Vyv Evans

MA in Cognitive Linguistics | MA in Language, Communication and Cognition |
| MA in Anthropological Linguistics |
| Details for MAs here |

My research relates to the 'school' of linguistics and cognitive science known as Cognitive Linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics is an approach to language and mind which places central importance on meaning, the role of cognition and the embodiment of experience. I specialise in cognitive semantics, particularly conceptual structure, conceptual projection, lexical semantics, the semantics of grammar and semantic change. My research has focused on investigating spatial and temporal cognition, and the nature of the linguistic and conceptual resources that we as humans marshal in service of meaning-construction. My book on spatial representation in language, co-authored with Andrea Tyler, was published in 2003 by Cambridge, and is entitled 'The Semantics of English Prepositions'. A book on time was published in 2004 by John Benjamins and is entitled 'The Structure of Time'. I have written a major textbook on 'Cognitive Linguistics' with Melanie Green, published January 2006 with Edinburgh University Press and Lawrence Erlbaum. I am also currently writing a theoretical monograph How Words Mean which develops the Theory of Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models, also known as ‘LCCM Theory’. This book is to be published by Oxford University Press. I am also one of the editors of the 'Advances in Cognitive Linguistics' book series published by Equinox.

Click here for an annotated Cognitive Linguistics reading list.

Vyvyan Evans
Professor of Cognitive Linguistics
School of Language, Literature and Communication,
University of Brighton

From September 2008:
Professor of Linguistics
School of Linguistics & English Language,
Bangor University

President of the UK-Cognitive Linguistics Association

Past position 2001-2006:
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & English Language
University of Sussex

PhD in Linguistics received from Georgetown University, December 2000.

Email contact: vyv AT vyvevans.net

Books

Monographs:

How Words Mean

The Structure of Time

The Semantics of English Prepositions

Textbooks:	Cognitive Linguistics	Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics
Edited volumes:	Cognitive Linguistics Reader	New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics	Language, Cognition and Space

How Words Mean:

Lexical concepts, cognitive models and meaning construction

Vyvyan Evans

To be published in 2009 by Oxford University Press.

[Sample chapter]

How words mean introduces a new approach to the role of words and other linguistic units in the construction of meaning. It does so by addressing the interaction between non-linguistic concepts and the meanings encoded in language. It develops an account of how words are understood when we produce and hear language in situated contexts of use. It proposes two theoretical constructs, the lexical concept and the cognitive model. These are central to the accounts of lexical representation and meaning construction developed, giving rise to the Theory of Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models (or LCCM Theory).

Vyvyan Evans integrates and advances recent developments in cognitive science, particularly in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology. He builds a framework for the understanding and analysis of meaning that is at once descriptively adequate and psychologically plausible. In so doing he also addresses current issues in lexical semantics and semantic compositionality, polysemy, figurative language, and the semantics of time and space, and writes in a way that will be accessible to students of linguistics and cognitive science at advanced undergraduate level and above.

Notable Features of the Book

· Synthesises and advances recent work in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology in terms of the nature of lexical representation and meaning construction.

· Presents a revised theory of the role of words in language understanding.

· Addresses the status of contemporary theories of grammar and meaning with respect to their
contribution to language understanding

· Addresses key issues such as figurative language and polysemy, providing a

revised way of thinking about these phenomena.

· Provides up-to-date coverage of important areas of semantic structure

including Time and Space.

· Written so as to be accessible to experts in linguistics and cognitive science, as

well as educated lay-readers

Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction

1. Words and meaning

2. Towards a new account of word meaning
3. Cognitive linguistics

4. Word meaning in LCCM Theory

Part II Lexical representation

5. Symbolic units

6. Semantic structure

7. Lexical concepts

8. Polysemy
9. Conceptual structure
10. Cognitive models

Part III Compositional semantics

11. Lexical concept selection

12. Lexical concept integration

13. Interpretation

Part IV Figurative language and thought

14. Metaphor and metonymy

15. The semantics of Time

Part V Conclusion

16. Outlook

The Structure of Time:

Language, meaning and temporal cognition

Vyvyan Evans

Published by John Benjamins
(Human Cognitive Processing series)
Hardback (March 2004)

Paperback (January 2006) [Book details]
90 272 2367 X / USD 42.95 / EUR 36.00

[How to order]    [Sample chapter]

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).

