Key Concepts in Cognitive Linguistics and Semantics
Icon, Index, and Symbol
Icon, index, and symbol: An icon establishes a relation of similarity between the sign and what it represents (e.g., a portrait of a person). An index establishes a cause-effect relationship or contiguity in space or time (e.g., smoke and fire). A symbol makes an arbitrary, conventional relationship between sign and meaning (e.g., a red flag and danger).
Syntactic Bootstrapping in Language Acquisition
Explain the notion of syntactic bootstrapping: This is a phenomenon by which children use syntactic information to infer the meaning of unknown words. They exploit these connections to narrow down the hypothesis space when guessing the meaning of new words. The first person to mention it was Roger Brown.
Understanding Hedges and Hedging Constructions
What are “hedges” (hedging constructions)? Hedging constructions are the ways languages allow speakers to indicate whether an expression is to be construed as a central/prototypical member of a category or as a more peripheral one.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Also known as the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, it suggests that different languages with different categories make us see the world in different ways, thus influencing our reasoning. Language influences what we perceive and conceive; some languages can provide thoughts that are not thinkable in others.
Classification of Antonyms
Types of antonyms:
- Canonical antonyms: Antonymic pairs whose association has become maximally conventional and entrenched (e.g., slow-fast, light-dark).
- Non-canonical antonyms: Words construed as opposed in a context-dependent way (e.g., white wine-red wine, white-yolk contrast).
There are four primary types:
- Gradable: The most natural class; these adjectives can have many intermediate values and allow comparative morphemes like -er or -est. They are relative to a norm (e.g., hot-cold, big-small). One term is usually more neutral (unmarked) than the other (marked).
- Ungradable: Also known as complementaries, they do not allow variations along a scale or take comparatives (e.g., dead/alive).
- Converses: Also known as reciprocals, these are relational terms such as husband/wife. They signal a relationship between two entities; the term used depends on which side is highlighted.
- Reversives: Also known as reverses, they describe a process of change between two states in opposite directions (e.g., tie-untie, dress-undress).
Characteristics of Basic-Level Concepts
Their names are shorter, children learn them first, and they have a common gestalt. We have a motor-program for them, and most of our knowledge is stored at this level. They represent the highest taxonomic level at which a single mental image can be associated with a concept category in its entirety.
Metaphor Types: Image, Spatial, and Conceptual
This classification depends on whether the domains involved have a lower or higher degree of inner structure:
- Image metaphors: The simplest type; the external appearance of one object is connected to the form of another (e.g., “Italy is a boot”).
- Spatial metaphors: The source domain corresponds to a simple spatial domain (such as VERTICALITY: up-down) and the target domain corresponds to a scalar concept (such as HAPPINESS: happy-sad).
- Conceptual metaphors: Two different and complex domains with internal structures are put into contact (e.g., LOVE IS A JOURNEY, ARGUMENTS ARE WARS).
The Notion of Metonymy
Metonymy is a linguistic or literary device in which one word is used in place of another. One conceptual entity (vehicle or reference) provides mental access to another (target). This is possible because both entities enjoy conceptual contiguity within the same domain. For example, “The ham sandwich just left without paying” refers to the person who ate the sandwich.
Gricean Maxims and Conversational Implicatures
How are conversational implicatures derived from the maxims of conversation?
- The Maxim of Quality: Be truthful. Do not say what you believe is false or lack evidence for.
- The Maxim of Quantity: Be informative. Make your contribution as informative as required (not more or less).
- The Maxim of Relation: Be relevant.
- The Maxim of Manner: Be clear. Avoid ambiguity, obscurity, and be orderly.
We do not always follow these rules; instead, we use them to build special inferences called conversational implicatures.
Indirect Speech Acts
An indirect speech act occurs when there is no direct relationship between the sentence form and its function. Examples include using a declarative sentence to make a request (“It’s a bit cold here” to request closing a window) or a command (“Officers will wear evening dress”).
Three Types of Closed-Class Words
- Prepositions: Used to indicate relations of place, manner, causality, etc.
- Determiners: Crucial elements used to indicate reference; they clarify whether something has been previously mentioned.
- Conjunctions: Used to connect larger chunks of meaning to indicate causality, coordination, and more.
Defining Cognitive Science
Cognitive Science is the multidisciplinary study of conceptual systems. It combines insights from linguistics, anthropology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and philosophy to arrive at a richer view of cognition.
Shortcomings of Binary Semantic Features
Many words cannot be analyzed with this method. Semantic feature analyses are sensitive to the subjectivity of the analyst, and there are many “residues” that cannot be captured. It is difficult to agree on what a feature should be, and they cannot capture imagistic information like shape.
Ad-Hoc Categories
According to Barsalou, there is a difference between category and concept. An ad-hoc category is formed at the moment for a specific purpose without being stored in long-term memory. It tends to contain elements that bear little resemblance to one another.
Quine’s Gavagai Experiment
Learning the correct meaning of a word is complex. This was shown by Quine in the “Gavagai” experiment, which demonstrates that a word used in a concrete situation by a native speaker can have many different meanings to a non-native speaker, making it hard to discard all possibilities.
Polysemy vs. Homonymy
- Polysemy: Different but related concepts are grouped under the same name (e.g., ring, grow, bank). We store one word form but remember its related meanings.
- Homonymy: Two words have the same form but entirely different, unrelated meanings (e.g., ball, bat, bass).
The Notion of Image-Schemas
Image-schemas are abstract, basic structures derived from our interaction with the world. They are “skeletal” schemas that capture the underlying common structure of various actions and scenes.
