In Search of a Cognitive Linguistic Model of Semantic Change | History of English Synonyms Referring to the Conceptual Domain MAN/MALE HUMAN BEING

Marcin Grygiel

ISBN 10: 3848435160 / ISBN 13: 9783848435166

Published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2012

About this Item

In Search of a Cognitive Linguistic Model of Semantic Change | History of English Synonyms Referring to the Conceptual Domain MAN/MALE HUMAN BEING | Marcin Grygiel | Taschenbuch | Englisch | LAP Lambert Academic Publishing | EAN 9783848435166 | Verantwortliche Person für die EU: preigu GmbH & Co. KG, Lengericher Landstr. 19, 49078 Osnabrück, mail[at]preigu[dot]de | Anbieter: preigu.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: In Search of a Cognitive Linguistic Model of Semantic Change | History of English Synonyms Referring to the Conceptual Domain MAN/MALE HUMAN BEING
• Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3848435160
• ISBN 13: 9783848435166
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 220W x 150H x 16D millimeters 220 millimeters width by 150 millimeters height by 16 millimeters depth
• Weight: 425 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Bücher

About this title

Synopsis

Semantic change is a linguistic phenomenon that allows words to mean something different from what they used to. The problem has preoccupied linguists ever since the beginning of the 19th century. At that time many students of language first realised that sense alterations can be no longer treated as corruption or degeneration and tried to bring them into some kind of order and system. Although its golden period is long gone, the study of diachronic changes in meaning has never been abandoned entirely. In my research, I treat semantic change as a natural consequence of the dynamic and creative nature of human cognitive capacities. In the proposed model, semantic change is perceived as an unconscious act of creation resulting from the basic mental mechanism of putting two things together, otherwise referred to as conceptual blending. Paradoxically, language is possible only if it allows a limited number of combinable linguistic forms to cover a very large number of meaningful situations. Constructing cross-domain mappings and putting mental spaces together, we arrive at new meanings that become entrenched and conventionalised in language, leading to semantic change.

About the Author

Marcin Grygiel is a researcher at the Department of Russian Studies (University of Rzeszów, Poland) where he teaches linguistic subjects, English and Old Church Slavonic. His research activities focus on various aspects of cognitive and historical linguistics such as semantic change in the history of English and affirmation in Slavic.