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Language and Ideology. Volume 1: Cognitive Theoretical Approaches LANGUAGE AND IDEOLOGY VOL. I AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE General Editor E. F. KONRAD KOERNER (University of Ottawa) Series IV – CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY Advisory Editorial Board Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles); Lyle Campbell (Christchurch, N.Z.) Sheila Embleton (Toronto); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh) Manfred Krifka (Berlin); Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin) E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Hans-Jürgen Sasse (Köln) Volume 204 René Dirven, Bruce Hawkins and Esra Sandikcioglu (eds.) Language and Ideology Volume I: Theoretical cognitive approaches LANGUAGE AND IDEOLOGY volume 1: theoretical cognitive approaches Edited by RENÉ DIRVEN University of Duisburg BRUCE HAWKINS Illinois State University ESRA SANDIKCIOGLU University of Duisburg JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed 8 Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Language and ideology / edited by René Dirven, Bruce Hawkins, Esra Sandikcioglu. p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 204) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Language and languages--Philosophy. 2. Ideology. 3. Cognitive grammar. I. Dirven, René. II. Hawkins, Bruce Wayne, 1954-. III.Sandikcioglu, Esra. IV. Series. P106.L314 2000 401--dc21 00-052965 Vol.I ISBN 90 272 3711 5 (Eur.) / 1 55619 730 6 (US) CIP © 2001 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA <TARGET<R</REF E F "toc" DOCINFO AUTHOR"haw">"p"roh">"pee">"gru">"maz">"how">"nes">"jon"> "" TITLEi "Table of Contents" SUBJECTr"> "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, Volume 204" KEYWORDS"" SIZE HEIGHT "220" WIDTH "150" VOFFSET "4"> Table of Contents Incorporating Tensions: On the treatment of ideology in cognitive linguistics 1 Bruce Hawkins Language and Ideology: An interview with George Lakoff 23 Roberta Pires de Oliveira Pragmatism, Ideology and Embodiment: William James and the philosophical foundations of cognitive linguisticslbt 49 Tim Rohrer Does Cognitive Linguistics Live up to its Name? 83 Bert Peeters Ideological Ground and Relevant Interpretation in a Cognitive Semantics 107 Peter Grundy and Yan Jiang Linguistic Dilemmas of Afrocentricity: The diaspora experience 141 Ali A. Mazrui and Alamin M. Mazrui Age/Gender Morphemes Inherit the Biases of their Underlying Dimensions 165 Harry Howard How Pervasive are Sexist Ideologies in Grammar? 197 Tore Nesset Cognitive Linguistics and the Marxist Approach to Ideology 227 Peter E. Jones <R</REF</TARGET E F "koe">"hut">""toc"> i ndex"> vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Linguistics and Ideology in 19th and 20th Century Studies of Language 253 E. F.K. Koerner Cultural and Conceptual Relativism, Universalism and the Politics of Linguistics: Dilemmas of a would-be progressive linguistics 277 Christopher Hutton Index 297 <TARGET "haw" DOCINFO AUTHOR "Bruce Hawkins" TITLE "Incorporating Tensions" SUBJECT "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, Volume 204" KEYWORDS"" SIZE HEIGHT "220" WIDTH "150" VOFFSET "4"> Incorporating Tensions On the Treatment of Ideology in Cognitive Linguistics Bruce Hawkins Illinois State University Tension is an inevitable fact of human life. Tensions arise repeatedly in our professional lives as we encounter pragmatic circumstances which interfere with the realisation of our plans, ambitions and dreams. Tensions mount in our social lives as well, when acquaintances, friends and even loved ones fall short of our expectations for them. And in our most private moments, tensions may become almost overwhelming as we reflect on the differences between who we are and who we want to be. No matter where we go or what we do, we are guaranteed to encounter tension because human life is full of tension. Tension is clearly among the most uncomfortable of human experiences. As a result, the most common response to tension is probably avoidance. The extreme discomfort of tension drives some of us to try to escape from it by ingesting drugs or alcohol or by engaging in some other form of self-abusive behaviour. Some among us are even driven by the tensions inherent in human life to attempt to take, and all too often succeed in taking our own lives. Most of us, however, learn to direct our lives productively in pursuit of acceptable measures of creature comfort while also attending to something we may call happiness or spiritual fulfilment. These are clearly important goals in themselves, but they undoubtedly constitute