Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2025

Tracking the diachronic behaviour of expressive nouns of EEV in English using HTOED, OED, COHA and FrameNet

Résumé

This paper aims to describe and compare phonosemantic motivation in the English lexicon within a group of nouns expressing enthusiasm. Diachronic lexical iconicity studies such as Flaksman [2017], [2020] suggest there is an iconic treadmill in place leading to loss of iconicity associated with regular sound change and semantic change. In order to test the iconicity within a set of words expressing enthusiasm, this study uses a mixed method approach by combining lexicographic and corpus data. Our study focuses on a dataset of nouns with iconic roots expressing , including rah-rah, gung-ho, zhuzh and pizzazz. First, we generate the data set of sixteen phonologically motivated nominal expressions using the Historical Thesaurus of Englishand carry out a lexicographic analysis using the OED. The OED lexicographic analysis determines dates of emergence, etymological origins and semantic development of the expressions following the methodology in Smith 2020. A diachronic corpus analysis using distributional semantic methods (Geeraerts et al 2023) is then carried out using two corpora, the COHA (Corpus of Historical American 1820-2010) and the contemporary OEC. To model meaning beyond co-text, we then apply FrameNet-style frame semantics to classify the cognitive domains activated by these forms. The results show that there is some shared semantic space (i.e. similar collocational behaviour) amongst expressive nouns denoting , but frequencies and productivities vary. In addition, these nouns have strong diastratic (colloquial, slang) and diatopic properties (American English). We argue that lexical iconicity is shaped by a broader constructional and frame-semantic ecology, reflecting competition between creativity and conventionalization within the lexicogrammatical system (Goldberg 2019).

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Dates et versions

hal-05137385 , version 1 (01-07-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-05137385 , version 1

Citer

Chris A. Smith. Tracking the diachronic behaviour of expressive nouns of EEV in English using HTOED, OED, COHA and FrameNet. 15th International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology (ICHLL 15), ISHLL (International Society for Historical Lexicography and Lexicology), Jun 2025, Lisbonne, Portugal. ⟨hal-05137385⟩
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