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Active zones

المؤلف:  Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green

المصدر:  Cognitive Linguistics an Introduction

الجزء والصفحة:  C7-P238

2025-12-24

598

Active zones

As we have seen, the encyclopaedic view of meaning recognises that, in ordinary speech, the meaning associated with a lexical item undergoes ‘modulation’ as a result of the context in which it is used. This means that typically only part of an entity’s profile is relevant or active within a particular utterance. This part of the profile is called the active zone. Consider the examples in (5).

While the footballer is profiled in each of these examples, a different active zone is evident in each example. For instance, in (5a) the active zone is the footballer’s forehead (Figure 7.9(a)); in (5b) the active zone is the footballer’s foot (Figure 7.9(b)); in (5c) the active zone is the footballer’s face (Figure 7.9(c)); and in (5d) the active zone is the footballer’s hands and arms (figure 7.9(d)). Let’s now illustrate how the phenomenon of active zones is evident in language use. Consider the example in (6).

(6) This red pen isn’t red.

The idea of active zones helps to explain why this apparently contradictory sentence can give rise to a non-contradictory interpretation. If we interpret the sentence in (6) to mean that a pen whose ink is red is not coloured red, or indeed that a pen that is coloured red does not contain red ink, then we do so by assigning each instance of red a different active zone. One active zone relates to the contents of the pen that result in coloured marks on paper while the other active zone corresponds to the outer body of the pen. This example shows how active zone phenomena are at work in discourse, enabling speakers and hearers to ‘search through’ the inventory of knowledge associated with each word and to ‘select’ an interpretation licensed by the context.