Language is a verbal treasury of knowledge of the nation. He is a means of transmitting thought, which is formulated using a specific structure.
Modern linguistics is a science that considers language not as a separate subject, but as a participant in cognitive human activity. Cognitivism is engaged in the study of the mind, mental states and processes, thinking. This direction explores cognition and knowledge, perception of the world in the course of human activity.
Cognitive linguistics is based on cognitive methods. Language learning is carried out using humanitarian means. In this sense, the opposite is quantitative linguistics. Among the methods of study in the framework of this discipline, quantitative mathematical tools are used.
Cognitive linguistics was formed as a result of the interaction of a number of sources.
The first is a discipline that studies the functioning and structure of human knowledge. This science is called cognitology (or cogitology). It was the result of the development of such an engineering industry as artificial intelligence.
The second source was cognitive psychology. It should be noted that such a concept as “psychologism in linguistics” appeared back in the 19th century in the works of Wundt, Steintal and others. Cognitive linguistics adopted conceptual and cognitive models from psychology.
Language is the most significant link in the process of accumulation and preservation of a categorized experience of a person’s relationship with the world. In this regard, its functioning is largely based on psychological mechanisms. Moreover, all experience is based on memory and perception. Thus, the study of language is not possible without taking into account the distinctive features of perceptual processes, the study of which is carried out in the framework of psychology.
It should be noted, however, that the relationship between linguists and psychologists encountered certain barriers. This is mainly due to the striking differences in the methodology of the two humanitarian disciplines (psychology and linguistics).
It is known that linguistics during the entire period of its development was enriched by psychology three times. So, by the end of the 19th century, young grammatism arose. In the middle of the 20th century, psycholinguistics was formed, and by the end of the 20th century, cognitive linguistics appeared. It is worth noting that all these disciplines have their own characteristics.
Additional difficulties in the interaction of linguistics and psychology have arisen in connection with the established opinion that any study that refers to the mental categories is exclusively related to the field of psychology. In other words, interaction with other disciplines is not required. In this regard, cognitive linguistics is more associated with figures who do not have a psychological (or psycholinguistic) past (the exceptions are Slobin and Roche). But many ideas (for example, from Gestalt psychology) had a significant impact on the development of cognitive linguistics.
Cognitive linguistics was also formed under the influence of semantics. Some scholars view cognitive linguistics as "superdeep semantics" and as a natural development of semantic ideas. However, this statement is insufficient. First of all, this is due to the fact that many concepts that cognitive linguistics can deduce can be applied not only to semantics, but also to other language disciplines. So, for example, the definition of "prototype" can be used in dialectology, and in morphology, and in phonology.