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Cognitive Linguistics and the Study of Chinese
Edited by Dingfang Shu, Hui Zhang and Lifei Zhang
[Human Cognitive Processing 67] 2019
► pp. 207–223

Chapter 7
Complementing cognitive linguistics with pragmatics and vice versa

Two illustrations from Chinese

| 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.

Keywords: construction grammar, speech act theory
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
Published online: 20 November 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.67.09che
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Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Chen, Rong
2023. The Rituals of Pragmatics. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Foolen, Ad
2023. CONSTRUCTION PRAGMATICS IN A WIDER CONTEXT. AN ADDITION TO WEN (2022). Lege artis. Language yesterday, today, tomorrow ► pp. 21 ff. DOI logo

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