Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Nick Riemer
Publisher:   De Gruyter
Imprint:   De Gruyter Mouton
Volume:   30
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.838kg
ISBN:  

9783110183979

ISBN 10:   3110183978
Pages:   503
Publication Date:   16 June 2005
Recommended Age:   College Graduate Student
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Cognition and linguistic science 1. Introduction 2. Meaning and interpretation 3. Meaning and conceptualization: Cognitive Semantics Chapter 2. Meaning, definition, and paraphrase 1. NSM and meaning 2. Definition and semantic theory 3. Grounding meaning 4. NSM-specific issues 5. More general issues 6. Implications Chapter 3. Polysemy and the evidence for semantic facts 1. Introduction 2. Polysemy, monosemy and the natural tendency of semantic description 3. Proposed evidence of semantic structure 4. Lexical categorization, semantic relations and referent typicality Chapter 4. Metaphor, metonymy and the theory of polysemy 1. Introduction 2. The present account 3. The basic P/I scenario 4. Four types of semantic 'extension' 5. Metaphor and metonymy in semantic extension Chapter 5. Applications I: English 1. Introduction 2. The domain of P/I in English 3. Sources of examples 4. Some methodological preliminaries 5. Polysemous extensions of English P/I verbs 6. Summary of means of extension: strike Chapter 6. Applications II: Warlpiri 1. Introduction 2. A brief grammatical sketch 3. Three types of 'polysemy' 4. Result Orientation in Warlpiri verbs 5. The domain of P/I in Warlpiri 6. Pakarni 7. Pinyi 8. Luwarni 9. Pantirni 10. Pajirni 11. Katirni 12. Parntarni Chapter 7. Conclusion: description and explanantion in semantics References

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Author Information

Nick Riemer is Assistant Professor at the Department of English, University of Sydney, Australia.

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