Alla D.Belova, Doctor of Sciences (Linguistics), Full Professor
Lectures on “Theory of English”
Cognitive structures
Language as verbal packaging of mental structures
Principles of categorization
Ancient Greece – categories as classes of words/ objects etc
conceptual categorization – clusterization
Conceptual metaphor – Lakoff, Johnson
Cognitive grammar – Langacker
Cognitive theory of language use – Van Dijk
Constructions grammar – Fillmore
Semantic primitives - Wierzbicka
Binary oppositions in ecological conceptualization (Devall, Sessions)
Dominance over nature / Harmony with nature
Natural resources as resources for humans/ All nature has intrinsic worth biocentric equality
Land as slave and servant/ Land as colective organism
Material economic growth for a growing human population/ Elegantly simple material needs
Ample resources/ Limited supply of resources
High technological progress and solutions/ Appropriate technology
Consumerism/ Doing with enough, recycling
National centralized community/ Minority tradition, bioregionalism
Human as conqueror / Human as biotic citizen
Categorization
Prof.Dixon studying the language of aborigines of Australia offered principles of categorization which can be described as cognitive and universal:
Centrality - major categories are central points
Chain connection - complicated categories have chain structure, formed via chain of central and peripheral elements
Experience domains – culture-specific fields of experience predetermine categorization
Ideal models – ideal models of world including myths and beliefs
(ideal husband, ideal sportsman)
Specific knowledge – which becomes preferable in categorizations and classifications in comparison with universal knowledge (rice, sand)
Miscellaneous – uncategorized things/ items of minor importance
Human factor in categorization
Preferences after the Norman Conquest :
Anglo - French
Calf veal
Cow, ox beef
Swine, pig pork
Sheep mutton
Deer venison
Anthropocentic nature of the language & categorization
People Animals Plants
pests, vermin weeds
Eat feed/ graze absorb/consume
Murder hunt/ trap/ butcher fell/ cut down
slaughter an animal
land/ catch a fish
People . Animals . Plants
Make love mate
Die wither dry/ droop
Corpse carcass
Flesh meat
Human factor in nomination
Garden plant, house plant, indoor plant, medical plant, ornamental plant,
domestic animal, farm animal, zoo animal,
edible mushroom, poisonous mushroom
Herbicide, pesticide, insecticide, fungicide, molluscicide
Categorization/ Environmental issues, Being ecologically correct
Animal testing → Not tested on animals!
Cruelty-free
Waste water → reclaimed water
Flowers - botanical companions
Paper - tree carcasses
Eggs - stolen non-human animal products
Categorization/ Ecological aspects
Ecologically –relevant concepts:
ENVIRONMENT
POLLUTION
ENERGY
CLIMATE CHANGE
CHERNOBYL
SUNSTAINABILITY
CLIMATEGATE
ENVIRONMENTAL RISK
WILDERNESS
FOOD
ENVIRONMENT is a key concept
Crucial importance of environmental issues resulted into numerous collocations: environmental degradation/ damage/ disadvantages/ hazards/ consequences/ catastrophe/ health threat
Environmental activists/ professionals / organizations/ pressure groups/ lobby group
Environmental agreements/ policy/
Environmental Ministry
Environmental taxes/ permits
Environmental law/ right/ offence / proceedings
ENERGY
Nuclear safety, nuclear terrorism
Pro-nuclear, anti-nuclear, non-nuclear, nuclear -free
Renewables, alternatives
Wind-powered, solar-powered, bio-based, straw-fueled, propane-powered, hydrogen-fueled, fuel-celled-powered
Fuel-efficient, energy-efficient
POLLUTION
Air/ water /soil pollution
NB! NEW
Noise/ light/ gene pollution
Pollutants
Knowledge and information shift from academic to mass level therefore abbreviated as it is easier to memorize and recognize: PPCPs, PVC, CFCs
Low-sulphur, unleaded, non-GM, mercury-free, zero-emission
GMO
CLIMATE CHANGE
climate-related disasters, weather-triggered disasters, drought-ravaged, heat-related disasters
Curb / Combat climate change/ global warming
Climate policy, climate change meetings, climate talks, climate treaty, anti-global warming plan
Emission credits, carbon market, emission trading
CHERNOBYL
No more Chernobyls
Fears of a second Chernobyl
Chernobyl orphans, Chernobyl widows,
Cognitive structures are components of the conceptual picture. Conceptual picture is a cognitive basis, mentalese, lingua mentalis, language of thought. Many components of mentalese are based on associations, visual components etc.
