication. Linguistics focuses on the nature of human language, its theoretical, descriptive, and behavioral bases. It also serves as a window into human cognition. The approaches of a variety of disciplines, including cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, philosophy, and anthropology, are all brought to bear on common problems of mind, brain, and language.

The theory of linguistic meaning

• For Cognitive Linguistics, meanings do not exist independently from the people that create and use them (Reddy 1993).

  • All linguistic forms do not have inherent form in themselves, they act as clues activating the meanings that reside in our minds and brains.

  • This activation of meaning is not necessarily entirely the same in every person,

    • because meaning is based on individual experience as well as collective experience (Barcelona 1997: 9).