Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Content
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The nature of meaning
- 2 Embodied meaning and spatial experience
- 3 Towards a model of principled polysemy: spatial scenes and conceptualization
- 4 The semantic network for over
- 5 The vertical axis
- 6 Spatial particles of orientation
- 7 Bounded landmarks
- 8 Conclusion
- References
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Content
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The nature of meaning
- 2 Embodied meaning and spatial experience
- 3 Towards a model of principled polysemy: spatial scenes and conceptualization
- 4 The semantic network for over
- 5 The vertical axis
- 6 Spatial particles of orientation
- 7 Bounded landmarks
- 8 Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
Linguists, psychologists and philosophers have long observed the importance of space and spatial experience for both language and thought. In this book, we examine the nature of human spatio-physical experience and how human conceptualization of spatial relations is reflected in the English language. In particular, we are interested in how spatial concepts are systematically extended to provide a wide array of non-spatial meanings. We do so through a study of English spatial particles, an important subset of which are prepositions.
The central notion we explore is that of a spatial scene, a conceptualized relation grounded in spatial interaction and experience, involving entities that are related in a particular spatio-configurational way. For instance, in a spatial scene described by: The cup is on the table, the cup is in contact with the upper side of the table. A distinct spatio-configuration is described by the following: The coffee is in the cup. This scene involves the coffee being located inside (as opposed to outside) the cup. However, spatial scenes do not involve only spatio-physical relations or configurations. It turns out that particular spatial relations have non-trivial consequences that are meaningful to humans. The spatial scene involving on also involves a support function between the table and the cup: unless enough of the cup's base is situated on the table, the cup will fall and smash on the floor.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Semantics of English PrepositionsSpatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning, and Cognition, pp. ix - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003