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From usage clusters to concepts:How COMPLETION IS UP in Mandarin
Wei-lun Lu 呂維倫Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Metaphor in language
• Metaphor as ubiquitous figure of lg reflecting modes of thought
• In what specific ways does language reflect thought?
Metaphor and polysemy
• Metaphor as a source for polysemy (Sweetser 1990)
• Up:– The price went up.– MORE IS UP (QUANTITY)– Enjoy the ups and downs of life.– GOOD IS UP (QUALITY)
COMPLETION IS UP
• Argued to account for ‘completive’ for up (Hampe 2000; Kovecses 2001)
• This presenter is so boring that we wish he could just shut up now!
• Come on! Your time is up!
• +VERTICAL --C--I--U---> COMPLETION
(SPACE) (TIME)4
The experiential basis of CIU
• CONTAINER and vertical elevation (Tyler and Evans 2003:139ff)
• Association of the upper limit and the completion of activity
• Empirically tested (for validity and universality)?
Shang in Mandarin
• Shang denoting +VERTICAL
• ta fei-shang tiankong ‘he fly-SHANG sky’
(Vertical sense)
• ta guan-shang men ‘he close-SHANG door • ta guan men ‘he close door
(Highlighting end of closing process)
Research questions
• Given its similarity with up, what drives the sem extension of shang ‘completive’ from the physical meaning?
• What can a corpus-based analysis of polysemy tell us about COMPLETION IS UP?
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Analytical framework
• Principled Polysemy (Evans 2004)
• Methodological rigor in:– Sense description– Construction of semantic network
• Criterion for sense description:– Grammatical Criterion (structure)– Concept Elaboration Criterion (collocation)
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Data
• Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese
• Manual examination of 200+ tokens
Results
• ‘Completive’: [V] – [shang] – [N] only
• Derivation of ‘completive’ in [V] – [shang] – [N]
• Imagistic structure of relevant senses in network (SOURCE-PATH-GOAL)
‘Completive’
• V of contact or connection (e.g. guan ‘close,’ he ‘bring together,’ peng ‘touch,’ zhuang ‘bump,’ lian ‘link,’ jie ‘connect,’ etc.)
‘Attached’
• V of applying substance (e.g. pen ‘spray,’ shua ‘brush,’ tu ‘spread,’ sa ‘scatter,’ hua ‘draw,’ xie ‘write,’ etc.)
• N in the co-text prompting SURFACE, on which the substance is applied
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‘Vertically attained’
• V of vertical elevation, usu. involving effort (e.g. deng ‘mount,’ pa ‘climb,’ tiao/yue ‘jump,’ etc.)
• N involving SURFACE, on top of which the moving figure can rest
Results
• ‘Completive’: [V] – [shang] – [N] only
• Derivation of ‘completive’ in [V] – [shang] – [N]
• Imagistic structure of the relevant senses in the sem network (S-P-G)
Image-schema (‘vertically attained’)
• S-P-G: PATH and GOAL highlighted• Conceptual contents elaborated:
– VERTICAL ELEVATION (by V)– SURFACE (by N)
Image-schema (‘attached’)
• S-P-G: GOAL highlighted• Only SURFACE elaborated (by N)• VER not present
Image-schema (‘completive’)
• S-P-G: GOAL highlighted (contact)• SURFACE much less obvious
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Path of semantic extension
• Derivation of ‘completive’: Gradual attenuation of conceptual content
• Specific to [V] – [shang] – [N]
‘Vertically attained’
‘Attached’
‘Completive’Reduction of VERTICALITY
Reduction of SURFACE
Making sense of shang ‘completive’
• Construction-specific
• Prototypical gestalt prompted by shang:– VERTICAL ELEVATION– REST ON A SURFACE
• Result of gradual reduction of the various facets of the conceptual scene prompted by cx
COMPLETION IS UP
• At work on lexical meaning in a construction-specific way
• Conceptually complex – VERTICALITY– SURFACE
• A result of semantic attenuation (Langacker 1999)
Implications
• Promise of construction grammar in the investigation of CM
• Corpus evidence (usage-clusters) as an empirical alternative approach to CM
• Different take from a pure conceptualist/experientialist explanation
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Future research
• The derivation of English up ‘completive’?
• COMPLETION IS UP in English?
• COMPLETION IS UP as a universal CM?
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Acknowledgements
• Arie Verhagen, I-wen Su, MA students in CL class
• “Employment of Best Young Scientists for International Cooperation Empowerment” (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0037) co-financed from European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic