Cataphoric Pronouns as Mental Space Designators: Their Conceptual Import and Discourse Function

• Published in: COGNITIVE AND COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES TO LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS, Contini-Morava, Ellen, Kirsner, Robert S., & Rodriguez-Bachiller, Betsy [Eds], Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2004, pp 61-90
• Main Author: Smith, Michael B
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2004
• Subjects: Cognitive Linguistics; Discourse Functions; English; Mental Space Theory; Pronouns; Semantic Analysis; Semantics Discourse Relationship; Syntactic Anaphora; Syntax Semantics Relationship
• ISBN: 9789027215604; 902721560X
• ISSN: 0165-7712

Building on Fauconnier's mental space theory (1985), I argue that some languages have mental space designators, morphosyntactic elements which designate the mental spaces set up by linguistic expressions called space builders. Cataphoric pronouns can serve this function as forward referring devices that link with a discourse entity not yet overtly mentioned, as illustrated by the pronoun it in the sentence I despise it that John voted for the governor. Their discourse function is to anticipate the mental spaces set up by space builders (such as despise) by grammatically designating the spaces themselves, which are then elaborated with linguistically expressed propositions (eg, that John voted for the governor). Evidence for this analysis includes English space building verbs evoking negative feelings which require cataphoric object it (cf, dislike, resent), where the cataphor's overt mention of the space itself accentuates the conceptual distance (cf, Haiman, 1983, 1985) between the matrix subject & the undesirable relation(s) holding within the spaces by iconically distancing - in the grammar - the matrix subject from the subordinate clause describing those relations. The cataphor can also accentuate the salience of the space's boundaries as a setting for an event, eg, You know (it) when the train goes by. Cataphoric it forces a reading emphasizing the train's physical effect on the setting prefigured by it & thus accentuates the sense of know which evokes knowledge gained by the senses; omission of cataphoric it emphasizes someone's intellectual knowledge of the time when the train goes by & thus accentuates the sense of know which evokes purely intellectual knowledge. The discussion will support a view of grammar in which there is an iconic link between the forms & the meanings conveyed by the forms in these constructions. 2 Figures, 49 References. Adapted from the source document