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The volume presents an up-to-date collection of methodologically sensitive contributions providing mainly enthusiastic, at times also critical support for the cognitive-linguistic enterprise. The book is important for the advancement of cognitive linguistics because the contributions demonstrate the seriousness of its ambitions to develop into a set of testable linguistic approaches. For the same reason, the volume is a contribution to our understanding of language in general, since it puts a promising modern approach on firmer ground. Assets of the book include the wide range of linguistic phenomena studied (individual concepts, fundamental semantic problems like vagueness and polysemy, grammatical issues incl. gender and tense, collocations, constructions and speech acts) and the scope of applied perspectives including lexicographical, computational, developmental and critical discourse ones. The languages investigated are English, German, Dutch, Polish and Italian. Common to the contributions is the desire to bring together observed patterns of linguistic usage with concepts and models established in cognitive linguistics. In addition, all contributions have an empirical basis and emphasize the need to rely on a sound methodology. The linguistic phenomena investigated span the range from the lexico-conceptual and collocational level to constructions, grammatical categories and functions. Two complementary perspectives of language and cognition are represented in the volume: In one group, the established methods of psycholinguistic experimentation, quantitative corpus analysis and computational simulation are exploited to demonstrate the viability and to increase the plausibility of cognitive-linguistic thinking. The second group tests well-known cognitive-linguistic approaches like Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the Theory of Idealized Cognitive Models
E-Book Content
Cognitive Foundations of Linguistic Usage Patterns
Applications of Cognitive Linguistics 13
Editors Gitte Kristiansen Francisco J. Ruiz de Mendoza Iba´n˜ez Honorary editor Rene´ Dirven
De Gruyter Mouton
Cognitive Foundations of Linguistic Usage Patterns Edited by
Hans-Jörg Schmid Susanne Handl
De Gruyter Mouton
ISBN 978-3-11-020517-6 e-ISBN 978-3-11-021603-5 ISSN 1861-4078 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cognitive foundations of linguistic usage patterns : empirical studies / edited by Hans-Jörg Schmid, Susanne Handl. p. cm. ⫺ (Applications of cognitive linguistics ; 13) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-020517-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Language and languages ⫺ Usage. I. Schmid, Hans-Jörg. II. Handl, Susanne, 1966⫺ P301.C545 2010 415⫺dc22 2010002361
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. 쑔 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ⬁ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com
Table of contents
Introduction.........................................................................................1 Hans-Jörg Schmid and Susanne Handl
Part I: Lexical patterns A computational model of the ambiguity-vagueness spectrum ........13 George Dunbar Questions of life and death: Denotational boundary disputes...........33 Olaf Jäkel Breakthroughs and disasters: The politics and ethics of metaphor use in the media.................................................................................63 Brigitte Nerlich Synonymy, lexical fields, and grammatical constructions. A study in usage-based cognitive semantics.....................................89 Dylan Gly