Leonard Talmy is a professor of linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 and philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at the University at Buffalo

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. He is known for his pioneering work in cognitive linguistics

Cognitive linguistics

In linguistics, cognitive linguistics refers to the branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlie its forms...

, more specifically, in the relationship between semantic

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

 and formal linguistic structures and the connections between semantic typologies and universals. He also specializes in the study of Yiddish and Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 linguistics.

See also

• Force Dynamics
  Force Dynamics
  Force dynamics is a semantic category that describes the way in which entities interact with reference to force. Force Dynamics gained a good deal of attention in cognitive linguistics due to its claims of psychological plausibility and the elegance with which it generalizes ideas not usually...
  
  
• Figure-Ground
• Cognitive Linguistics
  Cognitive linguistics
  In linguistics, cognitive linguistics refers to the branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlie its forms...
  
  

Books

• Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000) -- two volumes
• The Attention System of Language (forthcoming)

Published Articles

• "The Relation of Grammar to Cognition"
• "Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition"
• "How Language Structures Space"
• "Fictive Motion in Language and `Ception'"
• "Lexicalization Patterns"
• "The Representation of Spatial Structure in Spoken and Signed Languages: a Neural Model"
• "Recombinance in the Evolution of Language"

External links

• Personal homepage, University at Buffalo