Polysemy: Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language

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Brigitte Nerlich
Mouton de Gruyter, 2003 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 422 pages

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.

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Contents

Cognitive models of polysemy
31
past and present
49
Polysemy and conceptual blending
79
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About the author (2003)

Brigitte Nerlich is Senior Research Officer at the University of Nottingham, UK. Zazie Todd is Lecturer at Leeds University, UK. David D. Clarke is Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK. Vimala Herman is Reader at the University of Nottingham, UK.

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