Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse: Theoretical foundations and descriptive applications

441 Pages·2014·2.011 MB·English

by  Alexander Ziem

Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse
Human Cognitive Processing (HCP)
Cognitive Foundations of Language Structure and Use
This book series is a forum for interdisciplinary research on the grammatical struc-
ture, semantic organization, and communicative function of language(s), and their
anchoring in human cognitive faculties.
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Editors
Klaus-Uwe Panther Linda L. Thornburg
Nanjing Normal University Nanjing Normal University
& University of Hamburg
Editorial Board
Bogusław Bierwiaczonek Elżbieta Górska
Jan Dlugosz University, Czestochowa, Poland / University of Warsaw
Higher School of Labour Safety Management, Martin Hilpert
Katowice
University of Neuchâtel
Mario Brdar
Zoltán Kövecses
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University, Croatia
Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
Barbara Dancygier
Teenie Matlock
University of British Columbia
University of California at Merced
N.J. Enfield
Carita Paradis
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics,
Lund University
Nijmegen & Radboud University Nijmegen
Günter Radden
Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen
University of Hamburg
University of Copenhagen
Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez
Ad Foolen
University of La Rioja
Radboud University Nijmegen
Doris Schönefeld
Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.
University of Leipzig
University of California at Santa Cruz
Debra Ziegeler
Rachel Giora
University of Paris III
Tel Aviv University
Volume 48
Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse. Theoretical foundations and
descriptive applications
by Alexander Ziem
Frames of Understanding
in Text and Discourse
Theoretical foundations and descriptive applications
Alexander Ziem
Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International –
Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany,
a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office,
the collecting society VG WORT and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels
(German Publishers & Booksellers Association).
Alexander Ziem, Frames und sprachliches Wissen.
© Walter de Gruyter GmbH Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved.
Translated by Catherine Schwerin.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ziem, Alexander.
[Frames und sprachliches Wissen. English]
Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse : Theoretical foundations and descriptive
applications / Alexander Ziem.
p. cm. (Human Cognitive Processing, issn 1387-6724 ; v. 48)
Translated from the German title Frames und sprachliches Wissen, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Frames (Linguistics) 2. Semantics--Psychological aspects. 3. Cognition. I. Schwerin,
Catherine, editor. II. Title.
P325.5.F72Z5413 2014
401’.43--dc23 2014020746
isbn 978 90 272 4664 6 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 6964 5 (Eb)
© 2014 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
In memory of
Chuck Fillmore

Table of contents
Preface xi
Introduction 1
chapter 1
Semantic interest in frames 5
1.1 Evidence for frames 5
1.2 Frames in research 10
1.2.1 The development of frame research 11
1.2.2 Frames and other representation formats 17
1.3 Frames in cognitive science 29
1.3.1 Cognition, representation, categorization 29
1.3.2 Positions in cognitive theory 36
1.3.3 Frames in modularist and holistic approaches 43
chapter 2
Cognitive theory and semantic issues 49
2.1 Holism vs. Modularism: an example 50
2.2 Modularism 55
2.2.1 Two-level semantics (M. Bierwisch) 56
2.2.2 Frame semantics vs. two-level semantics: some issues 61
2.2.3 Example analyses 65
2.2.4 Three-level semantics (M. Schwarz) 77
2.3 Holism 87
2.3.1 Meaning as conceptualization 88
2.3.2 Language as conceptualization (R. Langacker vs. R. Jackendoff) 91
chapter 3
The holistic paradigm 99
3.1 Are linguistic and conceptual knowledge distinct entities? 101
3.1.1 Essence vs. accidence? 107
3.1.2 Synthetic vs. analytic truths? 109
3.1.3 Culture vs. language? 111
3.1.4 Semantics vs. pragmatics? 113
3.2 The “space of understanding” (C. Demmerling) 121
viii Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse
3.3 The postulate of U-relevance 128
3.3.1 Busse’s explicative semantics 129
3.3.2 Approaches in psycholinguistic research
on language-processing 135
3.3.3 Comparison of knowledge types 143
chapter 4
Semiotic issues 147
4.1 Linguistic signs as constructions 150
4.1.1 The symbolic principle in construction grammar
and Cognitive Grammar 151
4.1.2 What are constructions and symbolic units? 153
4.1.3 Constructions in the “space of understanding” 164
4.2 Frames and symbolic units 168
4.2.1 Conventional vs. contextual aspects of meaning (R. Langacker) 170
4.2.2 Are “situations” and “backgrounds” elements of semantic units?
(J. Zlatev) 179
4.2.3 Are “scenes” elements of semantic units? (C. Fillmore) 188
4.3 Relations 196
4.3.1 Evoked and invoked frames (C. Fillmore) 197
4.3.2 Meaning potentials (J. Allwood) 202
chapter 5
Frames as schemata 211
5.1 Categorization 212
5.2 Schemata 218
5.2.1 Schemata as representational formats of non-specific modality 220
5.2.2 Shared features of frames and schemata 227
5.3 Frames as schemata: example analysis 233
chapter 6
The structural constituents of frames 243
6.1 Issues 243
6.2 Reference 247
6.2.1 Frames as a projection area of referentiality 248
6.2.2 Every word evokes a frame 252
6.3 Predication potential: slots 256
6.3.1 What are slots? 257
6.3.2 Hyperonym type reduction: determining slots 264
6.3.3 Example analysis 274
6.4 Explicit predications: fillers 280
6.4.1 When are predications explicit? 281
6.4.2 Linguistic manifestations 284
Table of contents ix
6.5 Implicit predications: default values 289
6.5.1 Recurrent schema instantiations: token and type frequency 292
6.5.2 “Cognitive trails” as phenomena of the third kind 300
6.5.3 Type frequency: an example 307
chapter 7
Frames in discourse: the financial investors as locusts metaphor 315
7.1 Preliminaries 316
7.1.1 Frames as an instrument of corpus-based analysis 316
7.1.2 Cognitive and discourse-related aspects of metaphors 322
7.2 The “capitalism debate” 332
7.2.1 Discourse and corpus 333
7.2.2 Investigation period, discourse development, research corpus 336
7.2.3 Locust: a basic discourse-semantic figure 339
7.3 Methodological guidelines for the corpus-based analysis 349
7.3.1 Annotations 349
7.3.2 Predication analysis 352
7.3.3 Hyperonym type reduction 354
7.3.4 Classification of explicit predications 359
7.4 Empirical results 362
7.4.1 The generic frame 362
7.4.2 The input frames locust/s and financial investor/s 365
7.4.3 The metaphor frame 371
7.5 Frame semantics and discourse analysis: some conclusions 377
chapter 8
Conclusions and future research perspectives 379
References 387
Name index 421
Subject index 423