A Semantic /Historical Study on the Semantic Network and Isolated. Usages of So Called "Function Words" in English

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This research has investigated the polysemy of English prepositions from a cognitive linguistic and historical perspective. The specific prepositions dealt with are by, as, for, and with. The followings are the summary for each study■ by We have found that in the OE period, the central meaning of this word was <Somewhere Around>, but this has changed to <Through> by the ME period. This conclusion can explain why isolated usages of by, such as by day and by night, survive only as fixed phrases.■ as This word evolved from OE (all) so rich so X(present translation as rich as X). The so in the subordinate clause evolved into PE so, and that in the main clause evolved into PE as. The conjunction as has seemingly the opposite meaning of REASON and CONCESSION, but we concluded that this phenomenon occurs because (i) it is not as that has these meanings, but (ii) human beings tend to interpret two clauses that are juxtaposed as REASON or CONCESSION (this phenomenon can also be seen in the case … More of and, the participial construction, and so on), so it is the human cognition that make these meanings.■ for This word meant <In front of> before the OE period, but it has experienced semantic change, and by OE, before (by + for) took its place. For already had non-spatial meanings in the OE period, and this is because if A is before B, it is also true that B is before A, hence there was ambiguity in direction. The meaning of <Duration> and <Goal> came from French pour. Also, this research on for has become the support for our theory on the isolated usages and fixed phrases developed in the research on by.■ with The significant characteristic of this word is that it does not designate any point in space, and it has many meanings that seem unrelated: it has the meaning of <Accompaniment>, <Agreement>; it also has the meaning of <Against>, which is opposite from the meaning of <Accompaniment>; it also has the meaning of <Situation>, <Instrument>, which does not seem to be related to other meanings. This peculiarity can only be explained by positing that these meanings do not derive from the meaning of with itself, but from the cognition that human beings tend to make.Lastly, we have also carried out research on the semantics of Japanese postpositions, de and ni, in order to advance our research into comparative linguistics. The result of this comparative linguistics will be developed and demonstrated in our presentations in the workshop of 22^<nd> National Conference of the English Linguistic Society of Japan. Less