Tambov
All-Russian academic journal
“Issues of Cognitive Linguistics”

MENTAL CONSTRUING OPERATIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF THE LEXICAL MEANING OF RELATIVE ADJECTIVES

MENTAL CONSTRUING OPERATIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF THE LEXICAL MEANING OF RELATIVE ADJECTIVES


Author:  Vinogradova, S.A.

Affiliation:  Murmansk State Humanities University

Abstract:  This article aims at giving a cognitive linguistic account of the construal operations engaged in the formation of the discourse meaning of relative adjectives. 
The construal operation of specificity is relevant to the analysis of the meaning of the relative adjectives only in case of the explicational combinations, which are formed as a rule as attributive transforms of the predicate structures. The construal operation of focusing is concerned with the lexical meaning of the relative adjectives of the elisional type, where explication of the implicit relations of the two concepts is necessary. 
We analyze the substance-predicate group of relative adjectives as clarifying their meanings in discourse due to the operation of profiling the landmark properties on the base of the trajector of the described object. On the other hand, the conceptual entity of argument-predicate relative adjectives can be described by means of the theory of conceptual integration. Argument-predicate adjectives in discourse form a new conceptual blend that is the result of mapping the mental spaces of the predicate concept and the concept of the described noun. The relation between the two objects that appears in the blend forms the context meaning of the adjective.

Keywords:  cognitive operations, profiling, specificity, conceptual integration, relative adjectives

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Pages:  80-85

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