Cognitive Linguistics

Generative Oscillation - A Cognitive Model for the Emergence of Language

by Thorold (Thor) May

Research Material for a discontinued PhD

DRAFT COPY ONLY

NOT READY FOR PRINT PUBLICATION

The GO model proposes a co-generative view of the emergence of language. Most conventional linguistics models conceive... more The GO model proposes a co-generative view of the emergence of language. Most conventional linguistics models conceive of language as a representational system of symbols which refer to events, either mental or external to the organism. This representational function is said to motivate the linguistic system and (depending upon the linguistic model) largely control its form. The GO (Generative Oscillation) model proposed here recognizes the representational role of language. However it notes that as the mental linguistic system itself becomes efficiently organized, it creates an internal logic and drive of its own. To some extent this internally motivated linguistic system is conceived to override the external motivation to represent another reality. Since the internal linguistic system is dynamic and generative, it may give rise to linguistic output which seems strange in an inter-human communicative context (or even within the reflective mind of the creator). Thus while the external communicative context can become a constraint on unmotivated non-representational "internal language", it might not eliminate it. The Generative Oscillation model proposes that actual language production is an oscillating compromise between the representational function of language and the mental "language bot" itself (i.e. an internal self-organizing system) which is generating language strings just because that is what language language bots do. As far as I know, the Generative Oscillation Model, or anything like it, had not been suggested before in linguistics at the time of writing. Some conventional linguists may find it a bit "off the wall".

Mimesis and language: a distributed view

by Stephen J. Cowley

This is a draft of a paper that appeared recently in a Special Issue of Interaction Studies that takes as its theme: "Language as social coordination: an evolutuionary perspective". The final version appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2012). Mimesis and language: A distributed view. Interaction Studies, 13/1: 17-40.

A growing number of scholars regard language as social co-ordination. Not only does this overcome stale debate about... more A growing number of scholars regard language as social co-ordination. Not only does this overcome stale debate about whether langauge is cognitive or communicative but it opens up new thinking about its evolutionary history. Focusing on populations, the paper outlines and critiques Merlin Donald’s view of the human mind. It endorses the view that the evolutionary emergence of language can be traced to mimesis or what, twenty years ago, was called the “ability to produce conscious self-initiated representational acts that are intentional” (Donald, 1991: 168). However, ecological critique rejects the original theory’s appeal to symbolic models. I argue that, while Donald is regarded as likely to be correct about the evolutionary basis of language (and languaging), his account can be simplified. Instead of positing 3 evolutionary thresholds (mimesis, language and writing), it is argued that mimetic skills are sufficient to ground all the slow processes of human cognition. Indeed, like tool-making, they probably co-evolved with vocal coordination. As cultures developed tools together with ‘public language’, we gained skills in using distributed cognition –ways of living that were later extended by external resources such as, for example, writing, religions, laws and technologies.

Contours of time: Topographic construals of past, present, and future in the Yupno Valley of Papua New Guinea

by Kensy Cooperrider

Co-authored with Rafael Núñez, D Doan, and Jürg Wassmann

Time, an everyday yet fundamentally abstract domain, is conceptualized in terms of space throughout the world’s... more Time, an everyday yet fundamentally abstract domain, is conceptualized in terms of space throughout the world’s cultures. Linguists and psychologists have presented evidence of a widespread pattern in which deictic time—past, present, and future—is construed along the front/back axis, a construal that is linear and ego-based. To investigate the universality of this pattern, we studied the construal of deictic time among the Yupno, an indigenous group from the mountains of Papua New Guinea, whose language makes extensive use of allocentric topographic (uphill/downhill) terms for describing spatial relations. We measured the pointing direction of Yupno speakers’ gestures—produced naturally and without prompting—as they explained common expressions related to the past, present, and future. Results show that the Yupno spontaneously construe deictic time spatially in terms of allocentric topography: the past is construed as downhill, the present as co-located with the speaker, and the future as uphill. Moreover, the Yupno construal is not linear, but exhibits a particular geometry that appears to reflect the local terrain. The findings shed light on how, our universal human embodiment notwithstanding, linguistic, cultural, and environmental pressures come to shape abstract concepts.

In the beginning: word or deed?

by Stephen J. Cowley

This appeared as

Cowley, S. J. (2005). In the beginning: word or deed? Commentary on Steels, L. & Belpaeme, T.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 24/8,493-494.

