Cognitive Space and Linguistic Case: Semantic and Syntactic Categories in English

Description

This study sheds new light on the complex relationship between cognitive and linguistic categories. Challenging the view of cases as categories in cognitive space, Schlesinger proposes a new understanding of the concept of case. Drawing on evidence from psycholinguistic research and English language data, he argues that case categories are in fact composed of more primitive cognitive notions: features and dimensions. These are registered in the lexical entries of individual verbs, thereby allowing certain metaphorical extensions. This new approach to case permits better descriptions of certain syntactic phenomena than has hitherto been possible, as Schlesinger illustrates through the analysis of the feature compositions of three cases.

"Schlesinger's point is well argued, well supported, and well taken. Cognitive Space and Linguistic Case advances the field toward explicating an area that has been particularly problematic." Michael Spivey-Knowlton, Contemporary Psychology "...sheds new light on the complex relationship between cognition and linguistic categories...This new approach to case permits better descriptions of certain syntactic phenomena than has hitherto been possible." International Journal of Psychology