Image-schematic structures of near, next to and by in the landscape context of The Hobbit

Abstract

Various senses of quotidian words ─not just literal or physical senses, but also figurative senses─ appear very often in narrative storytelling contexts. In the case of prepositions, polysemy is an acknowledged evident phenomenon. Many linguists in the cognitive linguistics tradition have analysed the semantic contrasts between prepositions, on the grounds of image-schemas (Lakoff 1987), frames of reference (Levinson 2003) and other cognitive patterns. The aim of this paper is to clarify the meaning of the prepositions near, next to and by as well as the perception boundaries that contribute to that meaning, through the analysis of the spatial language in the book The Hobbit, by John Ronald R. Tolkien. This literary work is particularly useful for the analysis of spatial language because, by describing spatial environments and situations, the author helps readers understand an imaginary world and controls their spatial perception and conceptualisation. The term image-schema refers to imaginative procedures in connection with meaning and perception. According to Navarro i Ferrando (2000, 2006, 2011), there are three different image-schematic perceptual dimensions in which trajector (TR) and landmark (LM) play their role for the conceptualisation of a particular scene. Thus, this research provides a proposal of prepositional meaning and polysemy regarding image-schematic structure, according to a three-dimensional system, which includes topology, force-dynamics and function to illustrate TR-LM relationships. The results shed some light on the semantic contrast between next to, near and by.