Directional Idioms in English and Welsh: A Usage-Based Perspective on Language Contact

Journal of Language Contact

article

Kevin J. Rottet¹ 

[1] Department of French and Italian, Indiana University

关键词: phrasal verbs;    metaphor;    pattern replication;    calque;    Welsh;    Breton;   

DOI  :  10.1163/19552629-13030003

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Brill

【 摘 要 】

The English verb-particle construction or phrasal verb (pv) has undergone dramatic semantic extensions from the expression of literal motion events (the ball rolled down the hill) – a pattern known as satellite-framing – to idiomatic figurative uses (the company will roll out a new plan) where selection of the particle is motivated by Conceptual Metaphors. Over the course of its long contact with English, Welsh – also satellite-framed with literal motion events – has extended the use of its verb-particle construction to replicate even highly idiomatic English pv s. Through a case study of ten metaphorical uses of up and its Welsh equivalent, we argue that this dramatic contact outcome points to the convergence by bilingual speakers on a single set of Conceptual Metaphors motivating the pv combinations. A residual Celtic possessive construction (lit. she rose on her sitting ‘she sat up’) competes with English-like pv s to express change of bodily posture.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC