No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Conceptual blending in entrenched Persian noun-noun nominal compounds: The case of āb -noun compounds
Abstract
The current paper offers an analysis of a set of 27 entrenched endocentric, exocentric, and copulative āb (water)-noun nominal compounds in Persian with both right- and left-headed compounds, based on the network model of conceptual blending theory. Given that an emergent meaning is involved in endocentric and copulative compounds, the same as in exocentric compounds, the paper argues that all types of compounds can be insightfully defined as conceptual blends. However, the conceptual blending network model fails to show the distinct role of head and modifier in the overall meaning of compounds, on the one hand, and the qualifying difference in the extent of emergent meaning among various types of compound words, on the other hand. Our study also lends support to a correspondence between the continuum of integration networks and the continuum of figurativity in compounds.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
This study provides an analysis of Arabic metaphorical and/or metonymical compounds, extracted from a 20,000word corpus, based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Blending Theory. The analysis focuses on the semantic transparency of these compounds, on the one hand, and their linguistic creativity, on the other. In line with Benczes (2006, 2010), we suggest that the comprehension of Arabic metaphorical and/or metonymical compounds is possibly one of degree depending on which element is affected by metaphor and metonymy. Here, it is proposed that there are compounds which are more creative than others. We argue that in addition to the degree of semantic transparency and linguistic creativity of Arabic metaphorical and/or metonymical compounds, there are other factors that can influence the comprehension of these compounds; namely, the frequency of the compound, the conventionality of the metaphors involved in the compound and whether conceptual metonymy acts on the compound. Our proposal is supported by the judgments of 12 nativespeaker informants, who were asked to provide the meaning of 35 Arabic metaphorical and/or metonymical compounds. The study concludes with recommendations for further research.
Cognitive linguists are convinced that the nature of linguistic structures is strongly influenced by the way we experience and perceive the world and by how we conceptualize and construe these experiences and perceptions in our minds. At the same time, the study of linguistic structure and usage is credited with the potential to open windows to how our minds work. The present volume collects papers investigating linguistic phenomena that reflect the key cognitive processes of metaphor, metonymy and conceptual blending, which have proven to be highly influential in linguistic conceptualization. Theoretical and methodological issues, such as metaphor identification and the relevance of the target domain for children's understanding of metaphor, are focused on in the first section. The second and third parts are devoted to the application of the theoretical frameworks of the conceptual theory of metaphor and metonymy and the theory of conceptual blending to linguistic data. The contributions critically explore the explanatory potential of these theories, build bridges between them, link them with other approaches and notions (such as construction grammar, common ground and stance/evaluation), and uncover conceptual regularities and cognitive models that underlie and shape our language use in specific domains. The linguistic structures under consideration span the range from compounds and premodified noun phrases to constructions and texts such as jokes and political speeches. Methods applied include psycholinguistic experiments, analyses of data culled from authentic language corpora and discourse-analytical approaches. © 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York. All rights reserved.
The present paper offers a semantic analysis of selected plant-related Polish and English blends and compounds in the light of Conceptual Integration Theory (cf. Fauconnier and Turner 1998, 2002). As defined by Fauconnier and Turner, conceptual integration is a dynamic process which allows us to account for novel expressions that emerge as the result of complex mental operations during which various elements of disparate domains might be activated and entrenched in a given context. Therefore, plant-related blends and compounds such as nagietek, lemonata, or kora dębowa will be put here under scrutiny and analysed with the aid of the four-space network model.
This chapter presents a constructional theory of compounding that makes use of some basic ideas of Construction Grammar, in particular constructional schemas, and the idea of a hierarchical lexicon (with multiple linking between words, and intermediate nodes between the most abstract schemas and the individual lexical items in order to express intermediate levels of generalization). Specifically, it provides morphological argumentation in support of such a view of morphology and the lexicon - a view referred to as Construction Morphology - and is organized as follows. Section 10.2 spells out some basic assumptions concerning the role of word-formation schemas in the lexicon, and shows how they can be applied in the analysis of endocentric compounds. Section 10.3 discusses the issue of headedness in relation to various categories of compounds. Section 10.4 focuses on synthetic compounds. Section 10.5 shows how Construction Grammar enables us to give an insightful account of compoundlike phrases. Section 10.6 presents a summary of findings. © 2009 editorial matter and organization Rochelle Lieber and Pavol Štekauer. All rights reserved.
