Rethinking English “ Prepositions of Movement ” : The Case of To and Through
نویسنده
چکیده
What these examples illustrate is that a particular Trajector (TR) can, in conjunction with a particular Landmark (LM), affect the interpretation of a preposition. On one hand, the interpretation ascribed to the sentence in (1) is that the LM, the bowl, contains or surrounds the TR, the fruit. On the other hand, in (2) the conventional interpretation is that the TR, the crack, constitutes a flaw which is part of the bowl. Additionally, the crack may either appear as part of the interior or exterior of the bowl. Language users do not normally derive an interpretation for (2), in which an entity identified as the crack is somehow located within the confines of the bowl, i.e. the interior space bounded by the bowl, in the same way that entities such as fruit can be. Clearly, our interpretation of the conceptual spatial relation denoted by a preposition, such as in, is in part constrained by sentential context, that is, by the characteristics of the actions or entities which are designated. A crack is a different kind of entity from fruit. In conceptual terms, a crack is inherently relational, requiring a LM of which it constitutes a subpart, while fruit is a conceptually distinct entity. The different status of these two items differentially affects the exact interpretation of the relationship designated by the preposition. In this way, the meaning assigned to the preposition is “distributed” across the sentence. Since Brugman and Lakoff’s work on the English preposition over (Brugman 1988; Brugman and Lakoff 1988; Lakoff 1987), it has been common in cognitive semantics to assume that the nature of spatial meaning is due to the contribution of distinct senses associated with a preposition, rather than allowing sentential context a significant role. For instance, consider the following in sentences:
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