This is a commentary on Steels and Belpaeme’s (2005) “Coordinating perceptually grounded ategories through language: A... more This is a commentary on Steels and Belpaeme’s (2005) “Coordinating perceptually grounded ategories through language: A case study for colour: https://www.gold.ac.uk/media/DavidoffLuzzatti2005.pdf ;
Arguing that this is an important paper in that it shows how agents can gain from cultural patterns, I remain skeptical about using such views to explain the etiology of meanings. Indeed, since the simulations show that ‘shared categories’ are independent of learning, I suggest that Steels and Belpaeme could gain from questioning their folk view of language. Instead, I suggest that meaning uses indexicals to set off a replicator process and that the resulting memetic patterns –not words –lie at the basis of language.

Extra! Extra! Semantics in comics!: The conceptual structure of Chicago Tribune advertisements

by Neil Cohn

Recently, increasing attention is turning to comics as a graphic domain using similar cognitive processes to... more Recently, increasing attention is turning to comics as a graphic domain using similar cognitive processes to linguistic forms. As in the verbal and manual modalities of expression, various semantic structures arise across sequences of images in interesting and effective ways. This piece examines metonymy, conceptual metaphors, and blending across a three-panel pattern used in strips from an advertising campaign by the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

Distributed language: implications for volition

by Stephen J. Cowley

The attached paper is a draft for a Russian volume that explored new perspectives on language. It was translated and appeared in Russian as:
С. Дж. Коули. Понятие распределенности языка и его значение для волеизъявления // А.В.Кравченко (ред.). Наука о языке в изменяющейся парадигме знания (Studia linguistica cognitiva 2). Иркутск: БГУЭП, 2009. С. 192-227.

It can be cited as:
Cowley, S. J. (2009). Distributed language: implications for volition. (In Russian). In A, Kravchenko (ed.) New Perspectives on Language and Cognition, pp. 192-227, Irkutsk: Baikal University Press.

Most post-Cartesian views trace human agency to the organism and are thus obliged to either leave aside questions of... more Most post-Cartesian views trace human agency to the organism and are thus obliged to either leave aside questions of volition or, worse, seek explanations in the individual brain. By contrast, when language is recognised as distributed, human cognition is seen to arise as we adapt to life in a collective world. Since language is embodied AND non-local, learning emerges under dual or multiple control –babies learn to talk by participating in “distributed cognitive systems.” In relation to human volition, this opens a gap between tracing actions and feelings to a single brain and privileging the person ‘level’. Although behaviour emerges as people deal with circumstances together, language gives some control over what is not said or done. By focusing on the possible (and what we imagine), we can use the real duration associated with verbal and other thoughts. In short, it is because language is embodied and conventional that we can modulate action/perception: this enables individual organisms to act as living subjects who exert a degree of control over what they – and others – say and do.

Early hominins, utterance-activity, and niche construction

by Stephen J. Cowley

This commentary addresses issues in Falk’s “Prelinguistic communication in hominins: Whence motherese?” http://bortfeld.psy.uconn.edu/UCONNWeb/Bortfeld_BBS2004.pdf

It appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2004). Early hominins, utterance-activity and niche construction. Commentary on Falk, D. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, 509-510

In line with mainstream linguistics, Falk assumes that language is based in knowledge of words. Specifically, we are... more In line with mainstream linguistics, Falk assumes that language is based in knowledge of words. Specifically, we are attributed with a genetic propensity for identifying, storing and producing verbal patterns. By challenging the assumption, I suggest that the positive thesis be brought in line with behavioural ecology. Specifically, seen as part of niche-construction, “putting the baby” down can engender skills in modulating how we speak and move; by extension, it is a possible basis for gaining the fine control over phonetic gestures that is necessary to language.

Techniques and tools. Corpus methods and statistics for semantics

by Dylan Glynn

An overview of the corpus methods and statistical techniques in Cognitive Semantics An overview of the corpus methods and statistical techniques in Cognitive Semantics

The thickness of Pitch: Crossmodal metaphors in Farsi, Turkish, and Zapotec

by Mark Sicoli

Sketching Halliday

by Colin HARRISON

Distributed Language: cognition beyond the brain

by Stephen J. Cowley

This short paper was a presentation at the Annual International Forum in the Humanities Conference on Interdisciplinarity in Cognitive Science Research, State University for the Humanities, Moscow (March 2012).