also viable means of escaping from short-term and long-term tensions. It is important for us all to recognise that avoidance is not the only way to deal with tension. Tension can be engaged productively in ways that lead not to destructive behaviours but rather to growth. We see this productive 2 BRUCE HAWKINS engagement of tension when a unified group of workers negotiates accept- able working arrangements with an employer whose primary concerns are to maximise profits and minimise costs. We see productive engagement of tension when a young woman convinces her boyfriend that she can sincerely love him without expressing her love for him through sexual intimacy. And we experience productive engagement of tension whenever we struggle successfully to make sense of something that has puzzled us, plagued us, or even haunted us. This introduction highlights the experience of tension, because tension really lies at the heart of any study of ideology and our purpose in this volume is to introduce all researchers and linguists in general, and cognitive linguists in particular, to ideology as a relevant domain of linguistic inquiry. The disciplined study of ideology arises, at least in part, from the human experience of tension. Ideology is one of those human resources which, like language, generally remain outside the scope of human attention or reflec- tion. Like language, an object of inquiry with which linguists are much more familiar, ideology is a phenomenon that humans experience every day, possibly even every waking hour, but generally pay no reflective attention to until problems arise. Most often, the problem is a matter of conflict arising from distinct ideologies having come into contact. Such circumstances lead directly to tensions, which in turn lead to efforts to resolve the tensions. These are the circumstances under which our attention becomes riveted on the phenomenon of ideology itself. This volume presents a selected set of papers originally drafted for a theme session on “Language and Ideology”1 at the 6th International Cogni- tive Linguistics Conference (ICLC 6) in Stockholm, Sweden. In effect, this volume constitutes an invitation to the reader to engage in disciplined reflection on language-related experiences of tension. We want linguists to recognise the practical utility of the disciplinary resources of cognitive linguistics for the study of the relationship between ideology and language. Furthermore, we want to invite cognitive linguists to apply their analytic skills and creativity in the search for useful insights into ideology and into the tensions that arise from ideological differences. 1. The participants in this theme session are indebted to René Dirven and Esra Sandikcioglu for their efforts in conceptualising, planning and organising the session. INCORPORATING TENSIONS 3 At this initial juncture, it is important to acknowledge that this volume will undoubtedly raise more questions than it answers, and we not only accept this but recognise that it is entirely appropriate for a work of this kind. Our goal is not to close the book on the study of language and ideology. Quite to the contrary, we see our main purpose as being to open a discourse, ultimately cross-disciplinary in nature, on language and ideology. We hope that this discourse will continue productively for years. In our collective experience, cognitive linguistics has always proven to be open to explorations of language-related phenomena that other linguistic theories simply define outside their domain of inquiry. With this volume, we invite cognitive linguists to welcome the study of ideology into the domain of inquiry for cognitive linguistics. In effect, this is an invitation for cognitive linguists to incorporate tension productively into their vision of language and its relation to human experience. The challenge we pose for cognitive linguists is really that of embracing tension. To respond to our invitation, cognitive linguists must acknowledge the tensions of everyday life, embrace them within the domain of inquiry of cognitive linguistics and, ultimately, seek to contribute to understanding not only the tensions themselves but also productive ways to deal with those tensions. 1. The incorporative spirit of cognitive linguistics There is an incorporative spirit in cognitive linguistics (hereafter, CL) that sets it apart from many other contemporary approaches to linguistic theory. Critics of CL might see in this incorporative spirit a significant problem. Some might claim that it reflects an inability to define the domain of inquiry for linguistic theory in a sufficiently
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