Lexical Polysemy Research Articles

The effect of language on the coherence of children’s conceptions of force

ABSTRACT Background The coherence of learners’ pre-instruction conceptions has been debated for some time. Studies on conceptions of force, specifically, have produced very different results in different contexts around the world. In this study, an integrative theoretical framework linking semantic differences across languages to concept learning in childhood is proposed, motivating the hypothesis that language is a population variable that impacts the coherence of young learners’ conceptions of force. Method This study uses the same structured interview developed in a previous study by Ioannides and Vosniadoue but in a new context—the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—with three groups of elementary school children (7–12 years of age; n = 185): monolingual in Arabic; monolingual in English; and bilingual in Arabic and English. Findings The results support the hypothesis that language impacts the coherence of children’s conceptions of force with Arabic monolinguals exhibiting greater coherence than English monolinguals, and bilingual children exhibiting intermediate coherence. Contribution This paper provides evidence for the effect of semantic differences across languages and the phenomenon of lexical polysemy on the coherence of children’s initial conceptions of force. The relationship between the integrative theoretical framework proposed and other theories of conceptual change and its novel pedagogical implications are discussed.

PECULIARITIES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLYSEMY IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH (ON THE MATERIAL OF THE MOST FREQUENT SUBSTANTIVE AND VERBAL LEXEMES)

Problem statement. The paper considers the peculiarities of the development of polysemy of 200 Russian (100 substantive and 100 verbal) and 200 English (100 substantive and 100 verbal) most frequent lexemes taken from the Frequency Dictionary of S.A. Sharov and the lists of frequency nouns and verbs of the British National Corpus. The development of polysemy in Russian and English is considered from the point of view of the integral theory of polysemy, according to which polysemy exists at two levels: lexical and lexico-grammatical (part-of-speech) in the form of lexical and lexico-grammatical polysemy. The latter exists in two types: lexico-grammatical polysemy proper and lexico-grammatical variation. Results. With the help of the comparative-parametric method of linguistic research developed by the Voronezh Theoretical and Linguistic School, the peculiarities of the development of lexical and lexical-grammatical polysemy in the compared languages are described. Lexical polysemy is considered from the point of view of the average sememic volume of semanthemes, as well as the development of denotative and connotative polysemy. Lexico-grammatical polysemy is considered from the point of view of the development of lexico-grammatical polysemy proper, as well as lexico-grammatical variation. The parts of speech at the level of which the development of lexico-grammatical derivation occurs in both languages are determined. The description is carried out in groups, depending on the volume of their semanthemes. Small-seme, multi-seme, hyper-seme and super-hyper-seme Russian and English substantive and verbal lexemes are studied. Conclusion. On the basis of the integral index of national-specific peculiarities and the scale of the degree of manifestation of national-specific peculiarities developed within the framework of the comparative-parametric method of linguistic research, it was found that in terms of lexical polysemy, national differences can be recognized as noticeable, while in terms of lexical-grammatical polysemy, they are bright.

Poetyka polskiego przekładu Genji monogatari, czyli Opowieści o księciu Genjim Murasaki Shikibu

POETICS OF THE FIRST POLISH TRANSLATION OF GENJI MONOGATARI, OR THE TALE OF GENJI BY MURASAKI SHIKIBU: THE TRANSLATOR’S POINT OF VIEW The article identifies the most important translation strategies and challenges faced by the translator of the first Polish translation of Genji Monogatari, or The Tale of Genji. The work, written in 1008, is a masterpiece of not only Japanese but also world literature and is widely included in the cultural heritage of humanity. Its author, Murasaki Shikibu (?978-1025 or 1031) is considered a forerunner of modern literary fiction with a profound humanistic approach. The work itself has been translated into modern Japanese and many European languages. Originally written in classical Japanese, it is distinguished by the ambiguity of expression, lexical polysemy, elaborate honorific language, and cultural hermeticism. The author discusses how, in light of the above, the Polish translation will balance the goal of making Murasaki’s work intelligible for the Polish reader with the need of preserving the elements of ‘foreignness’ of the old Japanese culture, for the translation is intended to fulfill not only a mediating and communicative function between Polish and Japanese cultures but also a cognitive one.