As Cognitive Science develops a view of agency, we are learning much about human cognition. First, as living things,... more As Cognitive Science develops a view of agency, we are learning much about human cognition. First, as living things, we depend on active embodiment. Since, this is incompatible with reduction to information processing, we are bound to ask what cognition is –and what it is to be a person. On a ‘4E’ view, agency is embodied, embedded, enacted and extended. This applies, moreover, to living beings as diverse as earthworms, beavers, wolves and humans. To understand human agency, I therefore argue for a more radical view. Pursuing this, it is stressed that, while situated, language is also non-local: our voices always echo those of others. While grounded in first-order activity, language also enacts second-order practices. It is its symbiotic nature that makes homo sapiens ecologically special. Once acknowledged, this opens up a distributed perspective on language and cognition. By means of clarification, I offer thick description of a interactional moment where language links the brain with the world beyond the body. At this instant, the words actually spoken are background: the verbal aspect of speech acts as a Zeitgeber for bodily coupling that directly realizes human values. Finally, I place the distributed view of linguistic cognition against themes in Russian psycholinguistic tradition.

Cognitive dynamics: language as values realizing activity

by Stephen J. Cowley

These are proofs that appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2012). Cognitive dynamics: language as values realizing activity. In A. Kravchenko (ed). Cognitive Dynamics and Linguistic Interactions, pp. 15-46. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.

To challenge cognitivism it is important emphasise how human bodies function. Like other organisms, we evolved to act... more To challenge cognitivism it is important emphasise how human bodies function. Like other organisms, we evolved to act and perceive in changing environments. In spite of the fact that this can be described as representing aspects of the world, there is no reason to think that people use what are representations for the brain (Steiner 2010). The central nervous system deals in the body-world relations that sustain flexible, adaptive behaviour. Bodies use measurable physical events or cognitive dynamics to control how they coordinate with the world. Humans extend this general capacity by cooperating in cultural settings.

Biology thus becomes enmeshed with history and, in looking at language too, this must be traced to minded behaviour. It follows that language -and teaching languages -must be explicated with respect to how encounters with the world are experienced as meaningful (Gibson 1979). Far from being subjective or abstract, cognitive dynamics function as public opportunities and threats. Social activity realizes values that motivate inhibition, thinking and communication (Gibson 1950; Hodges & Geyer 2006; Hodges 2007). In language, successes and failures arise as we mesh wordings with experience of items that serve in a (partly) shared social world. Using this perspective, I turn to pedagogical design and signs of writing to consider how applied linguistics can be enriched by viewing language as values realizing activity. The main concern of applied linguists becomes, not learning, but SLA or 'skilled linguistic action'.

A cognitive analysis of the dative in Czech

by Enrique Gutiérrez Rubio

“A cognitive analysis of the dative in Czech” en Karl, K. B., Krumbholz, G. y Lazar, M (eds.), Beiträge der Europäischen Slavistischen Linguistik. (Polyslav) Band 14, Munich, Verlag Otto Sagner, 2011: 73-79.

The aim of this paper is rather to show the theoretical principles of my researches on Czech dative, than to go deep... more The aim of this paper is rather to show the theoretical principles of my researches on Czech dative, than to go deep into their concrete results. After a relatively brief introduction to cognitive linguistics in general, I present some of the main conclusions of my study of the semantics of the Czech dative: one of the four semantic maps of the Czech dative that I designed according to data extracted from Bohumil Hrabal’s novella from 1965 Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky)

"Kognitivní analyza českého dativu" - Po krátkém úvodu do základních zásad kognitivní lingvistiky se v článku píše o metodologii a rozpracování mé doktorské práce, která se zabývala sémantikou českého dativu. Janda, Clancy 2006 navrhovali tři hlavní sémantiky dativu: Přijímací, Prožívací a Soutěžící. Ve své práci jsem navrhoval čtvrtou sémantiku: takzvaný Přechodový dativ. Ačkoliv hlavním cílem této přednášky je ukázat spíše metodologii než konkrétní výsledky mé práce, na závěr jsem připojil sémantickou mapu dativu vytvořenou podle kognitivní analýzy Hrabalovy novely Ostře sledované vlaky.

Simulating others: the basis of human cognition?

by Stephen J. Cowley

This appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2004). Simulating others: the basis of human cognition? Language Sciences, 26/3: 273-299.

The paper critiques the argument of Michael Tomasello’s Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (1999). This culture-first... more The paper critiques the argument of Michael Tomasello’s Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (1999). This culture-first theory is judged to be a good sketch of how nature predisposes humans for talk. Above all, this is because if language mediated perspective-taking depends on cultural process, no innate linguistic representations are necessary in learning to talk. Unfortunately, the model is flawed by Tomasello’s claims for a putative species-specific competency. Rather than posit a simulation mechanism to link orthodox views of language with Gricean models of communication, I follow Dennett in treating ‘intentions’ as folk constructs. Talking, on this view, arises from encultured contextualizing. Situated, embodied activity turns infants into perspective-takers who, far from learning or acquiring ‘forms’, slowly become persons. Gradually, the infant’s developing social capacities produce activity that invites others to attribute linguistic knowledge to the child.

