Cognitive semantics of G Lakoff CSCTR Session 5

Cognitive semantics of G. Lakoff CSCTR – Session 5 Dana Retová

Cognitive linguistics � School of linguistics within cognitive science that conceives language creation, learning and usage as a part of a larger psychological theory of how human understand the world � Emerged in the 1970 s � It advocates three principal positions: ◦ It denies the existence of an autonomous linguistic faculty in the mind ◦ It understands linguistic phenomena in terms of conceptualization ◦ It claims that knowledge of language arises out of language use.

Cognitive linguistics � Shift of focus on semantics and embodiment � The conceptual structure originates in our preconceptual experiences. � We tend to structure our experience on the basic level of conceptualization that is characterized by �Gestelt perception �Mental imagery �Motor competence

Categorization Lakoff’s “Woman, Fire and Dangerous Things: What categories reveal about the mind. ” Categorization is one of the most basic ability of living beings. ◦ Even amoeba categorizes the things into food and nonfood. ◦ Animals categorize food predators, possible mates, members of their own species, etc. Why do we need categorization? ◦ Reduction in complexity of rich sensory input ◦ Generalization

What exactly categories are? Objectivistic Aristotelian view ◦ Woman, fire and dangerous things have some properties in common Research on categories ◦ Wittgenstein Family resemblances Central and non-central members ◦ Berlin & Kay Neurophysiology of vision Colors are not objectively “out there” ◦ Eleanor Rosh

Eleanor Rosch Prototype theory ◦ Research in New Guinea Dani language Mili = dark/cool (black, green, blue) Mola = light/warm (white, red, yellow) ◦ They choose focal colors as best examples ◦ Primary colors are psychologically real even if they can’t name them ◦ Focal colors are learned more readily

Eleanor Rosch Asymmetry ◦ Prototypical members are more representative than other members ◦ New information about a representative member is more likely to be generalized E. g. Mexico is similar to USA vs USA is similar to Mexico Cognitive reference points ◦ The basis for inferences E. g 10, 1000 000 98 is more like 100 than 100 is like 98

Basic-level categories Eleanor Rosch Brown and Berlin ◦ Basic level in nature

Basic-level categories

Basic-level categories Eleanor Rosch Brown and Berlin ◦ Basic level in nature People tend to name things on the level of genus instead of species Short, most frequent, simple Learned early in children, more readily Greater cultural significance Perceived as gestalts

Levels of conceptualization • Fruit Superordinate • Apple Basic Subordinate • Golden delicious apple • Jonagold apple • Granny Smith apple

Basic-level categories 1. ◦ 2. ◦ 3. ◦ 4. ◦ Mental images It is the highest level at which a single mental image can represent the entire category Gestalt perception It is the highest level at which category members have similarly perceived overall shapes Motor programs It is the highest level at which a person uses similar motor actions for interacting with category members. Knowledge structure It is the level at which most of our knowledge is organized

Why do “Aristotelian” categories seem right? And why so many philosophers supported objective categorization? It seems that on basic level, most categories map pretty well to reality. Notice that philosophical discussions about the relationship between our categories and things in the world tend to use basic-level examples ◦ The cat is on the mat ◦ The boy hit the ball

Spatial-relations concepts How we make sense of space around us ◦ We automatically “perceive” one entity as in, or across from another entity. ◦ However such perception depends on an enormous amount of unconscious mental activity ◦ Most spatial relations are complexes made up of elementary spatial relation E. g. into, on ◦ Elementary spatial relation have own structure Image schema Profile Trajector-landmark structure

Spatial-relations concepts English in consists of ◦ Container schema (a bounded region in space) ◦ Profile that highlights the interior of the schema ◦ A structure that identifies the boundary of the interior as the landmark ◦ Object overlapping with the interior as a trajector. Spatial relations have built-in spatial “logics” ◦ Given 2 containers, A and B, and an object X, if A is in B and X is in A, then X is in B.

Container schema Structure of container schema ◦ Inside ◦ Boundary ◦ Outside It is a gestalt structure ◦ The parts make no sense without the whole There is no inside without an inside The structure is topological ◦ The boundary can be made larger, smaler or distorted and still remain boundary

Source-path-goal schema Structure of source-path-goal schema ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ A trajector that moves A source location A goal A route from the source to the goal The actual trajectory of motion The position of the trajector at a given time The direction of the trajector at that time The actual final location of the trajector (which may or may not be the intended destination) It too has internal spatial logic and built-in inferences

Internal logic of this schema If you have traversed a route to a current location, you have been at all previous locations of that route. If you travel from A to B and from B to C, then you have traveled from A to C. If there is a direct route from A to B and you are moving along that route toward B, then you will keep getting closer to B. If X and Y are traveling along a direct route from A to B and X passes Y, then X is further from A and closer to B than Y is. If X and Y start from A at the same time moving along the same route toward B and if X moves faster than Y, then X will arrive at B before Y.

