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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
href="mailto:wi.vandeweghe@worldonline.be"
title=wi.vandeweghe@worldonline.be>Willy Vandeweghe</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A href="mailto:FUNKNET@listserv.rice.edu"
title=FUNKNET@listserv.rice.edu>FUNKNET@listserv.rice.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, April 24, 2000 6:51 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> flip-flop</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>David Tuggy draws attention to the phenomenon of
(subject-object- flip-flop (nice name, by the way). His questions are: How
can such backwards meanings (a) arise, (b) survive, and (c) eventually
prevail?<BR><BR>The whole phenomenon seems to have to do with what in lexicology
is known as 'metonymy': meanings which are very close to each other might
eventually replace one another. But they also can coexist.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(a) Why there is such a thing as metonymy is hard
to say, but is most probably has to do with the way in which lexical information
is stored in the brain. The 'flip-flop' occurs when a particular form gets
attached to the related meaning:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>- as a diachronic process: the 'in charge of'
example</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A nice example is also represented in the
evolution from 'me liketh' (Shakespeare) to modern English 'I like' (an
evolution very similar to the one in the Dutch predicate given by
Stassen)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>- two meanings side by side: in Dutch RUIKEN
('smell') and SMAKEN ('taste') may apply to the participant receiving the smell
or taste, or the participant emitting it; I think the samen holds true for
English as well</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Die bloem ruikt
(lekker)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> That flower smells
(good)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Ik ruik die bloem
niet</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I don't smell that
flower</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the case of relational predicates, the metonymy
results in subject-object flip-flop, but in other cases the converse
relationship may take another shape: Edith Moravcsik's Lat. ALTUS example. A
striking case is again to be found in Dutch: the word WAL is related to the
result of digging, in two ways: it can, at least in some Flemish dialects,
refer to the cavity in the ground (the moat around a castle) or to the heap of
earth, e.g. used as a defense (the normal meaning in standard Dutch); the same
holds true for DIJK, which in some dialects is the equivalent of
Eng. 'ditch' , but in standard Dutch is used for something erected, e.g. to
keep the water out (Eng. 'dike')</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(b) How is survival possible? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Couldn't it have to do with the saliency of
participants? And case hierarchies? Eng. 'like' evolved into a predicate taking
a [+ animate] [+ human] participant as a subject. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the case of the smell/taste example, the
contexts are very similar, but still ambiguity is impossible as the subject
participant is [+ animate] and [+human] in one case, [- animate] and [-human] in
the other.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(c) How does it prevail?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have no answer for why in some cases the
flip-flop replaces the original, and in other cases continues to exist side by
side to the original.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have the impression that I haven't done much more
than rewording the original question rather than answering it. Still I hope this
does contribute a little bit to a better understanding of the
problem.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Willy Vandeweghe</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ghent</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>