Cognitive Linguistic

Linguistic Coursework---Cognitive LinguisticsLinguistic course/work-----Cognitive LinguisticsIntroductionCognitive Linguistics is a new approach to linguistics which appeared in the late 1980s and it has grown rapidly at home and abroad, and has gradually turned into the major school of linguistics. To cognitive linguists, language not only enables communication, but also reflects mankind’s conceptual world. In other words, linguistic categories not only enable us to communicate, but also impose a certain way of understanding of the world. It integrates the research ways of language typology and functional linguistics, depicting and elaborating the constitution of human language.Cognitive Linguistics presents a forum for high-quality linguistic research on topics which investigate the interaction between language and cognition. Compared with linguistic structuralism, which sparked off substitution drills, and speech act theory, which initiated a complete reorganization of teaching strategies, the impact of cognitive linguistics is much less revolutionary. Yet the influence of cognitive linguistics may prove very valuable, because it lends theoretical support to a number of accepted teaching approaches in the fields of both vocabulary and grammar.The most influential linguists focusing centrally on cognitive principles and organization were Wallace Chafe, Charles Fillmore, George Lakoff, Ronald Langacker, and Leonard Talmy etc. Masterpieces including: Handbook of Pragmatics、What Categories Reveal about the Mind、Metaphors we Live by、Foundations of Cognitive Grammar、An introduction to Cognitive Linguistics etc. At present, the study of cognitive linguistics is very active in Europe and the United States .Cognitive linguistics in the two research center in the United States has formed two different schools: Berkeley School( Lakoff、Fillmore、Kay、Sweetser) and San Diego School(Langacker、Fauconnier). The Foundations of Cognitive Grammar was written by Langacker, father of Cognitive Linguistics. This book introduces a new and fundamentally different conception of language structure and linguistic investigation.The central claim of cognitive grammar is that grammar forms a continuum with lexicon and is fully describable in terms of symbolic units (i.e. form-meaning pairings). In contrast to current orthodoxy, Langacker argues that grammar is not autonomous with respect to semantics, but rather reduces to patterns for the structuring and symbolization of conceptual content. "Understanding Langacker's grammar is made easier by the fact that, instead of using mathematical formalisms to prove his points, he uses common knowledge of language to persuade the reader. . . . The book is valuable for several factors in addition to its clarification of grammar. The insights into verbal thought and meaning are prime reasons for recommending the book to the semantically inclined."--Et ceteraI. Main theories of Cognitive LinguisticsOn the basis of non-objectivist philosophy, Cognitive Linguistics extensively assimilates the research findings and analytical methods of the disciplines studying humans ‘cognitive activities. Therefore, we need to have a better understanding of cognition and cognitive science.Cognition is the mental process caused in thinking, remembering, perceiving, recognizing, clarifying etc. Cognitive science is a discipline which draws on research in linguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive psychology and Artificial Intelligence. Cognitive Science deals with the scientific study of thinking reasoning and intellectual processes of the mind. It is concerned with how knowledge is represented in the mind, how language is understood and with what the mental processes underlying, inferencing, learning, problem-solving and planning. Cognitive linguistics is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it. Because cognitive linguistics sees language as embedded in the overall cognitive capacities of man, topics of special interest for cognitive linguistics include: the structural characteristics of natural language categorization (such as prototypicality, systematic polysemy, cognitive models, mental imagery and metaphor); the functional principles of linguistic organization (such as iconicity and naturalness); the conceptual interface between syntax and semantics (as explored by cognitive grammar and construction grammar); theexperiential and pragmatic background of language-in-use; and the relationship between language and thought, including questions about relativism and conceptual universals. In this summary, Cognitive linguistics is divided into three main areas of study: Cognitive semantics, dealing mainly with lexical semantics, separating semantics (meaning) into meaning-construction and knowledge representation. Cognitive approaches to grammar, dealing mainly with syntax, morphology and other traditionally more grammar-oriented areas. Cognitive phonology,dealing with classification of various correspondences between morphemes and phonetic sequences.II. Language study methods of Cognitive LinguisticsCognitive Linguistics grew out of the work of a number of researchers active in the 1970s who were interested in the relation of language and mind, and who did not follow the prevailing tendency to explain linguistic patterns by means of appeals to structural properties internal to and specific to language. Rather than attempting to segregate syntax from the rest of language in a 'syntactic component' governed by a set of principles and elements specific to that component, the line of research followed instead was to examine the relation of language structure to things outside language: cognitive principles and mechanisms not specific to language, including principles of human categorization; pragmatic and interactional principles; and functional principles in general, such as iconicity and economy. Cognitive Linguists began developing their own approach to language description and linguistic theory, centered on a particular set of phenomena and concerns. One of the important assumptions shared by all of these scholars is that meaning is so central to language that it must be a primary focus of study. Linguistic structures serve the function of expressing meanings and hence the mappings between meaning and form are a prime subject of linguistic analysis. Linguistic forms, in this