Article published In: Review of Cognitive Linguistics: Online-First Articles
The semantic change of faqare (‘vertebra’, ‘unit’) as a numeral classifier in Persian
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Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Published online: 28 January 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00215.sol
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00215.sol
Abstract
This article deals with an ongoing semantic change in which
Persian faqare (‘vertebra’, or ‘unit’) is transitioning from a
specific numeral classifier to a general numeral classifier in the grammatical
construction Num + faqare + NP. In this transition the
connections to the prototypical meanings of faqare are being
weakened. This marks a late phase in the life cycle of a radial category, when
the category is eroding, leading to productivity in the range of fillers for the
NP slot. This late phase of radial categories has received little attention in
the scholarly literature. We cite corpus data showing that a variety of factors
contribute to the productive extension of faqare, including:
context; the presence of prototypical collocates with faqare
adjacent to the construction; and register, where mismatches produce humorous
effects.
Keywords: numeral classifier, Persian, radial category, corpus, semantic change
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Numeral classifiers and definitions
- 3.Faqare: Then and now
- 3.1Origin
- 3.2Contemporary usage
- 4.Theory, methods, and data
- 4.1Cognitive linguistics and construction grammar
- 4.2Corpora
- 5.Edge cases
- 5.1Extensions motivated by context
- 5.1.1Legal and crime
- 5.1.2Document
- 5.1.3Financial
- 5.1.4Accident
- 5.2Stylistic (register) extensions
- 5.2.1Neutral use in formal Persian
- 5.2.2Satirical and humorous
- 5.1Extensions motivated by context
- 6.Specific or general?
- 7.Conclusion
- Notes
- Abbreviations
References Corpora and tools
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