Search

The present study explores a frequent concept in modern media discourse, namely "threat," based on a corpus analysis of the two Russian nouns groza and ugroza from 1800 to 2020. We show that the two words share a network of submeanings, but that they have different centers of gravity in the network. We identify four submeanings and suggest that the distribution of the two words has changed over time. In present-day Russian, groza is dominant in the meaning 'thunderstorm,' while ugroza describes a wide variety of threats. Our analysis of origins of threats and affected entities has also revealed a diachronic development, whereby origins of threat change from concrete physical threats via military threats to more generalized dangers, such as nuclear and environmental disasters, diseases, and terrorism, while entities affected by these threats undergo a change from concrete persons via communities and states to the entire planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract One of the issues discussed in the framework of cognitive semantics is the issue of polysemy. One of the fundamental concepts in polysemy is radial categories. In cognitive semantics, a polysemous word forms a category, and the different meanings of that word are assigned to the members of that category. From this point of view, prefixes also have multiple meanings that can be added to their bases. In this regard, in the present study, the polysemy of the prefix /hæm-/ was investigated by relying on the cognitive semantics approach. The methodological nature of this qualitative study was descriptive-analytic, and the data have been collected by library research method including Dehkhoda Dictionary (1995), Mo’in Dictionary (2003) and Amid Dictionary (2011). The findings indicated that the non-verbal prefix /hæm-/ is a polysemous prefix with a range of lexical functions. It’s worth mentioning that this prefix in some cases changes the lexical meaning of the verbal root, and thus creates a distinct lexical element. And also, the results showed that the prefix /hæm-/ consists of five distinctive meaning. Based on factors to determine the prototypemeaning, it was found that among the existing meanings, the meaning of "sharing" is the core or prototypemeaning of the prefix /hæm-/, and four other semantic clusters are formed around this core meaning. Accordingly, the prefix /hæm-/ has formed a category that gathers all its meanings around a core meaning, just like lexical categories. Keywords: cognitive semantics, polysemy, radial category, prefix, Persian Introduction One of the issues discussed in the framework of cognitive semantics is the issue of polysemy. In the field of semantics, polysemy is important because meaning generativity and expansion of concepts to a significant extent occurs as a result of the creation and formation of polysemy. Radial categories provide one of the fundamental concepts in polysemy. In cognitive semantics, a polysemous word forms a category and the different meanings of that word are assigned to the members of that category. It can be claimed that all these meanings are related to each other. The relationship between these meanings can be also justified through what are called radial categories. From this point of view, prefixes have multiple meanings that can be added to their bases. In this regard, in the present study, the polysemy of the prefix /hæm-/ was investigated by relying on the cognitive semantic approach. According to the prototypical theory, it is believed that some of these meanings are better examples for that particular category and some members marginally represent their category. Also, more prototypical meanings are placed in the center of this radial category and marginal meanings are related to these more central meanings through family similarities. Semantic relation is the outcome of humans’ daily interactions and their embodied experiences. Moreover, observations of the world around them show these experiences in image schemas and mental spaces as well. With the use of these concepts and experiences, human beings realize the similarities between two or more processes and use a word with a metaphorical extension in other meanings while referring to those processes. In this regard, Likoff and Brugmann (1988) stated that words occur in radial categories that are placed under a conceptual category, in which several concepts are organized in relation to a central concept. In the case of words, it is said that their central or prototypical meanings are located in the center of this category and their marginal meanings are further away from those prototypical meanings (Evans & Green, 2006: 332). The following figure shows an abstract image of how the different meanings of words are related to the perspective of radial categories: Fig 1- Network of radial categories (Evans & Green, 2006: 332) Materials and Methods The methodological nature of this qualitative study was descriptive-analytic and the data consisted of almost 436 words which were collected from the library resources available in Persian language, such as historical books and books of authoritative cultures, including Dehkhoda Dictionary (1995), Mo’in Dictionary (2003), and Amid Dictionary (2011). Then, by using the criteria provided by Taylor and Evans (Taylor & Evans, 2003), the