Dissertation/These Online
Autor/ra:Castaño Castaño, Emilia
Fecha de lectura o defensa:12 de November de 2012
Título de la tesis:The Embodied Basis of Discourse Coherence
Director/a de la tesis:Isabel Verdaguer Clavera
Codirección:Joseph Hilferty
University/College:Universidad de Barcelona
Department:Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana
Country:España
URL (acceso abierto):http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445...
Tesis completa en el Archivo de Infoling: http://www.infoling.org/repository/ID/128
Descripción de la tesisEsta tesis estudia la posible influencia que la metáfora conceptual, entendida como un proceso cognitivo, puede ejercer en la producción y comprensión del discurso, en particular en el modo en que las relaciones de coherencia global y local emergen y se sustentan. Mediante un análisis cualitativo, esta tesis muestra que la metáfora conceptual UN DISCURSO ES UNA FORMA DE MOVIMIENTO INFLUENCIADA POR DINÁMICAS DE FUERZA y sus esquemas de imagen subyacentes son recursos estructurales básicos. Dichos elementos dan forma a la organización del discurso, contribuyen a realzar las relaciones de coherencia del texto y facilitan la comprensión lectora al activar inferencias o expectativas que pueden ayudar a predecir el comportamiento del discurso. En el caso de a coherencia local, cuatro estudios experimentales proporcionan evidencias empíricas, a través de una análisis comparativo del inglés y del castellano, que apoyan la tesis de que las relaciones de coherencia causales y concesivas tienen una naturaleza corpórea ya que parecen estar basadas en conceptos más concretos: interacciones de fuerza. Además este trabajo también ofrece datos que permiten afirmar que dichos patrones de fuerza no sólo son codificados en términos lingüísticos mediante verbos sino también mediante marcadores del discurso causales y concesivos. Todos estos datos llevan a pensar que los esquemas de imagen y la metáfora conceptual son cruciales en la conceptualización de las nociones de causalidad y concesión, ya que comprimen nuestra experiencia y la extienden a nociones mucho más abstractas tales como la causalidad y la concesión para hacer estas nociones comprensibles. En definitiva, esta tesis proporciona evidencias que apoyan la premisa de que no sólo la estructura general del texto sino también las relaciones de coherencia local emergen de nuestra interacción corpórea con el mundo que nos rodea.
---------------
The Embodied Basis of Discourse Coherence investigates the corporeal basis of global and local coherence. As far as global coherence is concerned, the main argument of this thesis is that the search for global coherence is often guided by means of metaphorical mappings, particularly those having to do with the conceptual metaphor DISCOURSE IS A FORM OF MOTION ALONG A PATH INFLUENCED BY FORCE DYNAMICS. In the case of local coherence, the analysis presented focuses only on a subset of interclausal connections: cause-effect and cause-concession relations, when explicitly marked by means of discourse markers. This thesis successfully assesses the hypothesis that Talmy’s force-dynamic model, along with conceptual metaphor, may account for the semantic content and the type of inferences that said subset of connectives generate during language processing. More broadly, this thesis provides evidence to support the premise that not only the general structure of discourse, but also the coherence relations on which it relies, emerge from our embodied interaction with the world.
---------------
The Embodied Basis of Discourse Coherence investigates the corporeal basis of global and local coherence. As far as global coherence is concerned, the main argument of this thesis is that the search for global coherence is often guided by means of metaphorical mappings, particularly those having to do with the conceptual metaphor DISCOURSE IS A FORM OF MOTION ALONG A PATH INFLUENCED BY FORCE DYNAMICS. In the case of local coherence, the analysis presented focuses only on a subset of interclausal connections: cause-effect and cause-concession relations, when explicitly marked by means of discourse markers. This thesis successfully assesses the hypothesis that Talmy’s force-dynamic model, along with conceptual metaphor, may account for the semantic content and the type of inferences that said subset of connectives generate during language processing. More broadly, this thesis provides evidence to support the premise that not only the general structure of discourse, but also the coherence relations on which it relies, emerge from our embodied interaction with the world.
Subject Area(s):Análisis del discurso, Lingüística cognitiva, Psicolingüística, Semántica
