Aspects of Cognitive Ethnolinguistics; Jerzy Bartminski; Jorg Zinken - Equinox Publishing

Contributing Author

Jerzy Bartmiński [+–]

Marie Curie-Skłodowska University

Jerzy Bartmiński is Professor of Polish at the Marie Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland). His research interests focus on the relation between language, culture, and mind. He is the author of around 350 works, including eight books.

Edited by

Jörg Zinken [+–]

University of Portsmouth

Jörg Zinken is Senior Lecturer of Psychology of Communication and coordinator of the Language, Culture and Mind Research Group at the University of Portsmouth. His research interests cover topics from the interface between anthropological and cognitive linguistics, including universals and variation in multifunctionality patterns, contextual models of metaphor, and the semantics of prosody and syntax.

Translated by

Adam Glaz

Instytut Anglistyki (Institute of English Studies)

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED JANUARY 2012

The book provides an introduction into a highly developed, coherent, and extensively tested cognitive linguistic approach to lexical semantics, which is not currently accessible to readers of English. This makes the book important to researchers and students in lexical semantics, in Cognitive Linguistics and beyond. It also strengthens the Cognitive Linguistics enterprise in general, by showing that the main tenets of this approach are not an incidental historical development in a particular corner of the world, but rather are arrived at by scholars working in hugely different contexts independently of each other. The book therefore has an appeal to all researchers in Cognitive Linguistics. Furthermore, the book constitutes a contribution to the intellectual exchange between international academic discourses that mostly develop independently of each other – an exchange that has often provided major impetus for scientific development, as illustrated by the influence of the belated translations of works by Bakhtin, Lotman, Vygotsky, and Luria, among others.

Table of Contents

1

The Ethnolinguistic School of Lublin and Anglo-American cognitive linguistics [+–] 1-5

University of Portsmouth

Jörg Zinken is Senior Lecturer of Psychology of Communication and coordinator of the Language, Culture and Mind Research Group at the University of Portsmouth. His research interests cover topics from the interface between anthropological and cognitive linguistics, including universals and variation in multifunctionality patterns, contextual models of metaphor, and the semantics of prosody and syntax.

This chapter describes the overall aim of the book, the context, as well as the emphasis of each chapter.It refers to the cognitive-linguistic approach to the study of language in its cultural context, which the author, Jerzy Bartmiński, had developed.

2

What is cognitive ethnolinguistics? [+–] 6-21

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter presents the revival of ethnolinguistics, offering an explanation for the term, as well as discussing various dilemmas of Slavic ethnolinguistics. It further presents the basic concepts of cognitive ethnolinguistics, which are interlinked with one another and together constitute a coherent conception.

3

Linguistic worldview and how to reconstruct it [+–] 22-37

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

Linguistic worldview is a language-entrenched interpretation of reality, which can be expressed in the form of judgements about the world, people, things or events. This chapter explores various questions about linguistic worldview and its role in research.

4

Values as the foundation of linguistic worldview [+–] 38-49

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter discusses two conceptions of linguistic axiology, the residual and the holistic conception, as well as the connection between values and language.

5

The stereotype as an object of linguistic description [+–] 50-66

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter analyzes the stereotype as an object of linguistic description, as well as the questions that a linguist must answer in order to study stereotypes in a systematic manner. It analyzes the sociological conceptions of the stereotype and it presents various scholarly approaches and analyses of stereotypes.

6

The ‘cognitive definition’ in the description of stereotypes [+–] 67-75

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter presents the conception of the ‘cognitive definition’ as it is used for the description of meaning in SSSL, but which can be used in any other dictionary of natural language.

7

Viewpoint, perspective, and linguistic worldview [+–] 76-87

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter analyzes the subject-oriented variant of the ‘linguistic worldview’ conception. It further poses questions relating to the point of view and perspective taken by a virtual language speaker as they can be reconstructed from linguistic material. Moreover, it considers the question of how to use these constructs in analysing selected portions of Polish lexis.

8

Profiling and the subject-oriented interpretation of the world [+–] 88-94

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter discusses the notion of profiling and the ways in which it is used in the literature on semantics. Moreover , it discusses the notion of profiling as presented in the writings of Anna Wierzbicka, as well as authors who relate to her work. The beginnings of this understanding can be traced back to the first sample of SSSL tested on data from folk and standard varieties of Polish.

9

The subject’s viewpoint(s) in language, text, and discourse [+–] 95-119

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter describes the category of viewpoint and its wide application in text analysis (any text, not only literary), as well as in descriptions of language as a medium. In this respect, an especially important field of inquiry is considered the international and intercultural public discourse.

10

The stereotype of the sun in folk Polish [+–] 120-131

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter analyzes the stereotype of the sun in folk Polish. The Polish stereotype of ‘sun’ inherits many features from the past. In early cultures, the sun was worshipped as a cosmic force, a manifestation of a supernatural power, or even as a god.

11

The Polish stereotype of the mother: towards a cognitive definition [+–] 132-148

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter discusses the Polish stereotype of the mother. The mother occupies a high position in the axiological, family-oriented, national and religious sense, in the Polish linguistic worldview. The chapter further discusses the image of mother in text, as well as proverbs which corroborate the already identified stereotypes of the mother.

12

The Polish DOM (house/home) in its physical, social, and cultural aspects [+–] 149-161

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter presents the concept of HOUSE/HOME in the Polish context. The concept of house/home/DOM is universal, pan-European, supernational, but also culture-specific. It is universal because it constitutes the centre of a person’s world, the place from which the person views reality. In the Polish context, DOM functions as a physical object but also as a social, national and cultural value.

