A new type of linguistic sign

Abstract

Abstract A new type of morphological expressive linguistic means and the corresponding linguistic sign are described: metasemy1 — an expressive linguistic means that is an operation on the signified of the target lexeme; and metasemy2 — a sign whose signifier is a metasemy1. Thus, the English metasemy2 painting , when applied to a human proper name, such as, e.g., Turner, produces a derived lexeme, in this case, painting (Turner) = [a] Turner ‘[a] painting by Turner’ (I have seen two excellent Turners). A formal description of the Russian metasemy2 pomeščenie ‘place2’ is presented, based on the analysis of the Russian phrase u otca ‘at father’s’ = ‘at father’s place2’, where the underlying lexeme otec ‘father’ and the derived lexeme pomeščenie (otec) are involved, the meaning ‘place2’ being expressed by the metasemy2 pomeščenie . The English and French translational equivalents of this phrase, Eng. at father’s and Fr. chez le père, are shown to have different organizations: in at father’s, the meaning ‘place2’ is carried by the ’s-form, and in chez le père, by the preposition chez. A tentative list of known Russian metasemies2 is supplied, as well as the similar lists for English and French. A metasemy2 always expresses a metonymic semantic relation between the underlying lexeme and the resulting derived lexeme; it is a derivational morphological means, parallel to derivational affixes. Metasemy2 seems to exist universally.