Truth be told: a corpus-based study of the cross-linguistic colexification of representational and (inter)subjective meanings

IF 1 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory Pub Date : 2023-11-01 DOI:10.1515/cllt-2021-0058

Barend Beekhuizen, Maya Blumenthal, Lee Jiang, Anna Pyrtchenkov, Jana Savevska

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Abstract

Abstract The study of crosslinguistic variation in word meaning often focuses on representational and concrete meanings. We argue other kinds of word meanings (e.g., abstract and (inter)subjective meanings) can be fruitfully studied in translation corpora, and present a quantitative procedure for doing so. We focus on the cross-linguistic patterns for lemmas pertaining to truth and reality (English true and real ), as these abstract meanings been found to frequently colexify with particular (inter)subjective meanings. Applying our method to a corpus of translated subtitles of TED talks, we show that (1) the abstract-representational meanings are colexified in patterned ways, that, however, are more complex than previously observed (some languages not splitting a ‘true’-like from ‘real’-like terms; many languages displaying further splits of representational meanings); (2) some non-representational meanings strongly colexify with representational meanings of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’, while others also often colexify with other fields.

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说真话:基于语料库的表征意义和(间)主观意义跨语言共化研究

摘要对词义跨语言变异的研究往往集中在表征意义和具体意义上。我们认为在翻译语料库中可以对其他类型的词义(如抽象意义和(相互)主观意义)进行富有成效的研究，并提出了一种量化的研究方法。我们将重点放在与真理和现实相关的引理的跨语言模式上(英语true和real)，因为这些抽象意义经常与特定的(相互)主观意义共存。将我们的方法应用于TED演讲翻译字幕的语料库，我们发现:(1)抽象表征意义以模式的方式共同化，然而，这比以前观察到的更复杂(一些语言没有从“真实”类术语中分离出“真实”类术语;许多语言表现出表征意义的进一步分裂);(2)一些非表征意义与“真理”和“现实”的表征意义具有强烈的共现性，而另一些非表征意义也经常与其他领域共现性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory Multiple-

CiteScore

4.20

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory (CLLT) is a peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality original corpus-based research focusing on theoretically relevant issues in all core areas of linguistic research, or other recognized topic areas. It provides a forum for researchers from different theoretical backgrounds and different areas of interest that share a commitment to the systematic and exhaustive analysis of naturally occurring language. Contributions from all theoretical frameworks are welcome but they should be addressed at a general audience and thus be explicit about their assumptions and discovery procedures and provide sufficient theoretical background to be accessible to researchers from different frameworks. Topics Corpus Linguistics Quantitative Linguistics Phonology Morphology Semantics Syntax Pragmatics.