A Critical Review on the Book “An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics

The present paper has been written with the aim of analyzing and reviewing the Persian translation of ‘An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics’ by Jahanshah Mirzabeigi (2018). Analyzing the English version of the book revealed that, although it is one of the main and well-known textbooks in the field, it has some deficiencies among which we can mention insufficient attention to the basic principles and assumptions of cognitive linguistics, language universals and linguistic diversity from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, embodiment and the embodied basis of language and cognition. Also, although some issues in cognitive semantics, such as metaphor, metonymy, image schemas, and conceptual blending, are well addressed in the book, some other issues such as force dynamics are neglected. Analyzing the Persian translation of the book showed that there are some deficiencies and drawbacks, the most important of which are: inappropriate equivalents for certain technical and non-technical terms, relatively considerable errors in translation of words, expressions, and sentences, and numerous errors in intra- and extra-textual references. In this regard, it is suggested that the book should be revised in terms of spelling, eloquence, and translation accuracy.