Bridging, tunneling, and towering : How human interaction with artifacts influences the meanings of converted verbs

• What determines the meaning of a converted verb? Why do some verbs that have been converted from nouns that refer to artifacts have the meaning of making the artifact, and others not? How come some of them, but not others, are connected with motion? And how do speakers’ experiences of the artifacts involved influence the meanings of the verbs? Noun-to-verb conversion has been dealt with at phonological, grammatical and word semantic levels, and explained in terms of metonymic processes and event schema. Yet few studies, if any, have looked into why and how converted verbs acquire the meanings that they do. This article is a corpus linguistic investigation of the converted verbs bridge, tunnel, and tower. Our aim is to find out how speakers’ experiences of the artifacts that the corresponding nouns refer to influence the meanings of the converted verbs.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

noun to verb conversion

artifacts

cognitive salience

vantage point

language studies

språkvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)