Attention

Having introduced Langacker’s basic assumptions relating to the conceptual basis of word classes and how they relate to domains, including SPACE and TIME, we next consider how attention underpins language. Consider Langacker’s definition of attention:

Attention is intrinsically associated with the intensity or energy level of cognitive processes, which translates experientially into greater prominence or salience. Out of the many ongoing cognitive processes that constitute the rich diversity of mental experience at a given time, some are of augmented intensity and stand out from the rest as the focus of attention. (Langacker 1987: 115)

Like Talmy, Langacker argues that grammar encodes schematic aspects of embodied experience and that attention, as a perceptual phenomenon, is one aspect of this.

Linguistic expressions relate to conceived situations or ‘scenes’. As we have seen, attention is differentially focused on a particular aspect of a given scene. In Langacker’s terms, this is achieved in language by a range of focal adjustments which ‘adjust the focus’ on a particular aspect of any given scene by using different linguistic expressions or different grammatical constructions to describe that scene. The visual metaphor that the expression ‘focal adjustment’ rests upon emphasises the fact that visual perception is central to how we focus attention upon aspects of experience. By choosing a particular focal adjustment and thus linguistically ‘organising’ a scene in a specific way, the speaker imposes a unique construal upon that scene. Construal can be thought of as the way a speaker chooses to ‘package’ and ‘present’ a conceptual representation, which in turn has consequences for the conceptual representation that the utterance evokes in the mind of the hearer. For example, as we have already seen, the active construction focuses attention upon the AGENT of an action (e.g. George hid Lily’s slippers), while the passive construction focuses attention upon the PATIENT (e.g. Lily’s slippers were hidden by George). Each of these constructions conventionally encodes a distinct construal.

Langacker distinguishes three parameters along which focal adjustments can vary: (1) selection; (2) perspective; and (3) abstraction. Together, these para meters provide different ways of focusing attention upon and thus construing a scene. In broad terms, these parameters are roughly equivalent to the first three of Talmy’s schematic systems (the ‘Configurational Structure System’, the ‘Attentional System’ and the ‘Perspectival System’). The interaction of these three parameters is illustrated in Figure 15.11 and addressed in more detail below.

Selection: profiling

 Selection determines which aspects of a scene are attended to and relates to the notion of a conceptual domain. Recall from Chapter 7 that a conceptual domain is a body of related knowledge within the conceptual system. Langacker pro poses a number of basic domains (those tied directly to preconceptual embodied experience), which are presented in Table 15.7.

One aspect of construal is the selection of a particular domain. This is illustrated by the following examples. In each example, the expression close selects a different domain and therefore contributes to a very different construal in each sentence

Even within a single domain, an expression like close can give rise to distinct construals. For example, an expression can select for differences of scale. Langacker (1987: 118) illustrates this idea with the examples in (26), which relate to the domain of SPACE.

The expression close selects for different scales in each of these examples: the distance between the two elements in each example ranges from the distance between galaxies to the distance between the subparts of a single molecule.

 A second aspect of selection, and one that is fundamental to Langacker’s approach, relates to profiling. Earlier, we described profiling informally as ‘conceptually highlighting’ some aspect of a domain. As we saw in Chapter 7, profiling involves selecting some aspect of a base, which is a conceptual entity necessary for understanding what a word means. According to this perspective, words have profile-base organisation. For example, the expression elbow profiles a substructure within the larger structure ARM, which is its base. This idea is illustrated by Figure 15.12. As we saw earlier, Langacker calls the semantic pole of a symbolic unit its ‘predication’. Because the predication necessarily includes both the profile and the base, the base represents the full scope of predication associated with an expression.

The examples of selection we have discussed so far (selection of domain and profiling) relate to open-class elements. However, profiling is also reflected in the closed-class system. For example, active and passive constructions can give rise to different profiling possibilities. Consider the examples in (27).