This study aims to contribute to research on whether bilinguals show increased creativity in a verbal task when compared to monolinguals. In line with previous research, creativity is linked to divergent thinking, and a particular focus is laid on figurative associations among the monolingual and bilingual speakers. To investigate potential differences in figurative associations, participants completed a meaning interpretation task of novel English compounds. The task was carried out with 117 monolingual and bilingual New Zealanders, who were split into three comparable groups of Māori-English bilinguals, English monolinguals, and a control group of bilingual speakers in English and a language that is not Māori. The written meaning interpretations are analyzed in two steps. First, a close description is given of the range of associative strategies that participants relied upon when giving meaning to the novel compounds. Second, conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory is applied to tease apart potential differences in the participants’ figurative associations. With the exception of a few figurative processes, the results demonstrate that monolinguals and bilinguals perform similarly in terms of the overall number and diversity of figurative associations. However, a clear contrast between the bilinguals and the monolinguals emerges in the associative strategy of analogical meaning interpretations. Thus, the bilinguals show a significant preference of associating to existing idiomatic expressions and homophones that are related to some of the compound constituents. These findings are discussed for their implications on bilingual creativity. Since the results are based on a comparison of monolingual and bilingual meaning interpretations, the current study offers a new methodological take on investigating the connection between bilingualism and verbal-associative creativity. The study bears further methodological significance as it applies insights from cognitive linguistics to the study of bilingualism.
Metaphorical and metonymical compounds – novel and lexicalised ones alike – are remarkably abundant in language. Yet how can we be sure that when using an expression such as land fishing in order to speak about metal detecting, the referent will be immediately understood even if the hearer had not been previously familiar with the compound? Accordingly, this book sets out to explore whether the semantics of metaphorical and metonymical noun–noun combinations can be systematically analysed within a theoretical framework, where systematicity pertains to regularities in both the cognitive processes and the products of these processes, that is, the compounds themselves. Backed up by recent psycholinguistic evidence, the book convincingly demonstrates that such compounds are not semantically opaque as it has been formerly claimed: they can in fact be analysed and accounted for within a cognitive linguistic framework, by the combined application of metaphor, metonymy, blending, profile determinacy and schema theory; and represent the creative and associative word formation processes that we regularly apply in everyday language.
The paper develops a characterization of nominal compounds. The analysis is carried out on frame-schematic and construction-grammatical grounds. It rests on assumptions about cognitive processing long since known within cognitive linguistics, but it criticizes certain linguistic applications of Fauconnier and Turner's theory of conceptual integration, which historically is a reelaboration of Lakoff and Johnson's theory of metaphor. The first section sums up two classical approaches in the analysis of nominal compounds; it comments on their inadequacies, and how these have been assessed by Fauconnier and Turner; next, it sketches out the way these two authors and other scholars in blending theory have traditionally analyzed nominal compounds in terms of conceptual integration, and finally one of the major drawbacks of this approach is identified: namely, its limited descriptive import. In the following section, the authors unfold their own semantic analysis. A non-trivial and non-standard compositional theory is proposed, likely to capture the general way in which semantic parts of a compound configure into a semantic whole. Hereafter the authors proceed to a summary survey of how this scaffolding is actually instantiated or processed cognitively. A crucial difference between processing of literal and metaphorical compounds is established. Thus, the approach has a double scope: it aims at characterizing both the semantics of compounds and the way the semantics is cognitively accessed.
The paper makes the following novel claims: (1) the semantics of noun-noun compounds which is activated by metaphor and/or metonymy (often termed as “exocentric compounds in linguistics and generally regarded as semantically opaque) can be accounted for within a cognitive linguistic framework, and the term “creative compound is proposed for such linguistic phenomena; (2) there are regular patterns of creative compounds, depending on which constituent is affected by conceptual metaphor and/or metonymy. The second part of the paper presents one type of creative compounds: noun-noun combinations whose meaning is influenced by a metaphor-based semantic relationship between the two constituents. Such compounds seem to be quite frequent in English and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: ranging from the “simpler cases of image metaphors to the more elaborate single scope blends. The paper will give examples of the various types and will provide detailed analyses of each, within a cognitive linguistic framework.
