Cognitive interpretation of lexical units

Chapter 2. Language and thinking in cognitive linguistics
2.1 The concept of "language" and "thinking" in modern linguistics
cognitive linguistics concept language
"Cognitive linguistics" is a direction that focuses on language as a general cognitive mechanism.
The sphere of vital interests of cognitive linguistics includes the "mental" foundations of speech understanding and production from the point of view of how the structures of linguistic knowledge are represented ("represented") and participate in information processing. In the scientific jargon of recent years, this problem is posed as follows: what are the “representations” of knowledge and the procedures for their processing? It is usually assumed that representations and corresponding procedures are organized in a modular way, and therefore are subject to different principles of organization [ D.Wunderlich , Kaufmann 1990, p.223].
Unlike other disciplines of the cognitive cycle, cognitive linguistics considers those and only those cognitive structures and processes that are characteristic of a person as a homo . loquens . Namely, in the foreground are: a systematic description and explanation of the mechanisms of human language acquisition and the principles of structuring these mechanisms. This raises the following questions [ Felix , Kanngiesser , Rickheit 1990, c.1-2]:
. Representation of the mental mechanisms of language acquisition and the principles of their structuring: is it enough to confine ourselves to a single representation - or should these mechanisms be presented within the framework of various representations? How do these mechanisms interact? What is their internal structure?
. Production. The main question is: are production and perception based on the same units of the system, or do they have different mechanisms? In addition : do the processes that make up the production of speech proceed in time in parallel or sequentially? Let's say, do we first build the general frame of the sentence, only then filling it with lexical material, or are both procedures performed simultaneously, and then how does this happen? What substructures (for example, syntactic, semantic, conceptual, etc.) appear in speech production and how are they arranged?
. Perception in a cognitivist way is studied somewhat more actively than speech production - this is another manifestation of interpretationism . In this regard, it is asked: What is the nature of the procedures that regulate and structure linguistic perception? What knowledge is activated through these procedures? What is the organization of semantic memory? What is the role of this memory in the perception and understanding of speech?
In cognitive linguistics, it is accepted that mental processes are not only based on representations, but also correspond to certain procedures - “cognitive computations” [ C.Eschenbach et al . 1990, pp.37-38]. For other "cognitive disciplines" (especially for cognitive psychology), the conclusions of cognitive linguistics are valuable to the extent that they allow us to understand the mechanisms of these very cognitive calculations in general [ G.Lakoff 1982, p.141].
In this information retrieval jargon, the central task of cognitive linguistics is formulated as a description and explanation of the internal cognitive structure and speaker-hearer dynamics [ SWFelix , Kanngiesser , Rickheit 1990a, p.5]. The speaker-hearer is considered as an information processing system consisting of a finite number of independent components (modules) and correlating language information at various levels. The goal of cognitive linguistics, accordingly, is to study such a system and establish its most important principles, and not only to systematically reflect the phenomena of language. For the cognitivist , it is important to understand what the mental representation of linguistic knowledge should be and how this knowledge is “ cognitively ” processed, i.e. what is "cognitive reality". The adequacy and relevance of linguists' statements are evaluated from this angle, interpreted [ SWFelix , Kanngiesser , Rickheit 1990a, c.6] as reflecting:
. Digestibility . The type of mental representation proposed by the researcher should be accessible for assimilation. (The only question is what is considered accessible for assimilation and what is inaccessible.)
. Processability . A candidate representation can be processed with the help of a program of some fairly plausible analyzer (on a computer). This explains the craving for checking the grammatical model using the methods of computational linguistics.
Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are considered as psychologically real, and research in cognitive linguistics aims to help understand cognition in general and is seen as a road into the human mind.
There has been scientific and terminological controversy around the label "cognitive linguistics"; there is no consensus on what specifically is meant with the term
The roots of cognitive linguistics are in Noam Chomsky’s 1959 critical review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior. Chomsky's rejection of behavioural psychology and his subsequent anti-behaviourist activity helped bring about a shift of focus from empiricism to mentalism in psychology under the new concepts of cognitive psychology and cognitive science.
Chomsky considered linguistics as a subfield of cognitive science in the 1970s but called his model transformational or generative grammar. Having been engaged with Chomsky in the linguistic wars, George Lakoff united in the early 1980s with Ronald Langacker and other advocates of neo-Darwinian linguistics in a so-called ”Lakoff–Langacker agreement”. It is suggested that they picked the name ”cognitive linguistics” for their new framework to undermine the reputation of generative grammar as a cognitive science.
Consequently, there are three competing approaches that today consider themselves as true representatives of cognitive linguistics. One is the Lakoffian–Langackerian brand with capitalised initials (Cognitive Linguistics). The second is generative grammar, while the third approach is proposed by scholars whose work falls outside the scope of the other two. They argue that cognitive linguistics should not be taken as the name of a specific selective framework, but as a whole field of scientific research that is assessed by its evidential rather than theoretical value