prototypical and marginal meanings of the prefix /hæm-/ in Persian language were determined. In addition, the authors tried to use cognitive tools in this approach for different meanings of the investigated prefix to present the relevant schemata. Finally, the radial network of this prefix was drawn. Discussion of Results and Conclusion The issue that emerges is that, like words, Persian language prefixes, such as "Ham-", which are considered to be remnants of the previous periods of the mentioned language, have changed over time and as a result, their meanings have also changed and expanded in combination with different bases. Also, since prefixes play an important role in a language as constructive elements in the construction of language words and new concepts, determining their prototypical meanings and radial network can be an effective step in understanding their semantic range. Therefore, in the current research, the authors tried to answer the following questions: What are the prototypical meanings of the prefix /hæm-/ and its polysemous radial network? How are the compounded words derived from the prefix /hæm-/ explained? The findings indicated that the non-verbal prefix /hæm-/ is a polysemous prefix with a range of lexical functions. It is worth mentioning that this prefix changes the lexical meaning of the verbal root and thus creates a distinct lexical element in some cases. The results showed that the prefix /hæm-/ consisted of 5 distinctive meanings. Based on the factors, it was found that among the existing meanings, the meaning of "sharing" was the core or prototypical meaning of the prefix /hæm-/, while the other 4 meanings were considered as 4 semantic clusters formed around that prototypical meaning. Accordingly, the prefix /hæm-/ formed a category that gathered all its meanings around a core meaning just like lexical categories. To sum it up, among the collected data, 40 and 46 words were used in combination with the prefix /hæm/ in the semantic clusters of "similarity" and "association", respectively. Also, 42 words from the data in this research had the semantic cluster of "equality/sameness". Finally, the findings showed that the schemata of “sharing” as the prototypical meaning for the prefix /hæm-/ had the highest frequency of meaning compared to the semantic clusters and that was why it was considered as the prototypical meaning. Also, out of the 4 semantic clusters of "companionship", "similarity", "association", and "equality/sameness", the schematas of "companion" and "similarity" had the highest and lowest frequencies, respectively.

One of the issues discussed in the framework of cognitive semantics is the issue of polysemy. One of the fundamental concepts in polysemy is radial categories. In cognitive semantics, a polysemous word forms a category, and the different meanings of that word are assigned to the members of that category. From this point of view, prefixes also have multiple meanings that can be added to their bases. In this regard, in the present study, the polysemy of the prefix /hæm-/ was investigated by relying on the cognitive semantics approach. The methodological nature of this qualitative study was descriptive-analytic, and the data have been collected by library research method including Dehkhoda Dictionary (1995), Mo’in Dictionary (2003) and Amid Dictionary (2011). The findings indicated that the non-verbal prefix /hæm-/ is a polysemous prefix with a range of lexical functions. It’s worth mentioning that this prefix in some cases changes the lexical meaning of the verbal root, and thus creates a distinct lexical element. And also, the results showed that the prefix /hæm-/ consists of five distinctive meaning. Based on factors to determine the prototypemeaning, it was found that among the existing meanings, the meaning of "sharing" is the core or prototypemeaning of the prefix /hæm-/, and four other semantic clusters are formed around this core meaning. Accordingly, the prefix /hæm-/ has formed a category that gathers all its meanings around a core meaning, just like lexical categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative is a complex and elusive category of cognition, culture, communication and language. An attempt has been made in this article with a large enough theoretical scope to consider the possibility of treating narrative as a radial category. To this end, the definition and characterisation of radiality is provided together with explanation of what it might mean to apply this term to the complex language-discourse unit of narrative. The prototype of this category involves features, functions, and ICMs. It has multiple representations with only family resemblance, involves more obvious exemplars and variable abstract knowledge structures. In particular, section one looks at the radiality question and what it might mean to think of the meaning of narrative in general. Section two focuses on centrality. Sections three to five deal with schematic representations of narrative and provide examples of extending the most subsuming schema of the Action Chain Model from cognitive linguistics and Labov’s Narrative Schema to various other types of conversational narrative, children’s dramatic plays, tactical narratives, story rounds, jokes, poems, current news articles on the Internet, images, and advertisements.

