认知语言学认为语言不是对外部世界的镜像反映,而是要经过人类大脑的认知加工。因此人类知识可以划分为三个既相互区别又互为关联的部分,即感知世界、理思世界和语言世界。感知世界由感觉器官所能够感知的事物构成,具有层次性、可塑性、近身性、生动性、违实性等特点。理思世界由概念、意象图式、概念域等构成,具有时空观念模糊性、高度抽象性、立体结构性、工具性、突生进化性特点。语言世界是理思世界的外显,由单词码化、编码模式选择、图形-背景组配、情景适配等构成,具有符号性、线性特点。

Cognitive linguistics holds that language is not the direct reflection of the external world, but rather undergoes cognitive processing by the human brain. Therefore, human knowledge can be divided into three distinct yet interrelated parts, namely the Perceived World, the Rationally-thought World, and the Linguistically-encoded World. The Perceived-World is composed of things that sensory organs can perceive, with characteristics such as hierarchy, plasticity, closeness, vividness, and unreality. The Rationally-thought World is composed of concepts, image schema, conceptual domains, etc. This world has the characteristics of being fussy in spatial and temporal concepts, highly abstract, three-dimensional, instrumental, and emergently evolved. The Linguistically-encoded World is the manifestation of the Rationally-thought World, consisting of word encoding, selection of encoding mode, figure-ground alignment, situational adaptation, etc., with symbolic and linear characteristics.