A Cognitive Approach to Compounds and Blends

A Cognitive Approach to Compounds and Blends

Author: Hicham Lahlou

Publisher: Hicham Lahlou

Published: 2012-09-11

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13: 3659203513

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Blends, unlike compounds, are excluded from grammar and word-formation in the traditional view, hence they are dichotomous under the either-or paradigm. From a cognitive linguistic standpoint, this book investigates the nature of the link between compounds and blends. To accomplish such a task, a data set on both kinds of word-formation is investigated to determine whether the border between the two types of neologism is clear. The researcher’s hypothesis that the boundaries between compounds and blends are blurred is confirmed, including cases belonging to the fuzzy border. An alternative classification might be one that considers compounds and blends to be shades of grey. Only typical compounds and typical blends show some "difference" at the level of form, which can be explained as a metonymical extension. In addition, the internal structure of both compounds and blends is investigated to discover the schemas present. Compounds and blends have roughly the same schemas, according to the findings.


Cognitive Perspectives on Word Formation

Cognitive Perspectives on Word Formation

Author: Alexander Onysko

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 3110223597

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The series provides a comprehensive forum for publications in linguistics covering the entire range of language, including its variation and variability in space and time, its acquisition, theories on the nature of human language in general, and descriptions of individual languages. The series welcomes publications addressing the state of the art of linguistics as a whole or of specific subfields, and publications that offer challenging new approaches to linguistics. --


Windows to the Mind

Windows to the Mind

Author: Sandra Handl

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2011-01-27

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 3110238195

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Cognitive linguists are convinced that the nature of linguistic structures is strongly influenced by the way we experience and perceive the world and by how we conceptualize and construe these experiences and perceptions in our minds. At the same time, the study of linguistic structure and usage is credited with the potential to open windows to how our minds work. The present volume collects papers investigating linguistic phenomena that reflect the key cognitive processes of metaphor, metonymy and conceptual blending, which have proven to be highly influential in linguistic conceptualization. Theoretical and methodological issues, such as metaphor identification and the relevance of the target domain for children's understanding of metaphor, are focused on in the first section. The second and third parts are devoted to the application of the theoretical frameworks of the conceptual theory of metaphor and metonymy and the theory of conceptual blending to linguistic data. The contributions critically explore the explanatory potential of these theories, build bridges between them, link them with other approaches and notions (such as construction grammar, common ground and stance/evaluation), and uncover conceptual regularities and cognitive models that underlie and shape our language use in specific domains. The linguistic structures under consideration span the range from compounds and premodified noun phrases to constructions and texts such as jokes and political speeches. Methods applied include psycholinguistic experiments, analyses of data culled from authentic language corpora and discourse-analytical approaches.


Cognitive Approaches to English

Cognitive Approaches to English

Author: Mario Brdar

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2009-12-14

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 1443818011

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The present volume contains a selection of papers presented at the conference Cognitive Approaches to English, an international event organized to mark the 30th anniversary of English studies at the Faculty of Philosophy, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University, Osijek, which was held in Osijek on October 18–19, 2007. The participants were invited to discuss issues in cognitive accounts of English, ranging from fundamental to methodological to interdisciplinary and applied. The volume is accordingly divided into four parts. Part I, Motivation in grammar, deals with various phenomena in the grammar of English in the broadest sense of the term, all of which are shown to be motivated by metaphorical and/or metonymic operations. Part II, Constructing meaning (between grammar and lexicon), contains five chapters dealing with phenomena ranging from various peculiarities of form-meaning pairings (such as synonymy, polysemy, and figurative meanings) to concept formation. The four chapters that make up Part III are concerned with the phenomenon of interlinguistic and intercultural variation in the use of metaphorical and metonymic processes. The volume is concluded by Part IV, the three papers of which attempt to reconsider some TEFL issues from a cognitive linguistic point of view.


Concepts, Discourses, and Translations

Concepts, Discourses, and Translations

Author: Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-06-06

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 3030960994

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This present book discusses issues related to languages, cultures, and discourses by addressing a variety of topics ranging from culture and translation, cognitive and linguistic dimensions of discourse, and the role of language in political discourses and bilingualism. By focusing on multiple interconnected research subjects, the book allows us to see the intersections of language, culture, and discourse in their full diversity and to illuminate their less frequented nooks and crannies in a timely fashion.


