Sophia Marmaridou

Bio: Sophia Marmaridou is an academic researcher from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The author has contributed to research in topics: Semantics & Modern Greek. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 12 publications receiving 202 citations.

Pragmatic meaning and cognition

Abstract: This book provides a good overview of philosophical and cognitive approaches to language use and meaning. A synthesis of such approaches leads to a dynamic concept of pragmatic meaning which is on the one hand grounded in cognition and motivated by linguistic and cultural convention and, on the other, creates a framework for studying the interactive and social dimensions of the development of meaning in linguistic communication. Through an experientialist approach based on connectionist models, the author shows that by internalizing pragmatic meaning people become social agents who reproduce, challenge or change their social parameters during interaction. Pragmatic Meaning and Cognition is suitable as a course book in Pragmatics and Semantics and of interest to those concerned with cognitive models and dynamic and social aspects of linguistic communication.

Proper names in communication

Abstract: It has long been observed that, although proper names are mainly used to identify individuals uniquely in our universe of discourse, and therefore have a clearly referential function, they are also used connotatively, when, for example, they stand as a shorthand for whatever characteristics a specific individual may at one time have been associated with. These two uses can be illustrated in the following sentences:(1) Judas was Jesus Christ's disciple who betrayed Him.(2) Every great man nowadays has his disciples, but it is always Judas who writes the biography (Jespersen, 1965: 66).

Reviewing linguistic thought : converging trends for the 21st century

Abstract: The papers in this volume focus on the interaction of different levels of linguistic analysis (syntax, semantics, pragmatics) and the interfaces between them, on the convergence of different theoretical models in explaining linguistic phenomena, and on recent interdisciplinary approaches to linguistic analysis The selected works, including papers by renowned scholars, highlight the necessity for the study of language to be paired with the study of cognition and for linguistics to develop more substantive links to other disciplines, bringing forward the converging trends which originate within different theoretical frameworks The volume is of particular relevance to scholars and students who are interested in an in-depth overview of 20th century linguistics outside or beyond the generative paradigm, and in exploring the development of 20th centuryinfluence on current work

What's in a dialogic construction? A constructional approach to polysemy and the grammar of challenge

Abstract: Abstract In this paper we address lexical polysemy in a constructional perspective, arguing that each of the conversational meanings we identify for Modern Greek ela (2nd person singular imperative of the verb erxome ‘come’) is appropriately modeled as a conceptual gestalt of formal (including prosodic) and semantic-pragmatic properties. In turn-initial position, ela is used to challenge a preceding utterance; we show that the variations in the kind of challenge expressed are systematically tied to the word that follows ela, the speech act force and the sentence type of the preceding utterance, and finally prosodic and textual cues. To the extent that these varieties of conversational challenge are conditioned by particular contextual features, we treat them as a family of related constructions whose common features can be captured in the form of a generalized ela construction abstracted from the different sub-patterns. Our analysis thus demonstrates the appropriateness of a constructional framework for dealing with the different kinds of parameters involved in dialogic meaning and strongly suggests that at least some of the variation inherent in discourse is amenable to a grammatical description, so that sentence-level and supra-clause patterns can be analyzed in a uniform way.

On the conceptual, cultural and discursive motivation of Greek pain lexicalizations

Abstract: Abstract This paper provides evidence for the interaction of conceptual structure, cultural models and discursive practices in motivating pain lexicalizations and related constructions in Greek. It is argued that pain is construed as a process or state, a designated property, or an instance of a process or state, prototypically associated with an experiencer and a cause. The elaboration of this core semantics of pain by image-schematic and metaphorical structure and a cultural narrative of selfhood yields metaphorical extensions of pain as an entity and motivates its understanding in the physical and the psychological modalities. Finally, frequency counts of pain lexicalizations in different discourse genres provide evidence for the discursive motivation of the lexical categories at hand. These findings seem to argue for points of contact between cognitive linguistics (Lakoff 1987; Sweetser 1990; Langacker 2000), a discursive view of relativity (Clark 1996; Lucy 1996), and a neo-Whorfian perspective on language as a bio-cultural hybrid (Levinson 2003).

The Structure of Time

Abstract: One of the most enigmatic aspects of experience concerns time. Since pre-Socratic times scholars have speculated about the nature of time, asking questions such as: What is time? Where does it come from? Where does it go? The central proposal of The Structure of Time is that time, at base, constitutes a phenomenologically real experience. Drawing on findings in psychology, neuroscience, and utilising the perspective of cognitive linguistics, this work argues that our experience of time may ultimately derive from perceptual processes, which in turn enable us to perceive events. As such, temporal experience is a pre-requisite for abilities such as event perception and comparison, rather than an abstraction based on such phenomena. The book represents an examination of the nature of temporal cognition, with two foci: (i) an investigation into (pre-conceptual) temporal experience, and (ii) an analysis of temporal structure at the conceptual level (which derives from temporal experience).

Metaphor Wars: Conceptual Metaphors in Human Life

Abstract: The study of metaphor is now firmly established as a central topic within cognitive science and the humanities. We marvel at the creative dexterity of gifted speakers and writers for their special talents in both thinking about certain ideas in new ways, and communicating these thoughts in vivid, poetic forms. Yet metaphors may not only be special communicative devices, but a fundamental part of everyday cognition in the form of 'conceptual metaphors'. An enormous body of empirical evidence from cognitive linguistics and related disciplines has emerged detailing how conceptual metaphors underlie significant aspects of language, thought, cultural and expressive action. Despite its influence and popularity, there have been major criticisms of conceptual metaphor. This book offers an evaluation of the arguments and empirical evidence for and against conceptual metaphors, much of which scholars on both sides of the wars fail to properly acknowledge.