scholarly journals A Cognitive Approach to Grammatical Mechanism in English Euphemism

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 817
Author(s):  
Yu Li
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon

Euphemism is a common linguistic phenomenon. A short introduction to euphemism in English and Chinese will benefit our future intercultural communication. Three grammatical approaches in English euphemism were analyzed in light of cognitive grammar: negation, postmodification and aspect. Thanks to negation, profile and base are changed, resulting in the prominence of “NOT” and the shift of cognitive reference point. Postmodification makes the head noun the trajector in a relational profile, hence reducing the prominence of the modifier. Aspects help to turn a bounded scene into an unbounded one and hence change the cognitive focus. These will be benefit for human’s communication.

World-switch and mind style in The Barracks: a cognitive approach to ideology

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Salvador Alarcón-Hermosilla
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
World View ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Linguistic Level

Abstract The aim of this paper is to take a close look at John McGahern’s mind style through the language of the heroine Elizabeth Reegan and other characters, in his 1963 novel The Barracks. Specifically, attention will be drawn to how the linguistic choices shape the figurative language to cast the author’s controversial views on the religion-pervaded puritan Irish society that he knew so well. This will be done from two different perspectives. One perspective is through the breast cancer afflicted heroine, who asserts herself as a free thinker and a woman of science, in a society where priests have a strong influence at all social levels, and most women settle for housekeeping. The other is also through Elizabeth, together with other minor characters, who dare question some of the basic well-established ideological assumptions, in a series of examples where the author skilfully raises two parallel dichotomies, namely, FAITH versus REASON, and DARKNESS versus LIGHT. At a linguistic level, the present analysis relies on precepts from Frame Semantics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Cognitive Grammar. These insights prove a most useful method of approach to a narrative text while unearthing the author’s ideological world view.

scholarly journals Representation of the image of Russia and Central Europe in the British press. The impact of media on intercultural communication in global context

2021 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 10010
Author(s):  
Silvia Polakova ◽  
Jozef Bruk ◽  
Lenka Môcova
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
The Media ◽  
British Press ◽  
The Impact

Research background: Twenty-first century’s sees strong globalization trends in which mass media play crucial role in shaping public opinion which might saliently impact intercultural communication on the international level. Purpose of the article: This paper focuses on the representation of the image of Russia and Central and Eastern Europe in the British press and, besides, it sets out the role of stereotyping in intercultural communication. The article writers assume that the stereotypes play pivotal role in image shaping of a country in the media. Above all, the most efficient way to not stereotype is a straightforward communication of the participants alongside with the knowledge of the participant’s background, i. e. cultural knowledge. Drawing on the information from the British press, Russia, Central as well as Eastern Europe appears not solely as a geographical region. On the contrary, despite the fast economic, social and political development, its image abroad is still predominantly negative. Methods: The paper, in conjunction with the cultural linguistics and cognitive approach, reveals the range of metaphorical expressions, in particular cognitive aspect of metaphors used by British journalists, which, in turn form the image of Russia in the British press. Findings & Value added: The paper suggests that the analysis of the image of country in the mass media might apply to the investigation of images of other countries as well as to comparative studies.

scholarly journals COGNITIVE GRAMMAR IN AN ENGLISH CLASSROOM, OR, HOW TO MAKE LIFE FOR RUSSIAN STUDENTS EASIER

2013 ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
A. V. Kravchenko
Keyword(s):  
Simple Algorithm ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Grammar Acquisition ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Functional Logic ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
And Function ◽  
Metalinguistic Knowledge

Every EFL teacher who teaches native speakers of Russian knows that the main roadblocks encountered in the classroom pertain to acquisition of articles, prepositions, and grammatical forms of the verb. With regard to articles, the situation is clear: as there are none in Russian, the student needs to understand their role and function in English. It's a bit different with prepositions: even though there are prepositions in Russian, their number and usage in English very often cause confusion. Finally, as far as the so-called tenses go – which are, in fact, tense-aspect forms – many students experience difficulties in developing necessary skills for a simple reason. Being used to the three tenses in Russian (the present, the past, and the future), they are often incapable of understanding the organizational and functional logic of a system which comprises twelve forms in the active voice. With this in mind, the problem of tense acquisition is shown to be rooted in inadequate metalinguistic knowledge pertaining to the meaning and function of the categories of tense and aspect in Russian. Since cognitive structures underlying these grammatical categories are grounded in perceptual experience and are similar in both languages, a cognitive approach, by using the native language as scaffolding, allows the student to benefit from a simple algorithm for choosing a tense in discourse. This radically facilitates grammar acquisition, eliminating many imaginary difficulties. The described approach to instructed tense–aspect acquisition has been successfully used by the author and his disciples and colleagues in educational institutions of different levels for over twenty years, proving to be much more efficient than traditional techniques.

scholarly journals ‘Something happened, something bad’: Blackouts, uncertainties and event construal in The Girl on the Train

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcello Giovanelli
Keyword(s):  
Young Woman ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Anterograde Amnesia ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Narrative Voice ◽  
World Theory ◽  
Event Construal

This article examines the representation of mind style in Paula Hawkins’ (2015) best-selling novel The Girl on the Train. It examines how Hawkins presents the fictional mind of Rachel, a character who is affected by anterograde amnesia as a result of alcoholic blackouts. Rachel’s narrative voice drives the novel, and its retelling of events is characterised by her inability to recall important information related to the night that a young woman disappeared and was murdered. This article specifically draws on the Cognitive Grammar notion of construal to explore the presentation of Rachel’s mind style and its affordances and limitations. In doing so, it builds on developing scholarship that has identified the potential for Cognitive Grammar to provide a richly nuanced account of the representation of a fictional mind. The analysis specifically examines two ways in which event construal is presented: nominal grounding strategies and reference point relationships. For the latter, the article also develops emerging work that has sought to make a connection between Cognitive Grammar and Text World Theory in terms of how mental representations are projected by the text.

scholarly journals A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
Marina Anna Colasacco
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Processing Instruction ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Third ◽  
Students First ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Method Of Instruction

AbstractIn this study we compare two instruction approaches (cognitive and traditional) to the teaching of Spanish deictic motion verbs –ir, venir, llevarandtraer– to German and Italian learners. We also analyse whether the students’ first language (Italian or German) influences the results of the cognitive methodology we applied. The Cognitive Instruction combined the basic principles of Cognitive Grammar with those of Processing Instruction for activities in which students practice both comprehension and production. We carried out a survey of 274 university students who were learning Spanish (Level B1) at universities in Italy and Germany. Students carried out a test prior to receiving the instruction and three tests subsequently, one immediately afterwards, the second a week later and the third, a month later. The cognitive methodology proved to be beneficial and positive. The students who received cognitive instruction made better form-meaning connections and showed higher performances in the use of deictic motion verbs than those who received traditional instruction. The learners’ L1 did not appear to influence the results of the groups that received the cognitive method of instruction.

scholarly journals Coping with Metaphor. A cognitive approach to translating metaphor

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (35) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Astrid Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Basic Assumption ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Young Professional ◽  
Extensive Training ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon

The present article focuses on the translation of metaphor by expert translators, young professional translators and non-professional translators. The approach adopted here treats translation of metaphor as a conceptual rather than a purely linguistic phenomenon, based on the framework sometimes referred to as conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), which is based on Lakoff & Johnson (1980) and Lakoff & Turner (1989). The basic assumption behind this study is that translating metaphor requires translator competence, which among other things entails an awareness of the duality of the metaphor as both a mental concept and linguistic expressions. It is further assumed that translation competence is developed through extensive training and translation experience. The study starts with a qualitative analysis of the metaphorical expressions and translation strategies in the sample texts, followed by a quantitative analysis whereby the frequencies of metaphor transference across languages and across groups are counted.

scholarly journals Cognitive Approach to Word Formation

2013 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Lina Inčiuraitė
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Linguistic Unit ◽  
Cognitive Semantic ◽  
General Meaning ◽  
Derivational Morphemes

Structural approach to word formation in Lithuanian is still dominant, meanwhile cognitive insights have not been applied yet. The object of this paper is the aspects of cognitive grammar to word formation. In the article, cognitive semantic notions and their application to the morphological analysis of cognitive grammar are introduced.In the cognitive theory of grammar, symbolicity plays a significant role. The essence of cognitive grammar is based on the idea that language units are bipolar language signs. A linguistic unit consists of phonological and semantic poles which are linked by a symbolic structure.A category is a network of meanings of a derivational morpheme, which, as in the case of lexical category, is structured in terms of prototype and periphery. The prototype of a category is considered to be the most typical member, whereas other senses of the prototype comprise the periphery.Morphological expressions are closely related to each other and comprise cognitive domains. A domain is perceived as knowledge in terms of which derivational morphemes can be interpreted.Compositionality is a process when the composite structure is determined by the meanings of its constituents. This process plays an integral part in understanding the senses of new morphological expressions. Full and partial compositionality types are typical of morphological expressions. In compounding, full compositionality is endocentric, meanwhile partial compositionality is exocentric.A large number of units are pertinent to each other by schema and instance relations. A schema is defined as a general model made of instances. The schema reflects the general meaning of instances. Due to further elaboration the instance becomes a basis for a new schema and its elaborating elements become new instances.

When Richard met CG: reference-point and English copy-raising

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHONGWON PARK ◽  
DANIEL TURNER
Keyword(s):  
Reference Point ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Point Property ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Embedded Clause ◽  
Copy Raising ◽  
Matrix Subject

abstractThe aim of this paper is to develop a Cognitive Grammar-based analysis of English Copy-raising (CR) constructions such as Richard seems like he is dancing. We argue that the notion of reference-point plays a crucial role in licensing the matrix-subject of the construction. In CR, with the epistemic verbs seem and appear, the matrix-subject functions as a reference-point in relation to the pronominal copy (if a copy exists) in the embedded clause. The aboutness topicality of the matrix-subject in CR is expected, owing to its reference-point property. The epistemic CR construction is acceptable without a pronominal copy if the matrix-subject functions as a reference-point in relation to the complement clause. The same type of analysis is applied to the CR construction with perceptual resemblance (PR) verbs – sound, look, feel, and smell – leading to the conclusion that the strong dichotomy between epistemic and PR verbs is illusory. It is further demonstrated that expletive there-raising in CR is motivated by the same reference-point phenomenon. The difference between there-raising and other CR examples stems from the role of there as a setting subject. Our reference-point-based analysis predicts a metonymic interpretation of the matrix-subject, which we attribute to the connection between reference-point and metonymy.

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