Center for Cognitive Science Colloquium State University of New York at Buffalo LEONARD TALMYY talmy@acsu.buffalo.edu Center for Cognitive Science Department of Linguistics "Language Structure and Consciousness" Wednesday, January 26, 2000 2:00-3:30 p.m. 280 Park Hall North Campus It can be observed that different aspects or components of language have different degrees of availability in consciousness. For example, we are generally more conscious of the meaning of a lexical form than of a grammatical form, of the use of a word than of the conditions of its use, of the meaning of a word or discourse than of the form, and of asserted content than of implied content. The general principle seems to be that consciousness is more associated with that portion or granularity of linguistic phenomena that is more relevant to current goals and concerns. The same pattern of differential consciousness seems to hold for other cognitive systems, such as visual perception and motor control. Time permitting, the issue of consciousness in language will be placed within a general framework of views on the nature of consciousness. Such views can largely be ranged along a scale that accords different degrees of importance to consciousness. While this range of views is largely comprehended within the philosophical tradition, the analysis here is in terms of motivations for the views, seen from a cognitive perspective.