13

The Polish OJCZYZNA (homeland): its base stereotype and ideological profiles [+–] 162-177

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter discusses the concept of homeland, with a long tradition all over the world. The starting point in the process of the formation of the Polish concept was, similarly to other European cultures, the Latin patria, connected with home, the father (pater), inheritance after the father (patrimonium) and later with the institution of the state.

14

Changes in the Polish stereotype of ‘a German’ [+–] 178-198

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter presents the functions of stereotypes and changes in the Polish stereotype of ‘a German’. The chapter begins with some theoretical assumptiuons about stereotypes, and further presents the study conducted on the stereotype of a German among students in the city of Lublin between 1990 and 1993.

15

Prawica ‘right wing’ and lewica ‘left wing’: profiles in contemporary discourse [+–] 199-203

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter discusses the semantic development of the Polish words Prawica ‘right wing’ and lewica ‘left wing’, as an example of the influence of the system of values professed by a given community on the semantic content of words, the internal organisation of that content and lexical usage.

16

Varieties of fate: the Polish los and dola; the Russian sud’ba [+–] 204-212

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

This chapter presents the Polish concepts of los and dola, destiny and existence, belonging to the category of cultural key-words. It is inspired by a study by Anna Wierzbicka (‘Fate and destiny’), published in her 1992 book Semantics, Culture and Cognition. Thus, the present chapter partly develops Wierzbicka’s ideas and partly opposes them.

17

The conception of the linguistic worldview in comparative research [+–] 213-221

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

The present chapter analyzes the concept of the linguistic worldview in comparative research. The linguistic worldview conception is semantic, anthropological and cultural in nature. It is based on the assumption that language codes a certain socially established knowledge of the world and that this knowledge can be reconstructed and verbalised as a set of judgements about people, objects and events.

End Matter

Afterword [+–] 222-223

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED JANUARY 2012 The book provides an introduction into a highly developed, coherent, and extensively tested cognitive linguistic approach to lexical semantics, which is not currently accessible to readers of English. This makes the book important to researchers and students in lexical semantics, in Cognitive Linguistics and beyond. It also strengthens the Cognitive Linguistics enterprise in general, by showing that the main tenets of this approach are not an incidental historical development in a particular corner of the world, but rather are arrived at by scholars working in hugely different contexts independently of each other. The book therefore has an appeal to all researchers in Cognitive Linguistics. Furthermore, the book constitutes a contribution to the intellectual exchange between international academic discourses that mostly develop independently of each other – an exchange that has often provided major impetus for scientific development, as illustrated by the influence of the belated translations of works by Bakhtin, Lotman, Vygotsky, and Luria, among others.

References [+–] 224-243

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED JANUARY 2012 The book provides an introduction into a highly developed, coherent, and extensively tested cognitive linguistic approach to lexical semantics, which is not currently accessible to readers of English. This makes the book important to researchers and students in lexical semantics, in Cognitive Linguistics and beyond. It also strengthens the Cognitive Linguistics enterprise in general, by showing that the main tenets of this approach are not an incidental historical development in a particular corner of the world, but rather are arrived at by scholars working in hugely different contexts independently of each other. The book therefore has an appeal to all researchers in Cognitive Linguistics. Furthermore, the book constitutes a contribution to the intellectual exchange between international academic discourses that mostly develop independently of each other – an exchange that has often provided major impetus for scientific development, as illustrated by the influence of the belated translations of works by Bakhtin, Lotman, Vygotsky, and Luria, among others.

Index [+–] 244-250

Jerzy Bartminski

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED JANUARY 2012 The book provides an introduction into a highly developed, coherent, and extensively tested cognitive linguistic approach to lexical semantics, which is not currently accessible to readers of English. This makes the book important to researchers and students in lexical semantics, in Cognitive Linguistics and beyond. It also strengthens the Cognitive Linguistics enterprise in general, by showing that the main tenets of this approach are not an incidental historical development in a particular corner of the world, but rather are arrived at by scholars working in hugely different contexts independently of each other. The book therefore has an appeal to all researchers in Cognitive Linguistics. Furthermore, the book constitutes a contribution to the intellectual exchange between international academic discourses that mostly develop independently of each other – an exchange that has often provided major impetus for scientific development, as illustrated by the influence of the belated translations of works by Bakhtin, Lotman, Vygotsky, and Luria, among others.

This book is a valuable resource for researchers and students in lexical semantics, discourse and intercultural communication. In this book, the English-language audience interested in cognitive linguistic approaches and semantics in general will find valuable information regarding Slavic data and the development of Slavic semantic thought. The case studies presented in the book can certainly serve as a great inspiration for future cross-cultural semantic analyses.
Studies in Language 36.4

The book presents a condensed but very detailed and highly informative description of the main tenets at the core of cognitive ethnolinguistics. [It] is a much welcome contribution to (English-reading) academia, and it will be of particular interest for scholars working in the diverse fields of cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics and intercultural semantics/communication.
Linguist List 23.3940, September 2012

After reading Bartminski’s book, it will be difficult to go along the traditional, trodden paths, as if nothing would have happened. Let us then change our way of doing linguistics or, better, let us get back the good old traditions in their new form. And let us thank the translator, the editor and the publisher for making this excellent collection accessible to all cognitive linguists.
Enrique Bernardez, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8:2 (December 2010)