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In the sections that follow we shall be concerned with analyzing the semantic evolution of the noun cheek in the history of English. The semantics of the lexical item under scrutiny will be examined with reference to its two aspects, that is (1) the semantic potential of the analysed lexical unit in its primary, etymological sense (sense A) and its secondary senses (senses B > E), (2) as well as the secondary senses emerging from various phraseological units which echo the nominal sense B (henceforth B-related senses). The analysis proposed here continues the area of research initiated in Wieclawska (2009a, 2009b), Wieclawska 2010, Kleparski and Wieclawska (2010) and Wieclawska (2011), the target of which are semantic changes and phraseological productivity of lexical items variously related to the conceptual macrocategory BODY PARTS. The methodological apparatus employed here is the one that follows the theoretical frames developed by, among others, Kleparski (1996, 1997, 2002), Kieltyka (2008, 2010) that may be referred to as representing much cognitivistic spirit of semantic analysis.
For reasons of space, we only discussed one text in which the metaphors used seem to take their root in the context in which it has been written. One text is definitely not enough to make any definite claims on how widespread this phenomenon is. Given what we know about the two domains - Food and taste - one has reasons to believe that when speakers/conceptualisers (e.g. journalists) describe something which stands in some relation to both, they may intuitively be reaching for taste metaphors of the kind described above on the premise that this kind of ‘ornamentation’ will add some spice to what the addressee might otherwise consider a trivial (and boring) topic. At the same time, taste is only one among many properties a particular item of food or a substance (e.g. sugar) has. In consequence, one may well imagine contexts in which it is not its taste, but other properties (e.g. what Harbottle [1997:183] refers to as its 'pure white and deadly’ image) that will make the conceptualiser reach for a particular linguistic or conceptual metaphor.