When morphology meets regular polysemy

This study investigates the existence of complex morphological patterns that include a regular polysemy extension. Such complex patterns derive ambiguous words whose semantic types are both related and specified. To address this issue, nouns derived from verbs in French are investigated. A sample of 2,953 deverbal nouns ending with 46 suffixes are collected and systematically analyzed with respect to semantic properties and lexical ambiguity. Thirty-eight complex patterns are identified. The formation of ambiguous nouns whose meanings fit into a regular polysemy pattern appears as a discriminative property of some suffixes. Different kinds of patterns are further distinguished, depending on whether secondary meanings in complex patterns can be directly related to a base verb or not. In accordance with the literature on the polysemy of nominalizations, the semantic categories of EVENT and RESULT are prominent in morphological patterns, but other semantic types such as AGENT, INSTITUTION and COGNITIVE OBJECT are importantly represented as well. In addition, metonymy is the main semantic figure observed in complex patterns. Overall, the article sheds new light on the relationship between word formation and lexical polysemy by describing the possibility of direct association between them.

The conceptual semantics of “money” and “money verbs”

The central purpose of this study is to apply the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) method of semantic-conceptual analysis to the word money and to related economic transaction verbs, such as buy, sell and pay, as used in everyday English. It proposes semantic explications for these words on the basis of conceptual analysis and a range of linguistic evidence and taking account of lexical polysemy. Even in its basic meaning (in a sentence like there was some money on the table), money-1 is shown to be surprisingly complex, comprising about 35 lines of semantic text and drawing on a number of semantic molecules (such as country, number, and hands), as well as a rich assortment of semantic primes. This money-1 meaning turns out to be a crucial semantic molecule in the composition of the verbs buy, sell, pay, and (it) costs. Each of these is treated in some detail, thereby bringing to light the complex semantic relationships between them and clarifying how this bears on their grammatical properties, such as argument structure. The concluding section considers how NSM semantic-conceptual analysis can help illuminate everyday economic thinking and also how it connects with Humanonics, an interdisciplinary project which aims to re-humanise economics.

LEXICAL POLYSEMY IN DIACHRONY AND SYNCHRONY

The paper considers the peculiarities of the origin and functioning of lexical polysemy in different languages, in particular in Ukrainian, German and English. The author examines discourse of Ukrainian scholars in terms of the study of the polysemic words causes, the relationship between the meanings of polysemic words, the distinction between the phenomena of polysemy and homonymy, the linguistic functions of polysemic units. The opinion that the polysemy of words in different languages is not an accidental phenomenon was justified. It was emphasized that the presence of a limited amount of vocabulary, which is associated with the qualitative features of the physiological mechanism of the human brain (memory), leads to the emergence of ambiguous words. Each polysemic word has a relatively constant semantic core, independent of the context, which is a necessary basis for the functioning of polysemic units, and it ensures the semantic integrity of the word. Although the set of meanings of a polysemantic word in different languages differs, the phenomenon of polysemy is universal for all languages. It allows expanding the linguistic nominative potential and, given the cost-effectiveness of the language, to avoid increasing the number of lexical items. The need to determine the nature of the lexical meaning of a word at the level of language and speech, its frameworks, the concept of semantic structure of a polysemic word, the semantic core of the word, connections, relationships and functioning of different meanings was described. The major factors that influence semantic changes in a polysemic word and consist in various changes in the process of historical development of languages, in which words acquire new meanings, were characterized. It leads to the emergence of more semantic aspects, which are historically fixed in the minds of the people in connection with the relationship of words with certain phenomenon. The effectiveness of the phenomenon of polysemy as a means to increase the linguistic potential of language, due to the formatting of existing values and the emergence of new ones in the process of active development of the lexicon is substantiated.

The gradual erosion of NPI-hood with need verbs in Germanic

This talk addresses the puzzle why there are different ˋneed' verbs in Germanic languages, which all are lexically polysemous and which all display some extent of negative polar behaviour. Whereas all the uses of Dutch ˋhoeven' are negative polar, Modern Swedish ˋbehöva' is mostly distributionally unrestricted and only in its epistemic uses negative polar. Data suggest that this is a result of a gradual erosion of NPI-hood. The diverging behaviour of ˋneed'-verbs in Germanic languages can be most accurately managed assuming that lexical polysemy involves type hierarchy in which the different uses inherit from an abstract entry that defines semantics all these uses share. Moreover, it is concluded that if there is an NPI feature it is mandatorily inherited to all to its descendants. In languages such as Dutch this feature has scope over all uses, in languages such as Modern Swedish. it only bears scope over the epistemic uses.

