Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives
Aims and scope of “Applications of Cognitive Linguistics” (ACL)
The series Applications of Cognitive Linguistics (ACL) aims at providing a platform for high quality research applying the theoretical framework developed in Cognitive Linguistics to a variety of different fields. While the Cognitive Linguistics Research series focuses on theoretical and descriptive aspects and on the cognitive, cultural and usage-based foundations of the facts of language, ACL explores the effect of these theoretical insights when applied in various linguistic sub-disciplines, in interdisciplinary research fields, and in the practice-oriented domain of applied linguistics. Furthermore, as illustrated by many contributions in this volume, not only is there a route from CL theory to a range of applications to explore, but also one which goes back from the application to the theoretical foundations and to possible implications for CL theory.
The available CL theoretical know-how, constructs and general characterizations of language are well-suited for explorative applications in the research areas traditionally known as descriptive linguistics, text linguistics, psycholinguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, etc. It is indeed the case that such applications are currently in fast expansion in many fields. The CL usage-based approach furthermore naturally calls for a non-restrictive interpretation of the term ‘application’: one of the main assumptions of ACL is that linguistic research must be firmly grounded in usage-based, descriptive data, which may, more often than not, imply an interdisciplinary approach to the object under scrutiny. In language pedagogy, for instance, linguistics meets with psycholinguistics and educational psychology to study the combined processes of natural and conducted acquisition of second and/or foreign languages; hence the label ‘pedagogical linguistics’ is out of place. In cultural linguistics, the deeper relation between language and culture is explored, which covers and overlaps with various scientific disciplines or fields such as (cognitive) anthropology, cross-cultural semantics, intercultural pragmatics, cross-cultural communication, social psychology and still other disciplines. In computational linguistics, amongst many other possibilities, theoretical models such as cognitive grammar, conceptual metaphor theory, blending theory, etc. are caught in self-monitoring artificial intelligence programs to test the viability of the constructs used.
As to the scope of ACL the following may serve as an attempt to spell out some examples of ACL’s orientations, at best signposting some major areas on the map, but certainly not laying out a complete map.
One major application of CL is the area of descriptive linguistics covering either the description of parts or the whole of the grammar of given languages, or else the description of language as used in given domains of human experience. The grammatical descriptions can focus on any level of linguistic organization, including syntax (e.g. Cornillie fc.), lexis, morphology and phonology, and thereby concentrate on one language in particular or be conceived cross-linguistically as contrastive studies. Descriptive applications can also focus on the exploration of theoretical models in actual language use: for example, on views of mental motion and summary scanning, on prototype theory, on construction grammar, on conceptual metaphor or metonymy (as already practiced in the many discourse studies of political (e.g. Musolff 2004), economic (e.g. Koller 2004) and even architectural communication (e.g. Caballero 2006) or on conceptual blending. Further burgeoning fields in descriptive applications of CL are cognitive discourse studies, either in the tradition of blending theory or in the search for coherence relations (e.g. Sanders and Gernsbacher, eds. 2004). Highly interesting developments are also taking place at the interface of literary studies and cognitive linguistics, known as cognitive poetics or stylistics, thereby offering many bridges to both disciplines.
Another major field is constituted by the pedagogical application of CL, which is now becoming a novel area of research in the cognitive-linguistic world (e.g. Achard and Niemeier, eds. 2004), and one which naturally finds an interdisciplinary basis in psycholinguistics, educational psychology, theoretical and descriptive linguistics, also pointed out by Boers and Lindstromberg in this volume. It is probably because of their inherently interdisciplinary orientation that pedagogical applications of linguistics, or the somewhat all-encompassing and hence misleading term ‘applied linguistics,’ has seldom (except by Pütz et al., eds. 2001) been brought together with descriptive linguistics in one organizational framework, be it journals, series of volumes, or conferences. Still, since Cognitive Linguistics offers such a strong conceptual unity in its approach to language and linguistics, it is entitled to accept the challenge of rallying such seemingly diverse applications of Cognitive Linguistics into one conceptual organic whole. The interdisciplinary character of pedagogical linguistics, or ‘language pedagogy’– to use a more generally accepted and less misleading label– may necessitate a multi-layered foundation, but in a sense this equally applies to several other applications, such as cognitive sociolinguistics and cultural linguistics, two other fields we still want to go into.
In cognitive sociolinguistics (e.g. Kristiansen and Dirven fc.) several branches of traditional sociolinguistics are redefined from a cognitive perspective. Cognitive sociolinguistics combines the usage-based CL tenet with fine-grained research on language variation and examines the correlations with cognitive models, now widened as cultural models (e.g. Dirven et al., eds.). Sociolinguistic research which at one end tends to overlap with cultural linguistics further includes work on language policy, global language variation and ideology in socio-politico-economic areas such as political, educational, and corporate-culture frameworks.
Cultural linguistics is, as just stated, a close neighbor of cognitive sociolinguistics. Cultural linguistics makes use of the analytical tools developed within the framework of CL in order to explain many aspects of human languages in their cultural contexts, thereby exhibiting clear ties with work in cognitive anthropology, where much emphasis is being put on the cognitive grounding of social structure and on how cultural schemas relate to action. In spatial and social cognition, on the other hand, cross-cultural studies with an emphasis on language acquisition have provided us with evidence for the social grounding of cognitive structure. Studies on cultural beliefs, values and norms (e.g. Holland and Quinn 1987; Goddard, ed. 2006) likewise constitute an interesting area of research in constant evolution. It may also be interesting to note that proponents of cultural linguistics have recently begun to explore the way their theoretical persuasion applies to language learning, language teaching and cross-cultural communication. Relevant issues in this applied perspective are the study of meaning negotiation as adjustment of cultural schemas, the analysis of the impact of conceptual metaphor and metonymy in misinterpretation in cross-cultural encounters, the study of cultural models, cultural keywords and culture-specific collocations in L2 varieties of English.
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that, in spite of the great diversity of research fields, one central cohesive factor remains and binds all strands and models within CL together: the ubiquity of the link between language in use and other cognitive faculties. Descriptive applications use the research tools of CL and explore their validity in the description of single languages or in cross-linguistic explorations. Language pedagogy may be as diversified as the functions of language in usage events, but language learning is probably the most spectacular place to look for the integration of all cognitive faculties, a new nascent set of schemas derived from language usage events and social interaction. Cultural-specific categories and models not only necessitate the adoption of psychologically real constructs, but also– and far beyond that– the adoption of models capable of accounting for culturally distributed knowledge, that is, common cultural knowledge that is not necessarily possessed by all single members of a community, but only possessed by the collectivity of the cultural community.
Although this aspect has not been restated on the new series ACL, it must be clear that– in line with the whole orientation of this volume– only empirical research, possibly including computational verification of any linguistic or cultural model, is the pre-condition and the ultimate test guaranteeing that the constructs work and can survive in the long-term future both of cognitive linguistics and its diverse fields of application.
