How Language Structures Concepts LEONARD TALMY University at Buffalo SUNY Barcelona, April 2009.

Course’s four sections: 1. How language structures concepts 2. How languages represent motion events: Typologies and universals 3. A typology of event integration 4. How spoken and signed language structure space differently (a neural model).

Basis: "Semantics," Talmy observes, "is intrinsically cognitive." Grammars reveal conceptual structures, expressions prompt for conceptual arrays, and linguistics is a method for discovering the way we think. "Semantics," Talmy observes, "is intrinsically cognitive." Grammars reveal conceptual structures, expressions prompt for conceptual arrays, and linguistics is a method for discovering the way we think. CR: cognitive representation.

Language is a system with two subsystems inside: Open system LEXICAL Closed system GRAMMATICAL Non constrained Constrained Conceptual content Conceptual structure

Open or lexical class (OC) Any category of linguistic forms that are large in number and easy to augment. Roots of nouns, verbs, adjectives.. Collocations (lexical complexes) spill the beans spill the beans

Closed or grammatical class (CC) Few, not to augment. Overt (Phonologically substantive) Abstract/implicit.bound: inflections, derivations, clitics..free: determiners, adpositions, conjuctions, particles.suprasegmental: intonation, stress Word order Grammatical categories (N, V, A, NP, VP) Grammatical relations (subject, object) Grammatical Complexes (synt/gramm structure)

Some notions found to be specified by grammatical elements : Topological or topology-like. point. singularity. linear extent. plurality. Locatedness. same. Within. different. region. “adjacency'' of points. side. partition. one-to-one correspondence. pattern of distribution

Some notions found to be specified by grammatical elements: Non topological Non topological. Material. Space. Time. Motion. Medium. Entity currently indicated/communicated

Some categories of notions seemingly rarely or never specified by grammatical elements: absolute/quantified magnitude (of distance, size, etc.) shape/contour of line color

CC’s Conceptual categories: SCHEMATIC SYSTEMS Configurational structure Configurational structure Perspective point Perspective point Distribution of attention Distribution of attention Force dynamics Force dynamics Cognitive state Cognitive state

Talmy explains various organizing principles that cut across these schematic systems and that help to coordinate the grammatical and lexical subsystems. Talmy explains various organizing principles that cut across these schematic systems and that help to coordinate the grammatical and lexical subsystems.

Force Dynamics The door cannot open.

At the end: Our capacity for language depends on our ability to integrate disparate conceptual contents and conceptual structures to create unified cognitive representations, and equally on our ability to use a relatively limited inventory of grammatical and lexical forms to prompt for virtually unlimited ranges of cognitive representations. Our capacity for language depends on our ability to integrate disparate conceptual contents and conceptual structures to create unified cognitive representations, and equally on our ability to use a relatively limited inventory of grammatical and lexical forms to prompt for virtually unlimited ranges of cognitive representations.

More info Talmy, Leonard. Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Talmy, Leonard. Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Volume 1: Concept Structuring Systems. Volume 2: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.