[Lingtyp] Semantic map for the verb 'mean'

[Jess Tauber]

In Yahgan (a newly extinct genetic isolate from Tierra del Fuego, which
I've studied for 25 years), mean 'intend' can be kuru: 'love, want, wish,
desire' (colon marks tenseness of vowel preceding it) or its circumstantial
voice derivative chikvri (v here is schwa), yana 'to desire, purpose, want,
intend', or ITS circumstantial voice derivative chi:yana (ch as in English
church, chip). tapuku: is 'intend but hesitate to', and is the
circumstantial voice derivative of apuku: 'leave alone, leave
undisturbed'.  There is also the permissive-causative (u:-) derivation of
chikvri 'to mean, to be the meaning, the cause of' in the following
sentence- kundam we: u:chikvri hauanchi-kisi-n haim hu:sha kuru: 'Whatever
can be the meaning of all this wind this summer!?' kunda:m 'how?, what
kind/sort?', we: positive probability modal, here 'can', u:chikvri 'let
mean', hauan 'this -chi possessor, kisi 'summer', -n spatiotemporal
locative suffix, haim 'in great degree', hu:sha 'wind' kuru: 'love, want,
wish, desire'. Literally 'what can (it) mean, this summer's excessively
strong wind ((possibly hu:sha kuru: hides ha-  (1st person prefix on kuru:,
in which case the sentence should terminate 'I want' (as in, 'to know')).

Jess Tauber

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On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 9:04 AM Riccardo Giomi <rgiomi at campus.ul.pt> wrote:

> Dear Sebastian,
>
> I don't know of any published study, but perhaps I can mention that a
> student of mine recently came up with a nice set of data from Persian,
> where the word *ya'ni* seems to have at least the following functions:
>
> - lexical meaning ('mean');
> - copula;
> - "restrictive copula" (where 'X *ya'ni *Y' is reportedly understood as
> 'only X is Y');
> - self-correction (as in English *I mean*);
> - clarification (again comparable to *I mean*);
> - exemplification (cf. the particle/discourse marker use of English *like*
> );
> - emphasis (roughly equivalent to English *indeed*).
>
> The data are from a course assignment, so I'd rather not share them
> through a public discussion list. But maybe I can send them to you in a
> private email, if you are interested.
>
> Best,
> Riccardo
>
> Sebastian Löbner <loebner at hhu.de> escreveu no dia domingo, 10/04/2022
> à(s) 14:46:
>
>> Hi Jess,
>>
>> the map should comprise both meaning variants. What I'm looking for is a
>> map that contains the major different uses of 'mean' and relates them to
>> verbs and their uses in other languages. Simple example: English 'mean'
>> corresponds to German 'bedeuten' or 'meinen' and to Dutch 'betekenen' or
>> 'bedoelen', but 'bedeuten' and 'betekenen', and 'meinen' and 'bedoelen',
>> do not match completely. A crosslinguistic semantic map would help to
>> provide a more detailed crosslinguistic comparison of the complex
>> polysemies of the verbs involved. The semantic field(s) are interesting
>> because they constitute basic metalinguistic and metacommunicative
>> meanings/concepts/vocabulary (whatever you prefer) to be expected in
>> almost all languages in one way or other.
>>
>> Bests, Sebastian
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Riccardo Giomi, Ph.D.
> University of Liège
> Département de langues modernes : linguistique, littérature et traduction
> Research group *Linguistique contrastive et typologie des langues*
> F.R.S.-FNRS Postdoctoral fellow (CR - FC 43095)
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