Let’s PlayMono-Poly: BERT Can Reveal Words’ Polysemy Level and Partitionability into Senses

Pre-trained language models (LMs) encode rich information about linguistic structure but their knowledge about lexical polysemy remains unclear. We propose a novel experimental setup for analyzing this knowledge in LMs specifically trained for different languages (English, French, Spanish, and Greek) and in multilingual BERT. We perform our analysis on datasets carefully designed to reflect different sense distributions, and control for parameters that are highly correlated with polysemy such as frequency and grammatical category. We demonstrate that BERT-derived representations reflect words’ polysemy level and their partitionability into senses. Polysemy-related information is more clearly present in English BERT embeddings, but models in other languages also manage to establish relevant distinctions between words at different polysemy levels. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the knowledge encoded in contextualized representations and open up new avenues for multilingual lexical semantics research.

Lexical polysemy and homonymy in the Middle High German language in light of the problematic of lexical synonymy and lexical-semantic analysis

Based on the compositions of pre-courteous epic poetry and chivalric romance written in the Middle High German language, this article reviews the problem of lexical polysemy in relation to the phenomena of homonymy and synonymy, as well as the problem of structural description of lexis. The need for comprehensive examination of polysemous lexemes in the Middle High German language, which includes structural analysis of the meaning of polysemous word and the lexical-thematic group and/or synonymic row it belongs to, well as the study of contextual implementation of the meanings of polysemous word, is substantiated by the principle of diffusivity of meanings of polysemous word that complicates comprising dictionary definitions and creates difficulties for the researcher in distinguishing the meanings of a polysemous word and separating polysemy from homonymy. Based on the example of lexical-thematic group for denomination of edged weapon in the Middle High German Language, the author demonstrates the appropriateness of using lexical-semantic analysis for establishing systemic relations between the analyzed lexemes, as well as postulates the importance of the context in determination of the structure of polysemous word. Discussion of the given examples from the compositions of pre-courteous epic poetry and chivalric romance written in the Middle High German language is accompanied by the author’s clarifications to the dictionary definitions of the lexemes under review. The conclusion is made on feasibility of the authorial approach towards detection of the discrepancies between lexicographic data and use of the lexeme in the texts written in the Middle High German language. The author also believes that this research is valuable from the perspective of lexicographic practice.

Грязные руки: мздоимство в русскоязычном анекдоте

The study of the speech-genre and formal-semantic properties of Russian anecdotes on bribery is based the corpus of anecdotes, which also include jokes of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, differing from Russian ones only in the names of the “protagonists” appearing in them. It is established that the main means of creating a pun in a joke are the lexical and grammatical polysemy and homonymy, playing off the phonetic similarities and spontaneous humor. The comic effect in jokes on bribery can also be created by playing off idioms – their literalization or replacement of components. According to the corpus of anecdotes, the authorities act as an almost “exclusive” subject of bribery – officials of all ranks, police authorities and lawmakers. In the corpus of jokes on corruption, the axiological and praxeological aspects of bribery are traced clearly: the general attitude of society towards a bribe and its assessment. The research claims the ubiquity of bribery in power structures, and with regard to the miraculous disappearance of corruption, one can feel extreme pessimism as it is ineradicable and inescapable. Humor as the ability to notice the ridiculous side of someone or something and present it in a maliciously mocking form in the corpus of jokes on bribery is practically absent due to the domination of sarcasm and irony. In jokes, all the denunciatory pathos is directed at bribe-takers, towards whom there is hatred, impotent rage and hyperbolic cruelty. The “fight against corruption” is purely imitative, but it has several non-fictitious functions: a tool for reprisal against competitors and those who do not fit into corruption schemes. Among socio-cultural functions of the jokes on corruption, in addition to the entertainment function, the article identifies the cathartic-therapeutic function, aimed at relieving a psychological stress caused by the prevalence of bribery, and the aggression function, specified in the outrage by corruption.

