Sense Extensions of Two Basic English Verbs via Image Schema and Metaphor

Paula Bramante

paulab@unm.edu

Linguistics Department

526 Humanities

The University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131

Submitted for consideration as a non-presenting participant

A word's prototypical meaning is the locus of basic level imagery. Such imagery is the source of image schematic representation (Johnson, 1987), which plays a central role in the organization of polysemous senses of a word. Using these hypotheses from cognitive semantics as a point of departure, this paper looks at the conceptual content and structure of two basic English verbs, hold and break. The analysis uses radial category structure (George Lakoff, 1987) to explain how senses within each verb are linked through shared image schema. These schemata are in turn projected from basic to abstract domains of experience. In this way, metaphors emerge that interpret the relative values we assign to elements of the image schema. It is from these relative values that differing senses of polysemous words are derived. Other essential mechanisms that participate in the process of sense extension such as synaesthesia, metonymy, and Langacker's (1987; 1991) notions of focal adjustment and active zones are also discussed.

The paper will include parting commentary on the possible usefulness of these analyses for the eventual development of material that may facilitate vocabulary acquisition for non-native English speakers. This is envisioned through the development of teachable views of how meaning is structured in English. By drawing students' attention to those areas of conceptual material based on physical experience common to speakers of all languages, instructors may be able to establish a clear and immediate link between first and second language concepts, and help students to grasp the logic of sense extensions in English.