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Article published In:
Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 15:1 (2017) ► pp.154–182

Premonitory urges and Touretting volcanoes

Force construal in personal narratives on Tourette Syndrome

| Lund University

Causative meaning including, but not limited to, causation, prevention, and enabling is realized in language use through force construal. Force is explored in this article through consideration of narratives on Tourette Syndrome, a disorder that is largely characterized by its constitutive actions (vocal and motor tics). To account for force construal, the article proposes a merger of a vector model for the description of force in language and cognition and a lexical semantic model of ontologies and construals. Force is accounted for in terms of a number of configurations (cause, enable, prevent, withstand, and despite) that are realized through construal operations. This merger of explanatory models allows nuanced and flexible description of forceful meaning in actual language use.

Keywords: force construal, vectors, causation, causative configurations, Tourette Syndrome
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Tourette Syndrome
  • 2.Ontologies and construals
    • 2.1Force in language and cognition: The dynamics model
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1Written accounts of Tourette Syndrome
    • 3.2Expressions of force
    • 3.3Psychological force
  • 4.Communicative coordination: Painting a forceful picture of Tourette
    • 4.1 Like God’s own sneeze: Comparative construal
    • 4.2 A Touretting volcano: Force as a basis for metaphorization
    • 4.3 Police always make my tics worse: cause
      • 4.3.1 I had to obey the pattern: cause through modals
    • 4.4 I managed to suppress that tic: withstand
    • 4.5 Let the tic out: enable
    • 4.6 I can’t stop myself: prevent and despite
  • 5.Implications for understanding TS experiences
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 4 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.15.1.07har
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