LINGUIST List 12.1675

Wed Jun 27 2001

Books: Cognitive Linguistics

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Paul Peranteau, Cognitive Linguistics: by Fortescue and by Nuyts

John Benjamins Publishing announces the availability of these new works in 
Cognitive Linguistics

Pattern and Process. A Whiteheadian perspective on linguistics.
Michael Fortescue (University of Copenhagen)
Human Cognitive Processing 6
US & Canada: 1 58811 058 3 USD 86.00
Rest of world: 90 272 2358 0 NLG 190.00/
Hardcover 2001. viii, 312 pp.

The purpose of this book is to illustrate the relevance to linguistics
today of Whitehead's philosophy of organism. Although largely ignored
by linguists, Whitehead has in fact much to say as regards the
cognitive processes underpinning language pattern. His theory of
symbolism conceives of language as the 'systematization of
expression', and relates meaning to feeling (in the broadest
sense). The Whiteheadian perspective allows a synthesis of the
psychological and the social approaches to language that does not fall
into one or another fashionable form of reductionism. The volume
represents a first application of Whitehead's thinking to a broad
range of linguistic phenomena, ranging from speech act theory to the
production and comprehension of texts, from language acquisition to
historical change and the evolution of language. It is argued that
Whitehead's holistic philosophy is uniquely suited to the view of
language as an emergent phenomenon - regardless of whether one's
approach to cognition is via the 'nativist' or the 'functionalist'
route.
 * * * * *

Epistemic Modality, Language, and Conceptualization.
A cognitive-pragmatic perspective.
Jan NUYTS (University of Antwerp)
Human Cognitive Processing 5
90 272 2357 2 / NLG 220.00 (Hardcover)
1 55619 983 X / USD 100.00 (Hardcover)

The relationship between language and conceptualization remains one of
the major puzzles in language research. This monograph addresses this
issue by means of an in depth corpus based and experimental
investigation of the major types of expressions of epistemic modality
in Dutch, German and English. By adopting a systematic functional
orientation, the book explains a whole range of peculiarities of
epistemic expression forms (synchronically and diachronically), and it
offers a clear perspective on which cognitive systems are needed to
get from the concept of epistemic modality to its linguistic
expression. On that basis the author postulates a sophisticated,
layered view of human conceptualization. This book is of interest both
to scholars working on modality and related semantic dimensions, and
to the interdisciplinary field of researchers concerned with the
cognitive systems involved in language use.



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