Embodiment in Latin Semantics

Editor

William Michael Short | The University of Texas at San Antonio

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027259394 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027267184 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

Embodiment in Latin Semantics introduces theories of embodied meaning developed in the cognitive sciences to the study of Latin semantics. Bringing together contributions from an international group of scholars, the volume demonstrates the pervasive role that embodied cognitive structures and processes play in conventional Latin expression across levels of lexical, syntactic, and textual meaning construction. It shows not only the extent to which universal aspects of human embodiment are reflected in Latin’s semantics, but also the ways in which Latin speakers capitalize on embodied understanding to express imaginative and culture-specific forms of meaning. In this way, the volume makes good on the potential of the embodiment hypothesis to enrich our understanding of meaning making in the Latin language, from the level of word sense to that of literary thematics. It should interest anyone concerned with how people, including in historical societies, create meaning through language.

[Studies in Language Companion Series, 174] 2016. v, 271 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.174

Table of Contents

Introduction

William Michael Short | pp. 1–14

A matter of perspective: Aspect, deixis, and textual exploitation in the prototype semantics of eo and venio

Andrea Nuti | pp. 15–56

Vertical scales in temporal sub constructions in Latin

Erik Knighton | pp. 57–84

The embodied sources of purpose expressions in Latin

Luisa Brucale and Egle Mocciaro | pp. 85–114

Ontological and orientational metaphors in Latin: Evidence from the semantics of feelings and emotions

Chiara Fedriani | pp. 115–140

The metaphorical structuring of kinship in Latin

Alessandro Buccheri | pp. 141–176

Abstract and embodied colors in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History

David Wharton | pp. 177–208

Embodiment in Latin technical texts

Courtney Ann Roby | pp. 209–236

Embodied historiography: Models for reasoning in Tacitus’ Annales

Jennifer J. Devereaux | pp. 237–268

Index | pp. 269–272

“Although closely linked to recent developments in embodied semantics, the essays in Embodiment in Latin Semantics are exploratory rather than doctrinaire. They should be of great interest to students of Latin language and of literature, religion, kinship, and culture more generally in the Latin-speaking world. The editor has done an impressive job of assembling an intellectually diverse group of scholars with a shared outlook on the relationship between language and embodiment.”

Thomas Habinek, University of Southern California

“English, in some ways an unusual language, is the most over-studied language in the history of the world. But English itself was highly influenced by Romance languages, and Romance languages account for a vast swath of the world’s most influential literature. Research into the cognitively modern human mind and its communicative possibilities cannot do better than focusing on Latin. This volume is the first major book-length effort in that direction. This volume is equally indispensable for students of Latin, Romance philologists and cognitive linguistics.”

Mark Turner, Case Western University

“This collection of essays breaks new ground in the application of cutting-edge cognitive science to the semantic structures of classical Latin. The volume’s international cast of contributors are pioneers in a field that promises to revolutionise not just Latin linguistics but the study of Latin literature in general. Their emphasis on embodiment in the ways that Latin and the authors who use it construct meaning goes beyond existing studies of (e.g.) cognitive metaphor in Latin and Greek to deploy a wider and more systematic range of cognitive linguistic concepts, providing a theoretically sophisticated perspective on the way that individual authors deploy the conceptual patterns that are embedded in the Latin language and in Roman life and thought.”

Douglas Cairns, University of Edinburgh

Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Order by:

Maurizio Bettini & William Michael Short

2018. The World through Roman Eyes,

Clackson, James

2024. Latin Literature and Linguistics. In The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature, ► pp. 563 ff.

Fedriani, Chiara

2021. Review of Alfieri, Benvenuto, Ciancaglini, Milizia & Pompeo (2018): Linguistica, filologia e storia culturale. In ricordo di Palmira Cipriano. Journal of Historical Linguistics 11:2 ► pp. 348 ff.

Zanker, Andreas T.

2019. Metaphor in Homer,

[no author supplied]

2023. Fictive questions in the Zhuangzi [Figurative Thought and Language, 18],

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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