The Semantics of Polysemy : : Reading Meaning in English and Warlpiri / / Nick Riemer.

This book, addressed primarily to students and researchers in semantics, cognitive linguistics, English, and Australian languages, is a comparative study of the polysemy patterns displayed by percussion/impact ('hitting') verbs in English and Warlpiri (Pama-Nyungan, Central Australia). The...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
VerfasserIn:
Place / Publishing House:Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter Mouton, , [2008]
©2005
Year of Publication:2008
Language:English
Series:Cognitive Linguistics Research [CLR] , 30
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (487 p.)
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Other title:Frontmatter --
Table of contents --
Chapter 1 Cognition and linguistic science --
Chapter 2 Meaning, definition and --
paraphrase --
Chapter 3 Evidence for polysemy --
Chapter 4 A four-category theory of --
polysemy --
Chapter 5 Applications I: English --
Chapter 6 Applications II: Warlpiri --
Chapter 7 Conclusion: description and explanation --
in semantics --
Backmatter
Summary:This book, addressed primarily to students and researchers in semantics, cognitive linguistics, English, and Australian languages, is a comparative study of the polysemy patterns displayed by percussion/impact ('hitting') verbs in English and Warlpiri (Pama-Nyungan, Central Australia). The opening chapters develop a novel theoretical orientation for the study of polysemy via a close examination of two theoretical traditions under the broader cognitivist umbrella: Langackerian and Lakovian Cognitive Semantics and Wierzbickian Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Arguments are offered which problematize attempts in these traditions to ground the analysis of meaning either in cognitive or neurological reality, or in the existence of universal synonymy relations within the lexicon. Instead, an interpretative rather than a scientific construal of linguistic theorizing is sketched, in the context of a close examination of certain key issues in the contemporary study of polysemy such as sense individuation, the role of reference in linguistic categorization, and the demarcation between metaphor and metonymy. The later chapters present a detailed typology of the polysemous senses of English and Warlpiri percussion/impact (or P/I) verbs based on a diachronically deep corpus of dictionary citations from Middle to contemporary English, and on a large corpus of Warlpiri citations. Limited to the operations of metaphor and of three categories of metonymy, this typology posits just four types of basic relation between extended and core meanings. As a result, the phenomenon of polysemy and semantic extension emerges as amenable to strikingly concise description.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9783110197556
9783110238570
9783110238457
9783110636970
9783110742961
9783110212129
9783110212136
9783110209457
ISSN:1861-4132 ;
DOI:10.1515/9783110197556
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Nick Riemer.