COMPOSITIONALITY OF ADJECTIVE-NOUN EXPRESSIONS WITH THE MODIFIER FAKE: COGNITIVE ASPECTS
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2018-5-20-27
The paper discusses the compositional semantics of adjective-noun combinations like fake gun. Compositionality appears to be one of the most cognitively basic principles guiding semantic research. This study argues the claim of formal semantics that the meaning of an expression is a function of the meanings of its parts and of the way they are syntactically combined. The article adduces support for the claim that the meaning of the whole cannot be predicted from the meanings of the parts and the way they are put together. The investigation makes an attempt to find the relations between formally integrated linguistic structure and conceptually integrated structures. The adjective fake is seen as privative for which an instance of the adjective + noun combination is never an instance of the noun alone. Complexes with fake entail the negation of the noun modified by fake. The paper accounts for the meaning of adjective-noun combinations in terms of conceptual integration. Within the framework of mental spaces theory the adjective fake prompts for a specific complex mapping scheme and emerges a novel conceptual blend. In terms of conceptual blending the adjective fake calls for two input spaces with a disanalogy connector such that an element in one place is real, but in the other is not. The article highlights combinatorial possibilities of fake. Of particular concern is the issue that the appropriate use of fake requires the activation of an appropriate frame.
Keywords: compositionality, adjective meaning, lexical semantics, emergent structure, blend, mental spaces, cognitive domain, complex concept
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Issue: 5, 2018
Series of issue: Issue 5
Rubric: ROMANCE AND GERMANIC LANGUAGES
Pages: 20 — 27
Downloads: 899