Metaphor, Computation and the Second Generation of the Cognitive Sciences

Robert N. St. Clair, Department of Communication

The second generation of the cognitive sciences is based on the fact that language is largely metaphorical and that metaphor plays a role in how people think. This shift towards cognitive linguistics and cognitive grammar provides new challenges for the architecture of computer programming. The basic concepts behind this cognitive turn are discussed and their implications for human information processing models are discussed. The organization of knowledge within this framework includes the concepts of profile and the base, cognitive domain (frame theory), the use of prototypes and exemplars for creating conceptual frames, metaphor, and metonymy, and the invocation of schemas and their instances. These concepts and their implications for models of computation are discussed.

Biography
Robert N. St. Clair is a professor of communication at the University of Louisville where he teaches intercultural communication theory and visual communication theory. He received his doctorate in theoretical linguistics at the University of Kansas. He has specialized in cultural analysis. He did his doctorate on the Eskimo language and subsequently did field work on other indigenous languages in the Pacific Northwest. He also worked on Polynesian languages and cultures. During his service in the military, he taught computer theory at the Nike Ajax Guided Missile School. St. Clair has authored many books and articles on linguistics, language, and culture. His is currently writing a book on the cognitive grammar of Portuguese.