Introduction: Reciprocals and semantic typology
Date
2011
Authors
Evans, Nicholas
Majid, A
Levinson, Stephen C.
Gaby, Alice
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Abstract
Reciprocity lies at the heart of social cognition, and with it so does the encoding of reciprocity in language via reciprocal constructions. Despite the prominence of strong universal claims about the semantics of reciprocal constructions, there is considerable descriptive literature on the semantics of reciprocals that seems to indicate variable coding and subtle cross-linguistic differences in meaning of reciprocals, both of which would make it impossible to formulate a single, essentialising definition of reciprocal semantics. These problems make it vital for studies in the semantic typology of reciprocals to employ methodologies that allow the relevant categories to emerge objectively from cross-linguistic comparison of standardised stimulus materials. We situate the rationale for the 20-language study that forms the basis for this book within this empirical approach to semantic typology, and summarise some of the findings.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Evans, N., Levinson, S. C., Gaby, A., & Majid, A. (2011). Introduction: Reciprocals and semantic typology. In N. Evans, A. Gaby, S. C. Levinson, & A. Majid (Eds.), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 1-28). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Collections
Source
Type
Book chapter
Book Title
Reciprocals and Semantic Typology
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
DOI
Restricted until
Downloads
File
Description
Author/s submitted version