This paper analyzes the internal semantic structures of a polysemous word 'line' to verify the validity of semantic network approach to polysemy within the framework of cognitive linguistics. Abstractionist approach had long been considered a standard...
This paper analyzes the internal semantic structures of a polysemous word 'line' to verify the validity of semantic network approach to polysemy within the framework of cognitive linguistics. Abstractionist approach had long been considered a standard one to treat polysemy until semantic network approach turned up in early 1980s. Several polysemous words were used to support abstractionist approach. 'Line' was one of them Based on five experiments about 'line,' Caramazza and Grober(1976) claimed that EXTENSION is a general meaning enough to subsume all the senses of 'line: However, it is revealed that their proposal sheds no light on the interrelationship and prototype effects felt among the various senses of the word. Furthermore, it is shown that all of its senses are closely interwoven through human cognitive mechanisms such as image-schematic transformation, metaphor, metonymy, and profiling.