The grammar network: How linguistic structure is shaped by language use by Holger Diessel

Reviewed by: The grammar network: How linguistic structure is shaped by language useby Holger Diessel Natalia Levshina The grammar network: How linguistic structure is shaped by language use. By H olgerD iessel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xviii, 290. ISBN 9781108671040. $110 (Hb). The network is one of the key concepts that describe our life experience. We communicate via social networks and use the World Wide Web. The masses of big data we produce, consciously or not, are analyzed by neural network algorithms. It is not surprising that networks are a popular concept in linguistics as well. Well-known examples are the construction in construction grammar, radial polysemy networks in cognitive semantics, and semantic maps in typology. The grammar networkby Holger Diessel takes the network approach to a new level, integrating different strands of usage-based linguistics and discussing a multitude of different phenomena of grammar and lexicon, from lexical polysemy to word order, and from parts of speech to morphological productivity. The aim of his book is to elaborate on and integrate two main ideas of usage-based linguistics: first, all aspects of linguistic structure are emergent and fluid, being shaped by domain-general processes in language use; second, the grammatical system is organized as a network. The book consists of eleven chapters. The introductory chapter describes the aims of the book and summarizes the general principles of usage-based linguistics. It questions the usefulness of such distinctions as competence vs. performance, synchrony vs. diachrony, and words vs. rules. Usage-based linguistics sees grammar as an emergent system, which has evolved for the purposes of communication and processing on the basis of general cognitive principles. From this follows an important methodological conclusion: 'we cannot approach the study of grammar with a predefined set of primitive categories. On the contrary, what we need to explain is how linguistic categories evolve, stabilize and change' (6). In the first part of the book D introduces the basic assumptions and concepts, describing the architecture of the grammar network (Ch. 2) and the domain-general principles of language use (Ch. 3). The most important elements of a grammar network are signs (constructions and lexemes). The links (edges) in a network can be symbolic (connecting form and meaning), sequential (connecting elements in sequences, similar to syntagmatic relationships), and taxonomic (connecting patterns at different levels of abstraction). Analogous to activation strength in neural networks, the links have different weights, which depend on different factors, such as frequency of occurrence in linguistic input and output, conceptualization, and pragmatic inference. A grammar network is nested, which means that nodes of a network can themselves be analyzed as networks. Different from Goldberg's (1995) construction grammar, D makes a distinction between constructions and lexemes. Lexemes are monomorphemic words and other morphemes, which tap directly into world knowledge. In contrast, constructions are meaningful templates with slots for other linguistic expressions, which provide instructions for integration of lexical expressions into a coherent semantic representation. Based on this distinction, three further types of links are proposed: lexical (connecting lexemes with similar or contrastive forms and meanings), constructional (connecting constructions at the same level of abstraction), and filler-slot relationships (connecting particular lexemes or phrases with particular slots of constructional schemas). The grammar network is shaped by domain-general cognitive processes (Ch. 3). The most important ones are social cognition, conceptualization, and memory, which compete in determining linguistic decisions—that is, the choice between different ways of conveying one's communicative intention for the speaker and between different interpretations for the hearer. There is evidence, for instance, that 'speaker-oriented processes', such as memory retrieval, priming, and automatization, can dominate 'hearer-oriented processes' of common ground and audience design. The domain-general processes leave long-term effects on language structure in diachronic change, and on individual language development in ontogeny. At the same time, D emphasizes that L1 acquisition [End Page 825]and diachronic change differ substantially. In particular, children extract novel schemas from the input, while diachronic change involves the modification of already existing ones. In the second part of the book, D focuses on the interpretation of signs as networks, beginning with taxonomic links between representations at...

A computational approach to lexical polysemy in Ancient Greek

AbstractLanguage is a complex and dynamic system. If we consider word meaning, which is the scope of lexical semantics, we observe that some words have several meanings, thus displaying lexical polysemy. In this article, we present the first phase of a project that aims at computationally modelling Ancient Greek semantics over time. Our system is based on Bayesian learning and on the Diorisis Ancient Greek corpus, which we have built for this purpose. We illustrate preliminary results in light of expert annotation, and take this opportunity to discuss the role of computational systems and human analysis in a complex research area like historical semantics. On the one hand, computational approaches allow us to model large corpora of texts. On the other hand, a long and rich scholarly tradition in Ancient Greek has provided us with valuable insights into the mechanisms of semantic change (cf. e.g. Leiwo, M. (2012). Introduction: variation with multiple faces. In Leiwo, M., Halla-aho, H., and Vierros, M. (eds), Variation and Change in Greek and Latin, Helsinki: Suomen Ateenan-instituutin säätiö, pp. 1–11.). In this article, we show that these qualitative analyses can be leveraged to support and complement the computational modelling.

