From the Body in Space-Time to the Mind in Linguistic Conceptualization: A View from Vantage Theory

Abstract

My starting point is trivial: meaning is subjective, i.e. subject-related, subject-oriented or even subject-bound. It is such because the speaker/subject/conceptualizer is able to make active (though mostly subconscious) choices as to how he/she will conceptualize a particular scene or event. This is akin to the familiar notion of construal (Langacker 1987), which in this account is redefined as "vantage". I hope to show that the latter notion is not trivial at all.

The notion of vantage comes from Robert E. MacLaury's (1997, 2002) Vantage Theory, a model based on the idea that people categorize by performing a subconscious and instinctive analogy to the way they orient themselves in space-time. Spatiotemporal coordinates (spatial axes of up-down, left-right and front-back, unified into a coherent reference frame of the human body, plus the dimension of time manifested as movement) have their equivalences in categorization in the form of stable reference points and degrees emphasis, on the part of the conceptualizer, on similarity (Sim) or difference (Diff). It is specific configurations and strengths of Sim and Diff that constitute vantages, i.e. points of view on a category or conceptualizations of a scene. Vantages, in turn, give rise to three "viewing modes": (i) non-discriminatory, (ii) analytic or (iii) synthetic. In other words, the conceptualizer may regard elements of a scene as (i) homogeneous and mass-like, (ii) distinct and unconnected, or (iii) distinct but constituting a system. In this way, our everyday bodily experience of spatiotemporal orientation allows us to operate cognitively while categorizing and conceptualizing for the purpose of linguistic expression.

I exemplify vantage construction and the three viewing modes with English translations of Polish prose, specifically with regard to the use of articles (Polish has no articles). The translator has to identify the mode constructed by the author or, when this proves impossible, to impose his/her interpretation on it. Thus, the translator makes active choices in the sense of creating the context him- or herself, rather than being placed at the mercy of context. The use of articles is but one, but relatively clear manifestation of the deeper cognitive processes.

A modified version of Vantage Theory, called Extended Vantage Theory, is proposed here for the purpose of linguistic analysis.

The data come from a paper by Tabakowska (1993): these are two unpublished translations of a fragment of Stanisaw Lem's sci-fi novel "Wizja lokalna" [Observation on the Spot], first published in Polish in 1982 and never officially translated into English.

Keywords: construal, vantage, cognitive linguistics