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Article In:
Pragmatics & Cognition
Vol. 30:2 (2023) ► pp.258–295

Dynamic schematic complexes

Image schema interaction in music and language cognition reveals a potential for computational affect detection

| University of Niš
| University of Niš
| University of Niš

The article focuses on meaning generation in music and language cognition based on complexes of image schemas. We hypothesize that schemas are involved in dynamic interactions fostering online complex conceptual construction found both in language and elsewhere in various cognitive code expressions. Expanding on recent work, we propose that an account of image-schema interaction should include the notion of scalarity, a higher-order parameter which captures the intensity with which schemas occur and/or interact with one another. In that sense, schemas are proposed to have a binary valence (positive or negative) and a three-tier range of intensity levels. We focus on some examples of the interaction of force, path, link, balance, and containment image schemas in language and music to illustrate how a formal routine emerging from our proposal may help in addressing not only aspects of propositional semantics, but also affective and connotative nuances in musical and linguistic expression.

Keywords: concept generation, image schemas, scalarity, music, language cognition, affect
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background and previous research
  • 3.Dynamic approach to meaning generation in music and language
  • 4.Improved analysis: Image schematic complexes and scalarity
  • 5.Image schema combinations with the scale factor used in linguistic analysis: Some examples
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
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