Article

How to Extend Linguistic Motivationism Using Words as Tools

by Carmen Granito

in Versus n. 117, Miscellaneo, pp.71-94

Abstract (english)

The main purpose of this work is to propose a way to overcome the explanatory limitations of those linguistic approaches based on a motivationist claim, namely the idea that the semantics and
syntax of languages are motivated/constrained by perceptual and bodily structures (Evans & Green 2006). To this purpose, I will present two forms of motivationism, both descending from the phenomenological tradition: embodied cognitive
linguistics (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Talmy 2000) and Brentanian perceptual semantics (Albertazzi et al. 2010). After pointing out two problems of motivationism, namely the origin of abstract
concepts and the feedback of language, culture and natural environment on conceptualisation, I will discuss some attempts to solve them: the amalgamated cognition (Rowlands 2010) and
the external cognition (Fusaroli & Paolucci 2011) hypotheses.
Finally, as a possible solution, I will propose a minimal extension of the embodied framework by importing the notion of words as attentive and classifying social tools.