UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations which bind them. Synchronically, this model
explains the varied and contradic- tory senses of the diminutive.
Diachronically, the radial category acts as a kind of ARCHAE- OLOGY
OF MEANING, expressing the generalizations of the classic
mechanisms of semantic change (metaphor, abstraction and inference)
as well as a new one: LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION, which accounts for the
rise of quantificational meaning and second-order predicates in the
diminutive. The model also predicts that the origins of the
diminutive cross-linguisti- cally lie in words semantically or
pragmatically linked to children. I test the model by considering
the semantics of the diminutive in over 60 languages, examining the
origins of the diminutive in many of these, particularly in
Indo-European where the theory suggests a new reconstruction of the
proto-semantics of the PIE suffix "-ko-.
1. INTRODUCTION. For much of this century, the tools by which we
have conducted linguistic inquiry into semantic univerals have
distinguished between the investigation of a state of a language at
a particular point in time, and the investigation of the historical
antecedents and future realizations of this state. Universal
statements about the former are often taken as psychological claims
about the mind of the speaker. Universal statements about the
latter tend to be cultural or sociological claims, or claims about
language as a structural object.
In recent years, however, many scholars have begun to treat the
synchronic state of the semantics of a language as profoundly bound
up with its diachronic nature. Sweetser (1990), for example, has
argued that generalizations about the diachronic semantics of
modality and verbs of perception are rooted in the human conceptual
system, and grounded in everyday experience. Bybee et al. (1994)
and Traugott (1989) argue that diachronic universals in semantic
descrip- tion are due to the embeddedness of language in the
inferential process of
* Many thanks to Claudia Brugman, Bill Croft, Patrick Farrell,
Charles Fillmore, Zygmunt Fraj- zyngier, Orin Gensler, David Gil,
Leanne Hinton, Bernd Heine, Gary Holland, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff,
Jack Martin, Yoshiko Matsumoto, John McWhorter, Laura Michaelis,
Mary Niepokuj, Eric Pederson, Terry Regier, Rich Rhodes, David
Rood, Eve Sweetser, Len Talmy, Elizabeth Traugott, Nigel Ward,
Linda Waugh, David Zubin and two anonymous reviewers for comments
on this paper and earlier versions, and to my informants Ramon
Caceres, Shirley Chiu, Ziv Gigus, Yochai Konig, Srini Narayan,
Terry Regier, and Hui Zhang. Of course all errors are my own.
533
UNIVERSAL TENDENCIES IN THE SEMANTICS OF THE DIMINUTIVE*
DANIEL JURAFSKY
International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley and
University of Colorado, Boulder
Despite the crucial dependence of synchronic meaning on both
historical and cognitive context, we have traditionally used
different tools for expressing synchronic and dia- chronic
generalizations in modeling a complex semantic category like the
diminutive. This is due in part to the extraordinary, often
contradictory range of its senses synchroni- cally (small size,
affection, approximation, intensification, imitation, female
gender), and the difficulty of proposing a coherent historical
reconstruction for these senses.
I propose to model the synchronic and diachronic semantics of
the diminutive category with a RADIAL CATEGORY (George Lakoff
1987), a type of structured polysemy that expli- citly models the
different senses of the diminutive and the metaphorical and
inferential relations