A Monosemic View of Polysemic Prepositions

Yishai Tobin

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Prepositions are notorious for being “polysemic”. One of Zipf ’s laws is that the smaller a form, the more frequently it will be used, and the more meanings and functions it will have attributed to it. The Hebrew preposition l- ‘to’ has at least seventeen dictionary entries and the Hebrew preposition b- ‘in’ has at least fifteen and some of these dictionary meanings overlap. In this paper, I will view both of these prepositions as linguistic signs (in the Saussurean sense) and present a signifié or a single invariant or core meaning for each that will account for all of its messages and uses as well as explain the differences between them.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdpositions
Subtitle of host publicationPragmatic, Semantic and Syntactic Perspectives
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages273-288
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9789027229861
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008

Publication series

NameTypological Studies in Language

Keywords

  • Hebrew language (Modern)
  • semantics
  • preposition
  • polysemy
  • semiotic approach

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