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Size in English: large & big
Giota SyrpaPhD candidate in Cognitive Linguistics
School of EnglishThessaloniki Cognitive Linguistics Reading Group
Aristotle University
large big
Positive polarity of the SIZE axis
A case of synonymy?
• Do large & big refer to the same aspects of the concept of SIZE?
• Are there aspects of SIZE that are foregrounded by using either large or big?
• Which domains of experience do large and big pertain to?
• Which size aspects and/or domains of experience do they share?
• What kind of figurative extensions do they encourage and on what grounds?
Methodology
• British National Corpus
• 400 collocates of large (15704 tokens)
• 400 collocates of big (10517 tokens)
large + types of nouns
• Quantity nouns: large number, large amount, large quantity, etc• Gradation nouns: large scale, large proportion, large extent, etc• Segmentation nouns: large part, large section, large piece, etc• Collective nouns: large family, large group, large collection, etc• Financial transaction nouns: large budget, large investment, large
profits, etc• Legal & economic institutions nouns: large company, large firm,
large corporation, etc• Spatial extensions: large area, large house, large room, etc• Physical objects: large bowl, large pan, large stone, large glass,
etc• Animate entities (people/ animals) & parts of their bodies: large
man, large bowel, large animal, large body, large hand, etc
Aspects of size / domains of experience for large
• Physical size• Quantity / Amount / Number• Gradation• Legal & Economic organizations• Money issues / Financial transactions
Figure 1
Quantity/amount/number
Physical size
Gradation
Legal & economic organizations
Money issues / Financial transactions
Various
big + types of nouns
• Abstract nouns: big problem, big fight, big worry, big question, decision, etc
• Collective nouns: big family, big group, big crowd, etc• Legal & economic institutions nouns: big company, big firm, big
corporation, etc• Financial transaction nouns: big money, big bonus, big sales, etc• Spatial extensions: big area, big house, big room, big city, etc.• Physical objects: big bowl, big pan, big car, big glass, etc• Animate entities (people/animals) & parts of the human body:
big girl/boy, big brother/sister, big body, big hand, big head, etc
Domains of experience for big
• Physical size• Evaluation• Age• Fixed expressions & Idioms• Number / Quantity (collective nouns) • Legal & Economic Organizations• Money Issues / Financial transactions
Figure 2
Evaluation
Physical size
Fixed expressions / Idioms
Legal & Economic organisations
Money Issues / Financial transactions
Quantity/number
Age
SENSES SHARED & NON-SHARED
•Quantity / amount / number
•Gradation
•Evaluation
(seriousness/Importance/Popularity)
•Age
physical size
number (group nouns)
legal & economic organizations
Money Issues financial transaction
Large: different aspects of Size
• Physical size
• Quantity / amount / number
• Gradation
Large: Physical size
• people, eg: large man• animals, eg: large dog• spatial extensions, eg: large area• physical objects, eg: large bowl• edifices, eg: large building
Large: Quantity / Number / Amount
large + quantity nouns
eg: a large number of people, a large amount of money,
a large quantity of fuel
large + group nouns (collective nouns)
eg: a large family, a large group, a large collection,
a large audience, large herds
large + segment nouns
eg: large section, large part, large piece
Large: Gradation
large + scalar / gradational nouns
eg: large scale emergency relief
a large degree of control
a large scale producer
big: Physical size
• people, eg: big man• animals, eg: big dog• spatial extensions, eg: big area• physical objects, eg: big glass• edifices, eg: big house
Big: Evaluation
big + troublesome/complex situations
eg: big problem, big trouble, big fight
big + important issues
big match, big race, big game, big difference
big + serious/important situations
big mistake, big issue, big effort
Big as an intensifier
big + positively evaluated entities
eg: big success, big boost, big advantage, big improvement, big win
big + negatively evaluated entities
eg: big noise, big con, big disappointment, big catastrophe
Big: Age
• big brother• big sister• big boy• big girl
SENSES SHARED & NON-SHARED
•Quantity / amount / number
•Gradation
•Evaluation
(seriousness/Importance/Popularity)
•Age
physical size
number (group nouns)
legal & economic organizations
Money Issues financial transaction
PHYSICAL SIZE I
PEOPLE
• All she could see of him from this angle was that he was a very large man, broad as well as tall -- so tall that he had to bend his
head over his task. • The bridegroom was a very tall young man with reddish hair, a very big man altogether, and as so often happens then, the bride was
very small. Her head did not nearly reach his shoulder. ANIMALS• Still, smacking the dog on the snout might not be the easiest thing to
do. It was a very big dog, after all. And Anabelle was a very small hedgehog.
