832 research outputs found
The many uses of run: Corpus methods and Socio-Cognitive Semantics
No full textInternational audienceMultifactorial usage-feature analysis (profile-based approach) has been successfully applied to polysemy research (Gries 2006; Glynn 2009, 2010). This chapter represents a repeat analysis of Gries (2006). The study has three aims: (i) to verify the results of the previous study; (ii) to identify limitations in the applications of the statistical technique employed (hierarchical cluster analysis) in the previous study; and (iii) to demonstrate the need to account for sociolinguistic dimensions in polysemy research. The study is based on a sample of 500 occurrences of the lexeme to run, extracted in even proportions from British English and American English and from online personal journals (blogs) and conversations (American National Corpus and British National Corpus)
Usage-Based Cognitive Models: Behavioural profiles and quantifying context effects on conceptual metaphors
No full textInternational audienceUsage-Based Cognitive Models:Behavioural profiles and quantifying context effects on conceptual metaphorsThe theory of conceptual metaphors has been successful in advancing our understanding of language. Crucial to the validity of this theory is the notion of ‘concept’, not only for identifying and delimiting ‘source’ and ‘target’ information, but also for distinguishing similarity from contiguity. The Idealised Cognitive Model (ICM), in its various guises, has been proposed as an operationalisation of the notion and whether explicitly employed or merely assumed, the idea arguably underlies most of the theoretical and empirical research on conceptual metaphors.Notwithstanding the detailed and excellent research of Kövecses (1986), Lakoff (1987) et alii, the approach employed in these studies faces serious limitations. Such research adheres to the theory of Cognitive Linguistics, a theory for which the usage-based model of language is fundamental (Langacker 1987). This model maintains that individual competence is primarily a result of language usage, which entails that different speakers have subtly different grammars. An elegant model for which synchronic and diachronic variation are an inherent part of language structure, which is, in itself, merely a generalisation across the competences of a given speech community at a given time. The problem is that if one accepts this model of language, then the identification and description of conceptual metaphors using the analytical apparatus of Idealised Cognitive Models fails to account for social variation and, furthermore, produces results that are not falsifiable. The very fact that Idealised Models are idealised makes them theoretical models of underlying structure as opposed to empirical descriptions. This is because the underlying structure, according to the usage-based model, is a generalisation across speakers, not a discrete and shared structure in the minds of speakers as ICMs depict it. Thus, the descriptive and explanatory adequacy of an ICM is an empirical question and, in effect, ICMs are untested hypotheses about conceptual structure. The aim here is to develop methodology that produces descriptions of metaphors and the concepts (cognitive models) they are based upon that (i) accounts for structure across social variation – how are metaphors used – and that (ii) can be falsified – empirical evidence for that use.In this lecture, we accept the evidence that conceptual metaphors exist (Gibbs & Colston 1995, Boroditsky 2000, Matlock et al. 2005 et alia) as well as the method developed for the identification of metaphoric language (Pragglejaz Group 2007, Steen et al. 2010). We assume that the systematic analysis of natural language production over large groups of speakers (corpora) is the best method for identifying usage patterns across a speech community and that these patterns represent the aforementioned underlying structure (grammar). Of course, using corpora to investigate conceptual metaphors is nothing new. Research such as Stefanowitsch (2004, 2006) has shown how certain types of metaphorical expression can be systematically retrieved from corpora. Likewise, both heuristic and fully operationalised methods in discourse analysis and concordance analysis have been applied to retrieve metaphoric occurrences (Cameron 2003, Charteris-Black 2004, Musolff 2004, Deignan 2005, Semino 2008 et alia). In this presentation, we examine yet another corpus method. This method employs relatively large random samples, the annotation of usage features and the application of multivariate statistics to the results of that annotation. The method is sometimes termed the Behavioural Profile Approach (Gries 2010) and it finds its origins in early Cognitive Semantics (Dirven et al. 1982, Geeraerts et al. 1994).The Behavioural Profile Approach employs ‘Multifactorial Usage-Feature Analysis’ combined with multivariate modelling to identify and quantify complex patterns in usage. Unlike traditional corpus methods, it looks for patterns not omly in observable features (such as collocation and collostruction) but also in manually analysed non-observable features such as those typical of discourse analysis. In this, the method can be characterised as a hybrid corpus linguistics – discourse analysis approach, taking the systematicity and quantification of corpus linguistics and applying it to discourse analysis, or taking the fine-grained and subjective approach of discourse analysis and applying it to large random samples, in turn treating the results quantitatively. The method has been widely applied to questions of lexical and constructional semantics (Gries & Stefanowitsch 2006, Glynn & Fischer 2010, Glynn & Robinson 2014) but also to conceptual generalisations