In-phrases from a semantic perspective: Evidence from The York Cycle
Loading...
Date
2006
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Adam Mickiewicz University
Title alternative
Abstract
The York Cycle has been chosen as the corpus for a semantic study of in-prepositional phrases.
The text belongs to a linguistic period in which the presence of in-phs had already increased. The
total number of instances amounts to 1,420, which have been classified according to the semantic
criteria of the MED. Taking into account the different semantic fields of the MED, the samples
have been ascribed to three main distinct categories: spatial, temporal, and figurative. Generally
speaking, the analysis will show a slight predominance of the figurative sense (52.81%) over the
spatial sense (45.21%). Likewise, it will also emphasize the extremely low frequency of in-phs
with a temporal meaning (1.97%). In addition, it will also account for in-phs dependent of a verb
and an adjective. Moreover, the study will also prove that, in The York Cycle, the most common
spatial meaning in PE of the preposition in when referring to something ‘enclosed’ or within a
building, ship, etc. only amounts to 13.86% (within the spatial sense) whereas the use of the
figurative meaning of the preposition plus a noun implying a state or condition rises to 59.06%
within the figurative sense.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 42 (2006), pp. 147-164
Seria
ISBN
ISSN
0081-6272