o
The lamp (fig) is above the table (ground) vs. The table (fig) is under the lamp (ground)
o
I read (fig)
while dad took a nap (ground)
vs. Dad took a nap (fig) while I read (ground)
á
We perceive
the world from a given viewpoint, which constrains what we perceive in
it.
o
The sink is to the right of the table vs. The sink
is behind the table.
o
Waikiki is past Diamond Head vs. Waikiki
is in front of Diamond Head
á
Other
mechanisms we've discussed in the class, such as metaphor, prototypes, and
metonymy, also constitute types of construal
o
Metaphor: Our relationship is stuck in the mud vs.
Our relationship is falling apart at the
seams
o
Prototypes: That's not a knife. Now that's a knife!
Fictive motion
Motion of a trajector
is usually expressed with a verb, and often with a prepositional phrase marking
the source or target of the motion (or both):
The ball rolled (from the wall to the door).
Strangely,
the same patterns can be used to describe objects that donÕt move at all.
The fence runs from the house to the lake.
To figure out whatÕs going on, we should
consider the following pairs of sentences
The roof slopes steeply upward. The roof slopes steeply downward.
The hill gently rises from the bank of the river. The hill gently falls to the bank of the river.
This highway goes from Tijuana to Ensenada. This highway goes from Ensenada to Tijuana.
Matlock (2005) has shown that fictive
motion sentences are subject to real-time processing effects as a product of
distance, speed, and difficulty of terrain.
What's important in fictive motion and
all these other cases is that
á
The
alternatives are true under the same world circumstances (thus they have the
same truth-conditional semantics).
á
They involve
different construals of the world, based on the
categories and frames they use.
á
These cases
are not objectively special, which implies that in general language use
involves construal, whether there are different ways of construing the same
world situation or not.
Grammatical
construal, or coercion
Somewhat related is the grammatical
phenomenon of construal
á
In some
languages, a word can be used in a new grammatical functions without derivation
o
The hippies plan to Volkswagon
across the state.
o
There was cat all over the driveway.
o
Here, the three waters come together
o
I went for a long saunter around the block.
á
In other
languages (and also in English), you use linguistic markers for novel uses
o
I'm going to marshmallowize
you! (compare
with I'm going to marshmallow you!)
o
The ideal marine is doggish. (compare with The
ideal marine is dog.)
á
This is often
called coercion instead of construal because although it involves
the application of a particular interpretation of the world, it also entails
characteristic novel language use.
Conclusions
- We can interpret the same world scenario in different ways
- Language we use imposes conceptualizations of the world, thus meaning isn't just about the fit between the words and the world, but rather is about our conceptualization of the world
- The construal mechanisms we have are general cognitive abilities, demonstrating that language depends tightly on other systems, like perception and attention
- In some languages, grammar is flexible enough to accommodate new grammatical functions for existing words, as long as the meaning works out. This can be marked or not.
á
It remains to
be seen how much of this is specific to particular languages or particular
constructions, and how much is a domain-general, universal mechanism.