Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 1997 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Linguistik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Institut für englische Philologie), Veranstaltung: Proseminar: Language and Psychology, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: 1 Introduction According to Aristotle, every word is to be defined by naming its genus proximum and differentia specifica. The linguistic debate concerning the issue of word-meaning and its adequate description has split researchers into two opposing parties. Traditional linguists whose position is relatively close to Aristotle ́s idea favour a theory called Feature Semantics (hereafter FS) whereas many scientists rather support a more modern approach which can be labelled Prototype Theory (hereafter PT). The aim of this research paper is to describe and compare these two concepts. As a conclusion of the first (theoretical) part, it will try to show that the two approaches are not incompatible but that they even seem to function on a complementary basis. In the second (more practical) part, I will try to decompose the meaning elements of some verbs of selected English semantic fields and thus give an example for the use (and usefulness) of semantic features. [...]

Cognitive Sociolinguistics combines the interest in meaning of Cognitive Linguistics with the interest in social variation of sociolinguistics, converging on two domains of enquiry: variation of meaning, and the meaning of variation. These Ten Lectures, a transcribed version of talks given by professor Geeraerts in 2009 at Beihang University in Beijing, introduce and illustrate both dimensions. The ‘variation of meaning’ perspective involves looking at types of semantic and categorial variation, at the role of social and cultural factors in semantic variation and change, and at the interplay of stereotypes, prototypes and norms. The ‘meaning of variation’ perspective involves looking at the way in which categorization processes of the type studied by Cognitive Linguistics shape how scholars and laymen think about language variation.

This book provides a readable and clearly articulated introduction to an important area in the broader field of Cognitive Linguistics. Taking as its starting point the categorization of colour it explores the far reaching implications of Eleanor Rosch's seminal work on prototype categorization extending it's application of prototype theory from lexical semantics to the study of morphology, syntax, and phonology. First published in 1989 the third edition of this populat text has been fully revised and updated to include recent developments in Cognitive Linguistics. It introduces basic issues in the study of word meaning, and demonstrates the viability of the prototype approach to the study of phonology, syntax and acquistion. The new edition expands the treatment of polysemy, meaning relatedness, idioms and grammatical constructions The book presupposes no prior knowledge of linguistics and will therefore be particulary suited to undergraduate courses.

Introduces the major elements of semantics in a simple, step-by-step fashion. Sections of explanation and examples are followed by practice exercises with answers and comment provided.

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,7, University of Bayreuth, course: Forensic Linguistics, language: English, abstract: "Parents lie to their children about sex to spare them knowledge they think their children are not ready for, just as their children when they become adolescents, will conceal sexual adventures because the parents won't understand. Lies occur between friends, witness and jury, lawyer and client, salesperson and customer. Lying is such a central characteristic of life that better understanding of it is relevant to almost all human affairs." (Ekmann 2009:23) But what is a lie and which features make an utterance becoming a lie? Two possible theories for a semantic analysis of lie exist, one the one hand the theory of semantic features, and on the other other hand the semantic prototype theory. This paper will deal with a prototypical analysis of lie. At first both theories will be shortly explained and it will be explained why the prototype theory is more suitable for the analysis of, than the theory of semantic features. Then a prototype schema for lie, as well as a prototype analysis of lie will be given. To confirm the general prototype hypothesis, the prototype definition of lie, and other hypotheses that will be made, an experiment of Coleman and Kay will be explained and its results will be analyzed. To check and confirm the hypotheses of Coleman and Kay again, two fellow students and me did the same experiment within the context of our presentation about linguistic clues to lie detection. The expectations we had and the results will be presented and our results will be compared with that of Coleman and Kay.

By highlighting relations between experimental and theoretical work, this volume explores new ways of addressing one of the central challenges in the study of language and cognition. The articles bring together work by leading scholars and younger researchers in psychology, linguistics and philosophy. An introductory chapter lays out the background on concept composition, a problem that is stimulating much new research in cognitive science. Researchers in this interdisciplinary domain aim to explain how meanings of complex expressions are derived from simple lexical concepts and to show how these meanings connect to concept representations. Traditionally, much of the work on concept composition has been carried out within separate disciplines, where cognitive psychologists have concentrated on concept representations, and linguists and philosophers have focused on the meaning and use of logical operators. This volume demonstrates an important change in this situation, where convergence points between these three disciplines in cognitive science are emerging and are leading to new findings and theoretical insights. This book is open access under a CC BY license.