Polysemy in Cognitive Linguistics: Selected Papers from the International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, Amsterdam, 1997

324 Pages·2001·28.04 MB·English

by  Hubert Cuyckens

POLYSEMY IN COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV – CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles); Lyle Campbell (Christchurch, N.Z.)
John E. Joseph (Edinburgh); Manfred Krifka (Berlin)
Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin); E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.);
Hans-Jürgen Sasse (Köln)
Volume 177
Hubert Cuyckens and Britta Zawada (eds)
Polysemy in Cognitive Linguistics
Selected papers from the Fifth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference,
Amsterdam, 1997
POLYSEMY IN
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
SELECTED PAPERS FROM THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS CONFERENCE
Amsterdam, 1997
Edited by
HUBERT CUYCKENS
University of Leuven
BRITTA ZAWADA
University of South Africa
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
8 National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (5th : 1997 : Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Polysemy in cognitive linguistics : selected papers form the International Cognitive Linguistics
Conference, Amsterdam, 1997 / edited by Hubert Cuyckens, Britta Zawada.
p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV,
Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 177)
Held July 14–19, 1997, Free University of Amsterdam.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: The spatial and non-spatial senses of the German preposition über / Birgitta Meex -- Scalar
particles and the sequential space construction / Tuomas Huumo -- A frame-based approach to
polysemy / Willy Martin -- Where do the senses of Cora va’a come from? / Eugene H. Casad -- Why
quirky case really isn’t quirky, or, How to treat dative sickness in Icelandic / Michael B. Smith -- When
a dance resembles a tree : a polysemy analysis of three Setswana noun classes / Kari-Anne Selvik --
Systemic polysemy in the Southern Bantu noun class system / A.P. Hendrikse -- Psycholinguistic
perspectives on polysemy / Raymond W. Gibbs Jr. & Teenie Matlock -- The embodied approach to the
polysemy of the spatial preposition on / Dinara A. Beitel, Raymond W. Gibbs Jr. & Paul Sanders --
Processing polysemous, homonymous, and vague adjectives / Frank Brisard, Gert van Rillaer &
Dominick Sandra.
1. Polosemy--Congresses. 2. Cognitive grammar--Congresses. I. Cuyckens, H. II. Zawada, Britta.
III. Titlel. IV. Series.
P325.5.P65.I58 1997
401’.43--dc21 2001035802
ISBN 90 272 3683 6 (Eur.) / 1 55619 894 9 (US)
© 2001 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other
means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 36224 • 1020 ME Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA
CONTENTS
Editors' Foreword vii
Introduction
Hubert Cuyckens & Britta Zawada ix
The Spatial and Non-Spatial Senses of the German Preposition Über
Birgitta Meex 1
Scalar Particles and the Sequential Space Construction
Tuomas Huumo 37
A Frame-Based Approach to Polysemy
Willy Martin 57
Where Do the Senses of Cora Va 'a- Come From?
Eugene H. Casad 83
Why Quirky Case Really Isn't Quirky: Or How to Treat Dative Sickness
in Icelandic
Michael B. Smith 115
When a Dance Resembles a Tree: A Polysemy Analysis of Three
Setswana Noun Classes
Kari-Anne Selvik 161
Systemic Polysemy in the Southern Bantu Noun Class System
A. P. Hendrikse 185
Psycholinguistic Perspectives on Polysemy
Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr. & Teenie Matlock 213
The Embodied Approach to the Polysemy of the Spatial Preposition On
Dinara A. Beitel, Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr. & Paul Sanders 241
Processing Polysemous, Homonymous, and Vague Adjectives
Frank Brisard, Gert van Rillaer & Dominiek Sandra 261
Name Index 285
Subject Index 289
Addresses 295

EDITORS' FOREWORD
This volume contains a selection from the proceedings of the 5th International
Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC97), held at the Free University of
Amsterdam from July 14-19, 1997. It is a companion to three other ICLC97-
volumes: Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics, edited by Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.
and Gerard J. Steen (CILT 175), Discourse Studies in Cognitive Linguistics,
edited by Karen van Hoek, Andrej A. Kibrik, and Leo Noordman (CILT 176),
and Constructions in Cognitive Linguistics, edited by Ad Fooien and Frederike
van der Leek (CILT 178).Two papers which were initially scheduled for
inclusion in this volume will appear elsewhere: "Towards a Description of the
Meaning of At", by Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando, will appear in Perspectives on
Prepositions, edited by Hubert Cuyckens & Günter Radden (Tübingen:
Niemeyer); "Image Schemas and Coherence of the Verb Category: The Case of
the Portuguese Verb Deixar", by Augusto Soares da Silva, will appear in
Cognitive Perspectives on Lexical Semantics, edited by Hubert Cuyckens &
Dominiek Sandra (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter).
This volume was realized with the help of a great many people. First of
all, we would like to express thanks to all the authors for their contributions
and for their speediness at every stage of the reviewing and editorial process.
We would also like to thank the following linguists who acted as anonymous
referees: Sonja Bosch, Frank Brisard, Adelia Carstens, Alan Cienki, Ileana
Dimitriu, Luc Draye, Christiane Fellbaum, Dirk Geeraerts, Ray Gibbs, Joe
Grady, Stefan Grondelaers, A. P. Hendrikse, Annette Herskovits, Olaf Jäkel,
Fernanda Jones, Kaori Kabata, Ekkehard König, Konrad Kuiper, Ron
Langacker, Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Willy Martin, Arthur
Mettinger, John Newman, Gary Palmer, Klaus-Uwe Panther, Uta Priss, Jarno
Raukko, Sally Rice, Dominiek Sandra, Rainer Schulze, Kari-Anne Selvik,
Carlo Serra Borneto, Shungo Shinohara, Soteria Svorou, Piet Swanepoel, Eve
Sweetser, David Tuggy, and Gert van Rillaer, We owe a special word of thanks
to David Tuggy, who was on the editorial team at the early stages of this
project, and to Christine Janssens for her valuable help with the diagrams.
Finally, we would like to thank Anke de Looper of John Benjamins
Publishing Company for her professional advice and for her patience.
Leuven/Pretoria, April 2001
Hubert Cuyckens & Britta Zawada

INTRODUCTION
HUBERT CUYCKENS BRITTA E. ZAWADA
University of Leuven University of South Africa
Polysemy, "the association of two or more related senses with a single
linguistic form" (Taylor 1995:99), is ubiquitous in natural language and
therefore deserves linguists' attention. Although the importance of the question
of polysemy for the semantic study of language was already recognized in the
historical-philological tradition (cf. Bréal 1991 [1887]; Stern 1931), and was
emphasized again by Ullmann (1951), it is not until recently that polysemy has
become a central issue again in linguistic semantics. Polysemy has certainly
become a core area of study in Cognitive Linguistics.
The importance of the study of polysemy is, evidently, not confined to
the field of (cognitive) linguistic semantics. Indeed, polysemy has also received
considerable attention in psycholinguistics (Frazier & Rayner 1990; Frisson &
Pickering 1999; Gibbs et al. 1994; Swinney 1979; Williams 1992), in cognitive
psychology, and in Artificial Intelligence and computational linguistics (cf.
Kilgariff 1992, 1997; Pustejovsky & Boguraev 1993, 1996, and the works cited
therein). For computational linguistics in particular, polysemy continues to
present a real challenge, in that (automatic) word sense identification/
disambiguation in natural language processing is still not unproblematic.1 It
seems safe to say, then, "that the study of polysemy is of fundamental
importance for any semantic study of language" (Nerlich & Clarke 1997:349).
In this introduction, we will highlight some of the specific themes and
issues which surround the study of polysemy in twentieth-century linguistic
semantics and specifically in Cognitive Linguistics in the late nineties and at
the turn of the century. In the course of this discussion, we will also refer to the
papers in this volume, and how they contribute to these themes and issues. In
the last part of the introduction, we will give a brief summary of each of the
papers. Before doing so, however, we would like to spend a few words