35 years of Cognitive LinguisticsSession 8: Cognitive Grammar

Martin Hilpert

your questions

• constituency• relational expressions• salience• schema• semantic pole / phonological pole• open-ended knowledge systems

Langacker 1987 Langacker 1991

usage-based linguistics

language use shapes

linguistic knowledge

language use shapeslanguage change

language is grounded ingeneral cognitive processes

communicative functionsshape language form

ideas from Cognitive Grammar, now widely held in Cognitive Linguistics

• Knowledge of language is knowledge of a network of symbolic units that pair sounds with meanings.

• Lexicon and grammar are not distinct modules: there is a continuum from very concrete symbols (chair, dog) to very schematic symbols (subject, relative clause).

• Knowledge of language is usage-based: speakers know symbolic units because they make abstractions over usage events.

Langacker’s project: a cognitive grammar

• All linguistic structures are meaningful.– subject, noun, preposition, relative clause, progressive

aspect, infinitive, past tense, finiteness, modal auxiliary, ...

• The meanings of these structures can be fully described in cognitive terms.

the preposition intothe present progressive

to walk

a walk

job of the cognitive grammarian

• Describe all grammatical structures in terms of their meanings.

• Analyze those meanings in terms of general cognitive processes.

the content requirement

• The stuff grammars are made of:1. sounds and structures you’ve heard before • tree, I don’t know, Could you pass the salt?

2. schemas on the basis of the sounds and structures that you’ve heard before• NOUN, SUB VP, AUX, SUB, VP

3. categorizing relationships between 1 and 2• ‘tree’ is a NOUN

the content requirement

• “The only units permitted in the grammar of a language are (i) semantic, phonological, and symbolic structures that occur overtly in linguistic expressions; (ii) structures that are schematic for the those in (i); and (iii) categorizing relationships involving the structures in (i) and (ii).”

technical terms

domains• “All linguistic units are context-dependent to some

degree. A context for that characterization of a semantic unit is referred to as a domain. Domains are necessarily cognitive entities: mental experiences, representational spaces, concepts, or conceptual complexes.”

profile and base• “All expressions are characterized semantically by the

imposition of a profile on a base.”• Linguistic expressions evoke a frame (base) and

highlight a part of that frame (profile).

trajectory and landmark

• “A relational predication elevates one of its participants to the status of figure. I refer to this participant as its ‘trajector’; other salient participants are referred to as ‘landmarks’.”

the preposition into

thing

• “a region in some domain of conceptual space”• “a noun is a symbolic structure that designates a

thing”– cube (a bounded region in 3D space)– moment (a bounded region in time)– paragraph (a portion of a written work)– B-flat (a point-like region on the musical scale)– electricity (a bounded region in the ‘space’ of physical

characteristics)

relation

• “relational expressions profile the interconnections among conceived entities”– prepositions (above)– adjectives (red)– adverbs (quickly)– verbs (run)

cube

above

into

grow

construal

• “Construal is our ability to conceive and portray the same situation in alternate ways. Every lexical and grammatical element incorporates, as an inherent aspect of its meaning, a certain way of construing the conceptual content evoked.”

construal

• The table is under the lamp.• The lamp is over the table.– reversal of trajectory and landmark

tr

lm

The table is under the lamp.

lm

tr

The lamp is above the table.

construal

• The neighbors are gone.• The neighbors are away.– same profile, different base

construal

• Bill sent a walrus to Joyce.• Bill sent Joyce a walrus.– same base, different profiles

construal

• different levels of schematicity– The boy opened the door.– The boy did something.– Something happened.

construal

• I saw how the bridge collapsed.• I saw the collapse of the bridge.– process vs. thing

sequential scanning vs. summary scanning

• “The same content can be construed as either a process or a non-processual relationship, depending on whether it is accessed via sequential scanning or summary scanning.”

sequential scanning

summary scanning

linguistic units

• “The term ‘unit’ is employed in a technical sense to indicate a thoroughly mastered structure, i.e. a cognitive routine.”

linguistic units

• “Only three basic types of units are posited: semantic, phonological, and symbolic. A symbolic unit is said to be ‘bipolar’, consisting of a semantic unit defining one pole and a phonological pole defining the other.”

linguistic units

• “Symbolic units vary along the parameters of complexity and specificity.”

• Complexity:

cat blackboard football coach

linguistic units

• “Symbolic units vary along the parameters of complexity and specificity.”

• Schematicity:

tree noun verb

linguistic units

• Units are conventionalized:

conventionalized unit novel expression

linguistic units

• Units can be combined:

composite expression conventionalized schema

constituency• “the order in which symbolic structures are

progressively assembled into larger and larger composite expressions”

above the table the lamp above the table

elaboration

• “It is typical in a construction for one component structure to contain a schematic substructure which the other component serves to elaborate , i.e. characterize in finer- grained detail.”

• “A schematic element elaborated by another component is called an elaboration site, or e-site for short.”

elaboration

• Prepositions such as near occur with nominals that provide a more detailed description of the speaker’s idea:– the door elaborates near

elaboration

• Elaboration sites: ‘open slots’ in complex constructions– the nominal in a prepositional phrase • near the door

– the noun in a noun phrase with a determiner• the door

– the object nominal in a transitive verb phrase• open the door

grounding• “Grounding is proposed as a technical term in

Cognitive Grammar to characterize grammatical predications that indicate the relationship of a designated entity to the ground or situation of speech, including the speech event itself, its participants, and their respective spheres of knowledge.”

• “Grounding predications are obligatory grammatical elements needed to turn nouns into full nominals, and verbs into finite clauses.”

grounding elements

• nominal:– a, the, this, my, his, some, many, ...– (in)definiteness, quantification, deixis

grounding elements

• verbal:– -s, -ed, would, will, be –ing, ...

• “clausal grounding is mainly concerned with the status of events with respect to their actual or potential occurrence”

• When did it take place? Are we sure that it took place? How did it take place?– Modality, Aspect, Tense

Summing up

usage-based linguistics

language use shapes

linguistic knowledge

language use shapeslanguage change

language is grounded ingeneral cognitive processes

communicative functionsshape language form

general cognitive processes

• figure-ground perception– seeing ‘things’ and ‘relations’ instead of a chaotic mixture of

impressions

• categorization– seeing a word like ‘cat’ as a ‘noun’

• schematization– seeing the similarities between ‘He ate it’ and ‘Mary baked a cake’

• automatization– remembering ‘pencil sharpener’ as a unit

• perspective-taking– adopt different points of view upon hearing ‘The cat was chased

away’ vs. ‘The dog chased the cat away’

• Can we come up with a description of grammar that is based exclusively on sounds and meanings?

• nouns, verbs, the present tense, the progressive aspect, relative clauses, demonstratives, accusative case, ...

See you next time!

martin.hilpert@unine.ch