Towards a Cognitive Semantics, Volume II. Typology and Process in Concept Structuring

Abstract

In this two-volume set Leonard Talmy defines the field of cognitive semantics.He approaches the question of how language organizes conceptual material bothat a general level and by analyzing a crucial set of particular conceptualdomains: space and time, motion and location, causation and force interaction,and attention and viewpoint. Talmy maintains that these are among the mostfundamental parameters by which language structures conception. By combiningthese conceptual domains into an integrated whole, Talmy shows, we advance ourunderstanding of the overall conceptual and semantic structure of naturallanguage. Volume 1 examines the fundamental systems by which language shapesconcepts. Volume 2 sets forth typologies according to which concepts arestructured and the processes by which they are structured.