Language and cognition

Indexical

Pointing. most primitive. Based on contiguity.

Iconical

visual/ auditory/ any other perceptual image of the thing it stands for (looking similar to the things they represent) (more complexed) (based on similarity)

Symbolic

no natural link between the form and the thing they represents (flags/language) (most abstract, exclusive prerogative of humans)

The principle of indexicality

we can “point” to things in our scope of attention.

Principle of iconicity

we conceive a similarity between a form of language and the thing it stands for

The principle of sequential order

“I came, I saw, I conquered.”

The principle of distance

things that belong together would be put together. verbs follows whatever thats closer to noun.

The principle of quatity

saying more means more meaning

The principle of symbolicity

The conventional paring of form and meaning

Motivation

A non-arbitrary relaitonship between form and meaning

Deictic expression

An expression whose interpretation depends on the context of speaking

Deictic center (EGO)

The reference point from which person, time, and location are interpreted

Inherent orientation

We assign orientation to objects using a particular perspective

Principle of iconicity

The form or arrangement of language reflects some aspect of its meaning

Lexical categry

A category of content words

Grammatical category

A category expressing grammatical information or relationship

Prototype

The most typical member of a category

Prototypical noun

A noun that refers to a concrete entity

Prototypical adjective

An adjective expressing a property

Prototypical verb

A verb expressing an action or event

Semasiology

Starts with a word and investigates its meaning

Onomasiology

Starts with a concept and investigates how it can be expressed

Lexical field

A group of words related to the same

Salience

The degree to which something stands out cognitively

Fuzzy boundaries

Category boundaries are not always clear-cut

Polysemy

one word has multiple related meaning

Homonymy

The same word form has unrelated meaning W

Bank of a river; a financial bank

Hononymy

Synonymy

Words have similar meaning

Antonymy

Words had opposite meaning

Protype

The most representative member of the category

Free morpheme

Can stand independently as a word

Bound morpheme

Must attach to another morpheme

Lexical morpheme

Carries the main lexical meaning

Grammatical morpheme

Expresses grammatical information or relationship

Allomorph

A variant form of the same morpheme

Compounding

Combing two or more bases to form a word

Derivation

Forming a new lexeme using an affix

Conversion

Changing a word’s grammatical category without changing its form

Back-formation

Creating a shorter word by removing a perceived affix from a longer word

Clipping

Shortening a word while retaing its basic meaning

Blending

Combining parts of two words

Acronym Formation

Forming a word from initial letters or parts of a multiword expression

Derivation morphology

Creates a new leceme or changes meaning or word class.

Inflection morphology

expresses a grammatical feature of an existing lexeme

Compound

Combined words that can stand alone (i.e. blackbird- type of birds)

Syntactic group

combination of separate words governed by regular syntactic and grammatical rules (i.e. black birds)

Conceptual metaphor

Understanding an abstract concept through a more concrete

Embodied simulation

Re-activating perceptual, motor, or mental experiences when understanding language

Source domain

The concrete domain used ot understand another concept

Target domain

The concept being understood through the source domain

Affordance

Actions that an object or environment makes possible for an agent

Conceptual pact

A locally negotiated understanding of how a word is used in a praticular situation

Mental imagery methods path/road

Methods: Paritipants imagined themselves on a path or road and answered questions comparing the two.

Mental imagery define path

often narrower, may be irregular, may have an uncertain direction, and associated with walking

Mental imagery define road

Often wider, often more regular, often has a clearer direction, and associated with driving

Draw a conclusion from the road vs. pathway

People’s physical experiences with paths and roads influence their mental representation of these words

Study 2: Corpus analysis background details

Materials: 1,000 examples of path and 1,000 examples of road. They used Metaphor Identification Procedure, used to identify metaphorical language.

The results of path and road

Path: ways of living, courses of action, and personal development. Road: purposeful activities, life trajectories, and progress towards goals.

What was the main conclusion for study 2

both embodied experience and language experience shape how people understand and use words.

Anglicism

An English word or expression adopted or used in another language

Loanword

A word borrowed from another language

Lexical borrowing

The process of borrowing vocabulary from another language

Onomasiological approach

Studying a concept first and then examining the words used to express it

Type frequency

The number of different lexical items or types in a dataset

Token frequency

The number of occurrences of a word or expression

Relative preference

The preference for one word over competing alternatives when expressing a concept

Lexical gap

The absence of an estabilished word for a particular concept.

Entrenchment

The strengthening of a linguistics representation through repeated use

Luxury loan

A borrowed word for a concept that already has a native language expression

What makes an English loanword successful?

Shortness, concept frequency, lexical gaps, borrowing history, cultural connection, and relative preferences

shortness

shorter words may be easier to use and remember

concept frequency

borrowing for less frequently discussed concepts may succeed when there is alittle competition from other words

Lexical gaps

A borrowing may fill a need when no established native equivalent exist

Borrowing history

A loadword introduced before a native alternative may become established first

Cultural connection

Word associated with ANglo=Americal culture may be especially likely to spread

Relative preferences

Success should be measured against competing expression

linguistic typology

Study and comparison of strucutral type across languages

Synchronic

Studying a language at a particular point in time

Diachronic

Studying language change over time

Cross-linguistics comparison

Comparing two or more languages

Classification

Organizing language into groups according to specified criteria

Genealogical affiliation

A historical relationship based on descent from a common ancestor

Language family

A group of language descended from common ancestral language

Genus

A lower-level grouping within a family in typological classification

Language isolate

A language for which no genealogical relationship with another language has been demonstrated

Areal features

Features shared by neighboring langauges through contact, regardless of their family relationship

Linguistics areas

A geographic area where languages develop shares through prolonged contact

Interlinear glossing

Structure of a language by seperating its morphemes and explaining their grammatical meaning. dog-s into dog-pl.

Object language

The language being analyzed

Gloss

An explanation of the meaning or grammatical function of a word or morpheme

Hyphen

Separates morphemes within a word in interlinear notation

Translation

Translating one langauge in another word.

Language universal

Property shared by all or many human language

Absolute universal

A property claimed to occur in every language

What are examples of absolute universal

Every langauge has a vowels

Statistical universal

A tendency found in most, but not all language

Unrestricted universal

A generalization that applies without additional condition

Implicational universal

A conditional relationship between features.

Unidirectional implication

A conditional relationship that holds in one direction. If X occurs Y, it doesn’t necessarily mean if Y then X.