Contents

I. Orientation
1. The problem of time
2. The phenomenology of time
3. The elaboration of temporal concepts
4. The nature of meaning
5. The conceptual metaphor approach to time
6. A theory of word-meaning: Principled polysemy
II. Concepts for time
7. The Duration Sense
8. The Moment Sense
9. The Instance Sense
10. The Event Sense
11. The Matrix Sense
12. The Agentive Sense
13. The Measurement-system Sense
14. The Commodity Sense
15. The Present, Past and Future
III. Models for time
16. Time, motion and agency
17. Two complex cognitive models of temporality
18. A third complex model of temporality
19. Time in modern physics
20. The structure of time

Hardback edition

Quotes
“Time belongs to the bedrock of human cognition. Beginning before birth and remaining for the most part below the horizon of consciousness, temporal cognition is a mystery not easily penetrated. The Structure of Time is an indispensable investigation, rich in theory and examples, into the phenomenology and the linguistics of the way we think about time.”
Mark Turner, Institute Professor, Case Western Reserve University

With this work, Cognitive Linguistics finally turns its attention from Space to Time.”
Jordan Zlatev, Lund University, Sweden

This work is interesting, creative, thought-provoking, and timely (no pun intended)”
Wallace Chafe, University of California at Santa Barbara

“[...] thought provoking and inspiring. It is a valuable interdisciplinary source for insight in several domains, including lexical semantics, conceptual metaphor theory, and cognitive science in the area of time.”
Thora Tenbrink, University of Bremen, Germany, on Linguist List 15-2430 (2004)

The Semantics of English Prepositions:

Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning, and Cognition

**Now in paperback**

Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans

Published June 2003 by Cambridge University Press

Paperback: ISBN-13: 9780521044639
Hardback: 10: 0521814308 | 13: 9780521814300

E-book edition: B00074QG3O

[How to order]

[Preface]   [Sample chapter]   [Publisher]

Using a cognitive linguistics perspective, this book provides the most comprehensive, theoretical analysis of the semantics of English prepositions available. All English prepositions originally coded spatial relations between two physical entities; while retaining their original meaning, prepositions have also developed a rich set of non-spatial meanings. In this innovative study, Tyler and Evans argue that all these meanings are systematically grounded in the nature of human spatio-physical experience. The original ‘spatial scenes’ provide the foundation for the extension of meaning from the spatial to the more abstract. This analysis articulates a new methodology that distinguishes between a conventional meaning and an interpretation produced for understanding the preposition in context, as well as establishing which of several competing senses should be taken as the primary sense. Together, the methodology and framework are sufficiently articulated to generate testable predictions and allow the analysis to be applied to additional prepositions.

Korean language edition published 2004

[Preface for the Korean edition]

Contents
1. The nature of meaning
2. Embodied meaning and spatial experience
3. Towards a model of principled polysemy: spatial scenes and conceptualization
4. The case of over
5. The vertical axis
6. Spatial particles of orientation
7. Bounded landmarks
8. Conclusion

Japanese language edition published 2005 by Kenkyusha Publishing Company



Cognitive Linguistics:

An Introduction

Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green

***This book is in print and available for order. See ‘How to order’ below for ordering options***

Published January 2006 in North America by Lawrence Erlbaum (Taylor & Francis), and by Edinburgh University Press throughout the rest of the world.

Hardback: 0-8058-6013-4 (N. America) 0748618317 (Rest of world)
Paperback: 0-8058-6014-2 (N. America), 0748618325 (Rest of world)

[How to order]      [Sample chapter]

Other editions:
Korean language edition published by Hankookmunhwasa Publishing, April 2008.

Chinese language edition to be published by Beijing World Publishing Corporation.

An authoritative general introduction to cognitive linguistics, this book provides up-to-date coverage of all areas of the field and sets in context recent developments within cognitive semantics (including primary metaphors, conceptual blending and Principled Polysemy), and cognitive approaches to grammar (including Radical Construction Grammar and Embodied Construction Grammar). While all topics are introduced in terms accessible to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, this work is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed to serve as a reference work for scholars from linguistics and neighbouring disciplines who wish to gain a better understanding of cognitive linguistics. The book is divided into three parts (The cognitive linguistics enterprise; Cognitive semantics; and Cognitive approaches to grammar), and is therefore suitable for a range of different course types, both in terms of length and level, as well as in terms of focus. In addition to defining the field, the text also includes appropriate critical evaluation. Complementary and potentially competing approaches are explored both within the cognitive approach and beyond it. In particular, cognitive linguistics is compared and contrasted with formal approaches including Generative Grammar, formal approaches to semantics, and Relevance Theory.

