外国语言文化论坛(第115讲)——讲座二: Cultural Conceptualization and Linguistic Experience

讲座名称: 外国语言文化论坛(第115讲)——讲座二: Cultural Conceptualization and Linguistic Experience
讲座时间: 2018-05-19
讲座人: Ning Yu
形式:
校区: 兴庆校区
实践学分:
讲座内容: 外国语言文化论坛(第115讲)——讲座二:  Cultural Conceptualization and Linguistic Experience 讲座地点:  逸夫外文楼B1001 讲座时间:5月19日10:20-11:10 讲座人:Ning Yu(The Pennsylvania State University) Abstract:In light of the conference theme on concept-based language instruction from sociocultural perspective, I will discuss in this talk the relationship between linguistic patterns and conceptual representations as part of my exploration into the interaction between language, culture, and cognition in general, and between cultural conceptualization and linguistic experience in particular. I start with a discussion of some relevant tenets of Cognitive Linguistics, especially conceptual metaphor theory (CMT; Lakoff, 1993; Lakoff& Johnson, 1980, 1999), and of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian, 2017). I will then present a corpus-based study on two Chinese body-part terms: liăn and miàn ‘face’ and xīn ‘heart,’ which I consider as Chinese “cultural key words” (Wierzbicka, 1992, 1997) filled with extremely rich cultural meanings and values. I will also use English as a reference point for my study in Chinese to show how characteristic linguistic patterns in a language both manifest and reinforce the underlying cultural conceptualizations.  My previous studies on the Chinese cultural conceptualizations of “Social Face” (i.e., the face as dignity, prestige, reputation, etc.) and “Cognitive Heart” (i.e., the heart as the central faculty of cognition, with mental, rational, intellectual, emotional, moral, and dispositional functions) are qualitative in nature (e.g., Yu, 2001, 2009a, 2009b). The present study, however, looks for some quantitative evidence in two linguistic corpora, namely the Chinese CCL corpus at Peking University (the Center for Chinese Linguistic Corpus) and the English COCA corpus at Brigham Young University (the Corpus of Contemporary American English). The quantitative data from the corpora show that linguistic usages involving the “face” and “heart” words indeed form very different linguistic patterns (in terms of both variety and frequency of linguistic expressions) that should result in very differing linguistic experiences in respective languages and cultures. Different strengths of the linguistic patterns in linguistic experience should inevitably exert an impact on the cognitive status of the corresponding conceptual patterns as being either strong or weak in the languages and cultures. That should also be a main reason why the “Social Face” and “Cognitive Heart” concepts are much stronger in Chinese-speaking than English-speaking cultures. While salient cultural conceptualizations in a language can be traced back to their roots in cultural history, each generation of speakers of that language, however, inherits such cultural conceptualizations through their linguistic experience of learning and using the language, in addition to their cultural and bodily experiences. I will conclude my talk by pointing to some implications of my study for language instruction. 主办单位:西安交通大学国际合作与交流处  西安交通大学外国语学院       
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