Editing Semantics (section)

=== Cognitive semantics ===
{{main|Cognitive semantics}}

[[File:Hypotenuse.svg|thumb|alt=Diagram of a hypotenuse|Cognitive semantics is interested in the conceptual structures underlying language, which can be articulated through the contrast between profile and base. For instance, the term [[hypotenuse]] profiles a straight line against the background of a [[right-angled triangle]].]]

Cognitive semantics studies the problem of meaning from a psychological perspective or how the mind of the language user affects meaning. As a subdiscipline of [[cognitive linguistics]], it sees language as a wide cognitive ability that is closely related to the conceptual structures used to understand and represent the world.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Li|2021}} | {{harvnb|Taylor|2009|pp=73–74}} | {{harvnb|Croft|Cruse|2004|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=I6Z9H-eRSgoC&pg=PA1 1–3]}} }}</ref>{{efn|Cognitive semantics does not accept the idea of [[linguistic relativity]] associated with the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and holds instead that the underlying cognitive processes responsible for conceptual structures are independent of the language one speaks.{{sfn|Kortmann|2020|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0PoFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165 165]}}}} Cognitive semanticists do not draw a sharp distinction between linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the world and see them instead as interrelated phenomena.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2009|pp=73–74}}</ref> They study how the interaction between language and human cognition affects the conceptual organization in very general domains like space, time, causation, and action.<ref>{{harvnb|Li|2021}}</ref> The contrast between profile and base is sometimes used to articulate the underlying knowledge structure. The profile of a linguistic expression is the aspect of the knowledge structure that it brings to the foreground while the base is the background that provides the context of this aspect without being at the center of attention.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Taylor|2009|pp=74–75}} | {{harvnb|Enfield|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ei4CErNyxp0C&pg=PA152 152]}} }}</ref> For example, the profile of the word ''[[hypotenuse]]'' is a straight line while the base is a [[right-angled triangle]] of which the hypotenuse forms a part.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Taylor|2009|pp=74–75}} | {{harvnb|Taylor|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MZYgAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 38–40]}} }}</ref>{{efn|Other examples are the word ''island'', which profiles a landmass against the background of the surrounding water, and the word ''uncle'', which profiles a human adult male against the background of kinship relations.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2009|pp=74–75}}</ref>}}

Cognitive semantics further compares the conceptual patterns and [[Linguistic typology|linguistic typologies]] across languages and considers to what extent the cognitive conceptual structures of humans are universal or relative to their linguistic background.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Taylor|2009|p=85}} | {{harvnb|Li|2021}} }}</ref> Another research topic concerns the psychological processes involved in the application of grammar.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Li|2021}} | {{harvnb|Taylor|2009|pp=83–84}} }}</ref> Other investigated phenomena include categorization, which is understood as a cognitive heuristic to avoid information overload by regarding different entities in the same way,<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2009|pp=76–77}}</ref> and [[Embodied cognition|embodiment]], which concerns how the language user's bodily experience affects the meaning of expressions.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2009|p=82}}</ref>

[[Frame semantics (linguistics)|Frame semantics]] is an important subfield of cognitive semantics.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Mushayabasa|2014|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2QcSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 21]}} | {{harvnb|Shead|2011|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=feR5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 34–35]}} }}</ref> Its central idea is that the meaning of terms cannot be understood in isolation from each other but needs to be analyzed on the background of the conceptual structures they depend on. These structures are made explicit in terms of semantic frames. For example, words like bride, groom, and honeymoon evoke in the mind the frame of marriage.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Gawron|2011|pp=664–665, 669}} | {{harvnb|Fillmore|2009|pp=330–332}} }}</ref>