Semantic maps and mental representation 1
نویسنده
چکیده
This paper examines the implications of cross-linguistic multifunctionality patterns, as described by semantic maps, in terms of mental representation, that is, to what extent these patterns tell us something about the existence of a relationship between different conceptual situations that is perceived by speakers and is arguably represented in a speaker’s mind. By conceptual situation is meant here, in a maximally general sense, the semantic and pragmatic content associated with a linguistic form in a particular context, which is variously described in the literature as the meaning, function, or usage of that form. A semantic map is a representation of a multifunctionality pattern attested in a particular language, whereby the same linguistic form is used in different contexts to express a range of different conceptual situations. Languages display significant similarities in their multifunctionality patterns, in that the range of conceptual situations that may be associated with a single form is typically the same from one language to another. This is commony taken as evidence that individual multifunctionality patterns originate from some universally perceived relationship of similarity between the relevant conceptual situations, which is somehow part of a speaker’s mental representation. In fact, a distinction is sometimes made, and will be maintained in this paper, between the representations of the multifunctionality patterns found in individual languages, which are referred to as semantic maps proper, and the general schemes including the range of conceptual situations that may be associated with a single form cross-linguistically, which are referred to as conceptual spaces (Croft 2001 and 2003, Haspelmath 2003). A conceptual space is assumed to correspond to a portion of a speaker’s mental representation, where the relevant conceptual situations are universally arranged in terms of their lower vs. higher similarity, as manifested in the multifunctionality patterns described by the semantic maps that can be defined for individual languages. This view has been explicitly proposed in the first applications of the semantic map model, and has been maintained in the literature on semantic maps ever since. For example, Anderson (1982: 227) argues that, if two particular meanings are often expressed by the same surface form across a random sample of languages, then we can assume that the two meanings are similar to the human mind. Likewise, Haspelmath (2003: 233) and Croft (2001 and 2003) argue that semantic maps and conceptual spaces can be taken as a direct representation of the similarity relationships between meanings in a speaker’s mind. The idea that semantic maps and conceptual spaces may tell us something about a speaker’s mental representation is in fact what has made them particularly appealing to typologists. Many of the cross-linguistic patterns identified by typological research re-
منابع مشابه
Semantic Maps and Mental Representation
Semantic maps are usually assumed to describe a universal arrangement of different conceptual situations in a speaker's mind as determined by perceived relations of similarity between these conceptual situations. This paper provides a number of arguments that challenge this view, based on various types of evidence from processes of semantic change and synchronic implicational universals. The mu...
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تاریخ انتشار 2008