Semantic molecules and semantic complexity (with special reference to "environmental" molecules)

Title
Semantic molecules and semantic complexity (with special reference to "environmental" molecules)
Publication Date
2010
Author(s)
Goddard, Cliff
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Co
Place of publication
Netherlands
DOI
10.1075/rcl.8.1.05god
UNE publication id
une:7592
Abstract
In the NSM approach to semantic analysis, semantic molecules are a well-defined set of non-primitive lexical meanings in a given language that function as intermediate-level units in the structure of complex meanings in that language. After reviewing existing work on the molecules concept (including the notion of levels of nesting), the paper advances a provisional list of about 180 productive semantic molecules for English, suggesting that a small minority of these (about 25) may be universal. It then turns close attention to a set of potentially universal level-one molecules from the "environmental" domain ('sky', 'ground', 'sun', 'day', 'night', 'water’ and 'fire'), proposing a set of original semantic explications for them. Finally, the paper considers the theoretical implications of the molecule theory for our understanding of semantic complexity, cross-linguistic variation in the structure of the lexicon, and the translatability of semantic explications.
Link
Citation
Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8(1), p. 123-155
ISSN
1877-976X
1877-9751
Start page
123
End page
155

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