One of the main concepts in cognitive linguistics is that each unit of language has a semantic network. In this approach, morpheme, categories, and syntactic constructs all have a symbolic unit. In this sense, enclitics also have their own meanings that add meaning to the base of the host. As a result, the derivative is formed. An extension like the lexical categories provides a category that classifies all its meanings around a central meaning. /-ku/ is one of the most widely used enclitics in the Tangestan dialect which is connected to different bases with the category of nouns, adjectives, and infinities. The present article, in the context of cognitive semantics, explores the various concepts of the "-ku:" as an enclitic. The main objectives of this research are to show that the various meanings of the "-ku:" suffixes are not randomized and present its semantic network. The findings of this study revealed that the "-ku:" enclitic has a coherent network in which the various meanings of this enclitic extend around a prototypical meaning (i.e., definite meaning) in the form of a radial structure.

The use of an elaborate system of co-verbial constructions is the hallmark of the Hungarian language and one of the biggest challenges a translator or a learner of this language has to face. Co-verbial constructions consist of verbs, or their derivates, accompanied by a limited number of prefixes or particles that modify their meanings. They not only perform numerous syntactic and lexical functions, which is important in terms of language production, but also are able to change the meaning of the verb completely. The aim of this study is to trace the cognitive motivation behind the use of Hungarian co-verbial constructions with össze/szét and to show that the meanings developed by these constructions can be organized with reference to prototypical scenes structured in the form of a radial category.

The relationship between future time and future tense forms in Russian is complex. The forms traditionally attributed to the future tense in certain cases do not refer to future time. Those cases have been previously presented as an inventory not representing a plausible cognitive model and/or attributed to the sphere of modality. In this article, we suggest a data-driven approach applied to the spectrum of meanings of Russian future tense forms. We analyzed corpus data and discovered that 44% of perfective future forms and 22% of imperfective future forms do not unambiguously express future time meaning. Among the non-future time meanings that Russian future tense forms can express are Gnomic, Performative, Implicative, Hypothetical, Alternation, and Stable scenario. Furthermore, we propose that the meanings of the future tense constitute a radial category. Future time reference is the prototypical meaning of the future tense. The remaining meanings comprise extensions connected to the prototypical meaning. We describe the radial category with reference to Langacker’s (2008) model of tense and potentiality. Additionally, we explore the interaction of future tense and modality.

