On the morning of December 1, Mr. LIU Dilin, a professor of applied linguistics from the University of Alabama, delivered a lecture entitled “Cognitive linguistics-guided corpus research on lexical semantics and usages” on the invitation of Zijin Club. Moderated by Prof. HU Jie, a researcher of “One Hundred Talents Program” from School of International Studies, the lecture attracted a large audience of students and teachers.
To start with, Prof. HU extended a warm welcome to Prof. LIU and gave a detailed introduction to his fruitful academic achievements. As a renowned and prolific linguistics scholar at home and abroad, Prof. LIU mainly studies cognitive & corpus linguistics-driven teaching of English grammar and vocabulary, and has published 7 monographs and more than 90 SSCI papers. Citing the lessons learned from Prof. LIU’s lecture five years ago, Prof. HU encouraged students to learn and benefit from this academic interaction.
In his speech, Prof. LIU introduced the fundamental theories of Cognitive Linguistics (CGL) and Corpus Linguistics (CPL) from a multi-dimensional perspective. Specifically speaking, CGL features four aspects: 1) Meaning is the center of linguistic research. 2) Language is at its core conceptual, motivated and based on embodied experience. 3) Language is comprised of symbolic units or the structure, and learning language equals learning construction. 4) Language is application-oriented and it is essential to have adequate corpus input during language learning. While CPL features five aspects: 1) Utilizing corpus based on its application value. 2) The building of corpus is underpinned by the adequate input of language data. 3) Language is composed by prefabricated expressions. 4) No more emphasis on the rigid restrictions between vocabularies and languages. 5) The building and use of corpus are purpose-driven. Upon these introductions, Prof. LIU asserted that corpus research based on CGL features profound theoretical basis. He also stressed that it’s enlightening and essential to explore lexical semantics and usages by integrating it with the corpus research based on CGL, given that they are complementary.
Next, Prof. LIU elaborated on the relevant achievements of the corpus research based on CGL by citing some former accomplishments. He illustrated the research value of this field in a lively and vivid manner with the examples of “Come/Go-adjective” and “Keep/Leave sb/sth adjective”. Besides, based on daily scenarios and some research discoveries as “CL Corpus Analysis of Collocations: Challenging Established Theory” “CL Corpus Analysis the Use of Synonyms” “Typical modifying adjectives/infinitives of Authority/Power/Right” “Typical modifying adjectives/infinitives of Duty/Obligation/Responsibility” “Salience: A Key Factor in Synonym Use”, he unfolded the complicated language phenomena of cognitive corpus in a plain way: 1) How synonyms in cognitive corpus are used, like “authority/power/right” and “duty/obligation/responsibility”. 2) The salience phenomena in synonyms, like “civic-duty” “civic-responsibility” and “civic-obligation”. 3) Unique constructural phenomena like “the Ebony letter writer’s use of power to vote” and “Congress use of right to declare war”. What’s more, Prof. LIU also showed the evolution of “on/off track”, image schemas like “PATH” and “FORCE” and some other interesting language phenomena. Through the exhaustive case analysis, Prof. LIU fully showcased that CGL and CPL are highly complementary and that corpus research based on CGL could broaden the horizon of word semantics and usage research and contributed to more effective, reliable and intriguing outcomes.
In the Q&A session, students and teachers shared their views on the language phenomena and cultivation of a keen sense of language for second language acquisition. Prof. LIU gave detailed explanation over “old/senior” and “testify/test” according to his personal experience and the attendees were greatly benefited.
Prof. HU concluded that Prof. LIU’s speech abounded in wisdom and experience and was delivered in a lively and attractive way that made it more accessible to young scholars and instilled the academic interaction with joy. In the end, Prof. HU expressed her thanks and anticipation that all the students could keep advancing on the track of academic research and bear in mind the rewarding guidance of Prof. LIU. The lecture was culminated in applause.
Zijin Club
Translated by WU Ziwei, Proofread by Xu Xueying
