Eating beyond certainties
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Christine Hénault
Abstract
The aim of this study is to give a crosslinguistic account of semantic paralellisms concerning verbs meaning “eat”. It is mainly based on both synchronic and diachronic data from Indo-European languages, and some comparisons are made with data from a few languages from other genetic stocks: Nahuatl, Mwotlap, Inuit and classical Arabic. The semantic parallelisms are organized semantically into three categories: concrete aspects, perceptual aspects and cognitive aspects. The study of the data suggests the possibility that there exists some universal semantic association for the concept of eating with the concepts of suffering and tormenting.
Abstract
The aim of this study is to give a crosslinguistic account of semantic paralellisms concerning verbs meaning “eat”. It is mainly based on both synchronic and diachronic data from Indo-European languages, and some comparisons are made with data from a few languages from other genetic stocks: Nahuatl, Mwotlap, Inuit and classical Arabic. The semantic parallelisms are organized semantically into three categories: concrete aspects, perceptual aspects and cognitive aspects. The study of the data suggests the possibility that there exists some universal semantic association for the concept of eating with the concepts of suffering and tormenting.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Semantic associations: A foreword vii
-
Part 1. State of the art
- Approaching lexical typology 3
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Part 2. Theoretical and methodological issues
- Words and their meanings: Principles of variation and stabilization 55
- The typology of semantic affinities 93
- Cognitive onomasiology and lexical change: Around the eye 107
- Mapping semantic spaces: A constructionist account of the "light verb" xordæn 'eat' in Persian 139
- Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: Intertwining polysemous networks across languages 163
- A catalogue of semantic shifts: Towards a typology of semantic derivation 217
- Semantic associations and confluences in paradigmatic networks 233
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Part 3. Case studies
- About 'Eating' in a few Niger-Congo languages 267
- Eating beyond certainties 291
- From semantic change to polysemy: The cases of 'meat/animal' and 'drink' 303
- Is a 'friend' an 'enemy'? Between "proximity" and "opposition" 317
- Semantic associations between sensory modalities, prehension and mental perceptions: A crosslinguistic perspective 341
- Cats and bugs: Some remarks about semantic parallelisms 371
- General index 387
- Index of languages 397
- Index of names 401
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Semantic associations: A foreword vii
-
Part 1. State of the art
- Approaching lexical typology 3
-
Part 2. Theoretical and methodological issues
- Words and their meanings: Principles of variation and stabilization 55
- The typology of semantic affinities 93
- Cognitive onomasiology and lexical change: Around the eye 107
- Mapping semantic spaces: A constructionist account of the "light verb" xordæn 'eat' in Persian 139
- Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: Intertwining polysemous networks across languages 163
- A catalogue of semantic shifts: Towards a typology of semantic derivation 217
- Semantic associations and confluences in paradigmatic networks 233
-
Part 3. Case studies
- About 'Eating' in a few Niger-Congo languages 267
- Eating beyond certainties 291
- From semantic change to polysemy: The cases of 'meat/animal' and 'drink' 303
- Is a 'friend' an 'enemy'? Between "proximity" and "opposition" 317
- Semantic associations between sensory modalities, prehension and mental perceptions: A crosslinguistic perspective 341
- Cats and bugs: Some remarks about semantic parallelisms 371
- General index 387
- Index of languages 397
- Index of names 401
