[Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?

Fri Jun 1 14:55:23 UTC 2018

I believe the English word "let" qualifies.

The legal expression "without let or hindrance" the word "let" continues an old meaning which is the opposite of "let" 'allow'.

Harold

Dr Harold Koch

School of Literature Languages and Linguistics

Australian National University

harold.koch at anu.edu.au

+61 2 6125 3203

________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Nigel Vincent <nigel.vincent at manchester.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, 1 June 2018 10:06 PM
To: Tianqiao Lu; Robert Cloutier; Giorgio Francesco Arcodia; mattis.list
Cc: lingtyp
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?

A different kind of English example is the verb 'sanction' which can mean both 'permit' and 'forbid'.

And someone referred to Lepschy on enantiosemy - the full reference and some additional discussion can be found here: https://linguistlist.org/issues/6/6-234.html

Nigel

Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA MAE
Professor Emeritus of General & Romance Linguistics
The University of Manchester

Linguistics & English Language
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
The University of Manchester

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/researchers/nigel-vincent(f973a991-8ece-453e-abc5-3ca198c869dc).html
________________________________
From: Lingtyp [lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] on behalf of Tianqiao Lu [lutianqiao at maonan.org]
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2018 12:14 PM
To: Robert Cloutier; Giorgio Francesco Arcodia; mattis.list
Cc: lingtyp
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?

Hi, Robert.

Good example. Another example in English: Infamous.

Tianqiao Lu

------------------ Original ------------------
From:  "Robert Cloutier"<kankoku at hotmail.com>;
Date:  Fri, Jun 1, 2018 06:49 PM
To:  "Tianqiao Lu"<lutianqiao at maonan.org>; "Giorgio Francesco Arcodia"<giorgio.arcodia at unimib.it>; "mattis.list"<mattis.list at lingpy.org>;
Cc:  "lingtyp"<lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>;
Subject:  Re: [Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?

Hello Ian,

You may be able to find some examples by looking up contronym, auto-antonym, or autantonym; most instances have opposite meanings, though not necessarily the clear-cut 'X' versus 'not X' you are looking for.

One example in English that is the result of misanalysis is the word inflammable, which can mean both 'flammable' and 'not flammable'. The former is the original meaning, and the latter is a result of speakers interpreting the in- prefix as negation. Because of this confusion, though, inflammable seems to be less commonly used with the meaning 'flammable'.

Best regards,

Robert Cloutier

Univeristy of Amsterdam

Netherlands

________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Tianqiao Lu <lutianqiao at maonan.org>
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2018 4:57:14 AM
To: Giorgio Francesco Arcodia; mattis.list
Cc: lingtyp
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?

Hi Ian.

The following sentences in Mandarin Chinese might imply some bipolar polysemy:
(1) W¨¯ ch¨¤di¨£ner m¨¦i di¨¤o xi¨¤qu
      1sg almost not-yet fall down
can either mean:
     "I almost fell down" (i.e. I did not fall down)
or
     "I almost didn't fall down" (i.e. I did fall down)
(2) W¨¯ ch¨¤di¨£ner m¨¦i g¨¤osu t¨¡.
      1sg  almost   not-yet tell 3sg.
can either mean:
     "I almost told him/her" (i.e. I haven't told him/her)
or
     "I almost haven't told him/her" (i.e. I did tell him/her)
Hopefully this might help.

Tianqiao Lu
School of Linguistic Sciences
Jiangsu Normal University
China

------------------ Original ------------------
From:  "Giorgio Francesco Arcodia"<giorgio.arcodia at unimib.it>;
Date:  Thu, May 31, 2018 07:06 PM
To:  "mattis.list"<mattis.list at lingpy.org>;
Cc:  "lingtyp"<lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>;
Subject:  Re: [Lingtyp] Does bipolar polysemy exist?

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 negation of itself.

Apologies, semantics is not my forte.

Best,

Giorgio
ñRÕñ‡ø

2018-05-31 13:03 GMT+02:00 Mattis List <mattis.list at lingpy.org<mailto:mattis.list at lingpy.org>>:
Wouldn't the frequent cases of pronouns or pronoun-like words in French
(personne = "person, nobody", pas = "step, not", etc.) come close to
this notion? And this process has historically also be claimed for other
negation words, like Ancient Greek "ou", if I am not mistaken.

Best,

Mattis

On 2018-05-31 12:57, Joo Ian wrote:
> Dear all,
>
>
>
> I would like to know if the following universal claim holds:
>
>
>
> /There exists no lexeme that can mean X and the negation of X. (For
> example, no lexeme can express ¡°to go¡± and ¡°to not go¡±)./
>
>
>
> I wonder if such ¡°bipolar polysemy¡± exists in any lexeme, because I
> cannot think of any, and whether this claim is truly universal.
>
> I would appreciate to know if there is any counter-evidence.
>
>
>
> From Hong Kong,
>
> Ian Joo
>
> http://ianjoo.academia.edu
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
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