About the Blog

This blog is the record of my thoughts as I work through my graduate research in Cognitive Linguistics. Originally the topics were very scattered as I tried to figure out what I was learning, now that I am writing my thesis the topics will begin to be increasingly focused, but still applicable to a broad audience.

You will notice that a lot of posts are about how to use cognitive linguistics or ethnography in the workplace (specifically in business and consulting); this is because I am working in the non-profit sector while I am in school and I am using a lot of my school knowledge in helping write strategic plans and programming efforts.  I really find my education to be useful outside of academia, and I hope to help others see how it can be beneficial to their business to employ linguists outside of academia.  A lot of people don’t realize how much an education in linguistics or ethnography prepare a worker to be a high-level systems thinker, and how the linguistics tool kit enables a linguist to be a self-directed researcher in any field that utilizes thinking and cognition.  If it takes words to describe a process, linguists of all stripes are equipped to analyze the process and take intelligent and informed strategic actions to grow and nurture a process.  This blog addresses transferability of linguistic skills into the non-linguistic marketplace.

This blog covers a wide range of topics in cognitive science, including:

  • Attention (coordination and perception)
  • Anthropological Linguistics
  • Cognitive Semantics
  • Conceptual Blending & Conceptual Integration
  • Conceptual Metaphor
  • Construal
  • Construction Grammar
  • Culture
  • Discourse
  • Distributed Cognition
  • Electronic Music [a la SoulWax, Daft Punk, Bjork]
  • Ethics
  • Ethnography
  • Ethnobiology & Ethnobotany
  • Event Segmentation in Pounding & Grinding activities (blacksmithing, pounding sago, etc)
  • Fieldwork
  • Figure-Ground Relations
  • Identity and Cultural Meaning Systems
  • Paths and Landmarks in language
  • Productivity
  • Fieldwork in Psycholinguistics
  • Motion
  • “Multifaceted Learning for Multifaceted Living”
  • Research Design
  • Schemas
  • Space and Place
  • Spatial Language
  • Systems Theory

Finally, I want to state that as a Cognitive Linguistics blog, this blog fits a specific niche, but I did come from a Generative/Transformational background so I feel that I keep things balanced across the theoretical divides.  If you are a Formal Linguist please don’t let the Cognitive focus scare you away.  I like dialogue, I want dialogue, and I want to find out how to weave together the points of interface across theories.  After all, finding the interfaces and overlaps is essential to moving any dialogue forward, since it establishes a point of joint attention in a semi-mutual metalanguage.  If you have questions, get in touch through the comments on particular posts.  I always address a serious question with an open mind.

Thanks for reading.