Cognitive Framework Of Discourse Analysis Practice

Discourse, as the most important meaning conveyor in communication, plays an essential role in the research of the nature of language. The history of discourse analysis can be dated back to the 1950s. Since then linguists have made a detailed study of it from different perspectives and there are a lot of theories being used to analyze discourse at present. With the development of congnitive science, it has been proved that there is a close relationship between cognition and language use. In this paper, important notions of cognitive linguistics such as schema, frame, script, scenario, and mental space are used to illustrate how the cognitive factors work in the construct and understanding of discourse. Besides, how metaphor and metonomy function as two ways to make a text coherent is also discussed in this paper.