1 From usage clusters to concepts: How COMPLETION IS UP in Mandarin Wei-lun Lu 呂維倫 Masaryk University, Czech Republic [email protected].

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From usage clusters to concepts:How COMPLETION IS UP in Mandarin

Wei-lun Lu 呂維倫Masaryk University, Czech Republic

[email protected]

Metaphor in language

• Metaphor as ubiquitous figure of lg reflecting modes of thought

• In what specific ways does language reflect thought?

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Metaphor and polysemy

• Metaphor as a source for polysemy (Sweetser 1990)

• Up:– The price went up.– MORE IS UP (QUANTITY)– Enjoy the ups and downs of life.– GOOD IS UP (QUALITY)

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COMPLETION IS UP

• Argued to account for ‘completive’ for up (Hampe 2000; Kovecses 2001)

• This presenter is so boring that we wish he could just shut up now!

• Come on! Your time is up!

• +VERTICAL --C--I--U---> COMPLETION

(SPACE) (TIME)4

The experiential basis of CIU

• CONTAINER and vertical elevation (Tyler and Evans 2003:139ff)

• Association of the upper limit and the completion of activity

• Empirically tested (for validity and universality)?

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Shang in Mandarin

• Shang denoting +VERTICAL

• ta fei-shang tiankong ‘he fly-SHANG sky’

(Vertical sense)

• ta guan-shang men ‘he close-SHANG door • ta guan men ‘he close door

(Highlighting end of closing process)

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CIU and shang

• +VERTICAL --C--I--U--> COMPLETION

(SPACE) (TIME)

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Research questions

• Given its similarity with up, what drives the sem extension of shang ‘completive’ from the physical meaning?

• What can a corpus-based analysis of polysemy tell us about COMPLETION IS UP?

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Analytical framework

• Principled Polysemy (Evans 2004)

• Methodological rigor in:– Sense description– Construction of semantic network

• Criterion for sense description:– Grammatical Criterion (structure)– Concept Elaboration Criterion (collocation)

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Data

• Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese

• Manual examination of 200+ tokens

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Results

• ‘Completive’: [V] – [shang] – [N] only

• Derivation of ‘completive’ in [V] – [shang] – [N]

• Imagistic structure of relevant senses in network (SOURCE-PATH-GOAL)

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‘Completive’

• V of contact or connection (e.g. guan ‘close,’ he ‘bring together,’ peng ‘touch,’ zhuang ‘bump,’ lian ‘link,’ jie ‘connect,’ etc.)

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‘Attached’

• V of applying substance (e.g. pen ‘spray,’ shua ‘brush,’ tu ‘spread,’ sa ‘scatter,’ hua ‘draw,’ xie ‘write,’ etc.)

• N in the co-text prompting SURFACE, on which the substance is applied

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‘Vertically attained’

• V of vertical elevation, usu. involving effort (e.g. deng ‘mount,’ pa ‘climb,’ tiao/yue ‘jump,’ etc.)

• N involving SURFACE, on top of which the moving figure can rest

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Results

• ‘Completive’: [V] – [shang] – [N] only

• Derivation of ‘completive’ in [V] – [shang] – [N]

• Imagistic structure of the relevant senses in the sem network (S-P-G)

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Image-schema (‘vertically attained’)

• S-P-G: PATH and GOAL highlighted• Conceptual contents elaborated:

– VERTICAL ELEVATION (by V)– SURFACE (by N)

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Image-schema (‘attached’)

• S-P-G: GOAL highlighted• Only SURFACE elaborated (by N)• VER not present

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Image-schema (‘completive’)

• S-P-G: GOAL highlighted (contact)• SURFACE much less obvious

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Path of semantic extension

• Derivation of ‘completive’: Gradual attenuation of conceptual content

• Specific to [V] – [shang] – [N]

‘Vertically attained’

‘Attached’

‘Completive’Reduction of VERTICALITY

Reduction of SURFACE

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Making sense of shang ‘completive’

• Construction-specific

• Prototypical gestalt prompted by shang:– VERTICAL ELEVATION– REST ON A SURFACE

• Result of gradual reduction of the various facets of the conceptual scene prompted by cx

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COMPLETION IS UP

• At work on lexical meaning in a construction-specific way

• Conceptually complex – VERTICALITY– SURFACE

• A result of semantic attenuation (Langacker 1999)

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Implications

• Promise of construction grammar in the investigation of CM

• Corpus evidence (usage-clusters) as an empirical alternative approach to CM

• Different take from a pure conceptualist/experientialist explanation

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Future research

• The derivation of English up ‘completive’?

• COMPLETION IS UP in English?

• COMPLETION IS UP as a universal CM?

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Acknowledgements

• Arie Verhagen, I-wen Su, MA students in CL class

• “Employment of Best Young Scientists for International Cooperation Empowerment” (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0037) co-financed from European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic

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THANK YOU!

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