The act of opening a bottle of juice requires both an AGENT (the person opening the bottle) and a PATIENT (the bottle). These participants are both part of the scope of predication of a sentence describing this scene. While the example in (27a) profiles the full scope of predication, the example in (27b) selects the PATIENT for profiling while the AGENT remains part of the base. This is made possible by the passive construction, which allows the AGENT to remain unexpressed. This difference in terms of profiling is illustrated by figures 15.13 and 15.14 which represent examples (27a) and (27b), respectively. In these diagrams, the circles represent entities (AGENT and PATIENT) and the arrows rep resent energy transfer from AGENT to PATIENT. The fact that the AGENT is unshaded in Figure 15.14 represents the fact that that the AGENT is not profiled but is nevertheless present as part of the base.

Selection, particularly as it relates to profiling, is part of the process of coding. As we have seen, when a speaker wants to express a conceptual representation in language, he or she has choices over which linguistic expressions and constructions are used to ‘package’ the conceptual representation. Coding is the process of ‘activating’ these linguistic units. As Langacker (1991: 294) explains, the process of coding is closely interwoven with construal, because decisions about how a situation is construed have consequences for the linguistic expressions selected to code the conceptualisation. Consider the following examples, all of which might be appropriate descriptions of the same event. These are more complex than the examples in (27): in addition to an AGENT (George) and a PATIENT (the TV) they also involve an INSTRUMENT (a shoe), the entity used by the AGENT to carry out the action.

These examples reflect different focal adjustments in terms of profiling and entail differences in terms of how much information the speaker intends to convey. The scope of predication (or base) is the ‘background’ against which the speaker construes the scene. Example (28a) profiles the entire scope of predication, as does (28c), although in less detail (this difference in detail relates to the focal adjustment abstraction, which we discuss below). Examples (28b) and (28e) have a narrower scope of predication, encompassing only the beginning of the event (28b) or the end of the event (28e). In other words, example (28b) only expresses information about George throwing a shoe; this sentence does not entail any consequences for the TV which is therefore not part of the scope of predication in this example. Equally, (28e) only tells us that the TV smashed but does not entail an AGENT or an INSTRU MENT (it may have fallen over). In contrast, (28d) does entail an AGENT as part of the scope of predication because a shoe is not an animate entity capable of smashing a TV without an AGENT. The scope of predication in turn has consequences for which participants are profiled. In (28a), AGENT, INSTRUMENT and PATIENT are all profiled. In (28b), only AGENT and INSTRUMENT are profiled. In (28c), AGENT and PATIENT are profiled, although the INSTRUMENT is ‘understood’ because we know that George must have used some INSTRUMENT to smash the TV, even if it was only his fist. This means that the instrument is part of the scope of predication in this example. Equally, in (28d), INSTRUMENT and PATIENT are profiled but an AGENT is understood as part of the base or scope of predication. Finally, in (28e), only PATIENT is profiled.

As these examples illustrate, the scope of predication or base of a given expression is determined by encyclopaedic knowledge. Compare the following examples (Langacker 1991: 332–5):

The conceptual representation or interpretation evoked by example (29a) does not necessarily entail an AGENT as part of its base, whereas the interpretation evoked by (29b) does. While the scope of predication in (29a) only includes the participants profiled by an explosion and me, the scope of predication of (29b) includes an unprofiled AGENT in addition to the two participants profiled by a crowbar and the window. This follows from the semantics of the expressions an explosion (which may occur without an external AGENT) and a crowbar (which cannot participate in an event without an external AGENT). In the same way, the unprofiled AGENT in (28d) arises from the semantics of a shoe.

Perspective: trajector-landmark organisation and deixis The second parameter of focal adjustment is perspective. The perspective from which a scene is viewed has consequences for the relative prominence of its participants. Langacker argues that the grammatical functions subject and object are reflections of perspective and thus have a conceptual basis. He suggests that the distinction between subject and object relates to the prototype of an action chain, a cognitive model involving an active ‘energy source’ (AGENT) that transfers energy to an ‘energy sink’ (PATIENT). Langacker calls the semantic pole of the expression that fulfils the subject function the trajector (TR), which reflects the observation that the prototypical subject is dynamic. The semantic pole of the expression that fulfils the object function is called the landmark (LM). This reflects the observation that the prototypical object is stationary or inert. The terms ‘trajector’ and ‘landmark’ are familiar from earlier parts of the book and are used in a range of related ways in cognitive linguistics. As Langacker points out, TR-LM (or subject-object) organisation in linguistic expressions is an instance of the more general perceptual and attentional phenomenon of figure-ground organisation, a recurring theme throughout this book.

