COGNITIVE DESCRIPTORS IN SIMPLE SENTENCES

COGNITIVE DESCRIPTORS IN SIMPLE SENTENCES

Author:  S.P. Anokhina

Affiliation:  Togliatti State University

Abstract:  The article deals with the parts of a sentence which are not constitutive components either for their syntactic or semantic structure, but important for the interpretation of their sense aspects. The aim of the given paper is to find out specific lexical-syntactic features that cause some parts of the sentence to function as cognitive descriptors and to reveal these functions.
The major methodological principle is a structural-semantic approach including some elements of the transformational method to prove the semantic interpretation of the utterance.
By analyzing the sentences with the verbs “haben”, “sein”, “to have”, “to be” as predicates and the constructions “es gibt”, “there is/are” we have found the following functions of the cognitive descriptors: differentiating between two meanings of a sentence; causing the ambivalent semantics of a sentence; highlighting the determiner types of the sentence subject; forming the general reference of the utterance as existential opposed to its reference as a personal one. In German “man”-sentences cognitive descriptors indicate their abstract personal meaning.
The function of a cognitive descriptor is performed by attributes, the second-rate parts of a sentence and by adverbials, the parts of the “third rate” for possessive and ‘man’-sentences. The temporal and locative deixises in existential and presential sentences are essential for expressing existence of a single, concrete referent.
Due to the above mentioned factors we may suppose that the value of these “invalid” parts of a sentence results from their function as cognitive descriptors as they contribute to the most accurate correlation between the author’s and the recipient’s perception of the text [Churilina 2002: 12].

Keywords:  cognitive descriptor, the part of the sentence, constitutive component, the semantic structure of the sentence, interpretation procedure, the sense of an utterance.

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For citation:  Anokhina, S. P. (2018). Cognitive descriptors in simple sentences. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 1, 120-125. (In Russ.).

Pages:  120-125