Mental Models across Languages

Description

This book presents a study that triangulates the meanings of expressions across English, German and Japanese via their perception-based conceptual representations. In an online experiment, native speakers of the three languages were asked to design visual representations of expressions referring to baldness phenomena. These sets of visualizations are used to determine conceptual overlap or distance between expressions in the three languages, resulting in lexical-conceptual 'maps' for MALE BALDNESS. The study is discussed against the background of an embodied, perceptual symbol-based understanding of linguistic meaning. A section of the book further applies this perspective to the issue of translation, developing a process model of translation based on the concept of cognitive equivalence. The book presents a novel approach to lexical semantics from a cognitive linguistic perspective, tested through a methodologically innovative experiment. It is a compelling read to scholars in cognitive semantics, contrastive semantics, embodied cognition and cognitive translation studies. Mental Models across Languages Editorial page Title page Copyright page Table of contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Mental models, perceptual simulation, and the conceptual-linguistic interface 2.1 Abstract symbolic representation 2.2 Reassessing cognition and language 2.2.1 From color terms to prototypes 2.2.2 Prototypes and cognitive models 2.2.3 The embodied nature of language and thought 2.2.4 Mental simulation and conceptual representation 2.2.5 Simulation, meaning, and understanding language 2.3 A model of the interaction between linguistic and conceptual system 2.3.1 Parameterized simulator activity and the problem of semantic underdetermination 2.3.2 The conceptual representation of BALDNESS – an exemplary case 3. Translation, equivalence, and lexical meaning 3.1 Equivalence, conceptual representation, and principles of machine translation 3.2 The concept of equivalence in translation studies 3.3 Equivalence dethroned: Critical reactions to equivalence theory 3.4 Response based translation theory: Dynamic equivalence as a cognitive perspective 3.5 The role of internal simulation of reception in language production 3.6 Cognitive equivalence – proposal for a cognitive process model of translation 4. Methodology 4.1 Inaccessibility, backstage cognition, and windows to the mind 4.1.1 Lexical variation and experiment design 4.1.2 Exploring the boundaries of word meaning 4.1.3 Exploring lexical category structure across languages – goals of the present study 4.2 Talking about BALDNESS – collecting a pool of baldness terms 4.3 Visualizing BALDNESS – developing the experimental program 4.3.1 Depictions of male pattern baldness and the Norwood-Hamilton scale 4.3.2 Stages of male pattern baldness in the experimental program 4.3.3 Developing the user interface for the experimental program 4.3.4 Procedure and stages of the main experiment 4.3.5 Data elicited in the main experiment 5. Results 5.1 Baldness terms in German, English, and Japanese 5.2 Informants in the main experiment 5.3 Visual representations of BALDNESS 5.3.1 BALDNESS in German: Findings for individual baldness terms 5.3.2 BALDNESS in German: Intralinguistic comparison 5.3.3 BALDNESS in American English: Findings for individual baldness terms 5.3.4 BALDNESS in American English: Intralinguistic comparison 5.3.5 BALDNESS in Japanese: Findings for individual baldness terms 5.3.6 BALDNESS in Japanese: Intralinguistic comparison 5.4 BALDNESS compared across languages 5.4.1 Comparison: German and English 5.4.2 Comparison: German and Japanese 5.4.3 Comparison: English and Japanese 5.4.4 Cross-linguistic comparison: General discussion 6. Conclusion Bibliography Basic data BT categories for each language Detailed listing of the pre-study interviewees Subject index