The Literary Mind.pdf

More documents

Recommendations

Info

HUMAN MEANING 25 ceptual primitives (in the sense of being foundational, not in the sense of being atomic, unitary, or without structure). She proposes that infants form an image schema of self-motion ("an object is not moving, and then, without any forces acting on it, it starts to move"), of animate-motion (motion with an irregular trajectory), of self-moving animate (a complex combination of the previous two), of caused motion (a trajector impinges on an object and it then moves), and of agency (a combination of the image schemas of animacy and caused motion, in which an animate object moves itself and also causes another object to move.) Mandler, in essence, proposes a general psychological process whereby perceptual experience is redescribed "into an image-schematic form of representation" used in building concepts. NARRATIVE AND THE BODY At conception, an individual human being carries an individual genetic endowment (genotype) that arose under evolutionary pressures of selection and that guides her individual brain as it develops in its changing environments. That genotype cannot determine the fine specifics of point-to-point wiring and activity in the individual brain, but it can (and must) contribute to setting up a nervous system that will reach certain target values under experience. That genotype must do this because of Darwinian pressures: Genes that lead to less competent brains will be selected against. The genes implicitly provide target values for the developing brain. Those values derive implicitly from the history of selection on our ancestors. The particular target values that have arisen in our species are, at a minimum, stable regulation of homeostasis and metabolism, dispositions toward survival and reproduction, bodily movement in space, perceptual categorization, and the recognition and execution of small spatial stories. The combined operation of genetic influence and necessary experience of the sort inevitable for any normal human infant with a human body in a human environment leads to the ability to recognize and execute small spatial stories. Seen in this way, narrative imagining, often thought of as literary and optional, appears instead to be inseparable from our evolutionary past and our necessary personal experience. It also appears to be a fundamental target value for the developing human mind.
3 BODY ACTION But Apollo took from them the day of their return criraxp 6 OIOIV detXeTO VOOTIUOV rjuap Homer, the Odyssey IN THIS CHAPTER and the next, we will begin to map the basic parabolic terrain of the everyday mind. We will look at fundamental and extremely common patterns of parable that are essential to everyday thought, reasoning, and action, and that show up in literary examples for the reason that literature takes its instruments from the everyday mind. We will see some extremely basic abstract stories and some extremely common projections of those stories. Any single detail of these many related projections may look as if it could interest only the specialist, but taken together, these details provide an overall picture of the importance of parable in the everyday mind. We begin by looking at stories that involve actors engaged in bodily action. Often a spatial story has no actor. The small spatial story of a wall's collapsing from age, for example, has no actor. Often a spatial story has many partial or potential actors and many intricate events that are brought about by no single distinct actor. The story of a bridge's giving way after years of use is such a story. Unfamiliar or complicated event-stories like these are easy to grasp by projection from simple action-stories we already know. Parable, by projecting simple action-stories onto unfamiliar or complicated event-stories, extends the range of action-stories. Parable extends story through projection. One type of extremely fundamental projection projects action-stories onto event-stories. George Lakoff and I named this general pattern EVENTS ARE ACTIONS. An action is an event with an actor. 26
Page 2 and 3: THE LITERARY MIND
Page 4 and 5: THE LITERARY MIND MARK TURNER NEW Y
Page 6 and 7: PREFACE I F YOU ARE BROWSING this p
Page 8 and 9: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T HE JOHN SIMON GUG
Page 10 and 11: CONTENTS 1 Bedtime with Shahrazad 3
Page 12 and 13: THE LITERARY MIND
Page 14 and 15: 1 BEDTIME WITH SHAHRAZAD T HERE WAS
Page 16 and 17: BEDTIME WITH SHAHRAZAD 5 future, of
Page 18 and 19: BEDTIME WITH SHAHRAZAD and projecti
Page 20 and 21: BEDTIME WITH SHAHRAZAD other fictio
Page 22 and 23: BEDTIME WITH SHAHRAZAD 11 daughter
