CRC 991

C04: Conceptual shifts: their role in historical semantics

Funding period: 01.07.2011 - 30.06.2015

French words from linguistics and physics are classified according to types of lexical development. The semantic development of each word is then decomposed into phases of change and the separate meanings are modeled with the help of frames so that regularities of conceptual shifts can be identified and inventoried. Those words which stem from sensory-motor verbs will we grouped according to types of movements in search of recurrent development patterns from concrete and to abstract meanings. A set of German non-lexicalized ung-nominalizations will be established and tested for non-action readings in a meaning change simulation.

Head of the project

Hans Geisler
Institut für Romanistik
Universitätsstr. 1
40225 Düsseldorf
Phone: +49 211 81-129 84
Email: geislerphil.uni-duesseldorfde