Sanattoman tiedon lähteillä

• Pauli Brattico

Avainsanat: kausatiivit, leksikaalinen semantiikka, määritelmäteoria, prototyyppiteoria

Abstrakti

On the origins of inexpressible content (englanti)

3/2005 (109)

On the origins of inexpressible content

Words in a language appear to embrace certain semantic information that cannot be described sufficiently in words. For example, the phrase to cover with paint is not sufficient to describe the meaning of the verb to paint, because the brush itself is not considered to be painted when dipped in the paint pot, even though it is then covered with paint. The writer asserts that this phenomenon applies to virtually every word in a language. Searching from linguistics and psychology sources, he finds a number of recent theories on cognition, concepts and meanings. These theories are critically reviewed, and it is argued that none of them provides a satisfactory explanation for the phenomenon of inexpressible content. Causatives are used as linguistic examples in the study. The writer proposes that the inexpressible content of causatives is derived from their logical syntax rather than their lexical semantics.

Pauli Brattico