• introducing students to the major approaches to language and cognition, with particular emphasis on recent developments in cognitive linguistics;
• creating an interest in psychology and cognitive science students in the controversial issues of the connection between language and cognitive behaviour;
• encouraging students to acquire practical experience in research in the field of cognitive linguistics.

• understand and use cognitive linguistic terminology;
• understand and discuss the main themes and concepts in a number of areas of current cognitive linguistic theory;
• undertake independent research studies using a cognitive linguistic approach.

Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: The MIT Press.

Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. (1994),

The poetics of mind. Figurative thought, language, and understanding., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson (1980),

Metaphors We Live By, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, George (1987),

Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Langacker, Ronald (1986),

Foundations of Cognitive Grammar , vol.1. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

ed. John B. Carroll,(1956, 1991) Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf,

Language, Thought and Reality , Cambridge, Massachusetts: the MIT Press.

Rosch, Eleanor, Carolyn Mervis, Wayne Gray, David Johnson, and Penny Boyes-Braem (1976),

Basic Objects in Natural Categories, Cognitive Psychology 8:382-439.

Rosch, Eleanor (1978),

Principles of Categorization, In Rosch and Lloyd (Eds) Cognition and Categorization. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 27-48.

Sweetser, Eve (1990),

Semantic structure and semantic change: English perception-verbs in an Indo-European context., In: From Etymology to Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.

Talmy, Leonard (1987),

Lexicalization Patterns: Typologies and Universals, Cognitive Science Report, No. 47. Cognitive Science Program. University of California, Berkeley.

• Whorf, B.L. (1956/1991) The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language. In: Carroll, J. B. (ed.) Language, Thought and Reality. Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Massachusetts: the MIT Press, pp. 134-159.

Additional reading:

• Whorf, B.L. (1956/1991) Science and Linguistics. In: Carroll, J. B. (ed.) Language, Thought and Reality. Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Massachusetts: the MIT Press, pp. 207-219.

Topic 3: Survey of early theories on categorization. Critique of classical approaches. Case study - colour terms.
Required reading:

• Lakoff, George (1987) From Wittgenstein to Rosch. (Chapter 2). In: Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 12-57.

Additional reading:

• Taylor, John R. (1989) Linguistic Categorization. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Topic 4: Structure of categories. Prototype effects.
Required reading:

• Rosch, Eleanor (1978) Principles of Categorization. In Rosch and Lloyd (Eds) Cognition and Categorization. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 27-48.

Additional reading:

• Lakoff, George (1987) Prototype Effects in Language. (Chapter 3). In: Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 58-67.

Topic 5: Vertical structure of categories. Basic level objects.
Required reading:

• Rosch, Eleanor, Carolyn Mervis, Wayne Gray, David Johnson, and Penny Boyes-Braem (1976) Basic Objects in Natural Categories. Cognitive Psychology 8:382-439.

Topic 6: Explanations and interpretations of prototype effects. Discussion.

Topic 7: Metaphor. Survey of earlier approaches. The contemporary theory of metaphor. Centrality of conceptual metaphor in language, thought and behaviour.
Required reading:

• Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Topic 8: Metaphorical processes - mapping, source domain, target domain, etc. Types of conceptual metaphor - structural, orientational, ontological.
Required reading:

• Lakoff, George (1994) What is Metaphor?. In: Barnden, J. & Holyoak, K. (eds.) Advances in Connectionist and Neural Computation Theory. Vol. 3, 203-258.

Topic 9: Seminar - discussion of assignments.

Topic 10: Recent approaches to metonymy.
Required reading:

• Radden, G. Kovecses, Z. (1996) Towards a Theory of Metonymy. Arbeiten aus dem Forschungskolloquium Kognitive Linguistik, C.L.E.A.R., No.9.
• Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. (1994) Metonymy. Chapter 7. In: The poetics of mind. Figurative thought, language, and understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 319-158.

Additional reading:

• Goossens, Louis (1995) Metaphtonymy. The Interaction of Metaphor and Metonymy in Figurative Expressions for Linguistic Action. In: Goossens, L. et al., By word of mouth: metaphor, metonymy, and linguistic action in a cognitive perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 159-174

Topic 11: The Invariance Principle. Idealized Cognitive Models.
Required reading:

• Lakoff, George (1987) Idealized Cognitive Models. (Chapter 4). In: Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 68-76.
• Lakoff, George (1989) The Invariance Hypothesis: Do Metaphors Preserve Cognitive Typology? In: Series A, Paper No. 266, January 1989, 1-43.

Additional reading:

• Lakoff, George (1987) Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. (Chapters 5-8). Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 77-135.

Topic 12: Blending and mental spaces.
Required reading:

• Fauconnier, Gilles & Turner, Mark (1996) Blending as a Central Process of Grammar. In: Goldberg, A. (ed.) Conceptual structure, discourse, and language. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications, pp. 113-130.

Additional reading:

• Fauconnier, Gilles (1985) Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: The MIT Press.
• Fauconnier, Gilles (1997) Mappings in Thought and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Topic 13: Cognitive Grammar. Iconicity - views against arbitrariness.
Required reading:

• Langacker, Ronald (1986) Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, vol.1. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Talmy, Leonard (1988) The Relation of Grammar to Cognition. In: Topics in cognitive linguistics, (ed. Brygida Rudzka-Ostyn) Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 165-207.

Additional reading:

• Talmy, Leonard (1987) Lexicalization Patterns: Typologies and Universals. Cognitive Science Report, No. 47. Cognitive Science Program. University of California, Berkeley.
• Goldberg, A. (1995) A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Topic 14: Metaphor and culture.
Required reading:

• Talmy, Leonard (1995) The Cognitive Culture System. In: The Monist, vol. 78, number 1, January 1995.
• Strauss, C. & Quinn, N. (1997) A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Topic 15: Applications - language change, psycholinguistics, cognitive modelling.
Required reading:

• Sweetser, Eve (1990) Semantic structure and semantic change: English perception-verbs in an Indo-European context. In: From Etymology to Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.
• Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. (1990) Psycholinguistic studies on the conceptual basis of idiomaticity. Cognitive Linguistics 1-4 (1990) 417-451.

Additional reading:

• Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. (1994) The poetics of mind. Figurative thought, language, and understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Regier, T. (1995) A model of the human capacity for categorizing spatial relations. Cognitive Linguistics, v. 6-1, 63-88.