This article serves as a primer for the theory of online meaning construction known alternately as conceptual blending, conceptual integration, the many space model, and the network theory. Our tutorial proceeds by analyzing novel and conventional examples of linguistic and nonlinguistic blends that pertain to topics of reference, partitioning, mapping, structure projection, and dynamic mental simulation. Principal concepts and processes of blending theory are described, including composition, comple-tion, elaboration, emergent structure, and optimality constraints. We review recent work on blending theory from the perspective of linguistics, psychology, computer science, and neurobiology, and conclude with a discussion of potential weaknesses of the theory.
We pursue here our exploration of conceptual blending and of the "many-space" model, which replaces the standard "two-domain" model. In blending, structure from two or more input mental spaces is projected to a separate "blended" space, which inherits partial structure from the inputs, and has emergent structure of its own. New examples are presented. We show that meaning is not compositional in the usual sense, and that blending operates to produce understandings of composite forms. Formal expression in language is a way of prompting hearer and reader to assemble and develop conceptual constructions, including blends; there is no encoding of concepts into words or decoding of words into concepts. Blending is at work in many areas of cognition and action, including metaphor, counterfactuals, and conceptual change. We point out two fundamental aspects of this general process: cross-space mapping of counterparts, and integration of events.
Thesis. 1980. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES. Vita. Bibliography: leaves 321-326. Ph.D.
This study explores compounds from the perspective of conceptual blending (conceptual integration), and argues that the meaning of compounds arises through the interaction of three levels: (i) input spaces established for the head and non-head components, (ii) a blended space involving compression and emergent structure, i.e. elements not imported from the input spaces, and (iii) the language system as a whole and the culture this system is part of. With regard to (iii) we propose the “Culture-to-Compound Hypothesis”, according to which compounding can be recruited to represent culturally “novel” content in languages where compounding enjoys a peripheral status in the language system. The examples discussed in the article come from Norwegian (a Germanic language where compounding is a central word-formation mechanism) and Russian (a Slavic language where compounding is more marginal in the language system).
Idioms and compounds have similar semantic characteristics: both types of expressions are semantically composite, in the sense that their meaning is (at least in principle) composed of elementary building blocks, i.e. the constituent parts of the expressions. The present paper takes a closer look at the semantics of such composite expressions: it describes the interaction between the syntagmatic and the paradigmatic axes in the meaning of idioms and compounds, and then charts the various ways in which metaphor and metonymy can interact along these axes. Within the broad field of metaphor and metonymy research, the most direct point of comparison for the present analysis is the notion of ‘metaphtonymy’ introduced by Louis Goossens*. It will be argued that metaphtonymy is part of a more encompassing ‘prismatic’ model for the semantics of composite expressions. © Copyright 2002, 2003 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved.
This chapter presents an overview of the key psycholinguistic issues in the study of compound representation and processing. Against the background of these issues, it presents a case for the view that morphological processing, in general, and compound processing, in particular, is characterized by the principle of 'maximization of opportunity'. In this view, the lexical processing system seeks neither computational efficiency nor storage efficiency. It argues that morphological processing is better captured as a system that seeks to maximize the opportunities for activation at all levels. The chapter proposes that the activation of a compound word such as 'strawberry' involves the activation of all constituents as well as the whole word. Where such massive activation creates conflict between the meanings of the compound constituents and that of the whole word, a set of post-activation 'cleanup' procedures resolves this conflict by deactivating spurious representations.
Cognitive Grammar is a radical alternative to the formalist theories that have dominated linguistic theory during the last half century. Instead of an objectivist semantics based on truth conditions or logical deduction, it adopts a conceptualist semantics based on human experience, our capacity to construe situations in alternate ways, and processes of imagination and mental construction. A conceptualist semantics makes possible an account of grammar which views it as being inherently meaningful (rather than an autonomous formal system). Grammar forms a continuum with lexicon, residing in assemblies of symbolic structures, i.e. pairings of conceptual structures and symbolizing phonological structures. Thus all grammatical elements are meaningful. It is shown in detail how Cognitive Grammar handles the major problems a theory of grammar has to deal with: grammatical classes, constructions, the relationship of grammar and lexicon, the capturing of regularities, and imposition of the proper restrictions. It is further shown how the framework applies to central domains of language structure: deixis, nominal structure, clausal structure, and complex sentences. Consideration is also given to discourse, the temporal dimension of grammar, and what it reveals about cognitive processes and the construction of our mental world.