A Multifaceted Approach to Semantic, Statistical, and Psycholinguistic Analysis of Lexical Polysemy

A Multifaceted Approach to Semantic, Statistical, and Psycholinguistic Analysis of Lexical Polysemy

Contemporary cognitive linguistics: Thirty years after

The paper reviews recent developments in cognitive linguistics now that three decades, give or take, separate us from the time it was born. The author claims that these developments have not yet been brought together, nor contemplated at length. Both formal and substantial aspects are identified, the former manifested by cognitive linguistics becoming yet more deeply grounded in academic life and curricula across different countries. The latter are represented, first, by further elaborations of classical works, which can be exemplified by manifold studies in conceptual metaphor and metonymy, or lexical polysemy. Second, new trends have become noticeable in recent years, in particular, a definite shift from theoretical concerns to practical applications. This has given rise to the so called applied cognitive linguistics concerned mostly with second language acquisition and translation studies. Besides, cognitive linguistics can be seen to have gone empirical, making close contacts with corpus linguistics. However, the central development of contemporary cognitive linguistics, as posited by the author, is its integration tendency. Rather than go on opposing itself to other schools and branches, cognitive linguistics today seeks to become entrenched in traditional philological fields, such as lexicography, stylistics, poetics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, etc., enriching them with new ideas and approaches. The key intrigue is whether cognitive linguistics will remain as such or get absorbed by other fields of study. Common theoretical foundations shared by major classical cognitive works are certainly a uniting factor, but the inherent heterogeneity of cognitive linguistics may tip the balance in favour of breaking down into a number of smaller fields and groups of scholars. Be that as it may, cognitive linguistics is undergoing changes that may be indicative of its further development.

A Lexicographic Approach to the Study of Copolysemy Relations

The notion of lexical polysemy is considered under very different angles depending on the context in which it is called on, e.g. in theoretical lexicology, practical lexicography or so-called cognitive approaches to the lexicon. We adopt an approach where polysemy is defined as a property of vocables (roughly, entries in dictionary word lists): the property to regroup several word senses, monosemy being the opposite property. Polysemy is the consequence of a more basic fact: the relation that holds between lexical units grouped within the same vocable. This relation we term copolysemy . The notion of copolysemy is required to not only account for such a well-known phenomenon as regular polysemy, but also to model the polysemy structures of vocables and the incidence these structures may have on lexical dynamics, vocabulary acquisition, analogical reasoning based on lexical information, etc. As for many other aspects of lexicology, the study of copolysemy has to be anchored in a thorough analysis of lexical data. In this paper, we present the current results of an exploration of copolysemy in French, which allowed us to systematically retrieve patterns of copolysemy (on which we believe regular polysemy is built) and achieve formal description of the polysemy structure of several thousand French vocables. The descriptive work is embedded in a large-scale lexicographic project, namely the construction of the French Lexical Network (fr-LN). Though based on the study of the French lexicon, the approach to the modeling of polysemy presented here is expected to be applicable to natural languages in general.

Linguocultural Specificity of Chinese Poetry and Ways to Compensate them in Translation

The problem of language and culture correlation has long been the focus of considerable attention in Linguistics. It has recently acquired particular urgency due to the intensive development of linguistic culturology. The article deals with one of the aspects of the “language and culture” issue, namely the language influence on culture based on the linguo-cultural peculiarities of ancient Chinese poetry. The language-specific nature of this poetry is presupposed by the polytonic and isolating system of Chinese language, which results in impoverishing the rhyme and creating the certain monotony of rhythm. All this is also stipulated by hieroglyphic script which stimulates lexical polysemy and semantic integrity of linguistic units. Cultural peculiarity of Chinese poetry, in its turn, is caused by the presence of characteristic poetic genres unique to China, by the presence of cultural and relevant proper names and cultural realia as well as by the presence of special figurative (semiotic) codes in Chinese poetry. All these factors result in considerable difficulties while translating into other languages, especially into European ones. The article considers some ways of neutralizing these difficulties in Russian and English translations. It has been established, in particularly, that translators most often resort to the methods of substantiation, loan translation, and analogue translation. Most often, the external shape of poetry (rhythm, rhyme) has to be sacrifice (omission transformation).

