Transformations on image schemas and cross-linguistic polysemy

The meaning ‘back’, illustrated in (14c) and Fig. 7, represents another possible
development of the face-to-face orientation. (Or, alternatively, a further
development of the ‘closure’-meaning.)
Fig. 7. The meaning ‘back’.
As one entity closes the path of the other, the movement may only continue by
making a turn and taking the same trajectory back again. Considering the
polysemy of German wieder in the light of the sense development of Sw. igen
‘again’ will provide us with an explanation of the meaning variants ‘back’,
‘return’, exemplified in (13) above. Since German wieder shares the same core
meaning as Sw. igen, the meaning variants of wieder are motivated on the same
grounds as these variants are motivated in the polysemy of the again-set.
In Modern Swedish, the central meaning of igen is the repetitive one, i.e. the
meaning is equivalent to the meaning of English again. The last link in the
meaning chain relates the meaning ‘back’ to ‘again’ by emphasizing the feature
of repetition present in the ‘back’-sense. More specifically, two different
movements – a “coming” and a “going” – are reinterpreted into movements of
the same kind. Thus, the schema in Fig. 7 is transformed into the schema in Fig.
8 (which is identical with the sequential schema in Fig. 3 above).
Fig. 8. The meaning ‘again’.
Summarizing, the sense development of Eng. again and Swed. igen originates in
an asymmetric face-to-face-meaning and ends in a symmetric repetitive
meaning.
The conclusion that can be drawn from the data presented in this section is
that the ‘face-to-face’-sense has a potential to develop a ‘together with’-sense,
an ‘at’-sense, and a repetitive meaning, respectively. The former two possibilities
are shown by the historical development of the with-set, except for the
German equivalent wieder. German wieder instead follows the same track as the
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