Camil Staps
I am a linguist, broadly interested in what language can tell us about human cognition.
The Bigger Question I aim to address is how abstract concepts like causation and evidentiality are represented in the mind. In particular, I study the relation between spatial and non-spatial meanings of prepositions, demonstratives, and other function words. I defended my doctoral dissertation in June 2024.
The Bigger Question I aim to address is how abstract concepts like causation and evidentiality are represented in the mind. In particular, I study the relation between spatial and non-spatial meanings of prepositions, demonstratives, and other function words. I defended my doctoral dissertation in June 2024.
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Dissertation
On the basis of Western European languages, the proposal is formalized for the use of spatial prepositions in the causal domain (e.g., French de and par in passives) as well as the use of demonstratives to refer to information content (e.g., the use of English that to introduce complement clauses). The proposals are further tested in corpus studies using Biblical Hebrew. Data from the Hebrew Bible additionally show that the analysis can be extended to the use of prepositions for describing social relations.
The research presented here shows that spatial meaning often persists when grammaticalization takes place. The use of spatial vocabulary in abstract domains is not metaphorical but deeply embedded in cognition, shaping the conceptualization of abstract relations. In this way, the study of language contributes to our understanding of the human mind.
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What is special about this book is that it takes Cognitive Linguistics as its framework. It thus emphasizes the cognitive, physiological, and social backdrop of language change.
On the basis of Western European languages, the proposal is formalized for the use of spatial prepositions in the causal domain (e.g., French de and par in passives) as well as the use of demonstratives to refer to information content (e.g., the use of English that to introduce complement clauses). The proposals are further tested in corpus studies using Biblical Hebrew. Data from the Hebrew Bible additionally show that the analysis can be extended to the use of prepositions for describing social relations.
The research presented here shows that spatial meaning often persists when grammaticalization takes place. The use of spatial vocabulary in abstract domains is not metaphorical but deeply embedded in cognition, shaping the conceptualization of abstract relations. In this way, the study of language contributes to our understanding of the human mind.
What is special about this book is that it takes Cognitive Linguistics as its framework. It thus emphasizes the cognitive, physiological, and social backdrop of language change.