Langacker defines TR-LM organisation in terms of a conceptual asymmetry between participants in a profiled relationship: while the TR signifies the focal or most prominent participant, the LM represents the secondary participant. In an English sentence, the TR (subject) comes first and the LM (object) comes second. The familiar case of an active and passive pair of sentences illustrates this point. Consider example (30).

In example (30a) the focal participant (TR) is George who is the AGENT of the action, and the secondary participant (LM) is the caviar which is the PATIENT. In (30b) the situation is reversed and the PATIENT is now the focal participant (TR). In a passive sentence, the AGENT is the secondary participant (LM), but it is not the object because passivised verbs do not take objects. Instead, the by-phrase that contains the object behaves more like a modifier and can be deleted without making the sentence ungrammatical. This difference between the active construction and the passive construction is represented by Figures 15.15 and 15.16.

The distinction between these two sentences relates to a shift in perspective, which is effected by changing the relative prominence attached to the participants in the profiled relationship. While both participants are profiled, GEORGE is marked as TR in Figure 15.15, while the CAVIAR is marked as TR in Figure 15.16. The direction of the arrow remains the same in both diagrams because George is still the ‘energy source’, irrespective of whether he is the primary or secondary participant.

Although the term ‘trajector’ is derived from ‘trajectory’ (a path of motion), it is worth emphasising that this term is applied to all salient participants, regardless of whether the verb involves motion or not. For example, Langacker (2002: 9) illustrates the trajector-landmark asymmetry with the verb resemble. Consider example (31).

Although these two sentences are ‘truth-conditionally equivalent’ (the nature of the meaning of resemble is that it entails a mutual relationship: X resembles Y and vice versa), Langacker observes that they are not semantically equivalent. Example (31a) tells us something about Lily’s mum (she resembles Botticelli’s angel). Example (31b) tells us something about Botticelli’s angel (it resembles Lily’s mum). The verb resemble is a stative verb, which means that it describes an unchanging scene. Despite this, the TR-LM asymmetry is still evident.

Perspective also underpins the personal pronoun system. Recall from Chapter 14 that the grammatical feature person distinguishes speaker, hearer and third party. However, person is a deictic category because SPEAKER, HEARER and THIRD PARTY are not fixed properties of any given individual but shift continually during conversation. Consider the following short conversational exchange.

In this short conversation, an individual referred to as I both loves and hates caviar. However, there is no contradiction in I both loving and hating caviar because the participants in the conversation know that the first person singular pronoun I refers to a different individual in each of the utterances. If George says I, it means GEORGE. If Lily says I, it means LILY. Speakers have no difficulty in ‘keeping track’ of who I or you refer to at any given point in a conversation. According to Langacker, it is our ability to adopt various view points during a conversational exchange that underlies the ease with which we manipulate the person system: when George says I, Lily knows it means GEORGE the speaker and not LILY the hearer, because she momentarily adopts George’s perspective as speaker.

 Langacker argues that the parameter of perspective also gives rise to focal adjustments as a result of the distinction between subjective construal and objective construal, which relates to the asymmetry between perceiver and perceived. In order to illustrate this distinction, Langacker uses the example of a pair of glasses. If the wearer of the glasses takes them off, holds them in front of his or her face and looks at them, the glasses become the object of perception (perceived). In contrast, if the wearer has the glasses on and is using them to see some other object, the attention focused on the glasses themselves becomes far weaker to the extent that they become a subpart of the perceiver. In the same way, when an individual’s attention is fully focused on some external entity, subjective construal (awareness of self) is backgrounded and objective construal is salient. When an individual’s attention is fully focused on him or herself, subjective construal is foregrounded and objective construal is backgrounded. In reality, objective construal and subjective construal can be seen as extreme poles on a continuum, where the usual case is that an individual’s attention is partly focused on objective construal and partly focused on subjective construal and one is more salient than the other. For example, objective construal is likely to be more salient than subjective construal when an individual is absorbed in watching a film or reading a gripping novel. However, subjective construal is likely to become more salient when an individual’s attention is focused on riding a bike or threading a needle.

