Applications of Cognitive Linguistics

Title: Using memes in the classroom

Abstract:

The particular paper studies the way memes could turn into an educational tool in the classroom when teaching a foreign language. More specifically, an attempt is made a) to find out how memes could get incorporated in the learning process as a classroom activity in order to cultivate the use of figurative mechanisms and b) to discuss further implications of this practice. Our focus in memes resides in the fact that social media plays a major role in the lives of most young people today as they enable them to exchange ideas and express themselves in a creative manner. A meme is actually considered to be a joke digitally disseminated (Wright 1989); it can be a picture or a video which “encourages a type of iteration, imitation, parody and satire” (Marwick 2013: 12). Or to put it differently, “internet memes are a hybrid between a picture and a verbal message” (Harshavardhan, Wilson & Kumar 2019: 48), which carries cultural units and symbols (Wang & Wang 2015). As Harshavardhan, Wilson and Kumar (2019: 45) explain, by exchanging memes, we also exchange cultural features of a country. In terms of Cognitive Linguistics, memes are multimodal constructions (Dancygier & Vandelanotte 2017) that can contribute to the teaching of visual literacy in the language classroom (Romero & Bobkina 2017). Memes have been used in the classroom as tasks to enhance students’ participation (Purnama 2017) or to improve productive lexical skills (Kayali & Altuntaş 2021: 154). The aim of our work is to investigate how memes could give students the opportunity to express ideas in a multimodal and fun alternative way. More specifically, a group of third- and fourth-year students who study Modern Greek as a foreign language at the Department of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Belgrade were asked to create their own memes that would reflect stereotypes about contemporary Greeks and would involve various domains i.e. arts, language, science, politics, food, family etc. The main objectives are: 1) to examine whether multimodal constructions motivate students to participate more actively in the course, 2) to examine the way students combine lexical items and images and 3) to find out what stereotypes about Greeks the Serbian students have formed. Overall, the paper investigates multimodality and language teaching.

References

Dancygier, B. & L. Vandelanotte (2017). Internet memes as multimodal constructions. Cognitive Linguistics 28(3): 565-598.

Harshavardhan, V., D. Wilson & M. V. Kumar (2019). Humour discourse in internet memes: An aid in ESL classrooms. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 29(1), 41-53.

Kayali, N. K. & A. Altuntas (2021). Using memes in the language classroom. Shanlax International Journal of Education 9(3): 155-160.

Marwick, A. (2013). Memes. Contexts 12(4): 12–13.

Purnama, A. (2017). Incorporating memes and Instagram to enhance student’s participation. Language and Language Teaching Journal 20(1): 1-14.

Romero, E. & J. Bobkina (2017). Teaching visual literacy through memes in the language classroom. In K. Donaghy & D. Xerri (eds.), The Image in English Language Teaching. ELT Council, 59- 71.

Wang, J., & Wang, H. (2015). From a marketplace to a cultural space: Online meme as an operational unit of cultural transmission. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 45(3): 261–274.

Wright, A. (1989). Pictures for language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Title: Multimodal metaphor in EFL class

Abstract:

Greece has been following a years-long tradition in EFL examinations and certifications, oftentimes focusing solely on advancing exam skills rather than overall competency in English. The idea of maintaining higher standards and allowing students to fail (Andrade 2010) is uncommon and students rarely fail English exams even though their English skills are not up to par. What may be needed is a variety of communicative materials that can be administered in class in a learner- oriented way.

One such type of material will be discussed in this presentation and is none other than comics. Reading comics does not inhibit other types of reading (Ujiie & Krashen 1996) and in truth, it may facilitate heavier reading (Krashen 1993). Although other types of visual material can be used too such as movies, comics combine a “permanent, visual component” (Williams 1995:2) with dialogue that is “permanent, but not visual” (ibid:3). The major difference between reading a text in an EFL coursebook and reading through a comic is that the reader processes both the concrete and abstract messages being delivered while being fully engaged in what they are doing (Potter et al. 2014). It is the multimodality of the form that facilitates this engagement and allows for the development of visual literacy (Derrick 2008). Naturally, in comics the majority of language used is metaphorical which is yet another challenging area in EFL teaching (Chen & Lai 2013).

