Contents
List of Activities xxiii
List of Figures and Tables xxv
1 Introduction 1
The linguistics applied approach: generative linguistics and second language learning 2
The applied linguistics of second language learning 4
Language as a social semiotic 5
The emergence of cognitive linguistics 6
Ending the LA-AL divide 10
The purpose of the book 12
Part I Embodied Experience
2 The Problem of Linguistic Meaning 17
Introduction 17
The problem of meaning 17
Language learning as category learning 21
Conclusions 27
3 Conceptualisation, Embodiment and the Origins of Meaning 29
Introduction 29
Proprioception: how the body remains aware of its own position in space 31
Not seeing but conceptualizing 32
Cognitive development and infant movement 33
Aplasic phantoms 34
Mirror neurons 35
The nature of language: image schemas and embodied cognition 36
Education and embodiment 39
Language teaching and embodiment: language as rhythm and movement 41
Language teaching and embodiment: mime, enactment and movement 44
Language teaching and embodiment: rethinking TPR 48
Conclusions 52
4 Gesture 54
Introduction 54
The importance of gesture in communication 54
Gesture in education 56
Gesture and teaching prepositions 58
Gesture and English articles 60
Conclusions 62
Part II Conceptualisation
5 Language, Culture and Linguistic Relativity 65
Introduction 65
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 67
Meaning and conceptualization 69
Linguistic relativity: how different is different? 75
Experimental evidence for linguistic relativity 77
To learn new meanings, do we have to conceptualise the world differently? 80
Second language errors and linguistic relativity 81
Errors that use first language forms and meanings within the second language 84
Errors that over-generalise some acquired formal or semantic feature of the second language 86
False friends 88
The problem of separating meaning from conceptualization 89
Can one change a conceptualisation? 90
Language, culture and conceptualisation in the classroom 92
Language, culture and learning 95
Different meanings for different languages 100
Conclusions 108
6 Conceptualisation and Construal 111
Introduction 111
Construal operations 112
Attention and salience 113
Attention, salience and enactive SLA 113
Metonymy: attention and salience 117
Scope of attention 120
Scalar adjustment 123
Dynamic attention 125
Judgment and comparison 129
Category formation 129
Category formation and language teaching 130
Metaphor 134
Metaphor and language teaching 134
Metaphor analysis 135
Metaphor and target language differentiation 136
The explanatory power of metaphor and analogy 136
Using metaphor to learn second language lexis and grammar 138
Figure-ground conceptual operations, force dynamics and action chains 142
Perspectives and situatedness 147
Deixis 150
Constitution/gestalt 152
Geometry 155
Conclusions 157
Part III Meaning and Usage
7 Teaching Encyclopaedic Meaning 161
Introduction 161
Word networks: hyponymy and schematicity 163
Word networks: meronymy 165
Crossing category borders 167
Knowledge types and encyclopaedic meaning 168
Finding the frame 169
Phonological sense relations 171
Conclusions 174
8 Usage and Grammatical Meaning 177
Introduction 177
Constructions 178
Type and token 179
Usage 181
Language learning as construction learning 183
Recognising constructions 183
Teaching constructions 184
Teaching filled constructions: idioms 185
Teaching partially filled constructions: lexis, meaning and conceptualization 186
Teaching partially filled constructions: bound morphemes, inflections and lexis 187
Teaching partially filled constructions: bound morphemes 188
Teaching partially filled constructions: lexis and morphemes 192
Teaching partially filled constructions: lexis 197
Teaching unfilled constructions 201
Routines for more advanced students: lexis, meaning and conceptualization 205
Encountering constructions 205
Finding useful forms 206
Conclusions 212
Part IV Conclusions
9 Towards a Cognitive Linguistics Syllabus 217
Introduction 217
Product and process 217
Language teaching implications 218
Re-embedding linguistic form in the imagery and movement from which it emerged 219
Engage the learners in the explicit analysis of form and meaning 220
A forum for usage 226
Sequencing 227
Bibliography 231
Index 244