LIN101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Lexicalization, Deixis, Pragmatics
Document Summary
Fuzzy concepts: the concept reflected by words and phrase might not be straightforward. We"ve seen that lexical meaning, and even sentence meaning, depends on context: launching a cat, pressing a suit. Large", red", crazy" and many more and only meaningful in context: a small cat is dozens of times larger than a gigantic spider. Different languages use metaphor in different ways. Metaphors of this kind have been around for a very long time perhaps since the development of language itself. When a metaphor is used consistently for along time, it may become lexicalized- cemented in their new meanings: before and after originally referred to space, before meant in front of , after meant farther away from . In a romance language one would typically say julie entered the room while limping or with a limp: the degree to which speakers lexicalize concepts important to their cultures has been vastly exaggerated (and misrepresented)
