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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Hi Stela and others, </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">I suppose "in isolation" is the key point here: it seems empirically possible to me that some languages make use of <span style="font-size: 12pt;">b</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">ipolar polysemies where the contrastive
meanings would be conditionned by <i>different contexts</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. This is usually how natural languages handle polysemy anyway? </span></p>
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</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On "believe" verbs, there is also the well-known asymetry in implications: </span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"I believe that p" = p is true</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"she believes that p" = p is false</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">I agree that this is a slightly different matter, but it does point out to the role of context, and how perhaps it could operate to bring about bipolar polysemies? </p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Cheers, Maïa</span></p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Stela Manova <stela.manova@univie.ac.at><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, 31 May 2018 10:52 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Volker Gast<br>
<b>Cc:</b> lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?</font>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal">In support of Volker Gast’s thoughts, I would like to approach the problem from a mathematical / computer science point of view, which allows for a clear generalization.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Words, like numbers, are sequence of elements, i.e. think of the word ‘human’ as similar to the number, let me say, 124. In mathematics, a way to make 124 the opposite is through adding minus before it, thus -124. The same strategy exists
in linguistics and it is called negation, in our case ‘non-human’. Alternative ways to change the meaning of a sequence of elements in mathematics and in linguistics are: 1) modifying the sequence, e.g. 224 instead of 124 and ’numan' instead of ‘human'; and
2) combining that sequence with other elements, i.e. putting a form into context in linguistics. However, in mathematics / computer science, in isolation, a sequence of elements always has a single meaning because if it has not, no computation is possible.
I think that the same logic applies to linguistics, i.e. it is impossible to have a form (lexeme) in isolation associated with two opposite meanings.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Best,</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Stela</p>
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<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 31.05.2018, at 15:32, Volker Gast <<a href="mailto:volker.gast@uni-jena.de" class="OWAAutoLink" id="LPlnk739344" previewremoved="true">volker.gast@uni-jena.de</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div class=""><br class="">
The question is, does Sahidic Coptic 'ehrai' mean 'up' and 'down' or simply 'changing its position on a vertical axis'?<br class="">
<br class="">
Same for lexemes meaning both 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow' -- they could simply mean 'not today'. German has an adverb 'einst', which means either 'in the past' or 'in the future' -- it's an adverbial of (remote) non-present time.<br class="">
<br class="">
There are languages that use the same word for 'son-in-law' and 'mother-in-law'. But then, these words simply mean 'non-[blood-related] relative'.<br class="">
<br class="">
'Host' and 'guest' (also etymologically related in English, as far as I know) can be subsumed under 'role in a context of hospitality'. Such cases are very common, I think. We Germans tend to confuse Engl. 'borrow' and 'lend', as we don't differentiate between
these meanings. Germ. 'leihen' bassically means 'being involved in a temporary exchange of goods, with an obligation to return the exchanged goods'. The sentential context tells you who lends and who borrows.<br class="">
<br class="">
There are probably languages that do not distinguish between dogs and foxes. A dog cannot be a fox, but a canid/canine can be either. That's a simple matter of hierarchical organization (heteronymy/hyperonymy).<br class="">
<br class="">
With respect to 'personne' etc., polarity items interact with the sentential environment. I don't think that they 'mean' anything out of context.<br class="">
<br class="">
I think the question is whether there are words denoting complementary sets. I don't see how this could work, as you would end up with an inherently contradictory predicate, as David pointed out. For instance, an adjective denoting both 'colorful' and 'colorless'
-- and nothing else -- could not truthfully be predicated of any object (except perhaps in lexicalized cases of irony, but then, we'd have to assume that a new lexeme has been created).<br class="">
<br class="">
And I agree that it is hard to think of an internally negated version of 'go'. Such a verb would denote events that imply the absence of going. 'Stay' is probably a candidate, but verbs are not normally organized in terms of complementarity.<br class="">
<br class="">
To conclude, I think the question is not an empirical one. A word which indicates both membership to a category C and non-membership to that category cannot truthfully be predicated of any individual or object, and a word that cannot be used truthfully would
likely drop out of use pretty soon; and it would probably not even emerge in the first place.<br class="">
<br class="">
But it might be useful to provide more precise definitions to begin with, specifically of the syntagm 'bipolar polysemy'.<br class="">
<br class="">
Volker<br class="">
<br class="">
_____________<br class="">
Prof. V. Gast<br class="">
<a href="http://www.uni-jena.de/~mu65qev" class="OWAAutoLink" id="LPlnk256700" previewremoved="true">http://www.uni-jena.de/~mu65qev</a><br class="">
<br class="">
On Thu, 31 May 2018, Eitan Grossman wrote:<br class="">
<br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">In the Sahidic dialect of Coptic (Afroasiatic), ehrai means 'up' and 'down.'<br class="">
Eitan GrossmanLecturer, Department of Linguistics/School of Language Sciences<br class="">
Hebrew University of Jerusalem<br class="">
Tel: +972 2 588 3809<br class="">
Fax: +972 2 588 1224<br class="">
On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 2:15 PM, Mathias Jenny <mathias.jenny@uzh.ch> wrote:<br class="">
In Thai, cʰâj means 'be so', but in literary style it is also used to mean 'not be so'.<br class="">
Mathias Jenny<br class="">
mathias.jenny@uzh.ch<br class="">
On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 1:07 PM Giorgio Francesco Arcodia <giorgio.arcodia@unimib.it> wrote:<br class="">
I don't know if that counts, but: in Italian, ospite means both 'host' and 'guest'. In a given situation, you can't be both, so, (I guess) in a sense this word can be the<br class="">
negation of itself.<br class="">
Apologies, semantics is not my forte.<br class="">
Best,<br class="">
Giorgio<br class="">
馬振國<br class="">
2018-05-31 13:03 GMT+02:00 Mattis List <mattis.list@lingpy.org>:<br class="">
Wouldn't the frequent cases of pronouns or pronoun-like words in French<br class="">
(personne = "person, nobody", pas = "step, not", etc.) come close to<br class="">
this notion? And this process has historically also be claimed for other<br class="">
negation words, like Ancient Greek "ou", if I am not mistaken.<br class="">
<br class="">
Best,<br class="">
<br class="">
Mattis<br class="">
<br class="">
On 2018-05-31 12:57, Joo Ian wrote:<br class="">
> Dear all,<br class="">
><br class="">
> <br class="">
><br class="">
> I would like to know if the following universal claim holds:<br class="">
><br class="">
> <br class="">
><br class="">
> /There exists no lexeme that can mean X and the negation of X. (For<br class="">
> example, no lexeme can express “to go” and “to not go”)./<br class="">
><br class="">
> <br class="">
><br class="">
> I wonder if such “bipolar polysemy” exists in any lexeme, because I<br class="">
> cannot think of any, and whether this claim is truly universal.<br class="">
><br class="">
> I would appreciate to know if there is any counter-evidence.<br class="">
><br class="">
> <br class="">
><br class="">
> From Hong Kong,<br class="">
><br class="">
> Ian Joo<br class="">
><br class="">
> http://ianjoo.academia.edu<br class="">
><br class="">
><br class="">
><br class="">
> _______________________________________________<br class="">
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