Methodology in cognitive semantics
المؤلف:
Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green
المصدر:
Cognitive Linguistics an Introduction
الجزء والصفحة:
C5-P170
2025-12-16
30
Methodology in cognitive semantics
In this section, we briefly comment on issues relating to methodology in cognitive semantics. First of all, it is important to explain how cognitive semantics is different from cognitive approaches to grammar, which we explore in Part III of the book. Cognitive semantics is primarily concerned with investigating conceptual structure and processes of conceptualisation, as we have seen. This means that cognitive semanticists are not primarily concerned with studying linguistic meaning for its own sake, but rather for what it can reveal about the nature of the human conceptual system. Their focus on language is motivated by the assumption that linguistic organisation will reflect, at least partially, the nature and organisation of the conceptual system; this does not mean that language directly mirrors the conceptual system, as we were careful to point out earlier in this chapter. For cognitive semanticists, then, language is a tool for investigating conceptual organisation.
In contrast, cognitive approaches to grammar are primarily concerned with studying the language system itself, and with describing that system, and our knowledge of that system, on the basis of the properties of the conceptual system. It follows that cognitive semantics and cognitive approaches to grammar are ‘two sides of the same coin’: cognitive semanticists rely on language to help them understand how the conceptual system works, while cognitive grammarians rely on what is known about the conceptual system to help them understand how language works.
In employing language for the purposes of investigating patterns of conceptual organisation, cognitive semanticists rely upon the methodology of seeking converging evidence, an idea that we introduced in Chapter 2. This means that when patterns in language suggest corresponding patterns in conceptual structure, cognitive semanticists look for related evidence of these patterns in other areas of investigation. For example, linguistic patterns suggest conceptual pat terns relating to time, where PAST is ‘behind’ and FUTURE is ‘in front’. Evidence from gesture studies provides independent support for the existence of this conceptual pattern: while English speakers gesture behind themselves while talking about the past, they gesture in front of themselves when talking about the future. Converging evidence from two distinct forms of communication (language and gesture) suggests that a common conceptual pattern underlies those two different forms. This explains why cognitive semanticists rely upon evidence from other disciplines, particularly cognitive psychology and neuroscience, in building a theory of the human conceptual system.
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