I am deeply grateful to Professor Fuyin (Thomas) Li for inviting me to speak in the keynote role at the China International Forum on Cognitive Linguistics in December, 2017. Professor Li presented me with an enticing opportunity, but also with two scientific challenges. First, although my research program deeply engages language and my theorizing owes much to foundational work in cognitive semantics, my empirical work mostly falls into psychology and neuroscience. I hope that the explorations undertaken in my laboratory over the years may be useful to cognitive linguists; however, I was intimidated at the prospect of making the case for its relevance and significance for this audience. Second, the task of casting two decades’ worth of accreted data and theory into a coherent form was daunting. When it came time to give the lectures, the supportive and engaged group at the Forum was a real treat. My sincere hope is that these pages and the accompanying video lectures will be helpful to at least some linguists, computer scientists, education researchers, psychologists and neuroscientists in thinking about the role of events in human experience.
I would like to thank Professor Li for his invitation and for his tireless and selfless efforts organizing the Forum. I would also like to extend my warm regards and thanks to the organizing team: Jing (Milly) Du, Ning (Barry) Guo, Zhiyong Hu, Hongxia (Melody) Jia, Jinmei (Catherine) Li, Na (Selina) Liu, Siqing (Margaret) Ma, Shu (Viola) Qi, Yu (Carl) Shen, Lin (Joyce) Yu, Mengmin (Amy) Xu, Yangrui (Toni) Zhang, Guannan (Vivian) Zhao, Xiaoran (Kara) Zhou, Shan (Amanda) Zuo. Thomas, Amy, and Milly were my primary contacts and were thoughtful and gracious hosts. However, the whole team was incredibly warm, considerate, and generous with the time they shared with my family and me.
Apropos of my family, I would last like to thank Leslie, Jonah, and Delia for joining me on this adventure, and on all the others.
Finally, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the US National Institutes of Health, the US National Science Foundation, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the US Office of Naval Research. In particular, during the time of this lecture my laboratory was supported by NIH grant R21AG05231401 and ONR grant N00014-17-1-2961.
Jeffrey M. Zacks
Washington University in Saint Louis
June 2018