English language (meaning) linguistics you can find every thing in the Essay

English language (meaning) linguistics you can find every thing in the file - Essay Example The primary objective of this model is to distinguish between sense stored in semantic memory and the central sense associated with radial category. This model has been found useful when applied to a range of lexical categories like prepositions, verbs and nouns. It has also been used successfully in several languages other than English. In the scope of this paper, Cognitive Semantics as a field will be discussed, recapitulated and defined. Cognitive linguistics and polysemy may be themselves analysed and commented on from time to time. Terms like ‘polysemy fallacy’ will also be defined and discussed in the process. The paper attempts to critically review the salient features of this model and discuss its significance in the study of semantics in general. Works by Vyvyan Evans are cited most frequently in this essay. Andrea Tyler and Stephen Levinson are two other theorists whose works were also greatly significant in the writing of this paper. There will be a practical application of a cognitive semantic analysis of the much commented upon English word ‘over’, including applied ‘Principled Polysemy’ as demonstrated by Tyler and Evans in 2001. Â  This paper will first discuss and trace the field the development of the field of cognitive semantics, critically review the approaches of truth-conditional and relevance theory schools and come to a conclusion regarding the present significance of the cognitive semantics field. Words: 361 Words Critical Review: 1. Background: What is Cognitive Semantics? The study of cognitive semantics took off in the 1970s, largely as a protest against the objectivist trend of American and English traditions of philosophy (Evans & Green, 2006). The predominant stance taken by theorists of the time belonged to the school of the ‘truth-conditional semantics’. Eve Sweetser describes this school as: ‘By viewing meaning as the relationship between words and the world, truth-condi tional semantics eliminates cognitive organization from the linguistic system’(Sweetser, 1990). In almost direct opposition to this, cognitive semantics sees meaning as the manifestation of conceptual structure. In other words, mental representation, in all its diverse and multi-faceted form, is highlighted. A leading practitioner of cognitive semantics in the 1970s, Leonard Talmy, has described it thus: ‘[R]esearch on cognitive semantics is research on conceptual content and its organization in language’ (Talmy, 2000). i) Principles of Cognitive Semantics: Cognitive Semantics accepts a few principles as its central concerns: That conceptual structure is ‘embodied’, i.e., abstractions are turned into concrete conceptions by the embodiment of experience. That semantic structure is itself such a conceptual structure. Representation of meaning is ‘encyclopaedic’, i.e., words do not represent neat bundles of meaning but are points of access (Evans & Green, 2006). Construction of meaning is also conceptualisation. To expand on this, serially, the embodiment of conceptual structure refers to the abstract conceptions that with the help of the backdrop of context, whether social or otherwise, get condensed into concrete ‘