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Part of
Corpus Approaches to Language, Thought and Communication
Edited by Wei-lun Lu, Naděžda Kudrnáčová and Laura A. Janda
[Benjamins Current Topics 119] 2021
► pp. 79–114

Parts of speech membership as a factor of meaning extension and level of abstraction

Comparison of Czech adjectives and Japanese verbs in adnominal modification

| Charles University

Czech and Japanese show formal differences in adnominal modification. Czech tends to utilize adjectives for both classification and qualification purposes whereas Japanese tends to express classification by compounding and to use a whole range of parts of speech for qualification. As a result, part of speech membership often differs between the Czech and Japanese rendering of the same referential content. It has been shown that parts of speech dispose of schematic meaning which contributes to conceptualization. Based on the results of corpus analysis, I argue that the difference in part of speech membership results in different tendencies in meaning extension and ultimately in different meaning of the two counterparts, Czech adjectives are more abstract and schematic, while Japanese verbs are more concrete.

Keywords: part of speech, adnominal modification, adjective, verb, meaning extension, metonymy, metaphor, Czech, Japanese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The target structural difference and its implications
  • 3.Relevant previous research on meaning and meaning extension
  • 4.Research question, methodology and results
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1 Mokrý versus nureta, nureteiru (wet)
      • 5.1.1Detected types of uses for the Czech adjectival attribute mokrý (wet):
      • 5.1.2Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute nureta (wet):
      • 5.1.3Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute nureteiru (wet):
      • 5.1.4Summary and discussion of Czech and Japanese expressions of wet
    • 5.2 Suchý versus kawaita, kawaiteiru (dry)
      • 5.2.1Detected types of uses for the Czech adjectival attribute suchý (dry):
      • 5.2.2Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute kawaita (dry):
      • 5.2.3Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute kawaiteiru (dry):
      • 5.2.4Summary and discussion of Czech and Japanese expressions of dry
    • 5.3 Živý versus ikita (live)
      • 5.3.1Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute ikita (live):
    • 5.4Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute ikiteiru (live):
      • 5.4.1Summary and discussion of Czech and Japanese expressions of live
    • 5.5 Mrtvý versus shinda (dead)
      • 5.5.1Detected types of uses for the Czech adjectival attribute mrtvý (dead):
      • 5.5.2Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute shinda (dead):
      • 5.5.3Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute shindeiru (dead):
      • 5.5.4Summary and discussion of Czech and Japanese expressions of dead
    • 5.6 Tlustý versus futotta, futotteiru and futoi (thick)
      • 5.6.1Detected types of uses for the Czech adjectival attribute tlustý (thick):
      • 5.6.2Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute futotta (fat):
      • 5.6.3Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute futotteiru (fat):
      • 5.6.4Detected types of uses for the Japanese verbal attribute adjectival attribute futoi (thick):
      • 5.6.5Summary and discussion of Czech and Japanese expressions of thick
    • 5.7Summary of results and general discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.119.05kan
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