The book Infinity in Language is a research monograph on the problem of
the sublime in language. The authors use methods from cognitive
semantics and poetics in order to thoroughly describe how the sublime is
used in language. It is a unique attempt to account for one of the most
fascinating problems of the human mind: the concept of infinity, and how
the experience of infinity and enthusiasm is expressed in language. The
book includes new findings in cognitive semantics relating to rhetorical
figures such as hyperbole, gradation and accumulation. Cognitive
semantics has focused so far on metaphor. This book fills the gap and
gives an account of other rhetorical figures. It contains also a
historical review of major theories of the sublime by Pseudo-Longinos,
Boileau, Burke, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and
others, i.e. it spans a period from the first century AD till twentieth
century. The authors answer the question how is it possible to present
the unpresentable. It is an attempt to outline and develop a model of
the rhetoric of the sublime. The model consists of three elements:
antimimetic evocation of the unimaginable, a mimesis of emotions and
figures of the discourse of the sublime. The books argues in favour of
non-cartesian semantics which takes into account not only reason but
also emotions, especially very intensive ones. However, the authors also
express reservations regarding omnipresent rhetoric of the sublime. They
follow those thinkers in the human history who argued against fanaticism
and in favour of tolerance and empathy. The book is an original result
of an interdisciplinary and international collaboration, lasting many
years, between a cognitive scientist and a linguist and literary
scholar.