Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research [1st ed.] 9783030587741, 9783030587758

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Second Language Learning and Teaching

Grzegorz Drożdż Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż   Editors

Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research

Second Language Learning and Teaching Series Editor Mirosław Pawlak, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz, Poland

The series brings together volumes dealing with different aspects of learning and teaching second and foreign languages. The titles included are both monographs and edited collections focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the processes underlying second language acquisition, through various aspects of language learning in instructed and non-instructed settings, to different facets of the teaching process, including syllabus choice, materials design, classroom practices and evaluation. The publications reflect state-of-the-art developments in those areas, they adopt a wide range of theoretical perspectives and follow diverse research paradigms. The intended audience are all those who are interested in naturalistic and classroom second language acquisition, including researchers, methodologists, curriculum and materials designers, teachers and undergraduate and graduate students undertaking empirical investigations of how second languages are learnt and taught.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10129

Grzegorz Drożdż Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż •

Editors

Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research

123

Editors Grzegorz Drożdż Faculty of Humanities University of Silesia Katowice, Poland

Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż Faculty of Humanities University of Silesia Katowice, Poland

ISSN 2193-7648 ISSN 2193-7656 (electronic) Second Language Learning and Teaching ISBN 978-3-030-58774-1 ISBN 978-3-030-58775-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Prof. Anna Turula from the Pedagogical University of Krakow for reviewing this monograph. Her valuable comments, insights, and suggestions have contributed to the enhancement of the quality of this book.

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Introduction

Despite over three decades of research on pedagogical applications of cognitive linguistics (e.g. Hubbard 1978; Dirven 1989; Taylor 1993; Hubbard 1994; Kövecses and Szabó 1996, Achard and Neimeier 2004; Pütz, Niemeier and Dirven 2004; Robinson and Ellis 2008; De Knop and De Rycker 2008; Holme 2009; Littlemore 2009; De Knop, Boers and De Rycker 2010; Tyler 2012; Cadierno and Eskildsen 2015; Ellis, Römer, and O’Donnell 2016), the influence that this research has had on pedagogical practice is still below its potential (Achard 2018, p. 27). One of the reasons for this situation, as Achard notes, is that not enough effort has been put into translating the theoretical positions of particular scholars into classroom practice. From this perspective, the present volume can be viewed as another step towards such practice, as all the contributors in the volume are both language scholars and, at the same time, experienced practitioners. As a result, the book provides a handful of proposals concerning specific applications of cognitive linguistics in the classroom, observations stemming from putting these proposals into practice or, to put it differently, from efforts to improve the efficiency of teaching a foreign language, as well as discusses a broad range of issues that can be enhanced by means of cognitive linguistics assumptions and notions, for example teaching grammatical constructions, prepositions, vocabulary, and specific issues in phonology. The languages in focus are, beside English, also French and Italian. The book begins with some reflections about the emotional background of language learning. One of the factors that provoke emotions in the classroom is the teacher. Among the dimensions of this person that can elicit emotions in learners, such as personality or appearance, the authors focus on one: whether the teacher is a native or a non-native speaker. Paul Wilson and Barbara LewandowskaTomaszczyk analyse the set of emotions elicited by these two kinds of teachers on the basis of questionnaire responses provided by Polish language learners. The next two chapters are devoted to the teaching of one of the most problematic areas in foreign and second language pedagogy: tenses. Katarzyna KwapiszOsadnik outlines her idea of the global visualisation grammar, whose main point is explaining French tenses by means of the notion of imagery. Assuming that different visions of the given scene are expressed through different tenses and moods, vii

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Introduction

the author proposes to teach all French tenses simultaneously, as it is then that it is possible to juxtapose all the images that are created in speakers’ minds while using each of the constructions. The chapter focuses on the tenses referring to the present. The second of these chapters, by Grzegorz Drożdż, proposes a method of describing the uses of English tenses by means of notions derived from Cognitive Grammar: distance, granularity, and scope (rooted, in turn, in human perception). One of the pedagogical advantages of this approach is that it is possible to combine within one model, and by means of the same notions, an account of two grammatical issues that are typically treated as unrelated: tenses and conditional constructions. The proposal is illustrated with a discussion of past and present uses of four constructions. The second part of the monograph is dedicated to specific methods of applying cognitive linguistics notions that turn certain theoretical assumptions into pedagogical practice. The authors share their experience and ideas that concern implementation of cognitive-based methods of teaching. These reflections begin with the chapter devoted to post-verbal complementation in English, in which Agnieszka Kaleta focuses on two types of such complements: the infinitive and the gerund. As assumed by cognitive linguists, the choice of these forms is motivated; that is, there is a semantic relationship between the main verb and its complement. From the pedagogical perspective, presenting this motivation in the classroom while teaching verb complements should enhance learners’ efficiency in mastering them. The author presents the results of an experiment that tests this hypothesis. The next chapter brings into focus a different facet of language pedagogy— teaching vocabulary. Referring to Cognitive Grammar postulates concerning polysemy, Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż devises a technique of teaching polysemous lexical items by means of the network model. The technique is designed for use in frequent classroom situations—when learners encounter an unfamiliar word in one of its extended senses. The author discusses the consecutive stages of the procedure and illustrates it with several French lexical items. Another issue presented in this part of the book is Italian prepositions. Aleksandra Paliczuk indicates that the way in which Italian prepositions are typically taught stresses memorisation and formal classifications. Because this approach is quite inefficient, she proposes a method of presenting and explaining the uses of prepositions that stems from Cognitive Grammar and one of its main notions— imagery. Based on images representing particular uses, the method leads students, step by step, from spatial senses of prepositions, through temporal, to abstract ones. The monograph concludes with a chapter that deals with one of the problems from the university settings—teaching phonetic and phonological notions during descriptive grammar classes. Łukasz Matusz insists that teaching these notions can be made more efficient by introducing to the classroom the metaphor LANGUAGE IS MUSIC, some of its instantiations, and its entailments. The discussion is based on an experiment conducted by the author and the results of a consequent survey, in which the students presented their understanding of the basic phonological and phonetic notions.

Introduction

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The issues discussed in the present volume can attract the interest of a broad range of readers dealing with foreign/second language teaching. First of all, the monograph is for scholars working within the area of language pedagogy, who would like to apply cognitive linguistics solutions to some of the long-standing problems in the field of teaching. Because the book deals with different facets of language, also theoretical linguists can be interested in specific solutions offered in the book. Beside them, the book is also addressed to those who implement pedagogical theory in everyday practice—teachers, handbook authors, students of pedagogical faculties, and all those who might want to improve their knowledge and teaching skills and seek new ideas for this. Grzegorz Drożdż Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż

References Achard, M. (2018). Teaching usage and concepts: Toward a cognitive pedagogical grammar. In A. Tyler, L. Huang, & H. Jan (Eds.), What is applied cognitive linguistics? Answers from current SLA research (pp. 37–62). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Achard, M., & Neimeier, S. (2004). Cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition, and foreign language teaching. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Cadierno, T., & Eskildsen, S. W. (Eds.). (2015). Usage-based perspectives on second language learning. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. De Knop, S., & De Rycker, T. (Eds.). (2008). Cognitive approaches to pedagogical grammar: A volume in honour of René Dirven. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. De Knop, S., Boers, S. F., & De Rycker, T. (Eds.). (2010). Fostering language teaching efficiency through cognitive linguistics. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Dirven, R. (1989). Cognitive linguistics and pedagogic grammar. In G. Graustein & G. Leitner (Eds.), Reference grammars and modern linguistic theory (pp. 56–75). Tübingen, Germany: Max Niemeyer Verlag. Ellis, N. C., Römer, U., & O’Donnell, M. B. (2016). Usage-based approaches to language acquisition and processing: Cognitive and corpus investigations of construction grammar (Language Learning Monograph). Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. Holme, R. (2009). Cognitive linguistics and language teaching. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Hubbard, P. (1978). Understanding English modals through space grammar. Ohio University Working Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching, 8, 34–47. Hubbard, P. (1994). Non-transformational theories of grammar: implications for language teaching. In T. Odlin (Ed.). Perspectives on pedagogical grammar (pp. 49–71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kövecses, Z., & Szabó, P. (1996). Idioms: A view from cognitive semantics. Applied Linguistics, 17(3), 326–355. Littlemore, J. (2009). Applying cognitive linguistics to second language learning and teaching. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Pütz, M., Niemeier, S., & Dirven, R., (2004). Applied cognitive linguistics I: Theory and language acquisition. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Robinson, P., & Ellis, N. C. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition. New York, London: Routledge. Taylor, J. (1993). Some pedagogical implications of cognitive linguistics. In R. Geiger & B. Rudzka-Ostyn (Eds.), Conceptualizations and mental processing in language (pp. 201–223). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Tyler, A. (2012). Cognitive linguistics and second language learning. Theoretical basis and experimental evidence. New York, London: Routledge.

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Cognitive Assumptions as the Foundations of Teaching Effects of Non-native Versus Native Teaching Scenarios on L2 Student Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul A. Wilson and Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk Imagery as a Tool for Describing the Uses of French Tenses . . . . . . . . . Katarzyna Kwapisz-Osadnik The Cognitive Grammar-Based Pedagogical Grammar—Tenses as Coherent Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grzegorz Drożdż

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Cognitive Theories in Pedagogical Application The Infinitive or the Gerund? Cognitive Linguistics in Teaching English Post-verbal Complementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agnieszka Kaleta

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The Cognitive Grammar View of Lexical Polysemy and Its Application in Foreign Language Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż

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A Cognitive Approach to Teaching Italian Prepositions to Polish Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aleksandra Paliczuk

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The LANGUAGE IS MUSIC Metaphor as a Didactic Tool in Descriptive Phonetics and Phonology Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Łukasz Matusz

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Cognitive Assumptions as the Foundations of Teaching

Effects of Non-native Versus Native Teaching Scenarios on L2 Student Emotions Paul A. Wilson and Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk

Abstract The focus of the present chapter is on the role and function of the presence of a native or non-native teacher in an English L2 class and its effect on students’ emotions and learning outcomes. It specifically assesses the effects associated with shame, fear, anxiety, anger, hopelessness and pride in this respect, emotions not often discussed in the available literature on L2 learning. The students’ selfreports concerning these questions revealed that native language teachers appear to elicit more negative emotions in their students compared with their non-native teacher counterparts. Further results suggested that the specific emotion elicited in L2 students by native teachers vis-à-vis non-native teachers is anxiety. Keywords Anger · Anxiety · Confidence · Depression · Emotion · Fear · Hopelessness · L2 competence · Native teacher · Non-native teacher · Pride · Self-reports · Speaking · Writing

1 Introduction The dynamic nature of the foreign language (L2) learning classroom means that there are likely to be a number of specific influences that affect a number of different emotions. However, as Teimouri (2018) observes, the development of research into the effect of emotions on L2 learning has been hampered by erroneously grouping a range of negative emotions such as, for example, fear, nervousness, shame, sadness, embarrassment and anxiety together as instances of language anxiety. In an attempt to extend our knowledge in this respect to a broader range of emotions, we showed that public versus private evaluation as well as peer co-operation had an effect on P. A. Wilson (B) University of Łód´z, ul. Pomorska 171/173, 90-236 Łód´z, Poland e-mail: [email protected] B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk State University of Applied Sciences in Konin, ul. Przyja´zni 1, 62-510 Konin, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. Dro˙zd˙z and B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (eds.), Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research, Second Language Learning and Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_1

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levels of shame, fear, anxiety, anger and hopelessness in L2 students (Wilson & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2019). This influence of diverse negative emotions in the L2 context is further highlighted by Wilson (2016, p. 248), who argues “that the shame elicited in response to perceived threat in the L2 classroom is responded to in terms of fight, flight and fright that are at the heart of fear, anger and depression”. Whereas fight mobilizes active opposition, flight is characterized by withdrawal or avoidance and fright is associated with inactivity or freezing. The present study compares the effects of a native teacher of English versus a non-native teacher of English on self-reported emotions in the L2 classroom by Polish university students. It also seeks to determine the association between these emotions and self-reported English confidence and competence. There is a dearth of studies that compare emotional responses to native versus nonnative teachers in the L2 classroom. However, Woodrow (2006) reported qualitative data showing anxiety is elicited as a consequence of interactions with native speakers outside the classroom, but not due to communication with a native L2 teacher in the classroom. There is a clear need for further studies to verify and shed light on this possible effect. The importance of gaining an awareness of how the mere presence of a native or non-native teacher can affect emotions in the L2 classroom becomes clear when one considers the influence that emotions can have on learning. Within the context of the present chapter, it is important to specifically assess the effects associated with shame, fear, anxiety, anger, hopelessness and pride.

1.1 Shame It has been demonstrated that shame plays an important role in L2 learning. In a recent analysis of negative experiences in the L2 classroom, Teimouri (2018) reported a relatively high incidence of shame. Cook (2006) additionally showed that eighteen of the thirty foreign language students in his study reported at least one shame experience and that in many cases this was reported in depth. One of the main reasons for shame being central to classroom scenarios is that it is characterized by negative criticism of the global self (Lewis, 1971) and is therefore related to evaluations of self-worth and self-esteem. As Teimouri (2018) explains, this is likely to lead the L2 student to engage in withdrawal and avoidance, which has the potential to have a particularly damaging effect on L2 learning as it can hinder student participation in speaking exercises that are viewed as beneficial to successful progress in achieving L2 proficiency. Teimouri (2018) further argues that the threat of shame on the global self is detrimental to the attention of the L2 student as the student’s attention resources are divided between learning activities and concern about how others might be perceiving and evaluating them. Finally, the threat of shame to the global self can affect L2 learning by encouraging externalization, in which the student blames external events or others for their failure rather than their global self. Specifically, such a strategy can negatively influence L2 motivation because although it might temporarily reduce the painful experience of shame, the student might not see

Effects of Non-native Versus Native Teaching Scenarios …

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the point in taking action to improve their L2 performance if they consider that their failure was due external circumstances (Teimouri, 2018). Another major way in which shame might influence L2 learning is through its negative effects on working memory, the efficiency of which is a feature of L2 learning performance. In terms of the role of working memory in L2 performance, it has been shown that L2 learners with greater working memory spans achieve higher scores on reading, grammar and vocabulary tests (Harrington & Sawyer, 1992). However, a crucial point regarding the focal point of the present chapter is the possible negative effect that shame might have on working memory. Cavalera and Pepe (2014) have shown that shame, as both an emotional experience and as a personal predisposition, impairs working memory performance.

1.2 Fear The conceptual proximity between shame and fear warrants a closer inspection of their similarities and differences in order to determine their relative influence on L2 learning. It is initially important to note the possible propinquity between fear and shame in the L2 classroom. In their study on self-reported fears of L2 students expressed in diaries, Cohen and Norst (1989, p. 62) observe that such fears are based on “having what they perceive as their inadequacy exposed, resulting in loss of selfesteem, of being placed in a dependent and “inferior” position before their peers”. It is interesting that low self-esteem and inferiority have been identified as being closely related to shame (Leary, Tambor, Terdal, & Downs, 1995). In this sense, such L2 fear can be viewed to a certain degree as fear of shame. As one might expect from the similarity between shame and fear, these two emotions have comparable effects on L2 learning. Cook (2006) shows how the similar features that shame and fear share influence L2 learning in similar ways. It would appear that the main features that fear shares with shame are the tendencies to avoid and withdraw. Cook (2006) further explains how these shared features of fear and shame have similar influences on L2 performance. Specifically, fear has the effect of inhibiting language learning and reducing the ability to communicate in a foreign language.

1.3 Anxiety Anxiety associated with L2 learning is characterized by the apprehension and worry connected with activities pertaining to learning a second language, such as listening, speaking and writing (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994). Horowitz, Horowitz and Cope (1986) argue that there are three elements of L2 anxiety, namely test anxiety, which is the fear of failing a test or exam, concerns regarding communication, and anxiety pertaining to negative assessment. Consistent with the viewpoint regarding shame as

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a master emotion as a consequnce of its relationship with other emotions (Poulson, 2000; Wilson, 2016), Cook (2006, p. 70) explains that “foreign language anxiety appears to somehow imperceptibly touch on shame”, and that participant interviews revealed that “shame and ‘anxiety’, when anxiety was defined as fear, were observed as sequential elements in a causal chain”. Evidence shows support for an inverse relationship between anxiety and L2 achievement. For example, Horowitz (1986) showed that in comparison with less anxious students, those who were more anxious received lower grades than they expected. Consistent with this, MacIntyre and Gardner (1989) reported results for a vocabulary learning exercise which showed an inverse relationship between grades and anxiety. A similar negative correlation between achievement and anxiety has been reported for French second language learners (Coulombe, 2000). In a study that bears more resemblance to the present study in terms of a self-reported evaluation measure, MacIntyre, Noels, and Clément (1997) found a negative correlation between self-rated language competence and anxiety. All in all, there appears to be strong support for an inverse relationship between second language proficiency and anxiety. With respect to the possible effect of anxiety on specific features associated with L2 learning, it has been shown that it has a negative effect on working memory (Vytal, Cornwell, Letkiewicz, Arkin, & Grilion, 2013) and as a consequence this can, in a similar way to shame, have a deleterious impact on L2 performance. MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) also developed three scales to test the effects of language anxiety that are based on Tobias’ three-stage model (1979, 1986) that pertains to the effects of anxiety on the three learning stages of input, processing and output. Specifically, whereas the input anxiety scale refers to the apprehension involved in attending, concentrating and encoding with respect to new L2 material, the processing anxiety scale focuses on the apprehension associated with learning a second language and the ability to think in it, and the output anxiety scale relates to L2 speaking or writing apprehension. MacIntyre & Gardner (1994) showed that there were significant negative correlations between scores on each of these anxiety scales and grades of students of French-as-a-second language. It has also been observed that anxious L2 learners are relatively more reticent in offering oral answers (Ely, 1986).

1.4 Anger Anger is one of the least studied emotions with respect to L2 learning; however, as a consequence of its relationship with shame it is another emotion that needs to be scrutinized in this context. In one of the few studies focusing on anger in language learning, Cook (2006) observes that anger can eliminate shame via the action tendency of either attacking others or oneself and is therefore a defence against the threat of the unpleasant feelings of shame. Cook (2006, p. 260) further notes that:

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One thing that happens, at least to some people when they learn a foreign language, is that they find themselves getting angry in all kinds of little interactions where they would not have if they had been using their native language. This is especially true for adults, who take their linguistic competence for granted.

Of all the emotions analyzed in the present chapter, anger would appear to be the most ambivalent with respect to its effect on L2 learning. The destructive nature of this emotion needs to be balanced with the relationship improvement that it can offer, which is particularly relevant to relations between students or between the teacher and students in the classroom setting. Kam and Bond (2008) show that improvement in relationships is possible if such angry retaliation leads to an apology or more discussion. One should also not forget the possible role of anger as a motivating factor in L2 improvement, especially if anger is directed towards the self.

1.5 Depression It is clear that fright and entrapment, which are identified as key features of depression (Wilson, 2016), are not conducive to L2 learning. Entrapment and can be thought of as being unable to remove oneself from a negative situation (Gilbert, Gilbert, & Irons 2004). Being immobilized mentally in the classroom environment means that one is less able to apply one’s intellectual resources to the required task. From a clusterbased viewpoint of emotions, it is important to take other, similar emotions that are members of the same cluster into account. In the case of depression, an emotion in the depression cluster that is relevant to the classroom setting is hopelessness. Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, and Perry (2002) argue that hopelessness is particularly harmful to motivation in the academic setting. Finally, it has also been shown that depression has a detrimental effect on working memory performance (Hubbard, Hutchison, Hambrick, & Rypma, 2016) and therefore depression can be deemed similar to shame and anxiety in its effects on L2 performance in this regard.

1.6 Pride Pride is generally regarded as a self-conscious emotion that has the adaptive function of preventing rejection by enhancing one’s acceptance and social status within a group (Leary et al., 1995). The expression of pride increases an individual’s self-esteem and conveys the message that one is worthy of praise and increased status (Tracy & Robins, 2008).1 Despite these features that are consistent with the traditional 1 It

should be noted that in addition to this more positive prosocial form of pride, which can be termed authentic pride, a more negative, hubristic facet of pride has been identified (e.g., Wilson & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2017) that is associated more with narcissism and can lead to aggression, as well as problems and conflicts in interpersonal relationships. Although such hubristic pride

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classification of pride as a self-conscious emotion, it has more recently been claimed that pride merits basic emotion status2 on the basis of its distinct, universal nonverbal expression that is cross-culturally recognised by children and adults (Tracy & Robins, 2008; Tracy, Robins, & Lagattuta, 2005). The decision to include pride in the analysis of emotions in the present study was based on its more positive, self-protective features in an attempt to determine the role of such emotional responses that are often overlooked by the majority of studies that focus on negative emotions.

2 Method 2.1 Overview and Aims Students responded to a questionnaire, the main foci of which were two L2 classroom scenarios that were identical apart from being taught by either a native or a nonnative teacher of English. There were a number of events within these scenarios that were designed to pertain to negative emotions. Such negative emotion events and scenarios have been shown to be associated with negative effects in real-life classroom settings. For example, L2 student anxiety has been shown to be related to speaking performance in class (Liu & Jackson, 2008) and being corrected by teachers (Mak, 2011), while Wilson and Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (2019) showed that public assessment of L2 students by the teacher can provoke a range of negative emotions. By focusing on shame, anxiety, fear, anger, hopelessness and pride, the main aim of the present study at a general level is to extend the usual assessment of negative classroom emotions beyond anxiety and to additionally determine the more positive effect of pride. The first specific aim is to compare student emotions elicited by native versus non-native teachers of English in identical teaching scenarios. The second specific aim is to determine whether the emotions elicited in response to these two teachers is influenced by the students’ self-ratings of confidence and competence.

is beyond the present focus, it might be an interesting topic for future research, especially as it is likely to have detrimental effects (anger, shame and humiliation) on poorer students if displayed by teachers and better students in the learning context. 2 There are six basic emotions—anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise—that are classified as basic emotions as a consequence of their distinct nonverbal expressions that have universal recognition (Tracy & Robins, 2008).

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2.2 Participants 2.2.1

Speaking Course

There were 32 Polish students on the speaking module of the MA English Philology course at Lodz University, Poland (mean age 23.6 years, 24 females).

2.2.2

Writing Course

There were 29 Polish students on the writing module of the BA English Philology course at Lodz University, Poland (mean age 20.2 years, 23 females).

2.2.3

General English Language Course

There were 36 Polish students on the general English language module at the Medical University of Lodz, Poland. Their major studies were either Pharmaceutical Care, Laboratory Medicine or Research and Reference Laboratory (mean age 23.1 years, 33 females).

2.3 Questionnaire The students initially responded to two questions pertaining to their confidence and competence at English on 5-point scales, ranging from 1 ‘not likely’ to 5 ‘very likely’. The main part of the questionnaire asked the students to consider two classroom scenarios that were identical apart from one being taught by a native teacher of English and the other by a teacher that had the same first language as themselves. The scenarios describe a situation at the start of a new semester in which the student has to imagine that they are about to have their first English lesson with their teacher. During the lesson, the teacher asks the students to make a contribution to the classroom discussion in English and gives oral feedback to each student in front of the rest of the class. The students were presented with five hypothetical events within the scenarios and rated on the 5-point scales how they would respond emotionally to each of the events. The events specifically pertained to: (1) walking into the classroom; (2) the expectation of the teacher for students to contribute to a classroom discussion; (3) the teacher asking them to make a contribution and their initial words; (4) the teacher correcting a serious mistake that they make while speaking; (5) a subsequent student’s contribution being praised. There were six emotional responses to each of these scenarios—shame, fear, anger, anxiety, hopelessness and pride, in addition to a positive filler response.

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3 Results

Fig. 1 Mean ratings for negative emotions versus pride in the non-native versus native speaking teacher scenarios

Means

The data were analyzed by a series of ANOVAs. In the first of these, there were two within-subjects variables, the first of which was scenario (non-native speaking teacher vs. native speaking teacher). The second within-subjects variable (negative emotions/pride) compared the mean ratings of the negative emotions (shame, fear, anxiety, hopelessness and anger) with the mean ratings of pride. The scenario variable showed that there was no significant difference between the non-native teacher scenario and the native teacher scenario, F(1, 93) = 0.32, p > 0.05. There was a significant main effect of negative emotions/pride, F(1, 93) = 27.4, p < 0.001. Contrasts showed that the negative emotion ratings were significantly lower than the pride ratings (means of 2.38 and 3, respectively). There was also a significant interaction between scenario and negative emotions/pride, F(1, 93) = 4.79, p < 0.05. The results of the pairwise comparisons can be seen in Fig. 1 and show that there was no significant difference between the non-native and native speaking scenarios for the mean pride ratings (p > 0.05, means = 3 and 2.98, respectively). However, the mean negative emotion ratings were significantly higher for the native teacher scenario than for the non-native teacher scenario (p < 0.05, means of 2.42 and 2.34, respectively - see Fig. 1). A factorial repeated-measures ANOVA was also performed on the means of the emotion responses that had two within-subjects variables: scenario (non-native speaking teacher vs. native speaking teacher) and emotion (shame vs. fear vs. anxiety vs. hopelessness vs. anger vs. pride). There was a significant main effect of scenario, F(1, 93) = 5.65, p < 0.05. Contrasts showed that the native teacher scenario ratings were higher than the non-native teacher ratings (means of 2.5 and 2.45, respectively). There was also a significant main effect of emotion, F(2.14, 199.38) = 53.41, p < 0.001. In this respect, there were a number of differences between the emotions across the two scenarios. It can be seen in Fig. 2 that there was no significant difference between the mean ratings of anxiety and pride. Both of these emotions had significantly higher mean ratings than the other emotions. Similarly, there was no significant difference between the mean values for anger and hopelessness, and both of these were significantly lower in value than the means of the other emotions.

Fig. 2 Mean ratings for anxiety, anger, hopelessness, fear, shame and pride in the non-native versus native speaking teacher scenarios

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Means

Effects of Non-native Versus Native Teaching Scenarios …

Fear and shame had relatively more intermediate ratings, with shame having significantly higher mean ratings than fear. There was also a significant interaction between scenario and emotion, F(3.42, 318.33) = 6.33, p < 0.001. As can be seen in Fig. 2, pairwise comparisons revealed that anxiety ratings in the native teacher scenario (mean = 3.13) were significantly higher than the anxiety ratings in the nonnative teacher scenario (mean = 2.88), p < 0.001. There were no other significant differences between the native teacher and non-native teacher scenarios on any of the other emotions. A 2 (scenario: non-native speaking teacher vs. native speaking teacher) × 6 (emotion: shame vs. fear vs. anxiety vs. hopelessness vs. anger vs. pride) x 3 (language class: speaking philology vs. writing philology vs. English for medical purposes) three-way mixed ANOVA with repeated measures on the first two variables was also performed on the means of the emotion responses. There was no significant main effect of language class, F(1, 91) = 0.29, p > 0.05. The interaction between scenario, emotion and language class was also not significant, F(6.8, 309.55) = 0.93, p > 0.05. Additionally, multiple regression analyses were performed on the data for both the non-native and native English teacher scenarios that had either self-rated English competence or confidence as the dependent variables and shame, fear, anxiety, hopelessness, anger and pride as the independent variables. Table 1 shows the results of the stepwise multiple regression analyses performed on the non-native teacher classroom scenario data, in which competence is the dependent variable. Hopelessness was the only significant predictor with a β value of − 0.49 (p < 0.001). It can therefore be concluded that a greater degree of hopelessness in the non-native teacher classroom scenario predicted less self-reported competence at English. Table 1 Results of multiple regression analyses performed on English competence (non-native teacher scenario)

B Constant Hopelessness

SE B 7.84

0.32

−0.81

0.15

Note R2 = 0.19, *p < 0.001

β -0.49*

12 Table 2 Results of multiple regression analyses performed on English competence (native teacher scenario)

Table 3 Results of multiple regression analyses performed on English confidence (non-native teacher scenario)

Table 4 Results of multiple regression analyses performed on English confidence (native teacher scenario)

P. A. Wilson and B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk B

SE B

Constant

7.81

0.31

Fear

−0.64

0.12

β −0.48*

Note R2 = 0.23, * p < 0.001

B

SE B

Constant

8.12

0.44

Hopelessness

−0.96

0.21

β −0.44*

Note R2 = 0.19, * p < 0.001

B

SE B

Constant

8.55

0.41

Fear

−0.96

0.16

β −0.53*

Note R2 = 0.29, * p < 0.001

Table 2 shows the results of the stepwise multiple regression analyses performed on the native teacher classroom scenario data, in which competence is the dependent variable. Fear was the only significant predictor with a β value of −0.48 (p < 0.001). It can therefore be concluded that a greater degree of fear in the native teacher classroom scenario predicted less self-reported competence at English. Table 3 shows the results of the stepwise multiple regression analyses performed on the non-native teacher classroom scenario data, in which confidence is the dependent variable. Hopelessness was the only significant predictor with a β value of − 0.44 (p < 0.001). It can therefore be concluded that a greater degree of hopelessness in the non-native teacher classroom scenario predicted less self-reported confidence at English. Table 4 shows the results of the stepwise multiple regression analyses performed on the native teacher classroom scenario data, in which confidence is the dependent variable. Fear was the only significant predictor with a β value of −0.53 (p < 0.001). It can therefore be concluded that a greater degree of fear in the native teacher classroom scenario predicted less self-reported confidence at English.

4 Summary of Results It is interesting to note that the mean ratings of pride were higher than the mean ratings of the negative emotions for both the non-native and native teacher scenarios. However, the negative emotions showed some interesting differences with respect to these scenarios. The first point to note in this respect is that the native teacher

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scenario was characterised more by the negative emotions examined in the study than the non-native teacher scenario. Further analyses performed on the discrete emotions demonstrated that anxiety was the only emotion that showed a significant difference between the two scenarios, with the native teacher scenario having relatively higher ratings for this emotion than the non-native teacher scenario. There were therefore no significant differences between the two scenarios for shame, fear, hopelessness, anger and pride. However, there were clear differences between the emotions across the two scenarios. In this respect, anxiety and pride were rated significantly higher than the other emotions and anger and hopelessness were rated significantly lower than the other emotions. Shame and fear had more intermediate ratings, with shame significantly higher than fear. The results further showed that self-ratings of competence and confidence were similar in how they differed in their association with emotion ratings in the non-native and native teacher scenarios. Specifically, whereas a higher hopelessness response predicted both lower self-reported competence and confidence at English in the nonnative teacher scenario, a higher fear response predicted both lower self-reported competence and confidence at English in the native teacher scenario.

