Jacek Wozny | University of Wroclaw (original) (raw)

Papers by Jacek Wozny

Traditional linguistics in our age enjoys new research opportunities: we can now develop and depl... more Traditional linguistics in our age enjoys new research opportunities: we can now develop and
deploy computational and statistical tools dedicated to amassing and analyzing vast multimodal data, beyond the dreams of previous researchers. Modern technology additionally makes it possible for researchers to work in real-time in international transdisciplinary teams. This article reviews the vision, progress, and prospects of one such international big data lab, the International Distributed Red Hen Lab, as an example of the linguistics vanguard.

The paper offers a critical outlook on the taxonomy of motion situations proposed by Zlatev et a... more The paper offers a critical outlook on the taxonomy of motion situations proposed by Zlatev et al. (2007, 2010) and its application to cross-linguistic comparison of motion-emotion metaphors (Zlatev et al. 2012). The critique is then applied, together with the results of a corpus-based analysis of motion metaphors by Woźny (2013), to creating a new, language independent taxonomy of motion situations, reflecting the naive physics- a linguistically coded, widespread set of intuitive beliefs concerning motion, proven to be resistant to the passage of time or the achievements of modern physics, extensively described by the body of literature collectively known as Disaster Studies (e.g., Champagne et al. (1980), Larkin et al. (1980), McCloskey (1983), Halloun et al. (1985), Hammer (1995), diSessa (1988, 1993, 1996))

Kuźniak, M. & J. Woźny. 2014 'Force dynamics and physics' . Cognitive Linguistics 2013 conference proceedings. Warsaw University. (to appear), 2014

Force Dynamics, one of the crucial frameworks of cognitive linguistics, was developed by Talmy (1... more Force Dynamics, one of the crucial frameworks of cognitive linguistics, was developed by Talmy (1976, 1988, 2000) and adopted by, for example, Sweetser (1982, 1991), Johnson (1987), Jackendoff (1990), Chun & Zubin (1990), Brandt (1992), Deane (1992), Achard (1996), Boye (2001), Vandenberghe (2002) and Da Silva (2003). The paper contains a critical scrutiny of Leonard Talmy’s comparison of linguistically coded Force Dynamics and modern physics (Talmy 2000 : 456 – 459). It is argued that six out of seven 'differences' mentioned by Talmy are in fact similarities. We have also found that on of the crucial notions of Talmy's Force Dynamics- 'the intrinsic force tendency' has no counterpart in either pre-Newtonian theories of force (Aristotle, Philoponus) or intuitive (folk) physics, richly accounted for in numerous empirical studies (e.g., Champagne et al. (1980), Larkin et al. (1980), McCloskey (1983), Halloun et al. (1985), Hammer (1995), diSessa (1988, 1993, 1996))

Keywords: Conceptual structure, Force Dynamics, naive physics, Newtonian physics

The goal of the paper is to investigate the fuzziness (membership gradience) of the conceptual ca... more The goal of the paper is to investigate the fuzziness (membership gradience) of the conceptual categories of things and substances, linguistically coded as countable and uncountable nouns. The method is based on the statistical coefficient of APRS (average perceived referent size), which is estimated by analysis of a random sample of corpus texts containing a particular noun. The comparison of APRS for a group of English countable and uncountable nouns shows that countability is indeed gradable. The method can also explain why some English nouns like peas, flowers and pebbles are countable and others like maize, grass and gravel are not, despite the fact that the size and other physical qualities of their referents are practically equal.
Keywords: corpus study, statistics, countability

The goal of the chapter is to investigate the level of similarity between source and target domai... more The goal of the chapter is to investigate the level of similarity between source and target domains of metaphors. The problem of similarity constitutes the crucial difference between the classical theory of metaphors and conceptual metaphor theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The research method is based on statistical comparison of the features of basic domains, which are grounded in the pre-conceptual sensory-motor perception. Applying the method to a particular generic metaphor indicates that visual similarities are much less prominent than the similarities based on other experiential domains, such as, for example, EMOTION or TEMPERATURE. Further application of the statistical method to a larger corpus of metaphorical expressions may help to find a rule-governed, systematic connection between the similarity of domains and conventional metaphors.

Keywords: conceptual metaphors, basic domains

Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2013

The goal of the paper is to investigate the role of motion in Force Dynamics, a framework develop... more The goal of the paper is to investigate the role of motion in Force Dynamics, a framework developed by Talmy (1976, 1988, 2000) and adopted by, for example, Sweetser (1982, 1991), Johnson (1987), Pinker (1989, 1997), Jackendoff (1990) and Brandt (1992). To this aim, descriptions of force-dynamic schemas (gestalts) by Johnson (1987) and Talmy (2000) were analyzed to prove that both authors often use the word force metonymically to refer to motion or, more specifically, to the moving object, its velocity or trajectory, which accounts for vagueness and sometimes even inaccuracy of description. The conclusions of our study were then applied to the analysis of 50 metaphors of motion, which showed that all of them can be characterized by just four force-motion schemas, differing from one another in terms of continuity, application of forces, as well as spatial and temporal constraints of motion.

The goal of the paper is mathematical verification of various hypotheses concerning the cognitive... more The goal of the paper is mathematical verification of various hypotheses concerning the cognitive efficiency of human categorization. To this aim two calculus-based mathematical models are constructed to account for the crucial features of human categorization: prototypicality and basic level primacy. The first model allows to calculate and compare the cognitive efficiency of the prototype and definition based categories, while the second one explicates the cognitive prominence of the basic level categories. Additionally, the models account for cultural and specialist knowledge variability of categorization as well as the link between the limited human brain capacity and categorization. Both models can be also be used to predict and extrapolate the results of psycho-linguistic experiments.