• A six-month-old Rottweiler dog may appear quite a large dog in
size, but mentally he is still very much a baby.
PHYSICAL SIZE IICONCRETE PHYSICAL OBJECTSContaining capacity: large + kitchen utensils / containers: 420 instances in the BNCbig + kitchen utensils / containers: 214 instances in the BNCeg: large bowl, large pan, large saucepan, large envelope, large
bucket, etcInterference of width / weight / height:large + voluminous objects: 254 instances in the BNCbig + voluminous objects: 67 instances in the BNCeg: large stone, large rock, large leaves, etcInterference of height / length: large + high / long objects: 200big + high / long objects: 401eg: big car, big table, big pile, big lorry, big boat, etc
PHYSICAL SIZE III
SPATIAL EXTENSIONS
large + spatial open surfaces: 672 instances in the BNC
big + open spatial extensions: 132
eg: large area, large estate, large garden, large field, large farm, etc
BUILDINGS & PARTS
large + buildings & their parts: 737 instances in the BNC
big + buildings & their parts: 564 instances in the BNC
eg: large building, large room, large hall, large kitchen,etc
Physical Size: a remark
• the use of large reflects the overall size of physical entities; the overall size of the entity described is its active zone elaborated by large
→ large is related to situations of determinacy
• the use of big does not always reflect overall size of physical entities; the overall size of the entity described is not its active zone elaborated by big; speakers may implicitly refer to the dimension (active zone) most prominently exhibited by the entity they modify.
→ big is related to situations of indeterminacy
GROUPS
large + group / collective nouns:
1203 instances in BNC
big + group / collective nouns:
353 instances in BNC
MONEY ISSUES/FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS
big + money words: 299
large + money words: 91
eg: big money, big bucks, large budget, large profit, etc
LEGAL & ECONOMIC ORGANISATIONS
Organization nouns + large : 918 instances in the BNC
Organization nouns + big: 220 instances in the BNC
eg: large company, large firm, large corporations,
large factories
Shared domains of experience
• Physical size (people, animals, objects, spatial extensions)
• Group / collective nouns (partially)
• Legal & economic organizations
• Financial transactions
Not-shared domains of experience
• Quantity / amount / number (LARGE)
• Gradation (LARGE)
• Evaluation (seriousness / importance / complexity / popularity) (BIG)
• Age (BIG)
Interplay of lexicogrammar & figuration
LEXICOGRAMMAR
constrainsFIGURATION
encourages
ReferencesLakoff, George, Jane Espenson & Alan Schwartz (1991). Master Metaphor List. Second Edition. Cognitive Linguistics Group. University ofCalifornia, Berkeley
Langacker, Ronald 2009. Metonymic Grammar. In Klaus-Uwe Panther, Linda L.Thornburg, and Antonio Barcelona (eds) Metonymy and Metaphor in Grammar.45 – 71. John Benjamins
Muehleisen, Victoria (1997) Antonymy and Semantic Range in English. PhDThesis.
Panther, Klaus-Uwe and Linda Thornburg 2009. Figuration in Grammar. In Panther, Thornburg &Barcelona (eds), Metonymy and Metaphor in Grammar. John Benjamins. pp. 1-44.
Radden, Günter (2000) How metonymic are metaphors? In: Antonio Barcelona (ed.), Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads. (Topics in EnglishLinguistics 30), 93-108. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.