LaMiCuS 1 (2017)       

Table of contents / Spis treści

Zamiast wstępu 10-15 

Articles / Artykuły

Zoltán Kövecses, Conceptual metaphor theory: Some new proposals 16-32 

In recent years, I have made some new suggestions concerning conceptual metaphor theory (Kövecses 2010a, 2010b, 2015a, 2017). They are related especially to two areas of the functioning of the conceptual system: (1) the role of context in the production of metaphors and (2) the level conceptual organization that applies to conceptual metaphors. In the present paper I would like to demonstrate how the context can produce viable metaphors and how the level of conceptual organization in metaphor can have an impact on a debated issue in CMT: namely, the issue of methodology.

Adam Głaz, Worldview as cultural cognition 34-53

Worldview is defined in this study as the knowledge at the disposal of an individual or community and the point of view projected on the world with reference to that knowledge. An inquiry into worldviews, manifested in and transmitted through the use of language, is proposed. In accordance with a basic tenet of cognitive linguistics, language use is underlain by and describable with recourse to cognitive processes. However, because of the focus on the cultural, as well as cognitive underpinning of language, worldview is understood here as cultural cognition, the latter being characterised by its distributed nature and by the cultural content that feeds cognitions. The latter of these properties is exemplified in the paper through an analysis of two diverse reactions to the 2016 Nice terrorist attack: it is shown what meanings emerge when such parameters of construal as degree of specificity (granularity of viewing), mental scanning, focus selection, viewpoint, and attention to similarity vs. dif ference operate not on “raw” perceptual substrates, but on cultural concepts, such as political states, religions, or cultural areas.

Krzysztof Hejwowski, Translating minds: Cognitivism and translation 54-65

Translation is one of the most complicated mental operations performed by people. The article explains what makes translation so difficult and what makes it possible. In order to translate well we have to envisage the states of minds of the sender, the original recipients and the projected recipients of our translation. Thus, translators should be equipped with a high level of empathy and be able to expend much “effort after meaning” (to use Bartlett’s term). Taking into account the nature of the translation process, it becomes obvious that translation theory has to make use of cognitive theories of human communication.

Shala Barczewska, Onstage or off, or somewhere in between? Intersubjectivity markers in Dawkins and Lennox’s debate “Has science buried God?” 68-87

The “mutual apprehension of other minds,” which is a “central if not a defining feature of intersubjectivity” (Langacker 2007: 182) is not directly observable. However, it can be analysed through language use, particularly the pronouns I, you, we (Langacker 2008: 78). These pronouns put the Speaker/Hearer “onstage” through explicit mention. Hence, an analysis of how debaters use personal pronouns may shed light on how the (inter)subjectivity inherent in public debates is expressed through language.
This paper looks at the use of you and its derivatives in the 2008 debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox “Has science buried God?” held at the Oxford Museum. While this debate has already been analysed in terms of cognitive metaphor (Drogosz & Górska forthcoming) and rhetorical strategy (Górska forthcoming, 2016), it is believed that looking at the debate in terms of (inter)subjectivity will improve understanding of different perspectives on the relationship between science and religion as well as the ways those perspectives may be construed. Specifically, it considers how the choice to (not) use personal pronouns affects both the argument and the speaker’s relationship with their interlocutor. This debate in particular is an ideal source for such a study as, in exit interviews, members of the audience recognized this debate to be one in which the opponents not only listened to each other, but also seemed to exhibit mutual respect. Thus, it seems safe to assume that each speaker was making a conscious effort to invite his opponent and the audience to see the universe and the meaning of life from his own vantage point. This presupposes awareness of the other minds involved in the debate; hence, fertile ground for an analysis of intersubjectivity. The analysis shows that Dawkins and Lennox use second person pronouns for different purposes. This raises questions for future research; for example, are these differences related to Dawkins’ and Lennox’s individual debate styles or are they characteristic of scholars who share their distinct worldviews?

Agnieszka Kaleta, Corpus-based methods in cognitive semantics: The case of English clausal complementation 88-109

The paper is concerned with the use of corpus-based methods to deal with issues in cognitive semantics. It presents an overview of the main strands of research combining corpus-based methodology with the theoretical perspective of cognitive linguistics (i.e. behavioral profile approach, collostructional analysis). In particular, the paper presents an attempt to assess the applicability of corpus-based methods to studying schematic constructional meanings. Using highlights from Kaleta’s 2014 research on English clausal complementation, it pinpoints the strengths and limitations of corpus methodology as a tool for investigating the meanings of abstract syntactic categories. The paper emphasizes the importance of corpora and the methods associated with them for descriptive analysis of syntactic constructions. For example, it shows how the method of distinctive collexeme analysis can be effectively applied to investigate subtle differences in meaning between nearly-synonymous gerundive and infinitival constructions. However, the paper also highlights the limitations of the corpus-based methods when it comes to explanatory analysis. As has been argued, the problematic areas include the high degree of abstractness of syntactic meanings, on the one hand, and the lack of direct correlations between corpus frequencies and abstract mental representations of language, on the other.

Mario Brdar, Intensification and metonymy in some XYZ constructions: From the Bible to Einstein 110-134

The present article studies some figurative instances of the XYZ construction, specifically those exhibiting items Bible, oasis, f lagship and minefield as the element Y. Although they leave the impression of being metaphor-like, the analysis of their context of use shows that they do not exhibit the sort of behaviour expected of prototypical metaphors. Even though all the four items are found in a wide range of situations associated with conceptual domains that are very distinct and distant from the domains that these elements come from, they do not exhibit the sort of polysemy that might be expected of widely used metaphorical vehicles. The data show that these lexical items follow a similar path of semantic development in the course of which they gradually lose specific elements of their meanings and develop a figurative meaning that is quite general and is in all cases coupled with intensification. It is claimed in the article that their development was guided by metonymic shifts. I also show that they share many traits with another member of this construction family, viz. the XYZ construction with proper nouns as Y, which is based on metonymic paragon models. In both cases the end result is a complex intensifier, i.e. an expression that compresses into a single lexeme both the intensification and the property being intensified.

The present paper discusses derivational innovations found in on-line journalistic texts and their comments, and focuses on two perspectives while approaching them: (i) innovations seen as the result of a speaker’s creativity in the act of communication and (ii) innovations understood as a mental concept which occurs in the mind of a hearer in a context-dependent speaker-hearer interaction. The article also aims to explore the possibilities language users have while accounting for formally and/or semantically complex derivational innovations, especially those accompanied by a visual component, and emphasizes the role of conceptual integration as a basic mental operation while decoding selected Polish derivational innovations.

Reviews / Recenzje

R. W. Langacker 2016: Nominal Structure in Cognitive Grammar: The Lublin Lectures, Reviewed by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 152-160

M. Kuźniak, B. Rozwadowska, M. Szawerna (eds.) 2016: From Motion to Emotion: Aspects of Physical and Cultural Embodiment in Language, Reviewed by Krzysztof Kosecki 161-164

P. Blumczynski 2016: Ubiquitous Translation, recenzja Marka Kuźniaka 165-168