Language as topos : a study of Turkish polysemy

Abstract

The study of polysemy connibutes to our understanding of different topologies of language. Polysemy implies metaphorical richness and provides clues to linguistic ontology in that it effects translation between the verbal and the non-verbal, linking the articulated and the tacit, i.e. language and silence. Implicit in the Turkish saying bir dil, bir insan (one language, one person) is an image of language as at once the mark of humanness and the defining feature of human variation, while another formulaic saying, dilin kemigi yoktur (the tongue has no bone(s)), implies a flexibility of meaning and intention which, without language, would be unavailable to humans. Taking certain features of Turkish polysemy as a guide, this thesis steers an analytic pathway through the rich diversity of modem Turkish ideational culture as it is lived by various members of the Turkish community in Melbourne. Migration to a new environment entails not only physical relocation but also ideational adjustment to new thought worlds. Language is a key to this process of reorientation, as people living in different cultural niches have recourse to different epistemological moorings for reality construal. Changes in cultural niche, as in the case of migration, highlight changes in ideational orientation. Taking a phenomenological approach to language based on the sensory parameters of sound and vision, this thesis explores the various topologies inherent in language use by focusing on polysemy, against a background of multilingualism and literacy. Turkish ideational life is an arena of contested realities. Polysemic terms such as yol (pathway), gurbet (temporary absence from home), acik/kapalz (open/closed) and sag/sol (right/left) as well as the tacit inside and outside orientate meaning within and between different discursive practices. Polysemy points also to different concepts of knowledge and power, as well as to different metaphors of humanity. Language itself is a metaphor of humanity and of knowledge/power. Show more