Session 2: Descriptive Framework I Gerhard van Huyssteen 21-22 July 2010 CSIR.
-
Upload
dane-simmers -
Category
Documents
-
view
217 -
download
0
Transcript of Session 2: Descriptive Framework I Gerhard van Huyssteen 21-22 July 2010 CSIR.
Session 2: Descriptive Framework I
Gerhard van Huyssteen
21-22 July 2010CSIR
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
[Overview]
•
12
43
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Context
•
1
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
•
Object of Study
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
Object of Study• What do we want to describe? (i.e. what is our
object of study?) – Language, specifically grammar, in accordance
with what is known about the mind and brain from other disciplines• Cf. Cognitive Commitment
• What is grammar?– Grammar is the structured inventory of
conventional linguistic units (Langacker, 1987: ch 2)
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
What is Grammar?Grammar is the structured inventory of conventional linguistic units
– Structures that a speaker has mastered thoroughly, to the extent that s/he can employ it in largely automatic fashion, without having to focus on its individual parts or their arrangement• Prepackaged assemblies that don’t demand constructive
effort• Automatization/habit has occurred
– Content requirement specifies permissible structures to describe:• Phonological, semantic and symbolic structures
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
What is grammar?
Grammar is the structured inventory of conventional linguistic units
Symbolic structure
Phonological structure
Semantic structure
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
What is grammar?
Grammar is the structured inventory of conventional linguistic units
– Conventionality implies that something is shared (and recognised as such) by a substantial number of individuals
– Matter of degree• Idiolects, dialects, natiolects
– Scope of description depends on one’s objectives
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
What is grammar?
Grammar is the structured inventory of conventional linguistic units
– A collection of linguistic resources• Therefore constructive, rather than generative
– Sanctions expressions of the language, rather than generating expressions
• Low-level instantiations as important (if not more) than abstractions
• Inclusion in inventory depends on conventionality/usage
– Structured via relations between components• Symbolisation (see later)• Categorisation (see later)• Integration (see later)
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
•
Field of Study
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
Where do we fit in?
• Discipline:– Linguistics
• Paradigm/Enterprise/School/Movement/Tradition:– Cognitive Linguistics
• Theory:– Cognitive Grammar
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
•
Description Framework
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
Description Framework• Description framework – Provide
• Aims • Methodologies• Methods• Primitives• Constructs• Conceptualisations• Heuristic devices
to construct models (i.e. the output)• All descriptive theories should have such
frameworks
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
•
Output
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
Description Framework and Context VIII
• Output/result of process is a language model– Schemas– Networks– Diagrams– Constituency trees
• These models should contribute to our better understanding of cognition/the human mind– Should contribute to converging evidence
• Similar to other disciplines (e.g. AI)
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
Description Framework and Context VIII
•
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Memory-based Learning
TiMBLComputational Models
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutputs
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Context
•
1
Object of StudyField of StudyDescription FrameworkOutput
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
AimMethodology & Methods
Preliminaries
•
2
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
AimMethodology & Methods
Preliminaries: Aim
• What do we want to do?– To give a natural, conceptually unified and theoretically
austere characterisation (i.e. description) of the systematicity, structure and function of grammar
– Task of linguist• to uncover the systematicity behind and within language• to model these systems• to relate systematicity directly to the way the mind is patterned and
structured, particularly to conceptual structure and organisation, in order to understand human cognition
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
AimMethodology & Methods
Preliminaries: Methodology & Methods
• How do we want to do it?• Methodology– Maximalist: Economy is not necessarily a virtue– Non-reductive: Specific instantions vs schematic ones– Bottom-up: Schemas emerge from usage events
