Semantic Structure of English Prepositions: An Analysis from a Grammaticalization Perspective

This paper aims to investigate the holistic semantic structure of 20 high frequency English prepositions from a grammaticalization perspective. Based on the lexicographic sense designations in Oxford English Dictionary and frequency literature, this paper analyzes them both at macro· and microstructure levels to determine the semantic network pattern A large number of these high frequency prepositions do not show recognizable lexical sources, but among those with lexical sources, spatial nouns constitute the major lexical source category. The notion LOCATION is the most central source meaning, followed by its closely related MOTION. From these central senses, meanings extend across psychological and temporal domains, then further across diverse subdomains, by way of semantic change mechanisms such as metaphor, frame-of-focus variation, and subjectification. Contrary to expectation, these three mechanisms account for majority of the attested semantic changes both at the macro-level and the micro-level; and while metonymy is normally expected to operate at the micro-level semantic change, the result shows otherwise. It is hypothesized, therefore, that metonymy is operative even below the level of lexicographic designations of word meanings. Of particular importance is that frame-of-focus variation accounts for a high percentage of semantic changes associated with these high frequency prepositions.This research was supported by Korea Research Foundation Grant (2002-041-A00217). and a pilot st udy paper with a smaller sample was presented at the 68th Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL LXVIIl), Georgetown University, Washington D.e., April 11-13, 2003 (see Rhee 2003a)

“I will do it… but I’m Asking you to do it”: On the Emergence of Polite Imperative from Promissive

AbstractThe Korean language has a rich inventory of sentence-final particles encoding diverse grammatical notions including sentence types and the speaker's subjective and intersubjective stances. A new imperative marker is under active development in Present- Day Korean largely motivated by discourse politeness. This emergent marker is identical in form with the promissive marker, which signals the speaker's commitment to fulfill something for the benefit of the addressee. An analysis of the grammaticalization process involved in the functional shift reveals diverse mechanisms of morpho-syntactic and semantic changes as well as discourse politeness strategies to mitigate the face-threatening illocutionary force of commanding

Pragmatic Inference and Grammaticalization of Serial Verbs of Displacement in Korean

Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Role of Learnability in Grammatical Theory (1996

Semantic Changes in Grammaticalization of Postpositionoids from Movement Verbs in Korean

This paper attempts to provide an account of semantic changes displayed by six verbs in the course of their grammaticalization into ten postpositionoids. These source verbs, despite their phonological and morphosyntactic complexity, have shared semantic characteristics in that they denote movement containing manner components. For semantic change mechanisms it is proposed here that various mechanisms such as variable frame of focus, metaphor, metonymy, pragmatic inference, subjectification, and hyperbole are the driving forces, and individual instances of semantic change operation are illustrated. Of note among these mechanisms is that hyperbole has not been proposed as a semantic change mechanism in grammaticalization to date, but is seen to be operative in grammaticalization of an allative marker -ey tayko from tayta 'touch'

How Far Likeness Can Go: Grammaticalization of Kath- in Korean

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Semantic Changes of English Preposition against: A Grammaticalization Perspective

This paper describes semantic changes of English preposition against that occurred in the course of its grammaticalization. Based on semantic designations provided in Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.; 1991), this paper shows how particular meanings of the word evolved. Four major mechanisms of semantic change are invoked here to explain such semantic changes, i.e., metaphor, generalization, subjectification, and frame-of-focus variation. Metaphorical transfer extends formerly concrete meanings that made reference to physical space onto more abstract meanings such as temporal reference. Generalization changes relatively specific meanings or meanings largely restricted to a particular domain into those that could be used in larger contexts. Subjectification changes meanings formerly associated with description of the external world into those associated with personal emotion and evaluation. Finally, variation of the frame of focus on the source image schema gives rise to various meanings that are in apparent antonymy. This investigation shows that semantic change is a complex process in which multifarious factors and mechanisms interplay

The Parallel Reduction Hypothesis in Grammaticalization Revisited: A Case of English Prepositions*

generalizations characterizing grammaticalization processes in various levels of grammar have been proposed. The parallel reduction hypothesis is one of such generalizations. This paper examines the hypothesis with English prepositions to examine if the hypothesis holds. Eighty English prepositions were divided into 5 groups by the differing degrees of use frequency, based on the assumption that more grammaticalized forms are more frequently used. Then the complexity was calculated at various levels such as phonology, morphosyntax, and semantics, and the figures were compared across these groups. A quantificational survey reveals that the group of the highest use frequency exhibits the highest level of reduction in form and of generalization in meaning, whereas the group of the lowest frequency shows the lowest level of reduction, thus supporting the parallel reduction hypothesis as a viable generalization of linguistic change phenomena displayed by English prepositions. (Hankuk University of Foreign StudiesStanford University) Key words: The parallel reduction hypothesis, form-meaning correlation, phonological reduction