Cognitive Reference Points

Cognitive reference points Semantics beyond the prototypes in adjectives of space and colour Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6006 Janskerkhof 13 fax: +31 30 253 6406 3512 BL Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://www.lotschool.nl Cover illustration: Matryoshkas. Photograph taken by Izak Salomons. ISBN 978-90-78328-66-7 NUR 616 Copyright © 2008: Elena Tribushinina. All rights reserved. Cognitive reference points Semantics beyond the prototypes in adjectives of space and colour PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op dinsdag 28 oktober 2008 klokke 13.45 uur door Elena Tribushinina geboren te Kemerovo, Rusland in 1979 Promotiecommissie Promotores: Prof. dr. A. Verhagen Prof. dr. Th.A.J.M. Janssen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Referent: Dr. A. Cienki (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Overige leden: Dr. E.L.J. Fortuin Dr. W.J.J. Honselaar (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Prof. dr. J. Schaeken Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS VII ABBREVIATIONS X PART I. STAGE-SETTING 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 1 1.2. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3 1.3. DATA AND METHODOLOGY 3 1.3.1. Pilot study 3 1.3.2. Corpora 6 1.3.3. Survey 15 1.4. THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS 19 1.5. OUTLINE OF THE THESIS 23 CHAPTER 2. COGNITIVE REFERENCE POINTS 25 2.1. INTRODUCTION 25 2.2. ROSCH’S COGNITIVE REFERENCE POINTS (1975) 25 2.2.1. Introductory remarks 25 2.2.2. Focal colours 26 2.2.3. Line orientation 27 2.2.4. Numbers 27 2.2.5. Rosch (1975a): conclusion 28 2.3. ELABORATIONS OF THE ROSCHEAN MODEL 28 2.3.1. Similarity judgments 28 2.3.2. Spatial cognition 29 2.3.3. Judgments of symbolic magnitude 30 2.3.4. Social judgments 30 2.3.5. Behavioural economics and marketing research 31 2.3.6. Management studies 32 2.3.7. Ubiquity of reference-point reasoning 32 2.4. REFERENCE-POINT MODELS IN LINGUISTICS 33 2.4.1. Reference-point constructions in Cognitive Grammar 33 2.4.2. Reference points in lexical semantics 42 2.5. SUMMARY 45 ii Contents PART II. COLOUR ADJECTIVES 47 CHAPTER 3. PROTOTYPICALITY OF COLOUR ADJECTIVES 47 3.1. INTRODUCTION 47 3.2. BASIC COLOUR TERMS 48 3.3. COGNITIVE SALIENCE OF FOCI 49 3.4. CRITICISM OF THE UNIVERSALIST APPROACH 51 3.4.1. Pitfalls of Berlin & Kay (1969) 51 3.4.2. Counterevidence from Berinmo: against Roschean universalism 54 3.5. MORE EVIDENCE OF FOCALITY 56 3.6. WIERZBICKA’S APPROACH: BETWEEN RELATIVISM AND UNIVERSALISM 58 3.6.1. Natural prototypes 58 3.6.2. Linguistic evidence for natural prototypes 60 3.6.3. Natural prototypes in the acquisition of colour terms 75 3.7. PROTOTYPES AS A BASIS FOR GRADABILITY 78 3.7.1. Are colour terms gradable? 78 3.7.2. Colour terms in comparatives and superlatives 81 3.7.3. Degree modification and distance from the prototype 83 3.8. ZOOMING IN ON FOCI 89 3.8.1. Perspective on a reference point: similarity or difference? 89 3.8.2. Standard condition: balancing between similarity and difference 89 3.8.3. Attention to difference 90 3.8.4. Attention to similarity 95 3.9. SUMMARY 98 CHAPTER 4. DEFAULT AND COMPOUND PROTOTYPES 101 4.1. INTRODUCTION 101 4.2. DEGREE OF ENTRENCHMENT 101 4.2.1. The red cow 101 4.2.2. Compound prototypes 102 4.2.3. Interaction of two prototypes 104 4.3. IMPLICATIONS OF COMPOUND PROTOTYPES 106 4.3.1. Introductory remarks 106 4.3.2. Colour terms are not absolute 107 4.3.3. AN-combinations are not compositional 110 4.4. SUMMARY 116 Contents iii PART III. DIMENSIONAL ADJECTIVES 119 CHAPTER 5. COGNITIVE ZERO 119 5.1. INTRODUCTION 119 5.2. STANDARD-VALUE APPROACH 120 5.2.1. Terminological issues 120 5.2.2. Scale structure 123 5.2.3. Cognitive zero of height in linguistic expressions 124 5.2.4. Comparison classes 128 5.3. DEFAULT AND INCIDENTAL COGNITIVE ZEROS 131 5.3.1. Compositional accounts 131 5.3.2. Counterexamples: the role of context 132 5.3.3. Making comparison classes explicit 135 5.4. EXPLANATORY POWER OF THE COGNITIVE ZERO 146 5.4.1. Relativity 146 5.4.2. Antonymy 147 5.4.3. Degree modifiers 154 5.5. SUMMARY 158 CHAPTER 6. INADEQUACIES OF THE STANDARD-VALUE APPROACH 159 6.1. INTRODUCTION 159 6.2. PROBLEM OF IDENTIFICATION 159 6.2.1. Ants, spiders, and rabbits revisited 159 6.2.2. Cross-categorical judgments 162 6.2.3. Precisifications 164 6.3. IRRELEVANCE OF THE COGNITIVE ZERO 165 6.3.1. Norm-free constructions 165 6.3.2. Bare adjectives 173 6.4. NOTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE: COGNITIVE ZERO REVISITED 191 6.4.1. Introduction 191 6.4.2. Thematic constraints 192 6.4.3. Contrariety 196 6.4.4. Neutralising constructions 197 6.4.5. Multiple cognitive zeros 199 6.4.6. Committed comparatives 200 6.4.7. Long and short adjectives 207 6.4.8. Bounded adjectives 212 6.4.9. Conclusion 213 6.5. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION 213 iv Contents CHAPTER 7. POLAR ANCHORS 217 7.1. INTRODUCTION 217 7.2. MINIMUM OF “ADJECTIVENESS” AS A REFERENCE POINT 218 7.2.1. The Aer-than-average construction and the positive form 218 7.2.2. Implications for the semantics of relative adjectives 229 7.2.3. Further evidence 230 7.3. IMPLICATIONS FOR BOUNDEDNESS IN ADJECTIVAL SEMANTICS 235 7.3.1. Boundedness 235 7.3.2. Open and closed scales 237 7.4. MAXIMUM AS A POINT OF REFERENCE 240 7.4.1. Introduction 240 7.4.2. Polar anchors in language acquisition 240 7.4.3. Categorical maximum 241 7.4.4. Incidental landmarks as maximum reference points 247 7.4.5. Scalar degree modifiers 249 7.4.6. Totality modifiers 254 7.4.7. State of boundedness 268 7.4.8. Incidental maximum points 271 7.5. ABSOLUTE ZERO 278 7.5.1. Relevant research in the past 278 7.5.2. Starting point for measurement 280 7.5.3. Upward growth: the case of tall 283 7.5.4. Closeness to the ground: the case of nizkij 285 7.5.5. Asymmetry 290 7.5.6. Absolute zero and maximal shortness 293 7.6. SUMMARY 294 CHAPTER 8. EGO AS A COGNITIVE REFERENCE POINT: EVIDENCE FROM NEAR- SYNONYMS 297 8.1. INTRODUCTION 297 8.1.1. Reference-point status of the self 297 8.1.2. EGO in the semantics of dimensional adjectives: relevant research in the past 298 8.2. NIZKIJ VS. NEVYSOKIJ 304 8.2.1. Problem setting 304 8.2.2. What is different? 313 8.3. CO-EXTENSION IN THE DOMAIN OF DIMENSIONAL ADJECTIVES 331 8.3.1. Vantage theory 331 8.3.2. Application to dimensional adjectives: the case of tall vs. high 334 8.4. NIZKIJ AND NEVYSOKIJ REVISITED 338 8.4.1. Introductory remarks 338 8.4.2. Vysokij in the corpus and in the Survey 338 8.4.3. Nevysokij and nizkij in the corpus and in the Survey 340 8.4.4. Conclusion: vantage configurations 348 8.5. SUMMARY 351 CHAPTER 9. PROTOTYPICALITY OF DIMENSIONAL ADJECTIVES 353 9.1. INTRODUCTION 353 9.2. ACQUISITION OF DIMENSIONAL ADJECTIVES 354 Contents v 9.2.1. Categorical learning 354 9.2.2. A case study: tall in child speech and child-directed speech 358 9.3. DIMENSIONAL PROTOTYPES IN THE CORPORA 366 9.3.1. British National Corpus 366 9.3.2. Russian National Corpus 371 9.4. RESULTS OF THE SURVEY 377 9.4.1. Types of prototypicality 377 9.4.2. Prototypicality qua head-nouns 378 9.4.3. Prototypicality qua best exemplars 385 9.5. DENOTATIVE DIMENSIONAL ADJECTIVES 389 9.6. SUMMARY 391 PART IV. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION 393 CHAPTER 10. CONCLUSIONS AND THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS 393 10.1. INTRODUCTION 393 10.2. IMPLICATIONS FOR ADJECTIVAL SEMANTICS 393 10.2.1. One CRP per adjective type? 393 10.2.2. Colour terms: prototypes and beyond 394 10.2.3. Dimensional adjectives: questioning the axioms 396 10.2.4. Some further examples 402 10.2.5. Diversity and unification 403 10.2.6. Summary 408 10.3. IMPLICATIONS FOR REFERENCE-POINT THEORY 408 10.3.1. Monopoly of prototypes 408 10.3.2. From lexicon to cognition and back again 410 10.4. FUTURE RESEARCH 412 10.4.1. Reference points in adjectival semantics 412 10.4.2. Beyond the adjectival domain: putting the bits together 416 APPENDICES 417 REFERENCES 429 INDEX 457 SAMENVATTING 459 CURRICULUM VITAE 465 Acknowledgments A father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the faggot into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it. He next opened the faggot, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons' hands, upon which they broke them easily. He then addressed them in these words: “My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this faggot, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks.” Aesop (The Father and His Sons) The above fable mirrors quite precisely the way I feel about the research path which resulted in this book.

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