Re : Re: Sawilan Constructions

Dans un courrier dat=E9 du 10/08/99 21:46:53  , Ed a =E9crit :

> It is an attempt to explicate the (fairly subtle & powerful)
>  mechanism which underlies the blending of words and constructions, and
>  claims that it is a general (not specifically linguistic), and
>  little-known and investigated cognitive phenomenon.
> =20
>  http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rohrer/turner.htm
i read it.
as always, i will read very stupid and agressive.

(i) i think many a conlanger has understood and used that
phenomenon better than fauconnier et consorts did (look at
danov=EBn for a start).

(ii) many-stuff is wrong. it's still pairing concepts, and pairing
different concepts many times in a clause doesn't change that fact.

(iii) in "jail bait", "jail" is no "result". jail is a social facility, as=20
bait is
an individual one and both refer to specific, basic relations and/or=20
processes.
funny how these guys use fundamentals and despise them at
the same time. cognitive fields of activities imply a limited
number of processes implying a limited number of roles as
basic as the one consuming, the one carrying, the one covering, etc.
of course, these roles refer to "vehicle", "container", "trap", "stem", etc.
and that sounds less smart than "multi-referential cognitive" stuff.

take that example (i guess Charles doesn't mind) :

the moon eats the sun

"eat =3D consume" in "food" field.
if "consume =3D hide" in "astronomy" field, then you understand :

the moon hides the sun

it's very easy to encode and decode such metaphora
because cognition fields are limited in number
and basic processes like "consume" or "hide" are likely limited.

the correlations between basic roles such as "consumptible" and
"cache" are cultural. for instance, even if you're not japanese,
you can understand that "cow-ear" refers to "leading someone"
once you have noticed that cows obey when you grasp their ear.
i believe this experience pertains to a cognition field listing
the many roles re-acting to the execution of a will. and mind you,
there are very few such roles.

the only condition to map this out is to look and dream and stop
intellectualize what billions of people understand instinctively.

mathias