Two Approaches to Test Cognitive Linguistics as a Tool to Study Mind 

Bhausaheb Biradar*
Rajesh Kasturirangan**

Abstract

Mind is said to not only offer facilitation to but also be the determinant of several capacities that are uniquely human, and the capacity to create and exercise highly evolved language systems is one such. Cognitive linguistics advocates a systematic and principled structural correspondence between mind’s cognitive system and language – and in the process of developing accounts of language promises to also shed significant light on the nature and conceptual framework of mind.

This paper proposes two novel approaches with which to test the above claim of cognitive linguistics as regards relation between language and mind.

Study 1: First study involves neuro-feedback technique. This study first involves finding neural correlates of the mental experience of free will and those associated with brain information processing of linguistic entities free will and the metaphor Freewill. In a neuro-feedback setup, if subjects are not able to significantly increase the signal amplitudes (above brain data), then this would be indicative of close structural relation between mind’s cognitive apparatus and the structure of language, and greatly legitimize the approach of cognitive linguistics as an important new tool to study mind.

Study 2: The second approach takes its cue from Schmidt et al. (2007) regarding gross brain correlates for information processing of metaphors. This study involves studying fine-grained neural correlates of variegated predefined sets of linguistics entities, for principled similarities and/or differences in their patterns. Presence of similarities and patterned differences would support the enterprise of cognitive linguistics as a tool to study mind.

Key Words: Mind; Cognitive Linguistics; Neuro-feedback; Information processing; Language 

Reference

1. Schmidt G., DeBuse C., and Seger C., (2007), Right Hemisphere Metaphor Processing: Characterizing the Lateralization of Semantic Processes, Brain and Language, 100(2), p127 – 141.

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*Master of Science in Consciousness Studies. Currently: Research Scholar in Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai.  

Email: bhausaheb@iitb.ac.in     

** PhD in Cognitive Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Currently: Associate Professor in National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.