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Chapter 4. Cognitive motivation in the linguistic realization of requests in Modern Greek

  • Evgenia Vassilaki
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Studies in Figurative Thought and Language
This chapter is in the book Studies in Figurative Thought and Language

Abstract

The chapter attempts to account for conventionalized request realization patterns in Modern Greek and the semantic motivation behind their conventionalization in particular uses. It adheres to recent formulations within Cognitive Linguistics regarding illocutionary meaning as emerging from the co-activation of higher order cognitive structures from linguistically codified patterns and from information available in the context of the interaction. It further argues for the conceptual prominence of the optionality attribute in the request Idealized Cognitive Model, exploring the ways it is linguistically safeguarded in language use. The semantic import of optionality can be best described in terms of the proximity vs. distance to reality metaphor as effected through the grounding specifications of the proposition in Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar.

Abstract

The chapter attempts to account for conventionalized request realization patterns in Modern Greek and the semantic motivation behind their conventionalization in particular uses. It adheres to recent formulations within Cognitive Linguistics regarding illocutionary meaning as emerging from the co-activation of higher order cognitive structures from linguistically codified patterns and from information available in the context of the interaction. It further argues for the conceptual prominence of the optionality attribute in the request Idealized Cognitive Model, exploring the ways it is linguistically safeguarded in language use. The semantic import of optionality can be best described in terms of the proximity vs. distance to reality metaphor as effected through the grounding specifications of the proposition in Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editor and contributors vii
  4. Foreword ix
  5. Introduction. Figurative thought, figurative language, figurative grammar? 1
  6. Part I. Figuration and grammar
  7. Chapter 1. Exploiting wh -questions for expressive purposes 17
  8. Chapter 2. Construing and constructing hyperbole 41
  9. Chapter 3. How to do things with metonymy in discourse 75
  10. Chapter 4. Cognitive motivation in the linguistic realization of requests in Modern Greek 105
  11. Chapter 5. How metonymy and grammar interact 125
  12. Chapter 6. If -clauses and their figurative basis 151
  13. Part II. Figuration and the lexicon
  14. Chapter 7. The hand in figurative thought and language 179
  15. Chapter 8. Shakespeare on the shelf, Blue Helmets on the move 199
  16. Chapter 9. Metaphor, conceptual archetypes and subjectification 231
  17. Part III. Figuration from a cultural-anthropological and psycholinguistic perspective
  18. Chapter 10. Metaphor and metonymy as fanciful “asymmetry” builders 253
  19. Chapter 11. Pragmatic effects in blended figures 273
  20. Chapter 12. The psychological reality of spatio-temporal metaphors 295
  21. Name index 323
  22. Subject index 325
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.56.04vas

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editor and contributors vii
  4. Foreword ix
  5. Introduction. Figurative thought, figurative language, figurative grammar? 1
  6. Part I. Figuration and grammar
  7. Chapter 1. Exploiting wh -questions for expressive purposes 17
  8. Chapter 2. Construing and constructing hyperbole 41
  9. Chapter 3. How to do things with metonymy in discourse 75
  10. Chapter 4. Cognitive motivation in the linguistic realization of requests in Modern Greek 105
  11. Chapter 5. How metonymy and grammar interact 125
  12. Chapter 6. If -clauses and their figurative basis 151
  13. Part II. Figuration and the lexicon
  14. Chapter 7. The hand in figurative thought and language 179
  15. Chapter 8. Shakespeare on the shelf, Blue Helmets on the move 199
  16. Chapter 9. Metaphor, conceptual archetypes and subjectification 231
  17. Part III. Figuration from a cultural-anthropological and psycholinguistic perspective
  18. Chapter 10. Metaphor and metonymy as fanciful “asymmetry” builders 253
  19. Chapter 11. Pragmatic effects in blended figures 273
  20. Chapter 12. The psychological reality of spatio-temporal metaphors 295
  21. Name index 323
  22. Subject index 325
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