Contextualizing bodies: human infants and distributed cognition

by Stephen J. Cowley

This paper that appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. (2004). Contextualizing bodies: how human responsiveness constrains distributed cognition. Language Sciences, 26/6, 565-591

By their second birthday caregivers treat infants as ‘using’ words that have grammatical properties. How do... more By their second birthday caregivers treat infants as ‘using’ words that have grammatical properties. How do brain-bodies develop the relevant capacity? In addressing this issue, the paper stresses how babies exploit other people’s understanding. It is argued that joint activity uses ‘shallow thinking’ to gradually develop both caregiver biases and infant predispositions. Using how activity is integrated, the baby's skills are gradually transformed. Taking part in competitive and co-operative activity is sufficient to nudge the infant towards strategic syllable-use. Gradually, a baby’s contextualizing body comes to exploit vocalizing in ways heard as arrangements of arbitrary signs. Far from relying on ‘language acquisition’, telegraphic speech arises from co-ordination, affect and adult interpretation. It emerges in infant agents whose anticipative strategies allow them to distinguish, say, ‘gone dada’ [gondada]’ (e.g. “please get it back, dad”) from ‘dada gone’ [dadagon] (e.g. “father is hiding again”).

Metaphor In Bob Dylan's “Hurricane”

by Gerard Steen

Published in E. Semino and J. Culpepper (eds), Cognitive stylistics: Language and cognition in text analysis. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Work notes on the Lemnos Stele

by Mel Copeland

The Lemnos Stele was found on the island of Lemnos, containing a writing style that is similar to the Etruscan texts found in Italy. It differs somewhat in the use of the punctuation marks. Etruscan texts tend to separate words and phrases using a dot or a colon. This text, like Phrygian texts on the mainland adjacent to Lemnos, uses two-dot and three-dot colons. Also, like the Phrygian texts (See our Phrygian.html) it uses the omega “o”  rather than the “V” = “O.”
Lemnos is an island in the northern Aegean Sea. When Hephaestus was thrown out of heaven, he fell on Lemnos, where the Sintians (an ancient people of whom nothing else is known) cared for him. One version of the story says his mother Hera was disgusted at him, because he was lame, and threw him out of heaven, where he landed in the sea and was saved by Thetis. Another story says Zeus threw him out of heaven, to land on Lemnos, because he had come to the rescue of Hera who at the time was being punished by Zeus.  He was later reinstated on Mount Olympus, but never forgot Lemnos, which became his chief cult center. Hephaestus was a blacksmith and became the master artisan of the gods. Among his chief works were the armor of Achilles (son of Thetis) and the creation of Pandora. In the Iliad Hephaestus was pitted against the river god Scamander, which he temporarily dried up in order to save Achilles from drowning. 

The Lemnians also claimed close connections with Dionysus, saying that he brought Ariadne there after their marriage. One of the four sons that she bore him was Thoas, who became king of the island. During his reign a series of events initiated by Aphrodite led the Lemnian women to kill all the males on the island. (Aphrodite was married to Hephaistus.) Only Thoas escaped, thanks to his daughter’s loyalty. Realizing that a life without men did not promise well for the island’s future, the women welcomed Jason and the Argonauts when they stopped at Lemnos on their outward voyage. Among the new generation that resulted from this timely visit was Euneüs, who was king at the time of the Trojan War.

During much of that war Philoctetes remained stranded alone in a cave on Lemnos, but the assumption in this myth that the island was unpeopled at the time is not supported by the other myths. Lemnos, together with several other islands of the northern Aegean, was a center of the obscure but important cult of the Cabeiri. The Cabeiri are believed to have originated on the mainland in Phrygia and were prominently worshiped on Samothrace, Lemnos and Imbros — and also had a cult in Thebes.  They were honored in the Samothracian mysteries, which were second in importance only to the Eleusinian mysteries. It is generally believed that the Cabeiri were originally fertility-spirits who had a reputation for bringing safety and good fortune, as well as good crops. They were attendants of the “Great Gods” variously believed to be Demeter or Rhea, Hermes and other Olympian divinities.
This translation, “Work Notes on the Lemnos Stele,” follows other “Etruscan Phrases” Work Notes posted in Academia.edu and linked on http://www.maravot.com/Etruscan_Phrases_a.html.

