Idealized cognitive models scripts frames and cultural models

Idealized cognitive models, scripts, frames and cultural models Bárbara Eizaga Rebollar May 2015

ICMs, scripts, frames & cultural models Semantic properties & relations are constrained & informed by the categories and relations that we: 1. perceive in nature, 2. have experience of in the world around us, 3. and conceive of in abstract fields such as knowledge & moral or ethical behaviour. The meanings of language expressions reflect speakers’ perceptions of the objects they refer to.

ICMs Meaning is embedded in human experience, so the meaning of restaurant is related to CUSTOMER, WAITER, BILL, ORDERING, EATING. The experiential structure can be known as: frame, schema, script, or idealized cognitive model. Cognitive linguistics/ semantics relation to their frame. defines words in

ICMs, scripts, frames & cultural models Definition: A script, frame or ICM is a structure that describes appropriate sequences of events in a particular context. The structure is an interconnected whole made up of slots: what is in one slot affects what can be in another. It is a predetermined, stereotyped sequence of actions that defines a well-known situation, so it handles everyday situations. Objects within a frame, script or ICM are common ground.

ICMs, scripts, frames & cultural models To explain the relationship between linguistic knowledge & encyclopaedic knowledge, Fillmore Lakoff proposed frames idealized cognitive models (ICMs) based on speakers’ experience of the world & rooted in their culture.

ICMs, scripts, frames & cultural models Fillmore & Lakoff claim that our knowledge about words (f. ins. bachelor) is partly dictionary-type an a encyclopaedia-type entry definition (frame or ICM) ‘an unmarried man’ cultural knowledge about bachelorhood & marriage semantic knowledge encyclopaedic knowledge

ICMs Speakers apply the word bachelor within a typical marriage ICM: a monogamous union between eligible people, involving romantic love, . . . This idealized model governs our use of the word bachelor and restrains from applying it to celibate priests.

ICMs, scripts, frames & cultural models Conclusion: Ø Using a word implies combining semantic knowledge & encyclopaedic knowledge. Ø The ICM of a word may represent an idealized version of the world that does not include all possible real-world situations. Ø Encyclopedic knowledge is used to properly understand a concept, and this knowledge is all interconnected in our minds. Ø ICMs organize the knowledge associated with common events.

Example of script, frame or ICM When we talk about eating out, we think in terms of ICMs such as the following (Schank & Abelson, 1977): Roles: customer (c), waiter (w), cook. Props: menu, food, tables, chairs, cutlery, bill, … Condition: customer is hungry & has money. ØScene 1: Entering C goes into restaurant, looks for a table, decides where to sit & goes to a table. ØScene 2: Ordering C signals to w and asks for menu, s gives menu to c, c reads menu, chooses and orders food, w orders food to cook, cook prepares food.

Example of script, frame or ICM ØScene 3: Eating Cook gives food to w, w gives food to c, c eats food. ØScene 4: Paying C signals to w & asks for bill, w writes bill & gives it to c, c pays & leaves tip. ØScene 5: Exiting C leaves restaurant There are many variations on this general script having to do with different types of restaurants or procedures.

Example of script, frame or ICM The vocabulary in the ICM evoked by eating out shows how its semantic associations are organized: ØSome are logically necessary: you can’t exit from a place before being in it. ØSome are conventional & can vary: in some restaurants you pay before getting the food. Most of what we hear can be interpreted wholly or partially as structured knowledge arranged into information slots. Speaker presupposes it when constructing a text so that understanding went to a restaurant implies invoking the restaurant script.

Types of ICMs, scripts or frames 1. Locational and configurational ICMs: Ø a locational frame accounts for deixis, such as the meaning of HERE. Deictic expressions require a frame to be interpreted, since they refer to a speech act: tense, person, spatial deixis (this, here), & definite/indefinite. ØRECTANGLE is an example of a configurational ICM. 2. A word allows the speaker & hearer to focus their attention on only part of an entire frame:

Types of ICMs, scripts or frames Ø RISK: any given use refers to only part of the RISK frame Ø My dad wasted most of the morning on the bus reference to relationships, working day, time as a commodity, & the fact that the bus was in service. 3. Relationships between domains: ØBasic ICMs: grounded in embodied human experience vs. abstract domains. ØA concept may be framed in many ICMs simultaneously: the ICM of HUMAN BEING, or of the letter T.

Types of ICMs, scripts or frames 4. Many concepts require a context: vegetarian requires a meat-eating culture as context. 5. Polysemy can be understood as a multiplicity of frames for a single item: MOUTH can be framed against BODY, CAVE, BOTTLE or RIVER. 6. The range of frames available for a given item may be language-specific: languages differ in this way, making items untranslatable by including cultural references.

References Ø Allan, K. 2000, Natural Language Semantics. Cornwall: Blackwell. Ø Fillmore, Charles J. (1977). "Scenes-and-frames semantics". In A. Zampolli, ed. Linguistic Structures Processing. Amsterdam: North-Holland: 55 -81. Ø Lakoff, G. (1987) “Cognitive models and prototype theory, ” in Ulric Neisser (Ed. ) Concepts and Conceptual Development: Ecological and Intellectual Factors in Categorization New York, Cambridge University Press: 63 -100. Ø Saeed, J. I. 1997. Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Ø Schank, R. C. (1975). Conceptual Information Processing. New York: Elsevier. Ø Schank, R. & Abelson, R. (1977). Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding: An inquiry into human knowledge structure. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.