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Article published In: Cognitive Linguistic Studies
Vol. 11:2 (2024) ► pp.251–273

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‘Long’, ‘flat’, ‘round’, ‘hard’, ‘heavy’, ‘sharp’

Basic conceptual building blocks in the realm of the physical

ORCiD logo with link | Griffith University
Published online: 10 October 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00121.god
Abstract
Cognitive linguists have not paid much attention to the conceptual semantics of basic adjectives used predicatively about physical objects, concentrating mainly on attributive constructions (e.g., adjective ordering, interactions between adjective and noun) or on figurative uses. Among the exceptions are Wierzbicka, A. (2006). Shape in grammar revisited. Studies in Language, 30(1), 115–177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar on ‘shape’ descriptors and (2007). NSM analyses of the semantics of physical qualities: Sweet, hot, hard, heavy, rough, sharp in cross-linguistic perspective. Studies in Language, 31(4), 765–800. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar on ‘physical quality’ descriptors, both conducted within the NSM framework of semantic-conceptual analysis. Building on this work, the present article proposes original semantic-conceptual explications for the basic physical meanings of ‘long’, ‘flat’, ‘round’, ‘hard’, ‘heavy’, and ‘sharp’. The project has high significance because it can be argued that these meanings function as conceptual building blocks in the semantics of innumerable other words and concepts in the realm of the physical. The article showcases cutting-edge work in NSM semantics, including introducing the notion of ‘visuospatial parsing’ into NSM research and emphasizing the importance of embodied experience in human conceptualization.
Article outline
  • 1.Background and aims
    • 1.1NSM Semantics
    • 1.2Background to the present study
    • 1.3Methodological challenges
    • 1.4Changed understanding of the semantic prime (have) parts
    • 1.5Outline
  • 2.Long, flat, round
    • 2.1‘Long-’
    • 2.2‘Flat-’
    • 2.3‘Round-’
  • 3.Intermezzo
  • 4.Hard, heavy, and sharp (in two meanings)
    • 4.1Hard-
    • 4.2Heavy-
    • 4.3‘Sharp’
      • 4.3.1Re-framing the problem
      • 4.3.2‘Sharp-’
      • 4.3.3‘Pointy-sharp’
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (33)
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