This study examines the morpho-syntax, semantics and pragmatics of the diminutives w-án- and án- from a cognitive linguistic perspective in a little researched Niger-Congo language: Tiv. Tiv diminutives are particularly interesting in terms of their morphosyntactic origin, as well as the fact that they show the predominant influence of metaphor on variant interpretations. This leads to the proposal of more metaphors, in addition to those proposed in Jurafsky (1996), explaining the mapping of interpretations. Metaphor also aids the application of other mechanisms of semantic change, by shifting from the PERSON to the QUALITY feature of 'child'. Similar to previous researches on diminutives, e.g. Nikitina (2018), and Appah and Amfo (2011; 2019) this study shows that the diminutives' interpretations are interconnected and modellable into a single network, using the Radial Category approach. Theoretically, while Jurafsky's proposed model for diminutives only shows associations among the semantic interpretations and not among the pragmatic interpretations, this study shows how pragmatic interpretations also interact in Tiv. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to reconstruct the structure of the Ukrainian verbal prefix za- as a category. Cognitive modeling and the network approach are used to this end, similarly to other works within the Cognitive Linguistics paradigm (Janda, 1985; 1986), (Sokolova & Endresen, 2017), (Tabakowska, 2003). The modeling phase is preceded by an analysis of a large sample of Ukrainian zaverbs, which are grouped into semantic blocks based on shared semantic content. These blocks are then mapped onto a network of conceptual schemas, which includes such prominent centers as CURVE and APPEAR. The latter and several other nodes are shown to be modifications of CURVE with the links between them constituting family resemblances (Wittgenstein, 2009). The conceptual schema APPEAR is actively used by native speakers to coin new inchoative za- verbs in Ukrainian and several Slavic languages, which means that conscious (Type 2) categorization (Starko, 2014) is employed. This and other considerations suggest that APPEAR is a psychologically real conceptual entity in its own right. Thus, an argument is made in favor of a bifocal, rather than unicentric, topology of the za- network, which is contrary to the popular assumption about the existence of a single central element (prototype) from which all other network nodes are derived in what is called "radial structure" or "radical category" (Lakoff, 1987). The a priori assumption in the study of categories should be that they may be unicentric or pluricentric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abundant use of prepositions in Persian has led the present study to choose the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), a structural-functional theory of grammar, in order to investigate the logical structure representations of some sentences containing the preposition ba meaning 'with'. This is to find out the semantic and structural motivations of this preposition assignment to Persian NPs. This article concludes that the preposition ba, is a basically locative preposition and a radial category with senses related to the central, primary maning of 'togetherness' and 'having'. As a consequence, it can be shown that one cannot be restricted solely to the primary preposition assignment rules stated in RRG, and must focus on the semantic motivations to represent the logical structure of the sentences containing prepositions, in a better way. In this way, we avoid the problems and issues in RRG primary logical structure representations. In addition, the analysis presented in this study is able to justify the various uses of the Preposition ba in Persian, such as adverbial, commutative, theme-marking and, instrumental ba.

The main aim of this study is to describe the color term negro as a polysemic unit and to show it as a radial category containing different meanings related among them, as well as to highlight the prominence of metonymy in the motivation and the relation among senses. The article is structured as follows: (i) exposition of the main characteristics of cognitive semantics and conceptual polysemy, (ii) description of the motivation of different meanings related to negro and (iii) organization of the radial network of negro as a polysemic category and description of the role of metonymy and metaphor in the relationship among meanings. In order to carry out the study a corpus-based methodology is applied. This allows us to obtain usage-based events of the color term negro as well as to access the cotextual and contextual information that intervene in the activation and distinction of senses. In terms of the motivation and the relationship among them, the study is carried out according to the TCMM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of an elaborate system of co-verbial constructions is the hallmark of the Hungarian language and one of the biggest challenges a translator or a learner of this language has to face. Co-verbial constructions consist of verbs, or their derivates, accompanied by a limited number of prefixes or particles that modify their meanings. They not only perform numerous syntactic and lexical functions, which is important in terms of language production, but also are able to change the meaning of the verb completely. The aim of this study is to trace the cognitive motivation behind the use of Hungarian co-verbial constructions with ossze/szet and to show that the meanings developed by these constructions can be organized with reference to prototypical scenes structured in the form of a radial category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many dictionaries and other lexicographic resources often describe near-synonyms using one another, which makes it difficult for a foreign language learner to make a choice between them. Although it is true that near-synonyms can be used when referring to the same state of affairs, they often involve different construals, insofar as they represent different ways of viewing the situation in question. Quite often, not all alternatives are possible in a given context, but it is not an easy task to pinpoint which alternative is possible in which context. In this study I consider a group of nearly synonymous verbs with the meaning ‘tremble’ in Russian and attempt to build a radial category network of meanings based on corpus data. I show that the network accommodates the similarities among the verbs, but at the same time also brings out the differences among them.

