Title

The Spatial Conceptualization of Locative Expressions in Truku from the Perspective of Image Schema and Prototype Theory

Author

Hsu, Wei-cheng

Genre

Article  

Pages

317-350

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

Truku language, locative expressions, spatial concepts, image schemas, prototype theory

Abstract

        This paper adopts image schema (Johnson 1987; Lakoff 1987; Langacker 1987) and prototype theory (Wittgenstein 1958; Berlin and Kay 1969; Rosch 1973, 1975) and investigates the spatial conceptualization of several locative expressions, including babaw, baraw, daya ‘over/above/upon,’ truma, lhbun ‘under/beneath,’ brah ‘before/in front of,’ bukuy ‘back/behind,’ iril ‘on the left,’ narat ‘on the right,’ ruwan ‘inside,’ ngangut ‘outside,’ and kska/ska ‘among/between/in the midst of.’ Based on image schema theory, the meaning of these locative expressions can be clearly represented; in particular, the multiple locative expressions related to ‘over/above/upon’ and ‘under/beneath,’ which now can be distinguished by adopting different image schemas. According to prototype theory, most of these locative words have core usages only, and do not have semantic extensions. Interestingly, we observe that four of these locative expressions, daya, lhbun, brah, and bukuy, may be derived from content words.