Polysemy: Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs, 142) (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs)

About fifty years ago, Stephen Ullmann wrote that polysemy is 'the pivot of semantic analysis'. Fifty years on, polysemy has become one of the hottest topics in linguistics and in the cognitive sciences at large. The book deals with the topic from a wide variety of viewpoints. The cognitive approach is supplemented and supported by diachronic, psycholinguistic, developmental, comparative, and computational perspectives. The chapters, written by some of the most eminent specialists in the field, are all underpinned by detailed discussions of methodology and theory.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks, as well as studies that provide new insights by approaching language from an interdisciplinary perspective.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

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Acknowledgements 7 List of contributors 11 Setting the scene 13 Polysemy and flexibility: introduction and overview 15 Cognitive models of polysemy 43 Polysemy: past and present 61 Cognitive approaches 89 Polysemy and conceptual blending 91 Reconsidering prepositional polysemy networks: the case of over 107 Polysemy as flexible meaning: experiments with English get and Finnish pitää 173 Metonymic polysemy and its place in meaning extension 207 Synchrony/diachrony approaches 227 Polysemy in derivational affixes 229 The role of links and/or qualia in modifier-head constructions 245 Polysemy and bleaching 265 Polysemy in the lexicon and in discourse 279 Psycholinguistic approaches 307 Irony in conversation: salience, role, and context effects 309 Young children’s and adults’ use of figurative language: how important are cultural and linguistic influences? 329 Emerging patterns and evolving polysemies: the acquisition of get between four and ten years 345 Computational approaches 371 “I don’t believe in word senses” 373 Senses and texts 405 Index 423 Review text: "To end on a personal note, I hope that Polysemy: Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language will provoke a number of discussions in related fields, leading to a number of interesting findings and the development of polysemy research in the future."Yoshikata Shibuya in: Cognitive Linguistics 4/2007