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In:Motivation in Language: A cognitive perspective
Edited by Grzegorz Drożdż and Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż
[Human Cognitive Processing 83] 2027
► pp. 84–120

Chapter 4
Motivation and lexical variation across the history of English

Why do we have more words for some concepts than others?

 | University College London
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Based on the observation that areas of the lexicon in English display different ‘degrees of lexicalization’ (Kay et al. 2009) which can change over time, this paper investigates asymmetries in the lexical variation shown by conceptual antonym pairs. Using data from the online Historical Thesaurus of English (HT), it takes an onomasiological approach, tracing how near-synonym sets expand, contract, and reorganize over time, and asks why one member of an antonym pair may show greater lexical variation than the other (e.g. fast vs slow, sharp vs blunt). In line with Geeraerts et al. (2024), the analysis considers formal and semantic factors, alongside conceptual differences and possible markedness effects, to identify possible motivations for these diachronic asymmetries.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
  • 3.The significance of lexical variation
  • 4.Asymmetry in antonym pairs: clever vs. stupid
  • 5.Changes in lexical variation over time: sharp vs blunt
  • 6.Markedness in antonymy
  • 7.Unexpected patterns of change: fast vs. slow
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Note
  • References
References (33)
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