How Words Mean: Lexical Concepts, Cognitive Models, and Meaning Construction
How Words Mean introduces a new approach to the role of words and other linguistic units in the construction of meaning. It does so by addressing the interaction between non-linguistic concepts and the meanings encoded in language. It develops an account of how words are understood when we produce and hear language in situated contexts of use. It proposes two theoretical constructs, the lexical concept and the cognitive model. These are central to the accounts of lexical representation and...
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How Words Mean introduces a new approach to the role of words and other linguistic units in the construction of meaning. It does so by addressing the interaction between non-linguistic concepts and the meanings encoded in language. It develops an account of how words are understood when we produce and hear language in situated contexts of use. It proposes two theoretical constructs, the lexical concept and the cognitive model. These are central to the accounts of lexical representation and meaning construction developed, giving rise to the Theory of Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models (or LCCM Theory). Vyvyan Evans integrates and advances recent developments in cognitive science, particularly in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology. He builds a framework for the understanding and analysis of meaning that is at once descriptively adequate and psychologically plausible. In so doing he also addresses current issues in lexical semantics and semantic compositionality, polysemy, figurative language, and the semantics of time and space, and writes in a way that will be accessible to students of linguistics and cognitive science at advanced undergraduate level and above.
Acknowledgements viiiPreface ixList of Figures xivList of Tables xviAbbreviations xviiPart I Introduction 11 Words and meaning 32 Towards a new account of word meaning 273 Cognitive linguistics 474 Word meaning in LCCM Theory 65Part II Lexical representation 855 Symbolic units 876 Semantic structure 1007 Lexical concepts 1278 Polysemy 1499 Conceptual structure 17510 Cognitive models 193Part III Semantic compositionality 21511 Lexical concept selection 21712 Lexical concept integration 23613 Interpretation 252Part IV Figurative language and thought 27914 Metaphor and metonymy 28115 The semantics of Time 302Part V Conclusion 33316 LCCM Theory in context 335Glossary 343References 358Index 3733
