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=                           Force dynamics                           =
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                             Introduction
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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 considered in the same context.
The semantic category of force dynamics pervades language on several
levels. Not only does it apply to expressions in the physical domain
like 'leaning on' or 'dragging', but it also plays an important role
in expressions involving psychological forces (e.g. 'wanting' or
'being urged').
Furthermore, the concept of force dynamics can be extended to
discourse. For example, the situation in which speakers A and B argue,
after which speaker A gives in to speaker B, exhibits a force dynamic
pattern.


                               Context
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Introduced by cognitive linguist Leonard Talmy in 1981, force dynamics
started out as a generalization of the traditional notion of the
causative, dividing 'causation' into finer primitives and considering
the notions of 'letting', 'hindering', and 'helping'. Talmy further
developed the field in his 1985, 1988 and 2000 works.

Talmy places force dynamics within the broader context of cognitive
semantics. In his view, a general idea underlying this discipline is
the existence of a fundamental distinction in language between
closed-class (grammatical) and open-class (lexical) categories. This
distinction is motivated by the fact that language uses certain
categories of notions to structure and organize meaning, while other
categories are excluded from this function. For example, Talmy remarks
that many languages mark the number of nouns in a systematic way, but
that nouns are not marked in the same way for 'color'. Force Dynamics
is considered to be one of the closed-class notional categories,
together with such generally recognized categories as number, aspect,
mood, and evidentiality.

Aspects of force dynamics have been incorporated into the theoretical
frameworks of  Mark Johnson (1987), Steven Pinker (1997) and Ray
Jackendoff (1990) (see Deane 1996 for a critical review of