Volume 28, Issue 1 -

Recent groundbreaking work in cognitive linguistics has revealed the semantic complexity of motion metaphors of time and of temporal frames of reference. In most approaches the focus has been on the clause-level metaphorical meaning of expressions, such as Moving Ego ( We are approaching the end of the year ) and Moving Time (both Ego-centered , as in The end of the year is approaching and field-based , as in Boxing Day follows Christmas Day ). The detailed grammatical structure of these metaphorical expressions, on the other hand, has received less attention. Such details include both elements that contribute to the metaphorical meaning and those that have a non-metaphorical temporal function, e. g., tense and (central features of) aspect. I propose a model for the analysis of metaphorical expressions, building on earlier work in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG). I approach the grammatical structure of metaphorical expressions by analyzing the interplay between veridical and metaphorical systems of expressing temporal relations. I argue that these systems relate to two relevant conceptualizations of time. Veridical time (VT) is the non-metaphorical conceptualization of time, where the processual profile of the clause-level metaphorical expression resides. A metaphorical path (MP) is the metaphorical conceptualization of time as a path occupied by the metaphorical motion. A motion metaphor of time tracks the mover ’s changing position on the MP against VT. I show how metaphorical expressions based on a motion verb differ from those based on a prepositional construction in grammatical and semantic terms, and how tense and aspect contribute to the conceptualization of the motion scenario. I argue that tense grounds the metaphorical motion event with respect to the speech event. All the participants in the motion event, as well as the metaphorical path itself, are present in each subsequent configuration tracked against VT by the conceptualizer. Thus tense has a wide scope over the motion scenario with Ego’s ‘now’ as a reference point, while Ego’s ‘now’ cannot serve for grounding of tense. This is why expressions such as * The meeting is difficult ahead of us are not acceptable.

A growing body of literature has established that spatiotemporal metaphoric reasoning processes can be affected by the active experience of motion (such as actual motion, fictive motion, and abstract motion). In this study, the effects of metaphoric gestures on spatiotemporal metaphor use and the effects of addressee perspective on comprehension of these gestures are investigated. Participants were asked an ambiguous question that yields different responses depending on which metaphor variant is used. This question was asked with simultaneously produced metaphoric gestures depicting either sagittal or lateral motion and presented to participants either in shared perspective (side by side) or opposing (face to face) perspective. Findings suggest that not only does gesture influence metaphoric reasoning in discourse interpretation, but that addressees reliably interpret gestures from their own perspective, even when it is not shared with the speaker. Furthermore, conversational bystanders similarly adopt the perspective of the addressee in gesture comprehension.

This article concerns five French prepositions that mark an inclusion relation and are ordinarily considered to be synonyms of dans ‘in’. The first is a simple preposition: parmi ‘among’. The other four are complex prepositions built from nouns of internal location ( au centre de ‘at the centre of’, au milieu de ‘in the middle of’) and from names of body parts ( au cœur de ‘at the heart of’ and au sein de whose word-for-word translation is ‘at the breast/bosom of’ but stands for ‘within’ ‘in’ or ‘among’ depending on the context). We will examine them from two different, yet complementary points of view. As part of a statistical approach, we use an association measure to determine the distributional trends of each preposition. In addition, we explore in greater detail the semantic mechanisms brought into play using the theoretical framework of Cognitive Grammar. This double analysis leads us to demonstrate that these prepositions are far from synonymous and involve very different types of constraints.

This paper addresses the use of noun-class markers in Tagbana from the perspective of a cognitively-inspired approach based on Langacker’s (2000. Grammar and conceptualization . Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter) semiological principle. Drawing on this basic tenet of Cognitive Grammar according to which the symbolic function of language consists in making speakers’ conceptualizations auditorily or visually perceptible, it demonstrates that in syntactic constructions composed of ‘noun-stem+noun-class marker’ and ‘noun-class marker+identifier’, noun-class markers fulfil the semantic function of making explicit the way the speaker conceives of the experiential entity referred to in the utterance.This view goes beyond form-centred functions such as referent-tracking to include the signifying of complex conceptualizations involving more than one noun-class marker with the same noun-stem, as well as the discourse functions of indicating topicality, insistence on a referent’s existence and contrastive focus.

Early child phonological acquisition data typically contain exceptional phonetic forms that defy segment-based rules and have long challenged traditional theoretical frameworks. The templatic approach to phonological acquisition claims that whole-word phonotactic patterns emerge as the first primary units of representation, later giving way to segmental knowledge. This approach places importance on the relationships among a child’s forms in addition to those between child forms and their corresponding adult targets. Inscribed within dynamic systems theory, the templatic approach assumes a developing phonological system to be self-organizing and driven by general cognitive processes in response to patterns in the ambient language. This paper analyzes data from a diary study of one monolingual child acquiring American English. Data collected during the first six months of word production were put to templatic analysis, then examined for evidence of schematic structure. Incorporating the chronology of utterances the child produced, analysis revealed varying degrees of abstraction as early patterns integrated with newer patterns. The results reveal schema theory to be an informative supplementary framework for templatic analysis. Schema theory provides a structured way to trace the emergence and interaction of whole-word patterns a child uses to facilitate the production of first words.