The semantics of polysemy : reading meaning in English and Warlpiri / by Nick Riemer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Riemer, Nick, 1972-

Series:

Cognitive linguistics research ; 30.

Cognitive linguistics research ; 30

Language:

Australian languages

English

Subjects (All):

Polysemy.

Cognitive grammar.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Verb.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

English language--Semantics.

English language.

Warlpiri language--Semantics.

Warlpiri language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (504 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, c2005.

Language Note:

English

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.

Contents:

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

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

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

ISBN:

9786612193934

9781282193932

1282193937

9783110197556

3110197553

OCLC:

476123619