• Methods– Mostly inductive reasoning (based on converging evidence)– Corpus studies, common sense observations and
intuition/introspection – Also psycholinguistic experiments; neurological imaging;
clinical research; computer modelling
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Basic DomainsNonbasic DomainsExample
•
3
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Basic DomainsNonbasic DomainsExample
[Reminder]
• Meaning is a function of content AND construal
• Content ≈ Concepts/conceptions/conceptual structures– Described as domain matrixes
• Construal ≈ Conceptualisation processes– Described in terms of cognitive abilities
• No sharp distinction between content and construal
Domains
• An expression invokes a set of cognitive domains (i.e. a complex domain matrix) as the basis for its meaning (i.e. as the content to be construed)
• Definition: any kind of conception or realm of experience
• Two kinds of domains:– Basic domains– Nonbasic domains
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Basic DomainsNonbasic DomainsExample
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Basic DomainsNonbasic DomainsExample
Domains: Basic Domains
• Most fundamental domains: cognitively irreducible, neither derivable from nor analyzable into other conceptions– Spatial domain (space)– Temporal domain (time)– Sensory domains (senses)
• See (e.g. colour space)• Hear (e.g. pitch scale)• Taste• Smell• Feel (e.g. temperature scale, pressure)
• Not concepts – rather realms of experiential potential, within which conceptualisation can occur and specific concepts can emerge
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Basic DomainsNonbasic DomainsExample
Domains: Nonbasic Domains
• Any conceptualisation capable of being exploited for semantic purposes– Immediate sensory experience (e.g. wet)– Oriented spatial domain (e.g. above)– Quality domain (e.g. tall vs. short)– Quantity domain (e.g. three)– Emotive experience (e.g. fright)– Motor/kinesthetic experience (e.g. drunk)– Abstracted products of intellectual operation (e.g. JUSTICE)– Conceptions at level of conscious awareness (e.g. image of a circle)– Scenarios/scripts (e.g. steps in a recipe)– Frames (e.g. BUY frame)– Idealised Cognitive Models (e.g. FAMILY)
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Basic DomainsNonbasic DomainsExample
Domains: Example
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
Basic DomainsNonbasic DomainsExample
Domains: Example
– Basic domain: space– Shape: sphere– Function1: aesthetic
– Function2: predict future– Material: glass | quartz crystal | other– Size: easily held in one hand– Other: domains pertaining to divination, fortunetelling,
prediction, gypsies, carnival, [Tintin]• Important: NOT necessary and sufficient (distinctive)
feature set; rather open-ended, overlapping, complex matrix
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
GeneralRelevant HereExample
Conceptual Archetypes
•
4
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
GeneralRelevant HereExample
Conceptual Archetypes: General• Definition:
– Frequent, fundamental and experientially grounded concepts that are readily apprehended as coherent conceptual gestalts at an early developmental stage
• Examples:– Physical object– Object in location– Object moving through space– Human body– Human face– Whole and its parts– Container and contents– Exerting force to effect change
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
GeneralRelevant HereExample
Conceptual Archetypes: Relevant Here
• Conceptual archetypes appropriate as prototypes for linguistic categories:
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
GeneralRelevant HereExample
Conceptual Archetypes: Relevant Here
• Shouldn’t create impression that archetypes are arranged in binary, either-or trees– Don’t forget: multiple domains can be part of a
conceptualisation• e.g. [[VLIEG]/[vlieg]] ‘insect’
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
GeneralRelevant HereExample
Conceptual Archetypes: Relevant Here
• Added unbounded thing (not originally in Langacker’s taxonomy)– Pertains to conceptions of boundedness• Also in temporal domain
– Atelic verbs (e.g. speel) profile unboundedness, telic verbs (e.g. knipoog) profile boundedness
– Imperfect aspect (e.g. is playing) profiles unboundedness, perfect aspect (e.g. has played) profiles boundedness
– Mass nouns (e.g. goud) and abstract nouns (e.g. love) profiles unbounded things
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
GeneralRelevant HereExample
Conceptual Archetypes: Example•
ContextPreliminaries
Primitives: DomainsConstructs: Conceptual Archetypes
GeneralRelevant HereExample
[Summary & Next Session]• Now focused more on the content level– Primitives: Domains– Constructs: Conceptual archetypes– For description of concepts/conceptions, this is mostly
the appropriate level of focus• Next Session: focus on construal level– Primitives: Cognitive abilities
• Tomorrow: focus on construal level– Constructs: Aspects of construal and composition