Date: 14-Jun-2005
From: Ivelina Tchizmarova <ivelina99 yahoo.com>
Subject: Verbal Prefixes in Bulgarian and Their Correspondences in American English: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis
Institution: Ball State University
Program: Department of English
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005
Author: Ivelina K. Tchizmarova
Dissertation Title: Verbal Prefixes in Bulgarian and Their Correspondences in
American English: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis
Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
Semantics
Subject Language(s): Bulgarian (BLG)
English (ENG)
Dissertation Director(s):
Carolyn MacKay
Elizabeth Riddle
Christine Shea
Frank Trechsel
Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation analyzes the Bulgarian prefixes nad- and pre-, and the
prepositions they originate from, nad 'above, over' and prez 'across,
through, over', from a cognitive linguistic perspective. Using examples
from a Corpus of Spoken Bulgarian and E-mail Messages in Bulgarian
(informal spoken and written discourse), it presents a semantic network for
each concept that accounts for its various spatial (or physical) and
abstract (temporal or metaphorical) meanings. The main goal is to
establish the links among the different senses, and show the inadequacy of
the lists of unrelated senses presented by traditional Bulgarian references
and treatments to date.
Another goal is to compare and contrast NAD and PRE with their counterparts
in American English - above, over, across, through, from-to, and out (based
on Brugman 1981, Lakoff 1987, Lindstromberg 1998, Tyler & Evans 2003).
This work shows that NAD and PRE share a number of schemas with English
over, and pre- matches over in semantic complexity. NAD and PRE are also
compared to some Slavic cognates: Russian, Slovenian, Croatian, and Polish
NAD, Polish prze- and przez, and Russian pere- (based on Janda 1988,
Pasich-Piasecka 1993, Kocha?ska 1996, ?ari? 2001). As expected, NAD and
PRE and their Slavic counterparts exhibit considerable overlap in the range
of meanings, but there are differences as well.
Like other cognitive analyses, this study identifies a central (most
prototypical) meaning of each concept, e.g., the higher schema of NAD and
the across schema of PRE, and gives them a privileged status in the
generation of all secondary schemas linked either to the central schema or
to each other. The semantic networks of NAD and PRE exhibit a family
resemblance structure where schemas share different sets of properties
rather than the same property set, or are linked by transformations and
metaphors. These links reflect cognitive models grounded in our physical
experience and mental processing mechanisms such as inferencing, analogy,
metonymy, metaphor, etc., which we use to conceptualize the world.
This analysis shows that traditional treatments of Bulgarian verbal
prefixes and prepositions need to be revised. It has implications for
cross-linguistic cognitive studies and L2 learning and teaching.
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