Format:
1 Online-Ressource (xi, 174 Seiten)
,
Illustrationen
ISBN:
9780511620904
,
051162090X
Series Statement:
Cambridge studies in linguistics 54
Content:
This book offers a distinct approach to the analysis of the multiple meanings of English modals, conjunctions, conditionals and perception verbs. Although such ambiguities cannot easily be accounted for by feature-analyses of word meaning, Eve Sweetser's argument shows that they can be analysed both readily and systematically. Meaning relationships in general cannot be understood independently of human cognitive structure, including the metaphorical and cultural aspects of that structure. Sweetser shows that both lexical polysemy and pragmatic ambiguity are shaped by our metaphorical folk understanding of epistemic processes and of speech interaction. Similar regularities can be shown to structure the contrast between root, epistemic and 'speech-act' uses of modal verbs, multiple uses of conjunctions and conditionals, and certain processes of historical change observed in Indo-European languages. Since polysemy is typically the intermediate step in semantic change, the same regularities observable in polysemy can be extended to an analysis of semantic change. This book will attract students and researchers in linguistics, philosophy, the cognitive sciences, and all those interested in metaphor
Note:
IntroductionPast approaches and problems -- Cognitively oriented recent work in semantics -- Semantic change and polysemy patterns: metaphorical connections between semantic fields -- Semantic structure and semantic change: English perception-verbs in an Indo-European context -- Introduction -- The Mind-as-Body Metaphor -- Sense-perception verbs in English and Indo-European -- The structure of our metaphors of perception -- Conclusions -- Modality -- Introduction -- The root modals in English -- Epistemic modality as an extension of root modality -- Speech-act verbs and speech-act modality -- Conclusions -- Conjunction, coordination, and subordination -- Causal and adversative conjunctions -- And, or, and but -- Conclusions -- Conditionals -- Conditionals in three domains -- Real and apparent ambiguities between classes of conditionals -- If as a topic marker -- The even-if reading of conditionals.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0521324068
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe Sweetser, Eve E. From etymology to pragmatics Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998 ISBN 9780521424424
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0521324068
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780521324069
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0521424429
Language:
English
Subjects:
Comparative Studies. Non-European Languages/Literatures
,
English Studies
Keywords:
Semantik
;
Modalität
;
Metapher
;
Polysemie
;
Bedeutungswandel
DOI:
10.1017/CBO9780511620904
URL:
Volltext
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