Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University of Babylon

College of Education for Human Sciences

Department of English

Cognitive Stylistics

Prepared by

Ula Esam Abd Al-Hussein

And

Sarah Mohammed Abbas

Supervised by

Prof. Iman Mingher (Ph. D.)

Introduction

Cognitive stylistics is a discipline that draws from cognitive science,

cognitive linguistics, and literary studies to analyse texts. cognitive stylistics
attempts to ground stylistic variation in language use in cognitive processes.
Hence writers will encode cognitive processes in particular forms of language
so that readers are able to retrieve these cognitive processes of the writers
through understanding of the specific linguistic structures that have been used In
their writings , this means that texts are able to represent such cognitive
processes (Stockwell ,2002: 6).
1.Definitions of Cognitive Stylistics

Cognitive stylistics is a sub-discipline in the field of applied linguistics.

Stockwell (2002: 6) observes that "cognitive stylistics provides a new way of
thinking about literature involving the application of cognitive linguistics and
psychology to the literary texts''.

He also notifies that cognitive stylistics is more concerned with

presenting a descriptive and detailed account of linguistic features of a text in a
mechanistic and non-evaluative way. Ibid (2002:15) asserts that cognitive
stylistics looks at people as cognitive human beings who rely on their
background knowledge and experiences to understand literary texts. That's to
say cognitive stylistics offers important means for the reader to have a clear
view of text and context, circumstances and uses, knowledge and beliefs. It can
thus be seen as a starting point for readers to understand and approach how a
literary context is built. Freeman (2013:253) suggests that literary texts are "the
products of cognizing minds", and he describes interpretations as "the products
of other cognizing minds in the context of the physical and socio-cultural worlds
in which they have been created and read"

A similar view of cognitive stylistics is reported by Woldemariam (2015:18)

claims that cognitive stylistics looks not only at the text but also at the mind's
contribution to reading. In other terms, cognitive stylistics explores, how certain
types of metaphorical images can only be understood by using the reader's
knowledge, beliefs and inferences .

Jeffries and McIntyre (2010) claim that cognitive stylistics tries to capture
how readers employ their real life schematic knowledge in the interpretation of
literary texts. many scholars expanded the boundaries of linguistic analysis of
literature by using different theories such as schema theory, conceptual
metaphor theory, text world theory, blending theory, mental space theories etc.
All these theories provide frameworks for the analysis of literature and focus on
reading and cognition ( cited in Patil, 2014:82-83)..

2. The Principles of the Cognitive Stylistics

According to Stockwell (2002:235) :

 Language is not a separate part of human experience, but is fundamental

to it. Language is therefore natural in origin, rather than artificial, or
technological, or part of culture; these aspects emerged interconnectedly
and later.
 Language is embodied in the sense that much of it is dependent on the
fact that we all basically share the same human shape, condition, and
experience. So it is not surprising when we see common metaphors or
other language structures across the world's languages.
 Language is built on and adapts our other perceptual faculties, such as
sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, and our sense of physical space and
movement. There is no separate 'language module' in the brain. Patterns in
language are thus continuous with these other aspects of experience.
 Language includes cognition, perception, memory, anticipation,
speculative modeling, social relationships, meanings, and emotions, and
so a disciplined account of it should encompass these matters as well.
 Language description must include an account not only of the constraints
and habitual patterns of the system but also of the creative flexibility and
imaginative innovation at the center of language practice.
 3. Some Theories of Cognitive Stylistics :

There are many theories concerning cognitive stylistics such as schema

theory , conceptual metaphor theory , text to world theory , and
foregrounding theory .

In this presentation , only schema and conceptual metaphor theories will be

considered .

3.1Schema Theory

Anderson (1983:5) defines schema as an individual's collection of

background knowledge and experience that provide a meaningful interpretation
of new information. Schema theory, as Simpson (2004:89) asserts, appears to be
a "significant landmark" in cognitive stylistic study. It basically focuses on how
knowledge is mentally represented in the mind of individuals and used to
interpret information. Rumelhart (1980:34) argues that schema theory studies
the process of how people combine their world knowledge to the interpretation
of texts through the process of reorganizing the existing schemes to create a new
perspective of the world. Schemata, as Stockwell (2002: 87) puts it, offer an
important means to be used by readers in understanding information that is both
explicit and implicit in texts.

Accordingly, the idea behind the use of schema theory in the study of
literature, as notified by Marszalek (2012: 119), is that interpreting any kind of
literary text depends, to a great extent, on the reader's background knowledge
and prior experiences. That's to say, when reading a text, people's interpretation
relies on their own knowledge of the surrounding world.

3.2Conceptual Metaphor Theory

It is considered to be very important in cognitive stylistics. It was

conceived in the early works as "a series of asymmetric mappings stored in
long-term memory uniting structure from a more concrete source domain to a
more abstract target domain" (Evans 2010: 76). Likewise, Ruekijo (2007:35)
admits that metaphors extend or alter the schemata by generating new ways of
mapping the real world on the textual world. Metaphor in cognitive linguistics is
not only the textual realization of a rhetorical trope but also is treated as a
fundamentally important aspect of human conceptualization.

Lakoff and Johnson (1980:115) and Turner (1987: 458) broaden the scope
of conceptual metaphor; they argue that it is not limited to individual words
rather, it involves reconceptualization of a whole idea or experience in terms of
another. They also demonstrate that metaphors in literature develop new and
challenging ways to interpret the world by establishing new schemata. The
invention of new conceptual metaphors in a text can produce considerable and
significant changes in the way people perceive the world around them.
Conclusion

Cognitive stylistics is a discipline that draws from cognitive science,

cognitive linguistics, and literary studies to analyze the language used in the
texts by using the theories of Cognitive Stylistics, particularly, schema theory,
cognitive metaphor theory , these theories conclude that style is the production
and the creativity of human mind , Cognitive stylistics tries to view and analyze
style as a cognitive process of mind that goes beyond the boundaries of surface
meaning to unearth the truth meaning .
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