The research interest of the Cognitive Linguistics, biolinguistics team focuses on the study of human linguistic ability (Faculty of Language FL).
Analyses include:
- from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics - meaning conceptualization processes, emotions in language, aspects of embodied cognition, conceptual metaphors, conceptual integration processes, intersubjectivity, semantics of grammatical categories, semantic networks, aspects of L1 and L2 acquisition and processing, and the language-thought relationship,
- from the perspective of biolinguistics - the human ability to create an infinite number of combinations of symbols, natural syntactic mechanisms in the speaker’s mind (grammar of the mind) studied with the help of mathematical and natural methods aiming at an explanation, based on modern grammatical models, of the complexity of multilayered linguistic structure. The team is working to develop a method allowing to represent human linguistic ability in an integrative perspective, taking into account, on the one hand, the innate mechanism and, on the other, the role of embodied cognition. We are interested in the interface between genetics and cognition in relation to automatic and experiential motivation of meaning.
The expertise offered includes:
- the study of space in language; analyses of the senses of prepositions as relational categories;
- analysis of emotions in seemingly neutral linguistic, lexical and grammatical expressions, from the perspective of embodied cognition;
- studies of semantic phraseologisms based on linguistic corpora;
- the explanation of the motivation and the role of mental images in phraseology;
- studies of human universal and parametric grammar based on the Principles and Parameters Theory (GB/PPT), the Minimalist Program (MP), the Phase Model, and Rizzi's Luiri Cartography;
- comparative analyses of languages.
The group is interested in cooperation in:
Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics:
- The relationship between perception and conceptualization of the world and linguistic expression,
- The relationship between thinking and linguistic meaning,
- Reaction time and brain activity in the processing of linguistic structures and their interpretation.
Neuroscience:
- The study of brain structure and molecular processes that influence language ability.
Computer Science, Bioinformatics:
- Computer simulation of generating syntactically and semantically correct sentences and utterances,
- Application of artificial intelligence to create linguistic expressions according to different human intentions,
- Improvement of translation programs according to universal grammar.
Mathematics:
- Features of expression generation and representation by mathematical algorithms,
- probabilistic modeling of the expression generation process.
Thematic area - Cluster in Horizon Europe: 2. Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society.