This is the first anthology in cognitive semiotics, the transdisciplinary study of meaning, mind and communication, which integrates semiotics, cognitive science and linguistics. The four parts are Meta-theoretical perspectives, Semiotic development and evolution, Meaning across media, modes and modalities, and Language, blends and metaphors.

This is the first anthology in cognitive semiotics, the transdisciplinary study of meaning, mind and communication, which integrates semiotics, cognitive science and linguistics. The four parts are Meta-theoretical perspectives, Semiotic development and evolution, Meaning across media, modes and modalities, and Language, blends and metaphors.

This is a volume of original essays on key aspects of John Searle's philosophy of language. It examines Searle's work in relation to current issues of central significance, including internalism versus externalism about mental and linguistic content, truth-conditional versus non-truth-conditional conceptions of content, the relative priorities of thought and language in the explanation of intentionality, the status of the distinction between force and sense in the theory of meaning, the issue of meaning scepticism in relation to rule-following, and the proper characterization of 'what is said' in relation to the semantics/pragmatics distinction. Written by a distinguished team of contemporary philosophers, and prefaced by an illuminating essay by Searle, the volume aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of Searle's work in philosophy of language, and to suggest innovative approaches to fundamental questions in that area.

Integrating research in linguistics, philosophy, semiotics, neurophenomenology, and literary studies, The Communicative Mind presents a thought-provoking and multifaceted investigation into linguistic meaning construction. It explores the various ways in which the intersubjectivity of communicating interactants manifests itself in language structure and use and argues for the indispensability of dialogue as a semantic resource in cognition. The view of the mind as highly conditioned by the domain of interpersonal communication is supported by an extensive range of empirical linguistic data from fiction, poetry and written and spoken everyday language, including rhetorically “creative” metaphors and metonymies. The author introduces Cognitive Linguistics to the notion of enunciation, which refers to the situated act of language use, and demonstrates the centrality of subjectivity and turn-taking interaction in natural semantics. The theoretical framework presented takes contextual relevance, viewpoint shifts, dynamicity, and the introduction into discourse of elements with no real-world counterparts (subjective motion, fictivity and other forms of non-actuality) to be vital components in the construction of meaning. The book engages the reader in critical discussions of cognitive-linguistic approaches to semantic construal and addresses the philosophical implications of the identified strengths and limitations. Among the theoretical advances in what Brandt refers to as the cognitive humanities is Fauconnier and Turner’s theory of conceptual integration of “mental spaces” which has proved widely influential in Cognitive Poetics and Linguistics, offering a philosophy of language bridging the gap between pragmatics and semantics. With its constructive criticism of the “general mechanism” hypothesis, according to which “blending” can explain everything from the origin of language to binding in perception, Brandt’s book brings the scope and applicability of Conceptual Integration Theory into the arena of scientific debate. The book contains five main chapters entitled Enunciation: Aspects of Subjectivity in Meaning Construction, The Subjective Conceptualizer: Non-actuality in Construal, Conceptual Integration in Semiotic Meaning Construction, Meaning Construction in Literary Text, and Effects of Poetic Enunciation: Seven Types of Iconicity.

This teacher's handbook on intrapersonal communication provides a selection of exercises for classroom use to help students get in touch with their own mental processing. The exercises are presented with introductory comments, a statement of goals, instructions, materials, and analysis. A brief description of what the exercise demonstrates, questions that facilitate discussion, related concepts, some discussion of theory, and relevant citations are provided. Part 2 of the document provides an informed, interpretive essay in which the author defines the new field of intrapersonal communication theory, relating it to cognitive psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. (MS)

The present volume demonstrates the multifaceted potential of Relevance Theory, which, for more than two decades now, has been inspiring studies of the relationship between human communication and cognition. In the Mind and across Minds reflects the main strands of relevance-theoretic research, by expanding, evaluating and revising the researchers’ ideas in a collection of papers by an international array of scholars. The papers explore various aspects of communication including such issues as non-literal meaning with the focus on irony and metaphor, the construction of ad hoc concepts, the conceptual-procedural meaning distinction, metarepresentation, context and politeness as well as test the applicability of Relevance Theory to the domain of translation. A set of readings on varied linguistic and sociocultural phenomena, this book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students investigating meaning in natural language and an insightful reference for those interested in relevance-theoretic pragmatics, or pragmatics in general, semantics, sociolinguistics and Translation Studies. Ewa Wałaszewska, Marta Kisielewska-Krysiuk and Agnieszka Piskorska work at the Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw as Assistant Professors. They pursue their individual research connected with Relevance Theory and jointly organise a biennial conference Interpreting for Relevance: Discourse and Translation.