Cultural Linguistics – serie

This groundbreaking collection represents the broad scope of cutting-edge research in Cultural Linguistics, a burgeoning field of interdisciplinary inquiry into the relationships between language and cultural cognition. The materials surveyed in its chapters demonstrate how cultural conceptualisations encoded in language relate to all aspects of human life - from emotion and embodiment to kinship, religion, marriage and politics, even the understanding of life and death. Cultural Linguistics draws on cognitive science, complexity science and distributed cognition, among other disciplines, to strengthen its theoretical and analytical base. The tools it has developed have worked toward insightful investigations into the cultural grounding of language in numerous applied domains, including World Englishes, cross-cultural/intercultural pragmatics, intercultural communication, Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL), and political discourse analysis.

This book analyses the emotional message of Hungarian folksongs from a Cultural Linguistic perspective, employing a wide range of empirical devices. It combines theoretical notions with analytical devices and has a multidisciplinary essence: it relies on the latest Cultural Linguistic findings, employing spatial semantics, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and ethnography.The book addresses key questions including: How is nature conceptualized by a folk cultural group? How are emotions and other mental states expressed via nature imagery with respect to metaphors and construal schemas? The author argues that folksongs reflect the Hungarian peasant communities’ specific treatment of emotions, captured in an underlying cultural schema ‘reservedness.’ This schema is grounded in principals of morality and tradition, and governs the various levels of representation. The main topics discussed are related to two core issues: cultural metaphors and culturalschemas of construal in folksongs. It provides a detailed example, based on over 1000 folksongs, of how a cultural group’s cognition can be analyzed and better understood through a representative corpus-based linguistic approach. The research is also pioneering in constructing a comprehensive analysis framework adapted to folk poetry, and offers an example of how cultural conceptualizations can be investigated in various discourse types. Last but not least, the book offers insights into the work of Hungarian linguists and folklorists concerning cultural conceptualizations, which have largely been unavailable in English.

This groundbreaking collection represents the broad scope of cutting-edge research in Cultural Linguistics, a burgeoning field of interdisciplinary inquiry into the relationships between language and cultural cognition. The materials surveyed in its chapters demonstrate how cultural conceptualisations encoded in language relate to all aspects of human life - from emotion and embodiment to kinship, religion, marriage and politics, even the understanding of life and death. Cultural Linguistics draws on cognitive science, complexity science and distributed cognition, among other disciplines, to strengthen its theoretical and analytical base. The tools it has developed have worked toward insightful investigations into the cultural grounding of language in numerous applied domains, including World Englishes, cross-cultural/intercultural pragmatics, intercultural communication, Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL), and political discourse analysis.

This book analyses the emotional message of Hungarian folksongs from a Cultural Linguistic perspective, employing a wide range of empirical devices. It combines theoretical notions with analytical devices and has a multidisciplinary essence: it relies on the latest Cultural Linguistic findings, employing spatial semantics, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and ethnography.The book addresses key questions including: How is nature conceptualized by a folk cultural group? How are emotions and other mental states expressed via nature imagery with respect to metaphors and construal schemas? The author argues that folksongs reflect the Hungarian peasant communities’ specific treatment of emotions, captured in an underlying cultural schema ‘reservedness.’ This schema is grounded in principals of morality and tradition, and governs the various levels of representation. The main topics discussed are related to two core issues: cultural metaphors and culturalschemas of construal in folksongs. It provides a detailed example, based on over 1000 folksongs, of how a cultural group’s cognition can be analyzed and better understood through a representative corpus-based linguistic approach. The research is also pioneering in constructing a comprehensive analysis framework adapted to folk poetry, and offers an example of how cultural conceptualizations can be investigated in various discourse types. Last but not least, the book offers insights into the work of Hungarian linguists and folklorists concerning cultural conceptualizations, which have largely been unavailable in English.

This book investigates the study of World Englishes from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics, a theoretical and analytical framework for cultural cognition, cultural conceptualisations and language that employs and expands on the analytical tools and theoretical advancements in a number of disciplines, including cognitive psychology/science, anthropology, distributed cognition, and complexity science. The field of World Englishes has long focused on the sociolinguistic and applied linguistic study of varieties of English. Cultural Linguistics is now opening a new venue for research on World Englishes by exploring cultural conceptualisations underlying different varieties of English. The book explores ways in which the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics may be employed to study varieties of English around the globe.

This book investigates the study of World Englishes from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics, a theoretical and analytical framework for cultural cognition, cultural conceptualisations and language that employs and expands on the analytical tools and theoretical advancements in a number of disciplines, including cognitive psychology/science, anthropology, distributed cognition, and complexity science. The field of World Englishes has long focused on the sociolinguistic and applied linguistic study of varieties of English. Cultural Linguistics is now opening a new venue for research on World Englishes by exploring cultural conceptualisations underlying different varieties of English. The book explores ways in which the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics may be employed to study varieties of English around the globe.

