نشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی (Sep 2020)
Exploring Cognitive, Situational and Cultural Dimensions of Delvari Figurative Proverbs through Anderson’s Extended Cognitive Proverb Model
Abstract
Abstract Anderson (2013) believes that Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier and Turner, 1998, 2002) is potentially capable of analyzing proverbs by incorporation of two blending processes to account for the cultural, cognitive and contextual aspects of their meaning. This article aims at applying Anderson’s (2013) Cognitive Proverb Model on six figurative proverbs of Delvari Dialect in an attempt to shed light on cognitive processes involved in their meaning construction. These proverbs were selected by a self-selection process. The rationale behind this process was to have a more coherent discussion and to focus only on one type of proverbs. The findings show that the wisdom meaning is the product of conceptual blending of animal and human affairs in two input spaces organized by a general space. The general space contains the commonalities between the input spaces. All these spaces are projected onto the blended space and create an integrated meaning package called base meaning or the “wisdom”. Base meaning integrates with the referential meaning and constructs situational meaning. Proverb use is actually an action like praise, advice, etc. This research shows that ecological and cultural features are in input space 1, without which construction of base meaning, situational and performance meanings looks impossible. HUMAN AS ANIMAL metaphor instigates mapping of input space 1 properties onto input space 2. This model clearly shows the role of cognition, culture and situation in the construction of proverb meaning and confirms the applicability of a cognitive model in explaining semantic and pragmatic complexities of language. Keywords: Conceptual Blending Theory, Anderson's Cognitive Proverb Model, Proverb, Base Meaning, Delvari Dialect. Introduction Delvari dialect is spoken by the people of Delvar region, located in the northern coast of Persian Gulf, in Bushehr Province. This research aimed at exploring the process of meaning construction in Delvari figurative proverbs. This study took the model presented by Daniel Anderson (2013) as a point of departure to explore the meaning of these proverbs from a cognitive point of view. Anderson's Cognitive Proverb Model (2013) is an extension of the Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 1998, 2002) to include situational meaning through an extra blending process as well as a performance meaning. This model was employed to probe into the interpretation of six figurative animal proverbs from the Delvari Dialect to shed light on their cultural, situational and cognitive dimensions. The main question of the research was whether this cognitive model could efficiently explain the cultural, cognitive, contextual aspects of the meaning of Delvari figurative proverbs. Material & Method The data included six figurative proverbs of Delvari dialect which were selected by a self-selection process. The rationale behind this process was to have a more coherent discussion and to focus only on one category of proverbs, namely that of animals. Moreover, the different types of animal proverbs were selected, because we wanted to have various sources of knowledge in Input space 1. Anderson’s (2013) Cognitive Proverb Model incorporates two blending processes: one in which the result or the blended space is a base meaning. Another process is where this base meaning is integrated with the elements in the context to give rise to the contextual meaning. These two processes are not assumed to be clearly separate, since meaning evolves over time and in interaction and interplay between cognitive and cultural input spaces and the context of proverb use. The dynamicity of meaning construction in the interpretation of proverbs results from these back-and-forth exchanges between the base meaning and the context meaning. Blending involves three processes through which the interpretations of figurative proverbs are formed. The first blending stage involves the creation of base meaning through composition, completion and elaboration. For data analysis, two inputs were firstly identified in each of figurative proverbs discussed here. The first space was the source knowledge, here that of animals labeled as Input 1. Input space 1 contained linguistic information given by the proverb, such as agents, actions, and the results of actions. There are different linguistic signals that show that the proverb is not a simple declarative statement, such as introductory words or phrases, rhyme and rhythmic patterns, the mentioning of animals or other references that seem out of context and signal the figurative language. These are called space builders and were identified in the beginning of every discussion on each proverb. The second space was ‘human affairs’, called Input space 2, which contained information about human affairs and properties corresponding to the Input space 1. Some information of these two inputs was transferred to the blended space through the processes of composition. Some background knowledge of the world was integrated to the blend space through completion process. Finally, the running of the blend (elaboration) let the new scene play out and a new meaning, a base meaning, developed. The second blending stage includes the application of the proverb and its base meaning in context. To analyze the proverbs, the base meaning of each proverb was to set up as a new input space 1. A second input space was then created, with corresponding counterparts from the reference situation. The process yields what is called situation meaning. The third and last stage in the model is performance meaning. In this stage, the proverbs were studied to point out what actions were performed by using each proverb. In this sense, the proverb use is actually an action. Discussion of Results & Conclusion The findings show that in these proverbs the wisdom meaning is the product of conceptual blending of animal and human affairs which come from two different input spaces. Moreover, the generic space contains the commonalities between the input spaces. All these spaces are projected onto the blended space and create an integrated meaning package called base meaning, in the first blending process. Linguistic competence and world knowledge of human affairs make this possible. In the second blending process, base meaning integrates with referential meaning and constructs a contextual or situational meaning. A significant finding is that ecological and cultural features presented in proverbial expressions are in input space 1, without which construction of base meaning and accordingly situational and performance meanings look impossible. HUMAN AS ANIMAL structural metaphor instigates mapping of input space 1 properties onto input space 2. This model clearly shows the role of cognition, culture and situation in constructing the meaning of proverbs and confirms the applicability of a cognitive model in explaining the semantic and pragmatic complexities of language. Moreover, this model illustrates that, firstly, proverbs have conventional or base meanings which are naturally general and correspond to the wisdom to be transmitted. Secondly, the full meaning of a proverb is manifested in concrete contexts. And finally, the proverb use is actually an act with performance meanings like to praise, advice, etc. The model points to a possibility to reach at a typology of proverbs based on their base meanings. If we study proverbs of different languages with similar base meanings in a mega-study, it might show how base meanings are blended with situation meanings. Such a mega-study would reveal the shared cognitive operations at work in how and why human beings transmit knowledge in memorable and succinct messages.
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