An authoritative general introduction to cognitive linguistics, this book provides up-to-date coverage of all areas of the field and sets in context recent developments within cognitive semantics and cognitive approaches to grammar.
This article contributes to cognitive semantic research on the construal of figurative meaning in noun-noun compounds. Previous studies in this field have shown a predilection towards using conceptual blending theory in order to describe the process of meaning formation in nominal compounds. Observations have largely been based on analyses of established compounds and their conventionalized meanings. The current paper explores an alternative approach and methodology. A study was conducted in which participants were asked to interpret the meaning of a set of novel noun-noun compounds. These meaning descriptions are taken as an empirical base to investigate figurative interpretations. Since previous applications of conceptual blending theory have highlighted some limitations of describing meaning construal in compounds, and since the relation between conceptual blending and related processes of conceptual metaphor and metonymy has not been clarified yet, the analysis in the current study takes a step back and relies on conceptual metaphor and metonymy. Besides providing an overview of the amount of figurative meaning interpretations given to the different test items, the paper pays particular attention to the methodological challenges of applying conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory in the attempt to capture the figurative nature of the meaning descriptions. A close analysis of selected meaning interpretations provides a first impression on how applying conceptual metaphor and metonymy can pave the way towards a more differentiated understanding of associative complexity in figurative meaning interpretations.
Acknowledgments 1. Semantic leaps Part I. Frame-Shifting: 2. Frame-shifting and models of language processing 3. Models of sentential integration 4. Frame-shifting and the brain Part II. Conceptual Blending: 5. Conceptual blending in modified noun phrases 6. Conceptual blending in metaphor and analogy 7. Counterfactual conditionals Part III. Applications: Blending, Framing, and Blaming: 8. Framing in moral discourse 9. Frame-shifting and scalar implicature 10. The space structuring model Bibliography Index.
Mental Spaces is the classic introduction to the study of mental spaces and conceptual projection, as revealed through the structure and use of language. It examines in detail the dynamic construction of connected domains as discourse unfolds. The discovery of mental space organization has modified our conception of language and thought: powerful and uniform accounts of superficially disparate phenomena have become available in the areas of reference, presupposition projection, counterfactual and analogical reasoning, metaphor and metonymy, and time and aspect in discourse. The present work lays the foundation for this research. It uncovers simple and general principles that lie behind the awesome complexity of everyday logic.
This paper reports on ongoing work on a large sample of bahuvrihi compounds in English and Spanish. After a brief characterization of bahuvrihi compounds, distinguishing them from a similar type of exocentric compounds (V+O compounds), the goal of the paper is clearly stated, namely to answer a number of questions, especially these two: (a) Does the metonymy CHARACTERISTIC PROPERTY FOR CATEGORY motivate the exocentric nature of all the compounds in the sample?; (b) Are other metonymies or metaphors also involved? If so, which are the metonymic or metaphoric patterns observable in conceptualizations underlying these compounds? The bulk of the paper is devoted to the detailed conceptual analysis of a large set of representative bahuvrihis in both languages. The results show that the above metonymy is responsible for the exocentric nature of all the compounds in the sample and that the characteristic property mapped by that metonymy is conceptualized in one of these three ways: literally, metonymically or metaphorico-metonymically. These three conceptualization patterns constitute the three major types of bahuvrihis in both languages; various further subtypes are proposed for each type. The paper ends with some tentative remarks on the Cognitive Grammar representation of the semantic structure of these compounds, on the connection between their semantic structure and their grammar and prosody, on a blending account of these lexemes, and on the contrasts identified between both languages.
