Cognitive Poetics (Psychology)

This volume of poems was produced as part of a workshop organized by the Transparent Windows Book Club, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
The poems included in this e-book were written by 28 students of the School of English, AUTH, who participated in the workshop.

(E-book)
(ISBN: 978-960-93-8204-5)

Felizmente, desde finales del siglo XX está emergiendo una revisión metodológica exhaustiva en el terreno clásico de las Humanidades que las convierte en parte importantísima de las Ciencias Naturales. El nuevo paradigma de las Ciencias Cognitivas, humanas y por tanto naturales, empieza hoy a colocar sus principios teóricos sobre el lenguaje y sus dinámicas de complejidad poética más cerca, por primera vez, del método de estudio que del objeto de estudio. Ciencias Cognitivas como la Poética, la Semiótica o la Lingüística han recorrido así, en sólo dos décadas, la larga trayectoria investigadora que ha llevado más de un siglo recorrer a la Sociología o a la Psicología, tradicionalmente situadas a medio camino entre el método de estudio (Ciencias) y el objeto de estudio (Humanidades). Por fin, el nuevo paradigma sitúa a todas estas ciencias de la complejidad en ese espacio tan esperado de la nueva alianza entre las dos grandes culturas, la de las Ciencias Naturales y la de las Ciencias Humanas, que ahora empiezan a ser una con los avances tanto en Teorías de la Complejidad en general como en Teorías Cognitivas en particular. Los espectaculares desarrollos actuales de las versátiles Ciencias Cognitivas confirman que esta nueva alianza no es tan sólo una ilusión.

The notions of construction and formula are, respectively, the main currencies of cognitive grammar and the theory of oral-formulaic composition in performance. Even though they originated independently, both formulas and constructions are defined as form-meaning-function patterns, and, as such, represent the central theoretical constructs in their respective fields. In this chapter we propose a connection between these two research traditions, in the hope this will open up new vistas for scholars in oral poetics, cognitive linguistics, and cognitive science. 
To examine how connecting these two approaches may provide new insights, we first compare the frameworks of construction grammar and the Parry-Lord theory of oral composition in performance, paying particular attention to the (often problematic) definitions of the concepts of oral formula and grammatical construction, showing that the two are based on very similar foundations. We then go on to suggest how both approaches can complement one another, outlining the connections between some of their major interests and recent developments. Finally, we illustrate our ideas with an analysis of a formula highlighted by Albert Lord in The Singer of Tales, using the methodological apparatus of construction grammar.
Our conclusion is that this combination of the two approaches can help us reach a better understanding of both formulas and constructions, as well as build the foundations for an interdisciplinary field of cognitive oral poetics. This new field, we hope, will have the potential to provide important insights into not only verbal art, but also into language and cognition in general, especially in the domains of generalization in language, language acquisition, and the relation between verbal form and conceptual structure.