Robinson 2014 2nd proofs.pdf (4.27 MB)
Quantifying polysemy in cognitive sociolinguistics
This chapter uses various statistical techniques to explore the extralinguistic grounding of individual conceptualisations of polysemous adjectives in English, such as awesome, gay, wicked. It considers the extent to which individual conceptualisations are non-random and can be related to the socio-demographic characteristics of the speaker. The experimental survey data collected from 72 speakers if analysed via hierarchical agglomerative clustering, decision tree analysis, and logistic regression analysis. The results reveal that not only individual adjectives, as indicated in Robinson (2010a), but whole groups of polysemous adjectives currently undergoing semantic change form usage patterns that can be explained by a very similar sociolinguistic distribution. This study demonstrates that employing a socio-cognitive perspective when researching polysemy is hugely advantageous.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Publisher
John BenjaminsExternal DOI
Page range
87-115Book title
Corpus Methods for Semantics: Quantitative studies in polysemy and synonymy.Place of publication
AmsterdamISBN
9789027223975Series
Human cognitive processingDepartment affiliated with
- English Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Editors
Glynn Dylan, Justyna RobinsonLegacy Posted Date
2013-04-04First Open Access (FOA) Date
2023-04-14First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2023-04-14Usage metrics
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