Bodily projections Clear instances how our body shapes conceptual structure ◦ In front of we project fronts and backs onto objects Artifacts (the side with which we interact) Natural objects, e. g. trees (the side which faces us) ◦ The cat is behind the tree only relative to our capacity to project fronts and backs onto trees and to impose relations onto visual scenes relative to such projections

Other image schemas and elements of spatial relations Part-whole Center-periphery Link Cycle Iteration Contact Adjacency Forced motion ◦ Pushing / pulling, … Support Balance Near-far Orientations ◦ Vertical ◦ Horizontal ◦ Front-back

Conceptual metaphor theory � Classical theories viewed metaphors as novel or poetic linguistic expressions outside the realm of ordinary everyday language. � Metaphor has is in many cases central to understanding the meaning of many abstract concepts. �Many concepts that are important to us are either abstract or not well-defined in our experience � emotions, thoughts, time, … �We need to mediate access to them through the concepts that we understand more clearly � spatial orientation, objects, …

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

US Declaration of Independence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ”

Conceptual metaphors � Metaphors are “general mappings across conceptual domain” (Lakoff, 1992). ◦ Metaphoric projection is equivalent to simultaneous activation of neural maps in the brain. � We do not have to define the domains of experience linguistically; they are inherent in our experience. � This mapping has common structure

Consequences of metaphor theory Human intelligence is a product of ◦ Conceptualization concepts at basic-level spatial /force dynamic concepts ◦ Metaphor allows the mind to use a few basic ideas (substance, location, force, goal) to understand more abstract domains. Combinatorics allows a finite set of simple ideas to give rise to an infinite set of complex ones

Role of metaphors in reasoning � Metaphors are “general mappings across conceptual domain” (Lakoff, 1992). ◦ Metaphoric projection is equivalent to simultaneous activation of neural maps in the brain. � � We do not have to define the domains of experience linguistically; they are inherent in our experience. This mapping has common structure: SOURCE DOMAIN RELATIONSHIP LOVE IS A JOURNEY TARGET DOMAIN

Example of conceptual metaphor � ANGER IS HOT FLUID IN CONTAINER � His anger reached the top � His blood boiled � He was blowing off steam � He was about to blow out SOURCE – HOT FLUID IN A CONTAINER → TARGET - ANGER Container → Body Temperature / fluid level → Intensity of anger Temperature of the fluid / container → Body temperature Pressure in the container → Blood pressure Simmer of fluid → Shivering of the body Explosion → Loss of self-control Cold / still fluid → Absence of anger

Simple metaphor processing HAPPY IS UP ◦ When evaluating words as positive or negative, people are faster when word is flashed correspondingly (Meier & Robinson, 2004) Metaphorical movement ◦ Quicker pushing button near/far to their bodies upon reading Adam conveyed the message to you / You conveyed the message to Adam

More complex metaphors ? Cannot be learned by mere association Similarity ? ◦ Learn that GOAL IS A JOURNEY by association ◦ Extent the metaphor to relationship because goals are similar SOURCE DOMAIN RELATIONSHIP GOAL: ◦ Abstract concept doing all the work LOVE IS A JOURNEY TARGET DOMAIN

Consequences of metaphor theory Human intelligence is a product of ◦ Conceptualization concepts at basic-level spatial /force dynamic concepts ◦ Metaphor allows the mind to use a few basic ideas (substance, location, force, goal) to understand more abstract domains. Combinatorics allows a finite set of simple ideas to give rise to an infinite set of complex ones Framing of a problem is important

“Dead” metaphor debade 2 views: a) After the metaphor is used long enough, “the ladder is kicked away” people seem to use “dead” metaphors without really using original metaphorical sources. b) All metaphorical projections are real Human mind can directly think only about concrete experiences Capacity for abstract thoughts evolved from primate capacity to cope with the physical and social world and capacity to extend these to new domains by metaphorical abstraction

Metaphors are alive! Apparently in some cases, people not only do access the underlying metaphor but are readily able to generate new examples: SOURCE DOMAIN RELATIONSHIP LOVE IS A JOURNEY TARGET DOMAIN