The Complexity of Compound Figures of Speech

The Complexity of Compound Figures of Speech

Author: Alessandro Aru

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2024-06-26

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1036403696

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Dive into the intricate world of compound figures of speech with this groundbreaking volume. Exploring hyperbolic metaphor, hyperbolic irony, and ironic metaphor, this book delves into the complexities of these expressions, revealing its nuanced meanings driven by contextual factors. Through thought-provoking research questions, readers uncover the logical, psychological, and temporal order of interpretation behind these compound figures. Proposing a complexity theory paradigm, the book offers a fresh perspective on their analysis, arguing for a context-dependent approach. Drawing on experimental evidence involving 155 participants, it demonstrates how factors such as language proficiency and sociocultural knowledge influence the cognitive complexity of compound figures. With insights into the flexible nature of interpretation and the interplay of contextual attractors and salience, this book reshapes our understanding of figurative language. The book paves the way for further exploration into the rich tapestry of compound figures and their impact on communication.


Cognitive Approaches to Specialist Languages

Cognitive Approaches to Specialist Languages

Author: Marcin Grygiel

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2017-05-11

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1443892203

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Specialist languages, such as the languages of law, business, aviation, football, and politics, can be perceived as highly conventionalized, semi-natural and not fully autonomous communication codes limited to specific, and predominantly formal, situations. A large number of them can be best characterized by subject matter and semantic content, but the most important distinctive element in their make-up is the frame of context in which they are embedded. This volume discusses various ways of approaching the problems associated with the very broad phenomenon of specialist languages by means of the analytical mechanisms and theoretical conceptions developed within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. The volume includes research carried out by world-renowned experts in the field.


Binominal Lexemes in Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Binominal Lexemes in Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Author: Steve Pepper

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-11-07

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 3110673495

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The typological, contrastive, and descriptive studies in this volume investigate the strategies employed by the world’s languages to create complex denotations by combining two noun-like elements, together with the kinds of semantic relation they involve, and their acquisition by children. The term ‘binominal lexeme’ is employed to cover both noun-noun compounds and a range of other naming strategies, including prepositional compounds, relational compounds, construct forms, genitival constructions, and more. Overall, the volume suggests a new, cross-linguistic approach to the study of complex lexeme formation that cuts across the traditional boundaries between syntax, morphology, and lexicon.


The Language of Stories

The Language of Stories

Author: Barbara Dancygier

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-10-13

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1139499238

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How do we read stories? How do they engage our minds and create meaning? Are they a mental construct, a linguistic one or a cultural one? What is the difference between real stories and fictional ones? This book addresses such questions by describing the conceptual and linguistic underpinnings of narrative interpretation. Barbara Dancygier discusses literary texts as linguistic artifacts, describing the processes which drive the emergence of literary meaning. If a text means something to someone, she argues, there have to be linguistic phenomena that make it possible. Drawing on blending theory and construction grammar, the book focuses its linguistic lens on the concepts of the narrator and the story, and defines narrative viewpoint in a new way. The examples come from a wide spectrum of texts, primarily novels and drama, by authors such as William Shakespeare, Margaret Atwood, Philip Roth, Dave Eggers, Jan Potocki and Mikhail Bulgakov.


Creative Compounding in English

Creative Compounding in English

Author: Réka Benczes

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9789027223739

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Metaphorical and metonymical compounds – novel and lexicalised ones alike – are remarkably abundant in language. Yet how can we be sure that when using an expression such as land fishing in order to speak about metal detecting, the referent will be immediately understood even if the hearer had not been previously familiar with the compound? Accordingly, this book sets out to explore whether the semantics of metaphorical and metonymical noun–noun combinations can be systematically analysed within a theoretical framework, where systematicity pertains to regularities in both the cognitive processes and the products of these processes, that is, the compounds themselves. Backed up by recent psycholinguistic evidence, the book convincingly demonstrates that such compounds are not semantically opaque as it has been formerly claimed: they can in fact be analysed and accounted for within a cognitive linguistic framework, by the combined application of metaphor, metonymy, blending, profile determinacy and schema theory; and represent the creative and associative word formation processes that we regularly apply in everyday language.