Iconicity in question
-
Hélène De Penanros
Abstract
This article analyzes three cases of competition between a preposition and its corresponding case or the use of the case by itself. It shows that the difference between the two types of constructions is always the same: the case alone is used to express an unmarked relationship, whereas the prepositional phrase + the corresponding case is used to focus on one of its aspects. This could be analyzed in terms of ‘iconicity of motivation’, as the instance marked semantically (with focalization) is also marked syntactically insofar as two markers co-occur. However, the author shows that this analysis which directly links form and meaning without taking into account the linguistic operations implemented by the linguistic forms, is unsatisfactory. She proposes an alternative analysis based on the hypothesis that a case and a preposition are ‘relators’ and explains that the focalization observed in the constructions with two relators (case+preposition) is not so much due to the fact that more markers are used, but to the fact that two semantically close relationships involving the same terms are fully implemented.
Abstract
This article analyzes three cases of competition between a preposition and its corresponding case or the use of the case by itself. It shows that the difference between the two types of constructions is always the same: the case alone is used to express an unmarked relationship, whereas the prepositional phrase + the corresponding case is used to focus on one of its aspects. This could be analyzed in terms of ‘iconicity of motivation’, as the instance marked semantically (with focalization) is also marked syntactically insofar as two markers co-occur. However, the author shows that this analysis which directly links form and meaning without taking into account the linguistic operations implemented by the linguistic forms, is unsatisfactory. She proposes an alternative analysis based on the hypothesis that a case and a preposition are ‘relators’ and explains that the focalization observed in the constructions with two relators (case+preposition) is not so much due to the fact that more markers are used, but to the fact that two semantically close relationships involving the same terms are fully implemented.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
General
- Three paradigms of iconicity research in language and literature 13
- Iconicity of logic - and the roots of "iconicity" concept 35
-
Sound Meets Meaning
- Iconic inferences about personality 57
- Phonemes as images 71
- Synaesthetic sound iconicity 93
- What’s in a mimetic? 109
- Iconicity in the syntax and lexical semantics of sound-symbolic words in Japanese 125
- A corpus-based semantic analysis of Japanese mimetic verbs 143
-
Language Meets Literature
- Iconicity in translation 163
- The days pass … 185
- Visual, auditory, and cognitive iconicity in written literature 207
- Don’t read too much into the runes 219
-
Grammar Meets Iconicity
- Iconicity in question 241
- Rethinking diagrammatic iconicity from an evolutionary perspective 259
- Author index 275
- Subject index 277
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
General
- Three paradigms of iconicity research in language and literature 13
- Iconicity of logic - and the roots of "iconicity" concept 35
-
Sound Meets Meaning
- Iconic inferences about personality 57
- Phonemes as images 71
- Synaesthetic sound iconicity 93
- What’s in a mimetic? 109
- Iconicity in the syntax and lexical semantics of sound-symbolic words in Japanese 125
- A corpus-based semantic analysis of Japanese mimetic verbs 143
-
Language Meets Literature
- Iconicity in translation 163
- The days pass … 185
- Visual, auditory, and cognitive iconicity in written literature 207
- Don’t read too much into the runes 219
-
Grammar Meets Iconicity
- Iconicity in question 241
- Rethinking diagrammatic iconicity from an evolutionary perspective 259
- Author index 275
- Subject index 277
