Cognitive media linguistics

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The Cognitive media linguistics (KML) is an interdisciplinary research field that deals with cognitive processes in the use of language and communication in media contexts. It stands at the interface between cognitive linguistics , media linguistics and language criticism . Like media linguistics, cognitive media linguistics examines language use in the media, expanded to include an analysis of the cognitive and emotional processes associated with language processing.

Questions / research

Based on the use of language in the media, cognitive media linguistics investigates how mass media processes influence the conveyance of the content of consciousness, can control opinion formation and activate emotions. Linguistic utterances in the media context serve as an object of investigation for the analysis of the mental processes that take place during language production and language processing. In contrast to media linguistics , cognitive media linguistics does not only deal with the specifics of language use depending on the medium, but primarily with the connections between language, mediality and cognitive and emotional processes.

The main objects of investigation are mass media forms of communication and texts, but also personal forms of communication that take place using technical media such as computers or cell phones. The term media can be related to three dimensions:

  • on technical media (radio, TV, print, mail, SMS etc.)
  • on drawing media (language, image, music, etc.)
  • on the social-psychological dimension

The third dimension already shows that the aspects of text production and text reception are very important in order to be able to gain comprehensive knowledge about the use of language in the media.

Language as a mental knowledge system

Fundamental to cognitive media linguistics is the assumption that human language as a subsystem of cognition represents a mental knowledge system. The KML sees itself as a sub-discipline of cognitive science . Much of the knowledge is stored in the form of mental schemes ( script (linguistics) , frames (knowledge representation) ), linguistic units are represented in the memory ( mental lexicon ). Research assumes that thinking is a collection of linguistic and non-linguistic processes. Accordingly, there are hardly any thought processes in which language does not play a role. Language and thinking are inextricably linked. This is exactly where the KML comes in. Conversely, if a person's way of thinking influences language, conclusions can also be drawn from the linguistic utterance about the underlying cognitive processes. With the help of language, insights into the structure and functioning of the mind are possible and thus statements about how people create knowledge, code attitudes and construct realities. The mapping of new information to familiar things is an everyday process that people use to structure their experiences. However, this process also harbors dangers: There is a tendency to perceive confirmations of one's own view of the world more strongly and to fade out contradicting information ( confirmation errors ). Knowledge of the world and thus the construction of reality is decisively shaped by the mass media. This plays an important role, especially in the area of ​​social media. On the one hand, they facilitate the selective search for information; on the other hand, a large part of the information shown is tailored to the specific profile of the user ( echo chamber phenomenon ). Using cognitive linguistic analyzes, the mental models with their specific evaluation systems behind linguistic utterances are made visible and the underlying thought processes are made comprehensible.

Language as a communicative tool

Another function of language is crucial, especially when it comes to linguistic utterances in the media environment: Since language functions as a communicative instrument, linguistic utterances cannot only be read as traces of the thought processes of the producer during language production. They are also (action) signals to the recipient of the utterance, as understanding language also triggers cognitive processes in the recipient's brain. Mass media communication is of particular interest for research because, due to its large reach, it has a correspondingly large number of potential recipients who receive and - consciously or unconsciously - process these signals for action.

Language and emotion

The connection between language and emotion is also decisive for research into language use in the media, since no linguistic utterance alone is cognitively produced or received. Cognition and emotion are not completely separate entities, but influence each other. The limbic system, which is primarily responsible for emotions, has numerous neural connections to the cortex. Thought processes are therefore never only accompanied by cognitive, but always also by affective evaluations. Emotions function as internal systems of evaluation of people and thus have an influence on thinking and acting. Understanding language is also not a neutral process, but is more or less controlled by emotions, as these not only trigger thought processes or can be triggered by thought processes themselves, but as evaluation systems significantly shape every utterance. Conversely, producers often make use of this fact themselves, especially in the mass media. The so-called emotion potential describes the property of a linguistic utterance or text of being able to arouse certain feelings in the recipient. Reports, for example, in which an issue is examined exclusively from a certain point of view, have a high emotional potential - in this case one speaks of a perspective. The omission of information or a de- and recontextualization of information can also increase the emotional potential of a text. The aim of cognitive media linguistics is to make the strategies and linguistic means used transparent in order to make statements about the potential effect of a linguistic utterance on the recipient on this basis.