5 Discussion and Conclusions An assessment of the effect of native versus non-native teachers on emotions in the L2 classroom has received relatively little empirical attention. Similarly, in comparison to many studies that focus on L2 student anxiety, relatively few of these broaden the investigation to cover other negative emotions as well as positive emotions such as pride. The more negativity expressed by L2 students for the native teacher scenario suggests that native language teachers would appear to elicit more negative emotions in their students compared with their non-native teacher counterparts. Further results suggest that the specific emotion elicited in L2 students by native teachers vis-àvis non-native teachers is anxiety. Type of teacher in this respect can therefore be added to a number of other anxiety-inducing factors in the L2 classroom. This is a significant influence, not least because of the negative effect that anxiety has on working memory that was noted above (Vytal et al., 2013). Given the propinquity between anxiety, fear and shame future studies might provide a further assessment of the role of native versus non-native teachers in how these emotions are experienced by students. Not only did fear, shame, hopelessness, anger and pride not significantly differ between the native and non-native teacher scenarios, they followed a very similar pattern across these two scenarios. The debilitating effects of anxiety mean that its salience in both scenarios is of significant importance. However, the prominence of pride was unexpected and important, not least because of its possible positive influence in the L2 classroom. It would appear that further work is necessary to assess more precisely the protective features of pride on the one hand and the harmful

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effects of anxiety on the other. More research is also necessary to confirm the status of anger and hopelessness as less salient emotions in the L2 classroom as well as the possible intermediate status of shame and fear. The inverse relationship between self-confidence/self-competence ratings and hopelessness and fear in the non-native and native teacher scenarios, respectively, extends the similar findings pertaining to anxiety noted above (e.g., MacIntyre et al., 1997; Coulombe, 2000). It is initially important to note that, to our knowledge, the results are the first to show effects for emotions other than anxiety. Second, different emotions were found to be salient for the non-native versus native teacher scenarios. The prototypical scenario of fear is withdrawal and it is understandable why L2 students of English who consider themselves less confident or competent might want to retreat from communicating with a native English-speaking teacher. This reduction in communication and the language inhibition that is associated with fear (see above) is clearly debilitating. Turning to hopelessness, it is also understandable that the negative effect that this emotion has on motivation (Pekrun et al., 2002) and working memory performance (Hubbard et al., 2016), outlined above, are both debilitating factors in the L2 classroom. However, further studies are necessary to understand why less confident/competent L2 learners associate this emotion with a non-native compared with a native teacher.

References Cavalera, C., & Pepe, A. (2014). Social emotions and cognition: Shame, guilt and working memory. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 112, 457–464. Cohen, Y., & Norst, M. J. (1989). Fear, dependence and loss of self-esteem: Affective barriers in second language learning among adults. RELC Journal, 20, 61–77. Cook, T. (2006). An investigation of shame and anxiety in learning English as a second language. (Unplublished doctoral dissertation). University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Coulombe, D. (2000). Anxiety and beliefs of French-as-a-second language learners at the university level. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Laval, Québec, Canada. Ely, C. M. (1986). An analysis of discomfort, risk-taking, sociability, and motivation in the L2 classroom. Language Learning, 36(1), 1–25. Gilbert, P., Gilbert, J., & Irons, C. (2004). Life events, entrapments and arrested anger in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 79(1–3), 149–160. Harrington, M., & Sawyer, M. (1992). L2 working memory capacity and L2 reading skill. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 25–38. Horowitz, E. K. (1986). Preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of a foreign language anxiety scale. TESOL Quarterly, 20(3), 559–562. Horowitz, E. K., Horowitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132. Hubbard, N. A., Hutchison, J. L., Hambrick, D. Z., & Rypma, B. (2016). The enduring effects of depressive thoughts on working memory. Journal of Affective Disorders, 190, 208–213. Kam, C.C.-S., & Bond, M. H. (2008). Role of emotions and behavioural responses in mediating the impact of face loss on relationship deterioration: Are Chinese more face-sensitive than Americans? Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 11, 175–184.

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Leary, M. R., Tambor, E. S., Terdal, S. K., & Downs, D. L. (1995). Self-esteem as an interpersonal monitor: The sociometer hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(3), 518– 530. Lewis, H. B. (1971). Shame and guilt in neurosis . New York: International Universities Press. Liu, M., & Jackson, J. (2008). An exploration of Chinese EFL learners’ unwillingness to communicate and foreign language anxiety. Modern Language Journal, 92(1), 71–86. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1989). Anxiety and language learning: Towards a theoretical clarification. Language Learning, 39, 251–275. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44, 283–305. MacIntyre, P. D., Noels, K. A., & Clément, R. (1997). Biases in self-ratings of second language proficiency: The role of language anxiety. Language Learning, 47, 265–287. Mak, B. (2011). An exploration of speaking-in-class anxiety in Chinese ESL learners. System, 39, 202–214. Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., & Perry, R. P. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self-regulated and achievement: A program of qualitative and quantitative research. Educational Psychologist, 37(2), 91–106. Poulson, C. (2000). Shame: The master emotion? University of Tasmania, School of Management Working Paper Series(Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 1–43). Teimouri, Y. (2018). Differential roles of shame and guilt in L2 learning: How bad is bad? The Modern Language Journal, 102(4), 632–652. Tobias, S. (1979). Anxiety research in educational psychology. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 573–582. Tobias, S. (1986). Anxiety and cognitive processing of instruction. In R. Schwarzer (Ed.), Selfrelated cognition in anxiety and motivation (pp. 35–54). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Tracy, J. L., & Robins, R. W. (2008). The nonverbal expression of pride: Evidence for cross-cultural recognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(3), 516–530. Tracy, J. L., Robins, R. W., & Lagattuta, K. H. (2005). Can children recognize the pride expression? Emotion, 5, 251–257. Vytal, K. E., Cornwell, B. R., Letkiewicz, A. M., Arkin., N. E., & Grilion, C. (2013). The complex interaction between anxiety and cognition: Insight from spatial and verbal working memory. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7, 1–11. Wilson, P. A. (2016). Shame and collaborative learning in L2 classes. Konin Language Studies, 4(3), 235–252. Wilson, P. A., & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. (2017). Pride in British English and Polish: A contrastive linguistic perspective. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in cultural linguistics (pp. 247– 288). Singapore: Springer Nature. Wilson, P. A., & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. (2019). Scenarios of moderating shame cluster emotions with foreign language learners, In E. Vanderheiden & C-H. Mayer (Eds.), The bright side of shame (pp. 315–332). Singapore: Springer Nature. Woodrow, L. (2006). Anxiety and speaking English as a second language. Regional Language Centre Journal, 37(3), 308–328.

Imagery as a Tool for Describing the Uses of French Tenses Katarzyna Kwapisz-Osadnik

Abstract The chapter is devoted to the proposal of using some notions from the field of cognitive linguistics in the process of teaching foreign language grammar. On the basis of French tenses, a global strategy for explaining their functioning based on imagery will be proposed. Imagery is understood by Langacker as a way of construing a scene taking place at the same time on the mental and symbolic (linguistic) level. The global character of the strategy lies in the fact that the tenses are introduced simultaneously, and the differences are explained by means of the image that is created in the speaker’s mind at the moment of the event. For example, the sentence: En 1999 la Namibie proclame l’indépendance [In 1999 Namibia proclaims independence], in which the present tense is used, may have different variants due to the use of other tenses: En 1999 la Namibie a proclamé l’indépendance [In 1999 Namibia proclaimed independence]; En 1999 la Namibie proclama l’indépendance [In 1999 Namibia proclaimed independence]; En 1999 la Namibie proclamera l’indépendance [In 1999 Namibia will proclaim independence]. The factor determining the choice of the tense is also the frequency of use based on the preferences of construal and forms. Keywords Cognitive linguistics · French tenses · Global visualization grammar · Imagery

1 Introduction In the present chapter I will try to suggest how research tools from the field of cognitive linguistics can be used in the process of teaching foreign language grammar. Teaching French tenses and moods will serve here as an example. Many years of pedagogical experience combined with language research in the field of linguistics contributed to the reflection on how to make the teaching of tenses and moods more K. Kwapisz-Osadnik (B) University of Silesia, ul. Bankowa 12, 40-007 Katowice, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. Dro˙zd˙z and B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (eds.), Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research, Second Language Learning and Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_2

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effective and how to make a teacher think carefully on the role of the language and, more broadly, on the humanities in the life of communities and individuals. Explanation of how tenses and moods function will be based on the notion of imagery as understood by Langacker (1987, 2009). It is about the way of constructing a scene, both on the mental and symbolic (linguistic) level. Taking into consideration the research on the human brain, memory and information processing, I decided not to teach in the traditional way, that is, not to introduce tenses and moods one after another. The starting point is not a given tense or mood, but a specific scene which the speaker turns into a sentence. So, I introduce tenses and moods simultaneously and I explain the differences through the image which the speaker creates while speaking. The aim of this approach is to help the language learner understand how tenses and moods function in French (and in any language). Unfortunately, the proposed approach assumes neither memorizing of forms nor automatization of usage. However, it motivates the student to consistent work on forms and their usage in various types of exercises. Besides, it requires some additional training both on the part of the teacher and of the student. The teacher and the student have to have knowledge or, at least, some basic information on how people perceive reality and how they conceptualize this reality, that is, how they translate it into mental images (Darras, 1998) and sentences. In the first part of my chapter I will present theoretical foundations of the suggested strategy of teaching, which I will refer to as the global visualization grammar (Kwapisz-Osadnik, 2005). Then I will discuss specific applications of this strategy on the basis of teaching tenses and moods. In the final part of my chapter I will try to balance gains against losses, or to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach to teaching.

2 Cognitive Foundations of the Global Visualization Grammar Langacker’s cognitive grammar refers to our ability of perceiving reality and interpreting it on the conceptual level and expression level. In other words, the word grammar refers to imagery, where imagery is not meant to be a faithful copy of reality, but an effect of translating reality into conceptual objects and relationships and of the location of the scene in time and space. When we perceive a piece of reality or recall a situation, we create an image which depends on our location in time and space. Construction of a scene, that is, the identification of objects and phenomena of different degrees of specification and establishing relations between them, is simultaneous with rendering this image in language. This idea can also be reversed: language is the key to understand how the situation encoded in a sentence was perceived.

Imagery as a Tool for Describing …

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The teacher and the student must possess this basic knowledge, or the lesson will be a waste of time. The student should understand the concepts which the teacher will refer to while explaining the usages of the particular tenses. Therefore, it is essential to begin the process of teaching with a brief introduction of how reality is perceived by people and how this is reflected in language. This ‘instruction manual’ should cover the following assumptions and notions: 1. Language is understood not only as what we articulate, i.e. not only what we speak. It is, first of all, a means of creating our thoughts, not necessarily expressed. 2. Imagery/Conceptualization: Imagery is an “ability to construe a conceived situation in alternate ways—by means of alternate images—for purposes of thought or expression” (Langacker, 1987, p. 110). In other words, we interpret in our minds what we see and organise this in the form of images, scenarios or, possibly, sentences. And conceptualization consists in converting the perceptual data, or, the perceived reality, into an image/a scene (a scenario or a script), which gives the data a semantic dimension. 3. Image/scene (Shank & Abelson, 1977) is an effect of an interpretation of a piece of reality. Interpretation means applying of linguistic data that come, among others, from memory, i.e. from our experienced and learned knowledge about the world. Linguistic data provide direct information about the way of conceptualizing the scene, that is, how we have perceived a piece of reality or how we understand something. 4. Any sentence, in turn, is one of possible linguistic interpretations of reality, i.e. our judgment about the world (a declarative sentence), or a way of expressing emotions (exclamatory sentence), doubts (interrogative sentence) or, finally, requests (e.g., an imperative sentence). A sentence can be simple or complex. A simple sentence contains a description of only one fragment of reality (one image): one state, event or process. A complex sentence must contain at least two fragments of reality (two or more images). For example, the sentence I think corresponds to the following image (Fig. 1). The sentence I think, therefore I am was made through a combination of two images, just like the sentence I think I will go to the cinema (Fig. 2). 5. The character of the scene pertains to all elements (objects, phenomena, situations) which appear in the sentence and on which we have imposed certain relationships (Kwapisz-Osadnik, 2013). As a result, the image is either dynamic or static; event-driven, processual, or static; one-time or repetitive; sequential or global. 6. Roles are important because when we construct a sentence, we impose on objects some roles; for example, the role of an agent (cause) or the patient(s) of the agent’s actions, the role of the topic (the topic is an object of the scene which is not a patient of an action, as in the sentence I saw the film, the film is not subject to the agent’s direct actions). There are many more roles! For example, the role of a tool (We write with a pencil), a beneficiary (He gave the book to his sister), a source (He received a message from his brother), a place (This chest of drawers contains many souvenirs). One should also remember about the importance of social roles when we make a sentence.

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Fig. 1 An image of the sentence I think

7. The speaker also plays an important function. Each speaker, depending on what he wants to say, either takes or evades the responsibility for the content of the sentence. For example, in the sentence The vase was broken the agent of the event does not want to reveal his identity, whereas the sentence I broke the vase informs immediately about the agent. Language offers us various means of suspending responsibility for the content of the sentence: we have moods (I will help you or I would help you), adverbs (Probably

Fig. 2 An image of the sentence I think I will go to the cinema

Imagery as a Tool for Describing …

21

I will not be here tomorrow), particles (I have almost wound up). We also have verbs denoting different degrees of responsibility (I know I’m right—I am sure I’m right—I think I’m right—I may be right). The position of the speaker in relation to what he says is also determined by his involvement in the situation. Thanks to his imagination, the speaker may either be a participant, an observer, or a narrator of the situation, which is also visible in the sentence. When we hear someone speaking Once upon a time, we are immediately informed that the story took place in distant past and that the speaker assumes the role of the narrator rather than the participant of the story. In French, the mental involvement of the speaker in the situation is expressed, among others, with tenses. At this stage, it is worth making a reference to the theory of mental spaces by Fauconnier (1985). Mental spaces are abstract structures that enable integrating data, including the data concerning the time and place of processing the situation, at the conceptual level. In the case of agreement of tenses, we can observe ‘overlapping’ several spaces with different temporal and spatial dimensions in which the speaker positions himself at the moment of processing data. 8. Finally, we need to mention the frequency of use. Considering the choice of the linguistic form, we often opt for the one we most often hear, which does not mean that other forms are incorrect! Language users have their preferences, sometimes determined by the facility of pronunciation, for example, it is easier to say lemme than let me. Sometimes we choose shorter words: we prefer the two-syllable English sorry to the three-syllable Polish przepraszam.

3 The Case of Global and Visualized Teaching of Tenses First of all, the student must realize that the time of the situation he is talking about does not necessarily correspond to its real time. It is the speaker who decides in which time he puts the content of his utterance. Teaching any language begins with the present tense, (le présent) which is not surprising, because we live in the present, and the present tense is best adapted to express the activities that are happening now. Besides, its role is similar in every language, and it is easy to explain this role through a reference to our mother tongue (in our case, Polish). We explain to students that the present tense, as the name suggests, informs us about the activities that are happening at the moment of the conversation (both with and without the adverbial of time): (1) - Que fais-tu maintenant/en ce moment? [What are you doing now/at the moment?] - En ce moment je travaille/je fais mes devoirs. [At the moment I’m working/doing homework.] J’ai faim./J’arrive. [I am hungry./I am coming.]

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However, the present tense expresses not only the activities taking place at the time of the speaking, but also the knowledge about the situation that the speaker is talking about, for example: (2) Je pense que Pierre a raison. [I think Peter is right.] Je comprends ce que tu veux dire. [I understand what you mean.] Ils voient un chien qui dort sur la pelouse. [They see a dog that is sleeping on the lawn.]

At the same time, it should be noted that in subordinate clauses past tenses, l’imparfait and le passé composé, may appear: (3) Je pense que Pierre avait raison. [I think Peter was right.] Je comprends ce que tu voulais dire. [I understand what you meant.] Ils voient un chien qui a dormi sur la pelouse. [They can see the dog which has slept on the lawn (It is awake now).]

By putting the situations described in the subordinate clauses in the past, the speaker changes the temporal perspective—he is talking about situations that occurred before the time of speaking, for instance Peter said something yesterday or a month ago, and I am saying now that he was right then. Past tenses combined with the present tense can also be used in the main clauses: (4) Je savais que vous vous intéressez à lui. [I knew that you are interested in him.] Pierre a dit que lui et Marie, ils partent demain. [Peter said that he and Mary were leaving tomorrow.]

However, according to the rules of the sequence of tenses, it is better to use l’imparfait in the subordinate clause: (5) Je savais que vous vous intéressiez à lui. [I knew they were interested in him.] Pierre a dit que lui et Marie, ils partaient demain (le lendemain). [Peter said that he and Mary were leaving (the following day).]

The difference lies in the type of conceptualization of the situation in the main and the subordinate clauses. The past tense in the main clause is a linguistic signal of a mental shift of the speaker to the past—the imparfait tense informs us that the speaker, at a certain moment of the past, possessed the knowledge about the content of the subordinate clause, while le passé composé indicates the event characteristic of a situation: the speaker once said something. If the speaker chooses l’imparfait for the subordinate clause, he suggests that his knowledge of the subject is not valid

Imagery as a Tool for Describing …

23

at the moment of data processing, and it refers to the past. By contrast, le présent informs us about the speaker’s current knowledge of the facts in question. It is interesting that we may use different adverbs of time: tomorrow and the next day in a sentence referring to the past. The form the next day or the following day is more logical, because if Peter had said a month ago that they were leaving, it is obvious that the trip cannot start tomorrow! However, if we take into account the speaker’s knowledge that Peter and Mary are planning to leave tomorrow, and that is what Peter tells us, using the adverb tomorrow is an example of a combination of a past tense with this future adverb. We supplement the knowledge about the present tense by discussing its usage in reference to properties, possession, and habits, because they are valid in the present: (6) Je suis étudiant(e). [I am a student.] Nous avons un chien. [We have a dog.] (normalement) Je me lève à 6 heures. [I (usually) get up at 6:00.] Je vais souvent au cinéma. [I often go to the cinema.]

Le présent is also used to speak about general truths that are always valid. (7) Deux et deux font quatre. [Two plus two makes four.] La baleine est un mammifère. [A whale is a mammal.] Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. [All people are born equal with respect to dignity and rights.]

Furthermore, the student should be aware that the present time can be expressed by means of other tenses, such as a future tense (le futur simple). This is also possible in English (and in Polish): when the shop assistant asks Will that be all?, the answer will probably sound like: It will be all, and the seller will say: It will be 34.50. Here are some examples: (8) Je vous demanderai une bienveillante attention. [Attention please. I will ask you for attention.] La phrase sera définie par des règles de bonne formation … [We will define the sentence as the rules of proper selection …]

It is also possible to combine the use of le futur simple with the past tenses: (9) Je ne vous cacherai pas que vous l’avez offensé. [I will not deny that you have offended him.] J’ai trouvé un beau livre sur mon bureau: ça sera le cadeau de ma mère.

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K. Kwapisz-Osadnik [I have found a good book on the desk. It will be a present for my mother.] Paul n’est pas venu. Il sera malade. [Peter has not come. He will be sick.]

A still different combination is le présent with le futur simple: (10) Je ne trouve pas mes lunettes. Elles seront encore égarées. [I cannot find the glasses. They will be lying somewhere.]

Why do we choose le futur simple though the situation is happening in the present? Actually, in all these sentences it is also possible to use le présent, which is logical, because the sentence refers to the time of the utterance: (11) Je vous demande toute votre attention. [I ask you for your attention.] Je ne vous cache pas que vous l’avez offensé. [I do not deny that you have offended him.] La phrase est définie par des règles de bonne formation… [The sentence is defined as the rules of proper selection …] Je ne trouve pas mes lunettes. Elles sont (probablement) encore égarées. [I cannot find the glasses. They (probably) lie somewhere.] Paul n’est pas venu. Il est (probablement) malade. [Peter has not come. He is (probably) ill.]

In some cases, we can also use some other tenses, or even the conditional mood or modal verbs, such as devoir and pouvoir [must and can]. The choice of each of these constructions entails different conceptualisations of the same reality. Another possibility of describing a present situation is the use of le futur proche: (12) Je vais vous demander toute votre attention. [I will ask for your attention right away.] Je ne vais pas vous cacher que vous l’avez offensé. [I will not deny that you have offended him.]

The use of the conditional mood means that the speaker meets certain conditions in order to be able to produce the given statement: (13) Je vous demanderais toute votre attention. [I would ask for your attention.] Je ne vous cacherais pas que vous l’avez offensé. [I would not deny that you have offended him.] La phrase serait définie par des règles de bonne formation … [The sentence would be defined as…] Je ne trouve pas mes lunettes. Elles seraient encore égarées. [I cannot find the glasses. They would still lie somewhere.] Paul n’est pas venu. Il serait malade. [Peter has not come. He would be sick.]

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The use of modal verbs introduces a specific distance of the speaker towards the content of the sentence. In other words, the speaker is not certain whether or not what he is saying is really the case: (14) Je dois vous demander toute votre attention. [I must ask for your attention.] La phrase peut être définie par des règles de bonne formation … [The sentence may be defined as …] Je ne trouve pas mes lunettes. Elles doivent être encore égarées. [I cannot find the glasses. They must be lying somewhere.] Paul n’est pas venu. Il doit être malade. [Peter has not come. He must be sick.]

Some English translations, especially those with the conditional mood, may seem unnatural. Still, the student sees the entire range of possibilities of expressing different conceptualizations in French. I suggest the following interpretations that will allow us to recreate the situations ‘seen’ by the speaker. The simplest choice is the present tense, which corresponds to a specific dimension of reality—now, i.e. at the moment of speaking. By using it, the speaker informs us about what he sees, thinks, what he is doing, or what he wants. The choice of a future tense, le futur simple, is an interesting mental ‘leap’ into the future. By shifting situations to the future, the speaker suggests that the situation he is talking about is interpreted by him as one that is predicted but not certain, one which may turn out to be different. For example, glasses may be by mistake thrown into the trash and Peter may not to be sick. So the speaker assumes that the situation should be as he says, but the information is not verified, so things may ultimately be different. And if something is not verified, it must belong to the future, hence the future tense in such utterances. A native speaker of French is also able to choose a different future tense, le futur proche in order to talk about the present. Using of this tense means that the situation is conceptualized as taking place in a moment, soon after the sentence has been uttered: Il va pleuvoir [It is about to rain]; Vous allez vous taire [You are about to be silent]; Quelqu’un va nous dire … [Someone is about to say that…], etc. The conditional mood, in turn, shows that the speaker assumes certain conditions to be fulfilled, or the situation cannot be considered to be verifiable at the present moment. For instance, Si vous n’achetez plus rien, ça sera 34,50 [If you buy nothing more, it will be 34,50]; Si cela est possible, je vous demande de vous taire [If it is possible, I will ask for silence]; Même si cela ne te va pas, je ne cacherai pas que … [Even if it does not suit you, I will not conceal that …].

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4 Concluding Remarks As we could see, the foundation of the proposed strategy of teaching tenses and moods (based on the French language) is the knowledge about how we perceive and interpret reality, and how our interpretation is translated into a sentence, uttered or not. Different visions of a given reality related to the time of the situation are expressed through different tenses and moods. Although all of them are correct, their frequency of occurrence, i.e. usage, is greatly influenced by the preferences of users of the given language and, consequently, the frequency of use. The strategy is global because it assumes presenting all tenses and moods at once, i.e. with reference to a situation that can be expressed in different ways. The strategy is visualized because the teacher, explaining the differences in the usage of tenses and moods, uses drawings as teaching aids. These two features refer to the abilities of the brain, i.e. to the holistic perception of the world ‘from above’, as well as to the mental record of data, both of which are connected with the work of the right hemisphere. Thus, the strategy helps to activate the aforesaid cerebral hemisphere. Another advantage of the strategy is that it prevents from the automatization of the use of the so-called prototypical tenses and moods, thus hindering the use of less prototypical structures. For example, once a student learns the prototypical use of le futur antérieur (e.g., Quand j’aurai fait les devoirs, je sortirai avec mes amis [When I have finished doing my homework I am going to leave with my friends]), it will be very difficult for him to use such sentences as Dans 5 min j’aurai fini ce travail [In five minutes I will have finished this work]. The strategy also prevents the teacher from giving an answer like ‘just because it is so’. A close analysis of the selected grammatical and lexical categories of which sentences are composed and their comparison, preferably in the form of drawings that reveal different visions of the same reality, is a good way of searching for logical explanations for the uses of particular constructions. For example, differences between past tenses can be explained with the help of the following drawings (Fig. 3a–d). I believe that we should put more trust in the student, his intelligence and curiosity of the world. People enjoy understanding things, and once they have understood something, they are more willing to learn the forms of it and are more eager to explore not only the language, but also the culture of the given linguistic community (Neville, 2009). And yet, only openness to knowledge gives people joy and the sense of fulfillment, no matter how old they are and what life experience they have had.

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(a)

Napoléon fut exilé à Sainte-Hélène. (c)

Napoléon est exilé à Sainte-Hélène

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(b)

Napoléon était exilé à Sainte-Hélène. (d)

Napoléon a étéexilé à Sainte-Hélène

Fig. 3 Images of four sentences in different past tenses in French

Acknowledgements This chapter is based on my book (Kwapisz-Osadnik, 2018). The illustrations used in the text are by Aleksandra Bibrzycka. I would like to express my thanks to Wydawnictwo ´ askiego for the permission to reproduce the copyright material used in this chapter. Uniwersytetu Sl˛

References Darras, B. (1998). L’image, une vue de l’esprit: étude comparative de la pensée figurative et de la pensée visuelle. Recherches en communication, 9, 77–99. Fauconnier, G. (1985). Mental spaces. Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Langacker, R. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Volume I: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Langacker, R. (2009). Gramatyka kognitywna. Kraków: Universitas. Kwapisz-Osadnik, K. (2005). Obrazowanie zjawisk gramatycznych. Projekt gramatyki wizualnej. In G. Szpila (Ed.), J˛ezyk trzeciego tysi˛aclecia III (pp. 57–69). Kraków: Tertium.

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Kwapisz-Osadnik, K. (2013). Tra percezione e lingua: alcune osservazioni sul funzionamento dei complementi che fanno riferimento alle proprietà fisiche degli esseri umani. Studia Romanica Posnaniensa, 40, 32–41. Kwapisz-Osadnik, K. (2018). Jest, był, b˛edzie czy byłby? Zagadki czasów i trybów w j˛ezyku ´ askiego. francuskim. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Sl˛ Neville, B. (2009). Emocje, wyobra´znia i nie´swiadomo´sc´ w uczeniu si˛e i nauczaniu. Kraków: WAM. Shank, R., & Abelson, R. (1977). Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding: An inquiry into human knowledge structures. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

The Cognitive Grammar-Based Pedagogical Grammar—Tenses as Coherent Categories Grzegorz Dro˙zd˙z

Abstract A closer look at English tenses and conditionals reveals a problem that constitutes one of the challenges for foreign language learners: the same construction, for example Past Simple, can have as divergent references as the past and the present. While this is not a problem that can prevent learners from attaining a high level of proficiency in English, it constitutes an undeniable obstacle in achieving this goal— in Covitt’s (after Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman 1999, p. 545) classification of the most difficult grammatical areas of the English language conditionals are ranked fifth. This suggests that one of the goals of foreign language pedagogy should be presenting tenses in a way that makes them coherent categories. And this is the goal of the present chapter: to propose a pedagogically-oriented account of English tenses that shows a relationship between their temporal and conditionals uses. The proposal is based on Cognitive Grammar and three of its notions: the epistemic model of reality, viewing arrangement, and aspects of construal (Langacker 1991, 1999, 2008 etc.). The discussion concentrates on four constructions: Present Continuous, Present Simple, Past Simple, and Past Continuous. Keywords Conditional constructions · Cognitive Grammar · English tenses · Teaching grammar

G. Dro˙zd˙z (B) University of Silesia, ul. Bankowa 12, 40-007 Katowice, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. Dro˙zd˙z and B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (eds.), Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research, Second Language Learning and Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_3

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1 Introduction Teaching English tenses to foreign language learners is not an easy task. Not only are there quite many constructions with multiple uses, but there are also cases when one construction is used in situations that contradict its most inherent characteristics, which ultimately may lead to students’ confusion and problems with mastering the construction. A case in point might be the observation made by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999, p. 545): “ESL/EFL students who have learned to associate past tense with past time often find it hard to believe that sentences like If I had the money I would take a vacation refer to present and not past time”. Naturally, this clash between the diverse uses of Past Simple does not have to be mentioned explicitly in the classroom and, with a bit of luck, students will not notice it. What is more, even when inquired about it, the teacher can always refute it by stating that the use of conditionals is a special case that should be considered independently of the temporal uses of this construction, and in most cases the student will not inquire further—anyway, the teacher knows best. However, what remains is just this more or less (sub)conscious disbelief at the back of the student’s mind that linguistic categories can be that incoherent. Actually, the problems mentioned by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999, p. 545) and a high position of conditionals among the most difficult English grammar problems observed by Covitt (1976) may be seen as two of the manifestations of this disbelief.1 Another method of coping with the problem of the clash between different uses of a construction might be rejecting it on the grounds that grammar is always difficult and that it must be accepted as such. As a result, there is nothing that can be done to make it easier. While such an approach is not ungrounded—grammar must be learnt as it is, the aim of language pedagogy is to optimise the process of learning and, if possible, to eliminate problems in teaching. This should be so especially when the problem does not stem from the very language and the degree of its sophistication but rather from the theoretical assumptions that underlie its account. As a result, if we change the theory, new possibilities of presenting the problem arise. And this is what the chapter is devoted to—a Cognitive Grammar-based proposal of a unified model of tense presentation that encompasses what is traditionally described and taught as distinct types of constructions—tenses and conditional clauses. The model indicates what they have in common by basing on three notions proposed by Langacker (1991, 1999, 2008): the basic epistemic model, the viewing arrangement, and construal aspects that flow from the latter of them. After a brief introduction of these notions, the chapter unveils a model of tense presentation, the means of characterising the uses of tenses, and the dimensions shared by different uses of the same construction. What follows is a discussion of several constructions that are described by means of the introduced notions.

