Language is a uniquely human capacity that distinguishes us from other animals, yet many of its core properties are grounded in general cognitive processes that extend beyond language itself. Cognitive linguistics is the field dedicated to investigating linguistic phenomena from this cognitive perspective, exploring how language reflects patterns of human thought, perception, and experience.

Metaphors, for instance, are not merely linguistic embellishments used in poetry. As Lakoff and Johnson famously argue, our “ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature” (1980, Metaphors We Live By). When we say “She defended her argument,” we are not referring to swords or shields, yet we instinctively understand debate in terms of battle. In this way, abstract concepts are commonly conceptualised through more concrete domains, and our linguistic choices reveal these underlying cognitive structures.

This course covers the foundational assumptions shared by cognitive linguistic theories and provides an overview of key topics and approaches within the field, including, for example, conceptual metaphor theory, construction grammar, and frame semantics.

Kurs im HIS-LSF