Contents (830 pages)

I. Overview of the Cognitive Linguistics Enterprise
1. What Does it Mean to Know a Language?
2. The Nature of Cognitive Linguistics: Assumptions and Commitments
3. Universals and Variation in Language, Thought and Experience
4. Language in Use: Knowledge of Language, Language Change and Language Acquisition
II. Cognitive Semantics
5. What is Cognitive Semantics?
6. Embodiment and Conceptual Structure
7. The Encyclopaedic View of Meaning
8. Categorisation and Idealised Cognitive Models
9. Metaphor and Metonymy
10. Word-meaning and Radial Categories
11. Meaning-construction and Mental Spaces
12. Conceptual Blending
13. Cognitive Semantics in Context
III. Cognitive Approaches to Grammar
14. What is a Cognitive Approach to Grammar?
15. The Conceptual Basis of Grammar
16. Cognitive Grammar: Word Classes
17. Cognitive Grammar: Constructions
18. Cognitive Grammar: Tense, Aspect, Mood and Voice
19. Motivating a Construction Grammar
20. The Architecture of Construction Grammars
21. Grammaticalisation
22. Cognitive Approaches to Grammar in Context
IV. Conclusion
23. Assessing the Cognitive Linguistics Enterprise

Quotes
"This book provides a clear, careful and comprehensive introduction to what the authors call the “cognitive linguistics enterprise”, including cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar, synchronic and diachronic approaches, linguistic and socio-cultural perspectives, universal and language specific matters, older topics such as prototype theory, newer ones, such as blending and much more."
Brigitte Nerlich, University of Nottingham

“Its breadth is unparalleled, the incorporation of exercises is a definite strength as well.”
Adele Goldberg, Princeton University.

“I whole-heartedly congratulate Evans & Green for their laborious work and, accordingly, recommend it to be used as a textbook … indispensable reading.”

The Linguist List

“This massive yet reasonably priced book provides a very useful guide to major parts of the 'cognitive' strand of linguistics and I have no doubt that every cognitive linguist will want it as a reference book.” – THES

Korean language edition
Hankookmunhwasa Publishing

[Preface to the Korean language edition]





A Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics

Vyvyan Evans

Published by University of Utah Press (N. America) and Edinburgh University Press (rest of world)

Paperback: 978-0-87480-914-5 (N. America)
Paperback: 0748622802/ 978 0 7486 2280 1 (rest of world)
256 pages

Published May 2007.

A Korean language edition will be published by Hankookmunhwasa Publishing in 2009.

A Polish language edition is in preparation to be published by TAiWPN UNIVERSITAS

[How to Order]    [UK Publisher] [US Publisher]

Cognitive linguistics is one of the most rapidly expanding schools in linguistics with, by now, an impressive and complex technical vocabulary. This alphabetic guide gives an up-to-date introduction to the key terms in cognitive linguistics, covering all the major theories, approaches, ideas and many of the relevant theoretical constructs. The Glossary also features a brief introduction to cognitive linguistics, a detailed annotated reading list and a listing of some of the key researchers in cognitive linguistics. The Glossary can be used as a companion volume to Cognitive Linguistics, by Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green, or as a stand-alone introduction to cognitive linguistics and its two hitherto best developed sub-branches: cognitive semantics, and cognitive approaches to grammar.

Key features:

·       A handy and easily understandable pocket guide for anyone embarking on courses in cognitive linguistics, and language and mind.

·       Supplies numerous cross-references to related terms.

·       Includes coverage of newer areas such as Radical Construction Grammar, Embodied Construction Grammar, Primary Metaphor Theory and Principled Polysemy.

"This Glossary is impressively exhaustive in its coverage. It will be an indispensable aid to students in linguistics and other disciplines who need to understand a theory which is now coming of age, and advanced researchers will also find it a useful companion both for reference and for helping to access original texts."
Chris Sinha, Professor of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, and President of the UK-CLA.

