Stylistics routledge English Language Introductions

idealised
cognitive model
. An idealised cognitive model (ICM) contains information about what
is typical (for us) and it is a domain of knowledge that is brought into play for the
processing and understanding of textual representations. These domains of know-
ledge are also accompanied by conceptual slots for the things that routinely
accompany the mental representation; the mental representation for the pub would,
for instance, include an entry for ‘roles’ like barman, customer, waiter, bouncer and
so on, as well as one for ‘props’ like tables, optics, chairs, a bar and so on (Schank
and Abelson 1977: 43; and see B10). Of course, ICMs differ between subjects, so the
props for one individual prototypical representation of a pub might include, say,
traditional carved panelling and old oak tables while, for another, the inventory could
contain a pool table, a wide-screen television or a games machine. Importantly, ICMs
are subject to modification in the course of an individual subject’s experience and
development. For example, I once had cause to visit a pub in the west of Ireland
which doubled up both as a grocery shop, and, more improbably, as a funeral parlour.
Amongst other things, this experience caused me to revise my mental model of 
the pub: the less typical representation interacted with the prototype leading to a
modified ICM. Yet I was still able to ‘make sense’ of the newly experienced pub-
cum-funeral-parlour because I was able to structure the new knowledge in terms of
the older, familiar ICM. In a dynamic process of conversion, transference between
concepts leads us constantly to modify our ICMs as new stimuli are encountered.
When it comes to reading and interpreting texts, it is important to bear in mind
that ICMs may be activated often by only the most minimal syntactic or lexical
marker in a text. This is not surprising. After all, it would be odd indeed if, for every
time we heard the word ‘pub’, we required for its understanding the provision of a
contextualising text like the following:
(2)
The term ‘pub’ is a contraction of ‘public house’. Pubs are premises licensed
for the consumption of alcohol and soft drinks. In Western cultures which
have no prohibition on alcohol, pubs are establishments which are open to
the public, although localised restrictions apply to the admission of minors.
Licensed premises may be housed in a variety of building designs which vary
in character and theme, although most contain a bar across which drinks,
and possibly light snacks or meals are served . . .
40
I N T R O D U C T I O N

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There is simply no end to the amount of context that could be provided here, but
the point is that such context is unnecessary because the domains of knowledge that
comprise ICMs allow us to take cognitive short-cuts when we interpret language. We
do not, in other words, need to have a fully elaborated 
textual representation
of a
concept in order to set in motion a 
cognitive representation
of that concept.
Summary
This unit has addressed the broad tenets of a cognitive approach to style. Coverage
has however been rather sketchy because little explicit information has been provided
either on key models of cognitive stylistic analysis or on the main practitioners in
the field. To address this, the cognitive theme will be elaborated further in two
different directions. Horizontally, unit B10 surveys some of the key developments in
this branch of stylistics and introduces a variety of models of analysis. Further across
the strand, C10 develops some practical activities for cognitive stylistic analysis which
take account of the ideas introduced both here and in B10. The strand concludes
with a reading by Margaret Freeman which offers a rigorous cognitive stylistic analysis
of Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Vertically, the cognitive theme is developed in A11
where attention focusses on one of the most important devices we use to transfer,
modify or blend mental constructs. This device is metaphor which, along with the
related concept metonymy, plays a pivotal role in contemporary cognitive stylistic
analysis.
METAPHOR AND METONYMY
An important feature of cognitive stylistics has been its interest in the way we transfer
mental constructs, and especially in the way we map one mental representation onto
another when we read texts. Stylisticians and cognitive poeticians have consistently
drawn attention to this system of conceptual transfer in both literary and in everyday
discourse, and have identified two important tropes, or figures of speech, through
which this conceptual transfer is carried out. These tropes are