Word meaning and radial categories

In this chapter we build on insights developed in the previous two chapters in order to develop the approach taken to word meaning in cognitive semantics. This approach is known as cognitive lexical semantics. Pioneered by Claudia Brugman and George Lakoff, cognitive lexical semantics built upon Lakoff’s work on categorisation and idealised cognitive models which we presented in Chapter 8. This approach to word meaning also incorporated ideas from Conceptual Metaphor Theory which we explored in Chapter 9. Cognitive lexical semantics takes the position that lexical items (words) are conceptual categories:a word represents a category of distinct yet related meanings that exhibit typicality effects. Thus, Lakoff argued, words are categories that can be modelled and investigated using the theory of idealised cognitive (ICMs) that we presented in Chapter 8. In particular, Lakoff argued that lexical items rep resent the type of complex categories he calls radial categories: recall that a radial category is structured with respect to a composite prototype, and the various category members are related to the prototype by convention rather than being ‘generated’ by predictable rules. As such, word meanings are stored in the mental lexicon as highly complex structured categories of meanings or senses. This chapter presents an overview of Lakoff’s approach to the lexical item as a category of senses by illustrating how he modelled the lexical item over in the second of his famous ‘case studies’ from Women, Fire and Dangerous Things (sections 10.1–10.3). Lakoff’s approach has been highly influential and has given rise to a significant body of subsequent work, some of which has been critical of certain aspects of his approach. In particular, Lakoff’s model has been criticised for taking an excessively fine-grained approach to word meaning which results in a very large number of distinct senses conventionally associated with individual lexical items (section 10.4). Hence we will consider a more recent development by Vyvyan Evans and Andrea Tyler and their theory of Principled Polysemy which provides a methodology for constraining the number of distinct senses associated with an individual word (section 10.5). Finally, having developed a detailed account of approaches to word meaning within cognitive semantics, we revisit the role of context in word meaning (section 10.6).

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الآخبار الصحية

6 فواكة تساعدك على الشعور بتحسّن عند المرض

حفاظا على صحة العين.. هذا أفضل وقت لتناول فيتامين أ

الاستخدام اليومي لسماعات الأذن.. أخطر مما تتصور !

هل توقيت نشاطك اليومي يؤثر على صحة دماغك؟.. العلماء يجيبون

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

ابتكار ألماني قد يغيّر مستقبل صناعة البلاستيك

تحديثات وأرباح عبر المشاهدات.. ما الذي تخطط له "لينكد إن"؟

"الكوكايين الوردي".. مخدر جديد يثير قلق السلطات الأميركية

دراسة: تغيّرات في أسلوب القيادة قد تكشف مبكرا عن الخرف !

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Image schema transformations

The full-specification approach

Polysemy as a conceptual phenomenon

Metaphor and metonymy summary

Metaphor-metonymy interaction

Vehicles for metonymy

Metonymy-producing relationships

Metonymy as an access mechanism

Conceptual metonymy

What is metonymy?

Distinguishing primary and compound metaphors