Bi-directional Functionality and Metonymy in Semantic Change and Word Formation Nico Kimm, Daniel Schulzek & Anselm Terhalle kimm@phil.uni-duesseldorf.de. - презентация

1 Bi-directional Functionality and Metonymy in Semantic Change and Word Formation Nico Kimm, Daniel Schulzek & Anselm Terhalle Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf Research group on Functional Concepts and Frames 1

2 0 Outline 1.Metonymy State of the art Langacker (1987, 2008) Missing restrictions 2.Frames Cognitive representation in frames Frame attributes 3.Metonymy and frames Modeling metonymies Bi-directional functionality 4.Consequences of bi-directional functionality Semantic change Agent nominalization Compounding 5.Conclusion 2

3 1 METONYMY 3

4 1.1 State of the art Metonymy: shift from a concept A activated by a linguistic expression to a concept B that is in some sense contiguously related to A (cf. Radden and Kövecses 1998: 39) Example (1) a.The locality stands for the institution Washington passes a new law. b.The part stands for the whole. I noticed several faces tonight. c.The contained stands for the container Pass me the salt, please. Goal of this talk: specifying the conditions under which a concept A can be shifted metonymically to a concept B 4

5 1.2 Langacker (1987, 2008) Let A and B be concepts. D EFINITION base, profilebase: arm, profile: hand, elbow B is a base for a profile A iff A presupposes B. D EFINITION domaindomain = base: arm, profile: hand, elbow B is a domain iff B is a base for at least one profile concept. D EFINITION domain matrixdomain matrix: working, boss, person profile: employee B 1 … B n constitutes a domain matrix for A iff B 1, …, B n are bases for the profile A. D EFINITION metonymy Metonymies are conceptual shifts within a domain or a domain matrix, not across domains. C riterion for an identification of metonymical shifts (in the sense of Langacker) Let A be a concept that is shifted to a concept B. If both A and B presuppose the concept B as a base, the shift will be a metonymical one. 5

6 1.3 Missing restrictions Example (2) a.The university starts early in the morning. b.#The university gave a bad term paper to me. university institution teaching student Metonymical shifts from university institution to teaching as well as to student should be possible However: A metonymical shift is only possible in (2a), not in (2b)! Langacker: no convincing motivation for a domain including university institution and teaching, but not student 6 presuppose domain academic activity

7 2 FRAMES 7

8 Frames in the sense of Barsalou (cf. Barsalou 1992) Recursive attribute-value structures Attributes: Properties of category members that have to be specified (COLOR, SHAPE) Values: specifications of attributes (red, round) Barsalou frames (in contrast to domains as theoretical constructs): empirically sound format of cognitive representation Logical modeling of frames in the project Functional Concepts and Framesas directed connected graphs (cf. Petersen 2007) Central node: concept that is represented by the frame (double border) Attributes represented as arcs Values represented as nodes Angular nodes: arguments concerning the syntax-semantics interface Round nodes: other values 2.1 Cognitive representation in frames 8 4-cylinder automatic COLOR TRANSMISSION PRODUCER ENGINE HORSEPOWER car

9 Functions in the mathematical sense that assign specific values to the concept represented by the frame Attributes are right unique express relations between concepts Values: subtypes of attributes On the linguistic surface, attributes can be expressed nominallyThe length of the bridge is three meters. verballyThe bridge measures three meters. adjectivelyThe bridge is three meters long. 2.2 Frame attributes 9

10 3 METONYMY AND FRAMES 10

11 3.1 Modeling metonymies Lexical unit: contains fully specified conceptual representation of its primary interpretation (cf. Bierwisch 1983) derivation of contiguous concepts: by set of functions example: universityuniversity institution f location (university institution) = university building f process (university institution) = events that occur at the university f principle (university institution) = university as a part of civilization Metonymies: conceptual shifts that can be captured by a simple frame transformation the referring node is shifted to another node it is linked to example: The university starts early in the morning. 11 RESPONSIBILITY teaching university (institution) teaching university (institution) PURPOSE

12 3.2 Bi-directional functionality Supposition: Metonymical shifts require a 1-to-1 correspondence between the concept A that is shifted and the concept B the concept A is shifted to Attributes in frames are functional There is a 1-to-1 correspondence between A and B iff A and B are linked by arcs going in both directions bi-directional link Bi-directional functionality: necessary condition for metonymical shifts Argument for necessity of bi-directional functionality: 12 Bi-directional functionality guarantees that the referent of the linguistic expression whose meaning is shifted can be uniquely identified (cf. Hawkins 1978, Löbner 1998)

13 a.The university demonstrates against tuition fees. b.#The university gave a bad term paper to me. 3.2 Bi-directional functionality 13 UNIVERSITY student body university (institution) STUDENT BODY student MEMBER student

14 4 CONSEQUENCES OF BI-DIRECTIONAL FUNCTIONALITY 14

15 4.1 Semantic change Metonymy: innovative non conventionalised use of a word Conventionalization of metonymical use: semantic change Semantic change as evidence for cases where metonymy was particularly successful Examples from French: 15 Fr. cuisine: 1155 food preparation 1170 room for food preparation 1170 prepared food 1740 persons who work in the kitchen 20 th c. kitchen interior and many more... LOCATION PURPOSE kitchen (room) kitchen (interior) PURPOSE LOCATION INSTRUMENTS FITTINGS cooks AGENT TASK to cook 1740 meal OBJECTIVE ORIGIN th c.

