Put, set, lay and place: A cognitive linguistic approach to verbal meaning.

摘要

This dissertation outlines a Cognitive Linguistic methodology for the analysis of verbal meaning, which is applied in a corpus-based investigation of the related English high-frequency verbs put, set, lay and place.; Elaborating on Fillmore (1971, 1977) and Goossens (1997) in a Lanackerian (1987, 1990, 1991) framework, the verbs are analyzed in three successive stages focusing on the patterning, the profiling and the base (or cognitive domains). This type of approach, which results in different clusters of specific uses (according to the patterns, the different argument-slots in the profile, and the domain matrixes) provides a principled differentiation of uses and at the same time uncovers a network of relations. The analysis highlights the role of cognitive processes like metaphor and metonymy (and different types of interaction between them), and indicates relevant image schemata and general usage types. The resulting description of the four verbs provides a motivation as to why put is the high-frequency manipulation verb, why set is often used to conceptualize motion, or why day, set, and place, but not put, conceptualize arrangement etc. The findings suggest that uses are entrenched (salient) at different levels of abstraction, and that metaphorical/metonymic links have different degrees of salience.