An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraverso

The goal of this paper is to offer an account of an inter-lexical polysemy pattern connecting the three Italian prepositions per, tra and attraverso. It is shown via a corpus study that these prepositions can cover several related senses (i.e. they are polysemous), and that some of their senses ove...

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Main Authors: Francesco-Alessio Ursini, Yue (Sara) Zhang
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Föreningen Tidskriften Moderna språk 2023-12-01
Series:Moderna Språk
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Online Access:https://publicera.kb.se/mosp/article/view/10720
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author Francesco-Alessio Ursini
Yue (Sara) Zhang
author_facet Francesco-Alessio Ursini
Yue (Sara) Zhang
author_sort Francesco-Alessio Ursini
collection DOAJ
description The goal of this paper is to offer an account of an inter-lexical polysemy pattern connecting the three Italian prepositions per, tra and attraverso. It is shown via a corpus study that these prepositions can cover several related senses (i.e. they are polysemous), and that some of their senses overlap (i.e. inter-lexical polysemy is attested), thereby forming a clear-cut (lexical) contrast set. It is suggested that current theoretical proposals of polysemy cannot directly account for these data, and thus a new model must be introduced. The paper introduces such a model by combining generative (cartographic) syntactic insights with a Semantic Maps analysis. It is thus suggested that inter-lexical polysemy patterns arise because prepositions share syntactically equivalent structures, but partially different sense values are assigned to these structures. Therefore, these prepositions partition the semantic sub-space of ‘section’ spatial relations in only partially overlapping manners. Consequences for theories of polysemy and their connections to syntactic accounts of prepositions are discussed.
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spelling doaj-art-aa5b8661a5104cfdb5be8c025431a7be2024-12-06T11:57:48ZdeuFöreningen Tidskriften Moderna språkModerna Språk2000-35602023-12-01117310.58221/mosp.v117i3.10720An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraversoFrancesco-Alessio Ursini0Yue (Sara) Zhang1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2023-6374Central China Normal UniversityHainan University The goal of this paper is to offer an account of an inter-lexical polysemy pattern connecting the three Italian prepositions per, tra and attraverso. It is shown via a corpus study that these prepositions can cover several related senses (i.e. they are polysemous), and that some of their senses overlap (i.e. inter-lexical polysemy is attested), thereby forming a clear-cut (lexical) contrast set. It is suggested that current theoretical proposals of polysemy cannot directly account for these data, and thus a new model must be introduced. The paper introduces such a model by combining generative (cartographic) syntactic insights with a Semantic Maps analysis. It is thus suggested that inter-lexical polysemy patterns arise because prepositions share syntactically equivalent structures, but partially different sense values are assigned to these structures. Therefore, these prepositions partition the semantic sub-space of ‘section’ spatial relations in only partially overlapping manners. Consequences for theories of polysemy and their connections to syntactic accounts of prepositions are discussed. https://publicera.kb.se/mosp/article/view/10720polysemyItalian prepositionscartographysemantic mapsmetaphor identification procedure
spellingShingle Francesco-Alessio Ursini
Yue (Sara) Zhang
An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraverso
Moderna Språk
polysemy
Italian prepositions
cartography
semantic maps
metaphor identification procedure
title An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraverso
title_full An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraverso
title_fullStr An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraverso
title_full_unstemmed An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraverso
title_short An account of inter-lexical polysemy in Italian prepositions: The case of per, tra, attraverso
title_sort account of inter lexical polysemy in italian prepositions the case of per tra attraverso
topic polysemy
Italian prepositions
cartography
semantic maps
metaphor identification procedure
url https://publicera.kb.se/mosp/article/view/10720
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