Primary Metaphors and Early Experience
Primary metaphors arise from correlations found between two domains in our early experience. We acquire hundreds of these, such as Affection is Warmth, Important is Big, Happy is Up, and More is Up.
Key Semantic Roles
- Experiencer: The sentient being that perceives or conceives something, aware of the state but not controlling it (e.g., Jackie saw the boys).
- Content: An idea or percept that is entertained or perceived (e.g., We saw the robbery).
- Theme: The entity located somewhere or changing place (e.g., The ring was in her pocket).
- Stimulus: Whatever causes a psychological response in an Experiencer (e.g., The situation scared me).
Jackendoff’s Double Tier in Motion Events
In motion events involving a human agent, the person acts as both agent and theme. Jackendoff added a double tier for roles: one for actions and one for movement. Example: Dracula entered the room (Theme and Agent).
Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Utterances
An illocutionary act refers to the communicative force or speaker’s intention (e.g., “I’ll be back”). A perlocutionary act is the effect created by that utterance (e.g., to intimidate, persuade, or impress).
Sound Symbolism and Phonosemantics
Sound symbolism (phonosemantics) occurs when sounds are related to meaning in a motivated way. Onomatopoeia is the mimicking of non-linguistic sounds. Phonesthesia is when a sound reminds us of an action or object. Phonesthemes are associations of sound combinations with meanings in a random way.
Inflectional Morphology in English
Meanings expressed include plurality, possession, gender, size, tense, person, number, and aspect.
The Symbolic Nature of Linguistic Meaning
Linguistic meaning is primarily symbolic because the connection between sounds and meaning is arbitrary and subject to cultural conventions.
Priming in Semantic Studies
Priming is a facilitation effect where one word exerts influence on the next, proving their mental connection. It is used to test connections between structures in the mind.
Glenberg’s Indexical Hypothesis
The Indexical Hypothesis (IH) states that meaning is based on action; people understand language by simulating the actions described. It relies on affordance, the possible actions an object offers to an organism.
Polysemy Beyond the Lexical Level
Polysemy is found in morphology (e.g., -ed indicating past or unreality), grammatical constructions (e.g., yes-no questions), and intonation (e.g., rising intonation on “coffee”).
Collocation, Colligation, and Semantic Prosody
- Collocation: The tendency of words to appear together (e.g., fast food).
- Colligation: Co-occurrence tendencies among word classes or grammatical categories.
- Semantic preference: The probability of a word combining with other semantically compatible words.
- Semantic prosody: The connotation shared by items combining with a word.
Abstract Thought in Embodied Theories
Abstract thought is a problem for embodied theories because words like intelligence or justice lack clear sensory-motor representations. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) suggests we handle these by looking at relationships with other words in an amodal, symbolic way.
Lakoff’s View on Cognitive Metaphor
The main function of cognitive metaphor, according to Lakoff, is to provide a conceptual framework for understanding one domain in terms of another, effectively giving importance and structure to an item.
Semantic Role Identification Exercises
- Four cops (EXPERIENCER) were killed by a sniper (AGENT) in Texas (LOCATION).
- Trump (AGENT) signed the guest book (THEME) with a fountain pen (INSTRUMENT).
- She (EXPERIENCER) handed her license (INSTRUMENT) to the policeman (AGENT).
- My dog (EXPERIENCER) is terrified by fireworks (STIMULUS).
- Columbus (AGENT) arrived in America (GOAL) all the way (PATH) from Spain (SOURCE).
- I (EXPERIENCER) heard a violent discussion (CONTENT) from my window (LOCATION).
- Steve (AGENT) walks warily down the street (PATH).
Speech Act Classification Exercises
- I feel sorry for the poor guy. (EXPRESSIVE)
- Murcia is really hot in summer. (ASSERTIVE)
- I decline to answer this question. (DECLARATIVE)
- Don’t let me down. (DIRECTIVE)
- I bet you five euros that most people will pass. (ASSERTIVE)
- Unemployment rates are still very high. (ASSERTIVE)
- I’m gonna make you happy. (COMMISSIVE)
- Freddie Mercury wrote most of Queen’s hits. (ASSERTIVE)
- Can you please write your answers clearly? (DIRECTIVE)
- I take full responsibility for what happened. (DECLARATIVE)
Additional Semantic Role Examples
- Iker Casillas was accidentally kicked by Cristiano Ronaldo. (EXPERIENCER-AGENT)
- I always put the keys on this table. (THEME-LOCATION)
- Jane gave me a letter from John. (AGENT-GOAL-SOURCE)
- John is afraid of hurricanes. (EXPERIENCER-STIMULUS)
- I drive to work from home. (GOAL-SOURCE)
- I saw the accident from my house with a telescope. (CONTENT-LOCATION-INSTRUMENT)
Further Speech Act Examples
- I’m having a wonderful time. (EXPRESSIVE)
- Angela Merkel is powerful. (ASSERTIVE)
- We declare the defendant “not guilty”. (DECLARATIVE)
- I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you. (COMMISSIVE)
- Write down the answer. (DIRECTIVE)
- You shouldn’t call so early. (DIRECTIVE)
- I name this ship the “Queen Elizabeth”. (DECLARATIVE)
- I’ll kill you if you tell. (COMMISSIVE)
- I don’t think I can go on. (EXPRESSIVE)
- I apologize for not calling. (EXPRESSIVE)
- You are now man and wife. (DECLARATIVE)
- Why don’t you try putting vodka in your juice? (DIRECTIVE)