methodology

Depending on the subject of research, cognitive media linguistics uses methods that are used in general and cognitive linguistics. Above all, empirical observation methods play a role. Quantitative and qualitative corpus analysis, in which a collection of texts or text excerpts are created for linguistic evaluation, is suitable for analyzing language use in media communication. This can provide information about language usage phenomena, which in turn help to provide an insight into mental structures and processes. The questionnaire study method is used for smaller studies. For this purpose, questionnaires on a specific topic are handed out to the participants and answered individually. Another method is linguistic experiments. They are among the most important observation methods. A distinction is made between online and offline methods. The online method starts directly during the process to be observed, and the offline method only starts after the test process. Here, for example, test subjects are given certain tasks, observed within a period of time and then evaluated. The results can provide information about existing theses and theories and make mental processes visible during the medial text reception, but also during free reproduction.

application areas

As an interdisciplinary science, cognitive media linguistics has various areas of application. It can help to understand and shape media-mediated public communication. In terms of applied linguistics , it occasionally takes up problems of media practice. In doing so, she can, for example, contribute to the investigation and optimization of text production skills in a media department. Furthermore, cognitive media linguistics is used, for example, in advertising or press and public relations work by making recommendations on how texts can be designed and presented with regard to their persuasion potential . Among other things, she deals with the following questions: How does language control opinion-forming processes in media reporting? How does language, in its dual function as a cognitive knowledge system and a communicative instrument, convey content of consciousness? Or: How does it arouse persuasive desires or convey and stir up emotional prejudices such as racism , extremism and anti-Semitism ? Specific fields of application and analysis are, for example:

  • Internet hate speech
  • Perspectives in media reporting
  • Persuasion in Political Communication
  • Emotionalization in advertising

Web links

literature

  • Ursula Christmann: Aspects of word processing research. In: Klaus Brinker, Gerd Antos, Wolfgang Heinemann, Sven F. Sager (eds.): Text and conversation linguistics. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. 1st half band (= HSK 16.1). Berlin / New York 2000, pp. 113-122.
  • Maximilian Scherner: Cognitive Science Methods in Text Analysis. In: Klaus
  • Brinker, Gerd Antos, Wolfgang Heinemann, Sven F. Sager (eds.): Text and conversation linguistics. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. 1st half band (= HSK 16.1). Berlin / New York 2000, pp. 186-195.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hartmut Stöckl: Media Linguistics. On the status and methodology of a (still) emerging research field. In: Christian Grösslinger, Gudrun Held, Hartmut Stöckl (eds.): Types of press texts beyond the 'News'. Media linguistic perspectives on journalistic creativity. Frankfurt 2012, pp. 13–34.
  2. ^ A b c Monika Schwarz-Friesel: Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. Tübingen 2008.
  3. ↑ Lera Boroditsky: How language shapes thinking. In: Spektrum der Wissenschaft 04, 2012, pp. 30–33.
  4. ↑ Werner Stangl: Confirmation tendency. In: Online Lexicon for Psychology and Education. Linz 2017, last accessed on December 12, 2017.
  5. ↑ Niklas Luhman: The reality of the mass media. Wiesbaden 2009.
  6. ↑ 1. Monika Schwarz-Friesel: “Jews are there to kill” (studivz.net, 2008) Hate via the Internet - Accessibility and spread of anti-Semitisms on the World Wide Web. In: Konstanze Marx, Monika Schwarz-Friesel (ed.): Language and communication in the technical age. Berlin / Boston 2013, pp. 213–236.
  7. ↑ Monika Schwarz-Friesel: Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. Tübingen 2008.
  8. ↑ António R. Damásio: I feel, therefore I am - the decoding of consciousness. Munich 2000.
  9. ↑ Monika Schwarz-Friesel: Explaining tension in texts. Theoretical foundations and empirical analyzes. In: Konstanze Marx, Simon Meier (ed.): Linguistic action and cognition. Berlin / Boston 2018, pp. 61–87
  10. ↑ Monika Schwarz-Friesel: Language and Emotion. Tübingen 2013.
  11. ^ 1. Monika Schwarz-Friesel: The emotional potential of literary texts. In: Anne Betten, Ulla Fix, Berbeli Wanning (eds.): Handbook Language in Literature. Berlin / Boston 2017, pp. 351–370.
  12. ^ Monika Schwarz-Friesel, Jan-Henning Kromminga: Metaphors of violence. Tübingen 2013.
  13. ↑ Monika Schwarz-Friesel, Manfred Consten: Introduction to text linguistics. Darmstadt 2014.
  14. ^ Monika Schwarz-Friesel, Jan-Henning Kromminga: Metaphors of violence. Tübingen 2013.
  15. ↑ 1. Helge Skirl: Emergence as a phenomenon of semantics using the example of metaphor understanding. Emergent conceptual features at the intersection of semantics and pragmatics. Tübingen 2009.
  16. ^ Daniel Perrin: Media Linguistics (= UTB 2503). Constance 2006
  17. ↑ Technische Universität Berlin: Language & Communication with a focus on cognitive media linguistics, PDF file, last accessed on April 26, 2018