Chap.2 总结《CL: An Introduction》 (Vyvyan Evans)

CHAPTER 2 The nature of Cognitive Linguistics: Assumptions and Commitments

• 2 main branches in CL: cognitive semantics & cognitive approaches to grammar 认知语言学两大分支：认知语义和认知语法

1. Two key commitments (by George Lakoff)

• The generalization commitment: there are common structing principles that hold across different aspects of language, and an important function of linguistics is to identify these common principles
  概括承诺：语言的各个方面之间存在普遍适用的结构组织原则，语言学研究就是要发现这些原则。
  Modulars or subsystems in formal linguistics are not recommended, in that they share fundemental organizational features, such as categorization, polysemy and mataphor.
  语言不应该被划分为一个个模块，这些模块（如词义，形态，句法等）其实都表现着某些同样的结构特征，如范畴化，多义现象，和隐喻等。

• the cognitive commitment: language and linguistic organization should reflect general cognitive principles
  认知语言学发现的认知原则应当反映人类思维的普遍认知原则。
  如语言中存在的profiling，categorization和metaphor等结构特征也是人类思维认知中普遍存在的。
  **profiling: to direct attention to certain aspects of the scene being linguistically encoded 如主动句和被动句强调的成分不同

2. The embodied mind 思维是体验/涉身的

• Cognitive linguists take empiricist view: the human mind and therefore language cannnot be investigated in insolation from human embodiment. 人类思维和语言必然是体验/涉身的。
• embodied experience 涉身体验: we have a species-specific view of the world due to our unique nature of bodies 我们体验到的世界是为我们特有的，因为人类这个物种的生理特征决定了我们体验到的世界。例如颜色。
  ** variable embodiment: different organisms have different kinds of experiences due to the nature of their embodiment.
• embodied cognition 涉身认知: 由于人的体验是涉身的，人的认知也是涉身的。It is experience that forms the basis of many of our most fundemental concepts.经验是概念世界的基础。
• experential realism经验现实主义观 (termed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson): there cannot be an objective reality that language reflects directly; instead, reality is in large part construed by the nature of our unique human embodiment. Language does not directly reflect the world; rather, it reflects our unique human construal of the world.
  我们无法用语言描述完全客观的现实，因为我们感知到的现实是经由人类特有的生理特征感知到的现实，而非完全客观的现实。语言不是直接描述现实世界，而是描述了我们所构建的现实世界。

3. Cognitive semantics and cognitive approaches to grammar 认知语义学和认知语法简介

• Cognitive linguists emphasises the role of meaning; hence a cognitive grammar assumes a cognitive semantics and is dependent upon it. 认知语义学以语义为中心，认知语法是在语义研究的基础上展开研究的。
• 认知语义学: Cognitive semantics is concerned with investigating the relationship between experience, the conceptual system and the semantic structure encoded by language. 认知语言学关注人类经验，概念系统和语义系统三者之间的关系。In specific terms, they investigate knowledge representation (conceptual structure) and meaning construction (conceptualisation). 具体来说，主要关注信息表征（概念结构）和意义构建（概念化）。
• 认知语法 Cognitive grammar define the entire inventory of linguistic units as form-meaning pairings. Meaning and grammar are two sides of the same coin.
• 认知语义与认知语法: Cognitive grammar is the study of the units of language and hence the language system itself. Cognitive semantics is to understand how linguistic system relates to conceptual system, which in turn relates to embodied experience. 认知语法是研究语言单位，是只关于语言本身的研究；认知语义学研究语言系统是如何与概念系统（进一步涉身体验）相联系的。They are complementary。两者是互补的关系。

？？？疑问：

在概括承诺中，认知语言学认为“语言的各个方面之间存在普遍适用的结构组织原则”，在这一表达中，暗示了语言可以被分为多个方面，如语义，句法，形态等。但认知语言学不是认为语言系统不是modular的吗？
possible answer: “语言的各个方面之间存在普遍适用的结构组织原则”这样子表达的结论是为了说明，所以应该取消语言各个方面的区分，语言系统是一个整体。