Polysemy

About fifty years ago, Stephen Ullmann wrote that polysemy is 'the pivot of semantic analysis'. Fifty years on, polysemy has become one of the hottest topics in linguistics and in the cognitive sciences at large. The book deals with the topic from a wide variety of viewpoints. The cognitive approach is supplemented and supported by diachronic, psycholinguistic, developmental, comparative, and computational perspectives. The chapters, written by some of the most eminent specialists in the field, are all underpinned by detailed discussions of methodology and theory.

Autorentext

Brigitte Nerlich is Senior Research Officer at the University of Nottingham, UK. Zazie Todd is Lecturer at Leeds University, UK. David D. Clarke is Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK. Vimala Herman is Reader at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Klappentext
About fifty years ago, Stephen Ullmann wrote that polysemy is 'the pivot of semantic analysis'. Fifty years on, polysemy has become one of the hottest topics in linguistics and in the cognitive sciences at large. The book deals with the topic from a wide variety of viewpoints. The cognitive approach is supplemented and supported by diachronic, psycholinguistic, developmental, comparative, and computational perspectives. The chapters, written by some of the most eminent specialists in the field, are all underpinned by detailed discussions of methodology and theory.

Zusammenfassung
"To end on a personal note, I hope that Polysemy: Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language will provoke a number of discussions in related fields, leading to a number of interesting findings and the development of polysemy research in the future."Yoshikata Shibuya in: Cognitive Linguistics 4/2007

Inhalt
Setting the scene Polysemy and flexibility: introduction and overviewBrigitte Nerlich and David D. Clarke Cognitive models of polysemyJohn R. Taylor Polysemy: past and presentBrigitte Nerlich Cognitive approaches Polysemy and conceptual blendingGilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner Reconsidering prepositional polysemy networks: the case of overAndrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans Polysemy as flexible meaning: experiments with English get and Finnish pitääJarno Raukko Metonymic polysemy and its place in meaning extensionKen-ichi Seto Synchrony/diachrony approaches Polysemy in derivational affixesAdrienne Lehrer The role of links and/or qualia in modifier-head constructionsBeatrice Warren Polysemy and bleachingJean Aitchison and Diana M. Lewis Polysemy in the lexicon and in discourseAndreas Blank Psycholinguistic approaches Irony in conversation: salience, role, and context effectsRachel Giora and Inbal Gur Young children's and adults' use of figurative language: how important are cultural and linguistic influences?Ann Dowker Emerging patterns and evolving polysemies: the acquisition of get between four and ten yearsBrigitte Nerlich, Zazie Todd and David D. Clarke Computational approaches "I don't believe in word senses"Adam Kilgarriff Senses and textsYorick Wilks