The Relation of Grammar to Cognition–a Synopsis

The Relation of Grammar to Cognition--a Synopsis Leonard Talmy Program in Cognitive Science / Center for Human Information Processing / UC San Diego Abstract A sentence (or other portion of discourse) is taken to evoke in the listener a meaning complex, here called a "cognitive representation". The lex- ical elements of the sentence, to simplify, by and large specify the content of the cognitive represen- tation, while the grammatical elements specify its structure. Thus, looking systematically at the actual notions specified by grammatical elements can give us a handle for ascertaining the very makeup of (l~nguistic-) cognitive structuring. We accordingly examine a number of grammatically specified notions, observe the categories and systems in which they pattern, and speculate on broader cognitive connec- tions. Some provisional findings have already emerged. Grammatical specifications for structure are prepon- derantly relativistic or topological, and exclude the fixed or metrically Euclidean. The categories in which grammatical notions pattern include: plexity perspectival mode state of boundedness level of synthesis state of dividedness level of exemplarity degree of extensionality axial characteristics pattern of distribution scene-breakup " Grammatical specification of structuring appears to be the same, in certain abstract characteristics, as the structuring of visual perception. O. Introduction A sentence (or other portion of discourse) is taken to evoke in the listener a particular kind of experiential complex--here to be termed a "cognitive representation" or "CR".I There appears to be a sig- nificant way in which different portions of the lan- guage input specify, or code for, different portions of the CR. The major finding is that--for a first approximation--the lexical fraction of a sentence codes mainly for the content, or substance, of a CR, while the grammatical fraction of a sentence codes mainly for the structure of a CR. Determining the structure within a realm of phenomena has been a cen- tral concern for analytic science, including linguis- tics and psychology. With grammar seen in the above light, it can be used in determining the structure, of the language-related portion of human cognition, with possible connections to further portions. In particular, Iookingsystematically at the actual not- ions specified by grammatical elements can give us a handle for ascertaining the xery nakeup of (linguis- tic-) cognitive structuring. ~ The beginnings of such an endeavor are the aims of this paper. Several ideas here require some immediate elab- oration. The distinction between lexical and gram- matical is made entirely formally--i.e., without any reference to meaning--on the basis of the distinc- tion between open-class and closed-class. 3 All open- class elements--i.e., the stems of nouns, verbs, and adjectives4--are considered lexical. Everything else is considered grammatical. Included here are all closed-class morphemes and words--inflections, par- ticles, adpositons, conjunctions, demonstratives, etc.--as well as syntactic constructions, grammatical relations~ categorial identities, word order, and intonation. Terminologically here, "grammatical element" will be used to refer to any of these. The nature of content and of structure, and the distinction between them, are not understood well enough to be addressed analytically in this paper and must …

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