LINGUIST List 8.1719

Sun Nov 30 1997

Sum: Cognitive Semantics Textbooks

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Suzanne E Kemmer, Cognitive Semantics textbooks

Many thanks to the 28 respondents to my query re: Cognitive Semantics
textbooks.

I include below the ones that most closely fit the query: a book
suitable as a textbook for an undergraduate course in Cognitive
Semantics for students not new to linguistics, and ideally focusing on
lexical semantics. I include also contributors' comments.

Ungerer, F. and Schmid, H.-J. 1996. An Introduction to Cognitive
Linguistics. London: Longman (ISBN: 0-582-239664) 
"introduces prototypes, categorization, metaphor/metonymy,
figure/ground, frames of attention etc." The most recommended text.

Fauconnier, Gilles. 1997. Mappings in Thought and Language.
 Cambridge: Cambridge University press. 

Frawley, William. 1992. Linguistic Semantics. Lawrence Erlbaum.
"Lots of references to the major functional and cognitive linguists:
Givon, Hopper, Thompson, Greenberg, Bybee, Traugott, Haiman, Talmy,
and, especially, Langacker and Lakoff; plus a wide range of other
recent research. Probably more comprehensive than needed for a single
course."

Geeraerts, Dirk. 1997. Diachronic Prototype Semantics. Oxford:OUP.
 Although diachronic, has many "examples of full-scale
 lexical-semantic analyses based on actual corpus materials."

Heine, Bernd. 1997. Cognitive Foundations of Grammar. (Oxford, $25)
 "It'd make a fine intro textbook (cognitive, but also lots
 of good grammaticization stuff)."

Kovecses, Zoltan. Forthcoming. A Student's Guide to Metaphor: A
Cognitive Linguistic View. Benjamins, Cognitive Linguistics in
Practice Series. 
 Available next fall, contact kovecsesisis.elte.hu for a preview.

Palmer, Gary B. 1996. Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistics.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
 "includes a high-quality color chart for elicitation of color
 lexicons...Table of contents visible at http://www.nevada.edu/~gbp";

Taylor, John. 1996 (2nd ed.) Linguistic Categorization. Oxford: OUP.
 "new chapter added in second edition" 


A couple of books at a more basic level:

Aitchison, Jean. 1994. _Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the
Mental Lexicon_. Oxford: Blackwell (2nd ed.).

Hatch, Evelyn, and Cheryl Brown. 1995. Vocabulary, Semantics and
Language Education. Cambridge: CUP, Cambridge Language Teaching
Library.
 "Includes basics of semantic fields, prototypes, scripts,
 frames, conceptual structures, speech acts...Good as text for
 undergrad and Master's students with an applied or ESL or education
 orientation..."

Hudson, Richard. 1995. Word Meaning. Routledge (Routledge Language
Workbooks series)
 "A very elementary introduction to lexical semantics ...which takes a
 cognitive view" (See also Hudsons new edition of Sociolinguistics,
 which provides "a very good introduction to several aspects of
 cognitive lingustics.")

Jackson, Howard. 1988. Words and their Meaning. Longman, 'Learning
about Language' Series.
 "very basic, introduces notions like synonymy and other lexical
 relations; semantic components; semantic fields; collocations and
 idioms; lexicology" "might work as a PRE-course to a
 cog. linguistics course"

And finally, some relevant web sites:
My semantics course: 

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Sem/infosheet.html

The Blending and Conceptualization page (Mark Turner and Gilles
Fauconnier)

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~mturn/WWW/blending.html

Mark Turner's Cognitive Semantics course:
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~mturn/WWW/605.html