1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451944803321

Autore

Riemer Nick <1972->

Titolo

The semantics of polysemy [[electronic resource] ] : reading meaning in English and Warlpiri / / by Nick Riemer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; New York, : Mouton de Gruyter, c2005

ISBN

1-282-19393-7

9786612193934

3-11-019755-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (504 p.)

Collana

Cognitive linguistics research ; ; 30

Disciplina

401/.43

Soggetti

Polysemy

Cognitive grammar

Grammar, Comparative and general - Verb

English language - Semantics

Warlpiri language - Semantics

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [452]-478) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- 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 -- Back matter

Sommario/riassunto

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.