This paper explores the insights that theories of identity can offer for the conceptualisation and analysis of face. It argues that linguists will benefit from taking a multidisciplinary approach, and that by drawing on theory and research in other disciplines, especially in social psychology, they will gain a clearer and deeper understanding of face. The paper starts by examining selected theories of identity, focusing in particular on Simon's (2004) self-respect model of identity and Brewer and Gardner's (1996) theory of levels of identity. Key features from these theories are then applied to the conceptualisation and analysis of face. With the help of authentic examples, the paper demonstrates how inclusion of these multiple perspectives can offer a richer and more comprehensive understanding of face and the frameworks needed for analysing it.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1997. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 299-311).
This paper explores the role of semantic transparency in the representation and processing of English compounds. We focus on the question of whether semantic transparency is best viewed as a property of the entire multimorphemic string or as a property of constituent morphemes. Accordingly, we investigated the processing of English compound nouns that were categorized in terms of the semantic transparency of each of their constituents. Fully transparent such as bedroom are those in which the meanings of each of the constituents are transparently represented in the meaning of the compound as a whole. These compounds were contrasted with compounds such as strawberry, in which only the second constituent is semantically transparent, jailbird, in which only the first constituent is transparent, and hogwash, in which neither constituent is semantically transparent. We propose that significant insights can be achieved through such analysis of the transparency of individual morphemes. The two experiments that we report present evidence that both semantically transparent compounds and semantically opaque compounds show morphological constituency. The semantic transparency of the morphological head (the second constituent in a morphologically right-headed language such as English) was found to play a significant role in overall lexical decision latencies, in patterns of decomposition, and in the effects of stimulus repetition within the experiment.
barresi-e naqš-e este’areh dar sakhte-važe zaban-e Farsi
- Estaji
Estaji, A. & Ghanun, M. (2010). barresi-e naqš-e este'areh dar sakhte-važe zabane Farsi [The role of metaphor in Persian word-formation].
tahlil-e ma’naei-ye kalamat-e morakkab dar zaban-e Farsi
- Karimi-Doustan
Karimi-Doustan, Gh. & Vahid, A. (2013). tahlil-e ma'naei-ye kalamat-e
morakkab dar zaban-e Farsi [A Semantic analysis of noun-noun compounds in
Persian].
Blending in Etulo compound words
- Okoye
Šaffɑfiat va tiregi-e ma’nɑi-e asɑmi-e morakkab-e zabɑn-e Fɑrsi az didgɑh-e šenɑxti
- Sabzevari
Ĵaygah-e haste dar kalamat-e morakkab-e qeyre-fe? li-e Farsi
- Khabbaz
The grammar of words
- G Booij
Booij, G. (2005). The grammar of words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
sakht-e ešteqaqi-ye važe dar zaban-e Farsi emrooz [The derivational structure of word in modern Persian
- I Kalbassi
Kalbassi, I. (1997). sakht-e ešteqaqi-ye važe dar zaban-e Farsi emrooz [The
derivational structure of word in modern Persian]. Tehran: Pažuhešgahe Olume
Ensani va Motaleate Farhangi.
The meaning construction of Chinese compounds: A cognitive semantic perspective
- W X Leong
Leong, W. X. (2015). The meaning construction of Chinese compounds: A
cognitive semantic perspective. Master thesis, University of Malaya.
Blending in Etulo compound words. Mgbakoigba
- A N Okoye
Okoye, A. N. (2016). Blending in Etulo compound words. Mgbakoigba, Journal
of African Studies 5(2). 32-47.
Ordered chaos: The interpretation of English noun-noun compounds
- M E Ryder
Ryder, M. E. (1994). Ordered chaos: The interpretation of English noun-noun
compounds. Berkeley/ Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Šaffɑfiat va tiregi-e ma'nɑi-e asɑmi-e morakkab-e zabɑne Fɑrsi az didgɑh-e šenɑxti [The semantic transparency and opacity in Persian noun compound nouns with a cognitive approach
- M Sabzevari
Sabzevari, M. (2013). Šaffɑfiat va tiregi-e ma'nɑi-e asɑmi-e morakkab-e zabɑne Fɑrsi az didgɑh-e šenɑxti [The semantic transparency and opacity in Persian
noun compound nouns with a cognitive approach]. ǰostɑr-hɑ-je zabɑni 4(3).
55-73.