Construal operations in semantic change: the case of abstract nouns

intention and purpose. Thus ‘intention’ and ‘purpose’ are linked to both
‘opinion’ and ‘sense’, respectively. Further, the use of mening in (11b) is related
to the metaphorical use in (11c) – life is just like a word conceptualized as a
container but whereas the content of life is equal to the purpose of life, the
content of a word is equal to its sense.
Also the meaning ‘sentence’ (11d) – although clearly separated from the
variants in (11a–c) – fits well into the base knowledge of the sense ‘opinion’.
Sentences are in fact not only the typical means to verbally express an opinion
but the way to do it. That is, sentences represent the form side of a linguistic
expression used to express an opinion. Interestingly, also Eng. sentence shows
an earlier meaning ‘meaning, sense’; ‘opinion’, motivated by its origin in Lat.
sententia ‘mental feeling, opinion’ (ODEE: 809).
Together all these meaning variants – ‘sense’, ‘intention’, ‘purpose’ and
‘sentence’ – are parts of the base, referred to as COMMUNICATION in Fig. 5,
along with other semantic aspects which are not lexically realized. The interconnections
between the various elements in the base are illustrated in Fig. 6
below. Lexically realized meanings are given within single quotation marks.
Profile:
Mening ‘opinion’
Base:
[linguistic expression]
[symbolic unit]
[functional unit]
[form] [meaning] ‘intention’ ‘purpose’
‘sentence’
‘sense’
Fig. 6. Overview of the interconnections in the base of Sw. mening ‘opinion’.
In each of the uses in (11) above only one of the elements in the base is focused
– i.e. has entered the profile – whereas the others are backgrounded.
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