This book presents the results of a large-scale experiment into interpretations of the metaphor “the Nation as a Body” among 1,800+ respondents from 30 linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In this first account of an empirical study of cross-cultural global metaphor interpretation of that scale, Musolff confirms that the meanings of metaphors are complex, culturally mediated and may differ for senders and recipients. The book provides a historical and cultural map of the traditions underlying differences in how the nation as a body –  or, “the body politic” – is understood. Musolff challenges the hypotheses of the universality of “the nation” as a predominantly male-gendered and hierarchically organized concept and, in so doing, puts into question some of the key presuppositions of traditional historical and cognitive approaches to metaphor. For scholars and students of figurative language, the book lays out methodological foundations for cross-cultural metaphor comparison andreveals hidden meaning differences in political metaphor in English as lingua franca.

This book presents the results of a large-scale experiment into interpretations of the metaphor “the Nation as a Body” among 1,800+ respondents from 30 linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In this first account of an empirical study of cross-cultural global metaphor interpretation of that scale, Musolff confirms that the meanings of metaphors are complex, culturally mediated and may differ for senders and recipients. The book provides a historical and cultural map of the traditions underlying differences in how the nation as a body –  or, “the body politic” – is understood. Musolff challenges the hypotheses of the universality of “the nation” as a predominantly male-gendered and hierarchically organized concept and, in so doing, puts into question some of the key presuppositions of traditional historical and cognitive approaches to metaphor. For scholars and students of figurative language, the book lays out methodological foundations for cross-cultural metaphor comparison andreveals hidden meaning differences in political metaphor in English as lingua franca.

This book accumulates analyses and evaluation evidence about the cultural conceptualizations in English language teaching (ELT) textbooks, framed by cultural linguistics. It considers conceptualizations of cultural constructs such as family, gender, beauty, and the home, within ELT curricula. Despite the strength of cultural linguistics as a theoretical and analytical movement, few volumes in applied linguistics have sought to provide data-based evidence about the application of cultural linguistics to language teaching curricula. The volume addresses recent issues in cultural linguistics and presents the associated implications for curriculum planning, materials development, and textbook evaluation. The aim of the volume is to enhance understanding of ELT curricula through a cultural linguistics lens. Relevant to cultural theorists, education experts working in ELT, and linguists in all language areas, this is a landmark volume marrying applied linguistics to cultural linguists in English language education studies.

This book approaches cultural conceptualizations of our modern world from cultural, linguistic and cognitive perspectives. It explores broader topics such as contemporary society, media and entertainment, migration and identity, political discourse, educational contexts and creative  linguistic innovation, all of which are seen as interwoven and mutually complementary segments of our present-day social world. This publication brings a fresh multi-cultural approach reflected in applying the principles of cultural linguistics to the analysis of different aspects of language use across four continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The issue of shared cultural conceptualizations being their common denominator, the chapters of this book shed light on how various cultural groups use language to communicate their ideas and beliefs both within and outside their own culture, bearing in mind the often contradictory nature of the present-day social world that, at the same time, unites and disintegrates social groups. Benefiting scholars from fields within the broad spectrum of the humanities and social sciences who are interested in culture, discourse, linguistics, sociology, migration and politics, the book uncovers  challenging new trends, inviting its readers to further explore the vast interconnected fields of language, culture and cognition in the turbulent 21st Century.Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book approaches cultural conceptualizations of our modern world from cultural, linguistic and cognitive perspectives. It explores broader topics such as contemporary society, media and entertainment, migration and identity, political discourse, educational contexts and creative  linguistic innovation, all of which are seen as interwoven and mutually complementary segments of our present-day social world. This publication brings a fresh multi-cultural approach reflected in applying the principles of cultural linguistics to the analysis of different aspects of language use across four continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The issue of shared cultural conceptualizations being their common denominator, the chapters of this book shed light on how various cultural groups use language to communicate their ideas and beliefs both within and outside their own culture, bearing in mind the often contradictory nature of the present-day social world that, at the same time, unites and disintegrates social groups. Benefiting scholars from fields within the broad spectrum of the humanities and social sciences who are interested in culture, discourse, linguistics, sociology, migration and politics, the book uncovers  challenging new trends, inviting its readers to further explore the vast interconnected fields of language, culture and cognition in the turbulent 21st Century.Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book offers a cutting-edge compilation of studies on (re)conceptualized traditions in a wide variety of discourses such as the language of emotion, folklore, religion and morality, the natural environment, idioms and proverbs. It also raises complex theoretical and methodological questions regarding the cultural-cognitive linguistic approach to metaphors and figurative language, embodiment, diachronic and corpus linguistics, and pragmatics. The languages under scrutiny range from well-documented to minority varieties, and even to endangered languages and dialects. Building from the assertion that cultural conceptualizations are rendered as manifestations of the interplay between language, culture, and the collective cognition of communities as handed down from generation to generation, this edited book discovers and rebuilds traditional cultural cognition. Employing analytical tools provided by the cultural-cognitive linguistic framework, the authors investigate how the field is being revitalized and renegotiated in present-day cultural contexts, and how it contributes to shaping our contemporary understanding of the world. It is useful for academics and students interested in cultural and cognitive linguistics, ethnosemantics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and religious studies.Chapter 7 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.