This presentation goes through the construction of an EFL lesson which employs comics and makes use of a single running metaphor throughout the comic to promote understanding of what a conceptual metaphor is and how it applies to vocabulary of all sorts seen throughout a student’s EFL journey. This lesson serves as an example of how other lessons have been structured and applied to an EFL class. There is also demonstration of how tasks can be built on the basis of metaphor and explore Greek students’ views on the lessons and how they have overall helped them.

References

Andrade, M. S. (2010). Increasing accountability: Faculty perspectives on the English language competence of nonnative English speakers. Journal of Studies in International Education 14(3): 221-239.

Derrick, J. (2008). Using comics with ESL/EFL students. The Internet TESL Journal 14(7). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Derrick-UsingComics.html

Krashen, S. D. (1993). The power of reading. Englewood, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Potter, M. C., B. Wyble, C. E. Hagmann & E. S. McCourt (2014). Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 76(2): 270–279.

Ujiie, J. & S. D. Krashen (1996). Comic book reading, reading enjoyment, and pleasure reading among middle class and Chapter 1 middle school students. Reading Improvement 33(1): 51-54.

Yi-chen, C. & L. Huei-ling (2013). Teaching English idioms as metaphors through cognitive-oriented methods: A case in an EFL writing class. English Language Teaching 6(6): 13- 20.

Title: Teaching English conditional constructions through a Cognitive Linguistics approach

Abstract:

Conditional constructions pose great difficulties to EFL learners, due to their inherent conceptual and semantic complexity, as well as their ability to convey multiple meanings and serve various communicative purposes. Descriptive grammars of English, pedagogical grammars and EFL textbooks used in EFL contexts present conditionals in a rather linear way. These materials primarily focus on the formal aspects of conditionals, suggesting a rule-based approach to grammar. Their main concern is to present the verb form differences observed in each type, while specific verb form combinations are presented as the only instances of grammatically correct use. Semantic and pragmatic features of conditional constructions are only partially addressed. Furthermore, conditional constructions are not always presented in meaningful contexts, and if they are, these contexts do not represent the whole spectrum of their uses. Learners are therefore invited to memorize a couple of grammar rules and make generalizations.

The main objective of this presentation is to provide a pedagogically-oriented and at the same time cognitive linguistics-based approach to teaching English conditionals. The approach is informed by current linguistic theory and provides a usage-based presentation of conditionals. Initially, I intend to investigate the cognitive principles underlying the various types of conditional constructions in English and determine how conditional constructions are viewed and conceptualized within the Cognitive Linguistics framework. Drawing on Mental Spaces Theory (Fauconnier, 1994) and Conceptual Integration Theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 1996), we probe into the deeper cognitive needs underlying conditional constructions and shed more light on their semantic motivations. The analysis of conditional constructions provided in the study enables learners to become aware of form-meaning correspondences and understand how the form is motivated by meaning.

The suggested approach to teaching English conditionals is informed by current insights in foreign language teaching and learning, and attempts to combine the principles of CL and Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT). In this context, I provide pedagogical implications and practical suggestions aimed at different levels of EFL learners. Eventually, I propose a variety of activities and teaching practices which will serve as a guide for English language teachers and will hopefully facilitate the learning and acquisition of English conditional constructions.

References

Fauconnier, G. (1994). Mental spaces [2^nd edition]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fauconnier, G. & M. Turner (1996). Blending as a central process of grammar. In A. Goldberg (ed.), Conceptual structure, discourse, and language. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 113-130.

Title: Investigating the phraseology of ‘νους’: An exercise in cognitive lexicography

Abstract:

Phraseology has undergone a reconceptualization in light of corpus linguistics and cognitive linguistics. On the one hand, corpus linguistic research has broadened its scope by demonstrating that speech is largely composed of prefabricated, more or less fixed multiword expressions (MWEs), variously labelled as collocations, formulas, n-grams, lexical bundles, etc. (for an overview see Gray & Biber 2015). On the other hand, cognitive linguistic studies have revealed the conceptual metaphors underlying idiomatic expressions, thus suggesting a degree of compositionality of the idiomatic meaning (for an overview see Abdelzaher 2021: 573-4). Cognitive linguistic theories can contribute to the interpretation of corpus findings about MWEs and this has considerable implications for lexicography. As Geeraerts (2007: 1168) explains, what cognitive linguistics can contribute to lexicography is a more realistic conception of semantic structure. While corpus linguistics has revolutionized lexicography by providing access to vast amounts of authentic language data and by foregrounding the role of context, cognitive linguistics can make dictionary entries more reasonable and streamlined. Relevant studies mainly propose ways of ordering and defining senses to make semantic relations more transparent; however, MWEs have not received much attention.

