On the semantics of the Proto-Indo-European roots *mel-, *men-, and *steh2: from the external-positional to the internal-cognitive perspective

Abstract

The present discussion, which is articulated within the theoretical framework of cognitive semantics, aims to reconsider the homonymy between the Indo-European roots *men- ‘to think, to have in mind’ and *men- ‘to delay, linger, remain’. We should instead imagine the existence of a single archetype, whose different semantic values represent the developments of a metaphorical shift from a concrete to an abstract meaning, exactly as in the case of the historical products of IE *steh2- ‘to stay’, and *mel- ‘to delay, linger, remain’; ‘to think, take care of’, which convey meanings related to both ‘stasis’ and ‘reflection/knowledge’.