"Cognitive Linguistics is now developing rapidly, and, like all new fields, this one has developed its own technical meta-language. Anyone needing a jargon-free guide through this fascinating new terrain will find exactly what is needed in Vyv Evans’ joined-up explanations of the landmark concepts and theories. The Glossary is far more than an alphabetical list – it gives unity and coherence to the Cognitive Linguistics project."

Professor Paul Chilton, University of Lancaster

The Cognitive Linguistics Reader

Edited by Vyvyan Evans, Benjamin K. Bergen and Jörg Zinken

Published as the first volume in the Advances in Cognitive Linguistics series by Equinox Publishers

Published November 2007

[How to order]      [Book details]

Cognitive Linguistics is the most rapidly expanding school in modern Linguistics. It aims to create a scientific approach to the study of language, incorporating the tools of philosophy, neuroscience and computer science. Cognitive approaches to language were initially based on philosophical thinking about the mind, but more recent work emphasizes the importance of convergent evidence from a broad empirical and methodological base.

The Cognitive Linguistics Reader brings together the key writings of the last two decades, both the classic foundational pieces and contemporary work. The essays and articles - selected to represent the full range, scope and diversity of the Cognitive Linguistics enterprise - are grouped by theme into sections with each section separately introduced. The book opens with a broad overview of Cognitive Linguistics designed for the introductory reader and closes with detailed further reading to guide the reader through the proliferating literature.

The Reader is both an ideal introduction to the full breadth and depth of Cognitive Linguistics and a single work of reference bringing together the most significant work in the field.

Contents:

Introduction
Acknowledgements
List of contributors
Original sources of papers

I Overview
1. Evans, Vyvyan, Benjamin K. Bergen and Jörg Zinken. The Cognitive Linguistics Enterprise:
An Overview. [PDF file]

II Empirical methods in cognitive linguistics
Sectional Introduction
2. Gibbs, Raymond W. Why Cognitive Linguists Should Care More About
Empirical Methods.
3. Cuyckens, Hubert, Sandra Dominiek and Sally Rice. Towards an Empirical Lexical Semantics.
4. Stefanowitsch, Anatol and Stefan Th. Gries. Collostructions: Investigating the Interaction of Words and Constructions. 5. Coulson, Seana and Cyma Van Petten. Conceptual Integration and Metaphor: An Event-related Potential Study.

III Prototypes, polysemy and word-meaning
Sectional Introduction
6. Lakoff, George. Cognitive Models and Prototype Theory.
7. Geeraerts, Dirk. Where does Prototypicality Come From?
8. Tyler, Andrea and Vyvyan Evans. Reconsidering Prepositional Polysemy Networks: The Case of over.
9. Fillmore, Charles. Frame Semantics.

IV Metaphor, metonymy and blending
Sectional Introduction
10. Lakoff, George. The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor.
11. Grady, Joseph. A Typology of Motivation for Conceptual Metaphor: Correlation vs. Resemblance.
12. Radden, Günter and Zoltán Kövecses. Towards a Theory of Metonymy.
13. Fauconnier, Gilles and Mark Turner. Conceptual Integration Networks.
14. Grady, Joseph, Todd Oakley and Seana Coulson. Blending and Metaphor.

V Cognitive approaches to grammar
Sectional Introduction
15. Langacker, Ronald W. An Introduction to Cognitive Grammar.
16. Talmy, Leonard. The Relation of Grammar to Cognition.
17. Fillmore, Charles, Paul Kay and Mary Catherine O’Connor. Regularity and Idiomaticity: The Case of let alone.
18. Goldberg, Adele. Constructions: A New Theoretical Approach to Language.
19. Bergen, Benjamin K. and Nancy Chang. Embodied Construction Grammar in Simulation-based Language Understanding.
20. Croft, William. Logical and Typological Arguments for Radical Construction Grammar.

VI Conceptual structure in language
Sectional Introduction
21. Talmy, Leonard. Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition.
22. Evans, Vyvyan. How we Conceptualise Time: Language, Meaning and Temporal Cognition.
23. Talmy, Leonard. How Language Structures Space.

VII Language acquisition, diversity and change
Sectional Introduction
24. Tomasello, Michael. A Usage-based Approach to Child Language Acquisition.
25. Melissa Bowerman and Soonja Choi. Space Under Construction: Language-specific Spatial Categorization in First Language Acquisition.
26. Boroditsky, Lera. Does Language Shape Thought? English and Mandarin Speakers' Conceptions of Time.
27. Slobin, Dan. Language and Thought Online: Cognitive Consequences of Linguistic Relativity.
28. Croft, William. Linguistic Selection: An Utterance-based Evolutionary Theory of Language.

Annotated guide to further reading

New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics

Edited by Vyvyan Evans and Stéphanie Pourcel

This edited volume is in preparation, and under
contract to John Benjamins (to appear in the Human
Cognitive Processing series)

[Sample chapter: Introduction]   [Publisher]

This volume forms a coherent collection of original papers relating to new directions in Cognitive Linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics is now, 25 years after the publication of one its seminal texts, Metaphors We Live By, a mature theoretical and empirical enterprise, with, by now, a voluminous associated literature. Indeed, it is arguably the most rapidly expanding ‘school’ in modern linguistics, and one of the most exciting areas of research within the interdisciplinary project known as cognitive science. As such, Cognitive Linguistics is increasingly attracting a broad readership both within linguistics as well as from neighbouring disciplines including other cognitive and social sciences, and from disciplines within the humanities.

Nevertheless, one of the difficulties attendant upon the proliferation of published research in Cognitive Linguistics has been the recycling of much of the early theoretical apparatus in the often very detailed descriptive analyses that have followed since. A further perceived weakness of Cognitive Linguistics, particularly as articulated most frequently by psychologists and other cognitive scientists, has been the lack of a rigorous methodological ‘toolkit’, and the absence, until relatively recently, of an appropriately broad empirical base.

This edited volume constitutes a venue in which genuinely new directions in Cognitive Linguistics are presented. In particular, the volumes survey new approaches to established phenomena in Cognitive Linguistics, including approaches to figurative language, lexicalisation patterns, cross-linguistic variation, grammar, and the relationship between language, conceptual structure and experience. In addition, the volumes also showcase a representative selection of both new methodological and empirical approaches now increasingly being deployed in Cognitive Linguistics. A further important aspect of the volumes is that leading experts explore new areas of research within Cognitive Linguistics, e.g., cognitive sociolinguistics. In addition the volumes showcase recent trends in the application of Cognitive Linguistics, including ‘critical’ cognitive linguistics, cognitive stylistics, applied cognitive linguistics and cognitive discourse analysis.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Vyvyan Evans & Stéphanie Pourcel

I Approaches to Semantics: Theory and Method
1. Meaning as input: The instructional perspective
Peter Harder
2. Semantic representation in LCCM Theory
Vyvyan Evans
3. Behavioral profiles: A corpus-based approach to cognitive semantic analysis
Stefan Th. Gries & Dagmar Divjak
4. Polysemy, syntax and variation: A usage-based method for cognitive semantics
Dylan Glynn

II Approaches to Metaphor and Blending: Theory and Method
5. Solving the riddle of metaphor

Ziwei Mimi Huang
6. When is a linguistic metaphor a conceptual metaphor?

Daniel Casasanto
7. Generalised integration networks

Gilles Fauconnier
8. Genitives and proper names in constructional blends

Barbara Dancygier

III Approaches to Grammar: Theory and Method
9. What’s (in) a construction? Non-predictability vs. entrenchment as criterial attributes
Arne Zeschel
10 . Words as constructions
Ewa Dabrowska
11. Constructions and constructional meaning
Ronald Langacker
12. Partonomic structures in syntax
Edith Moravcsik

IV Language, Embodiment and Cognition: Theory and Application
13. Language as biocultural niche and social institution
Chris Sinha

14. Understanding embodiment: Psychophysiological Models

in traditional medical systems

Magda Altman

15. Get and the grasp schema: A new approach to conceptual modelling in image schema semantics

Paul Chilton

16. Motion scenarios in cognitive process

Stéphanie Pourcel

V Extensions and Applications of Cognitive Linguistics
17. Toward a social cognitive linguistics
William Croft
18. Cognitive and linguistic factors in evaluating text quality: global versus local?
Ruth Berman and Bracha Nir-Sagiv
19. Reference points and dominion in narratives: A discourse level exploration of the reference point model of anaphora
Sarah van Vliet
20. The dream as blend in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive
Johanna Rubba
21. “I was in that room!”: Conceptual integration of context and content in a writer’s vs. a prosecutor’s description of a murder
Esther Pascual