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

Iri the course of discourse the participants often are in different 'domains', i.e. they are at different stages of cognition, and often, their purpose is to get into one and the same domain of knowing or believing, i.e. to come to some understanding or agreement. The process is a very delicate one, and it seems to involve several concepts about the physical world and reality. One way of getting into the partner's domain is by asking questions. 3. The Force Dynamics of Questions While tracing how image schemata provide the basis for meaning relations and for inferential patterns in our reasoning Johnson (1987) argues for the overwhelming experience of force and balance to be reflected in the realm of speech acts, as some metaphorical extensions of coherent basic level bodily experiences of systemic processes and states: "...there are patterns of force at work in the structure of the speech act itself. So, besides physiscal force, social force, and epistemic force, there is a level of speech act force (illocutionary force ) dynamics. My central claim,...,is that the relevant forces at this last level are also based on force gestalts metaphorically elaborated" (1987:58). I assume that social interactions such as conversations can also be described in terms of image schemata and metaphorical projection. Besides Lakoff and Johnson's above mentioned CONTAINER schema, the 'Knowledge is Mental Space' and 'Cognition is a Tour' metaphors seem to be at work in the process of discourse, which involves several other experiential patterns. In the following I will use Johnson's (1987) schemata modified to my interpretation. 90