1 This

is by no means the only example of incoherence in accounts of grammatical categories. Anyone who has ever taught the spatial and temporal uses of English prepositions knows the scale of the problem.

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2 The Cognitive Grammar Background In order to arrive at the proposed model, several Cognitive Grammar notions need to be introduced. The first of them is the basic epistemic model (Langacker, 1991, p. 242) (Fig. 1). Without going into detail, it suffices to note that this model introduces a division between two crucial types of situations: those that are accepted by the conceptualiser as real and those that are not. Collectively, the real ones constitute the conception of reality, whereas everything other than reality constitutes irreality (also called unreality or counterfactuality [Taylor, 1995, p. 149]). This model introduces one more element that we need for our account: the point from which the conceptualiser views things, which Langacker calls the vantage point. The epistemic model is elaborated by the time-line model, where reality and irreality are additionally segmented into three parts, each of which represents a different temporal dimension: past, present, and future. These are also the dimensions that are indispensable in an accurate account of tenses. The second notion that we need to evoke is the viewing arrangement or, more specifically, the elements and relationships present in it, and their conceptual counterpart – the conceptual arrangement (Langacker, 1999, p. 204–206) (Fig. 2). A

Fig. 1 The basic epistemic model (based on Langacker, 1991, p. 242)

Fig. 2 The conceptual arrangement based on of the viewing arrangement (an extended version of Langacker, 1999, p. 205)

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reference to vision as the basis for conceptual notions requires a brief comment. This kind of reference is motivated by at least two reasons. First, as is generally accepted in cognitive linguistics, “certain aspects of visual perception instantiate more general features of cognition” (Langacker, 1999, p. 204). At the same time, vision is a convenient medium of explaining conceptual relations, as it arguably constitutes the prototype for conceptual relations (Langacker, 1999, p. 205). The first participant of such an arrangement is the conceptualiser (C), who chooses a specific focus of attention—the object of conception (O) or profile. The area within which this object is located, and which has an influence of our reception and interpretation of the object is called the immediate scope (IS). The region that encompasses the full content of the given conceptualisation is called the maximal scope (MS). Two further dimensions of this arrangement that need to be noted are the distance (D) between the conceptualiser and the object of conception, and a dimension correlated with distance: the level of specificity (S) at which the object is conceived (also called granularity, schematicity, or acuity). Because the conceptualiser can never conceive and portray a situation in an absolutely neutral way, that is, without a reliance on a specific configuration of these conceptual dimensions, he construes all of the situations that he is talking about. Hence the dimensions used for it are called construal aspects. It should be noted that at the early stages of development of Cognitive Grammar Langacker (e.g., 1987, pp. 110–113, 1999, p. 206) stressed the correlation between the visual scene and the above-mentioned elements of the conceptual arrangement. In later accounts (e.g., Langacker, 2008, p. 55–89), this relationship received less emphasis, though it retains the original significance.

3 An Application of CG to Language Pedagogy The viewing arrangement presented in Fig. 2 is a very schematic structure. While it can be presented and explained in the classroom as the basis of the notions introduced in the present chapter, it is definitely insufficient for teaching tenses. That is why its pedagogical counterpart is proposed—the basic model (Fig. 3). The schema comprises the same elements as can be found in the viewing arrangement: the conceptualiser involved in a speech event, located on the temporal axis; his attention focused on the profile—the element of reality that he chooses to talk about. The profile is located within the immediate scope (IS)—a situation within which it takes place. Phrased differently, it is the part of temporal reality that we choose to talk about as the basis for the profiled action. At the same time, the profile can be seen as located more generally within the maximal scope (MS)—reality. For pedagogical purposes, the notion of maximal scope is less useful, so it is not going to be used in our accounts. There is also granularity (G), which refers to the level of schematicity at which the action is described. What is not immediately obvious from the viewing arrangement, and becomes more visible in the basic model, is that there is more than one type of distance

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Fig. 3 The basic model of tense presentation

involved. On the one hand, there is temporal distance (TD), which indicates when the event we want to describe takes place in relation to the speech event: in the present, past or future. It must be stressed that in the present model temporal distance plays a different role than it is usually assumed in accounts of tenses, which are divided into past, present, and future. Here, it is not tenses that are divided in this way, but their uses. This means that the same construction, depending on its use, can appear among the past, present, and future tenses. For instance, the tenses that refer to the past are not only Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, and Past Perfect Continuous, but also Present Simple (The other day, I drive over to Galt’s to pick up some more threequarter-inch river stone for the edging around the fish-pond), and Present Continuous (The other day I’m driving to work and I’m driving on a residential street that is pretty wide and has a double yellow line down the middle). On the other hand, there is an even more important type of distance: epistemic distance (ED), which we can also call mental distance. This is the distance that can be seen when we contrast a past use of Past Simple, for instance The other day I drove to a store, and a past use of Present Simple, for example The other day, I drive over to Galt’s to pick up some more three-quarter-inch river stone. Both of them refer to the past—the other day—but what they differ with the feeling that each of them evokes. While the past tense describes the designated action as something completed and, as a result, remote, the past action described by Present Simple creates a different impression—the action seems closer to the speaker, more immediate. In other words, this distance shows a different dimension of the action—how far it is located mentally from the speaker, independently of its position in time. There is one more aspect of mental distance that needs to be discussed in more detail—its extent. As can be seen in the basic epistemic model (Fig. 1), the conceptualiser distinguishes two dimensions of his surroundings: reality and irreality. In terms of temporal constructions, we can say that the difference between these two dimensions lies in the type of actions that are accommodated within each of them. While the sentence Now I sit down to edit my own writing refers to reality—this is what the conceptualiser is actually doing or is about to do, the sentence If I sat now down to edit my own writing, I would enjoy it more conveys a different meaning.

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Fig. 4 The basic model with two types of reference: reality and irreality

First, it describes an action contrary to that from reality—the actual speaker is not sitting down to edit his writing, and he is not going to do this. Still, the sentence refers to the action of sitting. Because it cannot take place in reality, there is just one more possibility—it must take place in irreality (hence one of the names of irreality—counterfactuality) (Fig. 4). Second, it must be observed that once again the uses of Past Simple and Preset Simple do not differ with the temporal reference, because in both cases it is the present moment. What distinguishes them is the mental distance, whose values seem to reflect the relationship observed already in the past: Past Simple encodes the long distance that extends to irreality, and Present Simple— a shorter one.2 In other words, the values of mental distance remain unchanged in the constructions, independently of their reference to the present, past, or future. However, by themselves even these notions are not sufficient for language pedagogy—they are too general for the classroom use. To be successfully applied, they need to be operationalised—quantified. In order to do so, it is instructive to refer to one of the basic assumptions of cognitive linguistics, embodiment, and analyse the changes resulting from perceiving an object at different distances. The assumptions underlying this analysis are minimal. While it is unquestionable that there are many possible distances at which an object can be perceived, there seem to be just three at which the perception of the object is significantly different (Lakoff, 1987, p. 428; Aoyagi, 1995, pp. 334–335; Cienki, 1997, pp. 20–21; Langacker, 1999, p. 206; Tyler & Evans, 2001, p. 84, etc.): short, medium, and long. When we are looking at a relatively big object from a short distance, we can only see a part of it—the immediate scope is narrow. At the same time, we can see the smallest details of the surface—the level of granularity is high (Fig. 5). In other words, this is a well-known kind of perceptual experience that we get when we approach an object—the closer we get, the better we see it, that is, “the smaller the features we are able to detect and resolve” (Langacker, 1999, p. 206). When the same object is observed from a longer distance, the perceptual experience changes. The features of the surface become too distant to be perceived. Instead, 2 While

there might be some doubts whether the division into reality and irreality is applicable in the language classroom, such proposals have already been formulated in language pedagogy (e.g. Thornbury, 2001, p. 7). Although his division is derived from pragmatics and the distinction between proximal and distal deictic categories, it generally serves the same function as Langacker’s.

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Fig. 5 The visual experience of observing an object at a short distance

we can see the whole of the object or, more precisely, the boundary of the object becomes more salient than the details of its surface. Lakoff (1987, p. 428) characterises this kind of distance by indicating that it is the one at which we can see whole things. As for the values of the construal aspects, we need to admit that in order to see the whole of the object we need to look at it from a longer distance than in the first scene (Fig. 5). At the same time, the distance is shorter than in the third scene (Fig. 7), which is why it is most convenient to call it medium (Fig. 6). Similarly, because the level of granularity of vision shifts from detail to the whole object, it can be dubbed in the same manner. Finally, since the scope broadens from perceiving a part of the object to the whole of it, its value can be established as medium, too. Looking at the object from a long distance once again changes the visual reception of it (Fig. 7). A long distance imposes a broad scope, which subtends “large areas of the world around us” (Langacker, 1999, p. 206), including also the object of perception. As a result, although the object is still visible as a whole, it is no longer seen clearly—the level of granularity of its reception is low. Actually, the distance is so long that the object seems smaller than it really is. It is also good to indicate that there are certain correlations between these aspects. Distance is negatively correlated with granularity—when the distance shrinks, the level of granularity rises. At the same time, distance is positively correlated with scope—the shorter the distance, the smaller the scope (e.g., Langacker, 1999, p. 206). Fig. 6 The visual experience of observing an object at a medium distance

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Fig. 7 The visual experience of observing an object at a long distance

The assumption of the present approach is that each of these scenes constitutes the perceptual basis for the mental distances encoded in each of the discussed constructions. In other words, the type of action described prototypically by Present Continuous—an account focusing on the internal structure of the action—is a result of extending the perceptual experience of seeing the details of the entity depicted in Fig. 5 to the temporal domain. A similar parallel can be noticed if we compare Fig. 7 and the action typically described by Past Simple: completed, remote, and located among many others. As for Present Simple, it can be seen, on the one hand, as a medium construction—located between two extremes. On the other hand, if we consider the type of action that it most naturally describes—holistic and general rather than developing in time—the parallel with Fig. 6 should be clear (for a more detailed discussion of the perceptual and conceptual parallels see Dro˙zd˙z, 2016). Concluding this section, we can ask: what does this proposal bring for language pedagogy? I believe there are at least four important aspects of it that need to be highlighted. First of all, this proposal means that we can make the process of learning tenses easier for students, as it eliminates certain inconsistencies present in tense characterisations. One of them can be the clash that language learners encounter when they spend a lot of time practising a construction and learn to associate it with one temporal dimension, for example the past, and later they see it used in reference to different time, for instance the present. In other words, we can avoid the problem noticed by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999, p. 545): of ESL/EFL students who find it hard to accept (and learn) the fact that what they learnt to classify as a past tense can also refer to the present. In our approach, such a clash cannot take place, because the major dimension of Past Simple is not its reference to the past, but the long mental distance encoded in it—the past reference is only treated as the prototype of the uses. As a result, the temporal use of Past Simple is not really different from its use in a conditional clause, and from the start students learn to see a close relationship between them. The second aspect is correlated with the first one, as it concerns the coherence of the uses of the construction. In other words, if such a construction as Present Continuous can be used to talk about the present, future, and past, why is it called ‘present’

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and, even more importantly, what do all these disparate senses have in common? Why are such different uses sanctioned by the same structure? The answer that is proposed here is that there is a dimension that holds all the uses together—mental distance, and that all these uses share a common value of it. From the pedagogical perspective, this means that students learn that different uses of a tense possess a common dimension—a constant mental distance. As a result, they learn to look at tenses as meaningful, logical, and coherent constructions rather than a set of disparate uses. This entails that constructions approached in this manner become easier to learn, memorise and, subsequently, to use. The next pedagogical aspect of the present approach that needs to be mentioned is a consequence that follows from the previous two—a reorganisation of the traditional division of tenses into past, present, and future. Since all tenses can, in principle, be used in reference to any temporal dimension, dividing them into past, present, and future is not really plausible, as this only reflects their prototypical uses. From our perspective, it is more adequate to present different constructions as referring to a temporal dimension (e.g., present or past) independently of their prototypical references. This means that it is plausible to discuss the past uses of past constructions (e.g., Past Simple) together with the past uses of the present constructions (e.g., Present Simple and Present Continuous). In the same manner, it becomes possible to discuss the present uses of the present constructions (e.g., Present Simple or Present Continuous) together with the present uses of the past constructions (e.g., Past Simple and Past Continuous), etc. Finally, one more pedagogical implication of the present account needs to be mentioned: the terminology. The notions used to talk about the constructions, the construal aspects, are not abstract constructs formed by theoreticians. They do not have to be practised and revised is any special way in order to be remembered. Quite conversely, because they are based on perceptual experience common to the human kind, they do not have to be really taught. Rather, it suffices to raise students’ awareness of certain dimensions of perceptual experience, which they already know. In other words, these notions are largely intuitive and, as a result, simple to explain and learn.

4 A Comparison of Construals Encoded in Different Tenses The goal of the present section is to characterise, by means of all these notions, the uses of four temporal and aspectual constructions: Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, and Past Continuous. More specifically, the point is to illustrate how the construal aspects can be applied in an account of temporal and conditional uses of the four constructions.

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4.1 The Past Uses of the Constructions As is agreed in the literature on temporal and aspectual constructions (e.g., Declerk, 1991, pp. 2–5; Langacker, 2008, pp. 147–151), different constructions can refer to the same dimension of time. In the paper, I want to indicate in detail what such constructions have in common and what they differ with. Let us consider the contrast between four examples, all of which refer to the past, as signalled by the adverbial ‘the other day’: (1) The other day I drove through the drive thru and got my coffee order. I continued down the road where I actually took this shot. I took a sip preparing myself for my traditional Americano. To my surprise it was the most disgusting drink I had ever tasted. I looked and it was the wrong coffee. (https://www.buro247.sg/instagram/scottcbakken/29791068) (2) The other day, I drive over to Galt’s to pick up some more three-quarterinch river stone for the edging around the fish-pond. Because the lawn guys, when they do the leaf-blowing, always blow the smaller stones into the fish pond. Which totally freaks out the koi. (…) So I tell the guys at Galt’s … (https://www.books.google.pl/books?id=Wg5DCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&lpg= PA55&dq=%22the+other+day+I+drive+over+to%22&source=bl&ots=IB_F0O MVKl&sig=ACfU3U35KJ8_l_dHr-sCHwXBzrHmnGPteA&hl=pl&sa=X&ved 2ahUKEwiMi4uL4_zgAhUGz4UKHXHODFwQ6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v= onepage&q=%22the%20other%20day%20I%20drive%20over%20to%22&f= false) (3) The other day I’m driving to work and I’m driving on a residential street that is pretty wide and has a double yellow line down the middle. As I approach an intersection I see a pickup truck (an early to mid ’90 s Dodge Ram 2500) decide to make a U-turn in the middle of the street. Since the truck was pretty long, he had to make a K-turn. (https://yudrivebad.wordpress.com/tag/left-turn/) (4) The other day I was driving behind a car with ‘Don’t tread on me’ plates. In Virginia, car owners have the choice of many dozens of messages to display on the backdrop of their license plates. ‘Don’t tread on me’ is always a bright yellow plate; a coiled, hissing rattlesnake sits center stage. (https://medium.com/@jennyrogers/the-other-day-i-was-driving-behind-a-carwith-don-t-tread-on-me-plates-55ebe0a35bcc) The most crucial issue to be stressed at this point is that the difference between the present and past constructions is not based on the temporal reference, because all of them refer to the past. Despite this, they are clearly different. What is it, then, that makes them different? The answer that I suggest is that this is the specific value of the mental distance and the other two construal aspects correlated with it—scope and granularity. In the case of (1), the mental distance can be deduced on the basis of the scope. What the author describes is a sequence of quite many actions: drove, got, continued,

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Fig. 8 A representation of Past Simple in reference to a past action

took this shot and took a sip, was, looked, and was. All of them seem equally important, because they are introduced by means of the same construction—Past Simple. In terms of construal aspects, we should say that the scope encompasses a number of entities, that is, it is broad (Fig. 8). As far as granularity is concerned, the action is described as a whole, though no details of the action are provided—just the information that this action took place. As a result, we should conclude that the level of granularity is low. We should also mention the influence of the temporal distance on the construal of the action—the action was completed and it has no influence on the present moment. What is more, the author probably wanted to provide the most natural and neutral type of account of the things that took place within a specific time span in the past, one of which was driving through a drive thru—an Internet search of the phrase ‘the other day I drove’ produced 658,000 results (13 March 2019). In context (2), the speaker construes the action in a different way. While there is an element of similarity with the account by Past Simple—the account afforded by Present Simple is also holistic, Present Simple produces a different effect. The most crucial thing to note is the effect of bringing the action ‘closer’ to the listener. However, this does not happen simply by shortening the mental distance, which is achieved by using a typically present construction in reference to the past. Rather, this effect is a consequence of a combination of a specific value of scope and a specific level of granularity. Unlike in the case of Past Simple, the speaker does not describe a chain of events of equal importance, but focuses on one specific action. Probably that was going to be a story that showed something extraordinary, because first the author explains why he drove to the store, and then wants to continue the story of what happed there: “So I tell the guys at Galt’s”. In other words, since attention is focused on one action only, the immediate scope within which it is positioned is medium. At the same time, the level of granularity is also medium (Fig. 9). It also needs to be mentioned that this kind of construal of the verb drive seems rather unusual in English. In contrast to Past Simple, the uses of Present Simple

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Fig. 9 A representation of Present Simple in reference to a past action

in reference to the past produced only 8 hits. At the same time, this type of use of Present Simple is by no means absent or rare in English—the effect that Present Simple produces in this case is exactly the same as in the case of newspaper headlines—that captures and highlights just one event, for instance Prime Minister visits the Golden Temple in Amritsar (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturega lleries/uknews/9882291/David-Cameron-in-India-Prime-Minister-visits-the-Gol den-Temple-at-Amritsar.html) or Theresa May goes barefoot at a tea ceremony in Japan as part of official visit (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/30/the resa-may-goes-barefoot-tea-ceremony-japan-part-official-visit/). A very different type of construal is achieved by the use of Present Continuous in reference to a past action, as presented in example (3) (Fig. 10). This time, the construal aspect that draws most attention is granularity. The continuous form of the verb indicates iconically that what the speaker wants to emphasise is the fact of being in the course of an action, that is, the focus is not on the action as a whole but on one of its dimensions—moment-to-moment development. In terms of the construal aspects, this means that the level of granularity of this account is very high. As for scope, what strikes is that the sentence does not concern all the whole process of driving, but a very specific portion of it—the time of approaching an intersection. In other words, the scope encompasses only a small portion of the whole trip—it is narrow. As for the mental distance, the effect of it is similar to the past use of Present Simple—creating a mental proximity to the designated action. What should also be noted is that this type of account is not rare in English. Although Present Continuous is typically associated with present or future actions, an Internet search shows that its past use including the phrase ‘the other day’ appears Fig. 10 A representation of Present Continuous in reference to a past action

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Fig. 11 A representation of Past Continuous in reference to a past action

on as many as 132,000 websites. This is not as much as the use of, for example, Past Simple, a typical past construction, but this is still a significant number. Finally, Past Continuous needs to be discussed (4). First of all, in comparison with the previous examples it is the most frequent construction that designates an action taking place ‘the other day’—an Internet search of the phrase ‘the other day I was driving’ produced 716,000 hits. The construal encoded in this construction is significantly different from the previous ones. First of all, the action thus described is accessed indirectly. From the Cognitive Grammar perspective (e.g., Langacker, 1993), we could say that Past Continuous is based on the reference point phenomenon—“the ability to invoke the conception of one entity for purposes of establishing mental contact with another” (Langacker, 1993, p. 5). In other words, the account does not take place from the perspective of the speech event, but from a point in the past that we can call a past reference point (PaRP)—one of the moments of ‘the other day’. In relation to that point, the action is described as homogenouns and evolving in time, that is, we can see the ‘inside’ of the action rather that the whole of it. Once again, then, it is the granularity of the account—high—that determines the resultant mental distance of the speaker to the action—short. Correlated with them is the scope within which the action is portrayed. Because the sentence only presents a part of the whole action— we do not know where the speaker wanted to drive—we need to assume that the scope is narrow (Fig. 11). After a comparison of four manners of construing a past action, there is an interim conclusion that can be drawn: all of the discussed constructions possess certain common characteristics that can be described by means of construal aspects. At the same time, each construction encodes a different set of values of construal aspects. Past Simple reveals long mental distance, low granularity, and broad scope. Present Simple—medium distance, medium granularity, and medium scope, and Present Continuous—short distance, high granularity, and narrow scope. It also needs to be stressed that in all four cases the temporal distance is the same—the other day—and that all four constructions refer to the past.

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4.2 The Present Uses of the Constructions Consider now the uses of the same four constructions in reference to the present time: (5) “If I am sitting now at the intelligence service of the Jordanian G.I.D. [General Intelligence Department], for example, and I am watching all this unfold, I am looking at, ‘Hmmm, I wonder how many Canadians I have working here in the Kingdom? Where are they working? What are they doing?’ So you are calling in your counterintelligence staff and saying, how do we know this is not occurring on our soil?” (https://www.voanews.com/a/us-russian-spy-case-raises-alarms-in-canada-982 68284/163978.html) (6) Having the Ubuntu Baba carrier opened up a whole new window to life as a mother of a newborn. If I sit now looking back to the difference between my first child without a carrier and my second one with one, this difference is how I can rate it as my number 1 recommended baby product for mothers. (https://prettymessymellon.com/ubuntu-baba-my-1-recommended-baby-pro duct/) (7) Then self-defensive thoughts would appear, “If I sat now down to edit my own writing, I would enjoy it more”. But the fact was that I didn’t enjoy selfediting either. When I self-edited, I caught myself thinking that reading, editing or reviewing someone else’s writing was more comfortable because then I wasn’t “burdened” with the responsibility of the author. (https://www.victoriaichizlibartels.com/5-minute-perseverance-game-revisingediting-work-someone-else/) (8) You don’t do this for a concert. I mean, you don’t—Las Vegas police department or any of the police department isn’t prepared for this. You don’t have enough personnel. You don’t have enough people. And it’s a real concern. If I was sitting now on a planning stage of any of these things, the first question would be, how are we going to prevent this? (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1710/03/es.01.html) Theoretically, because the sentence concerns an action taking place at the present moment, it might be expected that the most prototypical construction that refers to it is Present Continuous (5). Still, it only appears on 10 websites (19 March 2019). Nevertheless, there are several issues that need to be observed about this use. First of all, the use of a present construction that designates a present action implies a situation that is accepted by the conceptualiser as falling within the scope of reality, that is, possible. At the same time, it is by no means the only dimension available for constructions in their present uses. Still, this particular action takes place there, as marked in the diagram (Fig. 12). If the action described in (5) is analysed more closely, we can observe a specific level of its granularity—very coarse-grained. The example describes a developing action, sitting, which is a part of a longer one: watching a situation unfold. What is

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Fig. 12 A representation of Present Continuous in reference to a present action

more, to emphasise the duration of sitting, an action simultaneous to it is provided: looking at some actual comments. This leads to the conclusion that the level of granularity of the action is high. At the same time, because the scope encompasses just sitting and excludes watching a situation, the value of scope is narrow. As far as mental distance is concerned, its value can be partly concluded on the basis of the values of granularity and scope (cf. Figure 4). The other issue that can be taken into consideration is the effect that this construction produces—an impression of being ‘inside’ the action, which leads to the conclusion that the distance is short. Let us now compare Present Continuous with the construal achieved by another construction—Present Simple (6). Again, the example concerns the present moment, as signalled by the adverb ‘now’. However, the action is construed in a very different manner—it is not the duration that the construction emphasises. Rather, it is the effect of sitting—producing an opinion about a baby carrier. In other words, the action is described holistically (cf. Figure 5). This implies a medium level of granularity—the action is neither very detailed, nor very schematic. The scope is also medium—it covers one action and one action only. As a result, we can conclude that the mental distance is also medium (Fig. 13). Like Present Continuous, Present Simple describes an ordinary activity. It is one of the things that a mother can easily do and are in fact quite characteristic for mothers: sit and compare the way she brought up two babies: one without a carrier and the other with it. That is why the action takes place within what has been dubbed reality. Fig. 13 A representation of Present Simple in reference to a present action

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This is also a relatively natural construction with a reference to the present—an Internet search produced 36 hits of it (19 March 2019). There is one more difference between (5) and (6) that should be mentioned. In Fig. 12, one of the dimensions is temporal distance (TD), whereas in Fig. 13 this dimension is absent. The reason is that the action of sitting in (5) has a specific duration: it begins when the speaker starts to watch the situation, one of the elements of which the process of sitting. It can be rather safely assumed that after some time the speaker will stand up but he will continue to watch the situation. In other words, all of these actions have a specific duration. By contrast, in (6) there is no duration—it is not possible to decide how long the action of sitting might be—whether this is just a momentary reflection or a longer one. Because the speaker goes straight to the results of the comparison (and for marketing purposes this kind of reflection should be too obvious to take time), it can be assumed that this action is rather brief. A still different construal is achieved by Past Simple in reference to the present (7). Although the action is described holistically, like that by Present Simple, Past Simple produces a different effect. To discuss it, it seems suitable to begin with mental distance. The use of Past Simple in the sentence If I sat now down to edit my own writing, I would enjoy it more carries one general implication: the speaker cannot or does not want to start editing his writing. In other words, the mental distance that the speaker imposes in relation to the action is so long that it is presented as impossible to do so. As a result, the very action is shifted to the area of irreality—the action describes a situation that is a contradiction of the relations from reality, which is in fact explicitly confirmed in the next sentence: But the fact was that I didn’t enjoy self -editing (Fig. 14). As for the other construal aspects, their values are less clearly detectable from the example. Definitely, the scope encompasses one action, so its value must be at least medium. However, because the distance is long, it needs to be assumed that the scope should be seen as broader than this—broad (cf. Figure 6). Similarly, we know quite little about the specific level of granularity of this use. While the action is described as a whole, which suggests at least medium granularity, the distance Fig. 14 A representation of Past Simple in reference to a present action

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determines the value of granularity as low. Naturally, it can be argued that an action described holistically cannot have a high resolution, but the very sentence does not provide sufficient evidence for this. To conclude the account of Past Simple, it is worth adding that the frequency of the construal afforded by this construction is absolutely comparable to these of the two previous constructions—9 hits (19 March 2019). Actually, this might be even surprising that Past Simple in its reference to the present is as frequent as Present Continuous, which is much more naturally associated with the present reference. The last construction that I would like to discuss is Past Continuous (8). The construal aspects encoded in it produce a still different account of the designated action than the other constructions. On the one hand, this account is comparable to the one by Present Continuous – the focus is on the duration of the action. In other words, the action of sitting is presented as relatively long and lasting in relation to the questions that appear, which means that the granularity of the action is high. As for scope, it only encompasses a part of the action—the planning stage of an event. As a result, these dimensions of the diagram strongly resemble the Present Continuous-type of construal (Fig. 15). At the same time, what is most characteristic for Past Continuous in its present reference is the type of distance that it encodes. After the analysis of Past Simple (7), it might be expected that a reference to irreality always entails an imposition of a long mental distance to the action. This is not so—the long mental distance depends on the construction. In the case of Past Simple, the action is accessed directly from the vantage point—the time of the speech event, and because the speaker wants to portray the action as impossible or unlikely, it is moved to the sphere of irreality. Past Continuous is different in this respect. As shown in Fig. 11, Past Continuous is a construction that describes events in an indirect manner—through an additional entity that is called a reference point. In example (4), this invoked entity was one of the moments from the other day. In (8) the reference point is different—this is a point in time parallel to the present moment Fig. 15 A representation of Past Continuous in reference to a present action

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but located within the sphere of irreality (we can call it the present irreality reference point—PrIRP). We invoke this point when we want to establish contact with and produce a detailed account of an action from irreality. Because this is impossible by means of a construction that does so directly, for instance Past Simple, a different construction needs to be used instead. In other words, although the action designated by this use of Past Continuous is located in present irreality, the mental distance produced by this construction is short. To conclude the account of the construal encoded in Past Continuous, just one more point can be mentioned. The present use of Past Continuous is as frequent as the present uses of the other constructions—it can be found on 11 websites (19 March 2019). This means that there is nothing strange about this kind of construal. Leaving aside the detailed analysis of particular constructions, there are two more general observations that can be made about tenses and the use of construal aspects as tools describing their uses. First of all, when we compare the uses of the four constructions in reference to past and present it can be noted that the values of the construal aspects remain the same for each construction. More generally, as this is not the place for a detailed analysis of all uses of the constructions, we can conclude that these values are constant for all the uses of a construction. The second observation concerns the values of particular construal aspects. Even if this is sometimes difficult to decide unambiguously on the value of one of the aspects, as could be seen in the case of the present use of Past Simple, this value can be decided on the basis of a different aspect, as they are all correlated.

5 Conclusions Summing up the above proposal, we need to point to two grammatical dimensions of it. First, it is an introduction of new dimensions of tense description: granularity, scope, and, most importantly, epistemic/mental distance. This last dimension is of particular significance for tense description, because it appears to be more important that the dimension that is usually accorded the highest status—time (as in e.g., Reichenbach, 1947, pp. 287–298; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik, 1980, p. 63; Comrie, 1985, p. 9; Dahl, 1985, p. 103; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002, p. 116; Declerk, 2006, p. 22, etc.). Second, it undermines the plausibility of the typical classification of tenses into past, present, and future. Instead, it postulates a division of tense uses into those that refer to these three dimensions. One of the consequences of this would be treating the conditional uses of such constructions as Past Simple or Past Continuous as fully-fledged and logically consistent with the temporal uses of these constructions. At the same time, the paper indicates several pedagogical consequences of introducing these notions to the language classroom. First of all, it shows that the three construal aspects are absolutely sufficient in an exhaustive account of all of the discussed constructions. Second, by pointing to a dimension that, on the one hand, is common to different uses of a tense and, on the other hand, different tenses differ

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with, it helps learners to see tenses as coherent and logical constructions, which undoubtedly enhances the process of learning them. Also, this approach eliminates the problem signalled in the Introduction – of learners who find it hard to accept that past tenses refer to the present time (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p. 545). Finally, it needs to be stressed that because construal aspects are derived from perceptual experience, these notions do not require complicated procedures of explanation but, rather, making students aware of them, which should simplify the process of teaching tenses by means of such notions.

