Meaning dynamics in emergent natural language definitions: a method for semasiological corpus linguistics
Paul Sambre · Lirias · 2009
Meaning dynamics in emergent natural language definitions: a method for semasiological corpus linguistics Context – This contribution is based on a study which examines how narrow LSP technical terms emerge in creative LGP media discourse and gradually set up a broad conceptual profile according partly to metaphorical and mental-space extensions of the core meaning in so-called natural language definitions. Through a longitudinal case study of the semantic development of the word Internet in Dutch and French, we offer a methodology for describing meaning dynamics. Word meanings then do not only present a static given, but are also a discursive source of meaning creation and linguistic change in the short term. Objectives – There is a methodological and theoretical objective. (1) Our methodology transforms a monitor corpus which tracks all occurrences of natural language definitions of a term, in order to describe its semantics not only as static representations, but also emergent meaning, as it unfolds in discourse. We present a descriptive method for the microscopic unfolding of the semasiology of the term under investigation along ten dimensions with different levels of granularity. (2) On a theoretical level, we classify semasiological features in terms of cognitive subdomains, like metaphorical source domains or mental spaces on the one hand, and more general ways-of-seeing / qualia on the other. Natural language definitions then ought to be seen as a Langackerian partial sanction, as the gradual conceptual extension and measurable combinations of these dimensions, domains and qualia, which involve multiple definitions interacting in authentic discourse sequences intertextually, intratextually and on the level of the mere definiens NP. Framework – Our cognitive corpus approach combines a geneaological discursive inspiration (Foucault 2008, Pêcheux 1969, 1995) and cognitive grammar (Langacker 2001, 2008). In other words, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis and cognitive linguistics meet, in line with cognitive linguistics’ recent call for more usage-based analyses open to variational parameters. Data – We examined about 1000 definitions in 150 articles of ten Dutch and French general and economic Belgian weekly newspapers from 1991 to 1995, containing the first attestations of the word Internet and the first definitions of this word. It is the semasiological inventory of these definitions we capture. Descriptive results – Our method allows us to describe (explicit) natural language definitions as a multidimensional conceptualization at different levels of granularity and, more importantly, monitors the emergence and evolution of natural language definitions and their fine-grained semasiological structure, which takes into account contextual variation according to press types and languages examined. This patterning provides a method for better insights in similarities and differences between linguistic and genre variation both statically and as they develop through time. Bibliography Foucault, M. [1969] 2008. L’Archéologie du savoir. Paris: Gallimard. Langacker, R. W. (2001). Discourse in Cognitive Grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 12, 2, 143-188. Langacker, R.W. 2008. Cognitive Grammar. A Basic Introduction. Oxford: OUP. Pêcheux, M. (1969). Analyse automatique du discours. Paris: Dunod. Pêcheux, M. (1995). Three stages of discourse analysis. In Hak, T. & N. Helsloot (eds). Michel Pêcheux. Automatic Discourse Analysis. Amsterdam / Atlanta: Rodopi, 235-241.