Cutting and Breaking the Embodied Self
(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)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b49b3d0b-3a7c-4b90-9769-40dfcb21cbd8
- author
- Devylder, Simon LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-12-27
- 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}}, }