Traditional linguistics in our age enjoys new research opportunities: we can now develop and depl... more Traditional linguistics in our age enjoys new research opportunities: we can now develop and
deploy computational and statistical tools dedicated to amassing and analyzing vast multimodal data, beyond the dreams of previous researchers. Modern technology additionally makes it possible for researchers to work in real-time in international transdisciplinary teams. This article reviews the vision, progress, and prospects of one such international big data lab, the International Distributed Red Hen Lab, as an example of the linguistics vanguard.

The paper offers a critical outlook on the taxonomy of motion situations proposed by Zlatev et a... more The paper offers a critical outlook on the taxonomy of motion situations proposed by Zlatev et al. (2007, 2010) and its application to cross-linguistic comparison of motion-emotion metaphors (Zlatev et al. 2012). The critique is then applied, together with the results of a corpus-based analysis of motion metaphors by Woźny (2013), to creating a new, language independent taxonomy of motion situations, reflecting the naive physics- a linguistically coded, widespread set of intuitive beliefs concerning motion, proven to be resistant to the passage of time or the achievements of modern physics, extensively described by the body of literature collectively known as Disaster Studies (e.g., Champagne et al. (1980), Larkin et al. (1980), McCloskey (1983), Halloun et al. (1985), Hammer (1995), diSessa (1988, 1993, 1996))

Kuźniak, M. & J. Woźny. 2014 'Force dynamics and physics' . Cognitive Linguistics 2013 conference proceedings. Warsaw University. (to appear), 2014

Force Dynamics, one of the crucial frameworks of cognitive linguistics, was developed by Talmy (1... more Force Dynamics, one of the crucial frameworks of cognitive linguistics, was developed by Talmy (1976, 1988, 2000) and adopted by, for example, Sweetser (1982, 1991), Johnson (1987), Jackendoff (1990), Chun & Zubin (1990), Brandt (1992), Deane (1992), Achard (1996), Boye (2001), Vandenberghe (2002) and Da Silva (2003). The paper contains a critical scrutiny of Leonard Talmy’s comparison of linguistically coded Force Dynamics and modern physics (Talmy 2000 : 456 – 459). It is argued that six out of seven 'differences' mentioned by Talmy are in fact similarities. We have also found that on of the crucial notions of Talmy's Force Dynamics- 'the intrinsic force tendency' has no counterpart in either pre-Newtonian theories of force (Aristotle, Philoponus) or intuitive (folk) physics, richly accounted for in numerous empirical studies (e.g., Champagne et al. (1980), Larkin et al. (1980), McCloskey (1983), Halloun et al. (1985), Hammer (1995), diSessa (1988, 1993, 1996))

Keywords: Conceptual structure, Force Dynamics, naive physics, Newtonian physics

The goal of the paper is to investigate the fuzziness (membership gradience) of the conceptual ca... more The goal of the paper is to investigate the fuzziness (membership gradience) of the conceptual categories of things and substances, linguistically coded as countable and uncountable nouns. The method is based on the statistical coefficient of APRS (average perceived referent size), which is estimated by analysis of a random sample of corpus texts containing a particular noun. The comparison of APRS for a group of English countable and uncountable nouns shows that countability is indeed gradable. The method can also explain why some English nouns like peas, flowers and pebbles are countable and others like maize, grass and gravel are not, despite the fact that the size and other physical qualities of their referents are practically equal.
Keywords: corpus study, statistics, countability

The goal of the chapter is to investigate the level of similarity between source and target domai... more The goal of the chapter is to investigate the level of similarity between source and target domains of metaphors. The problem of similarity constitutes the crucial difference between the classical theory of metaphors and conceptual metaphor theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The research method is based on statistical comparison of the features of basic domains, which are grounded in the pre-conceptual sensory-motor perception. Applying the method to a particular generic metaphor indicates that visual similarities are much less prominent than the similarities based on other experiential domains, such as, for example, EMOTION or TEMPERATURE. Further application of the statistical method to a larger corpus of metaphorical expressions may help to find a rule-governed, systematic connection between the similarity of domains and conventional metaphors.

Keywords: conceptual metaphors, basic domains

Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2013

The goal of the paper is to investigate the role of motion in Force Dynamics, a framework develop... more The goal of the paper is to investigate the role of motion in Force Dynamics, a framework developed by Talmy (1976, 1988, 2000) and adopted by, for example, Sweetser (1982, 1991), Johnson (1987), Pinker (1989, 1997), Jackendoff (1990) and Brandt (1992). To this aim, descriptions of force-dynamic schemas (gestalts) by Johnson (1987) and Talmy (2000) were analyzed to prove that both authors often use the word force metonymically to refer to motion or, more specifically, to the moving object, its velocity or trajectory, which accounts for vagueness and sometimes even inaccuracy of description. The conclusions of our study were then applied to the analysis of 50 metaphors of motion, which showed that all of them can be characterized by just four force-motion schemas, differing from one another in terms of continuity, application of forces, as well as spatial and temporal constraints of motion.

The goal of the paper is mathematical verification of various hypotheses concerning the cognitive... more The goal of the paper is mathematical verification of various hypotheses concerning the cognitive efficiency of human categorization. To this aim two calculus-based mathematical models are constructed to account for the crucial features of human categorization: prototypicality and basic level primacy. The first model allows to calculate and compare the cognitive efficiency of the prototype and definition based categories, while the second one explicates the cognitive prominence of the basic level categories. Additionally, the models account for cultural and specialist knowledge variability of categorization as well as the link between the limited human brain capacity and categorization. Both models can be also be used to predict and extrapolate the results of psycho-linguistic experiments.