Metaphor in science

Reasoning with abstract elements Skeleton of spatial and force-dynamic concepts like ◦ Thing, substance, aggregate, place, path, agonist, antagonist, goal, means, … What is the role of metaphor then? ◦ There are tools of inference that can be carried over from the physical to the nonphysical realms, where they can do real work Space, time, causation If A moves B over to C, then B was at C at a previous time, though now it is. ◦ They support analogical reasoning “A is to B as X is to Y” The source (e. g. a journey) is stripped down to some essential components (A, B, C) The metaphor puts these components into correspondence with the components of the target (X, Y, Z) One can reason about these components using experience with the source domain

Metaphor in reasoning Metaphor can power sophisticated inferences ◦ Paintbrush problem (Schön, 1993) Paintbrush as a pump

Metaphors in reasoning Typical case is „framing“ ◦ Many arguments are not based on disagreement in data or use of logic but the frame in which the problem is set Which metaphor is used to describe it ◦ Example: Tversky & Kahneman A new type of virus appeared. 600 people are infected and will die without treatment 2 programs of fighting the epidemics are suggested: Treatment A: 200 people will be saved Treatment B: with p=1/3 all 600 people will survive and with p=2/3 no one will survive. Doctors would choose A – certainty to risk

Metaphors in reasoning Typical case is „framing“ ◦ Many arguments are not based on disagreement in data or use of logic but the frame in which the problem is set Which metaphor is used to describe it ◦ Example: Tversky & Kahneman A new type of virus appeared. 600 people are infected and will die without treatment 2 programs of fighting the epidemics are suggested: Treatment C: 400 people will die Treatment D: with p=1/3 no one will die and with p=2/3 all 600 will die. Doctors would choose D – risk to certainty

Metaphors in reasoning Treatment as “gain” (saved lives) Treatment as “loss” (lost lives) A: 200 will survive C: 400 will die B: p=1/3; 600 will survive p=2/3; 600 will die D: p=1/3; 600 will survive p=2/3; 600 will die Unpleasant feeling from the loss is stronger than pleasant feeling from gain Risk aversion of people

Is it all a matter of framing? Abstract concepts are acquired through associative conditioning with the source domain ◦ There is no objective truth but only competing metaphors which are more or less apt for the purposes of the people who live by them Liberating Iraq vs. Invading Iraq “Show me a relativist at 30, 000 feet and I will show you a hypocrite” (R. Dawkins) ◦ Scientific metaphors are not merely “useful” in teaching abstract concepts ◦ It seems that some metaphors can express truths about the world

Is most of our thinking metaphorical? Glucksberg & Keysar (1993) ◦ Conventional metaphor: “Love is a patient (challenge)”, said Lisa. “I feel that this relationship is on its last legs (in trouble). How can we have a strong marriage if you keep admiring other women? ” “You’re infected with this disease” ◦ Novel metaphor: “Love is a patient”, said Lisa. “I feel that this relationship is about to flatline. How can we administer the medicine if you keep admiring other women? ”

TIME IS SPACE metaphor 3 D domain of space is inherently more concrete and richly organized than the 1 D domain of time Metaphor in language acquisition ◦ In children (Bowerman, 1983) Can I have any reading behind [=after] the dinner? The balloons is on the other side, after I ate. But there might have been more on the first side [=before eating] Today we’ll be packing because tomorrow there won’t be enough space to pack Friday is covering Saturday and Sunday so I can’t have Saturday and Sunday if I don’t go through Friday.

TIME IS SPACE metaphor We do not necessarily conceptualize time as space ◦ Kemmerer (2005) Double dissociation in brain-damaged patients “She is at the corner” vs. “She arrived at 1: 30” “She ran through the forest” vs. “She worked through the evening” Different circuits responsible for understanding space and time

TIME IS SPACE metaphor Or do we? ◦ Casasanto & Boroditsky (2008) Time and space are asymmetrically dependent representational domains Space being a more rich and embodied domain It is used more often to represent time than time is used to represent space Spatial dimension directly affects temporal estimation Duration of an event has no effect on length estimation

TIME metaphors ◦ “Wednesday meeting has been moved forward two days. ” ◦ What day will it fall on? TIME IS A PROCESSION vs. TIME IS A LANDSCAPE (Boroditski, 2000)

Ego-moving vs. Time-moving Gentner et al. (2002, p. 539)

Cultural variance Núñez & Sweetser (2006): ◦ Speakers of Aymara face the past and have their backs to the future Nayra = past (eye, sight, or front) Q’’ipa = future (behind, back) Q’’ipüru = tomorrow = q’’ipa + uru (some day behind one’s back) ◦ Analyzed gestures use when talking about time

Questions?