Semantic changes, metaphors, metonymies and how to integrate them into semantic maps

The semantic map model is relatively new in linguistic research, but it has been
intensively used during the past three decades for studying a variety of crosslinguistic
and language-specific questions (for an overview, see see van der
Auwera & Temürcü, 2006: 132; Cysouw, Haspelmath, & Malchukov, 2010;
Georgakopoulos & Polis 2018; Georgakopoulos, in prep). In this talk, I will
address two pending issues of the research on semantic maps. First, I will
demonstrate how information on the paths of semantic extensions undergone
by content words may be incorporated into a semantic map. In order to
illustrate the method, we take the example of the semantic extension of timerelated
lexemes (e.g. time, hour, season, day) in Ancient Greek (8th – 1st c. BC)
and Ancient Egyptian – Coptic (26th c. BC – 10th c. AD). Both languages give
access to significant diachronic material, allowing us to trace long term
processes of semantic change. Second, the talk will report on the advantages of
simultaneously visualizing the type and the frequency of polysemy patterns in
the languages of the world. In the case, for example, in which one
systematically assigns to the edges of a semantic map different flags referring
to semantic relations such as metaphor, metonymy, and so on, a more thorough
picture of the semantic domain(s) in question shall visually emerge. This could
help us determine that some metaphors are more universal than others and
that some are more culture‐sensitive (cf. the 'cognition is perception' primary
metaphor vs. the 'understanding is seeing' and 'understanding is hearing'
cultural‐sensitive metaphors; see Evans & Wilkins, 2000; Ibarretxe‐Antuñano,
2013; Sweetser, 1990; Vanhove, 2008).