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Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics

Cognitive Linguistics in Practice

A text book series which aims at introducing students of language and linguistics, and scholars from neighboring disciplines, to established and new fields in language research from a cognitive perspective. Titles in the series are written in an attractive, readerfriendly and self-explanatory style with assigments, and are tested for classroom use at university level.

Executive Editor

Günter Radden

University of Hamburg radden@rrz.uni-hamburg.de

Volume 1

Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics, 2nd rev. ed. René Dirven and Marjolijn Verspoor, Editors

Table of contents

Assignments 22

2.0Overview 25

2.1Introduction: Words, meanings and concepts 25

2.2From words to meanings: Semasiology 28

2.3From concepts to words: Onomasiology 36

2.4Conclusion: Interplay between semasiology and onomasiology 43

2.5Summary 44

2.6Further reading 45

Assignments 46

vi Table of contents

3.0Overview 49

3.1Introduction 50

3.2Compounding 54

3.3Derivation 59

3.4Other word-formation processes 64

3.5Inflection and function words 66

3.6Conclusion: Morphology, lexicology and syntax 69

3.7Summary 70

3.8Further reading 72

Assignments 72

4.0Overview 75

4.1Introduction: Syntax and grammar 75

4.2Event schemas and participant roles 77

4.3Hierarchical and linear structure of the sentence 86

4.4The grounding elements of a sentence 91

4.5Summary 96

4.6Further reading 98

Assignments 98

5.0Overview 101

5.1Introduction: Phonetics and phonology 102

5.2Production of speech sounds 103

5.3Consonants 106

5.4Vowels 108

5.5Phonemes and allophones; phonemic transcription 113

5.6Beyond the phoneme 116

5.7Sounds in context 118

5.8Summary 122

5.9Further reading 124

Assignments 124

6.0Overview 127

6.1Introduction: Linguistic relativity and universalism 127

6.2Culture-specific words 134

6.3Culture-specific grammar 137

6.4Cultural scripts 140

6.5Conclusion: Language, culture and thought 143

6.6Summary 144

6.7Further reading 146

Assignments 146

7.0Overview 149

7.1Introduction: What is pragmatics? 150

7.2Constitutive speech acts and felicity conditions 155

7.3Informative speech acts and cooperative interaction 159

7.4Obligative speech acts and polite interaction 166

7.5Conclusion: Interplay between sentence structure and types of speech act 171

7.6Summary 173

7.7Further reading 174

Assignments 174

8.0Overview 179

8.1Communication, text, and text linguistics 180

8.2Text representation 181

8.3Coherence vs. cohesion 184

8.4Referential coherence 186

8.5Relational coherence 189

8.6Survey of coherence relations 195

8.7Summary 197

8.8Further reading 198

Assignments 199

viii Table of contents

9.0Overview 203

9.1Language change and language variation 204

9.2Methods of studying historical linguistics 208

9.3Typology of language change 214

9.4Causation and predictability 223

9.5Summary 226

9.6Further reading 228

Assignments 228

10.0Overview 231

10.1External comparison: Identification and status of languages 232

10.2Spread and classification of languages 235

10.3Language typology and language universals 243

10.4Contrastive linguistics 247

10.5Summary 255

10.6Further reading 256

Assignments 257

Preface

Language is one of our most articulated means of expressing ideas and thoughts. This introduction to language and linguistics as the science of language will mainly look at language from the perspective of “expressing ideas and thoughts”. This approach to the study of language is known as the cognitive perspective. The cognitive perspective also holds that language is part of a cognitive system which comprises perception, emotions, categorization, abstraction processes, and reasoning. All these cognitive abilities interact with language and are influenced by language. Thus the study of language, in a sense, becomes the study of the way we express and exchange ideas and thoughts.

This Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics is firmly rooted in cognitive linguistics. One of the great assets of this new understanding of language and linguistics is that its foundations and most theoretical constructs are so solid that they are still valid after a quarter of a century. The evolution within cognitive linguistics rather tends to go in depth: scholars reveal ever deeper insights into the nature and functioning of language and its relation to cognition, culture, and communities. Since this book is an introduction, this second edition must stick to the great basic insights of (cognitive) linguistics and can only reflect a few insights gained in the newer evolutions within cognitive linguistics such as construction grammar (see Goldberg 1995, 1996), mental space theory (see Fauconnier 1997; Fauconnier and Sweetser 1996), blending theory (see Coulson 2000), image schema research (see Hampe 2004) or embodiment studies (see Lako /Johnson 1999; Zlatev et al. Forthcoming).

It was originally planned that this introduction should be accompanied by a second part, covering interdisciplinary areas such as language acquisition, language processing, applied linguistics and language learning, sociolinguistics, discourse study, cultural studies, language and ideology, linguistic anthropology, etc. Since cognitive linguists are now working in all these areas, books on