Table Of ContentTen Lectures on Cognitive Linguistics
Distinguished Lectures in
Cognitive Linguistics
Edited by
Fuyin (Thomas) Li (Beihang University, Beijing)
Guest Editor
Yuan Gao (Beihang University, Beijing)
Editorial Assistants
Jing Du, Hongxia Jia and Lin Yu (doctoral students at Beihang University)
Editorial Board
Jürgen Bohnemeyer (State University of New York at Buffalo) – Alan Cienki
(Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam, Netherlands and Moscow State
Linguistic University, Russia) – William Croft (University of New Mexico at
Albuquerque, USA) – Ewa Dąbrowska (Northumbria University, UK) –
Gilles Fauconnier (University of California at San Diego, USA) – Dirk Geeraerts
(University of Leuven, Belgium) – Nikolas Gisborne (The University of
Edinburgh, UK) – Cliff Goddard (Griffith University, Australia) – Stefan Gries
(University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) – Laura A. Janda
(University of Tromsø, Norway) – Zoltán Kövecses (Eötvös Loránd University,
Hungary) – George Lakoff (University of California at Berkeley, USA) –
Ronald W. Langacker (University of California at San Diego, USA) – Chris Sinha
(University of Portsmouth, UK) – Leonard Talmy (State University of New York
at Buffalo, USA) – John R. Taylor (University of Otago, New Zealand) –
Mark Turner (Case Western Reserve University, USA) – Sherman Wilcox
(University of New Mexico, USA) – Phillip Wolff (Emory University, USA) –
Jeffrey M. Zacks (Washington University, USA)
Distinguished Lectures in Cognitive Linguistics publishes the keynote lecture series given by
prominent international scholars at the China International Forum on Cognitive Linguistics
since 2004. Each volume contains the transcripts of 10 lectures under one theme given by an
acknowledged expert on a subject. Readers have access to the audio recordings of the lectures
through links in the e-book and QR codes in the printed volume. This series provides a unique
course on the broad subject of Cognitive Linguistics. Speakers include George Lakoff, Ronald
Langacker, Leonard Talmy, Laura Janda, Dirk Geeraerts, Ewa Dąbrowska and many others.
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/dlcl
Ten Lectures on Cognitive
Linguistics
By
George Lakoff
LEIDEN | BOSTON
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2017017693
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2468-4872
isbn 978-90-04-33137-2 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-32530-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by George Lakoff. Reproduced with kind permission from the author by Koninklijke Brill NV,
Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill
Sense and Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents
Note on Supplementary Material vii
Preface viii
About the Author ix
1 Generative Semantics: The Background to Cognitive Linguistics 1
2 Cognitive Semantics: The Basic Mechanisms of Thought 19
3 Cognitive Semantics: The Basic Mechanisms of Thought 41
4 Cognitive Semantics: The Basic Mechanism of Thought 65
5 Constructions: The Structure of Grammar 85
6 The Neural Theory of Language 111
7 The Poetic Metaphor 137
8 The Implications for Philosophy: How Cognitive Linguistics Changes
the Idea of What Philosophy Is 159
9 Political Linguistics: The Application of Cognitive Linguistics to
Political Analysis in America 183
10 Summary and Overview: An Overall Picture of Cognitive Linguistics:
What It Means and Where It Is Going 205
Websites for Cognitive Linguistics and CIFCL Speakers 227
Appendix 230
Note on Supplementary Material
All original audio-recordings and other supplementary material such as any
hand-outs and powerpoint presentations for the lecture series, have been
made available online and are referenced via unique DOI numbers on the
website www.figshare.com. They may be accessed via a QR code for the print
version of this book, in the e-book both the QR code and dynamic links will be
available which can be accessed by a mouse-click.
The material can be accessed on figshare.com through a PC internet browser
or via mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet. To listen to the audio-
recording on hand-held devices, the QR code that appears at the beginning of
each chapter should be scanned with a smart phone or tablet. A QR reader/
scanner and audio player should be installed on these devices. Alternatively,
for the e-book version, one can simply click on the QR code provided to be
redirected to the appropriate website.
This book has been made with the intent that the book and the audio, are
both available and usable as separate entities. Both are complemented by the
availability of the actual files of the presentations and material provided as
hand-outs at the time these lectures have been given. All rights and permission
remain with the authors of the respective works, the audio-recording and sup-
plementary material are made available in Open Access via a CC-BY-NC license
and are reproduced with kind permission from the authors. The recordings are
courtesy of the China International Forum on Cognitive Linguistics (http://
cifcl.buaa.edu.cn/), funded by the Beihang University Grant for International
Outstanding Scholars.
The complete collection of lectures by George Lakoff can be accessed
via this QR code and the following dynamic link: https://doi.org/10.6084/
m9.figshare.c.3885532.
© George Lakoff. Reproduced with kind permission from the author by Koninklijke
Brill nv, Leiden, 2018
Preface
The present text, Ten Lectures on Cognitive Linguistics, is a transcribed version
of lectures given by George Lakoff in Beijing in April, 2004. These lectures were
part of a lecture series hosted by the Department of foreign languages and the
Research Institute of Foreign Languages at Beihang University. This text also
belongs to the Beihang Linguistics Lecture Series. It is our hope that the publi-
cation of this text—accompanied by its video-disc counterpart—will encour-
age cognitive linguistic studies in the Chinese mainland.
Professor Lakoff’s Ten Lectures on Cognitive Linguistics were supported by
a Beihang Grant for International Outstanding Scientists (program number:
ZD0405, program organizer: Thomas Fuyin Li). The series of lectures was
co-sponsored by the English Departments of Peking University, Tsinghua
University, Beijing Normal University, and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
As editors of the Eminent Linguists Lecture Series, we express our gratitude
to Dr. Jason Patent and Dr. Douglas Lubbers for their advice on some difficult
points, and Neil Clancy for his proofreading of the transcripts. However, any
errors or discrepancies between the printed version and the video remain our
responsibility.
Gao Yuan
[email protected]
Thomas Fuyin Li
[email protected]
About the Author
George Lakoff is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California,
Berkeley. He previously taught at Harvard University and the University of
Michigan. Dr. Lakoff earned his PhD in 1966 from Indiana University. His
more than 40 years of research has contributed greatly to the establishment
of Cognitive Linguistics as a new academic paradigm. His co-authored book
Metaphors We Live By (1980) [with Mark Johnson] is seminal and path-
breaking. His works Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories
Reveal About The Mind (1987), and Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind
and Its Challenge To The Western Tradition (1999) [with Mark Johnson] laid the
foundation for Cognitive Linguistics. He has published a multitude of articles
in major scholarly journals and has edited volumes on the subject. He is the
author of numerous influential books including Moral Politics: How Liberals
and Conservatives Think, (2002); and More Than Cool Reason (1989) [with Mark
Turner]; Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings
Mathematics Into Being (2000) [with Rafael Nunez] and, most recently, Don’t
Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values, Frame the Debate (2004).
