Berlin Gesture Center | Interdisziplinäres BGC-Kolloquium
Vortrag von Alan Cienki:
Gesture and Cognitive Linguistics
Freitag, 7. Juli 2006, 19 Uhr, Boltzmannstr. 3 (Raum 1105), 14195 Berlin (U-Bahnhof
Thielplatz)
Cognitive linguistics is a cover term for a group of different approaches to
the study of how and why languages are structured as they are. They share
a common goal of conforming with existing research from cognitive psychology
about conceptualization. In this talk I will provide an overview of how
research on gesture with speech relates to various approaches in cognitive linguistics.
Specific fields to be considered will include: image schemas (basic patterns
in our embodied experience), metaphor and metonymy (as potential expressions
of figurative thought), cognitive models, mental spaces (small conceptual "packets"
constructed as we think and talk), and blending / conceptual integration.
On the level of grammar, morpological and syntactic structures are viewed in
cognitive linguistics as closely tied to the semantic structures which they
symbolize. Since spontaneous gesture can help reveal how speakers are
formulating and using lexicalized concepts while speaking, it can provide important
evidence to support or question existing analyses in approaches such as cognitive
grammar or construction grammar and it can help guide future analyses.
Finally, the incorporation of gesture data fits with the aim in cognitive linguistics
to consider the experiential background of language in use. To be consistent,
this approach must go beyond analysis of written language, and in this category
we can include transcripts of speech, which are always at risk of being considered
more "words on the page" to be analyzed.
The talk will be given in English.