Wisława Szymborska’s "Thoughts That Visit Me on Busy Streets": The Language User’s Idiosyncrasy in a Cognitive-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

The paper addresses the cognitive-cultural aspects of the uniqueness of a literary work. In adopting the perspective of cognitive-cultural linguistic, we explore the issue of creativity in linguistic usage. Using the conception of grounded cognition, we investigate how the uniqueness of a literary work of art is shaped by the interaction between the author and the physical/social-cultural environment. In the paper, we discuss selected research problems from the field of social cognition, indicating the idiosyncratic nature of social perception and categorisation. In doing so, we show how the inherently limited cognitive skills of the individual affect the outcome of the categorisation process. Using insights from the conceptual blending theory, we discuss the panchronic aspects of human interaction mediated by language. In this way, we also highlight the panchronic nature of the ad hoc category created by Wisława Szymborska in her poem Thoughts That Visit Me on Busy Streets.