Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Ágnes Deli: Cognition and politeness

ÁGNES DELI COGNITION AND POLITENESS Abstract: Scientists working in the areas of gestalt psychology and cognitive semantics rely on the fact that the physical experience of the surrounding world is a determining factor in cognition and in the establishment of conceptual systems. It has been found that these systems strongly bear upon human communication in general. The paper seeks an answer to the question: why do speakers often use declaratives instead of interrogatives to ask questions? The phenomenon is assumed to be related to politeness, which is manifested by the speaker's lexico-grammatical choice. It is proposed that in discourse the upshot of such unstraightforwardness is politeness, and it is likely to spring out of a process, which is a kind of metaphorization in the philosophical sense. This process involves various metaphors both on the side of production and interpretation, such as MORE IS MORE, or DISTANCE IS LACK OF STRENGTH, which affiliate with two underlying concepts: 'Knowledge is Mental Space' and 'Cognition is a Tour'. By virtue of these basic concepts politeness is a reflection of physical reality. 1. Experience and Meaning The human conceptual system contains several basic concepts. Some of these emerge directly from our physical experiences such as spatial orientation (eg. UP-DOWN, IN-OUT, NEAR-FAR, FRONT-BACK), others are ontological concepts (eg. ENTITY, SUBSTANCE, CONTAINER, PERSON), and we also encounter with some structured experiences and activities (eg. EATING, MOVING, TRANSFERRING OBJECTS FROM PLACE TO PLACE) in our life. Cognitive linguistics is based on an approach to language in which meaning is understood to arise from the physical experience of the surrounding world. This gives rise to a novel interpretation of metaphor, which is considered inherent to understanding abstract concepts. The richness and complexity of the metaphorical systems of the English language has been discussed in a huge literature (see Lakoff and Johnson (1980), 85