In this context, the present study aims to apply two strands of cognitive linguistics, Frame Semantics and the Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy Theory, to the analysis of Greek MWEs with a view to improving their lexicographic treatment. A noun of abstract semantic content from the domain of mental activity, νους (‘mind’), is used as a case study due to its rich phraseology. We first briefly review the νους entry in three comprehensive dictionaries of Modern Greek: Λεξικό της Κοινής Νεοελληνικής (1998), Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας (2012) and Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας (2014). Then we select some of the most frequent 3- and 4-grams for νους (e.g. έχοντας κατά νου, έρχεται στο νου, φέρνει στο νου, το νου σου, μην πάει ο νους, το χωράει ο νους, βγάζω από το νου) in the elTenTen2014 corpus accessed through Sketch Engine to illustrate the analysis of MWEs in terms of source and target frame mappings motivated by conceptual metaphors and metonymies. Based on the cognitive analysis of corpus data we propose a motivated structure for the representation of phraseology in the νους entry.

References

Abdelzaher, E. (2021). Cognitive linguistics and digital lexicography. In X. Wen & J. Taylor (eds.), The Routledge handbook of cognitive linguistics, New York/ London: Routledge, 43-77.

Geeraerts, D. (2007). Lexicography. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (eds.), The Oxford handbook of cognitive linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1160-1174.

Gray, B. & Biber, D. (2015). Phraseology. In D. Biber & R. Reppen (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of English corpus linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 125-145.

Title: Mensuration and cognitive shifts. Mycenean texts and later Greek

Abstract:

We can count in our own language only, linguistics rightly claims. This paper seeks to explore the cognitive mechanisms that underpin the Ancient Greek system of surface measurement, which in its history appears to have undergone a seemingly radical reform.

Nowadays areal measurement relies on metrical units that pertain to surface, acres, hectares, square metres. In the Mycenean feudalistic society (14th-12th cs B.C.), in which political power was a direct reflection of the tenure of land one could possess, parcels of land were measured in terms of quantified dry capacity, along the following logic: when a part of land is cultivated with grains, it will normally produce on average a specific amount of seed. The product of the tilled land was measured with a numerical unit which denoted its capacity; that unit of capacity was then becoming an (in)direct calibration of how extant the land was. The conceptual quantification of this sort was the sole method of measuring surfaces in Mycenean times. Mycenean and Minoan civilizations collapsed abruptly, and a ‘medieval’ period with no texts intervened. In the Greek texts of the 8th c. B.C. onwards surfaces were measured in terms of areal metrical units only, (πόδες, πλέθρα).

A series of interesting questions emerge:

The Mycenean method of counting is a direct reflection of an agricultural notion which must have affected their cognitive schemas of mensuration. Was it an indigenous metrological form of cognition? If it actually was a native way of measurement, why and how did it change in later times?

On the other hand, Mycenean Linear B was a non-indigenous writing system, it originated from the East. Would it be possible to think that the Greeks borrowed a foreign writing system and the numerical cognitive mechanisms it implied? And if that were the case, why do we still feel that we can count in our own language only? Is it possible on a typological basis to argue that modes of cognition can actually be transferred?

The answers to these questions will definitely contribute to our understanding of cognitive mechanisms concerning measurement practices and they will also improve our understanding of the concept of number as a linguistic phenomenon.

References

Chambon, G. (2011). Numeracy and metrology. In K. Radner & E. Robson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 51-67.

Lewy, H. (1949). Origin and development of the sexagesimal system of numeration. Journal of the American Oriental Society 69(1): 1-11.

Title: Metaphorical healings of the Mind in Greek parliamentary debates

Abstract:

The human Mind is embodied and enactive (Lakoff & Johnson 1999), but also social and environmentally embedded (e.g. Maiese & Hanna 2019). Embodied cognition is supported within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics, which also embraces Conceptual Metaphor Theory (introduced by Lakoff & Johnson 1980). Naturally, there is substantial research on metaphor employment in political discourse (e.g. Musolff 2016), highlighting its significance in the understanding of how politicians think, and in the way they use it as a persuasive device to form their profile and achieve their goals. The present study sees the Mind as a complex system and seeks to examine its conceptualizations in Greek parliamentary discourse. More specifically, it focuses on the conceptual metaphor the Mind is ill, aiming to shed some light on its linguistic manifestations, and to further explore whether the prioritization of particular parts of the Mind is linked to the politicians’ ideology.

