Exploring the interplay of language and body in South African youth: A portrait-corpus study

IF 1.8 1区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Cognitive Linguistics Pub Date : 2020-08-25 DOI:10.1515/cog-2019-0101

A. Peters, Susan Coetzee-Van Rooy

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引用次数: 5

Abstract

Abstract Elicitation materials like language portraits are useful to investigate people’s perceptions about the languages that they know. This study uses portraits to analyse the underlying conceptualisations people exhibit when reflecting on their language repertoires. Conceptualisations as manifestations of cultural cognition are the purview of cognitive sociolinguistics. The present study advances portrait methodology as it analyses data from structured language portraits of 105 South African youth as a linguistic corpus from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The approach enables the uncovering of (a) prominent underlying conceptualisations of African language(s) and the body, and (b) the differences and similarities of these conceptualisations vis-à-vis previous cognitive (socio)linguistic studies of embodied language experiences. In our analysis, African home languages emerged both as ‘languages of the heart’ linked to cultural identity and as ‘languages of the head’ linked to cognitive strength and control. Moreover, the notion of ‘degrees of proficiency’ or ‘magnitude’ of language knowledge emerged more prominently than in previous studies of embodied language experience.

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探讨南非青年语言和身体的相互作用:肖像语料库研究

摘要语言肖像等启发材料有助于调查人们对所知语言的看法。这项研究使用肖像来分析人们在反思自己的语言曲目时所表现出的潜在概念。作为文化认知表现的概念化是认知社会语言学的范畴。本研究从定性和定量两个角度分析了105名南非青年的结构化语言肖像数据，作为一个语言语料库。该方法能够揭示（a）非洲语言和身体的突出潜在概念，以及（b）这些概念与先前对具体语言体验的认知（社会）语言学研究的差异和相似性。在我们的分析中，非洲母语既是与文化认同相关的“心灵语言”，也是与认知力量和控制力相关的“头脑语言”。此外，语言知识的“熟练程度”或“程度”的概念比以往对具体语言体验的研究更为突出。

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来源期刊

Cognitive Linguistics Multiple-

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

17.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： Cognitive Linguistics presents a forum for linguistic research of all kinds on the interaction between language and cognition. The journal focuses on language as an instrument for organizing, processing and conveying information. Cognitive Linguistics is a peer-reviewed journal of international scope and seeks to publish only works that represent a significant advancement to the theory or methods of cognitive linguistics, or that present an unknown or understudied phenomenon. Topics the structural characteristics of natural language categorization (such as prototypicality, cognitive models, metaphor, and imagery); the functional principles of linguistic organization, as illustrated by iconicity; the conceptual interface between syntax and semantics; the experiential background of language-in-use, including the cultural background; the relationship between language and thought, including matters of universality and language specificity.