Configurations, construals and change: expressions of DEGREE

Abstract

This article challenges the widespread view that DEGREE is a grammatical phenomenon characteristic of certain types of word classes and, instead, argues that DEGREE is pervasive in language and may be associated with most meanings. The main aim of the article is to discuss the results of a number of corpus investigations and experiments of DEGREE meanings in general and of the modification of DEGREE in particular, and to accommodate these results in a general and dynamic model of Lexical Meaning as Ontologies and Construals (LOC; Paradis 2005). The claims are that (i) DEGREE is a BOUNDEDNESS configuration in conceptual space; (ii) DEGREE modifiers operate on the DEGREE structure of the meanings to which they apply through a construal of contextually motivated zone activation within conventionalized senses; (iii) nonconventionalized DEGREE readings of form-meaning pairings are invoked through implication by means of construals of metonymization between senses; and (iv) this process of metonymization is the mechanism through which change may or may not take place.

Semantic profiles of antonymic adjectives in discourse

“…Construal operations are the source of all readings, conventional as well as ad hoc contextual readings. A leading idea of this approach is that lexical items evoke meanings rather than have meanings; lexical meanings emerge in actual language use in human communication (Cruse 2002;Paradis 2003Paradis , 2005Paradis , 2008Paradis , 2016Paradis and Willners 2011). The notion usage-based is fundamental to all cognitively oriented approaches to meaning.…”

“…Construals are cognitive processes that operate on the ontological structures when we use language to create meaning in communication with other people. They are imposed on the concepts by speakers and addressees at the time of use and thereby establish the fully fledged discursive reading (Langacker 1987(Langacker , 1999Paradis 2004Paradis , 2005Paradis , 2008Panther and Thornburg 2012). Table 1 provides a break-down of the two types of ontological pre-meaning structures and the various types of construals that might operate on the conceptual structures in the formation of meaning in language use.…”

“…First, the adjectives were categorized with respect to gradability, i.e., as nongradable, scalar, or non-scalar (Paradis 2001(Paradis , 2008. Scalar adjectival formmeaning pairings are fully gradable and combine felicitously with such degree modifiers as very and fairly.…”

“…3 The flexibility of configurational use has been an object of study both in textual and experimental studies (Paradis 2008;Willners 2006, 2013). …”

Re-conceptualizing scale boundaries: The case of Dutch helemaal

“…Which semantic and contextual factors reinforce a non-maximality sense of helemaal? We will argue that the boundedness hypothesis developed by Paradis (2001Paradis ( , 2008) offers a much-needed explanatory framework accounting for the process of re-semanticization in the domain of degree modification. By this view, dynamic conceptualizations in the degree domain are constrained by the need to preserve configurational harmony between an adjective and a degree modifier.…”