Case assignment and image schemas

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset

The notion of image schema has received a great deal of attention in cognitive linguistics. In this paper, image schemas are applied to an analysis of case assignment in Russian temporal adverbials. My focus will be on prepositional phrases headed by v ‘in’ followed by a noun phrase in the accusative or the second locative case. This approach, it is argued, facilitates the formulation of simple generalizations. While the paper focuses on data from a single language, the proposed analysis has wider ramifications for the study of case, since it is argued that that image schema-based analyses have quite general advantages over those couched in terms of distinctive features.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2015 (1) ◽  
pp. 285
Author(s):  
Mayu Shintani

Cognitive linguistics has been aimed at revealing the very nature of language for the last several decades. One of the field’s most significant contributions has been the abstraction of the general patterns, or image schemas, underlying grammatical concepts. In this paper, we propose that English grammar-teaching methods adopting image schema theory offer strong benefits for language teaching. As schematic explanations given to learners are more visible and comprehensible than ordinary verbal-based ones, this method offers a clearer and more engaging way to understand the target grammar. We also present data collected from experiments conducted with more than 400 native Japanese-speaking students at one national and one private university that support the effectiveness of this method. 認知言語学は産声をあげてここ数十年の間,人間の言語の真の姿を明らかにすることに専心してきた。この学問分野がつまびらかにしてきた数々の言語現象のうち,最も有益な成果のひとつにイメージ図式理論の構築があげられる。イメージ図式とは文法および語彙構造のひな形となるものである。本論文は認知言語学のイメージ図式理論を応用した英文法教材の学習効果を一国立大学と一私立大学に学ぶ400人以上の日本人学部生を対象に行った実験結果をもとに実証的な知見から論じている。


2007 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 77-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalya I. Stolova

This paper explores the choice between the auxiliaries BE and HAVE with Italian intransitive verbs. Most attempts to account for split intransitivity in Italian, as well as in other Romance languages, can be roughly grouped into two categories: the syntactic perspective and the semantic view. In this article I propose that instead of attempting to identify one single parameter responsible for the choice between BE and HAVE, the Romanists should, as our colleagues in other language families have already done, consider the auxiliary selection in terms of a combination of motivations related to the speakers’ conceptualization of the event and to their access to the relevant image schema. This proposition prompts us to reassess the conclusions previously reached by researchers working with aphasic subjects. In addition, it fosters integration between cognitive linguistics and neuroscience by providing a solution to the so-called “Granularity Mismatch Problem.”


2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-Yu Tseng

AbstractThis article aims to advance the study of “image schemas” by drawing on insights not only from cognitive linguistics but also from critical linguistics. It highlights five specific features possessed by “image schemas”: (1) their serving as a bridge between concrete, sensorimotor experience and abstract reasoning; (2) their being emergent patterns created and evoked when people engage in understanding language; (3) their function of superimposition (i. e. interactions among image schemas); (4) their insinuation of a plus-minus parameter (i. e. the tendency of the opposing parts of an image schema to be more positively or negatively valued); and (5) their static and dynamic nature. It will also briefly address how image schemas, metaphors and socio-cultural values are entwined. The critical-cognitive perspective calls for the view of “situated” image schemas in discourse. By way of illustration, I will analyze two Chinese Zen poems. The analysis will pay special attention to imageschematic patterns and their significance in the interface between discourse, cognition, and worldview.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria M. Hedblom ◽  
Oliver Kutz ◽  
Fabian Neuhaus

AbstractImage schemas are recognised as a fundamental ingredient in human cognition and creative thought. They have been studied extensively in areas such as cognitive linguistics. With the goal of exploring their potential role in computational creative systems, we here study the viability of the idea to formalise image schemas as a set of interlinked theories. We discuss in particular a selection of image schemas related to the notion of ‘path’, and show how they can be mapped to a formalised family of microtheories reflecting the different aspects of path following. Finally, we illustrate the potential of this approach in the area of concept invention, namely by providing several examples illustrating in detail in what way formalised image schema families support the computational modelling of conceptual blending.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Taci ◽  
Mirela Saraci

The following paper aims at shedding some light on Albanian language case system with special focus on the assignment of accusative case. As a member of the vast Indo-European family Albanian language is characterized by an inflected case system and as so a free word order. Traditionally, we are taught and we still teach to the coming generations that accusative case is assigned mostly by the verb to that sentence noun phrase syntactically representing the direct object and semantically introducing the Theme or the Patient.   Moreover in Albanian accusative is also assigned by another morphological category bearing the distinctive features [+noun;+verb], namely the preposition. Furthermore, as a researcher in the field of generative syntax I have a stake at analyzing certain exceptional cases of accusative case assignment to the subject NP of the Albanian subjunctive clause. In conclusion, I was really tempted to adopt Chomsky’s reconciling proposal in accusative case assignment under the specifier-head structural and schematic relation. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. p123
Author(s):  
Dr. Raphael Francis Otieno

