Leonard Talmy

Liliya Yakupova

MSU, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies

Moscow2015

Cognitive Linguistics

L. Talmythe State University of New York in Buffalo

photo: Uwe Feuerbach

PublicationsBooks: Toward a Cognitive

Semantics (2000) -- two volumes The Attention System of

Language (forthcoming)Published Articles: "The Relation of Grammar to

Cognition" "Force Dynamics in Language and

Cognition" "How Language Structures Space" "Fictive Motion in Language and

`Ception'" "Lexicalization Patterns" "The Representation of Spatial

Structure in Spoken and Signed Languages: a Neural Model"

"Recombinance in the Evolution of Language"

Talmy’s Cognitive Linguistics Language as a cognitive system

shares some of its fundamental features with other cognitive systems (e.g. visual perception, attention).

Language also has some unique features which distinguish it from other cognitive systems.

“Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Volume 1” revision by Pavel Stranák 1) the grammatical and lexical subsystems of language;

2) the system of space and time in language:

• “fictive motion” • the structuring of space by language

…

“Fictive Motion” / The Fictivity Theory“The mountain range goes from Canada to Mexico.”

“The sun is shining into the cave.”

(similar to Lakoff and Johnson’s approach)

3) attention:• How does omitting or mentioning of participants of situations influence the meaning of a sentence?

• “figure” and “ground” relations4) Force and Causation / Force Dynamics

Force Dynamics Agonist vs Antagonist“The ball kept rolling because of the wind blowing on it.”

“The shed kept standing despite the gale wind blowing against it.”

“The water’s dripping on it made the fire die down.” “The enemy overcame us as we stood defending the

border.”

Wind Ball

WindShed

Force Dynamics A) autonomousEx. “The ball’s hitting it made the lamp

topple.”

B) agentiveEx. “I made the lamp topple by hitting

it with the ball.”