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In:Motivation in Language: A cognitive perspective
Edited by Grzegorz Drożdż and Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż
[Human Cognitive Processing 83] 2027
► pp. 153–182

Chapter 7
The motivation of semantic shifts between different categories of nouns

The case of craft

 | University of Silesia in Katowice
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This chapter investigates the motivation behind selected semantic extensions of the English noun craft that co-occur with shifts across four nominal categories: count, mass, zero plural, and plurale tantum. Drawing on diachronic lexicographic evidence, primarily from the Oxford English Dictionary, it reconstructs pathways of sense extension and the accompanying changes in grammatical properties. The analysis adopts the Cognitive Grammar approach to polysemy and Panther’s model of linguistic motivation. The chapter shows that these developments are not arbitrary; rather, they reflect interacting motivations rooted in historically situated cultural practices, perceptual experience, conceptualization, and language-internal tendencies.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The background of the study
    • 2.1The cognitive perspective on language change
      and its motivational factors
      • 2.1.1Perception and Gestalt laws
    • 2.2Polysemy and sense extension in Cognitive Grammar
    • 2.3The grammatical properties of craft
      • 2.3.1Countability
      • 2.3.2Uncountability
      • 2.3.3The zero plural sense
      • 2.3.4The plurale tantum sense
    • 2.4The historical properties of craft
    • 2.5The methodology and research question
  • 3.The analysis
    • 3.1Uncountable → countable
    • 3.2Countable → uncountable
    • 3.3Uncountable → zero plural
    • 3.4Zero plural → countable
    • 3.5Countable → plurale tantum
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
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