The study of conceptual interaction has attracted the attention of many scholars in Cognitive Linguistics. Primarily, the analysis has focused on the role of image-schemas in the construction of metaphors. This study explores the PATH and the CONTAINER image-schemas and the role they play in conceptual formation of metaphors in political discourse in Kenya. The study presents the PATH and its subsidiary image schemas of Verticality, Process and Force-Motion and the CONTAINER image-schema and the subsidiary image-schemas of Excess and In-Out. The analysis reveals that both the PATH and the CONTAINER image-schemas structure the relationship between the source domains (journey and container) and the target domain (politics) by activating subsidiary image-schemas in metaphors of politics in Kenya. The study further reveals that image-schemas provide the axiological value (positive or negative) of metaphorical expressions in political discourse. A positive political environment is a key ingredient for green growth and knowledge economy. The study contributes to the field of metaphor in political discourse by examining the politicians’ conceptualization of politics as a journey, which consists of four structural elements (a source, a destination, contiguous locations which connect the source and the destination and a direction) and as a container, which consists of an interior, an exterior and a boundary. The study used the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as a tool to establish conceptual metaphors used during the 2005 Draft Constitution referendum campaigns in Kenya and the Image-Schema Theory to account for the presence of image-schemas in political discourse in Kenya. Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory is the locus classicus of the image schema theory.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 729-771
Author(s):  
Roland Schäfer

AbstractIn this paper, an alternation in German measure noun phrases is examined under a varying-abstraction perspective. In a specific measure NP construction, the embedded kind-denoting noun either agrees in case with the measure noun (eine Tasse guter Kaffee‘a cup of good coffee’) or it stands in the genitive (eine Tasse guten Kaffees). Each of the two alternants is syntactically similar to a non-alternating construction. I propose a prototype model which assigns a common prototypical meaning to each of the alternants and its corresponding non-alternating construction. Based on this, I argue that lexical, morphosyntactic, and stylistic features help to predict the choice of the alternant. A large corpus study is presented which supports this analysis. However, in addition to the prototype effects, an exemplar effect is also shown to influence the choice, namely the relative frequencies with which lemmas occur in the non-alternating constructions. I argue that allowing both prototype and exemplar effects is more adequate than following radical prototype or exemplar approaches. It is also verified in two experiments that the corpus-derived model corresponds to the behaviour of native speakers. The weak effect size of the experimental validation is discussed in the context of corpus-based cognitive linguistics and the validation of corpus-derived models.


2007 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset

This paper investigates the path image schema in Russian motion verbs. It is argued that this image schema provides a principled explanation why Russian has a contrast between unidirectional and non-directional unprefixed motion verbs, but no such contrast for prefixed verbs.


Author(s):  
Caterina Martínez

Resum: L’estudi que presentem se centra en el procés de gramaticalització de malgrat, des del paper com a Sintagma Nominal originari que expressa una [emoció] fins al valor de [contra voluntat] que arribà a assolir com a Sintagma Preposicional. Parem esment especialment en la retracció que experimentà malgrat justament a partir del segle xvi. Examinem l’evolució de malgrat segons les propostes de la Lingüística Cognitiva i, concretament, la Teoria de la Gramaticalització, i les combinem amb els plantejaments de l’Anàlisi del Discurs, la Teoria de l’Argumentació i la Pragmàtica. La defensa del canvi lingüístic arrelat en l’ús, d’acord amb la Teoria de la Intersubjectivació, ens ajuda a revisar les fonts i els valors de malgrat en català.Paraules clau: malgrat, gramaticalització, intersubjectivació, connector parentètic, desgrat, contra voluntat, concessivitat, focalització, retracció.Abstract: The present study focuses on the process of grammaticalization of malgrat, from the paper as an original Noun Phrase expressing an [emotion] to the value of [against will] that it has reached as a Preposition Phrase. We pay special attention to the retraction experienced by malgrat just as from the 16th century. We examine the evolution of malgrat according with the proposals of Cognitive Linguistics and, specially, the Theory of Grammaticalization, and we combine them with the approaches of Discourse Analysis, Argumentation Theory and Pragmatics. The defense of the linguistic change rooted in the use, in accordance with the Theory of Intersubjectivity, helps us to review the sources and the values of malgrat in Catalan.Keywords: malgrat, grammaticalization, intersubjectification, parenthetical connector, displeasure, against will, concessivity, focusing, retraction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Rudnev

Given the central spot afforded to unvalued features in current theorizing, the directionality of feature valuation is the subject of a lively debate in the syntactic literature. The traditional conception of upward valuation, whereby the unvalued probe inherits features from a valued goal in its c-command domain ( Chomsky 2000 , 2001 , Carstens and Diercks 2013 , Preminger 2013 ), has to compete with downward valuation ( Zeijlstra 2012 ), Hybrid Agree ( Bjorkman and Zeijlstra 2019 ), and bidirectional Agree ( Baker 2008 ), among others. Here, using data from Avar, I discuss the crosslinguistically rare phenomenon of adposition agreement, whereby certain adverbs, postpositions, and locative case forms undergo agreement with an absolutive argument. I set the stage by sketching the mechanism of case assignment and argument-predicate agreement in Avar ( section 1 ) and introducing the phenomenon of adposition agreement ( section 2 ). I then show that the agreement morphology on agreeing adpositions is a result of agreement rather than concord ( section 3 ). In sections 4 – 5 , I explore the consequences of adposition agreement in Avar for upward and downward valuation, concluding that upward valuation is better equipped to account for the observed patterns. In section 6 , I summarize the results of the discussion.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document