Abstract
The paper explores basic properties of language that can be explained by appealing to its main functions, namely, cognitive, communicative, and interpretive. Although the first two functions have always been recognized, it is only recently that the third one has been outlined (see Boldyrev, 2011______. (2011). O metayazyike kognitivnoy lingvistiki: kontsept kak edinitsa znaniya. Kognitivnyie issledovaniya yazyika, IX: Vzaimodeystvie kognitivnyih i yazyikovyih struktur. Moskva: Institut yazyikoznaniya RAN; Tambov: Izdatelskiy dom TGU im. G.R. Derzhavina, 23-32., 2012Boldyrev, N. N. (2012). K voprosu ob integrativnoy teorii reprezentatsii znaniy v yazyike. Kognitivnyie issledovaniya yazyikaXIITeoreticheskie aspektyi yazyikovoy reprezentatsii Moskva: Institut yazyikoznaniya RAN; Tambov: Izdatelskiy dom TGU im. G.R. Derzhavina, 33-43., 2013______. (2013). Interpretatsionnyiy potentsial kontseptualnoy metaforyi. Kognitivnyie issledovaniya yazyika, XV: Mehanizmyi yazyikovoy kognitsii: sbornik nauchnyih trudov. Moskva: Institut yazyikoznaniya RAN; Tambov: Izdatelskiy dom TGU im. G.R. Derzhavina, 12-22., 2014______. (2014). Kontseptualno-tematicheskie oblasti yazyikovoy kartinyi mira i ih interpretiruyuschaya funktsiya. Kognitivnyie issledovaniya yazyika, XVII: Aktualnyie problemyi vzaimodeystviya myislitelnyih i yazyikovyih struktur: sbornik nauchnyih trudov. Moskva: Institut yazyikoznaniya RAN; Tambov: Izdatelskiy dom TGU im. G.R. Derzhavina, 33-39.). Boldyrev claims that linguistic interpretation reveals static and dynamic processes of cognition shaping overall collective and individual knowledge of language speakers. Viewed from this perspective, linguistic interpretation involves selection, classification, and evaluation within contexts of knowledge that language speakers acquire as members of societies and cultures. These contexts are dependent on metaconcepts -Roles, Stereotypes, Values, Norms, Space, Time, Language Performance - that regulate language use. This paper examines static vs. dynamic, collective vs. individual and the metaconceptual dimensions of contexts of knowledge to suggest that they underlie the Sociocultural Commitment of Cognitive Linguistics.
Keywords:
Static vs. Dynamic; Collective vs. Individual; Metaconceptual Dimensions of Contexts; Cognitive-Discursive Interpretant