Repayment and revenge
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Carole Hough
Abstract
Links between the semantic fields of repayment and of revenge occur in many languages. As the usual pattern of metaphorical sense development is from concrete to abstract, repayment has been taken as the source domain, with revenge as the target. However, the relationship does not conform to that usual in metaphor. Revenge is not understood in terms of repayment; and both in Old English and later stages of the language, the semantic field of revenge includes not only polysemous but monosemous terms. The explanation may lie in the early legal system, which constructed links between the domains of revenge and restitution to provide an alternative to the blood feud. From a diachronic perspective, the domains were so closely related that the semantic link may represent metonymy rather than metaphor. A diachronic perspective also suggests that revenge was the more concrete concept, acting as source domain, with repayment as the target.
Abstract
Links between the semantic fields of repayment and of revenge occur in many languages. As the usual pattern of metaphorical sense development is from concrete to abstract, repayment has been taken as the source domain, with revenge as the target. However, the relationship does not conform to that usual in metaphor. Revenge is not understood in terms of repayment; and both in Old English and later stages of the language, the semantic field of revenge includes not only polysemous but monosemous terms. The explanation may lie in the early legal system, which constructed links between the domains of revenge and restitution to provide an alternative to the blood feud. From a diachronic perspective, the domains were so closely related that the semantic link may represent metonymy rather than metaphor. A diachronic perspective also suggests that revenge was the more concrete concept, acting as source domain, with repayment as the target.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
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Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
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Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
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Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
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Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
-
Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
-
Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
-
Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
-
Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