view, are closely linked to the semantic structures they are designed to express. Semantic structures of all meaningful linguistic units can and should be investigated. These views were in direct opposition to the ideas developing at the time within Chomskyan linguistics, in which meaning was 'interpretive' and peripheral to the study of language. The central objectof interest in language was syntax. The structures of language were in this view not driven by meaning, but instead were governed by principles essentially independent of meaning. Thus, the semantics associated with morphosyntactic structures did not require investigation; the focus was on language-internal structural principles as explanatory constructs.III. Features and Controversy of Cognitive LinguisticsCognitive linguistics is characterized by adherence to three central positions. First, it denies that there is anautonomous linguistic faculty in the mind; second, it understands grammar in terms of conceptualization; and third, it claims that knowledge of language arises out of language use. Cognitive linguists deny that the mind has any module for language-acquisition that is unique and autonomous. This stands in contrast to the stance adopted in the field of generative grammar. Although cognitive linguists do not necessarily deny that part of the human linguistic ability is innate, they deny that it is separate from the rest of cognition. They thus reject a body of opinion in cognitive science suggesting that there is evidence for the modularity of language. They argue that knowledge of linguistic phenomena —i.e., phonemes,morphemes, and syntax—is essentially conceptual in nature. Departing from the tradition of truth-conditional semantics, cognitive linguists view meaning in terms of conceptualization. Instead of viewing meaning in terms of models of the world, they view it in terms of mental spaces. Finally, cognitive linguistics argues that language is both embodied and situated in a specific environment. This can be considered a moderate offshoot of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, in that language and cognition mutually influence one another, and are both embedded in the experiences and environments of its users. However, there is significant peer review and debate within the field of linguistics regarding cognitive linguistics. Critics of cognitive linguistics have argued that most of the evidence from the cognitive view comes from the research in pragmatics and semantics on research into metaphor and preposition choice. They suggest that cognitive linguists should provide cognitive re-analyses of topics in syntax and phonology that are understood in terms of autonomous knowledge. There is also controversy and debate within the field concerning therepresentation and status of idioms in grammar and the actual mental grammar of speakers. On one hand it is asserted that idiom variation needs to be explained with regard to general and autonomous syntactic rules. Another view says such idioms do not constitute semantic units and can be processed compositionally.IV. Cognitive Linguistics in L2 teachingAt present, Cognitive Linguistics has been widely recognized in the world. There have been a large number of scholars and experts in cognitive linguistics, and a number of Cognitive Science Colleges have been established in the United States and other European countries. Cognitive Linguistics has made a positive contribution to the development of modern linguistics. Compared with other linguistic theories, cognitive linguistics is new and has had little influence on language teaching and learning .Yet it provides a new perspective on language, especially on vocabulary and grammar.In vocabulary teaching, it has slways been a golden rule that we should teach the words for basic level categories to the children first. Cognitive Linguistics reviews that we approach hierarchies of classifications from the center, that we concentrate on basic level categories such as dogs and cats and that our hierarchies are anchored in these basic level categories, These basic categories words correspond to the core vocabulary in a language, and they play an important role in daily life communication. There is a pitfall in English vocabulary learning, i.e. , some people pursue the quantity of vocabulary and neglect the quality of the core vocabulary learning. The result is that although these people can memorize a lot of difficult words, they still cannot read or wrote properly.The findings in cognitive linguistics are also useful in teaching grammar. We can choose a cognitive approach to grammar that is based on schemata, on prototypes or on basic level categories. One prominent characteristic shared by these approaches is that they all manage to bridge the gap between formal syntax and morphology on the one hand and the semantic aspects of grammar on the other by relating them both to a common conceptual basis. This liberation from the form/content division is probably the most important contribution that cognitive linguistics has made to pedagogicalgrammar and language teaching.V. ConclusionCognitive linguistics involves a wide range of disciplines,with abundant research content and novel subjects, and bears the unparalleled advantages compared with other linguistic theories.Therefore, we need not only comprehend its basic principles, but also apply them to analyze the branches of linguistics, directing at the hot issues which have just emerged in cognitive linguistics. Since this linguistic theory itself is in constant change, and because of its methodological problems and theoretical problems, there is a long way before it becomes a mature theory for language teaching and learning. Nevertheless it remains the most prospective and promising area of research.Reference1. Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Vol. 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.2. Langacker, Ronald W. 1990. Concept, Image, and Symbol. The Cognitive Basis of Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.3. Randal Holme. 2011 Cognitive Linguistics and Language Teaching. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press4. F.Ungerer&H.J.Schmid. 2008. An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press5. George Lakoff.2007. Ten Lectures on Cognitive Linguistics by George Lakoff. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press。