Fictive Motion in the Domain of Light

摘要

Extracting expressions for the description of light from a very large corpus of English reveals systematic patterns of fictive motion, e.g., the conceptualization of light as a moving fluid. An analysis of these patterns including frequency data allows us to build up a detailed picture of the conceptualizations of radiation paths conventionally used and elaborated on creatively by English speakers. This empirical study confirms the general accuracy and fruitfulness of Talmy's (2000) description of fictive radiation paths, at the same time elaborating it in specifics and providing avenues for cross-linguistic comparison of such conceptualizations that include degree of entrenchment. It is shown that fictive conceptualizations of light in English relate systematically but partially to perception as well as to conceptualizations of force and agentivity. The results therefore lend strong support to Talmy's "overlapping systems" model of human cognition.