Abstract
From a cognitive viewpoint, we compare Mandarin Dui and Taiwanese Tui by looking into their sense developments in the Dui/Tui + NOUN Construction. Dui and Tui are usually regarded as lexical equivalents across Mandarin and Taiwanese, two of the major languages spoken in Taiwan. Assuming with Lakoff (1987) that polysemy is a semantic network with radial categories, we adopt a metaphorical approach in our investigation. Through metaphorical extensions, Dui and Tui develop distinct routes to developing differing but related senses, forming differential semantic networks. Both Dui and Tui profile spatial-, eventive-, and communicative-domain senses. However, Taiwanese Tui, but not Mandarin Dui, encodes a temporal sense. Apart from polysemous expansion, we also address the enantiosemy arising in the “to” and “from” senses attached to Taiwanese Tui. The findings of our study offer insight into the nature of polysemy as well as the lexical differentiation across Mandarin and Taiwanese.
Highlights
From a cognitive viewpoint, we compare Mandarin Dui and Taiwanese Tui by looking into their sense developments in the Dui/Tui + NOUN Construction
Dui and Tui are usually regarded as lexical equivalents across Mandarin and Taiwanese, two of the major languages spoken in Taiwan
Assuming with Lakoff (1987) that polysemy is a semantic network with radial categories, we adopt a metaphorical approach in our investigation
Summary
We compare Mandarin Dui and Taiwanese Tui by looking into their sense developments in the Dui/Tui + NOUN Construction. Dui and Tui are usually regarded as lexical equivalents across Mandarin and Taiwanese, two major languages spoken in Taiwan. What can be learned from the examples (1) to (3) is that Taiwanese Tui, but not Mandarin Tui, delivers meanings “to” and “from”, which are opposite and contradictory. In view of this fact, we propose to investigate these two lexical items regarding their sense generations. Once the prototypical and peripheral senses are recognized, a comparative analysis is conducted across the polysemous structures of Dui and Tui. This paper is organized as follows.
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