Regularity In Semantic Change

Traugott, Elizabeth Closs; Dasher, Richard B.

ISBN 10: 052161791X / ISBN 13: 9780521617918

Edité par Cambridge University Press, 2008

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N° de réf. du vendeur 3506588-n

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Regularity In Semantic Change
• Éditeur: Cambridge University Press
• Date de parution: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 052161791X
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780521617918
• Reliure: Couverture souple
• État de l'article: New

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

This important study of semantic change examines how new meanings arise through language use, especially the various ways in which speakers and writers experiment with uses of words and constructions in the flow of strategic interaction with addressees. There has been growing interest in exploring systemicities in semantic change from a number of perspectives including theories of metaphor, pragmatic inferencing, and grammaticalization. Like earlier studies, these have for the most part been based on data taken out of context. This book is a detailed examination of semantic change from the perspective of historical pragmatics and discourse analysis. Drawing on extensive corpus data from over a thousand years of English and Japanese textual history, Traugott and Dasher show that most changes in meaning originate in and are motivated by the associative flow of speech and conceptual metonymy.

À propos des auteurs

Elizabeth Closs Traugott is Professor of Linguistics and English at Stanford University. Her previous books include A History of English Syntax (1972), Linguistics for Students of Literature (with Mary L. Pratt, 1980) and Grammaticalization (with Paul J. Hopper, Cambridge, 1993).

Richard B. Dasher is Director of the US-Japan Technology Center, Executive Director of the Center for Integrated Systems and Consulting Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, Stanford University. His previous publications include historical work on Japanese honorifics in Papers in Linguistics, other research in Papers from the 7th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL), and various scholarly journals.