Construal operations in semantic change: the case of abstract nouns

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F4: “argument, debate, dispute” (18 th –19 th century), exemplified by: (21) Det är bekant, hvad fråga varit emellan Philosophiska Sedelärare, om en enda princip för Sedeläran (SAOB) it is known what dispute been between philosophical moral.philosophers, about one single principle for moral.philosophy.the It is known what dispute has been between philosophical moral philosophers, about one single principle for the moral philosophy Meaning derivation: F3 > F4, as a result of pragmatic inference. The motivation for this assumption is that “discussion” often implies “disagreement”. F5: “doubt”, exemplified by: (22) Frågan är om fästingar verkligen orsakar hjärnhinneinflammation. question.the is whether ticks really cause meningitis The question is whether ticks really cause meningitis. Meaning derivation: F > F5 as a result of selection of elements in the base STATE OF AFFAIRS, combined with pragmatic inference. The reasoning goes as follows: it is likely that one may be doubtful about a state of affairs of which one is ignorant. The developmental network of fråga is summarized in Fig. 10. F F1 F3 F5 F2 F4 Fig. 10 . The developmental network of fråga ‘question’. 62
As for the meaning variants F1, F3, F5 they can all be traced back to meaning F – through the process of selection of elements in either of the two bases of the semantic predication. The variant F2 in fact instantiates the meaning of an entire domain (STATE OF AFFAIRS), present in the variant F1 (and F). 3. Summary and conclusion The present account of the semantics of four abstract nouns leads to the following – tentative – conclusions. Firstly, the semantic pole of a noun pro filing a region may host a schematized relational structure. More precisely this schematic structure is what Talmy (2000) refers to as an event frame with particular characteristics depending on the conceptual content of the noun. The event structure embedded in the profile is inherited from a related verb, either this verb is synchronically present (uppgift) or not (tillfälle). However, the embedded event is invariably construed as a whole unit, giving rise to a holistic conceptualization. Secondly, it has been demonstrated that processes generating semantic variation and change operate on the schematized structure underlying the lexical representation of a linguistic expression. Among these processes are selection of elements of the profile vs. the base, and change of setting of the entire event structure. Selection amounts to the foregrounding of x, where x is either part of the profile or the base. In the latter case, the elements in the profile is backgrounded – i.e. put in the base – and substituted by the new profiled element(s). Generalization and promotion are taken to be subcases of selection. The former amounts to a case where the foregrounding of x leads to the elimination of other elements in the profile, leaving x as the only profiled content. The latter amounts to promoting of elements from the base to the profile. Change of setting is assumed to be a general construal mechanism – a transformational device – giving rise to new meaning variants. The prerequisites of meaning variation of a lexeme are intrinsic in the underlying schematic structure as well as in the construal operations that may apply to that structure. Thus every instance of semantic change and variation – either resulting in polysemy or contextual meaning variation – is motivated by the possibilities of varying a given schematized structure by means of general and cognitively motivated construal operations. 63
Page 1 and 2: Reprinted from Tre uppsatser om sem
Page 3 and 4: change may simultaneously be looked
Page 5 and 6: A further step from the “pure”
Page 7 and 8: As I will argue the meaning ‘acci
Page 9 and 10: TR LM1 LM2 ‘opinion’ COMMUNICAT
Page 11 and 12: 2.3. Uppgift ‘information’ The
Page 13 and 14: At first glance the two meanings of
Page 15: What the meaning variants of fråga
Page 19: SAOB = Ordbok över svenska språke

Construal operations in semantic change: the case of abstract nouns

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