A corpus of 40.551.841 words was compiled, by using all the speeches that were delivered in the Greek parliament in the years 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2018. By overlaying Lakoff’s moral politics (2002) to the Greek politics, the domain of health/illness was chosen as the source domain of the metaphorical expressions considered in the study. The words εξυγ*, θεράπ*/θεραπ*, παθογ* and άρρωστ*/αρρώστ*/αρρωστ* were used as search terms to be entered in AntConc (Anthony 2018). After examining all the concordance hits provided by the software, MIPVU (Steen et al. 2010) was applied, along with a close reading of the linguistic framework that the search terms were in. In this way, five lists were created (for the political parties of New Democracy, PASOK/DISI, SYNASPISMOS/SYRIZA, KKE and GD), with each one containing the metaphorical expressions that had the examined search term in the source-domain slot of the expression, and the system of the Mind in the target domain.

It seems that there is a variety of linguistic manifestations of the Mind is ill conceptual metaphor in parliamentary debates. What is more, there are differences in the employment of such metaphors by the representatives of political parties, which can be linked to the politicians’ ideology.

References

Anthony, L. (2018). AntConc (Version 3.5.7) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Available from https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software.

Lakoff, G. (2002). Moral politics: How liberals and conservatives think. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1999). Philosophy in the flesh. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Maiese, M. & R. Hanna (2019). The mind-body politic. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Musolff, A. (2016). Political metaphor analysis: discourse and scenarios. London: Bloomsbury.

Steen, G. J., A. G. Dorst, J. B. Hermann, A. Kaal, T. Krennmayr & T. Pasma (2010). A method for linguistic metaphor identification: from MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Title: The domain of Illness in Greek: Adjectival constructions in evoking figurative language

Abstract:

The domain of illness in modern Greek is largely conceptualised and expressed figuratively, mainly through the use of metaphors and metonymies. In terms of constructions, this is often realised through the employment of the adjectives that modify the nouns expressing aspects of illness jointly with the immediate context such as the verbs and/or the subordinate sentences that modify the aforementioned nouns. In this talk, I will demonstrate the figurative potential of specific entities of the domain of illness, focusing mainly on adjectival constructions and the immediate context preceding and following the constructions that express those entities.

Using authentic linguistic material from corpora in Sketch Engine, I will demonstrate how adjectives affect the conceptualisation and the expression of noun entities of the domain of illness such as ασθένεια and αρρώστια in internet discourse. I will analyse a number of pieces of discourse, starting with the adjectival constructions that modify nouns expressing illness and moving on to the rest of the immediate context. In this way, the metaphors, the metonymies, and the connections between them will be revealed.

My framework is Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson 1980). The analysis will also take into account the conceptual tools of autonomy and dependence present in the adjectival constructions, as treated by Langacker (1991) and Sullivan (2013).

My data analysis will show that, depending on the adjectives employed by the speaker, autonomy and dependence relations may shift between nouns and adjectives, irrespective of the literal or figurative status of the disease talked about. Additionally, the analysis will demonstrate how the nouns expressing illness may refer to literal or figurative illness, and how illness may be conceptualised and expressed figuratively whether the speaker refers to literal or figurative illness.

References

Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Langacker, R. W. (1991). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. II: Descriptive application. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.

Sullivan, K. (2013). Frames and constructions in metaphoric language. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Title: Conceptualizations of movement and separation in two plays by August Wilson: The role of cognitive allegory

Abstract:

According to recent scholarship in Cognitive Linguistics, allegory is defined as “a cognitive action in which people apply a metaphoric mode of understanding to situations and discourse that typically does not contain metaphorical language per se” (Gibbs 2011: 121). More specifically, organized elements of an extended text comprise a source domain for an implicit target domain which is not explicitly encoded in language, yet clearly structures the meaning of the surface text. Thus, while allegory is not a type of metaphor, strictly speaking, the recognition and interpretation of allegory clearly involves metaphorical and/or analogical reasoning. Common conceptual metaphors, such as life is a journey, or well-known culture-specific adages, such as “Good fences make good neighbors,” often provide a narrative structure which overlays the meaning of an extended text.  In another line of related research, Kövecses (2015) argues that the meaning of a metaphorical/ analogical construction is shaped by both universal conditions of embodiment as well as culture specific contextual variation.