that could be characterised as ICMs (Glynn 2013, 2014, 2015). The question is: can this method be extended to the description of conceptual metaphors per se? If this is possible, it will enable quantified falsifiable descriptions that account for social effects on inferred conceptual structure as well as, perhaps, the intentional dimensions behind such conceptual structure. The presentation will evaluate the application of the Behavioural Profile Approach, specifically Multifactorial Usage-Feature Analysis, to conceptual metaphor research with a case study on metaphors of ANGER in contemporary American and British English. The data will consist of a large random sample extracted from online personal diaries (LiveJournal Corpus, Speelman & Glynn 2012). The methodological strengths and weaknesses of the approach will be treated in detail, especially questions concerning (i) sample size and representativity, (ii) token identification and delimitation, (iii) quantification, inference and the interpretation of results derived from subjective analysis, as well as (iv) manual annotation and the reliability of subjective analysis. ReferencesBoroditsky, Lera (2000). Metaphoric Structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition 75: 1–28.Cameron, Lynne (2003). Metaphor in Educational Discourse. London: Continuum.Charteris-Black, Jonathan (2004). Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Deignan, Alice (2005). Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Dirven, Renée, Louis Goossens, Yvan Putseys & Emma Vorlat (1982). The Scene of Linguistic Action and its Perspectivization by speak, talk, say, and tell. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Geeraerts, Dirk, Stefan Grondelaers & Peter Bakema (1994). The Structure of Lexical Variation. Meaning, naming, and context. Berlin: Mouton.Gibbs, Raymond, & Herbert Colston (1995). The cognitive psychological reality of image schemas and their transformations. Cognitive Linguistics 6: 347–378.Glynn, Dylan (2013). The conceptual profile of the lexeme HOME: A multifactorial diachronic analysis. In J. Díaz-Vera (ed.), Metaphor and Metonymy across Time and Cultures. Perspectives on the sociohistorical linguistics of figurative language, 265–294. Berlin: Mouton.Glynn, Dylan (2014). The social nature of ANGER. Multivariate corpus evidence for context effects upon conceptual structure. In P. Blumenthal et al. (eds), Emotions in Discourse, 69–82. Frankfurt: Lang.Glynn, Dylan (2015). The socio-cultural conceptualisation of FEMININITY. Corpus evidence for cognitive models. In J. Badio & K. Kosecki (eds), Empirical Methods in Language Studies, 69–82. Frankfurt: Lang.Glynn, Dylan & Kerstin Fischer (Eds.). (2010). Quantitative Methods in Cognitive Semantics: Corpus-driven approaches. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Glynn, Dylan & Robinson, Justyna (Eds.) (2014). Corpus Methods for Semantics: Quantitative studies in polysemy and synonymy. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Gries, Stefan Th. (2010). Behavioral profiles. A fine-grained and quantitative approach in corpus-based lexical semantics. The Mental Lexicon 5 323–346.Gries, Stefan Th. & Anatol Stefanowitsch (Eds) (2006). Corpora in Cognitive Linguistics: Corpus-based approaches to syntax and lexis. Berlin: Mouton.Kövecses, Zoltán (1986). Metaphors of Anger, Pride, and Love. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Lakoff, George (1987). Women Fire and Dangerous Things. What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Langacker, Ronald (1987). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Matlock, Teenie, Michael Ramscar & Lera Boroditsky (2005). The experiential link between spatial and temporal language. Cognitive Science 29: 655–664.Musolff, Andreas (2004). Metaphor and Political Discourse: Analogical reasoning in debates about Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Pragglejaz Group (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 22: 1–39.Semino, Elena (2008). Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Speelman, Dirk & Glynn, Dylan (2012 [2006]). LiveJournal Corpus of British and American English. Leuven University.Steen, Gerard (2010). A Method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Stefanowitsch, Anatol (2005). A corpus-based approach to the function of metaphor. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 10: 161–198.Stefanowitsch, Anatol (2006). Corpus-based Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy. In A. Stefanowitsch & St. Th. Gries, Corpus-based Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy, 1–16. Berlin: Mouton
Testing the hypothesis: Objectivity and verification in usage-based Cognitive Semantics
No full textInternational audienceThis study has two aims: to show the methodological possibility of doing purely subjective semantic research quantitatively and to demonstrate theoretically that discreet senses and discreet linguistic forms do not exist. On the methodological front, it argues that, with due caution and statistical modelling, subjective semantic characteristics, such as affect and cause, can be successfully employed in corpusdriven research. The theoretical implications show that we cannot treat lexical senses as discreet categories and that the semasiological - onomasiological and polysemy - synonymy distinctions are not tenable and must be replaced with a more multidimensional and variable conception of semantic structure. The case study examines a sample of 650 occurrences of the lexeme bother in British and American English. The occurrences are manually analysed for a range of formal and semantic features. The exploratory multivariate technique Correspondence Analysis is used to indentify three basic senses relative to formal variation and subjective usage-features. Two of these sense clusters are then verified using Logistic Regression Analysis. The analysis demonstrates a statistically significant difference between the two senses and indentifies which of the semantic features are most important in distinguishing the uses. The statistical model is powerful and its predictive strength serves as further verification of the accuracy of the semantic analysis