Cognitive model
Frames
Scripts
Scenario
Schemata
Plan
Prototypes
Stereotypes
Key national issues are cognitive – cultural scripts
Frame
Frame is a cognitive unit made of clichés of conscience which is a cluster of predictable valencies (slots) vectors of predetermined associations. Frame consists of a top ( word which gives a stimulus) and slots or terminals (associations or propositions). Within frames there can be hierarchy. Culturally marked frames, for example
Don Quixote :
wind mills Sancha Pansa Horse Dulcinea Useless work Knight
Errant Chivalric nobility Noble High principles
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New Year’s Eve
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New Year’s Eve
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New Year’s Day
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Picnic Party
To set p place and time
To invite friends
To buy food & drinks
To make sandwiches
To make a fire
To sing, play games, laugh, tell jokes
To put out the fire
To collect litter
To feel tired but glad
Scenario / scenario frame
Standard sequence of events , recurrent situation:
Situation dependence
Conventionality
Situational memory
Generalized events memory
Examples: Shopping at a supermarket, Presentation of a PhD dissertation. Seminar at the university/ Final exam / A lesson at school
Concept
Concept: WORLD
Ancient / modern world
Real/ ideal/ perfect world
Travel around the world, parts of the world
Western world, Arab world, developed world, industrialized world, English speaking world
The world of children, Disneyland, natural world
Business world, academic world, the world of politics
Concept: LOVE
Affection Fondness Admiration
Desire Passion
Love at first sight Date
Kiss, French kiss Affair
Sincere love Parental love Blind love
Everlasting love Unrequited love
Homosexual love
Love-hate relationships Forgiveness
love in a cottage
Prototype
Prototype is a general idea about some item of reality, collective general image with characteristics typical of all objects of majority
Bachelor – How old is he? Might be?
26? 72?
Confirmed, eligible, dying in the wool
Is monk a bachelor?
Is Pope a bachelor?
Celibacy = bachelorhood?
Widow - the one who murdered her husband?
Cyberwidow, golf/ football widow grasswidow,
Mother - working, genetic, surrogate?
Cognitive reference points & prototypes - subcategories or category members that have a special cognitive status - that of being “the best example” (George Lakoff, Eleanor Rosch )
Mother - working, genetic, surrogate?
Full time mother
Stay-at-home mother
VS
Stay-at-home father
Househusband
NB!!! Housewives VS househusband___
Wife
Husband
Lord & master
His lordship
Old man
Husby
Hubby
Husband-in-law (your ex-wife’s new husband)
Common-law husband
House-husband
Work husband (a man with whom a woman has a platonic intimacy at work)
Husbad ( a husband gone bad)
Husbeen (a man who is married to a successful woman and who has not got much of an identity himself)
Eleonor Rosch has demonstrated that humans tend to label visual objects at an easily accessible semantic level termed as
“basic level” (e.g. chair), as opposed to more specific level
“sub-ordinate level”, e.g. kitchen chair), or more general level
“super-ordinate level” (e.g. furniture).
Superordinate – basic level
Furniture
Chair Table
Bed Lamp
Superordinate – basic level–subordinate
Furniture
Table
gaming table dressing table coffee table
kitchen table dinner table
night table end table
Cross-categorization
Transformational and multifunctional units
Kitchen Scale Wall clock = scale or wall clock
Carpet – Lounge = carpet or lounge
Coffee table fish aquarium = aquarium or table
Fireplace lounge = fireplace or lounge
Time Shelf = clock or shelf
Sofa boat = sofa or boat
CardSharp = card or knife
Values
Values were popularised in the 19th century in Victorian Britain. Values are studied by Axiology. Values are social and psychological ideas and views shared by the community and inherited by other generations. Values are viewed as positive ideas, but within axiology they differentiate negative values (drugs, smoking, abortion etc.) / NB! Right to Abortion is positive within feminism
Family values first popularized by Victorian government = the first system of values:
To be industrious, obedient, respectful, to work hard, to be loyal, to be thrifty, not to spend more than you earn, children are to be seen but not heard
Royal Family in Great Britain as embodiment of values
Lady Di VS Royal Family
Value of Love : Prince Charles & Camilla
Camillagate → Prince Charles’ marriage to Camilla → millions of TV viewers glued to TV screens when the wedding was TVcasted
Tony Blair and his Labour Party reviewed Victorian values promoted by Margaret Thatcher to offer something different from the Conservative Party
National idea - individualism, merits, meritocracy
Winston Churchill had to resign as times changed and values he appealed to became outdated:
blood & iron, victory, British race, British empire
After the WWII no need to be belligerent people needed peaceful speeches
American Dream ( get rich + to succeed)
Melting pot
Democracy
Superpower
Shared by all American presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Bush
Ronald Reagan
Partnership Individualism Spiritual dignity Human imperfection
Gestalt is rendered as an integrated structure or a shape, entity whose properties cannot be deduced from the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychology is the theory of unitary mental organization based on the observation that perception is structural and cannot be resolved as the mere agglomeration of minute definable responses to local stimuli.
Picture of the world is viewed as a whole.
Nationally- marked concepts