References Aoyagi, M. (1995). Selection of Japanese categories during social interaction. In J. Taylor & R. MacLaury (Eds.), Language and the cognitive construal of the world (pp. 331–364). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book. An ESL/ EFL teacher’s course (2nd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Cienki, A. (1997). Some properties and groupings of image schemas. In M. Marjolijn Verspoor, K. Lee, & E. Sweetser (Eds.), Lexical and syntactical constructions and the construction of meaning: Proceedings of the bi-annual ICLA meeting in Albaquerque July 1995 (pp. 3–16). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Covitt, R. I. (1976). Some problematic grammar areas for ESL teachers. Unpublished MA thesis in TESL, UCLA. Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dahl, Ö. (1985). Tense and aspect systems. Oxford, New York: Basil Blackwell. Declerk, R. (1991). Tense in English. Its structure and use in discourse. London: Routledge. Declerk, R. (2006). The grammar of the English verb phrase. Volume 1: The grammar of the English tense system. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Dro˙zd˙z, G. (2016). Perceptual foundations of English temporal and aspectual constructions. Cognitive Semantics, 2, 102–132. Huddleston, R., & Pullum, G. (2002). The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire and dangerous things. What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press. Langacker, R. (1987). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume I: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Langacker, R. (1991). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume II: Descriptive application. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Langacker, R. (1993). Reference-point constructions. Cognitive Linguistics, 4, 1–38. Langacker, R. (1999). Grammar and conceptualization. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Langacker, R. (2008). Cognitive Grammar. A basic introduction. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1980). A grammar of contemporary English. Hartow, Essex: Longman Group. Reichenbach, H. (1947). Elements of symbolic logic. New York: The Macmillan Company. Thornbury, S. (2001). Uncovering grammar. Oxford: Macmillan Education. Taylor, J. (1995). Linguistic categorization. Prototypes in linguistic theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Tyler, A., & Evans, V. (2001). The relation between experience, conceptual structure and meaning: Non-temporal uses of tense and language teaching. In M. Pütz, S. Niemeier, & R. Dirven (Eds.),

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Applied cognitive linguistics I: Theory and language acquisition (pp. 63–107). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Cognitive Theories in Pedagogical Application

The Infinitive or the Gerund? Cognitive Linguistics in Teaching English Post-verbal Complementation Agnieszka Kaleta

Abstract The goal of this chapter is to test the efficacy of a new method of teaching/learning English post-verbal complementation to Polish students of English. The method is based on a Cognitive Linguistic approach to grammar, which has brought to light motivated and highly structured nature of English post-verbal complementation. As has been argued by cognitively oriented linguists, syntactic categories such as the infinitive or the gerund are form-meanings pairings, which entails that their distribution is not random or arbitrary but semantically motivated. The chapter explores the applicability of this thesis to foreign language pedagogy. The main hypothesis is that the cognitive linguistic conception of English clausal complementation may be turned into a channel for more effective teaching/learning of verb patterns in a foreign language classroom. This hypothesis is subjected to empirical verification in an effects-of-instruction quasi-experimental test. Keywords Complement · Gerund · Infinitive · L2 pedagogy · Verb patterns

1 Introduction As many foreign language instructors admit, grammar teaching is not the easiest and most enjoyable part of their profession. Many language learners seem to share this opinion, viewing grammar learning as a challenging and often daunting experience. The question that inevitably arises in connection to this is why this should be so— what are the reasons behind this lack of enthusiasm for teaching and learning grammar structures? The answer to this question is by no means a straightforward one and could be a subject of a research project of its own. However, basing on my own teaching experience I would risk a tentative suggestion that the teaching problems in question arise, to a large extent, from the fact that foreign language instructors simply do not have adequate tools to describe and explain grammar structures in an A. Kaleta (B) Jan Kochanowski University, ul. Słowackiego 114/118, 97-300 Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. Dro˙zd˙z and B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (eds.), Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research, Second Language Learning and Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_4

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engaging and motivating way to their students. The learning problems, on the other hand, seem to arise from the fact that most grammar structures have to be learnt by rote, which L2 learners tend to perceive as an arduous and mundane process. Teaching and learning English verb patterns appears to be a particularly good example of this kind of problems. In many currently available pedagogical grammars and teaching materials verb patterns are presented as arbitrary links between verbs and their corresponding complement types—thus, we find long lists of verbs grouped according to the complement pattern they take, i.e. there are verbs taking the toinfinitive, the bare infinitive, the gerund or that clauses. A problem that arises from this approach is that it does not give teachers any useful tools to explain or rationalize the distribution of complement constructions to their learners, who have no alternative but to learn them by rote (usually through various practice exercises). This approach appears to have its roots in structural and partly also in generative-transformational traditions, which treat syntax as an arbitrary sub-system of language, largely divorced from meaning. Cognitive linguistics adopts a different approach to this issue—it argues that all units of language, including syntactic structures, are form-meaning pairings. Thus, not only lexis, but also syntactic categories, such as the infinitive or the gerund, represent meaningful categories, although those meanings are usually more schematic (less rich in conceptual detail) than lexical meanings. Seen from this perspective, English verb patterns are not arbitrary or random occurrences but a semantically motivated system of constructions, each of them associated with a different schematic meaning. This approach appears to open up new possibilities in the field of L2 grammar teaching. That is, it provides L2 teachers with new tools to describe and explain grammar patterns of foreign languages in a meaningful and consistent way. The main hypothesis of this study is that semantically-based theories of English postverbal complementation can be turned into a channel for more effective teaching and learning of English verb patterns and the main goal of the chapter is to verify this hypothesis in a specially designed quasi-experimental study. Thus, the study represents a contribution to the growing body of (empirical) research on the applicability of cognitive linguistics to L2 grammar teaching (cf. Achard, 2008; Achard & Niemeier, 2004; Bielak & Pawlak, 2013; Cadierno & Eskildsen, 2015; De Knop et al., 2010; Ellis, Römer, & O’Donnell, 2016; Holme, 2009; Littlemore, 2009; Pütz, Niemeier, & Dirven, 2004; Robinson & Ellis, 2008; Turewicz, 2000; Tyler, 2012). The usefulness and importance of this type of research has been recognized by Langacker, who argues that “although extensive pedagogical application [of Cognitive Grammar] remains a long term goal, I regard its effectiveness in language teaching to be an important empirical test for the framework” (Langacker, 2008a, p. 8). The chapter is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a brief overview of the main assumptions of the cognitive linguistic approach to grammar and grammar acquisition. Section 3 focuses specifically on cognitive linguistic theories of postverbal clausal complementation, presenting them in a broader context of what can be described as a semantic approach to verbal complementation. Sections 4 and 5 concentrate on pedagogical implications of the sematic approaches to complement

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constructions. More specifically, Sect. 4 converts the linguistic theories of the infinitival and gerundive complements into a teacher/learner friendly model that can be applied in a teaching experiment. Section 5, on the other hand, discusses the design and results of a quasi-experimental, effects-of-instructions study testing the pedagogical efficacy of this model. The chapter concludes with some remarks concerning the prospects for future research in the field of applied cognitive linguistics.

2 A Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Grammar and Language Acquisition Cognitive linguistics claims that language consists of a vast collection of formmeaning pairings (typically referred to as constructions), which range from morphemes and words, to various fixed or semi-fixed phrasal patterns, to abstract syntactic structures, like the ditransitive or the passive (cf. Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Langacker, 1987, 2008b). Seen from this perspective, syntactic constructions are not merely tools for organizing words into meaningful sentences, but themselves serve to express meanings, albeit less concrete or specific ones than those conveyed by lexical items. Another major assertion of cognitive linguistics is that grammar is conceptualization. That is, the meanings conveyed by linguistic structures serve to express the speaker’s perspective on a situation rather than the objective properties of the situation. Cognitive linguistics emphasizes the importance of construal, defined as our ability to portray the same situation in alternate ways. As argued by Langacker (1987, pp. 138–141), an expression’s meaning depends not only on the conceptual content it evokes but also on the construal it imposes on that content. Construal is pervasive in thought and language, as speaking always implies a choice: whenever we utter a sentence, we structure the experience to be conveyed in a particular way. Importantly, cognitive linguists argue that the processes that govern linguistic construal are in principle the same as processes employed for other cognitive tasks, such as visual perception, motor activities or reasoning. Thus, on this view, there is no innate language acquisition device, separated from other types of knowledge. Formal structures of language are studied not as if they were autonomous, but as reflections of general conceptual organization and as a part of general processing mechanisms. Finally, cognitive linguistics proposes that grammar of a language is usagebased—it is formed through the process of abstraction or generalization over usage events, i.e. actual instances of language use (Langacker, 2002), based on pattern recognition and intention reading abilities (Goldberg, 1998; Goldberg, Casenhiser, & Sethuraman, 2004; Tomasello, 1998, 2003). Thus, in cognitive linguistics, grammatical constructions that make up our knowledge of language are schematic abstractions which capture what is common to a given category. An important consequence of adopting this thesis is that no principle distinction is made between language competence and language performance, because knowledge of language emerges

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from language use. Seen from this perspective, symbolic units constitute mental routines consisting of conventional parings of form with meaning (Langacker, 1987, pp. 57–62). The emphasis is thus put on actual learning of a vast array of conventional units. The process of learning of such a large repertoire of linguistic units is greatly facilitated by the fact that constructions are not random, but organized to form sets of overlapping relationships or networks. Constructions are related by two types of relationships: schema-instance relationship and extension from the prototype (Langacker, 1987; Taylor, 2002). Langacker describes schemas as abstract templates that capture the commonalities observed in particular expressions (Langacker, 1987, pp. 81–82). As pointed out above, the mental grammar of language users is formed by the process of schematization, that is, generalization over specific utterances on specific occasions of use. The usage-based theory has been extended to L2 learning by SLA researchers. As is argued by Ellis (1999, 2002), L2 acquisition also follows an exemplar model— it involves mastering complex networks of constructions of different degrees of complexity, generality and entrenchment. Ellis (2002, 2006a, 2006b) describes L2 learning as an associative-cognitive process governed by the same principles of associative and cognitive learning that underpin the rest of human knowledge. In other words, constructions are learned by exposure to linguistic input and by means of general cognitive abilities, which means that we learn language in essentially the same way as we learn anything else. Furthermore, as is argued by Ellis (2005, p. 306), the “bulk of language acquisition is implicit learning from usage”, and most linguistic knowledge is unconscious. However, L1 and L2 acquisition do not proceed in exactly the same way, the main difference being that L2 learners generally do not receive nearly the same amount of exposure to the target language as L1 learners and that L2 learners’ system is already tuned to the processing habits of the native language. These obstacles can hardly be overcome with mechanisms of implicit learning, they need to be dealt with by recruiting additional resources of explicit learning and knowledge (Ellis, 2005). In the following sections, we will try to determine how the explicit knowledge of the function and use of English complement constructions can affect the acquisition of these forms by advanced learners of English. However, first we present a brief overview of the cognitive linguistic approaches to post-verbal complementation, with the main focus being on two non-finite complements: the to-infinitive and the gerund, which are the subject of the experimental study.

3 A Cognitive Linguistic Approach to English Gerundive and To-Infinitival Complements A cognitive linguistic approach to English clausal complementation (cf. Duffley, 2000, 2006; Langacker, 1991; Smith & Escobedo, 2001; Verspoor, 2000, inter alia) is, in many respects, consistent with a broadly defined functional approach (cf. Givón,

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1980; Wierzbicka, 1988) with which it shares the basic assumption that the distribution of clausal complements is not random or arbitrary but semantically motivated. As mentioned earlier, the main claim of this approach is that complement forms such as the gerund or the infinitive represent semantic categories, or in Langacker’s terminology, form-meaning pairings. Seen from this perspective, the acceptability of a complementation pattern by a given verb is a consequence of the compatibility of the meanings (conceptualizations) denoted by the main verb and the complement clause. One of the best known and most influential theories representing this approach is that by Wierzbicka (1988), who argues that the to-infinitive is associated with the notion of volitionality (wanting to do something), on the one hand, and the temporal notion of future orientation, on the other. In other words, to-infinitive clauses code goal-oriented actions which are construed as posterior with respect to the main clause event. This idea has been taken up by many researchers, including Langacker (1991, p. 446) who, however, makes a reservation that futurity may be only a prototypical feature of the infinitival complement. In line with his conception of Cognitive Grammar, Langacker (1991, 2008) provides a schematic description of clausal complements arguing that the to-infinitive is anchored in the PATH image schema—a skeletal conceptual structure which captures our basic experience of moving from a source location to a target location. This conception has etymological motivation, i.e. it is based on the assumption that the infinitival to derives from the prepositional to that means towards (cf. Traugott, 1992). This theory is, of course, compatible with that proposed by Wierzbicka in that moving from one location to another one involves a before-after relationship. A similar conception can be found in Duffley (1992, 2000, 2006), who generalizes Wierzbicka’s notion of futurity to that of subsequence. As is argued by Duffley (1992), the temporal subsequence implied by post verbal uses of the to-infinitive manifests itself in two different forms: as subsequent potentiality, with verbs like want, plan, decide, which construe the infinitive’s event as unrealized, or as subsequent actualization, with verbs such as manage to or get somebody to do something, where the infinitive’s event is understood as realized (Duffley, 1992, p. 114). While there seems to be a general consensus in cognitive linguistic literature that the distribution of the to-infinitive is conditioned by the before-after relationship between the main clause event and the complement event, the semantics of the gerundive complement has turned out to be more contentious. Wierzbicka’s (1988) main idea is that the gerund denotes sameness of time, that is, the main clause event and the complement event are construed as taking place at the same or around the same time. For example, I enjoy singing implies that singing and enjoying are concurrent. That is, “if we enjoy doing something we enjoy it at the very time when we are doing it” (Wierzbicka, 1988, p. 60). Seen from this perspective, gerundive complements follow participial clauses in implying temporal overlap between two events. This view has been shared by many cognitively-minded researchers, including Langacker (1991), yet with the same reservation as that made for the to-infinitive, namely that simultaneity may be only a prototypical feature of the gerundive complement.

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Though appealing, this theory is problematic, as there are many gerund-taking verbs that do not seem to follow the principle of sameness-of-time. An example can be verbs such as suggest, recommend, or propose, which appear to refer to future actions/events rather than simultaneous ones. For instance, He suggested going out tonight implies that going out is future with respect to the verbal act of suggesting it. Another problematic area are verbs such as admit or regret, which imply that the complement action/event is anterior to the main clause action. For example, He admitted breaking the vase suggests that breaking the vase took place before admitting it by the subject referent. Unfortunately, Wierzbicka’s (1988) solution to this problem is not fully satisfactory. It is based on the assumption that there are two different types of gerunds—the temporal and non-temporal one. Wierzbicka argues that the sameness-of-time principle applies only to temporal types such as actions, processes, and states, whereas the so called atemporal types, that is facts and possibilities, are free of the samenessof-time constraint. Thus, from this perspective past and future uses of the gerund (e.g., I regret doing it, I consider doing it) represent the atemporal types, i.e. facts and possibilities, respectively, and as such they are not bound by the principle of simultaneity. While convenient in dealing with the diverse uses of the gerund, the distinction between temporal and atemporal gerunds appears to be somewhat arbitrary and it has not been unanimously agreed upon in the literature. A different explanation has been offered by Duffley (2000, 2006), who argues that the gerundive complement functions as a direct object, which designates that which is verbed. In other words, the gerund serves merely to reify the complement event, that is, to portray it as an abstract thing (cf. also Kaleta, 2014). Seen from this perspective, the gerund is indifferent to temporality, i.e. it does not stand in any particular temporal relation to the main clause event and, as such, can express something that is future (He suggested going out tonight), simultaneous (I enjoy working with him), or prior (I remember closing the door) with respect to the event expressed by the main clause. This theory allows us to rationalize the simultaneous and anterior uses of the gerundive complement in a surprisingly simple and elegant way, i.e. given that it is not bound by any time restrictions, the gerund appears in all those situations where the to-infinitive cannot occur due to its volitional and future-oriented nature. However, a problem occurs with verbs of future possibility, like suggest, recommend, or consider. Although none of the semantic theories of complementation has dealt with this problem satisfactorily, the solution emerges indirectly from the examination of the semantic distinctiveness of these verbs. More specifically, verbs of future possibility are distinct from infinitive-taking verbs of future orientation in that they do not imply any direct will or volition on the part of the main clause subject to carry out the complement event, or to make it happen. For example, He suggested going out tonight merely implies an idea that can be accepted or rejected by the addressee(s), rather than the subject’s decision or intention to go out. In addition, a suggestion or recommendation is often directed at someone else, to the exclusion of the main clause subject him/herself, for example The doctor recommended swimming as the best all-round exercise. In cases like this, with non-coreferential subjects, the main

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clause subject’s will (wanting to do something) or an idea of a goal-oriented action is even less relevant, and this seems to preclude the use of the infinitival complement. As brief and selective as this outline may have been, it shows that verb patterns are not random or arbitrary occurrences, but form a highly structured and motivated system where everything sort of hangs together. This, in turn, seems to create new, promising avenues for more meaningful teaching of these patterns.

4 Cognitive Linguistics Applied: The English To-Infinitive and the Gerund in the L2 Classroom This section attempts to translate the semantic theories of the English to-infinitive and gerund into the language of classroom practice. That is, it aims to convert them into a pedagogical model accessible to L2 language learners and instructors, with a minimum amount of jargon or technical detail.

4.1 The To-Infinitive The English to-infinitive was presented to learners as a radial network of related senses, all of which derive from the most schematic (general) meaning denoting futurity or subsequence. It was explicitly pointed out to the students that the infinitive is used when there is a sequence of events: the infinitival action comes after the main clause action. Also, the notions of volitionality and goal-orientedness were emphasized by pointing out that the infinitive usually implies what the speaker wants to do or what he/she wants to happen. This was illustrated in Fig. 1. Next, the researcher moved on to the presentation of different semantic classes of verbs that take the to-infinitive, highlighting the posteriority of the complement event. First, the most prototypical category of verbs of intention, desire and decision was introduced: want, aim, decide, hope, plan, promise, agree, vow, venture, volunteer, wish, desire, and threaten. When presenting these verbs, the researcher made it clear to the students that many infinitive-taking verbs imply unrealized actions. All the verbs were presented using authentic sentences. Fig. 1 The semantics of the English to-infinitive (adapted from Duffley, 2000)

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As a next step, the students’ attention was directed towards verbs that imply attempted or realized action. It was explained that these verbs are fewer in number and that they usually denote a previous effort to achieve a future goal. They include verbs like: try, attempt, strive, struggle, and seek. Also, fail and manage were included in this category, with the former implying an unsuccessful attempt and the latter a successful one, and both suggesting some previous effort invested by the subject referent in achieving a goal. This explanation included a comment on the volitionality of the action described in the main clause. The teacher explained that all the verbs under consideration imply that the speaker wants or wanted to achieve a particular goal. Even the unsuccessful verb fail carries this implication. Furthermore, it was pointed out that, in addition to positive volition (wanting to do something), the to-infinitive is used with verbs of negative volition, i.e. not wanting to do something: refuse and decline. The final challenge was to present the verbs with non-coreferential subjects, such as advise, ask, tell, beg, order, urge, forbid, request, invite, persuade, and force. All these verbs are causative in nature—they express the idea that the main clause subject tried to compel the complement subject to do (or not to do) something. In this respect, they clearly evoke the sense of subsequence and volitionality, that is, wanting someone else to do something. This was exactly the formula that was used in the classroom. Finally, it was pointed out that the infinitival action can be unrealized/potential, for instance beg, allow, and advise, or realized and implying a previous effort or some kind of resistance on the part of the subordinate subject, for example force and persuade.

4.2 The Gerund The presentation started with the explanation that the gerundive complement is different from the to-infinitive in that it is not bound by the principles of futurity and volitionality, i.e. it does not contain the elements of wanting and future orientation. The teacher emphasized that most often the main clause event and the complement event take place at the same time or around the same time, and they usually constitute a single whole (one event) rather than two distinct events. This most central meaning was illustrated with a diagram highlighting the temporal and conceptual overlap of the matrix clause and complement clause (Fig. 2). Then a list of the gerund-taking verbs was provided and discussed. The most typical representatives of this pattern include verbs of cognitive/emotional states such as enjoy, like, love, hate, resent, appreciate, miss, admire, and can’t stand. Next, the teacher pointed out that there are other verbs that involve temporal overlap, yet they do not form a uniform semantic category. They include: avoid, keep, involve, practice, and prevent. The associations of these verbs with the notion of simultaneity can be easily demonstrated with the use of temporal adverbs:

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Fig. 2 The gerund and temporal overlap

(1) Tom avoids making mistakes/*Yesterday, Tom avoided making mistakes tomorrow. (2) Tony keeps making the same mistakes./*Tony keeps making the same mistakes in the future. Next, the researcher introduced verbs of imagination such as imagine, envisage and foresee (e.g., She imagined herself sitting in her favourite chair back home). The occurrence of these verbs with the gerundive complement was motivated along the lines proposed by Wierzbicka (1988). That is, it was pointed out that the events evoked by these verbs are not real events but rather virtual ones, which occur in a person’s mind as mental pictures at the very time when they are imagined, envisaged, or foreseen. Thus, the verbs of imagination involve virtual rather than actual overlap in time. This explanation was accompanied by a picture representing the speakers’ imagination processes in a form of thought balloons. The next major challenge in the presentation of the gerundive complement were verbs evoking the notion of anteriority, i.e. speech act verbs and mental verbs such as admit, deny, recall, recollect, and regret. The researcher decided to reduce on the amount of technical jargon accompanying the linguistic accounts of these verbs and use a simple explanation clue, as given before, namely that only the gerund is applicable to time relationships other than futurity. Thus, she explained that, in addition to simultaneous events, the gerund is used to talk about things that happened before the action described in the main clause, the simple reason for this being that the to-infinitive is constrained by its future orientation. Finally, an explanation was offered for verbs such as consider, suggest, recommend, or propose. These verbs had to be distinguished from future-oriented infinitival predicates. The explanation was based on Wierzbicka’s account, according to which the verbs in question are not verbs of volitional action or obligation but verbs of future possibility. That is, the speech act verbs suggest or recommend refer to “some possibilities that the addressee should consider, rather than to some action that the addressee should perform” (Wierzbicka, 1988, p. 69). Consider, on the other hand, implies mere thinking about a possible course of action rather than an intentional, goal-oriented action. However, no mention was made in the classroom presentation of Wierzbicka’s distinction between temporal and atemporal categories to avoid technical jargon. It was merely concluded that the occurrence of these verbs with

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the gerund was motivated by the absence of the volitional component (‘I want to do this’) in their semantic structure. This explanation was extended to three nearly synonymous lexemes: delay, postpone, and defer, which, like verbs of future possibility, lack a clearly delineated volitional component. None of these verbs suggests that there is no will on the part of the subject referent to carry out the complement action. They merely suggest that someone is going to do something at a later time. Thus, they can hardly be interpreted as compatible with the notion of positive or negative volition (I want to do this/I do not want to do this). It should be noted at this point that the verbs under consideration represent a serious challenge for the semantic theories of English clausal complementation, which, either do not mention them at all, or do it in a highly technical way (cf. Smith, 2008 for an explanation in terms of objective and subjective construal). Translating linguistic theories into the language of classroom practice is not an easy task, especially when the linguistic insights are characterized by a high level of abstraction or technical jargon. Also, a serious difficulty arises when there are gaps or inconsistencies in the theories, which must be filled with a relevant explanation. In this section, we have tried our best to overcome these difficulties and present a pedagogical model of English complementation, which, despite its imperfections, seems to represent a viable alternative to the traditional model employing lists of verb patterns to be learnt by rote. In the next section, we report on an effects-ofinstruction study testing the pedagogical effectiveness of cognitive linguistics-based approach to English non-finite complementation. The following section presents the participants, design, and results of the study.

5 Experimental Study: Participants, Design and Results There were 30 participants in the study: they were all university students, aged 19-20. All the participants were advanced English language learners. The study was carried out as a regular part of the instruction in an advanced BA program at the department of English Studies at one of Polish universities. All students reported to the researcher that they had previously received traditional (i.e. form-based) instruction on English complement patterns. The students were randomly assigned to two groups of 15 participants: the control group received traditional instruction based on currently available teaching materials and focused on the formal aspect of verbal patterns. The experimental (cognitive) group received an instruction based on the description and procedure provided in Sect. 4. More details of the two procedures are provided further in this section. Both the cognitive and control group participants were administered the same pre-test and post-test, allowing a comparison of learning gains across the two groups of students. The tests had a fill-in-the-gap format, with the base form of the verb given in brackets. They consisted of 60 sentences: 40 target items and 20 filler items (distractors), as illustrated below:

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(3) Tracy suggested ……………… (meet) for a drink after work. (target item) (4) George fell off the ladder while ……………… (paint) the ceiling. (filler item) In addition to testing the students’ overall ability to distinguish between the gerundive and the infinitival complement, the pre-test allowed to identify specific areas of difficulty that the students experienced in mastering English verbs patterns. As was determined, students experienced most difficulty with verbs implying future possibilities, such as suggest, recommend, consider or propose, which were consistently combined with the infinitival complement. In the light of the cognitive linguistic approach to complementation, this difficulty appears to have a logical explanation, i.e. the students seemed to overgeneralize the use of the infinitival complement when referring to future, non-realized actions/events. A similar tendency was observed with verbs such as postpone or delay. As can be assumed, students tend to follow an entrenched pattern of associating future and non-realized events with the infinitival construction, and they extend this pattern to verbs which are future oriented, yet lack the volitionality or goal-orientedness, as exhibited by infinitive taking predicates. It remains to be seen whether this and other problems can be effectively remedied with the help of cognitive linguistics-based instruction. However, first let us present the design of the study. The experimental group received a teacher-fronted, cognitive linguistics-based presentation of the meanings and use of the gerundive and infinitival complements. The researcher explained that the use of one or the other complement type depends on the meaning of the main verb and that these meanings are related to one another. Then she moved on to the presentation of the different uses of the two constructions, as described in Sect. 4. The presentation was followed by a series of follow-up exercises to give the students an opportunity to practice the patterns and consolidate what they had learned. The students were encouraged to use the instructional materials as a point of reference while providing the answers to the exercises. Finally, the researcher checked the answers with the students, asking them to justify their choice of a complement type. The last task assigned to students was to make their own sentences or mini-dialogues using the two complement patterns presented by the researcher. The materials for the control group were very closely aligned with those used in the experimental group. The participants were presented with the same set of verbs. However, the presentation proceeded in a different fashion, with the focus being placed on the formal aspect of English complementation. More specifically, the students were given a random list of verbs to be grouped according to the complement type they take: the to-infinitive or the gerund. Once the verbs were matched with their appropriate complement forms, the teacher asked the students to organize the matrix verbs into semantic sets wherever possible (for example verbs of emotional states, e.g., like/hate/enjoy, or verbs of suggestion: suggest/propose/recommend). However, no explicit instruction was given on the general schematic meaning of the two complement types under investigation or on the relatedness of their different uses.

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Table 1 The experimental procedures in the cognitive and control group Cognitive group Session 1 Pre-test

Traditional group Pre-test

Session 2 Meaning-focused instruction: Form-focused instruction: (1) 40-minute teacher-fronted instruction (1) 40-minute inductive teaching of verb on the meaning and use of the patterns gerundive and infinitival complement (2) 45-minute practice work (follow-up (2) 45-minute practice work (follow-up exercises) exercises) Session 3 Post-test

Post-test

After the task had been completed, the teacher checked the answers with the students. This was followed by a practice stage, in which the students were asked to provide the answers to the same set of follow-up exercise as the cognitive group. They were encouraged to refer to the lists of verb patterns on the handouts. Finally, the teacher checked the answers with the students. As the last task, the students were asked to make their own sentences or mini-dialogues using the two complement patterns introduced in the lesson. A week after the instructional interventions, the participants in both groups were administered a post-test, which represented an alternative version of the pre-test. Table 1 presents an overview of the experimental procedure in both groups. The treatments of both groups were kept highly parallel. The materials were carefully controlled so that both groups spent approximately the same amount of time on the tasks. The same verbs and the same sentences were used in both groups. The reminder of this section presents and discusses the results of these tests, as compared with the results of the pre-test. The results obtained have been presented in the Table 2. The pre-test scores showed that the performance of the control and the cognitive group was almost the same before the teaching intervention. Both groups scored approximately 65% correct on the pre-test. The mean score for the cognitive group was 19.89 with standard deviation 5.57, and for the control group 19.47 (standard deviation 6.03). The post-test scores showed that the participants in the cognitive group gained 5.64 points on average, scoring approximately 85% correct. The participants in the control group gained only 2.28 points, scoring approximately 72% correct on average. Mean score on the post-tests for the cognitive group was 25.53 (SD 1.7), whereas the mean on the post-test for the traditional group was 21.75 (SD 4.4). Table 2 The results of the study in the experimental and control group Pre-test M (SD) (%)

Post-test M (SD) (%)

Gain M (%)

Cognitive

19.89 (5.57) (66.3)

25.53 (1.7) (85.1)

5.64 (18.5)

Control

19.47 (6.03) (64.9)

21.75 (4.4) (72.5)

2.28 (7.6)

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The cognitive group outperformed the traditional group by 3.3 points on average, approximately 35% advantage. These findings suggest that a cognitive linguistic approach was more effective in increasing the learners’ understanding of the meanings and appropriate use of English verb patterns than the traditional approach. Furthermore, a closer look at specific instances indicates a significant improvement in the use of the gerundive complement to indicate future possibilities (e.g., suggest, propose, and consider). As the pre-test showed, these verbs were particularly problematic for Polish learners, who tended to combine them with the infinitival complement, most likely because of their future orientation. The pedagogical procedure applied in the cognitive group allowed to raise the students’ awareness of the semantic distinctiveness of these verbs. This seems to have contributed to a significant decrease in the number of erroneous complement choices for these verbs: approximately 65% decrease as compared to only 34% decrease in the same type of errors in the control group. These results are highly suggestive and encouraging. However, there are certain limits to the study, which are addressed in the concluding section, as recommendations for future research.