In the present study, I draw on the work of Gibbs (2011) and Kövecses (2015) to explore narratives of movement and separation which motivate meanings of key passages from two plays, The Piano Lesson (1988) and Fences (1986), written by the renowned African American playwright August Wilson. In The Piano Lesson, for example, physical movement from one place to another is a commonly occurring motif.  Consider Extract 1 below.

Extract 1

“Now I’ll tell you something about the railroad.  What I done learned after twenty-seven years.  See, you got North.  You got West.  You look over here you got South.  Over there you got East.  Now, you can start from anywhere.  Don’t care where you at.  You got to go one of them four ways.  And which ever way you decide to go they got a railroad that will take you there.”  (The Piano Lesson, 1988, p. 18)

In Extract 1, the immediate context of the text world foregrounds a character who is assessing his current life of opportunity, having experiencing a number of hardships in the past.  Although there are no explicitly encoded metaphors in the extract, the conceptual metaphor life is a journey is implicit in the interpretation of the character’s experience, which is construed allegorically. Furthermore, the implicit conceptual metaphor is motivated by an actual historical event central to the experience of many characters in the play, that of the Great Migration of African Americans from Southern USA to Northern USA in the first half of the 20^th century, due to racial segregation and harsh economic conditions experienced by African Americans in the American South.  In my analysis, I suggest that both context and embodiment are relevant in motivating the metaphorical meanings implicit in the extract.

References

Gibbs, R. W. (2011). The allegorical impulse. Metaphor and Symbol 26: 121-130.

Kövecses, Z. (2015). Where metaphors come from: Reconsidering context in metaphor.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Title: Understanding un-natural narrators: cognitive underpinnings of the creation of empathy with the narrator in Borges’s The House of Asterion

Abstract:

The present paper aims to apply the tools of cognitive narratology to Borges’s short story The House of Asterion. More specifically, the paper draws on current cognitive theories on the approach of narrative discourse (Dancygier’s blending of narrative spaces and Story Viewpoint Space 2007, 2012) as well as current research on the neurocognitive underpinnings for the interpretation of literary narratives (Jacobs & Willems 2018) in order to explore the way that the text guides its readers towards the gradual reconstruction of the storyworld, an important aspect of which is the identification of the narrator (Asterion) as the mythic entity of Minotaur. On a second level, the paper makes use of current theories in the field of cognitive linguistics (Martínez 2018a, 2018b) that aim to explain narrative engagement and immersion as well as neurocognitive research on the neural network of empathy and perspective-taking (Lamm, Batson & Decety 2007), to reveal the manner in which readers are prompted to reconcile their human viewpoint with the narratorial anomaly of the text so that empathy with an un-natural, non-human narrator is created. Finally, it should be noted that the paper presents the theoretical part of a broader project that aims to test tools and concepts of cognitive narratology with real readers. It thus contributes not only to cognitive poetics but also hopes to suggest ways in which cognitive linguistics, study of reader-response and neurocognitive research can be brought together.

References

Borges, J. L. (2009). Το σπίτι του Αστέριου. Στο Α. Κυριακίδης, (επιμ.), Χόρχε Λουίς Μπόρχες: Άπαντα τα πεζά. Αθήνα: Ελληνικά Γράμματα.

Dancygier, B. (2007). Narrative anchors and the process of story construction: The case of Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. Style 41(2): 133-151.

Dancygier, B. (2012). The language of stories: A cognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lamm, C., C. D. Batson & J. Decety (2007). The neural substrate of human empathy: effects of perspective-taking and cognitive appraisal. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19(1): 42-58.

Mar, A. R. (2004). The neuropsychology of narrative: Story comprehension, story production and their interrelation. Neuropsychologia 42: 1414-1434.

Martínez, M. Á. (2018a). Storyworld possible selves. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter Mouton.

Martínez, M. Á. (2018b). Empathy versus engagement: A storyworld possible selves approach to narrative discourse. In M. Á. Gómez González & J. L. Mackenzie (eds.), The construction of discourse as verbal interaction. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 251-272.