All of the Work notes are based on Etruscan GlossaryA.xls/pdf and our Indo-European Table.    Etruscan GlossaryA.xls/pdf. is an index to about 2,500 Etruscan words that are similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. Declension patterns follow those in Latin. The 2,500 words = the repeated words in 6,000 words of the major extant texts. The texts have been frozen in time, covering ~700-400 B.C., representing a lens to understanding the early formation of Indo-European languages, particularly the early Italic-Latin-Celtic languages, such as Italian, French & Romanian / Dacian. (By 45 BC. the language was a dead language - no one understood or could write Etruscan)

This GlossaryA works together with Indo-European Table 1 which refutes theories by the Pallottino school of thought that the Etruscan language is not Indo-European and an isolate, unlike any other language. It is very close to Latin and, curiously, Romanian, Italian and French. The Latin suffix, "us" shifts to "o" as in Italian (Titus vs Tito); first person conjugation patterns are similar to French and Romanian. This GlossaryA provides a quick look at the grammatical structure of the Etruscan language, how closely it coincides with Latin. A more detailed Declension Table can be seen on the Etruscan Phrases website. These PDF documents facilitate independent confirmation of the words in GlossaryA.xls , the Grammar and Declension Table. All words can be examined from actual images of texts on the Etruscan Phrases website. Over 150 texts, with about 6,000 words can be examined at Etruscan Phrases.

The Etruscans surfaced in Italy about 1,000 B.C., reputed to have arrived from Lydia / Phrygia. The Phrygians originated near Macedonia in Thrace, according to Herodotus. One may therefore inquire whether the ancient Thracians (Dacians, Gettae, modern Romanians), spoke a language common to the Phrygians, at the time of the Trojan War and after (~1180 B.C.). The Thracians, Phrygians and Lydians (also dead languages) were allies of the Trojans, according to the Iliad. Etruscan Phrases finds a common vocabulary among Latin, Italian, French, Romanian, Etruscan and Phrygian. While French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian are considered Romance languages, showing a similar Latin heritage, Etruscan is not, of course, a Romance language, as it preceded Latin, at least in the written form (giving Rome its alphabet).

Resolution of the Etruscan Mystery may be likened to Michael Ventris' decipherment of Linear B and Jean-François Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics using the Rosetta Stone - written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic and Greek. The decipherment of Etruscan is a bit more challenging; since we have no multilingual Rosetta stone, but we do have enough vocabulary and grammar to establish that Etruscan is similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. (Certainly far more vocabulary and a more extensive grammar are provided in Etruscan Phrases than that used by Ventris to claim translation of Linear B as an old form of Greek.)

We look forward to the time when a peer review of these Work Notes will warrant corrections to the prevailing record, showing that the Etruscan language was similar to Latin and decry the theory that the "Etruscan language is unlike any other and not an Indo-European language." The theory of a non-Indo-European Etruscan language is absolutely false.

Incidental Picture Exposure Affects Later Reading: Evidence from the N400

by Rolf Zwaan

in press, Brain and Language

Language comprehenders form a mental representation of the implied shape of objects mentioned in the text. In the... more Language comprehenders form a mental representation of the implied shape of objects mentioned in the text. In the present study, the influence of prior visual experience on subsequent reading was assessed. In two separate phases, participants saw a picture of an object and read a text about the object, suggesting the same or a different shape. When the shapes in the two phases mismatched, ERPs during reading showed a larger N400 amplitude than when the shapes matched, suggesting that a picture presented incidentally 15 minutes earlier affected reading. These results further strengthen the case for the interaction of language and visual experience during language comprehension.


Keywords: embodied cognition; reading comprehension; visual experience; ERP; N400

К обоснованию идеального проекта лингвистики: интеграция языка, семиотики и биологии

by Alexander Kravchenko

Uncorrected proof. To appear in:
Вестник РГГУ, 2012

Cognitive grammar and EFL methodology: the case for "tenses"

by Alexander Kravchenko

Uncorrected proof. To appear in:
Акутальные проблемы филологии и педагогической лингвистики. Вып. 14. Владикавказ, 2012

A cognitive approach to instructed acquisition of English tenses by speakers of Russian is described in the framework... more A cognitive approach to instructed acquisition of English tenses by speakers of Russian is described in the framework of a cognitive theory of tense and aspect (CTTA). It is argued that the meaning and function of the so-called tenses may be understood in relation to the underlying cognitive structures rooted in perceptual experience, which are similar in both languages. The usual stumbling blocks in the acquisition of "tenses" are summed up, and a simple three-step procedure is offered for choosing a correct tense in discourse. The suggested approach allows to dramatically improve the process of grammar acquisition.

Keywords: cognitive grammar, observer, perceptual groundedness, aspect.