16 Example Fr. composition to compose a piece of music > piece of music > structure of this piece La composition de cette chanson a duré un an ( The composition of this song took one year ) Jaime beaucoup cette composition de Chopin ( I like this composition by Chopin very much ) La composition de cette chanson est remarquable ( The composition of this song is remarkable ) 3) piece of music is an object which has a STRUCTURE 1) to compose a piece of music has as RESULT the piece of music 4.1 Semantic change 16 4) A piece of music is defined by its structure => the value of STRUCTURE is functionally mapped onto piece of music 5) to compose a piece of music, piece of music and structure are bidirectionally linked => two step metonymical shift of the referring node becomes possible to compose a piece of music RESULT ORIGIN STRUCTURE to compose a piece of music 1585 piece of musicstructure piece of music 1680 DEFINES 2) piece of music originates from the composition process

17 4.2 Agent nominalization -er nominalization in English results in a conceptual shift within the event structure representation -er suffixation: morphological reflex of a metonymy Exampleto drive >> driver 1)frame of to drive: event and agent node are linked by bi-directional arcs 2)In case of -er suffixation, the central node is shifted to the agent node 17 to drive THEME OBJECTIVE AGENT to drive driver

18 4.3 Compounding Bi-directional functionality explains one specific construction of Stekauers (2009) Onomasiological Type III where the linking event has to be construed from the compound constituents: Object – action – Instrument soup eat spoon Examplesoup spoon 1)frames of soup and spoon are linked to the event frame to eat 2)the event frame integrates its arguments 3)unification of the frame structures Bi-directional functionality: precondition for unification 18 soup PURPOSE to eat INSTRUMENT THEME to eat spoon INSTRUMENT PURPOSE THEME PURPOSE THEME to eat spoon INSTRUMENT PURPOSE soup

19 5 Conclusion Metonymy: contiguity based shift from a concept A to a concept B Langacker: metonymies are conceptual shifts within a domain or a domain matrix, not across domains #The university gave a bad term paper to me (university stands for single student) should be possible However: need for additional constraints? #In the seventies, the university had long hair and used to smoke and knit during the lectures. (bi-directional functionality but no shift possible) 19 => Necessary restriction for a metonymical shift: 1-to-1 correspondence between concepts A and B

20 5 Conclusion In short: Langackers definition of metonymy: not sufficient to exclude some cases where a metonymical shift is not possible Bi-directional functionality: prerequisite for a metonymical shift or a compound construal process to become possible Still additional constraints needed 20 ? Langacker Condition: bi-directional functionality Actual cases where metonymy is possible

21 Thank you for listening!!! Special thanks to the German Research Foundation for funding the research unit Functional Concepts and Frames ( fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fff/)

22 6 Literature Barsalou, Lawrence (1992): Frames, Concepts and Conceptual Fields. In: Lehrer, Adrienne; Kittay, Eva F. (eds.): Frames, Fields, and Contrasts. New Essays in Semantic and Lexical Organization. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, page Langacker, Ronald W. (1987): Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Langacker, Ronald W. (2008): Cognitive Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Petersen, Wiebke (2007): Representation of Concepts as Frames. In: Latvijas Universitāte (ed.): The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication. Manhattan KS: New Prairie Press, page Radden, Günter; Kövecses, Zoltán (1998): Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view. Cognitive Linguistics 9: Bierwisch, Manfred (1983): Semantische und konzeptuelle Repräsentation lexikalischer Einheiten. In: Rudolf Ruzicka & Wolfgang Motsch (Hg.): Untersuchungen zur Semantik. Berlin. [= studia grammatica 22]. pp

23 6 References Hawkins, John A. (1978): Definiteness and Indefiniteness. A Study in Reference and Grammaticality Prediction. London: Croom Helm. Löbner, Sebastian (1998): Definite Associative Anaphora. Ms. Düsseldorf: Heinrich-Heine-Universität. duesseldorf.de/~loebner/publ/DAA-03.pdf Stekauer, Pavol (2009): Meaning predictability of novel context-free compounds. In: Lieber, Rochelle; Stekauer, Pavol (Hrsg): The Oxford Handbook of Compounding. Oxford University Press. pp

24 Thanks for Your Attention! Thank you for listening!!! Special thanks to the German Research Foundation for funding the research unit Functional Concepts and Frames (