Table of ContentsPART I
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE TENETS OF TEXT MEANING
2.1 Global coherence: the outline of a journey
2.2 Local coherence: the scaffolding of text macrostructure
2.2.1 Meaning beyond the text: the unsaid information that coherence reveals
2.2.2 Coherence relations: a cognitive account
2.2.3 The role of experience in coherence relations
2.2.4 The special status of causal relations
2.3 Coherence relations and discourse comprehension: an overview of recent studies on connectives
3. GROUNDING LANGUAGE IN BODILY EXPERIENCE: THE EMBODIMENT HYPOTHESIS
3.1 The bodily basis of language and thought: image schemas
3.1.1 The cross-sensory character of perception: the example of vision
3.1.2 Some examples of bodily-derived image schemas
3.2. The psychological status of image schemas
3.2.1 Image schemas in cognitive psychology
3.2.2 Image schemas in developmental psychology
3.2.3. Image schemas in psycholinguistics
3.2.4 Image schemas in neuroscience
3.2.5 Image schemas in artificial intelligence
3.2.6 Image schemas in spontaneous gestures
3.3 What experimental evidence tells us about image schemas
4. THE COGNITIVE THEORY OF METAPHOR
4.1 The metaphorical conceptualization of discourse
4.2 An insight into source-path-goal, force-dynamics and link image schemas
4.3. Discourse is a form of motion along a path influenced by force dynamics: ontological and epistemic correspondences
PART II
5. CASE STUDIES
5.1 Hypotheses and methodology
6 A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MACROSTRUCTURE OF RESEARCH ABSTRACT
6.1 Research articles on biology
6.2 Cognitive science abstracts
6.2.1 Source-path-goal and blockage image schemas as structural devices
6.2.2 Source-path-goal image schema as structural device of discourse
6.2.3 Convergent paths as structural devices of discourse
6.2.4 Convergent and divergent paths as structural devices
6.3 Literary abstracts
6.3.1. Cycle image schema as structural device
6.3.2 Counterforce, diversion and link image schemas as structural devices
6.3.3 Path and blockage image schemas as structural devices
6.3.4 Source-path-goal image schema as structural device of discourse
6.4 Results and discussion
6.4.1 Abstracts on biology
6.4.2 Abstracts on cognitive-science
6.4.3 Literary abstracts
7. EMBODIMENT, CONNECTIVES AND LOCAL COHERENCE
7.1 How do we conceptualize causation?
7.2 Causation from perception and action
7.2.1 What do we exactly activate when we perceive causality?
8. AN INSIGHT INTO THE FORCE DYNAMICS THEORY
8.1 Force dynamics in language: empirical evidence
9. AN EMBODIED APPROACH TO COHERENCE: EXPERIMENTALWORK
9.1 CAUSES ARE SOURCES: Experiment 1
9.1.1 Method
9.1.2 Procedure
9.1.3 Results
9.2 CAUSES ARE FORCES: Experiments 2 and 3
9.2.1 Method
9.2.2 Procedure
9.2.3 Results and Discussion
9.3 DO CONNECTIVES ENCODE FORCE THEMSELVES? Experiment 4
9.3.1 Method
9.3.2 Procedure
9.3.3 Results and discussion
10. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
10.1 Main contributions
10.2. Further research
REFERENCES
APPENDIX A: Swales’s model for introductions
APPENDIX B: Abstracts on biology
APPENDIX C: Abstracts on cognitive science
APPENDIX D: Abstracts on literature
APPENDIX E: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 1
APPENDIX F: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 2
APPENDIX G: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 3
APPENDIX H: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 4
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE TENETS OF TEXT MEANING
2.1 Global coherence: the outline of a journey
2.2 Local coherence: the scaffolding of text macrostructure
2.2.1 Meaning beyond the text: the unsaid information that coherence reveals
2.2.2 Coherence relations: a cognitive account
2.2.3 The role of experience in coherence relations
2.2.4 The special status of causal relations
2.3 Coherence relations and discourse comprehension: an overview of recent studies on connectives
3. GROUNDING LANGUAGE IN BODILY EXPERIENCE: THE EMBODIMENT HYPOTHESIS
3.1 The bodily basis of language and thought: image schemas
3.1.1 The cross-sensory character of perception: the example of vision
3.1.2 Some examples of bodily-derived image schemas
3.2. The psychological status of image schemas
3.2.1 Image schemas in cognitive psychology
3.2.2 Image schemas in developmental psychology
3.2.3. Image schemas in psycholinguistics
3.2.4 Image schemas in neuroscience
3.2.5 Image schemas in artificial intelligence
3.2.6 Image schemas in spontaneous gestures
3.3 What experimental evidence tells us about image schemas
4. THE COGNITIVE THEORY OF METAPHOR
4.1 The metaphorical conceptualization of discourse
4.2 An insight into source-path-goal, force-dynamics and link image schemas
4.3. Discourse is a form of motion along a path influenced by force dynamics: ontological and epistemic correspondences
PART II
5. CASE STUDIES
5.1 Hypotheses and methodology
6 A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MACROSTRUCTURE OF RESEARCH ABSTRACT
6.1 Research articles on biology
6.2 Cognitive science abstracts
6.2.1 Source-path-goal and blockage image schemas as structural devices
6.2.2 Source-path-goal image schema as structural device of discourse
6.2.3 Convergent paths as structural devices of discourse
6.2.4 Convergent and divergent paths as structural devices
6.3 Literary abstracts
6.3.1. Cycle image schema as structural device
6.3.2 Counterforce, diversion and link image schemas as structural devices
6.3.3 Path and blockage image schemas as structural devices
6.3.4 Source-path-goal image schema as structural device of discourse
6.4 Results and discussion
6.4.1 Abstracts on biology
6.4.2 Abstracts on cognitive-science
6.4.3 Literary abstracts
7. EMBODIMENT, CONNECTIVES AND LOCAL COHERENCE
7.1 How do we conceptualize causation?
7.2 Causation from perception and action
7.2.1 What do we exactly activate when we perceive causality?
8. AN INSIGHT INTO THE FORCE DYNAMICS THEORY
8.1 Force dynamics in language: empirical evidence
9. AN EMBODIED APPROACH TO COHERENCE: EXPERIMENTALWORK
9.1 CAUSES ARE SOURCES: Experiment 1
9.1.1 Method
9.1.2 Procedure
9.1.3 Results
9.2 CAUSES ARE FORCES: Experiments 2 and 3
9.2.1 Method
9.2.2 Procedure
9.2.3 Results and Discussion
9.3 DO CONNECTIVES ENCODE FORCE THEMSELVES? Experiment 4
9.3.1 Method
9.3.2 Procedure
9.3.3 Results and discussion
10. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
10.1 Main contributions
10.2. Further research
REFERENCES
APPENDIX A: Swales’s model for introductions
APPENDIX B: Abstracts on biology
APPENDIX C: Abstracts on cognitive science
APPENDIX D: Abstracts on literature
APPENDIX E: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 1
APPENDIX F: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 2
APPENDIX G: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 3
APPENDIX H: Linguistic stimuli for experiment 4
Número de págs.:299
Fecha de publicación en Infoling:2 de August de 2014
Remitente:
Emilia Castaño Castaño
Universitat de Barcelona
<e.castano
ub.edu>
Universitat de Barcelona
<e.castano
ub.edu>