Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Soares da Silva, Augusto
Data de Publicação: 2019
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: por
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln5ano2019a2
Resumo: This study aims to highlight the relationship between grammar, cognition and society, identifying cognitive and social processes applied to grammatical constructions in Portuguese and their correlations. First, we will characterize certain cognitive operations that play an important role in grammar and that make it an efficient conceptual structuring and communication system: construal (our ability to view, conceive and portray the same situation in alternate ways); objectivity vs. subjectivity (the construal of a scene as detached or not from the conceptualizer); prominence (the focusing of attention on some aspects of a situation); mental spaces (packages of encyclopedic knowledge built and evoked in the current discourse); and inferences about the speaker’s intended meanings. Then, we will show how these cognitive operations (which are common to language and other cognitive faculties, such as perception, attention, and memory) are configured and conditioned by sociocultural factors and communicative efficiency processes – hence the importance of intersubjectivity and cultural conceptualization, and the need for systematically including intralinguistic variation in grammar. The answer to the question of the correlation between cognitive processes and social processes in grammar is based on the cognitive science notion of social cognition and on multivariate and sociocognitive grammar models. A usage-based grammar implies a deconstruction of the linguistic system in favor of a view of language in its inevitable variability as a complex dynamic system and the construction of a multifactorial grammar model that may adequately unravel, through multivariate quantitative methods, the interplay between conceptual, structural and social factors. Finally, we will illustrate these principles of a grammar of meanings, uses and variations (in contrast with traditional perspective of a grammar of forms, structures and rules) with three studies on constructional variation in Portuguese. They are part of our sociocognitive and sociolectometrical research into convergence and divergence between European and Brazilian Portuguese: se constructions (reflexive, reciprocal, middle, anticausative, passive, impersonal) and the null se constructions; prepositional relative constructions and their chopping and resumptive counterparts; and the alternation between inflected and uninflected infinitival constructions.
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spelling Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variationsGramática, cognição e sociedade: para uma gramática de significados, usos e variaçõesgramática baseada no usocognição socialsignificadovariação construcionalusage-based grammarsocial cognitionmeaningconstructional variationThis study aims to highlight the relationship between grammar, cognition and society, identifying cognitive and social processes applied to grammatical constructions in Portuguese and their correlations. First, we will characterize certain cognitive operations that play an important role in grammar and that make it an efficient conceptual structuring and communication system: construal (our ability to view, conceive and portray the same situation in alternate ways); objectivity vs. subjectivity (the construal of a scene as detached or not from the conceptualizer); prominence (the focusing of attention on some aspects of a situation); mental spaces (packages of encyclopedic knowledge built and evoked in the current discourse); and inferences about the speaker’s intended meanings. Then, we will show how these cognitive operations (which are common to language and other cognitive faculties, such as perception, attention, and memory) are configured and conditioned by sociocultural factors and communicative efficiency processes – hence the importance of intersubjectivity and cultural conceptualization, and the need for systematically including intralinguistic variation in grammar. The answer to the question of the correlation between cognitive processes and social processes in grammar is based on the cognitive science notion of social cognition and on multivariate and sociocognitive grammar models. A usage-based grammar implies a deconstruction of the linguistic system in favor of a view of language in its inevitable variability as a complex dynamic system and the construction of a multifactorial grammar model that may adequately unravel, through multivariate quantitative methods, the interplay between conceptual, structural and social factors. Finally, we will illustrate these principles of a grammar of meanings, uses and variations (in contrast with traditional perspective of a grammar of forms, structures and rules) with three studies on constructional variation in Portuguese. They are part of our sociocognitive and sociolectometrical research into convergence and divergence between European and Brazilian Portuguese: se constructions (reflexive, reciprocal, middle, anticausative, passive, impersonal) and the null se constructions; prepositional relative constructions and their chopping and resumptive counterparts; and the alternation between inflected and uninflected infinitival constructions.Associação Portuguesa de Linguística2019-11-21info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln5ano2019a2https://doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln5ano2019a2Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística; No. 5 (2019): Journal of the Portuguese Linguistics Association; 17-32Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística; N.º 5 (2019): Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística; 17-322183-9077reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAPporhttps://ojs.apl.pt/index.php/rapl/article/view/26https://ojs.apl.pt/index.php/rapl/article/view/26/5Direitos de Autor (c) 2019 Augusto Soares da Silvainfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessSoares da Silva, Augusto2023-12-02T10:17:21Zoai:ojs3.ojs.apl.pt:article/26Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T20:35:57.183331Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
