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Cutting and Breaking the Embodied Self

Devylder, Simon LU (2017) In Cognitextes 16(1).
Abstract
This paper analyzes the Cutting and Breaking (C&B) events affecting the tangible aspects of the personal domain, that is to say the body and its parts. The study of the embodied Self, as the affected theme of C&B events, provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the understanding of the conceptualization of the personal domain, as well as providing an additional distinction between cut-verbs and break-verbs. First, I propose to re-analyze three arguments of the C&B literature under the light of Talmy’s different levels of synthesis (2000). I propose that cut-verbs can be distinguished from break-verbs based on the level of synthesis of the affected theme they encode. I support this argument with a corpus-based analysis of... (More)
This paper analyzes the Cutting and Breaking (C&B) events affecting the tangible aspects of the personal domain, that is to say the body and its parts. The study of the embodied Self, as the affected theme of C&B events, provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the understanding of the conceptualization of the personal domain, as well as providing an additional distinction between cut-verbs and break-verbs. First, I propose to re-analyze three arguments of the C&B literature under the light of Talmy’s different levels of synthesis (2000). I propose that cut-verbs can be distinguished from break-verbs based on the level of synthesis of the affected theme they encode. I support this argument with a corpus-based analysis of a series of syntactic-semantic tests. Second, while English does not have morphosyntactic strategies to make a distinction between alienable and inalienable possessions, I argue that the participation of C&B events affecting the corporeal Self to specific argument structure alternations (causatives – reflexives – possessor raising) shows that the distinction is syntactically encoded in the English language. Third, I analyze a testimony of a FGC/FGM1 victim and demonstrate the sociocultural relevance of the distinction proposed in this paper. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Cognitextes
volume
16
issue
1
ISSN
1958-5322
DOI
10.4000/cognitextes.886
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
b49b3d0b-3a7c-4b90-9769-40dfcb21cbd8
date added to LUP
2018-01-30 10:42:14
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:37:42
@article{b49b3d0b-3a7c-4b90-9769-40dfcb21cbd8,
  abstract     = {{This paper analyzes the Cutting and Breaking (C&B) events affecting the tangible aspects of the personal domain, that is to say the body and its parts. The study of the embodied Self, as the affected theme of C&B events, provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the understanding of the conceptualization of the personal domain, as well as providing an additional distinction between cut-verbs and break-verbs. First, I propose to re-analyze three arguments of the C&B literature under the light of Talmy’s different levels of synthesis (2000). I propose that cut-verbs can be distinguished from break-verbs based on the level of synthesis of the affected theme they encode. I support this argument with a corpus-based analysis of a series of syntactic-semantic tests. Second, while English does not have morphosyntactic strategies to make a distinction between alienable and inalienable possessions, I argue that the participation of C&B events affecting the corporeal Self to specific argument structure alternations (causatives – reflexives – possessor raising) shows that the distinction is syntactically encoded in the English language. Third, I analyze a testimony of a FGC/FGM1 victim and demonstrate the sociocultural relevance of the distinction proposed in this paper.}},
  author       = {{Devylder, Simon}},
  issn         = {{1958-5322}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  number       = {{1}},
  series       = {{Cognitextes}},
  title        = {{Cutting and Breaking the Embodied Self}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/cognitextes.886}},
  doi          = {{10.4000/cognitextes.886}},
  volume       = {{16}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}