[Lingtyp] query: Metaphoricity and Agreement in Genitive Constructions

[Bohnemeyer, Juergen]

Dear David — Actually, the way ‘source’ and ‘target’ are used in domain mapping theory in cognitive linguistics, the source of _verte_ is the domain of color and the target is the domain of maturation. Neither is expressed by _idée_. Metaphorical domain mapping is not a syntagmatic phenomenon, but a paradigmatic one. — Best — Juergen

> On Sep 16, 2019, at 12:53 PM, David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> Some quick responses to the two comments I have received so far ...
> 
> 
> On 16/09/2019 15:05, Greville Corbett wrote:
>> Just to say that the data are richer than you suggest "Cross-linguistically, in languages where there is agreement in genitive constructions, it is the possessor (or G) that controls the agreement and the possessum (or N) that is its target (the so-called "head-marking" pattern).” In fact both patterns of agreement are found, possessor-possessum and possessum-possessor (there are some examples in Agreement (2006: section 2.2.6). So your hypothesis has wider implications. I don’t know about metaphors; but no doubt other LingTypers do
>> Very best
>> Grev
> Grev,
> 
> Thanks for the useful reminder.  And indeed, I would also be interested in genitival metaphors exhibiting the opposite, dependent-marking, agreement pattern.
> 
> 
> On 16/09/2019 16:15, Bohnemeyer, Juergen wrote:
>> Dear David — I’m having a little trouble understanding your query. In (1) and (2), neither expression can be said to be the metaphorical source or target of the other. Rather, _verte_ is ambiguous between a literal and a metaphorical reading, and _idée_ removes the ambiguity since it is only compatible with the metaphorical sense. In lexical semantics, we describe this phenomenon via selectional restrictions. We would say that _idée_ serves as a ‘selector’ for _verte_ in your examples. 
>> 
>> Now, since I don’t follow your application of ’source’ and ’target’ (of a metaphor), I’m unable to tell what X and Y are supposed to be in your examples. But I can say that selectors can be both semantic predicates and semantic arguments. In (1) and (2), the selector, _idée_, is the semantic argument of the ambiguous expression (_verte_). In contrast, in examples such as _hungry seal_, it’s the semantic argument (_seal_) that's ambiguous and the semantic predicate that acts as the selector. 
>> 
> Juergen,
> 
> Your message send me scurrying to Wikipedia, where I found the following:
> 
> The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1937) by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed.
> 
> Other writers[which?] employ the general terms "ground" and "figure" to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms "target" and "source", respectively.
> 
> End of quote.  There is obviously quite a bit of terminological variability, but this should not be reason for confusion.  I was using the terms "target" and "source" as is customary in cognitive linguistics:  in the examples that I cited, the idea is the target and green its source, and then lower down the heart is the target and stone its source. 
> David
> 
> 
> -- 
> David Gil
> 
> Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
> Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
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> 
> Email: 
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> 
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> 
>> 
>> 
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