The Semantics of English Prepositions

The Semantics of English Prepositions
Author: Andrea Tyler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2003-06-05
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139436163

Using a cognitive linguistics perspective, this book provides a comprehensive, theoretical analysis of the semantics of English prepositions. All English prepositions originally coded spatial relations between two physical entities; while retaining their original meaning, prepositions have also developed a rich set of non-spatial meanings. In this study, Tyler and Evans argue that all these meanings are systematically grounded in the nature of human spatio-physical experience. The original 'spatial scenes' provide the foundation for the extension of meaning from the spatial to the more abstract. This analysis articulates an alternative methodology that distinguishes between a conventional meaning and an interpretation produced for understanding the preposition in context, as well as establishing which of several competing senses should be taken as the primary sense. Together, the methodology and framework are sufficiently articulated to generate testable predictions and allow the analysis to be applied to additional prepositions.

Substrate and Adstrate

Substrate and Adstrate
Author: Micah Corum
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2015-04-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1501500910

This volume provides a large-scale, in-depth analysis of locative structures in Nigerian Pidgin and Ghanaian Pidgin English and compares those structures to locatives in their lexifier, substrate, and adstrate languages. The work draws on new research methods for investigating substrate and adstrate influence in semantics and creole genesis.

Postclassical Greek Prepositions and Conceptual Metaphor

Postclassical Greek Prepositions and Conceptual Metaphor
Author: William A. Ross
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2022-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110777894

Traditional semantic description of Ancient Greek prepositions has struggled to synthesize the varied and seemingly arbitrary uses into something other than a disparate, sometimes overlapping list of senses. The Cognitive Linguistic approach of prototype theory holds that the meanings of a preposition are better explained as a semantic network of related senses that radially extend from a primary, spatial sense. These radial extensions arise from contextual factors that affect the metaphorical representation of the spatial scene that is profiled. Building upon the Cognitive Linguistic descriptions of Bortone (2009) and Luraghi (2009), linguists, biblical scholars, and Greek lexicographers apply these developments to offer more in-depth descriptions of select postclassical Greek prepositions and consider the exegetical and lexicographical implications of these findings. This volume will be of interest to those studying or researching the Greek of the New Testament seeking more linguistically-informed description of prepositional semantics, particularly with a focus on the exegetical implications of choice among seemingly similar prepositions in Greek and the challenges of potentially mismatched translation into English.

On Monosemy

On Monosemy
Author: Charles Ruhl
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 1989-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780887069468

Argues that most words do not have multiple meanings and criticizes the assignment of additional meanings through overspecification

English Prepositions Explained

English Prepositions Explained
Author: Seth Lindstromberg
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2010-08-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027287899

This completely revised and expanded edition of English Prepositions Explained (EPE), originally published in 1998, covers approximately 100 simple, compound, and phrasal English prepositions of space and time – with the focus being on short prepositions such as at, by, in, and on. Its target readership includes teachers of ESOL, pre-service translators and interpreters, undergraduates in English linguistics programs, studious advanced learners and users of English, and anyone who is inquisitive about the English language. The overall aim is to explain how and why meaning changes when one preposition is swapped for another in the same context. While retaining most of the structure of the original, this edition says more about more prepositions. It includes many more figures – virtually all new. The exposition draws on recent research, and is substantially founded on evidence from digitalized corpora, including frequency data. EPE gives information and insights that will not be found in dictionaries and grammar handbooks.

A Cognitive Linguistics Account of Wordplay

A Cognitive Linguistics Account of Wordplay
Author: Konrad Żyśko
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2017-01-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1443860964

Even though the ability to create witty puns seems to be an inherent skill of humankind, an apt explanation of their linguistic nature has evaded many academic descriptions. This monograph offers a novel conceptual perspective on the creation of meaning observable beneath the surface of wordplay. The rationale for such an approach lies in the fact that language, and hence wordplay, is a cognitive phenomenon which involves some underlying complex mental processes, such as thinking in terms of image schemas, conceptual metaphor and metonymy, or blending, to mention just a few. The book provides a survey of relevant linguistic research, introduces the main tenets of cognitive linguistics, and offers an analysis of wordplay in the light of available cognitive literature. The final outcome of this work is an array of intricate mechanisms that govern creation and comprehension of wordplay. The book will be of interest to anybody who finds wordplay research appealing, no matter their level of expertise in the field.