6 Conclusion and Prospects for Future Research Mastering English verb patterns represents a well-recognized challenge for L2 learners. Traditional linguistic approaches, which treat the distribution of complement constructions as arbitrary, have left L2 instructors and learners with no principled method of dealing with this part of English grammar, apart from rote memorization. The cognitive approach, which emphasises systematic and motivated nature of syntactic categories, appears to create new and promising options for more meaningful and thus more effective pedagogical intervention in this area. The present study represents an encouraging first step in experimentally investigating the usefulness of cognitive linguistics-based approach to teaching English post-verbal complementation. As has been seen, the participants in the cognitive group experienced significant gains in their ability to appropriately use English verb patterns. However, these results must be interpreted with caution, as the study has been a small-scale, pilot investigation. Therefore, it needs to be verified with a larger and more diversified population of students. Also, since the study involved only advanced students, conducting a study with participants at less advanced levels of proficiency is important. Moreover, all the participants were English philology students, who were trained to be analytical in their approach to language and had a relatively high level of metalinguistic awareness, which might have made them more responsive to nuances of linguistic meanings. Thus, conducting a study with students with no expertise in linguistics is another worthwhile step to be taken in future research. Another limitation of the study is its narrow focus on the distinction between the gerund and the to-infinitival complement. The extension of the study to include

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other complement types such as the bare infinitive or that clauses could provide further evidence for the pedagogical applicability of the cognitive linguistics-based model. Another area that merits further pedagogical enquiry are the verbs that alternate between different complement types (e.g., start, continue, and stop, which are used with the infinitive and gerund). Cognitive linguistic research (cf. Kaleta, 2012, 2014) sheds new light on the semantic distinctiveness of these minimal pairs, which undoubtedly deserve a new treatment in pedagogical materials. Finally, I am not claiming that the pedagogical procedure developed for this study provides the only and most optimal method of teaching English non-finite complement patterns. There may be other ways of organizing, presenting, and practising this material, which are worth implementing and testing in L2 research. Such alternative perspectives on the same grammar problem can be a subject of an experimental study of its own. Although the present study has been concerned with the applications of cognitive linguistics insights to teaching a single grammar phenomenon, its results are encouraging enough to warrant the continuation of this line of research in other areas of English grammar. The ultimate and long-term goal of this research, as I see it, is a cognitive linguistics-based pedagogical grammar of the English language: a grammar that treats grammar as a reservoir of linguistic meanings rather than a set of patterns to be memorized or a mere tool for organizing lexis. Such a truly cognitive linguistic grammar should be capable of giving the answers to the crucial questions of why grammar is the way it is rather than merely showing what grammar is like. Cognitive linguistic research provides a plethora of useful and insightful answers to this core question, the main challenge being to translate them into the language of classroom practice—a language which does not lose anything of the detail and richness of cognitive linguistic analyses and yet is accessible enough to be of use to L2 learners and instructors.

References Achard, M., & Neimeier, S. (2004). Cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition, and foreign language teaching. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Achard, M. (2008). Teaching construal: Cognitive pedagogical grammar. In P. Robinson & N. C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp. 432–455). New York: Routledge. Bielak, J., & Pawlak, M. (2013). Applying cognitive grammar in the foreign language classroom: Teaching English tense and aspect. Kalisz, Poland: Springer. Cadierno, T., & Eskildsen, S. W. (Eds.). (2015). Usage-based perspectives on second language learning. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. De Knop, S., Boers, S. F., & De Rycker, T. (Eds.). (2010). Fostering language teaching efficiency through cognitive linguistics. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Duffley, P. J. (1992). The English infinitive. London: Longman. Duffley, P. J. (2000). Gerund versus infinitive as complements of transitive verbs in English: The problems of ‘tense’ and ‘control’. Journal of English Linguistics, 28, 221–248.

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Duffley, P. J. (2006). The English gerund-participle: A comparison with the infinitive. Berkeley: Peter Lang Publishing. Ellis, N. C. (1999). Cognitive approaches to SLA. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 19, 22–42. Ellis, N. C. (2002). Frequency effects in language acquisition: A review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 143–188. Ellis, N. C. (2005). At the interface: Dynamic interactions of explicit and implicit language knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 305–352. Ellis, N. C. (2006a). Cognitive perspectives on SLA: The associative-cognitive CREED. AILA Review, 19, 100–121. Ellis, N. C. (2006b). Selective attention and transfer phenomena in L2 acquisition: Contingency, cue competition, salience, interference, overshadowing, blocking, and perceptual learning. Applied Linguistics, 27(2), 164–194. Ellis, N. C., Römer, U., & O’Donnell, M. B. (2016). Usage-based approaches to language acquisition and processing: Cognitive and corpus investigations of Construction Grammar. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. Givón, T. (1980). The binding hierarchy and the typology of complements. Studies in Language, 4, 333–377. Goldberg, A. E. (1995). Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Cognitive theory of language and culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Goldberg, A. E. (2006). Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Goldberg, A. E., Casenhiser, D. M., & Sethuraman, N. (2004). Learning argument structure generalizations. Cognitive Linguistics, 143, 289–316. Holme, R. (2009). Cognitive linguistics and language teaching. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Kaleta, A. (2012). The English gerund vs. the to-infinitive: The case of aspectual constructions. Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings, 1, 323–341. Retrieved from http://www.uk-cla.org/pro ceedings. Kaleta, A. (2014). English sentential complementation: A usage-based approach. Piotrków Trybunalski: Naukowe Wydawnictwo Piotrkowskie. Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume 1: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Langacker, R. W. (1991). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Volume II: Descriptive applications. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Langacker, R. W. (2002). Concept, image, symbol. The cognitive basis of grammar. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Langacker, R. W. (2008a). The relevance of Cognitive Grammar for language pedagogy. In S. De Knop & T. De Rycker (Eds.), Cognitive approaches to pedagogical grammar: A volume in honour of René Dirven (pp. 7–35). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Langacker, R. W. (2008b). Cognitive Grammar. A basic introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Littlemore, J. (2009). Applying cognitive linguistics to second language learning and teaching. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Pütz, M., Niemeier, S., & Dirven, R. (2004). Applied cognitive linguistics I: Theory and language acquisition. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Robinson, P., & Ellis, N. C. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition. New York, London: Routledge. Smith, M. B. (2008). The semantics of complementation in English: A cognitive semantic account of two English complement constructions. Language Sciences, 31(4), 360–388. Smith, M. B., & Escobedo, J. (2001). The Semantics of to infinitive vs. gerund complement constructions in English. In M. Adronies, Ch. Ball, H. Elston, & S. Neuvel (Eds.), The main session: Proceedings from the main session of the Thirty-seventh Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society CLS37 (pp. 549–563). Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

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The Cognitive Grammar View of Lexical Polysemy and Its Application in Foreign Language Pedagogy Barbara Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z

Abstract Teaching the vocabulary of a foreign language inextricably evokes the notion of polysemy. While this notion can be approached in a number of ways, the chapter focuses on the one proposed within Cognitive Grammar (Langacker, 1987, 1991, 1999, 2008): the network model. This model highlights the fact that different senses of a lexical item form a coherent category, whose elements are related by means of different categorising relationships. From the perspective of language pedagogy, this kind of approach to polysemy possesses numerous advantages. Drawing on these assumptions, the author proposes a technique of teaching foreign language vocabulary. The consecutive stages of this technique, which can be applied when the learner comes across an unfamiliar vocabulary item used in one of its extended senses, are discussed on the basis of selected French lexical items. The aim is to show how to teach larger chunks of the network (encompassing the relations between the prototypical and extended sense and the schemas emerging from them) and what benefits this approach brings for foreign language learners. Keywords Categorisation · Cognitive Grammar · Network model · Polysemy · Teaching vocabulary · Schematisation · Semantic extension

1 Introduction One of the goals of foreign language pedagogy is developing the ability to use the lexical resources of the given language. In the course of learning, learners expand their vocabulary knowledge: they get to know new words that they did not know before and learn new senses of the words that they were already familiar with. This evokes the notion of polysemy, and the issues that teaching polysemous items raises. Polysemy is one of the central topics in cognitive linguistics, which both describes it from the theoretical perspective and postulates some possibilities of applying it B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (B) University of Silesia, ul. Bankowa 12, 40-007 Katowice, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. Dro˙zd˙z and B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (eds.), Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research, Second Language Learning and Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_5

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in the area of foreign language pedagogy. An example of this can be the network model. Some proposals concerning its structure and explanatory power can be found, among others, in Tyler and Evans (2003) or Lindstromberg (2010). At the same time, this model has also found its way to the foreign language classroom, for example in teaching prepositions (Tyler, 2012) or polysemous items (Achard, 2018). The central notion of the present chapter is the network model proposed by Cognitive Grammar (e.g., Langacker, 1987, 2008) and its application in the foreign language classroom. More specifically, the aim of the chapter is to present a Cognitive Grammar-based technique, whose goal is to teach vocabulary by creating a rich mental representation of the senses of a word in learners’ minds. While this goal can be achieved by means of many different techniques, the postulated one is designed for situations when learners encounter an unknown, polysemous lexical item that is used in one of its peripheral senses.

2 The Cognitive Grammar Approach to Polysemy From the Cognitive Grammar perspective (e.g., Langacker, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2008), different senses of a polysemous word can be seen as members of a structured category, “equivalent in having the same phonological realization” (Langacker, 2008, p. 17). One of the possible representations of such a category is the network model, which highlights several crucial properties of a polysemous unit: the occurrence of many senses, the fact that these senses are related to one another, and that some senses are more central than others (Langacker, 2008, p. 227). The structure of the network model resembles a complex system of nodes and relationships between them. Members of such a category, represented by particular nodes, are related by means of two kinds of categorising relationships. The first one is extension. This relationship is based on a comparison between two elements, out of which one (the target) shares some but not all of the properties of the other (the standard), that is, there is a discrepancy between them. In Cognitive Grammar, the standard is called the prototype of this relationship, and the target is constituted by the extended sense. The second type of relationship is based on the process of schematisation, that is, “the process of extracting the commonality inherent in multiple experiences to arrive at a conception representing a higher level of abstraction” (Langacker, 2008, p. 17). This means that this is a categorising relationship between two elements: a schema and its instantiation (elaboration). The instantiation’s specifications are fully compatible with those of the schema, but the schema represents a structure at a higher level of abstraction. It needs to be stressed that extension, as a relationship between the standard and target, leads to the emergence of a more abstract structure that captures what is common to both of these elements. This abstract structure is a schema, and standard and target elaborate it. To illustrate this theoretical account, consider an example of the polysemous noun ring. Even a cursory look at the noun’s entries in different dictionaries

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(e.g., Oxford Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, or Collins English Dictionary) shows a multiplicity of senses of this lexical item. For instance, it can designate ‘a piece of jewelry that you wear on your finger’ (She put a dazzling ring on her finger), ‘an object in the shape of a circle’ (The children went swimming with a rubber ring; Fried onion rings are the perfect accompaniment to burgers), ‘a circular line or mark’ (The cat had two black rings at the end of the tail), ‘a large circular area surrounded by seats at a circus’ (The elephants marched around the ring in the circus parade), or ‘a small square area surrounded by ropes, where people box or wrestle’ (After the second boxer came in the ring he greeted his opponent). In his discussion of different senses of the noun ring, Langacker (2008, p. 37) proposes a partial network of this polysemous unit, where each of the nodes is described in the following ways: circular object (1), circular piece of jewelry (2), circular piece of jewellery for finger (3), circular arena (4), rectangular arena (5), circular mark (6), circular entity (7), arena (8) (Fig. 1). As shown in the figure, the status of the senses represented in it is not equal. Those that are more central—more easily retrieved from memory—than others are marked by means of a heavy line. In Cognitive Grammar terms, such senses are called prototypical. The arrows represent different types of relationships between the senses. Extension is marked with a dashed arrow, while elaboration—with a solid one. We can say, for instance, that the sense ‘circular object’ (1) is schematic in relation to ‘circular piece of jewelry’ (2), which can be represented as follows: CIRCULAR OBJECT → CIRCULAR PIECE OF JEWELRY. This means that the sense ‘circular piece of jewelry’ is one of the possible instantiations of the sense described as ‘circular object’. At the same time, ‘circular piece of jewelry’ (2) is elaborated by ‘circular piece of jewellery for finger’ (3): CIRCULAR PIECE OF JEWELRY → CIRCULAR PIECE OF JEWELRY FOR FINGER. This last sense represents a high level of prototypicality in English. Although the figure does not show it, the sense ‘circular piece of jewelry’ can be further elaborated by less central

Fig. 1 A partial network of the noun ring (based on Langacker, 2008, p. 37)

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senses, such as ‘circular piece of jewellery for nose’ or ‘circular piece of jewellery for lip’. At the same time, we can observe that the sense ‘circular object’ (1) is a local prototype for the senses ‘circular mark’ (6) and ‘circular arena’ (4). This means that the relationship between them is that of extension, which can be represented as: CIRCULAR OBJECT ... CIRCULAR MARK and CIRCULAR OBJECT ... CIRCULAR ARENA. The same type of relationship occurs between the sense ‘circular arena’ (4) and ‘rectangular arena’ (5), where the former is the prototype of this relationship and the latter is an extended sense from it (the target of this relationship): CIRCULAR ARENA ... RECTANGULAR ARENA. Both of these senses are elaborations of a more schematic sense, ‘arena’ (8), which captures what is common to them (ARENA → CIRCULAR ARENA and ARENA → RECTANGULAR ARENA). From the senses ‘circular mark’ (6), circular object’ (1), and ‘circular arena’ (4), a more schematic sense arises: ‘circular entity’ (7), for which the three senses are instantiations. Moreover, what is worth stressing about this kind of model is that it is dynamic, that is, it can change in time: new senses can appear and the status of particular senses can change. Less central senses can become highly prototypical, and senses that once were prototypical can disappear (Langacker, 2003, p. 210). An example of such a change can be the network of the noun mail: the semantic network of mail is being reconfigured, with [MAIL] no longer a clear-cut prototype (hence the term hard mail to avoid confusion). We can anticipate [EMAIL] eventually taking over as the prototypical sense, with [MAIL] then being an extension from it. In some circles, this has probably already happened. (Langacker, 2008, p. 226)

3 Application in the Classroom It seems that such an approach to polysemy carries a considerable pedagogical potential. Below I present a technique of teaching vocabulary that makes use of the network model, and the advantages flowing from this. This technique is applicable in one of those frequent situations encountered during foreign language classes when learners come across an unfamiliar lexical item in a text or a conversation. What is specific for this situation is that this item is used in one of its non-prototypical senses, that is, one of its extended senses. The consecutive stages of this technique are discussed on the basis of selected French lexical items.

3.1 A Presentation of the Technique STAGE 1: ARRIVING AT THE PROTOTYPE OF THE ENCOUNTERED WORD

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Bearing in mind that a word can have more than one central (prototypical) sense, the point of this stage is to reach the prototype that is closest to the encountered sense. The teacher’s task is to guide learners towards this prototypical sense. To do so, the teacher can use one of many possible techniques (see e.g., Ur, 1996, p. 63; Nation, 2001, p. 125; Thornbury, 2002, p. 77): provide a simple definition of this sense in the target language, demonstrate it by using for example gestures or mimics, use graphics or, ultimately, provide a translation in learners’ mother tongue. As can be seen at this stage, and what is inherent for this technique, learners are motivated to deduce senses of lexical items, which stimulates deeper mental processing and, at the same time, increases learners’ engagement. A crucial aspect of this technique is using the given word in context. There are at least two important reasons for this. First of all, the context provides learners with some salient elements of knowledge that help them to understand the meaning of the given lexical item. In other words, because these elements evoke certain situations or frames from learners’ experience, something that they are familiar with, it is easier for them to guess the unfamiliar sense (e.g., Tréville & Duquette, 1996, pp. 68–73; Schmitt, 2000, pp. 27–28). The second reason is that in the context the word can be used as an element of a larger construction, for instance the preposition that the word is used with, which enables learners to see not only the given word, but also larger chunks of language (e.g., Schmitt, 2000, pp. 101–107). STAGE 2: DETERMINING THE ENCOUNTERED SENSE At the second stage, learners come back to the context with the extended sense. They adjust what they have learnt about the prototypical sense to their encyclopaedic knowledge concerning the situation in which the unfamiliar sense was used. Trying to make their conceptualisation coherent, they make guesses about the new sense. The teacher’s task is to encourage learners to formulate hypotheses about this extended sense. STAGE 3: CAPTURING THE SCHEMA The third stage is intimately related to the second one, because determining the extended sense in a specific context is part and parcel of the process of comparison that learners make between the prototypical and extended sense. This comparison assumes detecting by learners certain similarities between the two senses and, as assumed by Cognitive Grammar, this leads to the emergence of an abstract structure that captures what is common to the two senses—a schema. The goal of this stage is an attempt to capture and describe this schematic structure, which can be done by learners themselves, learners guided by the teacher or, ultimately, the teacher. STAGE 4: PROVIDING FURTHER INSTANTIATIONS OF THE SCHEMA At the next stage, the teacher presents contexts with further instantiations of the detected schema. He does it by providing example sentences in which the sense of the analysed word can be described by the same schema but, at the same time, the examples introduce other facets of it. On the one hand, this enables learners to

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memorise the elements of knowledge evoked by the schema that they are familiar with. On the other hand, they discern additional facets of this schema in new contexts. It needs to be kept in mind that the network model can include several schematic structures, as senses can be characterised at different levels of abstraction, that is, more or less generally. That is why the senses of the analysed word that are presented to learners can be instantiations of a schema that is a subschema of a more general structure. STAGE 5 (OPTIONAL): INTRODUCING FURTHER ELEMENTS OF THE NETWORK Finally, it is possible to extend learners’ knowledge of the network by introducing more elements of it. These can be other extended senses of the analysed item, schemas representing other nodes of the network, or derivations that base on the knowledge activated by the newly learnt senses. Naturally, it is impossible to provide a definite answer to the questions how much network the teacher should introduce or to what extent the network should be discussed. This depends on the type of class, its goal, the amount of time that we want to devote to it, learners’ age, their level of proficiency, motivation, etc. A different amount of precision can be achieved with, for example, primary school pupils during a foreign language lesson, and a very different one with university students who already know much about linguistics. Still, the most crucial point is that the technique gives the possibility of exploring the language even further.

3.2 Some Case Studies Let us now consider how this technique can be applied in the classroom when learners encounter an unfamiliar word in a text.1 In order to do so, I want to discuss three cases that come from a lesson of a foreign language—French.

3.2.1

The Case of Gonfler

The first situation concerns the polysemy of the verb gonfler. The procedure begins when learners come across this word in a text devoted to CVs that are sent by candidates for a job. The context is as follows: 1) Les candidats gonflent les objectifs atteints. [The candidates inflate the achieved goals.] Before we determine the sense of gonfler in this context, we start with a presentation of the prototypical sense. In the case of this verb, this sense can be introduced by means of the following examples: 1 The examples come from classes of French conducted with adult learners at the intermediate level.

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Fig. 2 Examples of the central sense of gonfler

2) Elle a gonflé le ballon. [She inflated the balloon.] 3) Il a gonflé les pneus d’une voiture. [He inflated the tyres of a car.] 4) Il a gonflé ses joues. [He inflated his cheeks.] In order to understand this sense better, the teacher can use pictures that present the situations from the sentences (Fig. 2a–c). The provided contexts and pictures guide learners towards the sense that can be formulated as follows: ‘distendre en remplissant d’air, de gaz’ [distend by filling with air or gas] or, more schematically, ‘procès dont la conséquence est qu’un objet augmente de volume’ [the process as a result of which an object increases its size]. These contexts show one more thing: that gonfler is used in a transitive construction. In Cognitive Grammar terms, we could say that the verb gonfler profiles a temporal relation (process) that evokes two participants. The first of them, the primary focal participant (trajector), is an animate subject that performs the action of filling. The secondary focal participant, landmark, is an object that becomes larger, that is, its size increases. In the sphere of language pedagogy, it is enough to note the occurrence of a specific construction: qqn gonfle qch [sb inflates sth]. In this construction, the person (qqn) performs the action of filling, as a result of which a thing (qch) becomes larger. At the second stage, the teacher encourages learners to guess what gonfler means in context (1). This makes learners evoke the knowledge concerning candidates who apply for a job and, in their CVs, enumerate their achievements. One of the pieces of this knowledge is the fact that, in order to get the job, candidates want to make their CVs as attractive and impressive as possible. Adjusting this to what they know about the prototypical sense of gonfler, learners try to make their conceptualisation of context (1) coherent. As a result, either by themselves or with the help of the teacher, learners arrive at a sense that can be formulated as, among others, ‘augmenter exagérément l’importance de qch’ [increase excessively the importance of sth] or, more generally, ‘procès dont la conséquence est qu’un objet abstrait devient plus grand’ [the process as a result of which an abstract object becomes larger].

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Determining this extended sense is inevitably related to the process of comparison between the action of increasing the size of a physical object and the action of increasing the importance of achievements. This comparison entails noticing certain similarities between the two actions and capturing what is common for these senses. At this stage, the teacher’s role is to direct learners’ attention to the schematic structure that evokes the action performed by someone, as a result of which an entity becomes larger. In the classroom context, this structure can be formulated simply as ‘procès dont la conséquence est qu’une entité devient plus grand’ [the process as a result of which an entity becomes larger], which constitutes the most abstract schema among the analysed senses of gonfler. At the next stage, the teacher presents more example sentences in which the senses of gonfler instantiate the above schema. Some of them can be: 5) Le gâteau a gonflé dans le four. [The cake rose in the oven.] 6) Marc est tombé et son genou a gonflé. [Mark fell and his knee swelled.] 7) Le coach va expliquer les exercices à suivre pour gonfler ses biceps! [The coach will explain which exercises to do in order to pump the biceps!] 8) La bière me gonfle l’estomac. [Beer bloats my stomach.] 9) Certains commerçants gonflent les prix avant les soldes. [Some shopkeepers raise prices before reductions.] 10) Ils ont gonflé ce scandale. [They magnified this scandal.] 11) Je crois que tu gonfle l’importance d’un évènement. [I think you overestimate the weight of an event.] 12) Le journaliste a gonflé le nombre des manifestants. [The journalist overestimated the number of protesters.] After presenting the above sentences, one of the things that the teacher can do is note that in all these cases the senses of gonfler evoke the process as a result of which an entity becomes larger. At the same time, the teacher can also draw learners’ attention to more details of the network. For instance, in examples 5–8, that is in the case of cake, knee, biceps, and stomach, gonfler suggests the process in which a physical object increases its extent because of a reason. This sense can be formulated as ‘(faire) augmenter de volume sous l’action d’une cause quelconque’ [make sth extend as a result of a cause]. It is easy to notice its similarity to the prototypical sense (illustrated by examples 2–4)—both of them can be schematically described in terms of ‘the process as a result of which a concrete object increases its size’. Another point is that examples 9–12 are comparable to example 1, because the verb gonfler in all of these cases designates ‘the process as a result of which an abstract object becomes larger’. As can be seen, the last two schematic senses are very close, because both of them refer to ‘the process as a result of which an entity becomes larger’—the most general of the discussed structures of gonfler. This shows

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Fig. 3 A partial network of the French verb gonfler

that all these senses, despite being quite diverse, form a coherent network, which can be illustrated as in Fig. 3. Finally, it is possible to make one more step and introduce some further elements of the network of gonfler. One of the options is to present a few of its derivations, for example two deverbal nominalisations: gonflement and gonflage. What is worth noting is that the former of them refers to such entities as, for instance, stomach (gonflement de l’estomac), knee (gonflement du genou), or price (gonflement du prix), while the latter—to pneumatic objects, for example tyres (gonflage des pneus). Naturally, this gives an opportunity to discuss other derivations, such as the adjective gonflable (matelas gonflable [inflatable mattress]), the verb dégonfler (dégonfler un ballon [deflate a balloon], dégonfler l’importance d’une nouvelle [decrease the importance of the news], or dégonfler les prix [reduce the prices]), etc.

3.2.2

The Case of Poignée

Now consider the example of a noun—poignée. Learners can find it in the following context: 13) Une poignée de manifestants s’est regroupée. [A handful of protesters gathered.] Before we determine the sense of the noun in this context, we begin with the sense that is prototypical for it, which can be seen in the sentence:

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Fig. 4 An illustration of one of the central senses of poignée

14) Une poignée de riz. [A handful of rise.] Figure 4 can be used to draw learners’ attention to the fact that in this case the noun designates an amount of rise that can be held in a hand. The notions evoked by this sense are ‘amount’ and ‘the content of the hand’. These, in turn, evoke the image of a hand that is partly closed, that is, the hand is in a position that enables holding something. This sense can be defined, then, as ‘quantité (d’une chose) contenue dans une main fermée’ [an amount (of things) contained in a closed hand]. When the prototypical sense is determined, we come back to the novel context (13) and guide learners towards the sense that poignée adopts in it: ‘une petite quantité de’ [a small number of]. A comparison of the two senses enables learners to capture what they have in common: the schematic notion of ‘quantité’ [amount]—a rather small amount. Then the teacher gives learners some more examples that are further instantiations of the captured schema: 15) Nous n’étions qu’une poignée. [There were a handful of us.] 16) Il n’y a qu’une poignée de pays qui respectent cette loi. [Only a handful of countries respect this law.] 17) Seule une poignée de propositions a été acceptée. [Only a handful of proposals were accepted.] 18) Elle n’a dormi qu’une poignée d’heures. [She only slept a couple of hours.] It is possible to make one more step and extend the network by a different, but highly conventinalised sense of poignée. We can see this sense in the following examples (Fig. 5): 19) La poignée de valise. [The suitcase handle.] 20) La poignée de porte. [The door handle.] 21) La poignée de couvercle. [The lid knob.] These sentences illustrate the schematic sense that can be characterised as ‘partie d’un objet conçue pour être saisie par la main fermée’ [a part of an object created in

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Fig. 5 Examples of highly conventionalised senses of poignée

order to be held by a closed hand]. What is important, this sense evokes the image of a closed hand, which is the common schematic element that links the prototypical sense and the discussed one. Some other contexts illustrating the same sense can be: 22) La poignée du sabre est bien ornée. [The handle of the saber was richly ornamented.] 23) Tirez la poignée de tiroir vers vous. [Pull the drawer handle towards you.] 24) Si vous voyagez debout en bus, tenez-vous aux poignées! [If you stand on the bus, hold on to grab handles!] Once we have determined another schematic sense of poignée, ‘the closed hand’, it is worth going one step further and giving students a well-known expression: une poignée de main (example 25). It also evokes the image of the closed hand discussed in the previous senses, as the expression means ‘le geste par lequel on salue quelqu’un en lui serrant la main’ [the gesture of shaking hands that people make when they greet]. 25) Le maire a donné une poignée de main à tous les membres du conseil municipal. [The mayor shook hands with all the members of the city council.] The senses of the noun poignée discussed above can be illustrated as in Fig. 6. This is one of the possible ways of illustrating how they are related by means of different categorising relationships. The networks presented in the above figures can, but do not have to be, incorporated into the lesson. The teacher can sketch them or ask learners who are more acquainted with the technique to propose their network. At the same time, instead of just describing the particular nodes, their contents can be presented differently—in a more attractive and more learner-friendly way. The case of poignée is a good example when it is possible to use simple pictures instead of words (Fig. 7).

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Fig. 6 A partial network of the French noun poignée

Fig. 7 A partial network of the French noun poignée—a version with images

3.2.3

The Case of Aspirateur

A partial network of a lexical item can also be presented in a different situation— when learners come across a word that is derived from one of the non-prototypical senses of an item. For instance, when learners do not know the word aspirateur [vacuum cleaner] (example 26), it is enough for the teacher to signal that it is a deverbal nominalisation or, to put it more simply, that this is a thing that does a specific action—aspire, and then present the senses of the verb aspirer. 26) Ils ont acheté un aspirateur. [They bought a vacuum cleaner.] The prototypical sense of this verb, ‘attirer l’air dans ses poumons’ [inhale air into one’s lungs], can be introduced to learners by means of the following context (Fig. 8): 27) Il a ouvert la fenêtre pour aspirer un peu d’air frais. [He opened the window to inhale some fresh air.]

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Fig. 8 An illustration of one of the central senses of aspirer

In order to determine a different sense of aspirer—the one from which the noun aspirateur is derived—it suffices to present context 28. 28) Cet appareil de nettoyage aspire la poussière de la moquette. [This cleaning machine sucks in the dirt from the carpet.] A comparison of the prototypical sense involving the image of a person inhaling air with the extended sense concerning a machine sucking in dirt enables learners to understand the extended sense of aspirer: ‘attirer la poussière dans un appareil’ [suck in dirt into a machine]. At this stage, the teacher can just draw learners’ attention to the fact that the machine from example 28 is the aspirateur that they have already encountered in example 26. Just like in the case of the two previous lexical items, a comparison of the prototypical and extended sense leads to the emergence of a schematic sense. This sense can be characterised as ‘attirer, absorber’ [attract, absorb]. With such a structure in hand, it is worth directing learners towards other senses of aspirer that evoke the same schema but highlight other facets of it, for instance ‘attirer un liquide dans la bouche’ [suck some liquid into the mouth] or ‘attirer quelque chose en faisant le vide’ [attract something by making a vacuum] (examples 29–30). 29) Julie aspirait son lait avec une paille. [Julia was drinking her milk with a straw.] 30) Pour faire une prise de sang, l‘infirmière aspire un peu de sang avec une seringue. [In order to take bloods, the nurse draws some blood with a syringe.] And this is how the word aspirateur can be an opportunity to learn the verb aspirer with at least two of its senses and their different facets, and all this is presented as a coherent category (Fig. 9). This coherence can be illustrated, as was suggested in the discussion of poignée, in different ways. In Fig. 10, this network is presented in a simplified way—with pictures. It must also be noted that the use of the verb in context allows the teacher to present the whole construction of the verb aspirer: qq/qch aspire qch [sb/sth inhales sth]. Doing so does not seem to be time-consuming, while it is definitely profitable from the perspective of foreign language learning.

