Abstract
The article summarizes the goals and the current state of the Catalogue of sematic shifts (CSSh), its primary notions being those of a semantic shift , which is understood as a relation of cognitive proximity between two linguistic meanings, and a realization of a semantic shift, i.e. one polysemic word or a pair of cognate words of the same language or different languages that act as “exponents” of this relation. The typology of semantic shifts occupies a position at the crossroad of semantic, lexical and grammatical typologies, overlapping each of these areas of study in terms of linguistic data and methods used; however, the domain of CSSh does not coincide with any of them. The framework of CSSh provides the theoretical foundation for identifying recurring cross-linguistic semantic shifts, and collecting them in the Database of Semantic Shifts for further analysis. The article demonstrates that the notion of semantic shift as defined in CSSh is just a formalization of an instrument of linguistic analysis that is already quite common in various areas of linguistics. Semantic shift provides a basis for the notion of semantic parallel used in the historical linguistics and etymology, for motivational models in word-formation, it is a central notion for grammati- calization theory; finally, semantic shift is one of various types of implicit meanings (along with presuppositions and connotations) that shape the “linguistic model of the world”. Linguistic data contained in the Database of Semantic Shifts can be used in all these areas, in order to provide semantic plausibility criteria for linguistic reconstruction, to act as empirical evidence for cognitive mechanisms of linguistic conceptualization, to aid in identifying specific features of the semantic system of a given language or group of languages.
Highlights
In the twenty years that have passed since the idea behind The Catalogue of Semantic Shifts (CSSh) first emerged, numerous research projects with similar objectives and methodology have been launched
Since the object of semantic typology is linguistic meaning, this term can be understood in the broadest sense as a generic term with respect to all typologies that deal with meaningful units of language, including lexical typology
The Catalogue of Semantic Shifts has clearly defined basic principles, its primary notions being those of a semantic shift, which is understood as a relation of cognitive proximity between two linguistic meanings, and a realization of a semantic shift, i.e. one polysemic word or a pair of cognate words that act as “exponents” of this relation
Summary
In the twenty years that have passed since the idea behind The Catalogue of Semantic Shifts (CSSh) first emerged, numerous research projects with similar objectives and methodology have been launched. The framework of CSSh has been in development since 1998, beginning within the scope of my project on the typology of semantic derivation supported by the RFBR (Russian Foundation for Basic Research). Since 2002, the implementation of the CSSh in the form of the Database of Semantic Shifts in the Languages of the World (DatSemShift) has been carried out by a working group at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Elaboration of the CSSh framework and further development of the database are being conducted currently at the Institute of Linguistics within the scope of the project “Cognitive Mechanisms of Semantic Derivation in Light of typological data” by a working group (Maria Bibaeva, Tatjana Mikhajlova, Maria Orlova, Maksim Russo, Anna Smirnitskaya and Mikhail Voronov) under my guidance. I would like to summarize the goals and the current conceptual state of CSSh and to determine its relationship to the contiguous areas of modern typological studies
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