La polisemia léxica y sus conexiones con algunas líneas de la interrelación entre léxico y sintaxis

In this paper we start from the controversial distinction between variants and invariants of content -in the framework of the European functional structuralism-, distinction unresolved in many cases in the analysis of the phenomenon of lexical polysemy, to connect this problem, in the field of the interrelationship between lexicon and syntax, with the analysis: 1) of certain constructions with the verb do to check if it has not produced or re-categorization of this verb and 2) of certain tests syntactic-semantic behavior with verbs of state and achievement that would lead us to the possibility that also accept other readings. In both types of studies the essential question to be solved is not, then, whether we are dealing variants or invariants of content, although the phenomenon of lexical polysemy is always present. Based on the theoretical assumptions of the European functional structuralism, we incorporate other of the compositional semantics and some cognitivists orientations.

LA POLISEMIA LÉXICA SEGÚN GRAMÁTICOS Y LEXICÓGRAFOS CHILENOS DEL SIGLO XIX: ACTITUDES E IDEOLOGÍAS LINGÜÍSTICAS

El presente trabajo analiza las actitudes hacia la polisemia lexica sostenidas por grama ticos y lexicografos chilenos hispanohablantes del siglo XIX. Las actitudes son princi palmente negativas: los autores estudiados consideran que las palabras deberian tener solo un significado (el que les es propio). Esta creencia se explica en el marco de la ideologia de la lengua estandar, que tiene como meta la reduccion de la variacion lin guistica: la polisemia es objeto de valoracion negativa porque implica variacion sema siologica, lo cual ademas es asociado con un desmedro de la funcion comunicativa del lenguaje. Adicionalmente, destacamos la motivacion glotopolitica de dicha ideologia y actitudes hacia la polisemia: la estandarizacion linguistica forma parte del proceso de consolidacion del Estado nacional chileno

Conceptual Metaphors as Motivation for Proverbs Lexical Polysemy

This paper deals with the lexical polysemy of proverbs from the standpoint of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The thesis that proverbs take on many meanings is widely discussed and commonly accepted in the literature on proverb understanding and use at large (Milner, 1969; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 1973; Lakoff & Turner, 1989; Honeck, 1997; Gibbs & Beitel 1995, etc.). Yet much attention has been paid only to the proverb discursive polysemy. On the premise that proverbs have stable meanings, there is every reason to believe that some proverbs are lexically polysemous because of their metaphorical structurings. That is, the lexical polysemy of proverbs is motivated by some given conceptual metaphors the interplay of which gives rise to a range of lexical meanings, which may serve, in turn, as bases for inferring eventual contextual meanings.

The lexical nature of idioms

In recent work, idioms have in many traditions been assimilated to the study of metaphor. An idiom such as ‘spill the beans’ is understood against the conceptual metaphors, THE MIND IS A CONTAINER and IDEAS ARE ENTITIES for instance. Such a treatment implies that idioms are processed online, calling up in their production the conceptual metaphors which support them. In this article an alternative treatment is put forward whereby idioms are lexical in nature. The argument has two parts. First, the constituent collocates of idioms share a number of key grammatical properties with non-idiomatic lexemes. Even in their idiomatic usage they must in some sense be normal lexemes. Secondly, at the same time, idioms are shown to be distinctive in terms of their discourse properties, in particular the fact of idiomaticity restricting the referentiality of idiomatic nouns. Drawing broadly on ideas developed within psycholinguistic treatments of idiomaticity, a model of idioms is developed whereby idioms are seen as lexically compositional against a rich polysemy of their stipulated, constituent lexemes. While, it may be inferred, metonymic and metaphoric associations led to the lexical polysemy of the constituent collocates, metonymy and metaphor play no necessary role in their online production and processing. The argument is developed on the basis of a detailed discussion of idioms in Nigerian Arabic. The data derives from a large, oral corpus (400,000 words), in which the conventional nature of idiomaticity is underscored by the quantitative preponderance of idiomatic meanings among basic body part nouns such as ṛaas ‘head’ and gaḷb ‘heart’.