Description
Book SynopsisVerbs of mental states or activity constitute a subject of considerable interest to both Cognitive Linguistics and Linguistic Typology. They promise to open a window on the invisible workings of the mind, while at the same time displaying a wide variety of historical sources across languages. In this book Michael Fortescue presents an innovative approach to the semantics and diachronic source of cognitive verbs across a representative array of the world’s languages. The relationship among the cognitive verbs of individual languages is essentially one of metonymy, and the book investigates in detail the specific metonymic relationships involved, as revealed largely by the polysemous spread of word meanings. The data is projected against a circular ‘map’ of interrelated cognitive categories.
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Abbreviations 1 Introduction 2 Thinking in General 3 Understanding 4 Knowing 5 Believing 6 Remembering 7 Thinking about 8 Judging (Considering) 9 Calculating 10 Deciding 11 Guessing 12 Intending 13 Imagining 14 Expecting 15 Wishing 16 Emotional Feelings 17 Surprise 18 Experiencing (Feeling) 19 Perceiving (Noticing) 20 Recognizing 21 Full Circle 22 What a Surprise! A Closer Look at a Cinderella Category 23 The Cross-Linguistic Expression of Categories of Emotion 24 Seeming: An Odd One Out? 25 Guess: How a Single Category Can Involve All Others 26 Conclusions Sources for Languages Cited Appendix 1: A Sentimental Circle Appendix 2: Raw Lexical Data References Index