Gramática, cognição e sociedade: para uma gramática de significados, usos e variações
title Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
spellingShingle Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
Soares da Silva, Augusto
gramática baseada no uso
cognição social
significado
variação construcional
usage-based grammar
social cognition
meaning
constructional variation
title_short Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
title_full Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
title_fullStr Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
title_full_unstemmed Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
title_sort Grammar, cognition and society: towards a grammar of meanings, uses and variations
author Soares da Silva, Augusto
author_facet Soares da Silva, Augusto
author_role author
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Soares da Silva, Augusto
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv gramática baseada no uso
cognição social
significado
variação construcional
usage-based grammar
social cognition
meaning
constructional variation
topic gramática baseada no uso
cognição social
significado
variação construcional
usage-based grammar
social cognition
meaning
constructional variation
description This study aims to highlight the relationship between grammar, cognition and society, identifying cognitive and social processes applied to grammatical constructions in Portuguese and their correlations. First, we will characterize certain cognitive operations that play an important role in grammar and that make it an efficient conceptual structuring and communication system: construal (our ability to view, conceive and portray the same situation in alternate ways); objectivity vs. subjectivity (the construal of a scene as detached or not from the conceptualizer); prominence (the focusing of attention on some aspects of a situation); mental spaces (packages of encyclopedic knowledge built and evoked in the current discourse); and inferences about the speaker’s intended meanings. Then, we will show how these cognitive operations (which are common to language and other cognitive faculties, such as perception, attention, and memory) are configured and conditioned by sociocultural factors and communicative efficiency processes – hence the importance of intersubjectivity and cultural conceptualization, and the need for systematically including intralinguistic variation in grammar. The answer to the question of the correlation between cognitive processes and social processes in grammar is based on the cognitive science notion of social cognition and on multivariate and sociocognitive grammar models. A usage-based grammar implies a deconstruction of the linguistic system in favor of a view of language in its inevitable variability as a complex dynamic system and the construction of a multifactorial grammar model that may adequately unravel, through multivariate quantitative methods, the interplay between conceptual, structural and social factors. Finally, we will illustrate these principles of a grammar of meanings, uses and variations (in contrast with traditional perspective of a grammar of forms, structures and rules) with three studies on constructional variation in Portuguese. They are part of our sociocognitive and sociolectometrical research into convergence and divergence between European and Brazilian Portuguese: se constructions (reflexive, reciprocal, middle, anticausative, passive, impersonal) and the null se constructions; prepositional relative constructions and their chopping and resumptive counterparts; and the alternation between inflected and uninflected infinitival constructions.
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019-11-21
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln5ano2019a2
https://doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln5ano2019a2
url https://doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln5ano2019a2
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv por
language por
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://ojs.apl.pt/index.php/rapl/article/view/26
https://ojs.apl.pt/index.php/rapl/article/view/26/5
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv Direitos de Autor (c) 2019 Augusto Soares da Silva
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv Direitos de Autor (c) 2019 Augusto Soares da Silva
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Associação Portuguesa de Linguística
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Associação Portuguesa de Linguística
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística; No. 5 (2019): Journal of the Portuguese Linguistics Association; 17-32
Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística; N.º 5 (2019): Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística; 17-32
2183-9077
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