Cognitive Models in Language and Thought: Ideology, Metaphor and Meanings (review)

This volume developed out of the 29th International LAUD Symposium (University of Koblenz-Landau in Landau, Germany, March 27–29, 2002). The objective of the symposium was to provide insight into the language of sociopolitical ideologies from a cognitive linguistic perspective. As the editors remark in the introduction, the volume aims to draw attention to the social orientation of cognitive linguistics by highlighting the importance of ideology in language studies. It shows that cognitive linguistics should and can contribute to a better and deeper understanding of sociopolitical thought, organization, and human interaction.

This book consists of four major parts and eleven chapters. Part 1 deals with ‘Cognitive models of linguistic variation’. One of the important points Dirk Geeraerts (25–68) makes in ‘Cultural models of linguistic standardization’ is that Western thought has been and still is largely influenced by two basic cultural models: the rationalist model and the romantic model. Gitte Kristiansen (69–120) regards accents to be socially diagnostic and argues that linguistic stereotypes are referring symbols in social cognition. The four papers in Part 2 are focused on ‘Cognitive models of cultural/social identities’. Roslyn M. Frank (123–57) compares and contrasts Basque and Western cultural models of self and being, while Oyinkan Medubi (159–97) accounts for ‘Language and ideology in Nigerian cartoons’ within the framework of conceptual integration theory. Otto Santa Ana (199–227) integrates George Lakoff’s metaphor theory and Michel Foucault’s notion of discourse, and looks at the hegemonic principles that underlie American public discourse metaphors concerning minority policies. Lewis P. Sego (229–43) shows that the consciousness of modern industrial societies has caused changes in the cultural model of ‘housewife’.

Part 3 shifts the focus to ‘Cognitive models as covert ideologies’. Hans-Georg Wolf and Frank Polzenhagen (247–75) introduce the notion of conceptual metaphor into the study of style and ideology, showing compellingly that different theoretical approaches (critical linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and stylistics) can be fruitfully combined. Michael White and Honesto Herrera (277–323) analyze metaphoric discourse in the Spanish and English press coverage of corporate consolidations in the telecom industry, confirming the claim that seemingly neutral or objective reports of news and events may turn out to be ideologically loaded. In fact, every discourse can be ideological.

The three chapters in Part 4 specifically address ‘Cognitive models in covert social debates’. Andreas Musolff (327–52) presents a corpus-based study of health and illness metaphors in public discourse, pointing out how conceptual mappings can be evoked by the use of figurative language. Craig A. Hamilton (353–93) looks at recent debates over genetically modified food, trying to illustrate that metaphors and conceptual blends are very important to the framing of this ideological discourse. In the last chapter, Brigitte Nerlich and Robert Dingwall (395–428) rightly argue that a more contextualized approach to language would probably shed new insights upon the deciphering of the human genome.

This book closes with a list of contributors and a subject index. Most of the chapters offer very detailed, impressive, and useful notes. Abstracts and key words are also provided at the beginning of each chapter. In fact, this book is very ambitious in that it tries to make cognitive linguistics become ‘the very first linguistic model that is all-inclusive and all-embracing’ (3). Considering the various complex variables involved in linguistic research, however, we may have a long way to go for this to come true, if there is such a possibility.

All in all, this book shows that cognitive linguistics can make some admirable contributions to a better understanding of the intricate relationships among language, thought, and ideology. Those doing research in...