Dylan: A Commemoration
No full textDylan: A Commemoration. Edited by Stephen Pickering. California, 1971. Philosophical musings of an early Dylan enthusiast. This rare publication explores the author\u27s appreciation for Dylan as the greatest poet of the century, and rejects the rationalist distortions of rock magazines. Released the same year as Tarantula, it hails the work as scintillating and brilliant.https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/dylan_popular_culture_response/1000/thumbnail.jp
Bob Dylan and religion
No full textThis article, which is located within the field of research on religion and popular culture, is a discussion of the relations of one particular rock artist, Bob Dylan, to religion. Religion can be seen as a recurring topic in Dylan’s work—particularly during a period at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, often referred to as his ‘Christian era’—and also in the discourses around him. This article explores how the topic of religion appears in discourses around Bob Dylan. In this article one particular aspect of the connection between religion and popular culture is looked at: the construction of certain artists or stars as religious figures, and more specifically Bob Dylan as a case. The author does not try to discover whether Dylan is religious or not; or which religion he possibly adheres to. Rather, the author looks at how rock artists and in this case Bob Dylan are ‘constructed’ as religious figures
Bob Dylan and religion
No full textThis article, which is located within the field of research on religion and popular culture, is a discussion of the relations of one particular rock artist, Bob Dylan, to religion. Religion can be seen as a recurring topic in Dylan’s work—particularly during a period at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, often referred to as his ‘Christian era’—and also in the discourses around him. This article explores how the topic of religion appears in discourses around Bob Dylan. In this article one particular aspect of the connection between religion and popular culture is looked at: the construction of certain artists or stars as religious figures, and more specifically Bob Dylan as a case. The author does not try to discover whether Dylan is religious or not; or which religion he possibly adheres to. Rather, the author looks at how rock artists and in this case Bob Dylan are ‘constructed’ as religious figures.
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Dylan
No full textThe Indonesian poet and public figure Goenawan Mohamad published "Bob Dylan" in the magazine Tempo and it was also published in the English version of Tempo. Reprinted by permission of the author Goenawan Mohamad and the translator Jennifer Lindsay
Gratitude as a practice to manage uncertainty and foster well being
No full textDylan Le Roy is a Student Affairs and Services Counsellor at Douglas College. He provided a much-needed “Managing Uncertainty with Gratitude” session for the Better Together Conference.
The campus community and the world are experiencing a large amount of uncertainty and change. Dylan Le Roy discusses how this increase in uncertainty may have impacted our sense of wellbeing. Through an experiential practice, participants explore how grounding in gratitude can help foster a greater sense of resiliency, creativity, and connection.presentationBetter Together Conferenc
Dylan to English Dictionary
No full textDylan to English Dictionary, by A.J. Weberman. New York, 2005.
This curious resource would seem, at first glance, to be a basic reference work treating Dylan\u27s lyrics to some form of translation. One only needs to read the very first paragraph of this work to learn that its author was deeply obsessed with Dylan, and through various experiences on LSD came to believe he could interpret hidden meaning in all of Dylan\u27s lyrics. He also credits himself for coining the term Dylanology.https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/dylan_academic_interpretations/1001/thumbnail.jp
Arbitrary structure, cognitive grammar, and the partes orationis: A study in Polish paradigms
No full textInternational audienceThis usage-based study tests the explanatory power of an iconically motivated theory of lexical class. The principle that basic level grammatical categories are motivated by our direct perceptual experience is an integral part of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, Talmy 2000). However, recent research on English, Dutch, and German (Glynn 2006, 2007) has revealed mixed results in the application of this theory, suggesting that its descriptive power may be restricted to a very abstract level of semantic structure. This investigation focuses on the above question, looking at the class-lexeme productivity of a range of relational classes, such as adverbs and adjectives, in a morphologically rich language. The lexical field is that of ‘rain’-‘snow’ for the West Slavic language Polish. This perceptually based concept should offer a best-case scenario for examining the class-lexeme compositionality with an iconically motivated grammatical category. Despite this, the results show no particular evidence for iconic motivation, throwing weight behind the position that iconic motivation in grammar is at best an abstract tendency with little semantic impact
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