According to what I have researched, it is important to mention that in linguistics there are numerous fields and theories that try to explain and give an extensive view of how humans learn a language, how we are able to acquire a language and communicate what we really want, at the same time that the other person understands the same meaning. One important field in Linguistics is Cognitive Semantics, which is part of the cognitive Linguistics theory.
It is important to mention the way we process and produce information; The way we perceive our own experience of the environment and how we process that information in order to store it into our minds and give it a meaning to use later on when humans need it again. All that process is what we call cognitive structure, and this mental structure is what determines the position and reaction in different experiences. On the other hand, the way we respond to anger, fear, happiness, or sadness. The way words, phrases and meanings are understood by a particular group of speakers has to do with semantics.
Cognitive Semantics began as a result of the opposition of other linguistic theories, because it actually believes that the way in which humans learn is innate and not autonomous as it is claimed. In my own point of view I agree with this premise because we are born with the language ability of learning a language, as well as some other abilities but if we do not develop those skills by socializing with other human beings, we are not going to build up skills along the way. By this, I mean that obtaining, processing, and producing information whether it is right or wrong, are the ways we acquire our mental structure of trial and error.
Cognitive semantics are part of the cognitive process. That is our environment and experiences are remarkably important because based on these we can acquire a wide range of meanings. Meanings are not just words which are determined by the language; there are many words and meanings, that have to do with perception, environment and experiences as I mentioned before.
All the experiences with the world (the association of meanings), according to what is going to be understood whether abstract or not. It is embodied as conceptual structure in cognitive semantics. In our daily life, we usually say different things according to the experiences we are going through; those things can be interpreted by listeners in one way or another. Furthermore, meaning according to cognitive semantics, is conceptual, which is the second principle of CS. What a person understands about something is probably not the same what as another person understands. We are talking about an idea, feeling or thought, or when we talk about something that has its specific characteristics and everyone understands it the same. Such as an apple, everyone associates it with round shape, red color, something to eat. In this case, we are talking about the general characteristics of an apple that everyone knows (collective lexicon) but also that apple has certain kinds of features given by a particular person, what the word apple means to that person.
Another important aspect in cognitive semantics is the way we understand meaning, in terms of culture and behavior. To be precise there is not a fixed meaning for something those are the third and fourth principle of CS.
As a conclusion, cognition is quiet important in order to know the meaning of words, phrases and ideas in a given context or in an environment. We cannot separate the cognitive process from semantics.
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