Historical Semantics and Cognition

Contains revised papers from a September 1996 symposium which provided a forum for synchronically and diachronically oriented scholars to exchange ideas and for American and European cognitive linguists to confront representatives of different directions in European structural semantics. Papers are in sections on theories and models, descriptive categories, and case studies, and examine areas such as cognitive and structural semantics, diachronic prototype semantics, synecdoche as a cognitive and communicative strategy, and intensifiers as targets and sources of semantic change.

Résumé
The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems- both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

Contenu

Introduction: historical semantics and cognition. Section 1 Theories and models: cognitive semantics and structural semantics, John R. Taylor; diachronic semantics towards a unified theory of language change? Helmut Ludtke; why do new meanings occur? a cognitive typology of the motivations for lexical semantic change, andreas Blank; diachronic prototype semantics - a digest, Dirk Geeraerts; cognitive semantics and diachronic semantics - the values and evolution of classes, Francois Rastier. Section 2 Descriptive categories: losing control - grammaticization, subjectification, and transparency, Ronald W. Langacker; the rhetoric of counter-expectation in semantic change -a study in subjectification, Elizabeth Closs Traugott; synecdoche as a cognitive and communicative strategy, Brigitte Nerlich, David D. Clarke; laws and thought, knowledge and lexical change, Beatrice Warren. Section 3 Case studies: intensifiers as targets and sources of semantic change, Ekkehard Koning, Peter Siemund; cognitive ease and lexical borrowing - the recategorization of body parts in Romance, Thomas Krefeld; cognitive aspects of semantic change and polysemy -the semantic space have/be.