Metalinguistica – serie

Style is an important component of communication: it is the how in communicating the what, demonstrating the ontological unity of the two in language variability that provides the ground for the functioning of what-how and what-for. This volume approaches style within the framework of cognitive linguistics, a usage-based functional model, which interprets language as being conceptual, whereas conceptual knowledge is interpreted as experiential. Consequently, style is considered not as a set of predetermined ornaments on texts, but as a system of context-sensitive probability schemes of formation contributing to the meaning of discourse. Style is the outcome of linguistic potential, constrained by socio-cultural factors, functioning in the on-line and consolidated stylistic structure of discourse.

The volume aims to explore the relationship between the theoretical modelling and the mental representation of the perceived multiplicity of lexical meanings. The collection is divided into three thematic sections, discussing psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic evidence concerning polysemy; theoretical considerations regarding the representation of different types of meaning variation phenomena; and polysemy connected (in a variety of ways) to syntactic constructions. A common theme for the contributions is the recognition that consideration of a range of so far neglected types of evidence (both from within and from outside of linguistics proper) is essential to achieve further progress in polysemy research.

Text is a linguistic unit of communication in which linguistically expressed conceptual units are connected in different conceptual structures. The conceptual construal of things, events and relations is structured on the basis of a variety of cognitive and communicational options. These choices form discourse schemas, partly in a culturespecific way. There is a dynamic relationship between schema and instantiation. The volume approaches these questions from a functional perspective, where the processual nature of discourse is as important as its structural character. The volume has two parts: the first one presents theoretical papers, the second deals with certain discourse types, and some linguistic features that characterize specific discourse types.

This collection of papers focuses on cognitive metaphor research (CMR) from the perspective of the current debate on linguistic data and evidence. The peculiarity of the book is that it reveals the causes that trigger the methodological problems of data handling in CMR. These problems include the identifiability of metaphors in discourse and the reliability of the methods of gathering metaphors such as linguistic intuition, discourse analysis, corpus analysis, and psycholinguistic experiments. In order to overcome their weaknesses and to enhance their reliance, the papers argue, on the one hand, for the combination of different methods of gathering and evaluating data in CMR. On the other hand, the papers also point out that converging evidence cannot be obtained without constraining the combinability of data stemming from different sources.

Over the past few decades, cognitive linguistic research has turned metonymy from the "poor sister" of metaphor into a ubiquitous conceptual phenomenon. However, this broad notion of metonymy might run the risk of becoming too unrestricted and vacuous. In order to come to grips with the problem, the author proposes a narrower definition of metonymy, according to which linguistic metonymies co-activate the source, the target, and the relation between them so that only the target is expressed linguistically. Furthermore, he argues for a typology of metonymies based on the mental contents they involve. These results may not only prevent that the category of metonymy will become unlimited but may also take us a step closer to enhancing the empirical study of metonymic phenomena.

This book explores lexical repetition and its text-organizing function in English written discourse. It intends to contribute to three main areas of study. It contributes to cohesion analysis by showing that by treating the concept of repetition in a new, broader sense, lexical cohesion as a whole may be seen in fact as various forms of lexical repetition. It also contributes to repetition research, because it demonstrates that lexical repetition and the way it clusters in text make a unique contribution to the organizational quality of written discourse. Finally, it contributes to English written text analysis in that it partly answers a question that has long been bedeviling the science of text: whether or not there exists a way to «measure» subjective intuition objectively. This study shows that there is a way to measure subjective/intuitive perceptions of discourse quality via objective means, that is, through the analysis of linguistic elements identifiable on the textual surface.

The volume investigates various approaches to mood distribution and mood variation in lexically selected complement clauses with special reference to Hungarian data. Its primary aim is to show that semantic factors play a crucial role in mood choice. The analysis focuses on the indicative/non-indicative opposition, the latter category includes the subjunctive, the imperative and the conditional. Critical discussion, revision and elaboration of previous semantic approaches pertaining to mood choice are presented, with particular emphasis on the applicability of the various analyses to mood phenomena in Hungarian. The author proposes two novel hypotheses about mood choice in Hungarian complement clauses.