El carácter léxico de la preposición 'de' no siempre ha sido reconocido debidamente por cuanto las preposiciones no pueden funcionar independientemente y por la variedad de significados que se les atribuye. Considerando este vacío teórico, el presente trabajo, enmarcado en el Enfoque Cognitivo-Prototípico (Lakoff 1987; Langacker 1987, 1991; Hopper 1988; Geeraerts 2007; entre otros), plantea las siguientes hipótesis: a) los distintos valores semánticos de la preposición 'de' (en construcciones adnominales) están organizados sistemáticamente y configuran un ítem polisémico; b) el ítem polisémico 'de' se caracteriza por organizarse (1) mediante una estructura de categoría radial (Lakoff 1987), (2) sobre la base del modelo cognitivo idealizado del punto de referencia (Langacker 1991) y (3) a partir de los atributos de Taylor (1995) para el uso posesivo, que es el uso prototípico; c) finalmente, las construcciones con 'de' que se alejan del valor prototípico siguen guardando relación semántico-pragmática con este por 'semejanza de familia' (Wittgenstein 1988[1953]; Lakoff 1987). Esta relación de semejanza contempla tanto la pérdida como el agregado de atributos no presentes en la zona prototípica. Para demostrar estas hipótesis, se analizaron cualitativamente diversos ejemplos de las extensiones semánticas surgidas del sentido central de posesión. Los ejemplos fueron seleccionados de un corpus oral del español de Buenos Aires.The lexical nature of the preposition 'de' has not always been recognized duly. This is because prepositions cannot work independently and also because of the variety of meanings that they convey. In view of this theoretical gap, the present study -in line with the Prototypical-Cognitive Approach (Lakoff 1987, Langacker 1987, 1991, Hopper 1988, Geeraerts 2007, among others)- formulates the following hypotheses: a) the different semantic values of the preposition 'de' (in nominal constructions) are systematically organized and constitute a polysemous item; b) the polysemous item 'de' is characterized by being organized (1) by a radial structure (Lakoff 1987), (2) on the basis of the idealized cognitive model of 'reference point' (Langacker 1991); and (3) through Taylor's (1995) attributes for possessive use, which is its prototypical meaning. Finally, the constructions with 'de' which deviate from the prototypical values maintain a semantico-pragmatic relationship with them by means of the notion of 'family resemblance' (Wittgenstein 1988[1953]; Lakoff 1987). This resemblance relationship includes both the loss and addition of attributes not present within the prototypical area. In order to test hypotheses, different examples of the semantic extensions derived from the central meaning of possession were analysed qualitatively. The data being described was selected from an oral corpus of Buenos Aires Spanish.

During recent decades, Persian complex predicates have been described by many grammarians and linguists with different approaches to their syntax, morphology, and, in less extent, to their semantics. Despite the extensive literature about the subject, cognitive semantic analysis of these predicates has not yet been the matter of analysis. This paper aims at examining the polysemous feature of the light verb zadan based on cognitive lexical semantics. It seeks to show that this feature of the light verb zadan based on the meanings of its corresponding heavy verb is a systematic phenomenon and cognitive concepts such as categorization, radial category, image schemas and conceptual metaphor play a major role in the formation of different meanings of this linguistic element in the form of a radial category. As well, the meaning of light verb is a determining factor in collocation between light verb and preverbal elements in light verb constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the basic tenets of cognitive grammar, as developed by Langacker (1987, 1991), is that the meaning of complex lexemes can be described in terms of partial rather than full compositionality, resulting from the fact that composite expressions are frequently created by schema extension. This paper is based on the assumption that forming new words by derivation is characterised by the accommodation of the base and the affix, i.e. their reciprocal adjustment in the process of integrating them into the composite structure (Langacker 1987). The article focuses on two aspects of accommodation: profiling semantic roles and establishing new cognitive domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Wakashan languages are well known for their prodigious array of lexical suffixes. Adding considerably to the complexity of their formal behavior is the lengthening and/ or reduplication that many of them cause in the bases to which they attach. Focusing on Nuuchahnulth, I show in this paper that this is by no means arbitrary, comparable to the "hardening" or "softening" properties of suffixes, but is broadly iconic in nature. Their relationship to the aspectual templates of the language is seen to be rather indirect. Both the templates and specific semantic subgroupings of lexical suffixes form "radial categories" around a prototypical aspectual core, with more peripheral, extended meanings projected out stepwise from the core. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue of hybrid regimes, specifically variety of concepts of democracies with adjectives, authoritarian regimes with adjectives and their typologies. The phenomenon of regimes between democracy and authoritarianism has been studied mostly after the end of the Cold War and the discussion has come up with a large number of new terms such as competitive authoritarianism, electoral authoritarianism, illiberal democracy, defective democracy and many others. Despite different root concepts (democracy, authoritarianism) and different adjectives (e.g. electoral, competitive, semi, defective) the whole discussion shares similar issues. The article claims that in order to understand the whole debate, it is essential to understand how the very categories work and to be clear about the definitions of democracies, since these two variables determine how the concepts are used on the ladder of generality and how their definitions are constructed, and also how far we can draw a line for democratic regimes. In spite of the pluralism of the terms and approaches, the article also argues, that we should exclude regimes characterized as hegemonic authoritarian on one side and polyarchy on the other from the discussion of the hybrid regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is concerned with the diminutive morpheme -wa/-ba in Akan. It examines the form, the origin and the various meanings associated with diminutive forms in the language. We attribute the origin of the diminutive to the lexical word for ‘child/offspring’ ɔba, basing our argument on language internal evidence as well as cross-linguistic generalizations. The identified meanings of the Akan diminutive are as follows: small, young/offspring, feminine, member, insignificant/nonserious, affection/admiration and contempt/disdain. Having identified the basic meaning of the diminutive as ‘small’, Jurafsky’s [1996] Radial Category theory provides us with a basis to adequately account for the various meanings; drawing a link, through metaphors and inferences, between the diachronic and the synchronic meanings.

The aim of this article is to explore semantic relations within somatic phraseology using concepts from cognitive linguistics and prototype theory. The typicality or atypicality of representatives of the category of somatic phraseologisms is determined on the basis of 12 features of idiom irregularity according to Dobrovolskij. The analysis results in a table of "good" and "bad" representatives of the category. Individual parameters are evaluated, but the value of individual criteria is also considered. This method makes it possible to determine the status of individual somatic phraseologisms with regard to each other, as well as the entire group of somatisms against other phraseologisms. The results enable conclusions to be drawn regarding the degree of motivatedness of somatisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Suvremena Lingvistika is the property of Suvremena Lingvistika and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Nearly two thousand perfective verbs in Russian are formed via the addition of so-called “empty prefixes” (čistovidovye pristavki) to imperfective base verbs. The traditional assumption that prefixes are semantically “empty” when used to form aspectual pairs is problematic because the same prefixes are clearly “non-empty” when combined with other base verbs. Though some scholars have suspected that the prefixes are not empty but instead have meanings that overlap with the meanings of the base verbs, proof of this hypothesis has eluded researchers. With the advent of corpora and electronic resources it is possible to explore this question on the basis of large quantities of data. This article presents a new methodology, called “radial category profiling”, in which the semantic network of a prefix is established on the basis of its “non-empty” uses and then compared, node by node, with the semantic network of base verbs that use the same prefix as an “empty” perfectivizing morpheme. This methodology facilitates a comprehensive analysis of ten prefixes, comparing their meanings in “non-empty” and “empty” uses and showing precisely how in the latter case overlap produces the illusion of emptiness. We are able to fully specify the semantic network of each prefix, and discover that for some prefixes there is overlap throughout the network, while for others overlap is restricted to a contiguous subsection of the network. We investigate the dynamic interactions among prefixes, and identify what meanings are incompatible with the “purely aspectual” function of the so-called “empty” prefixes. The results of our analyses, including complete lists of verbs, are publicly available at: http://emptyprefixes.uit.no/ and http://emptyprefixes.uit.no/methodology_eng.htm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores synonymy and polysemy in the interaction of meaning and the elements that a verb combines with. It presents a corpus-based analysis of four Spanish verbs (tirar, lanzar, arrojar and echar) whose primary meaning is ‘to throw.’ A four-hundred sentence sample extracted from the Corpus del Español 1900s subcorpus serves as the basis for this study. Statistical tests are used to compare the verbs’ behavior across several factors: morphological markings such as mood, tense and person, the types of subjects (human versus nonhuman), the types of objects (concrete versus nonconcrete), and the interaction of subject and object in full constructions. The tests are accompanied by semantic analysis of the sample sentences. The result of the statistical and descriptive analyses is a radial categorization that highlights the types of metaphoric and metonymic extensions that each verb uses, and where and how the verbs overlap semantically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lexical nature of the preposition 'de' has not always been recognized duly. This is because prepositions cannot work independently and also because of the variety of meanings that they convey. In view of this theoretical gap, the present study --in line with the Prototypical-Cognitive Approach (Lakoff 1987, Langacker 1987, 1991, Hopper 1988, Geeraerts 2007, among others)-- formulates the following hypotheses: a) the different semantic values of the preposition 'de' (in nominal constructions) are systematically organized and constitute a polysemous item; b) the polysemous item 'de' is characterized by being organized (1) by a radial structure (Lakoff 1987), (2) on the basis of the idealized cognitive model of 'reference point' (Langacker 1991); and (3) through Taylor's (1995) attributes for possessive use, which is its prototypical meaning. Finally, the constructions with 'de' which deviate from the prototypical values maintain a semantico-pragmatic relationship with them by means of the notion of 'family resemblance' (Wittgenstein 1988[1953]; Lakoff 1987). This resemblance relationship includes both the loss and addition of attributes not present within the prototypical area. In order to test hypotheses, different examples of the semantic extensions derived from the central meaning of possession were analysed qualitatively. The data being described was selected from an oral corpus of Buenos Aires Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we apply one of the key concepts in cognitive linguistics, the radial category, to inflectional morphology. We advance the Paradigm Structure Hypothesis, arguing that inflectional paradigms are radial categories with internal structure primarily motivated by semantic relationships of markedness and prototypicality. It is possible to construct an expected structure for a verbal paradigm, facilitating an empirical test for our hypothesis. Data tracking an on-going morphological change in Russian documents the distribution of conservative vs. innovative forms across the cells of the verbal paradigm. A logistic regression model that takes into account the sources of variation (the frequencies of individual verbs and paradigm slots, and individual verb preferences) shows that the language change is implemented differently across the paradigm forms, confirming the expected structure. In addition to markedness and prototypicality, we investigate the impact of frequency and show that there is a good, albeit not perfect match between the expected hierarchy and frequency. We conclude that the diachronic change analyzed in this article gives evidence for the structure of paradigms modeled on the radial category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study explores some specific aspects of compatibility between cognitive models. Robert E. MacLaury’s theory of vantages as arrangements of coordinates and Lakoff’s concept of radial categories are mutually reinforcing to an analysis of semantic polysemy. Vantage Theory (VT) includes the notions of zooming in and zooming out, allowing focused and broad points of view to be constructed in reference to a figure and ground. Zooming in and out are some of the mechanisms of Lakoff’s increments of polysemous extension. Also helpful is Langacker’s usage-based model of a hierarchical semantic network. Expanding the VT model in this way enables interpretation of a complex lexical meaning as multiple perspectives on one concept, the Iberian macho. In addition to polysemy, we will look at the relation between vantages and prototypes and consider the contribution of one’s personal background and viewpoint to semantic networks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]