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Fig. 9 A partial network of the French verb aspirer

Fig. 10 A partial network of the French noun aspirer-a version with images

4 The Advantages of the Technique As can be seen, the starting point of this technique is a very natural situation often encountered in the foreign language classroom—when learners come across an unknown sense of a polysemous unit. However, the technique does not stop at teaching this particular sense, but its goal is more far-reaching—it aims to introduce learners to a part of the network of senses of a polysemous unit and, as a result, create in learners’ minds a rich mental representation of the senses of the word.

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Taking all this into consideration, the technique offers many advantages from the perspective of foreign language teaching. First and foremost, it aims to teach what can be termed as ‘thinking in the foreign language’ or, as Slobin (1996) calls it, ‘thinking for speaking’. More specifically, this technique teaches to think by means of foreign language categories—by forming a broader representation of the senses of a lexical unit. This means noticing the categorising relationships that hold between different senses of a word, capturing the schematic structures that describe what is shared by them and, in this way, emphasising the common elements of the knowledge activated by these senses. This leads to grasping by learners a network of related representations that link different senses of polysemous units, that is, certain polysemy patterns. And, as Evans (2007, p. 164) notes, “linguistic polysemy patterns reflect, and therefore reveal, systematic differences and patterns in the way linguistic units are organised and structured in the mind”. Being able to teach vocabulary in a way that is similar to the way in which it is structured in the memory of native speakers might be profitable for foreign language learners because their effort of learning would be decreased, while the efficiency of learning would be increased (Tréville & Duquette, 1996, p. 21). Besides, as observed by Littlemore (2009, p. 187), “learning a second language involves the ability to reorganize our encyclopaedic knowledge and corresponding word association networks, thus deepening our knowledge of L2 vocabulary”. This reorganisation is inevitable in the case of French lexemes learnt by Polish learners, as discussed in the chapter. The knowledge organised in the network that is evoked by the French lexemes is some kind of discovery for Poles, and learning such a network requires reorganising the method of categorising reality that is encoded in their native language, to which they are accustomed. For instance, the lexeme odkurzacz [vacuum cleaner] profiles the word kurz [dust] and not, as in French, the action aspirer [inhale]. Similarly, the French noun poignée evokes close associations between as distinct elements of reality as gar´sc´ [handful], uchwyt [knob], and u´scisk dłoni [handshake], which are not automatically invoked in the mind of a Pole, as each of them is translated by means of distinct lexemes. An analogous situation can be observed with the verb gonfler, whose senses are rendered in Polish by means of different lexical items: pompowa´c [pump], nad˛ac´ [inflate], napełnia´c [fill], wyolbrzymia´c [enlarge], rozdmuchiwa´c [blow up], przecenia´c [overestimate], spuchn˛ac´ [swell], urosn˛ac´ [grow]. We also need to stress the significance of any schematic structures in language pedagogy (Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z, 2016; Schmitt’s 2000, p. 147 ‘traits’ or Nation’s 2001, p. 132 ‘the generalisable’). As structures that highlight certain recurring configurations of conceptual knowledge, they perform at least two functions. The first of them can be called the organising function—schematic structures arrange the previous experience into a coherent whole. In the case of a polysemous unit, “the schema serves to structure the knowledge of the instances, bringing them together into a coherent network” (Taylor, 2002, p. 464). This means that different senses of a word no longer appear to the learner to be a train of separate units, but become elements that instantiate recurrent knowledge structures—schemas. The second function can be dubbed the assisting function. It is related to an important characteristic of the

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schema: “it can be applied to any new experience exhibiting the same configuration” (Langacker, 2008, p. 57). In other words, if learners have mastered different schematic structures of a word and they encounter a new sense of it, these schemas assist learners by guiding them towards the right interpretation of this new sense. The next issue is that the technique does not aim to teach one or more senses of a lexical unit but, rather, develop a certain ability—an ability to grasp the nuances of meaning that are revealed by a linguistic unit in different contexts. We should keep in mind that one of the important postulates of cognitive linguistics is stressing the procedural (or perhaps ‘processual’) conception of meaning: “instead of meanings as things, meaning as a process of sense creation would seem to become our primary focus of attention” (Geeraerts, 1993, p. 260). Senses are flexible, that is, they have many different shades of meaning that differ slightly from context to context, and the technique assumes developing the ability to deduce senses from the context, that is, practising the skill of creating such senses. Finally, from the perspective of foreign language pedagogy, repeated exposure to a vocabulary item is a valuable asset of the technique. Multiple repetitions of a linguistic unit that the technique postulates facilitate the process of entrenchment of this unit in the mind of the speaker, which is the ultimate goal of language learning (e.g., Tréville & Duquette, 1996, p. 69; Schmitt, 2000, p. 147; Nation, 2001, p. 103; Sheven & Naggy, 2006, p. 62, to name but a few).

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Sheven, A. S., & Naggy, E. W. (2006). Teaching word meanings. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Slobin, D. (1996). From ‘thought and language’ to ‘thinking for speaking’. In J. Gumperz & S. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 70–96). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z, B. (2016). Patrons d’extension métaphorique et leur potentiel didactique. Linguistica Silesiana, 37, 301–317. Taylor, J. R. (2002). Cognitive Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited. Tréville, M.-C., & Duquette, L. (1996). Enseigner le vocabulaire en classe de langue. Paris: Hachette. Tyler, A. (2012). Cognitive linguistics and second language learning. Theoretical basics and experimental evidence. New York: Routledge. Tyler, A., & Evans, V. (2003). The semantics of English prepositions. Spatial scenes, embodied meaning and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ur, P. (1996). A Course in language teaching. Practice and theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A Cognitive Approach to Teaching Italian Prepositions to Polish Students Aleksandra Paliczuk

Abstract The present work aims to show a variety of teaching methods of Italian prepositions to Polish students. The study is based on cognitive linguistics, or, more specifically, Cognitive Grammar (Langacker, 1987) and one its key notions— imagery. One of the difficulties in learning Italian prepositions by Polish students is the differences between the two linguistic systems, which express the same relations by means of different lexical structures. An application of cognitive linguistics in teaching can, in many cases, help students understand the sources of these differences and, consequently, learn the uses of prepositions in Italian despite the fact that the corresponding Polish structures frequently do not include prepositions. The most common methods of teaching Italian prepositions, while not always effective, are based on the classification of objects and adverbials which a given preposition introduces. This research aims to present a different means of explaining the link created by a preposition based on human cognitive abilities. The chapter will examine several examples of phrases and sentences containing prepositional expressions that cause considerable difficulties for Polish students. Finally, it will highlight the need to improve the classical methods of teaching prepositions, making an important contribution to the field of language teaching. Keywords Cognitive linguistics · Imagery · Language teaching · Italian language · Prepositions

1 Introduction Among the theories formulated in the field of Cognitive Linguistics, in this chapter special attention is paid to Ronald Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar (1987). He proposes a complex and coherent approach to language. In it, grammar, by means of its elements, carries the meaning (with words) and allows one to construct A. Paliczuk (B) University of Silesia, ul. Bankowa 12, 40-007 Katowice, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. Dro˙zd˙z and B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (eds.), Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research, Second Language Learning and Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_6

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and symbolize more sophisticated meanings hidden in complex statements, such as phrases or sentences. It is therefore an inseparable aspect of our conceptual system thanks to which we conceive the world and we function in it. Grammar is not only an integral part of cognitive processes, but it is also a key to understand them (Langacker, 2008, pp. 17–18). The object of study for Cognitive Grammar is the conceptualization of the world encoded in linguistic expressions. Beside cognition, lexical meanings are also grounded in social interaction (used by language speakers in communication acts). The purpose of the cognitive analysis of a given language is a description of the essential aspects of the conceptual structure based on linguistic data, which leads to conclusions concerning the relationship between the lexical meaning and human cognition. This chapter proposes an application of cognitive linguistic notions to teaching Italian prepositions to Polish students, particularly at the initial phase of language learning. The chapter provides an example of how to exploit ideas created in the field of cognitive linguistics to improve the process of learning Italian prepositions and the abundance of their uses.

2 The Theoretical Foundations The appearance of the cognitive approach in different disciplines of science brought to linguistics the notion of category (and categorization), which became one of its essential concepts. This idea was introduced by the psychologist Eleanor Rosch (1973, 1976, 1978), and it contributed greatly to the development of research in the field of cognitive linguistics. In fact, the process of categorization reflects the nature of the human cognitive processes: mental experience is organized either in the form of image schemas, which means schematic abstract structures and relationships between them, or in the form of rich mental images, which are models or exemplars, that is, more detailed structures (Tabakowska, 2001, pp. 39–40). Langacker (1987, 1990, 1991, 1995, 2008) in his work often refers to spatial and visual relationships that, according to him, are illustrations that can be used to describe different structures and conceptual relationships. In fact, the relationship between visual perception and conceptualization concerns numerous aspects of natural language semantics (Tabakowska, 1999, p. 59). According to Langacker, the meaning of a linguistic expression is not limited only to the conceptual content to which it refers, but it is also constituted by what he calls conventional imagery1 or scene construal. Each symbolic structure builds the given content in a specific way – as part of the conventionalized semantic value.

1 There

are already many works in the field of cognitive linguistics on the imagery and profiling in language. Among Polish linguists, the most important are: Bartmi´nski (1993, 1999), and many other of his works, Bartminski and Tokarski (1998) as well as Kosz (2005, 2006, 2008); Paliczuk (2014); Pastucha-Blin (2005) and others).

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The notion of viewing metaphor (Langacker, 1999, pp. 216–217) is an example of analogy by means of which the conceptual content can be compared to a scene, and the process of imagery to vision (Langacker, 2008, p. 85). The viewing metaphor refers to certain aspects of the process of visual perception, that is to say, of a sensory experience, to certain aspects of the process of conceptualization as a mental experience. Imagery in language is based on the visual perception of a scene: when we look at a scene, what we see depends on the distance we look from, on what we focus on, on the position from which we look at it and on what we pay the most attention to (Langacker, 2008, p. 85). With every aspect of a scene, a dimension of the process of imagery can be attributed: the level of specificity, the figure/ground organization (scope of predication), the distinction of relative structures: the profiling, the trajector/landmark organization, and the perspective (the point of view) (Langacker, 1995, p. 20, Langacker, 2008, pp. 85–128). In the field of cognitive psychology, imagery is a psychological process that consists in the formation in the human mind of non-verbal representations of objects and events (Tabakowska, 2001, p. 43). It is a fundamental process that takes place in the human mind and concerns information processing. It is nothing more than a process of creating particular images of certain fragments of physical reality. The question arises whether they are images—as drawings, paintings (the best exemplars), or descriptions (schemas) (Tabakowska, 2001, pp. 43–44). However, the sense remains the same—a painting, a drawing, can be presented by means of words, can be described or told (like a story). An image (like a painting, a portrait or a photograph) does not impose on an observer a particular way of observation, the order or the value of the perceived elements, while a descriptive image—like a language—is linear and is formed according to cognitive rules. The process of imagery leads to the creation of new meanings or their new interpretations. It seems that space and visual perception are much more privileged in comparison with other domains of experience, particularly considering such notions as: image, imagery, point of view, perspective, figure/ground organization, trajectory, etc. Therefore, if in Cognitive Grammar the scene construal is essentially based on the perception of space (and also in other theories in the field of cognitive linguistics you can find a terminological reference to space), it is not surprising that people use it in cognitive processes and consequently in the daily use of their language.

3 Prepositions in Cognitive Linguistics In Italian grammar manuals, the following definition of the preposition can be found: Prepositions are invariable words that serve to connect and to link together the constituents of the clause: I go to Mary’s house; or to link two or more clauses together: I go to Mary’s house to study.

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A. Paliczuk The example highlights the subordinating function of clauses, which introduce a complement of a verb, of a noun or of an entire clause (Dardano & Trifone, 2003, p. 403).2

The word preposizione ‘preposition’ derives from the Latin praepositi¯one (m), a derivative of praepon˘ere, which in Italian is equivalent to preporre ‘prepose’, porre davanti ‘to pose before’ (Dizionari Garzanti Linguistica, 2019). According to Serianni (1991, p. 327), The preposition is an invariable part of the discourse that serves to express and determine the syntactical relationships between various components of a sentence. Each preposition has autonomous semantic traits, but at the same time, it is an element that has a relational function, and therefore, its meaning can be grasped only by means of: a) the type of regency that is determined in the union of: component + preposition + component, b) the meanings of single words that are connected through the preposition. (Serianni, 1991, p. 327)

In Italian, and other Romance languages, the use of prepositions, largely inherited from Latin, has undergone an exceptional development due to the progressive disappearance of the system of cases (Serianni, 1991, p. 329). The preposition is a grammatical morpheme, that is, a basic unit with an intralinguistic function. It introduces syntactic relations between lexical elements of a statement. However, the question of whether prepositions also possess semantic traits is not so clear. The autonomy of prepositions is limited, because they cannot form an autonomous expression, and their position in the phrase is rather rigid. Since they determine certain types of relations between conceptual entities in the semantic space of language corresponding to certain elements of extralinguistic reality, prepositions can be treated as parts of the sinsemantic discourse (Przybylska, 2002, pp. 52–54), that is to say, that their role is to complete the meaning. The semantic function of prepositions is rather to represent the relational meanings in the semantic-syntactic structure of a linguistic expression or a sentence. Di Tommaso (1996, p. 257) proposes a definition of the preposition and says that prepositions are not elements deprived of meaning, but are treated as polysemic elements with lexical meaning. In his words, “prepositions are not grammatical morphemes inserted in various syntactic contexts in consequence of the application of a transformational rule but are considered to be equal to lexical morphemes, which, as is generally known, have a meaning” (after Malinowska, 2005, p. 35). According to Langacker (1987, p. 243), the preposition is a symbolic expression categorized semantically as an atemporal relation. It defines the relationship, usually asymmetric, between the profiled elements: trajector and landmark. By means of prepositions it can be shown how the grammatical structure of language and, at the same time, the conceptual structure are organized. The idea of presenting linguistic relations as a projection of the organization of objects in space already appears in the first version of the Langacker’s theory (1982), which presents a model of grammar that puts physical experiences and their

2 All

translations from Italian are by the author.

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mental and/or linguistic representation on the same level. While analysing prepositional expressions it is convenient to take into consideration one of the dimensions of the scene construal—profiling, in order to examine the trajector/landmark organization. Prepositions introduce a certain order of elements in the physical space: figure (usually more dynamic), that is a trajector, and ground (rather static), which is a landmark. Visual perception allows an observer to indicate the place in which an observed object is located, while looking from a certain point of view, that is, locating a trajector by means of a landmark. Thus, it is possible to outline a trajectory that connects the observer with objects, and that connects one object to another—determining their organization in space. Prepositions thus convey a conceptual content that is essential for the comprehension of the spatial configuration of a trajector—the primary figure and its reference object: a landmark, which means the secondary figure.

4 Prepositions and Space Perception A common mistake of all beginners with regard to learning foreign languages is that they very often translate from their mother tongue. They look for analogies or simply make calques of different kinds, particularly in new and/or difficult linguistic situations. In order to explain the uses of Italian prepositions, first we should begin with their spatial, and also their temporal uses (since time is often treated as a fourth dimension), as they are then transposed to other contexts. Even though it is impossible to analyse all the possible contexts in which a given preposition may appear, one can try to explain the function or rather the conceptual scheme through which a preposition is used by applying its fundamental function to other linguistic situations/structures. In traditional grammar manuals, there is often an explanation of the prepositions and their functions as elements that introduce different types of grammatical objects (complements or adverbials3 ) in an utterance. The number of adverbials in Italian is quite impressive and impossible to memorize for students who are at the beginning of their adventure with Italian. Unfortunately, the classification of prepositions for types of adverbials does not encourage learning. Starting an Italian course, we usually begin with one function for a preposition— introducing them later one after another (at the beginning, only the simple forms4 ), for example: (1) Maria è/va a scuola. [Mary is at/is going to school.] (2) Maria e Luca vengono da Firenze. [Mary and Luke come from Florence.] (3) Luca parla sempre di politica. [Luke is always talking about politics.] (5) Maria è la sorella di Luca. [Mary is Luke’s sister.] 3 In

Italian most of the elements that build a sentence beside a subject and a predicate, are called complementi. In this text, we use one of its equivalent English forms: ‘adverbials’. 4 In Italian, prepositions can have simple or complex forms (forme articolate), which are a combination of a preposition and a definite article.

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A. Paliczuk (6) Luca è/va in ufficio. [Luke is in/is going to the office.] (7) Maria abita con Luca. [Mary lives with Luke.] (8) Il regalo è su un tavolino. [The gift is on the table.] (9) Questo è un regalo per Luca. [This is a gift for Luke.] (10) Tra Maria e Luca c’è sempre armonia. [There is always harmony between Mary and Luke.]

These are the first and the most typical examples of how to use Italian prepositions. Their abundance does not allow for the introduction of all possible functions simultaneously. Therefore, we need to find a way to organize students’ knowledge so that they can intuitively know which preposition to choose in a context that is new to them. You could exploit an analysis of logical relationships that are introduced by Italian prepositions by using space for reference. In Italian we have different place adverbials: complemento di stato in luogo, ‘the adverbial of state in place’, and complemento di moto a/da luogo, ‘the adverbial of motion to/from place’ (which concern the forward and backward direction, towards sth., and from sth.). The conceptual schemes that we can create for students (Polish and others) who learn Italian are meant to create an association that can then be used for new contexts in which a student has to choose a suitable preposition. For instance, as a complemento di stato in luogo, you can use the prepositions: a, di, da, in, su, per, tra/fra5 —the choice obviously depends on the context, the function, and the meaning of the concept with which a preposition appears. The next section examines the examples of the expressions and the schemes6 proposed for their representation: (11) Sono a casa; Aspetto Marco a scuola; L’ho visto alla stazione/alla posta; Passo le vacanze al mare; Lui ha passato tutta la giornata a letto; Mangio spesso al ristorante. [I am at home; I am waiting for Mark at school; I saw him at the station/at the post office; I am spending my holidays at the seaside; He spent all day in bed; I often eat at the restaurant.]

The preposition a, when used as an ‘adverbial of state in place’, introduces localizations with imprecise boundaries or without boundaries (or the boundaries are not a relevant element in the conceptualization of this fragment of space)—it is rather an open space (Fig. 1). Similarly, the uses of the prepositions di and da with the same function concern open spaces that are not delimited (Fig. 2). 5 Dardano and Trifone (2003, pp. 403–412) describe the fundamental functions of prepositions: a—

direction, da—origin, in—collocation, con—linkage, combination, su—approximation, superior position, per—through, fra/tra—location in between, whereas the preposition di, because of its frequency of use and flexibility, cannot be characterised by means of one generic function. 6 However, it is difficult to create a representative visual scheme for all prepositions and for all their functions, e.g. the basic function of the preposition con is that of union, relationship, companionship, participation, but also means / instrument, or manner, etc. In case of the preposition di, which beside ‘the adverbial of motion to / from place’ or ‘adverbial of state in place’, introduces many other logical relationships that do not describe space – Dardano and Trifone (2003, pp. 403-404) distinguish 25 adverbials introduced by the preposition di.

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Fig. 1 The scheme for preposition a with the function of ‘state in place’ adverbial

Fig. 2 The scheme for preposition da with the function of ‘state in place’ adverbial

(12) La mia auto è dal meccanico7 ; Ti aspetto dal tabaccaio/da Paolo; Sono di qui/di qua; Lui è di là. [My car is at the garage (being repaired); I am waiting for you at the tobacco shop/at Paul’s; I am here; He’s there.]

The preposition da is basically used before persons, di is used rather rarely, and only with some adverbs of place, such as: qui, qua, lì, là. A different situation occurs in the case of the preposition in: (13) Sono stata tutto il giorno in casa; Mangio spesso in pizzeria; ti aspetto in albergo/in ospedale/in chiesa; Lui ha passato due anni in prigione. [I was in (inside) the house all day; I often eat at a pizzeria; I am waiting for you at the hotel/at the hospital/in church; He spent two years in prison.]

The preposition in is, in this case, in opposition to the preposition a as it introduces a location, a delimited, closed place with precise boundaries, often conceptualized as a container (Fig. 3). The preposition con indicates linkage, combination of two (or more) elements. In a description of space, it can be used to show that two objects are placed together (Fig. 4), for example: (14) Vengo con te; Luigi passa ogni fine-settimana con gli amici; Vorrei del caffè col latte. [I am coming with you; Luigi spends every weekend with his friends; I’d like to have some coffee with milk.]

7 Il

meccanico means literally ‘a mechanic’, a person, but also a place where cars are repaired, ‘a garage’; similarly, il tabaccaio means either a person, ‘the owner of the tobacco shop’, or a place ‘the tobacco shop’.

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Fig. 3 The schema for the preposition in with the function of ‘state in place’ adverbial

Fig. 4 The schema for the preposition con with the function of ‘link or combine’ elements

Even though the preposition con is not treated as one of the adverbials of state in place or motion in the Italian grammar manuals, as we can see it can describe in a way a spatial relation between objects. The preposition su is used to describe a superior position in relation to something else, regardless of the character of the object to which it refers (Fig. 5): (15) Il libro è sul tavolo; Lei sta seduta sulla sedia/sul divano/sul tappeto/sulla sabbia/sul pavimento. [The book is on the table; She is sitting on a chair/on a sofa/on the carpet/on the sand/on the floor/ground.]

Similarly, still with the function indicating the adverbial of ‘state in place’, the preposition per refers mostly to a space of a certain extent, it is an area (rather delimited) which is more or less ‘covered’ by the object that is located on it (Fig. 6). (16) Lei sta seduta per terra; L’ho visto per strada. [She is sitting on the floor/ground; I saw him on the street.]

Fig. 5 The scheme for the preposition su with the function of ‘state in place’ adverbial

Fig. 6 The scheme for the preposition per with the function of ‘state in place’ adverbial

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Fig. 7 The scheme for the preposition tra/fra with the function of ‘state in place’ adverbial

The preposition fra/tra8 indicates an intermediate position between two or more objects placed at a certain distance in space (Fig. 7). (17) Lui sta seduto tra i suoi figli; Il libro che cerchi è tra questi due rossi lì; La nostra casa è fra la chiesa ed il supermercato. [He’s sitting between his sons; The book you are looking for is between those red ones; Our house is between the church and the supermarket.]

In the case of ‘adverbials of motion’, Italian prepositions offer an even wider selection. For an ‘adverbial of motion to place’, students have the possibility of choosing among a, in, da, di, per, and su; for an ‘adverbial of motion from place’ such prepositions are used as: da and di; while an ‘adverbial of motion through place’ is introduced by: per, in, da, and di. It can be observed that the prepositions in and a behave similarly, as in case of an ‘adverbial of state in place’. However, the difference lies in the type of place (in its conceptualization) towards which the object is directed—a delimited or open space (vado a scuola, alla posta vs. vado in Italia, in chiesa [I am going to school, to the post office, vs. I am going to Italy, to church]). The prepositions di and da usually indicate the reverse direction (esco di casa; va di città in città; vengo da Milano, dall’Italia, dal negozio, dalla spiaggia [I am leaving the house; He goes from city to city; I come from Milan, from Italy, I am coming from the shop, from the beach]), which means the place introduced by the preposition is a starting point, an origin or a point of passage (sono fuggiti dalla finestra; passiamo di qui [They escaped through the window; We are passing this way/through here]). However, in some cases they may indicate an adverbial of motion to place, that is, the preposition da is followed by nouns or pronouns indicating the persons (vado da Paolo, dal medico [I am going to Paul’s/to the doctor]), whereas the preposition di appears only in some phrases, such as vado di qui/qua [I am leaving]. Also, the preposition su in combination with different motion verbs can indicate an ‘adverbial of motion to place’ (a place that is rather the surface, for example andiamo sul terrazzo [We are going to the terrace]). The preposition per indicates the purpose of a movement, a delimited or open place (partiamo per Milano; partiamo per le montagne [We are leaving for Milan; we are going to the mountains]), or a point of passage (passiamo per Milano; passare per il punto [We are passing through Milan; through the point]). Sometimes, also the preposition in appears in place of per, as it introduces the passage relation (corro nei campi/corro per i campi/attraverso i campi [I am running in the fields/about the fields/through the fields]). 8 The

choice between these two forms is only a phonetic choice.

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The number of uses of Italian prepositions can be discouraging, however, in the teaching process they must be introduced starting with the basic functions and later—more abstract ones. Starting from the description of space, the teacher can structure the exercises in order to help students find an analogy in the application of prepositions in other contexts.

5 Prepositions and Conceptualizations of Time The next step in the introduction of prepositions would be to show how to use them to describe temporal relations. Time in our culture is conceived in a linear way, therefore an extent of it is represented in the form of a linear diagram, with different points and areas corresponding to its portions. Below some examples are provided: (18) Ci siamo incontrati a mezzogiorno. [We met at noon.] – (PL: w)

The preposition a, used in a description of temporal relations, indicates a moment that is conceptualized as an area. Even if it is well defined, it is not a specific point, but rather an area surrounding that point (Fig. 8). (19) Non ci vediamo da anni. [We haven’t seen each other for years.] – (PL: od)

The preposition da indicates a moment, a point in time from which an action begins. This can also be a state, a situation, etc., that indicates the direction from the past towards the present or the moment the utterance (Fig. 9). (20) Lavora dalla mattina alla sera. [He is working from morning until evening.] – (PL: od … do)

Fig. 8 A visual representation of the preposition a in reference to time

Fig. 9 A visual representation of the preposition da in reference to time

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Fig. 10 A visual representation of a combination of the prepositions da and a in reference to time

Fig. 11 A visual representation of the preposition in in reference to time

A combination of the prepositions da and a allows for the closure of an action in a time interval as if it were an area, a road, or a physical space delimited by these two points: initial (indicated by the preposition da) and final (indicated by the preposition a) (Fig. 10). (21) Finirò il compito in un’ora, in 30 minuti. [I will finish this task within an hour, within 30 min.] – (PL: w)

In this example, the preposition in allows the speaker to conceive of a period of time as a container within which an action that fills it takes place—the sides of this container define the limits for carrying out the action (Fig. 11). (22) È nato nel 1980/in inverno. [He was born in 1980/in winter.] – (PL: w)

Also in this case, the preposition in defines the time period as a limited space, a container within which an event or a situation (of a rather momentary nature) takes place (Fig. 12). (23) Con il primo del mese prossimo, parto per le vacanze. (nel senso: il primo del mese) [(On) The first day of the next month, I am leaving on holiday.] – (PL: z)

The preposition con appears rather rarely in the description of time, perhaps because of its function of linkage, combination. In this example, in the expression con il primo del mese [lit. with the first of the month] we conceive of a specific point in time—the first day of the month—and combine it with the person that starts an action, thus linking these two elements (Fig. 13). (24) Ho studiato sulle due ore (circa due ore). [I’ve been studying for about two hours.] – (PL: około)

Fig. 12 A visual representation of the preposition in in reference to time (2)

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Fig. 13 A visual representation of the preposition con in reference to time

The preposition su in the example above suggests that the action is conceived as an object, and it is located su ‘over’ a period of time—as in a space with indefinite limits. It is an expression that indicates a moment in time in an inaccurate way—as the preposition su in the description of space does not delimit it, but rather treats it as a surface (Fig. 14). (25) Sul finire del mese comincio un nuovo lavoro. [At/around the end of the month I am starting a new job.] – (PL: na/z)

Similarly, in this sentence we can observe the use of the preposition su that indicates not a precise point in time (or in space), but provides approximate information about it (Fig. 15). (26) L’appuntamento è fissato per stasera. [The meeting is set for tonight.] – (PL: na)

The preposition per refers to a space of a certain extent, therefore when it is used in reference to time it designates a period of time (more or less delimited) which is at least somewhere ‘filled’ with the action we are talking about (Fig. 16). (27) Tra l’una e le due devo uscire.

Fig. 14 A visual representation of the preposition su in reference to time

Fig. 15 A visual representation of the preposition su in reference to time (2)

Fig. 16 A visual representation of the preposition per in reference to time

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Fig. 17 A visual representation of the preposition tra in reference to time

Fig. 18 A visual representation of the preposition tra in reference to time (2)

[I need to go out between 1 and 2 o’clock.] – (PL: pomi˛edzy)

Tra is used as if speaking of space, where it indicates an intermediate position between two objects (Fig. 17). In a conceptualization of time, this preposition indicates an intermediate position in which an action takes place—between two moments in time. (28) Tra due ore arriva tua zia. [Your aunt is coming in two hours.] – (PL: za)

Similarly, in this example the preposition tra introduces an action which is ‘in an intermediate position’ between two moments in time: the present one, in which we are speaking, and the other one, farther in time, which takes place later (Fig. 18). Therefore, it acts as a landmark for the action that happens at a time closer to that other point situated in the future.

