Chapter 7
Complementing cognitive linguistics with pragmatics and vice versa
Two illustrations from Chinese
Rong Chen | Xi’an International Studies University | California State UniversitySan Bernardino
In this chapter I present two examples in Chinese that illustrate the efficacy of combining cognitive linguistics with pragmatics in the study of language. The first is the greeting ni chi le mo?(你吃了没?) ‘How are you?’ in a Chinese dialect about which I argue that an adequate analysis is obtained by combining the basic tenets of construction grammar with principles of the speech act theory. The second comes from metaphor. By looking at metaphors that are not meant to help the hearer understand a thing but rather to see it differently, I make the same point, that cognitive linguistics and pragmatics can complement each other so that a deeper understanding of language is achieved.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Illustration 1: Ni chi le mo (‘How are you?’)
- 3.Illustration 2: Non-conceptual conceptual metaphors
- 4.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
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Cited by 2 other publications
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