Page 24 and 25: HUMAN MEANING 13 products of vision
Page 26 and 27: HUMAN MEANING 15 to the category pe
Page 28 and 29: HUMAN MEANING 17 out and picking so
Page 30 and 31: HUMAN MEANING 19 moves the object t
Page 32 and 33: HUMAN MEANING 21 movement when we r
Page 34 and 35: HUMAN MEANING 23 ries of connection
Page 38 and 39: BODY ACTION 27 EVENTS ARE ACTIONS g
Page 40 and 41: BODY ACTION 29 In addition to "even
Page 42 and 43: BODY ACTION 31 so as to find such a
Page 44 and 45: BODY ACTION 33 different action-sto
Page 46 and 47: BODY ACTION 35 that change. We can
Page 48 and 49: BODY ACTION 37 cal. Usually, we con
Page 50 and 51: FIGURED TALES 39 projected onto the
Page 52 and 53: FIGURED TALES 41 ACTORS ARE MANIPUL
Page 54 and 55: FIGURED TALES 43 person, the hearer
Page 56 and 57: FIGURED TALES 45 that the eight sta
Page 58 and 59: FIGURED TALES 47 Stories of our int
Page 60 and 61: FIGURED TALES 49 hear / Time's wing
Page 62 and 63: FIGURED TALES 51 the nonspatial sto
Page 64 and 65: FIGURED TALES 53 led to another," "
Page 66 and 67: FIGURED TALES 55 literary thought b
Page 68 and 69: W E 5 CREATIVE BLENDS ... nor did A
Page 70 and 71: CREATIVE BLENDS 59 reinforced by th
Page 72 and 73: CREATIVE BLENDS 61 BLENDED SPACES I
Page 74 and 75: CREATIVE BLENDS 63 kind of badness.
Page 76 and 77: CREATIVE BLENDS 65 John is becoming
Page 78 and 79: CREATIVE BLENDS 67 from the target;
Page 80 and 81: CREATIVE BLENDS 69 inference of iro
Page 82 and 83: CREATIVE BLENDS 71 "barely maintain
Page 84 and 85: CREATIVE BLENDS 73 tral respect. Th
Page 86 and 87:
CREATIVE BLENDS 75 their towns, and
Page 88 and 89:
CREATIVE BLENDS 77 harvest. We can
Page 90 and 91:
CREATIVE BLENDS 79 ing and harvest,
Page 92 and 93:
CREATIVE BLENDS 81 the actor who ca
Page 94 and 95:
CREATIVE BLENDS 83 and go, or shift
Page 96 and 97:
6 MANY SPACES Nirad Das (an Indian
Page 98 and 99:
MANY SPACES 87 manipulating the inp
Page 100 and 101:
MANY SPACES 89 applied to many spec
Page 102 and 103:
MANY SPACES 91 apply to any target
Page 104 and 105:
MANY SPACES 93 of President Bill Cl
Page 106 and 107:
MANY SPACES 95 However, a second po
Page 108 and 109:
MANY SPACES 97 a tent to be staked
Page 110 and 111:
MANY SPACES 99 jection of stories o
Page 112 and 113:
MANY SPACES 101 die; and he shall r
Page 114 and 115:
MANY SPACES 103 The two Kings marve
Page 116 and 117:
MANY SPACES 105 result that x in a
Page 118 and 119:
MANY SPACES 107 Let us look at a ca
Page 120 and 121:
MANY SPACES 109 Invariance is a glo
Page 122 and 123:
MANY SPACES 111 example, given that
Page 124 and 125:
MANY SPACES 113 When we recognize w
Page 126 and 127:
MANY SPACES 115 cists interested in
Page 128 and 129:
SINGLE LIVES 117 Our sensory appara
Page 130 and 131:
SINGLE LIVES 119 We saw above that
Page 132 and 133:
SINGLE LIVES 121 dreamer experienci
Page 134 and 135:
SINGLE LIVES 123 as something extra
Page 136 and 137:
SINGLE LIVES 125 from a belief, "gr
Page 138 and 139:
SINGLE LIVES 127 beg you to cease h
Page 140 and 141:
SINGLE LIVES 129 without saying a w
Page 142 and 143:
SINGLE LIVES 131 to much anyway, bu
Page 144 and 145:
SINGLE LIVES 133 psychological view
Page 146 and 147:
SINGLE LIVES 135 "Which story was i
Page 148 and 149:
SINGLE LIVES 137 it to project that
Page 150 and 151:
SINGLE LIVES 139 character. In the
Page 152 and 153:
LANGUAGE 141 Pinker, and Paul Bloom
Page 154 and 155:
LANGUAGE 143 "John pushes the ball
Page 156 and 157:
LANGUAGE 145 The abstract story, in
Page 158 and 159:
LANGUAGE 147 structural property of
Page 160 and 161:
LANGUAGE 149 nia, and although the
Page 162 and 163:
LANGUAGE 151 Which of these things
Page 164 and 165:
LANGUAGE 153 explanations. For exam
Page 166 and 167:
LANGUAGE 155 The projection of narr
Page 168 and 169:
LANGUAGE 157 tions like Noun Phrase
Page 170 and 171:
LANGUAGE 159 The cast of "character
Page 172 and 173:
LANGUAGE 161 In its most simplistic
Page 174 and 175:
LANGUAGE 163 and Paul Bloom have ar
Page 176 and 177:
LANGUAGE 165 Chomsky's argument is
Page 178 and 179:
LANGUAGE 167 to members of that com
Page 180 and 181:
NOTES page 3, "There was once a wea
Page 182 and 183:
NOTES 171 page 33, "I feel a hand":
Page 184 and 185:
NOTES 173 page 67, "As we went to p
Page 186 and 187:
NOTES 175 page 120, focus and viewp
Page 188 and 189:
NOTES 177 page 161, "Indeed, althou
Page 190 and 191:
INTRODUCTION TO IMAGE SCHEMAS FURTH
Page 192 and 193:
FURTHER READING ON THE IMAGE SCHEMA
Page 194 and 195:
A la recherche du temps perdu, 45,
Page 196 and 197:
Gradient of spaces and projections,
Page 198:
Talmy, Leonard, 29, 47-48, 161, 179
show all

The Literary Mind.pdf

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?