6 Prepositions and Abstract Concepts The use of Italian prepositions in different lexical contexts often depends on the character of the landmark with which they appear, therefore their choice depends on the type of concept with which they enter into a relationship. Many abstract concepts in Italian (and probably in many other languages) are conceived of by means of concrete concepts, tangible ones, well-known from experience, which serve as a tool to explain exactly what is unattainable to sensory perception. For example, the preposition a, with the function of the direction, is used to describe interactions between people: (29) parlare a qualcuno [to talk to somebody] – (PL: do/z) (30) dire qualcosa a qualcuno [to say something to somebody] – (PL: do) (31) dare qualcosa a qualcuno

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A. Paliczuk [to give something to somebody] – (PL: dative) (32) permettere a qualcuno di fare qualcosa [to let/allow somebody to do something] – (PL: dative)

The actions that occur between two (or more) people, dare or dire qualcosa a qualcuno [to give or say something to someone], etc., are actions of movement directed towards the other person. This person constitutes the goal that is metaphorically treated as an open area/space towards which one is moving. Furthermore, in other contexts, the preposition a introduces a figurative, abstract goal: (33) essere destinato al fallimento [to be destined to fail/for failure] – (PL: na) (34) contribuire alla buona riuscita di qualcosa [to contribute to a successful outcome of something] – (PL: do) (35) essere adatto a fare qualcosa [to be suitable to do something] – (PL: do) (36) restare fedele alle tradizioni [to remain faithful to the traditions] – (PL: dative) (37) avere la risposta ad ogni domanda [to have an answer to each question] – (PL: na) (38) essere condannato a pagare una forte multa [to be sentenced to pay a heavy fine] – (PL: na) (39) costringere qualcuno a fare qualcosa [to force someone to do something] – (PL: do) (40) imparare a fare qualcosa [to learn how to do something] – (PL: infinitive)

An abstract object, an action, or its result (as a landmark), are treated in the same way as the interlocutor, as if they were a destination towards which we aim, a final point of the motion. The preposition da in reference to space indicates, in general, an opposite direction from the landmark towards the trajector. This analogy can be found in the following examples: (41) essere libero da qualcosa [to be free from something] – (PL: od) (42) essere immune da difetti [to be immune from defects] – (PL: od) (43) essere diverso da altri [to be different from the others] – (PL: od) (44) morire dallo spavento [to die from fear] – (PL: ze) (45) non giudicare dalle apparenze [not to judge by appearance] – (PL: po)

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(46) riconoscere qualcuno dalla voce [to recognize someone by their voice] – (PL: po)

In the expressions libero da, immune da, diverso da [free from, immune to, different from], etc., the use of the preposition da suggests a figurative direction from the landmark to the trajector. In these expressions the landmark can be an object, a person, a situation or an abstract, intangible concept. Similarly, the preposition di in many cases indicates the origin, therefore it implies the direction from the landmark, as in: (47) uscire di casa [to leave the house] – (PL: z) (48) il libro di Maria [Mary’s book] – (PL: genitive) (49) sono di Milano [I am from Milan] – (PL: z) (50) un libro di filosofia [a book about/on philosophy] – (PL: o, na temat) (51) soffrire di fegato [to suffer from a liver disease] – (PL: na, z powodu) (52) una tovaglia sporcata di vino [a tablecloth soiled with wine] – (PL: ablative)

Example (47) refers to physical, real motion, while in the rest of the examples, (48)-(52), we can observe a change from the physical motion to abstract motion. This means that in the mentioned adverbials (complementi di provenienza, appartenenza, argomento, limitazione or mezzo [adverbials of origin, belonging, argument, limitation or means]) the landmark constitutes the point from which the abstract motion begins. In many cultures, emotions are conceptualized as containers in which a person is situated: (53) Maria è in depressione. [Mary is in depression.] – (PL: w) (54) Molti stanno in ansia a causa degli ultimi eventi. [Many people are anxious (in a state of anxiety) because of latest events.] – (PL: w) (55) Carlo e Eva sono in una relazione amorosa (innamorati9 ). [Carl and Eve are in love/in a love relationship.] – (PL: w)

Therefore, emotions: depressione, ansia, amore [depression, anxiety, love], etc., are treated as containers, enclosed spaces which one enters and leaves. This explains the use of the preposition in. There are also other abstract concepts that are conceived as containers, for instance in Italian you can say: 9 The

Italian verb innamorarsi, essere innamorati ‘to fall in love, to be in love’ is a compound formed by the noun amore ‘love’ + the suffix -are and the prefix in- (in- functions in many cases with the same meaning as the preposition in).

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(56) vivere in pace [to live in peace] – (PL: w) (57) ascoltare in silenzio [to listen in silence] – (PL: w) (58) In realtà è molto nervoso. [In reality/in fact he is very nervous] – (PL: w)

Such concepts as pace, silenzio, realtà [peace, silence, reality], etc., also represent enclosed spaces in which one can be situated or inside which one can perform an activity. A combination of two physical objects introduced by the preposition con is, by analogy, also applied to other concepts: (59) Dove sei andato con quel tempaccio? [Where did you go in that bad weather?] – (PL: w/przy) (60) Lui ha ascoltato con attenzione. [He listened with attention.] – (PL: z) (61) Lei mi ha sempre trattato con molta gentilezza. [She has always treated me with great kindness.] – (PL: z) (62) Ti aiuterò con tutto il cuore! [I will help you with all my heart!] – (PL: ablative)

The preposition con introduces two concepts that are united: one next to another (the trajector appears con, and it means ‘together with’ the landmark). In the examples above, the trajector is the subject of the sentence, a person, whereas the landmark consists of an abstract concept, a phenomenon, etc. that accompanies the trajector, as if it were an object that is next to it. In the case of the preposition su, we can find examples in which it introduces, among others, the relation of approximation. This approximation is a result of transferring the perception of an open space, an unlimited surface or, more specifically, one without well-defined boundaries onto the abstract domain. (63) pesa sui 50 kg [he/she weighs about 50 kg] – (PL: około) (64) costa sui 100 euro [it costs about 100 euros] – (PL: około) (65) un uomo sui 40 anni [a man about 40 (years old)] – (PL: około)

In examples (66)–(71), the preposition per indicates an aim, a tool, a way, a limitation, a purpose, or a fault. The landmark is like an area, a piece of space through which an abstract motion takes place (66)–(67); an area which is more or less covered by the trajector, for example per questa volta [this time] is a piece of time; (68)–(69) designate one of the purposes/of the faults (as if they were a piece of a set of purposes/faults); while (70) indicates the coverage of the whole figurative area represented by vita [life].

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(66) comunicare per telefono [to communicate by telephone] – (PL: przez) (67) chiamare per ordine alfabetico [to call by alphabetical order] – (PL: w) (68) combattere per la libertà [to fight for freedom] – (PL: za) (69) processato per furto [prosecuted for theft] – (PL: za) (70) per questa volta ti perdono [this time I forgive you] – (PL: ablative) (71) lo ricorderò per tutta la vita [I will remember it for a lifetime] – (PL: na)

The preposition tra generally introduces the relationship of an intermediate position between/among two or more objects. In the examples above, we can observe that people, actions, emotions or abstractions are conceived of as if they were objects among which the trajector is located. (72) stiamo parlando tra amici [we are talking among friends] – (PL: pomi˛edzy, w´sród) (73) tra questo che dici e questo che fai c’è una grande differenza [there is a big difference between what you say and what you do] – (PL: pomi˛edzy) (74) ha vissuto tra la speranza e l’angoscia [he/she lived between hope and anguish] – (PL: pomi˛edzy) (75) la pace tra le nazioni [peace between nations] – (PL: pomi˛edzy)

The above is only a representative sample of examples showing how the senses introduced by the Italian prepositions can be explained, starting from their basic functions, those referring to space/physical reality, and finishing with other concepts, including abstract ones.

7 A Proposal for Exercises on Prepositions Prepositions are probably one of the major challenges in learning all languages. For Polish students (or, in general, Slavic), an additional difficulty lies in the fact that the Polish language, beside prepositions, makes use of the nominal inflection in the structure of a sentence or a phrase. Thus, in many cases where in Italian (or in another foreign language) a preposition appears in the sentence, it happens that a Pole does not use it because the Polish language does not need it. Therefore, Polish students often make mistakes by translating literally constructions from their mother tongue. In this section, a type of exercise is proposed, which consists in gap-filling with missing prepositions. This type of exercise is well-known, but the idea concerns the

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content and the way we explain to students how to choose a preposition intuitively, by recognizing the type of elements that appear next to it. The exercise is prepared in such a way that it enables a contrast between the uses of two (or more) prepositions in a spatial context. This means, for example, the opposition between the prepositions a and in (the difference between them lies in the fact that the former one is usually located before words that refer to places construed as open areas, and the latter one— before words that designate places treated as containers or rather closed, delimited areas). Below we can see some example sentences (Table 1). They are often problematic for Polish students, as in the Polish translation we find at least three different prepositions that are equivalent to the two Italian ones, causing a certain degree of confusion—the same Italian preposition corresponds to two different Polish prepositions and vice versa. The instructions given to the students is to complete the sentences with the right preposition—either a or in (in actual sentences, instead of the prepositions written in bold there will be gaps to be filled). Translating the above sentences into Polish, the prepositions corresponding to the Italian ones will be, respectively: a and in → w—for the ‘state in place’, a and in → do, na, and nad—for the ‘motion to place’. As can be seen in Polish, the choice of the preposition in these cases does not depend so strongly (as in Italian) on the concept that follows it, but rather depends on the verb after which it appears. The difference between Polish and Italian in the case of prepositions lies in a different conceptualization of the trajector/landmark organization, that is, the choice of the preposition depends on different elements—it can depend either on the trajector or on the type of landmark. The explanation of the use of these two Italian prepositions should rather focus on the way in which we conceptualize the landmark—the place represented by a concept before which a preposition appears. An example exercise could consist in categorizing the places and then selecting the correct prepositions to insert in the sentences:

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Table 1 Examples of sentences in which the prepositions in and a appear in different contexts No.

The sentences in Italian present different contexts in which the prepositions a and in appear

PL

(1)

Ogni giorno vado a scuola. [I go to school every day.]

do

(2)

Alle nove sono a scuola. [At 9:00 I am at school.]

w

(3)

Ogni estate vado al mare. [Every summer I go to the seaside.]

nad

(4)

Domani devo andare alla posta. [Tomorrow I have to go to the post office.]

na

(5)

Mi piace passare i weekend a casa, invece di andare in piscina, in un pub. w, na, do [I like spending my weekends at home instead of going to the swimming pool, to a pub.]

(6)

Ogni domenica vado in chiesa. [Every Sunday I go to church.]

do

(7)

La domenica alle dieci sono in chiesa. [Every Sunday at 10:00 I am in church.]

w

(8)

Ogni weekend vado nel negozio vicino a casa mia. Every weekend I go to the shop next to my house.]

do

(9)

L’ho comprato in un negozio qui vicino. [I bought it in the shop nearby.]

w

(10)

Mi piace vivere in città. [I like living in the city.]

w

(11)

Vado in città. [I go to the city.]

do

(12)

Sono in albergo da due giorni. [I’ve been in the hotel for two days.]

w

(13)

Adesso vado in albergo. [I am going to the hotel now.]

do

(14)

Lavora in una fabbrica. [He works in a factory.]

w

(15)

Stamattina vado in fabbrica. [This morning I am going to the factory.]

do

(16)

A quest’ora è in ufficio. [At this moment he is in the office.]

w

(17)

Ora vado in ufficio. [I am going to the office now.]

do

(18)

Quest’anno passo le vacanze in Grecia. [This year, I am spending my holidays in Greece.]

w

(19)

Per le vacanze vado in Grecia. [I am going to Greece on holidays.]

do

(20)

Aspetto Marco in casa, non voglio stare nel giardino con questo caldo. w, w [I am waiting for Mark at home, I don’t want to stay in the garden in this heat.] (continued)

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Table 1 (continued) No.

The sentences in Italian present different contexts in which the prepositions a and in appear

PL

(21)

Vado alla stazione. [I am going to the station.]

na

(22)

Abito a Firenze. [I live in Florence.]

w

(23)

Vado a Firenze. [I am going to Florence.]

do

Ex. Classify the places according to their type, i.e.: a) confined spaces or b) open spaces. Then, insert the appropriate preposition in the sentences below: negozio / chiesa / albergo / scuola / fabbrica / casa / Grecia / Firenze / a) … b) … (1) Luigi lavora … una fabbrica. (2) Ogni domenica tutta la famiglia va … chiesa. (3) Mia madre ha perso un orecchino … un negozio al centro. (4) L’estate prossima andiamo … Grecia. (5) Domani mattina devo alzarmi presto per andare … scuola. (6) Maria è una businesswoman e si ferma spesso … un albergo. (7) Passo molto tempo … casa di mia nonna. (8) Mi piacerebbe abitare … Firenze.

The difficulty for Polish students lies in the fact that Polish prepositions are not equivalent to the Italian ones and, in different contexts, the same Italian preposition may correspond to different Polish prepositions. Thus, even if the use of the mother tongue in the classroom sometimes helps, in this case we should concentrate not so much on translation, but rather on the conceptualization encoded in different Italian nouns—in this case, concerning the representation of physical space. Speaking of these two prepositions, we have to take into account the difference between a container and a delimited space (for the preposition in) and an open area (for the preposition a). We could then add to this type of exercise examples with the preposition per, also with the function of the ‘adverbial of motion to place’ (75), and, by analogy, the preposition da with the function of an ‘adverbial of motion to place’ or ‘state in place’ (76):

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(75) Domani parto per 10 Milano./È il treno per Firenze./È la strada più breve per l’università. [Tomorrow I am leaving for Milan./This is the train to Florence./This is the shortest way to the University.] – (PL: do) (76) Vado da Paolo./Abito da mio zio. [I am going to Paul’s./I live at my uncle’s house.] – (PL: do, u)

In the same way, exercises on other prepositions could be prepared, combining Italian prepositions in pairs, groups of three, or more with respect of the contrast between them, for instance a, in and da, which respectively designate ‘motion to a place’, ‘from a place’, and ‘motion through place’. One of the exercises can consist in translating sentences from Polish into Italian with a particular focus on the prepositions and the adverbials they introduce, for example: Ex. Translate the sentences below into Italian. Pay attention to the equivalents of Polish prepositions in the translated sentences. Define the types of Italian adverbials (complementi). (1) Jutro idę do szkoły. ………………………………………… (complemento di … ) (2) Dziś wieczorem idziemy do Paolo. ………………………………………… (complemento di … ) (3) Maria pracuje w szkole. ………………………………………… (complemento di … ) (4) Carlo mieszka we Florencji. ………………………………………… (complemento di … ) (5) Jedziemy nad morze. ………………………………………… (complemento di … ) (6) Marco mieszka u swojego wujka. ………………………………………… (complemento di … ) (7) Claudia pracuje w biurze. ………………………………………… (complemento di … )

Then, more prepositions could be added, for instance per, su and fra/tra, though still in the context of the description of physical reality. In this way, students are not taught a grammatical rule of the use of a given preposition or a list of adverbials that it forms but are taught the way in which we recognize a type of concept (landmark) with which a given preposition appears. Using this knowledge, analogically, students will be able to complete a similar exercise in which they will find other concepts— mostly abstract ones. The important thing is to teach students to recognize the way in which a given concept is conceptualized in Italian in order to apply a suitable preposition. In Table 2, an example is provided how to prepare exercises concerning conceptualizations of time. 10 In Italian, the sense of the direction in the phrases vado a Milano and parto per Milano remains the same, and the choice of the preposition in this case depends on the verb: andare ‘to go’ and partire ‘to leave’, which require different prepositions. In Polish, in both cases we have the same preposition do.

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Table 2 Examples of sentences in which prepositions describe temporal relationships No.

The sentences in Italian with the use of Italian prepositions in the description PL of time

(1)

Ci siamo incontrati a mezzogiorno. [We met at noon.]

w

(2)

Non ci vediamo da anni. [We haven’t seen each other for years.]

od

(3)

Laura lavora sempre dalla mattina alla sera. [Laura is always working from morning until evening.]

od…do

(4)

Finirò il compito in un’ora. [I will finish this task within an hour.]

w

(5)

È nato nel 1980. [He was born in 1980.]

w

(6)

Con il primo del mese partirò per le vacanze. [The first day of the next month I am leaving on holiday.]

z

(7)

Ho studiato sulle due ore. [I have been studying for about two hours.]

około

(8)

L’appuntamento è fissato per stasera. [This meeting is set for tonight.]

na

(9)

Tra l’una e le due devo uscire. [I need to go out between 1 and 2 o’clock.]

pomi˛edzy

(10) Tra due ore arriva tua zia. [Your aunt is coming in two hours.]

za

In order to simplify this exercise for Polish students, it is necessary to make them understand how Italians conceptualize time in comparison with their perception of space. Of great help will be graphic representations, which will certainly make the application of prepositions in the description of time clearer and easier to understand. The exercise that could be helpful in this case could be as follows.

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Ex. Insert the prepositions. Match the sentences with the appropriate diagrams: (1) Claudia è nata … 1999.

a)

(2) Non ci vediamo … anni.

b)

(3) Tutto è preparato … stasera.

c)

(4) Ho lavorato … due ore.

d)

(5) Domani devo alzarmi … 6:00.

e)

Similarly, in order to go to the exercises in which abstract concepts and their relations introduced by prepositions are reported, students should first be taught to recognize the type of concept (landmark) and the way in which it is perceived by Italians, that is to say, to know how to categorize abstract concepts in reference to the perception of objects in physical reality and their organization defined by suitable prepositions. As a consequence, the following sentences can be proposed (Table 3). Table 3 presents some examples of the sentences in which prepositions are combined with non-physical landmarks represented by actions or abstract concepts. In these examples, we can observe a transposition of the basic functions of prepositions which concern motion or orientation in space to the conceptualization of more or less abstract relations concerning relations between people (abstract motion towards a person or an action), or the location of the landmark in an abstract space. The sentences in which prepositions enter into relationships with abstract concepts must reflect those relationships that hold between physical objects. In this way, students are taught to discover the analogy by means of perception and conceptualization of different entities, that is, they are able to convert their perception of space and spatial relationships and apply it in the conceptualization of relationships between abstract concepts. The exercise that helps to understand the use of prepositions for abstract concepts can be, for example:

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Table 3 Examples of sentences in which Italian prepositions enter into relationships with abstract concepts No.

The sentences in Italian with the use of prepositions for landmarks that PL are abstract concepts

(1)

Maria è in depressione. [Mary is depressed.]

w

(2)

Ascoltiamo in silenzio. [We are listening in silence.]

w

(3)

Sto parlando a Marco. [I am talking to Mark.]

do/z

(4)

Laura è adatta a fare la baby-sitter. [Laura is suitable to work as a baby-sitter.]

do

(5)

Lei ha risposta ad ogni domanda. [She has an answer to every question.]

na

(6)

Questo ragazzo è diverso dagli altri. [This boy is different from the others.]

od

(7)

Ti ho riconosciuto dalla voce. [I recognized you by your voice.]

po

(8)

Laura è la sorella di Maria. [Laura is Mary’s sister.]

genitive

(9)

Maria è di Roma. [Mary is from Rome.]

z

(10) È un libro di filosofia. [This is a book about philosophy.]

o, na temat

(11) Mi ascoltava con attenzione. [He/she was listening to me with attention.]

z

(12) Dove vai con questo tempo? [Where are you going in this weather?]

w/przy

(13) Questo bambino pesa sui 15 kg. [This child weighs about 15 kg.]

około

(14) Mi hanno comunicato la notizia per telefono. [I was told the news by telephone.]

przez

(15) Quest’uomo è stato processato per furto. [This man was tried for theft.]

za

(16) L’insegnante ci ha chiamati per ordine alfabetico. [The teacher called us in alphabetical order.]

w

(17) Stiamo parlando tra amici. [We are talking among friends.]

pomi˛edzy/w´sród

(18) Per anni Marco ha vissuto tra speranza e angoscia. [For years, Mark lived between hope and anguish.]

pomi˛edzy

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Ex. Match the sentences with the appropriate diagrams. Pay attention to the prepositions. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Maria è in depressione. Ti ho riconosciuto dalla voce. Sto parlando a Marco. Mi ascoltava con attenzione. Mi hanno comunicato la notizia per telefono.

a)

b)

d)

c)

e)

The examples of the sentences shown in the tables and exercises are obviously a sample to be explored again with many other possible uses of Italian prepositions. The sets of exercises can be further elaborated upon, with particular senses introduced by different prepositions organized in groups, in order to help students, in this case Polish speakers, to learn and understand how to choose a suitable preposition, not only in the description of physical reality but also in reference to abstract concepts.

8 Conclusions The differences between Polish and Italian grammatical systems cause great difficulties in learning and, in particular, in learning the uses of Italian prepositions. A problem for many learners lies primarily in the fact that it is difficult to translate a preposition into another language. Moreover, there are cases when the literal translation of a preposition is impossible. Dictionaries report and describe rather relationships, types of functions in which a given preposition occurs. Since the preposition is treated as a grammatical category of spatial relation and introduces basically the locative relations of place and/or time between two elements of the sentence (Kwapisz-Osadnik, 2017, p. 135), it seems reasonable to start explaining its functions in the context of the description of physical reality which is available, tangible, and comprehensible. In Italian, prepositions play a very important role, as they define the syntactic function of the elements of a sentence in which they appear. Italian grammars classify prepositions according to the types of adverbials (complementi) that they form. However, trying to analyze and organize information regarding the uses of prepositions, we encounter difficulties in finding a key in their classification.

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There are many examples of prepositional constructions that seem similar in meaning, but in which we can find different prepositions. Therefore, it seems appropriate to find another way in which one could understand how Italian prepositions work. An analysis of the functions of the prepositions should rather be based on an analysis of the elements with which they are related, since in Italian the choice of the preposition in many cases depends not so much on the verb after which it appears (as, for example, in Polish), but on the type of concept that follows it. In order to teach the uses of prepositions effectively, students should be taught the conceptual schemes (by means of pictures, photos, schemes, or other graphic representations), the way in which a preposition creates a relationship between objects or concepts. To put it differently, this analysis concerns not only the type of relationships that the given preposition introduces, but also an analysis of the whole construction that it creates, together with the elements with which it enters into relationships. For a Polish student, it is difficult to understand the grammatical rules that organize the use of Italian prepositions, because in some cases a sentence translated into Polish either contains a different preposition than in Italian or the preposition is missing altogether. Therefore, we must abandon the traditional way of explaining the uses of prepositions in favour of their cognitive explanation, which means one that is based on conceptualizing reality and then reconstructing it by means of lexical expressions.

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The LANGUAGE IS MUSIC Metaphor as a Didactic Tool in Descriptive Phonetics and Phonology Classroom Łukasz Matusz

Abstract The Conceptual Metaphor Theory and its applications to didactics have been discussed with reference to many areas of foreign language learning, in particular to the acquisition of vocabulary and idioms. At the same time, the pedagogical potential of metaphors has been studied in other scientific disciplines, including economics, physics, medical studies, engineering and others. This chapter discusses the application of CMT to the didactics of phonetics and phonology components of Descriptive grammar courses at the Institute of English of the University of Silesia. The author shall present the metaphor LANGUAGE IS MUSIC with its different extensions and a practical way in which it can facilitate students’ understanding of the basic theoretical notions of phonetics and phonology. The chapter presents also the results a survey analysis conducted among a group of English philology students purposefully exposed to the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor. The analysis of the survey appears to suggest that the metaphor has applicable practical merits as a didactic tool for basic notions from phonetics and phonology. The aim of this chapter is to propose a starting point for future more systematic and representative research into the role of metaphors in the didactics of linguistic subjects at university level. Keywords CMT · Descriptive grammar · Metaphor · Music · Phonetics · Phonology · University didactics

1 Introduction Within the realm of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a lot has been written about the application of metaphor to the process of didactics. The problem has been discussed in relation to teaching and learning foreign languages (cf. Boers, 2000; Kovecses, ¨ 2010), as well as in application to other scientific disciplines, such as economy (Mihaela & Drugus, 2008), medical studies (Salager-Meyer, 1990; Ł. Matusz (B) University of Silesia, Ul. Bankowa 12, 40-007 Katowice, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 G. Dro˙zd˙z and B. Taraszka-Dro˙zd˙z (eds.), Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics Research, Second Language Learning and Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58775-8_7

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Karska & Pra˙zmo, 2017), engineering (Roldán-Riejos & Mansilla, 2013) and physics (Brooks & Etkina, 2007). There still remains, however, a considerable gap between the cognitive research into metaphor theory and its application to didactics in the university setting. The aim of this chapter is to propose a small step in this direction by investigating the pedagogical potential of the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor for English descriptive phonetics and phonology classes. The motivation for the topic emerged from the author’s experience of teaching Descriptive grammar course to first-year students of English Philology at the University of Silesia and the need for proposing a useful teaching aid for different, admittedly considerably theoretical and abstract, notions of English descriptive phonetics and phonology. The discussion in the present chapter is divided into 7 sections. Section 1 opens the discussion with a short introduction to the topic. In Sect. 2, a cursory overview of CMT is provided and some common examples of metaphorical mappings are presented. Moreover, the most important features of metaphors, including unidirectionality, conventionality, systematicity, motivation, and entailment are also discussed in connection with the didactic function of metaphor. The issues of pedagogical qualities of CMT are further elaborated on in Sect. 3, wherein examples of the didactic use of metaphors in different scientific disciplines are discussed. In Sect. 4, the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor is discussed in the context of its pedagogical potential for the descriptive phonetic and phonology classroom. In particular, the metaphorical extensions discussed here include SPEECH ORGANS ARE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, PHONEMES ARE MUSICAL NOTES, PHONOTACTICS IS HARMONY OF LANGUAGE, SYLLABLES ARE MUSICAL CORDS, LANGUAGE STRESS IS MUSICAL BEAT and INTONATION IS MELODIC LINE. These metaphorical mappings are discussed with reference to their didactic potential and the possible analogies between the domains of language and music. Section 5 presents a practical study wherein the results of a survey among the students of English philology at the University of Silesia are discussed. The survey was conducted among a group of students who, during their course of Descriptive grammar, were explicitly and systematically exposed to the metaphorical mappings discussed in this chapter. The results of the survey show that LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor may serve as a useful tool for the didactics of certain basic notions of phonetics and phonology. This approach, however, is not free of its drawbacks and limitations. These are discussed in Sect. 6 with appropriate suggestions concerning further research in the field. Finally, Sect. 7 offers conclusions and observations emerging from the discussion presented in earlier sections. Admittedly, the limited scope of this article does not allow for a fully satisfactory analysis of the problems at hand. A comprehensive look at the problem of CMT and its application for teaching descriptive phonetics and phonology requires a more detailed study of richer and more representative pool of data. It is hoped, however, that the points addressed here, albeit in a tentative and cursory way, may serve as an inspiration for further interest into the problems of the role of metaphors in the didactics of academic subjects.

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2 The Conceptual Metaphor Theory The study of metaphor has come to be one of the central interests in cognitive linguistics. Since the publication of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the notion of metaphor has ceased to be understood as purely rhetorical or poetic device. Instead, it has started to be regarded as a ubiquitous linguistic and cognitive phenomenon discernible in everyday language and in different modes of interpersonal communication. In contemporary Conceptual Metaphor Theory (hereafter CMT), metaphor is treated as a productive conceptual mechanism indispensably related to human cognition. The term metaphor refers to the phenomenon of cross-domain transfer, wherein one cognitive domain, source domain, provides mental access to another cognitive domain, target domain (Lakoff, 1987, p. 387; Radden, 2000, p. 408). Such interdomain transfer has since been extensively documented in language, as illustrated by the following canonical examples: (1) ARGUMENT IS WAR (a) Your claims are indefensible. (b) His criticism was right on target. (c) I demolished his argument. (d) I’ve never won an argument with him. (e) He shot down all of my arguments. (2) TIME IS MONEY (a) You’re wasting my time. (b) How do you spend your time these days? (c) That flat tire cost me an hour. (d) You’re running out of time. (e) Is that worth your while? (f) You don’t use your time profitably. (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 5) (3) LOVE IS JOURNEY (a) Look how far we’ve come. (b) We’re at a crossroads. (c) We’ll just have to go our separate ways. (d) I don’t think this relationship is going anywhere. (e) We’re stuck. (f) It’s been a long, bumpy road. (g) This relationship is a dead-end street. (h) Our marriage is on the rocks. (i) We’ve gotten off the track. (Kovecses, ¨ 2010, p. 6) Any adequate description of CMT in all its complexity goes well beyond the scope of this article. There are, however, a few features of conceptual metaphors that are worthy of a brief mention in the context of their didactic potential. These are discussed below in a cursory form.

116 Table 1 Unidirectionality of conceptual metaphors

Ł. Matusz Source domain

→

Target domain

War

→

Argument

Money

→

Time

Journey

→

Love

Firstly, metaphorical mappings are unidirectional (Table 1). The term refers to the fact that source domains are typically more concrete, easier to comprehend, cognitively salient, or more deeply entrenched in human experience than target domains. The conceptual mapping occurs in one direction, i.e. it is the target domains that are structured by means of source domains: Secondly, conceptual metaphors typically possess a degree of conventionality. Within a given speech community, particular metaphorical mappings constitute wellestablished and deeply entrenched cognitive patterns. For instance, talking about (and comprehending of) TIME and LOVE in terms of, respectively, MONEY and JOURNEY, is a common theme present in numerous of languages. More novel, or poetic metaphors, such as in “my wife … whose waist is an hourglass” (Lakoff & Turner, as cited in Croft & Cruse, 2004, p. 194) constitute metaphorical mappings that have not been conventionalized into English to the same extent. Thirdly, conceptual metaphors tend to be systematic, i.e. they structure individual elements of the source domain by mapping them onto appropriate elements of the target domain in a network of interrelated concepts (Table 2). This is particularly true for structural metaphors, i.e. those metaphors, wherein a relatively rich domain structure allows for a network of correspondence mappings (Kovecses, ¨ 2010, p. 9): Speakers of a given language possess rich background knowledge about different elements of the mapping system. The sets of assumptions and expectations transferred from the source to the target domain are called metaphorical entailments. In the metaphor presented in example (3), different assumptions and expectations from the domain of JOURNEY may be transferred onto the domain of LOVE. For instance, in the course of a journey different obstacles may be encountered. Those may slow the travellers down, halt their progress or may be successfully overcome by the parties involved. The same is true for lovers, who may successfully prevail over Table 2 Metaphorical correspondence mappings

Source: Journey

Target: Love

The travellers

The lovers

The vehicle

The love relationship itself

The journey

Events in the relationship

The distance covered

The progress made

The obstacles encountered

The difficulties experienced

Decisions about which way to go

Choices about what to do

The destination of the journey

The goal(s) of the relationship

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different problems in their relationship. The destination of a journey can be changed or modified as a result of certain antagonistic factors hampering the physical progress of travellers, as may be the case with intimate goals that two people have contrived for themselves. Such metaphorical entailments provide further reason for the richness of metaphorical structures in language. Finally, metaphorical mappings are motivated, i.e. they are entrenched into language on the basis of either certain analogies between different elements of the domains and their structure, or the correlation in experience regarding the concepts structured in the metaphorical mapping (cf. Kovecses, ¨ 2010, pp. 79–86). Without going into details here, it must be said that it is this motivation-driven nature of metaphorical mappings which is an important factor allowing for the use of metaphor as a didactic tool for the purpose of linking analogous concepts of two distinct domains. The examples and mechanisms for such didactic potential shall be briefly presented in the following sections.

