Abstract
M.A.
This study is based on the principles of the subjectivist approach of Cognitive Linguistics, as opposed to the more traditional objectivist view, specifically those principles applicable to the acquisition of mental contact between conceptualizers in a given communication situation.
One of the most fundamental points of departure of Cognitive Linguistics is the opinion that abstractions (even linguistic abstractions) are modelled on man's bodily experience of his surrounding reality. These embodied experiences constitute a network of preconceptual and non-propositional image schemas, categorized as space schemas, force dynamic schemas, schemas based on sensation and basic-level objects. Several mapping processes, including metaphor and metonymy, transpose these image schemas from a preconceptual, prelinguistic level to a conceptual and linguistic niveau.
A prerequisite for conceptualization through linguistic communication is to constitute mental contact between the speaker and hearer as the conceptualizers. Linguistic communication presupposes the transfer of meaning, which is based on certain cognitive variables determining mental spaces and conceptual blends.
Against the preceding background, the newspaper headline, as cognitive entity, constitutes the research domain by means of which the nature of the potential mental contact between the headline writer (as speaker) and the headline reader (as hearer) in a specific communication situation is analysed and evaluated. A seemingly useful and potent cognitive measuring instrument regarding presupposed and actualised mental contact, by means of which any written or spoken communication can be analysed and evaluated, is the outcome of this study. A set of examples of headlines was collected from the Afrikaans daily newspaper, Beeld, and the Afrikaans Sunday paper, Rapport, from February 1996 until September 1998, serving as research material.