Staff Profile of Professor Vyv Evans

My research relates to Cognitive Linguistics, an approach to language and mind which places central importance on meaning, the role of cognition and the embodiment of experience. I specialise in cognitive semantics, particularly knowledge representation, lexical structure, the relationship between lexical structure and knowledge representation, and figurative language and abstract thought. My research has focused on investigating spatial and temporal language and cognition, and the nature of the linguistic and conceptual resources that we as humans marshal in service of meaning construction.

The current theme of my research is to investigate the intersection between the linguistic and conceptual systems that subserve linguistically-mediated meaning construction. This I develop in a book-length treatment: How Words Mean, which develops the Theory of Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models, also known as LCCM Theory. I am currently working on a monograph On Time, and a general audience book A Window on the Mind.

I am currently President of the UK-Cognitive Linguistics Association, Editor of the Advances in Cognitive Linguistics book series, and General Editor of Language and Cognition: An interdisciplinary journal of language and cognitive science.

For more information, please consult my website.

Selected Publications

1. Evans, V. (in prep). A window on the mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Evans, V. (in prep). On time: Temporal reference in LCCM Theory.
3. Evans, V. & P. Chilton (Eds) (2010). Language, cognition and space: The state of the art and new directions. London: Equinox.
4. Evans, V. (2009). How words mean: Lexical concepts, cognitive models and meaning construction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Evans, V. & S. Pourcel (Eds) (2009). New directions in Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
6. Evans, V. (2007). A glossary of Cognitive Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
7. Evans, V., B. Bergen & J. Zinken (Eds) (2007). The Cognitive Linguistics reader. London: Equinox.
8. Evans, V. & M. Green (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
9. Evans, V. (2004). The structure of time: Language, meaning and temporal cognition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10. Tyler, A. & V. Evans (2003). The semantics of English propositions: Spatial scenes, embodied meaning, and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.