3 The Didactic Potential of CMT Taking into account the ubiquitous nature of conceptual metaphors in language, it is not surprising that the applications of CMT in the process of didactics have long been studied within cognitive linguists. Due to the conceptual metaphor features such as conventionality, motivation and entailment metaphor has been demonstrated to be a substantial process for different areas of pedagogy. In particular, metaphors have been shown to be useful in foreign language teaching and learning, especially when it comes to acquiring vocabulary and idiomatic expressions (c.f. Boers, 2000; Kovecses, ¨ 2010). Kovecses ¨ (2010, p. 239) stresses the fact that raising students’ metaphorical awareness may significantly facilitate the pace of vocabulary acquisition, as well as more in-depth understanding of new idiomatic expressions. Introducing awareness of metaphors is regarded here as a part of elaboration, i.e. a set of different mental operations that learners may perform in connection with vocabulary items, such as categorizing, associating new words with already known vocabulary, making comparisons between L1 and L2, etc. Metaphorical awareness in this context is typically raised by providing information about metaphor theory and by explicating particular metaphorical mappings to students. For instance, explaining to learners the metaphorical transfer in ANGER IS HEAT facilitates students’ learning anger-related idioms such as (4)–(5). Similarly, introducing the metaphor ANGRY BEHAVIOUR IS DANGEROUS ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR may assist in the acquisition of expressions of the kind presented in (6)–(7). (4) She’s fuming. (5) He’s blowing off steam. (6) Don’t bite my head off. (7) He’s beginning to bare his teeth.

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Kovecses ¨ (2010, pp. 240–242) cites a number of foreign classroom activities which are aimed at drawing learners’ attention to the metaphorical motivations for English idiomatic expressions. Apart from stressing the relative ease and increased pace of acquiring new vocabulary items that way, he points to the additional benefit of students’ in-depth understanding of the vocabulary items. This comprehensive learners’ perspective includes the evaluative dimension of lexical units, their usage restrictions and the culture-mediating role of metaphorical mappings. Kovecses ¨ (2010) also points to the active role of students, who should be encouraged to use their creative potential to interact with newly acquired metaphorical mappings. Apart from the context of the foreign language classroom, the pedagogical implications of CMT have been studied in other scientific disciplines, such as economics (Boers, 2000; Mihaela & Drugus, 2008), medical studies (SalagerMeyer, 1990; Karska & Pra˙zmo, 2017), engineering (Roldán-Riejos & Mansilla, 2013) and physics (Brooks & Etkina, 2007). The authors point to the considerable usefulness of metaphorical structuring of different notions from the respective fields and the possibility of applying this teaching tool in class. Karska & Pra˙zmo (2017), for instance, discuss a number of metaphors functioning in the medical discourse for the sake of communication between doctors, patients and medical students. Such metaphors include HEALTH IS UP/ILLNESS IS DOWN, DISEASE IS A PHYSICAL OBJECT, DISEASE IS AN ANIMATE OBJECT and different metaphors where the target domain is medicine itself: MEDICINE IS A GARAGE, MEDICINE IS ART, MEDICINE IS A CONSTRUCTION SITE, MEDICINE IS AGRICULTURE, and others. Brooks and Etkina (2007) provide an account of a series of metaphorical mappings related to modern physics, such as ELECTRON IS A WAVE and ELECTRON IS A PHYSICAL OBJECT and show how these metaphorical mappings influence the didactic processes of modern physics. The above-cited authors point to the fact that although the metaphors appear to have practical merits in their respective disciplines, their pedagogical potential must be further supplemented by explication of the teaching material. Otherwise, the presentation of metaphorical mappings can lead to students’ false assumptions about the matter at hand. This notion will be further addressed when the limitations of the theory are discussed in Sect. 6 below.

4 The LANGUAGE IS MUSIC Metaphor in the Descriptive Phonetics and Phonology Classroom The above-cited uses of metaphor in didactics for different disciplines of science have inspired the question of the pedagogical properties of CMT for the descriptive phonetics and phonology university classroom. The project has originated from the author’s five-year experience of conducting Descriptive grammar classes at the Institute of English at the University of Silesia. Thus, the judgement of applicability and practical merits of the subsequent analysis is of significantly subjective nature and

The LANGUAGE IS MUSIC Metaphor as a Didactic … Table 3 Descriptive phonetics and phonology programme

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1. Phonetics versus phonology 2. Speech production mechanisms 3. Phonetic description (place and manner of articulation, IPA, English consonants and vowels) 4. Phoneme and allophone, allophonic variants in English 5. Phonological processes (assimilation, co-articulation) 6. Phonotactics, syllable structure 7. Word and sentence stress 8. Selected prosodic features (e.g., rhythm, intonation)

it should be treated as a preliminary pilot study. However, the following discussion is hoped to provide some basis for proposing a useful teaching tool for tutors in the didactics of the basic notions of phonetics and phonology in the university setting. The programme for the first semester of Descriptive grammar at the University of Silesia in Katowice includes the differentiation between articulatory, auditory and acoustic phonetics, the construction and function of speech organs, discussion of consonants and vowels classification criteria and their characteristics. The topics of phonology include the notions of phonemes and allophones, allophonic variants of contemporary English sounds, phonological processes of assimilation and coarticulation, the study of phonotactics and the structure of syllable, including its division into onset, nucleus and coda, the problems of word and sentence stress and selected prosodic features, such as rhythm and intonation. Table 3 presents in a summarized form the problems of phonetics and phonology presented during the first-year Descriptive grammar course at the Institute of English of the University of Silesia. The aim of this section is to address the question of analogies between the domains of language and music in order to explicate different issues presented in Table 3. Hence, the main metaphor that is employed for pedagogical purposes in here is the structural metaphor LANGUAGE is MUSIC, with its following extensions: SPEECH ORGANS ARE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, PHONEMES ARE MUSICAL NOTES, PHONOTACTICS IS HARMONY OF LANGUAGE, SYLLABLES ARE MUSICAL CORDS, STRESS IS MUSICAL BEAT, and INTONATION IS MELODIC LINE. The exact analogies and similarities between these notions as they were presented to the students of English during their Descriptive grammar course will be explained below in Sects. 4.1–4.6.

4.1 The SPEECH ORGANS ARE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Metaphor In descriptive phonetics human speech apparatus is described as a complex set of organs including the pharynx, larynx, uvula, vocal folds, velum, hard palate, alveolar

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ridge, tongue, upper and lower lip, upper and lower teeth, and nasal cavity. For the purpose of production of different consonants and vowels, these organs must be aligned in different configurations in order to produce sounds of certain physical qualities. The most important element is the tongue, which plays a major role in determining the place of articulation of different sounds. Human speech sounds are produced by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis to the oral cavity. The air encounters a number of different obstacles and its flow is shaped and obstructed accordingly. Moreover, the way in which the flow of air is obstructed in the production of sounds leads to differentiation as far as the manner of articulation of different phonemes is concerned (Yule, 2014, pp. 28–33). In music, an analogous situation may be encountered in musical instruments, especially in woodwind instruments, such as the clarinet. In the clarinet, different sounds are produced by the musician blowing into the mouthpiece of the instrument. From there, the air is transported into the barrel, wherein the flow of air encounters a specific alignment of internal clarinet elements. The particular set of music-producing pieces is modified by the musician pushing the keys of the instrument (Cummings, 1997, p. 126). A different alignment of the elements leads to specific shaping the airstream, which allows for specific qualities of tunes produced, including different values of pitch, volume, duration, and possible musical ornaments, such as thrills, mordents and turns. Another possible entailment of the metaphor is that competent language users may be compared to skilled musicians, who use their instruments to convey a range of meanings and emotions and to influence other people in various ways.

4.2 The PHONEMES ARE MUSICAL NOTES Metaphor Musical notes constitute a universally recognized system of description and notation for divergent pieces of music. Notes are organized along a scale, and represent sounds of different frequency values (Cummings, 1997, pp. 456–457). They are most commonly aligned along a 12-half-note schematic scale built on the value C and organized in octaves. Each note represents a specific value of pitch. C4, for instance, has a set value of 261.63 Hz, while A4 is defined as 440 Hz. Apart from the value of pitch, the length of each tone is also represented by a note value, such as doublewhole note, whole note, half note, quarter note, etc. These systems of frequencies and note values, coupled with different marking of musical ornaments allow for a comprehensive notation of different musical pieces. Musical notes are the smallest units of music notation. In linguistics, phonemes are defined as minimal meaning-differentiating units of language (Roach, 2009, pp. 31–33; Yule, 2014, p. 40). Phonemes, like musical notes, are abstract representations of the sounds that can be encountered in real life. Similarly to notes, they have their own symbols organized in a complementary and comprehensive system, with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) being the

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most common system of organization. Each phoneme belongs to a particular category within the IPA system and possesses individual characteristics, which distinguish it from other phonemes, such as a particular place and manner of articulation. Phonemes may have different variations (allophones), just like musical notes may be realised in different ways due to a variety of musical ornaments. In summary—not unlike musical notes, which constitute minimal music-building blocks—phonemes are described in linguistics as minimal, abstract meaning-differentiating units of language.

4.3 The PHONOTACTICS IS HARMONY OF LANGUAGE Metaphor In phonology, phonotactics is a branch of linguistics that studies permissible sound combinations and syllable structure in a given language (Yule, 2014, p. 43). In music, harmony is a branch of study that analyses the structure and combinations of musical cords for the aim of producing harmonious pieces of music (Cummings, 1997, pp. 270–271). Cords in music and syllables in language possess a specific structure. In linguistics, the general structure of syllable is described as consisting of onset, nucleus and coda. These elements may be further subdivided into different positions of particular phonemes in the onset (pre-initial, initial, post-initial) and coda (pre-final, final, post-final 1, post-final 2, post-final 3). The phonotactic rules in a given language dictate the kind of sounds which can be put together to make a syllable. For instance, while in English the voiceless alveolar fricative [s] may be combined with one of voiceless plosives [p], [t] and [k], which in turn is followed by one of the approximants [w], [l], [r] or [j], as in spray or squeak, any other categories of consonants in these respective positions are not a permissible combination of sounds in English (Roach, 2009, pp. 56–60). In music, the construction of cords is similarly rule-governed, with appropriate major and minor notation. The aim of the study of harmony in music is to explain why certain pieces of music sound disharmonious. Moreover, in music the harmonious and disharmonious combinations of sounds are intuitively understood by users, even if those users do not possess formal musical training. Similarly, speakers of a given language are immediately able to discern combinations of sounds that are inappropriate in their language. The metaphorical mapping PHONOTACTICS IS HARMONY OF LANGUAGE gives rise to another metaphor, namely SYLLABLES ARE MUSICAL CORDS, as demonstrated in the following section.

4.4 The SYLLABLES ARE MUSICAL CORDS Metaphor Musical cords are harmonious combinations of three or more tones. The combinations constitute a part of a well-established system of music notation. In Western tonal

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music, the cord triad consists of a root note and two intervals of a third and fifth note, as aligned on a musical scale, with half a tone of differentiation between a major triad and minor triad. Syllables in phonology are also canonically described as combinations of three elements, onset, nucleus and coda (Yule, 2014, pp. 43–44; Roach, 2009, p. 60). In each particular language, a strictly defined relationship between the three can be encountered, which influences what combinations of sounds are deemed permissible and which are not. English phonotactic rules allow for the maximum three consonants in the onset, as in screen and stew, while the coda has the maximum structure of four consonants (e.g., twelfths and sixths). In music, different sequences of chords are common building blocks of music, which is illustrated by a piece of music written in a specific key. Similarly, syllables are major phonological structures in human languages, as combinations of different syllables results in the production of meaningful words and expressions. As mentioned above, syllables in language, by analogy to chords in music, are intuitively understood by users, who are immediately able to identify harmonious and disharmonious sequences of sounds.

4.5 The LANGUAGE STRESS IS MUSICAL BEAT Metaphor Musical pieces are governed not only by the rules of harmony, but also influenced by the occurrence of musical beat. In music beat is canonically described as the unit which is measured in regular intervals of time, and in choral and orchestral music is indicated by the conductor (Cummings, 1997, p. 50). In phonology stress is a prosodic feature of language that consists of a few different factors, including the loudness of certain syllables, their relative length, appropriate changes in the pitch and quality of phoneme clusters. In linguistics, a common distinction is made between word stress and sentence stress. Stress may have different language-specific realisations. Some languages, like Spanish, French, Italian, are commonly described as syllable-timed languages, while others—including English, Swedish, and Russian—are defined predominantly as stress-timed languages (Roach, 2009, p. 107). In syllable-timed languages the patterns of language stress are regulated by the succession of syllables. In stresstimed languages, by contrast, stress tends to appear in more or less regular intervals of time, largely independent of the number of syllables produced by the speaker in a given time unit. Musical beat and sentence stress are natural features of music and language respectively. These are intuitively and commonly recognized by language users and music listeners.

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Table 4 Common intonation patterns Intonation pattern

Symbol

Meaning/significance

Fall

\

Finality, completion

Rise

/

‘yes/no’ questions, continuation, listing

Fall-rise

\/

‘yes/no’ questions, requests for repetition, limited agreement, response with reservations

Rise-fall

/\

Approval, disapproval, surprise, ‘wh-’ questions

Flat

_

Routine, lack of interest

4.6 The INTONATION IS MELODIC LINE Metaphor The last metaphorical mapping discussed here in the context of descriptive phonetics and phonology didactics is INTONATION IS MELODIC LINE. Intonation is a natural feature of language that provides additional information about the speaker’s attitudes or opinions about a given topic. In phonology there is a common differentiation between distinct intonation patterns, including such tones as fall “\”, rise “/”, fall-rise “\/”, rise-fall “/\” and flat “_” (Roach, 2009, pp. 121–126). Those intonation patterns are commonly ascribed certain meanings and effects, as illustrated in Table 4. The melodic line in music also makes an extensive use of different music patterns, combinations of which in Western music are expected to possess at least a degree of harmony (Cummings, 1997, p. 415). Similarly to language, changes and modifications in the melodic line also help to express or strengthen certain emotions. Quick-paced music with a lot of rising tones is commonly identified as happy, while slow, quiet music with a number of falling tones is described as sad. Quick-paced loud music with a lot of sharp tones may be taken to express the emotions of anger. Intonation, like the melodic line, is a natural feature of language resulting from the change of volume, pitch, pace and frequency of sounds. The same is true of the melodic line, which is also an indispensable and foundational feature of music.

5 LANGUAGE IS MUSIC: A Practical Study Analysis The practical study presented below is an attempt to verify the usefulness and applicability of the metaphorical mappings presented above in Sects. 4.1–4.6 for the purpose of didactics of English descriptive phonetics and phonology courses in the university setting. The study was conducted during the Descriptive grammar course held by the author from October 2017 to February 2018 at the Institute of English at the University of Silesia. This was a formal 90-h course for first-year students of English philology. Its aim was to introduce the most important problems in phonetics and phonology, as illustrated in Table 3. There were three class groups totalling 73

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students. During the course, students were consistently presented with formal university definitions of different problems in phonetics and phonology. At the same time, however, throughout the course their attention was focused on different analogies between the domains of language and music, as presented in Sects. 4.1–4.6, with appropriate reservations that not all analogies between the two domains necessarily hold in every detail. At the end of the semester, students were presented with a questionnaire in which they were asked to produce their own understanding of different notions of phonetics and phonology. The questionnaire used for this aim is presented in Table 5. In the questionnaire, respondents were required to write definitions of the newlyacquired problems in phonetics and phonology. The questionnaire was distributed at the end of the semester, after the final formal tests had been conducted. Students Table 5 LANGUAGE IS MUSIC questionnaire Please provide your understanding of the following notions: 1.

SPEECH ORGANS

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… 2.

PHONEMES

.………………………………………………………………………………………………………...…… ………………………………………………………………………………………… 3.

PHONOTACTICS

.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… 4.

SYLLABLES

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… 5.

STRESS

.………………………………………………………………………………………………………...…… ………………………………………………………………………………………… 6.

INTONATION

.………………………………………………………………………………………………………...…… …………………………………………………………………………………………

THANK YOU

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were thus informed that the questionnaire was not part of their grading and were asked to produce what their own understanding of the above-quoted notions was. The aim was to assess how many of the definitions provided related to LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor in its different realisations. After the questionnaire was filled out by students, the answers were analysed in order to differentiate the music-related answers from others. 73 students took part in the questionnaire, producing (in total) 438 definitions. Many of those included formal scientific definitions, but a few were representative of the music metaphor. The results of the data analysis are discussed below. Speech organs were commonly described in the questionnaire as organs used by human beings in order to communicate, or parts of our body that humans use in order to produce sounds and speak. However, 7 students out of 73 provided answers that may be evaluated as metaphorical in nature—representing the metaphor SPEECH ORGANS ARE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. These included (8)–(14): (8) SPEECH ORGANS: We use them to make sounds, they’re our instruments. (9) SPEECH ORGANS: human organs which enable us to produce speech sounds – like instruments in music. (10) SPEECH ORGANS: are instruments of our body, which are significant. (11) SPEECH ORGANS: they can be compared to musical instruments as they work in similar ways. (12) SPEECH ORGANS: the “instruments” used to produce speech, certain sounds. (13) SPEECH ORGANS: are instruments that allow us to speak. (14) SPEECH ORGANS: organs for human communication—similar to musical instruments. For the term phoneme, no metaphorical representations of PHONEMES ARE MUSICAL NOTES were recorded. Students preferred formal definitions, such as the ones presented in (15)–(16) below: (15) PHONEMES: mental (abstract) representations of sounds. (16) PHONEMES: smallest meaning-changing unit of language. As far as the definition of phonotactics is concerned, the typical answers provided by students defined phonotactics as a study of possible combinations of sounds, or the area which investigates how sounds can go together in a language. One metaphor-related answer, congruent with the PHNOTACTICS IS THE HARMONY OF LANGUAGE metaphor, was recorded in the questionnaire: (17) PHONOTACTICS: the “harmony” of language. Determines which sounds can go together and are harmonious, and which sounds can’t go together and are disharmonious. Syllables were, for the most part, defined by respondents as permissible combinations of sounds in English, or as parts of words that consist of the onset, nucleus and coda. However, 2 students provided answers representative of SYLLABLES ARE

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MUSICAL CORDS metaphor. Interestingly enough, the students tended to associate syllables with the rhythm or melody of language. (18) SYLLABLES: parts of words that help with keeping the rhythm. (19) SYLLABLES: parts of a word that gives/creates a melody when we talk. A considerably more significant number of respondents employed the STRESS IS MUSICAL RHYTHM metaphor when defining the notion of language stress. Although many students defined stress as the emphasis placed on certain syllables or an extra accent that certain parts of words possess, 10 students proposed a musicrelated response in the form of the following (20)–(29): (20) STRESS: the “beat” of language, it’s used to stress the most important part of a sentence, indicate grammatical structures of a sentence. (21) STRESS: used in providing speech with rhythm. (22) STRESS: It makes speech rhythmic. (23) STRESS: makes a sentence more rhythmical. (24) STRESS: gives rhythm. (25) STRESS: determinates the rhythm of the sentence, and that people understand each other. (26) STRESS: a music of language, rhythm of language. (27) STRESS: the “rhythm” of language, dictates the manner of speaking, the way we pronounce words. (28) STRESS: provides the „melody” of language. (29) STRESS: creates rhythm while we speak. Finally, the notion of intonation was commonly defined as the feature of language that allows for a fuller understanding of a given spoken text. Intonation, as students report, allows for the presentation of one’s emotions through the changes of pitch and volume of speaker’s voice. 2 students, however, referred to the music metaphor and provided definitions consistent with the INTONATION IS MELODY OF LANGUAGE metaphorical mapping. Their explanations were as follows: (30) INTONATION: provides the „melody” of language. (31) INTONATION: the pattern of melody and pitch. For the aim of questionnaire analysis in this chapter students’ answers were counted, categorised and analysed. The full results of the study are provided in Table 6 with their subsequent discussion. In response to the questionnaire, 73 students surveyed produced 22 different definitions congruent with LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor, as they were presented in Sects. 4.1–4.6. These metaphorical expressions were produced in the questionnaires of 11 different students. It follows, therefore, that 15% of the subjects found LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor useful in defining at least one of the terms proposed in the questionnaire. It may be concluded that for those students the music metaphor provided a noteworthy tool for understanding different theoretical notions in descriptive phonetics and phonology.

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Table 6 Questionnaire results, part 1 Groups

No. of STS.

LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphors Speech organs

Phoneme

Phonotactics

Syllables

Stress

Intonation

Group 1

23

3

0

0

0

4

0

Group 2

22

1

0

1

1

3

2

Group 3

30

3

0

0

1

3

0

Total

73

22

Table 7 Questionnaire results, part 2

Total

LANGUAGE IS MUSIC

No. of students

73

11 (15%)

No. of answers

438

22 (5%)

It must be said, however, that not all of the metaphorical mappings studied in the questionnaire have proven to be of equal importance for the respondents. The definitions for phonemes did not receive any metaphorical explanations and phonotactics was defined as the harmony of language only in one instance. On the other hand, the metaphors SPEECH ORGANS ARE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS and STRESS IS MUSICAL BEAT appeared to be more productive, receiving, respectively, 7 and 10 metaphorical definitions. Another interesting set of data emerging from the questionnaire is summarised in Table 7. As noted above, in the practical study presented in the questionnaire, within a group of 73 students, 11 individuals (15%) engaged in the music metaphor by providing explanations for at least one notion of descriptive phonetics and phonology. This finding appears to be reasonably significant of the usefulness of this kind of metaphorical representation in the didactics of Descriptive grammar. What is more, within the group of students who provided those metaphorical explanations, the average number of metaphorical definitions per student amounted to two. In other words, each respondent came up, on average, with two metaphor-related definitions in a single questionnaire. This might suggest that LANGUAGE IS MUSIC acquired some degree of systematicity for those students who engaged in multiple metaphorical explication of basic notions of phonetics and phonology.

6 Limitations of the Approach As demonstrated in the above discussion, the application of LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor in its different realisations appears to possess a degree of usefulness for the didactics of different notions of descriptive phonetics and phonology in the university

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setting. However, it must be said that the approach is not without its limitations and drawbacks. Firstly, the practical study analysis presented in Sect. 5 was conducted on a considerably limited group of students. Furthermore, the lack of a control group to which the answers of respondents could be compared makes it more difficult to interpret the results. A full study of the usefulness of LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor in descriptive phonetics and phonology requires a much more comprehensive approach with considerably more developed survey group and more detailed and advanced methodology. The problems connected with the didactics of descriptive phonetics and phonology classes and different metaphors that could be employed for such purpose undoubtedly require more interest from university teachers and theoretical linguists. Therefore, the discussion proposed above is meant to signal the problem that will hopefully be further developed in consecutive studies. Secondly, the choice of the leading metaphor for the study may, as such, come as controversial. LANGUAGE IS MUSIC with its different extensions and its applications as a tool for descriptive phonetics and phonology classroom emerges from the observations of the author, who has found it to be useful in his process of didactics. Inevitably, however, the metaphor cannot be used in order to comprehensively account for all the areas of phonetics and phonology. Not all of the analogies between the two domains warrant a positive didactic outcome. This appears to be confirmed by the results of the practical analysis presented in Sect. 5. The definition of phoneme did not receive any music-related metaphorical interpretations, and phonotactics was explained by means of the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor by one student. The reasons for this fact may vary, as it may be due to the significantly abstract and theoretical nature of these terms, the lack of sufficient students’ exposure to the metaphor, or the inadequacy of analogies between those terms and the domain of music. Other terms, such as speech organs or stress received a considerably higher number of music-related metaphorical interpretations, which points to the usefulness of these terms being explained by means of the music metaphor. Another issue connected with this is the problem of the systemic compatibility between the domains of language and music. Naturally, not all of the notions from phonetics and phonology may be successfully described in terms of music theory. Conversely, not all of the problems in music are fully describable through the domain of language. The six definitions proposed in the study constitute only a small portion of different problems that are addressed during English Descriptive grammar university courses. Therefore, a straightforward transfer of analogies between the two domains may not be fully adequate for the purposes of the didactic process. The didactic process may be also adversely influenced by the phenomenon of false analogies. Brooks and Etkina (2007) make this point in their discussion of the problem of metaphors in the didactics of physics. They note, for instance, that despite the metaphors ELECTRON IS A WAVE and ELECTRON IS A PHYSICAL OBJECT being used quite extensively in modern physics classroom, in reality an electron is neither of those. Instead, it is characterised as a physical entity that possesses the features of a wave and a particle at the same time. Thus, the metaphorical mappings in this context may serve only as a useful set of approximations that,

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in the context of university classes, must be further elaborated and explained by the teacher. With reference to the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor in the didactics of Descriptive grammar, the situation is significantly analogous. Notwithstanding the useful analogies, speech organs are not identical to musical instruments. For one thing, speech organs are a natural bodily system that humans use for communication, while musical instruments are artificial creations specifically crafted for the aim of making music. Also, phonemes are organized in a different system than musical notes. They are described in relation to the place and manner of articulation of appropriate meaning-influencing sounds in a given language. Musical notes, on the other hand, are systematically aligned on an arbitrary musical scale. The musical beat may be described as more analogous to language stress more readily in stresstimed languages than in syllable-timed ones. Therefore, not all notions of phonetics and phonology may be justifiably represented by means of the music metaphor and teachers must be aware of the danger of false analogies in the didactic process. Finally, although the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor appears to be a useful tool for the didactics of Descriptive grammar, it is not the only metaphor that may be employed for this aim. This appears to be confirmed by the respondents who, in their questionnaires, employed also another kind of metaphor. Some of students’ answers appear to be motivated by the LANGUAGE IS TOOL metaphor, particularly in relation to the definition of speech organs: (32) SPEECH ORGANS: Those are tools in human body, with them human is able to produce numbers of sounds, depending on kind of the tool using in the very moment. (33) SPEECH ORGANS: a tool to communicate with others, it helps to understand people and different cultures. (34) SPEECH ORGANS: tools which help us to produce sounds needed to communicate, etc. (35) SPEECH ORGANS: tools used for speech by humans (…). (36) SPEECH ORGANS: organs which produce speech in many different ways. A more detailed account of the role of metaphors in descriptive phonetics and phonology didactics should therefore present different metaphorical mappings for the aim of a more comprehensive system of language description and pedagogy.

7 Conclusions Contemporary research into CMT theory and its applications to the processes of didactics has testified to the pedagogical potential of metaphors in many different scientific disciplines, including foreign language acquisition, economy, medical studies, engineering and others. The aim of this chapter was to propose an application of this approach to the didactics of English descriptive phonetics and phonology in the Polish university context. For this purpose, different theoretical notions within the branches of phonetics and phonology were presented

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by means of the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor in its different extensions, including SPEECH ORGANS ARE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, PHONEMES ARE MUSICAL NOTES, PHONOTACTICS IS HARMONY OF LANGUAGE, SYLLABLES ARE MUSICAL CORDS, LANGUAGE STRESS IS MUSICAL BEAT and INTONATION IS MELODIC LINE. The analogies between the notions of linguistics and music-related terms were discussed with particular attention paid to how they can potentially facilitate the didactic processes of the Descriptive grammar of English. In order to assess the practical applicability of different extensions of the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor, a group of first-year students of English philology was explicitly and systematically exposed to them during a 90-hour formal course of Descriptive grammar at the University of Silesia. At the end of the semester, a questionnaire was distributed with the aim of eliciting students’ understanding of the basic notions of phonetics and phonology. The problems surveyed in the questionnaire included speech organs, phonemes, phonotactics, syllables, language stress, and intonation. The analysis of the questionnaire outcome testifies to the practical merits of the LANGUAGE IS MUSIC metaphor in the didactics of descriptive phonetics and phonology and to the usefulness of the approach. The results have shown that out of the group of 73 students 11 respondents (15%) included metaphorical explanations in their surveys. Moreover, among the students who made use of the metaphorical explanations of linguistic notions, the average number of metaphorical definitions per student amounted to two. This may serve as a suggestion that for those students music tended to be a valid source for structuring multiple concepts of linguistics. Despite the usefulness of the music metaphor in the pedagogy of Descriptive grammar, the approach is not free of its drawbacks and limitations. The domains of language and music are not fully compatible, which leaves space for possible gaps and inadequacies. In the survey study presented in Sect. 5, definitions of speech organs and language stress received a considerably larger number of metaphorical interpretations than other concepts. Phonemes, on the other hand, were not described in musical terms by the respondents. LANGUAGE IS MUSIC is also not the only metaphor that may be successfully used in the Descriptive grammar classroom, as demonstrated by some of the students who provided examples of LANGUAGE IS TOOL metaphorical mappings. When applying metaphor in the process of didactics, teachers must also be constantly aware of the danger of false analogies that may be unknowingly and unconsciously transferred to students. These are situations of unwarranted or unpredicted metaphorical extensions that may be an element adversely influencing the didactic process or may result in providing students with inadequate or insufficient information. Admittedly, the limited scope of this chapter does not do sufficient justice to the issue of teaching English descriptive phonetics and phonology through metaphorical mappings. A more comprehensive and informative study would undoubtedly require a more detailed discussion of different metaphorical mappings, as well as a more thorough analysis of a larger pool of data, including a comparison of a study sample with a control group. The target domain of language appears to be so complex and intricate that to do it justice almost certainly requires a number of

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distinct metaphors, which would focus learners’ attention on different aspects of linguistics. It is hoped, therefore, that the points raised in the present chapter may serve as an inspiration for a more systematic research into the links between the domains of MUSIC and LANGUAGE for the aim of teaching descriptive phonetics and phonology classes, or—more generally—that it helps to contribute to the enquiry of metaphorical representation of theoretical linguistic notions in the processes of university didactics.

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