 In order to see how this distinction between objective and subjective construal is related to perspective, and in turn how it is reflected in the grammatical system, we first introduce the term ground. In Langacker’s model, this term describes any speech event, and includes the participants, the time of speaking and the immediate physical context. Deictic expressions make specific reference to ground, and Langacker divides them into two broad categories: those that place the ground ‘offstage’ or in the background, and those that focus attention upon the ground, placing it ‘onstage’. For example, temporal deictics like tomorrow and next week place the ground offstage because they profile a point in time relative to the time of speaking, but the time of speaking which makes up part of the ground (‘now’) is backgrounded or implicit. In contrast, deictic expressions like now (temporal), here (spatial) and you (person deixis) place the ground onstage because they focus explicit attention upon aspects of the ground: time, place and participant(s). The greater the attention upon the ground, the greater the objectivity of construal. Speaker and hearer are usually subjectively construed or ‘off stage’, and only become objectively construed or ‘on stage’ when linguistically profiled by expressions like I or you. For example, if George utters the first-person pronoun I, he places himself in the foreground as an object of perception. In this way, the speaker is objectified. According to Langacker, then, the difference between explicit mention of the ground (objective construal) and implicit dependence upon the ground (subjective construal) is a difference of perspective. As we will see in Chapter 21, this aspect of perspective forms the basis of Langacker’s theory of grammaticalisation.

Abstraction: profiling

This focal adjustment operation relates to how specific or detailed the description of a scene is. This also has consequences for the type of construction selected. Recall our earlier examples in (28), two of which are repeated here as (33).

The example in (33b) is more abstract (less detailed) than the example in (33a). As we saw earlier, both of these examples share the same scope of predication, which involves an AGENT,a PATIENT and an INSTRUMENT. However, the more abstract description only profiles the AGENT and the PATIENT and leaves the INSTRUMENT as an unprofiled part of the base. In this way, abstraction, which relates to the level of attention paid to a scene, is paralleled by the kinds of lin guistic constructions available to us in terms of level of detail.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

شركة براق القمّة تعرض نماذج صناعتها من الشاحنات في مهرجان عين الحياة الرابع

المجمع العلمي يطلق برنامج (القرآني الصغير) ضمن فعاليات مهرجان عين الحياة الرابع

مجموعة مشاتل الكفيل تعرض تشكيلة متكاملة من النباتات الظلية والموسمية في مهرجان عين الحياة الرابع

قسم الشؤون الدينية يختتم الدورة 57 لتأهيل منتسبي العتبة العباسية المقدسة الجدد

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

عوامل تضعف القدرات الإدراكية لدى الإنسان

طريقة جديدة لتجديد خلايا الدماغ

دراسة بريطانية: الأطعمة النباتية عالية الجودة تقلل خطر فشل القلب

7 أطعمة يومية "تسمم" جسمك بالبلاستيك دون أن تشعر

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

اكتشاف أثري في أوريغون الأمريكية قد يعيد كتابة تاريخ البشرية

اكتشاف كائن بحري مدرع بلسان "حديدي" في بحر اليابان

نظام كوكبي "مقلوب" يحير علماء الفلك

بسبب الذكاء الاصطناعي.. هذه الوظائف "ستختفي" بعد أشهر قليلة ؟!

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Categorisation and polysemy in grammar: the network conception

Force-dynamics

The conceptual basis of word classes

Langacker theory of Cognitive Grammar

The Force-Dynamics System

The Perspectival System

The Attentional System

The Configurational Structure System

Schematic systems

Conceptual alternativity

The configuration of SPACE and TIME

Conceptual Structuring System Model of Talmy