4.1 Results of the Semantic Meaning Analysis
4.1.1 The Literal Versus Metaphorical Meaning
presents the semantic meaning distribution of [VP Pup/down] while Section 4.4.3 shows the distribution of [Pin NP], which answer our second research questions. All the three sections in this chapter also discuss the answer to our third research question, which concerns the semantic meaning relationships between the related elements in the targeted construction.
4.1.1 The Literal Versus Metaphorical Meaning
For all the 960 instances of {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} and 464 instances of {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]}, the semantic meaning distribution of the preposition Pup and Pdown are presented in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2
Literal Versus Metaphorical Meaning Distribution of Pup and Pdown
Semantic
Metaphorical 870 (88.06%) 433 (81.54%)
Total 988 (100.00%) 531 (100.00%)
Nearly 90% of the Pup and around 82% of Pdown in the target construction portray a metaphorical meaning. Example instances could be seen as follows, with a lower subscript [lit] to mean the literal meaning and [met] to mean the metaphorical meaning.
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The literal and metaphorical meaning only refers to the preposition, either up or down, only. See the examples below.
(4.4) a. Gabriel becomes a Senderista and ends up[met] in prison, from which he finally escapes to go in search of Elena.
b. You could find it useful to comment on past reactions and to ask for a fresh angle: When we’ve talked about having some staff working from home, we've
always got bogged down[met] in cost factors regarding the technology needed.
In (4.4a), the preposition Pup express a metaphorical and non-spatial concept of reaching a condition (i.e., behind the bars). Pdown in example (4.4b) refers to the state of becoming stuck in cost, so it is unrelated to space or downward direction, and thus have a non-spatial meaning. These types of Pup and Pdown are metaphorical.
On the other hand, the literal Pup and Pdown, as shown in Table 4.2, occupy a comparatively small amount of the data (i.e., around 12% of Pup and 18% of Pdown from the total). Two of the examples are presented in (4.5a) and (4.5b).
(4.5) a. Even if it meant disturbing her, waking her so that she cried when put down again, she must be lifted up[lit] in Alice's arms, held close to her and kissed
goodbye.
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b. September opened with high winds that sent the leaves scurrying along the pavements and brought decayed branches crashing down in[lit] Sherwood
Forest.
Pup in (4.5a) describes how she is moved to an upper position in space (i.e., in Alice’s arms), and the preposition Pdown in the example of (4.5b) refers to the downward direction for the branches to fall down. Such Pup and Pdown as which convey the relationships between objects in a physical space is literal.
As for the preposition Pin in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} and the preposition Pin in {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]}, their semantic meaning distribution is presented in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3
Literal Versus Metaphorical Meaning Distribution of Pin. Semantic
Metaphorical 401 (40.59%) 356 (67.04%)
Total 988 (100.00%) 531 (100.00%)
As shown in Table 4.3, over half of the Pin in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} is used literally, but more than half of the Pin in {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]} is used metaphorically (see
examples (4.6a) and (4.6b))
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(4.6) a. When she returns from theatre she is rather sleepy but is allowed to take fluids as soon as she feels able to sit up in[lit] bed.
b. Discussions took place between the two parties over a possible electoral alliance, but broke down in[met] April.
The preposition Pin in example (4.6a) describes the place in space where she is sitting up, so it is a literal preposition. On the contrary, in (4.6b), the preposition Pin refers to the temporal meaning, so it is metaphorical.
Conversely, around 41% of the Pin in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} conveys a literal and spatial meaning, while around 33% of the Pin in {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]} describes a spatial concept. Instances could be seen in (4.7a) and (4.7b).
(4.7) a. I jumped up in[met] fright and anger.
b. Now, after thirty-seven hours in the air, he was touching down in[lit] Salt Lake City.
The preposition Pin in example (4.7a) refers to a non-spatial concept about people’s feeling caused by fear and annoyance; it is metaphorical. The preposition Pin in example (4.7b) describes a literal meaning referring to the space in a specific city for
the agent to return to the ground after a flight.
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The findings of the two co-occurring prepositions answer our first research question, and suggest that in current British English, in this construction, the prepositions have a predominance of the figurative sense. It is consistent with other preposition studies which found that spatial prepositions usually have non-spatial meaning.
After analyzing the semantic meaning distribution of Pup/down and Pin, we run the Kruskal-Wallis H test to see if there is an association or a relationship between their semantic meanings co-occurrence in the {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} construction. The results answer our third research question about the relationships between the two co-occurring prepositions.
Firstly, we run the statistic test to investigate the relationship between Pup in the first pattern of [VP Pup] and Pin in the second pattern of [Pin NP]. It was found that there is no statistically significant difference between the semantic meaning groups of Pup in the {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} construction (H(1)=1.849, p=.169). In other words, Pup with different meanings tends to co-occur with Pin carrying an identical meaning. We further present a co-occurrence distribution figure to portray how the semantic meaning of Pup and Pin co-appear with each other (see Figure 4.2). Pin is on the x axis while Pup is on the y axis. The percentages with frequency counts (in parentheses) are
marked in the bars.
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Figure 4.2. The Co-occurrence of Pup and Pin in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]}
As shown in Figure 4.2, in the {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} construction, when Pup has a literal meaning, most of its co-occurring Pin is literal. One of the typical examples could be seen in example (4.8).
(4.8) She had sat up[lit] in[lit] bed, panicked by the nightmare, weeping.
In example (4.8), the preposition up describes how the agent sit in space – in an upward position; the preposition in refers to the spatial relationship between the agent and the object bed in space. The two co-occurring prepositions are used literally in {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]}. Conversely, when Pup is metaphorical, it does not show clear
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preference toward the co-occurring Pin. The probability of having a literal or metaphorical Pin to co-occur with Pup is quite similar. Two examples are shown as below.
(4.9) a. He failed to turn up[met] in[lit] court at Milton Keynes, Bucks, charged with taking a car before a police chase.
b. FARCO, which was set up[met] in[met] July 1990, represents 212 community radio stations and 17 community television stations.
Pup in example (4.9a) expresses the idea about the male agent to arrive at the court, and is unrelated to the upward spatial meaning, so it carries a metaphorical meaning.
However, Pin is used literally since it refers to a specific place cases are heard. Similar to example (4.9a), Pup in example (4.9b) does not describe the spatial upward
direction to establish the office, so it is metaphorical. But unlike the Pin in example (4.9a), the preposition in in example (4.9b) is metaphorical since it is irrelevant to the space concept but a temporal idea.
Next, we run the Kruskal-Wallis H test to explore the relationship between Pdown in the first pattern of [VP Pdown] and Pin in the second pattern of [Pin NP]. There is a significance (H(1)=24.227, p=.000). It means that, Pdown with different semantic
meanings tends to occurs with Pin with the different semantic meaning in {[VP Pdown]
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[Pin NP]}. The co-occurrence distribution is displayed below in Figure 4.3.
Figure 4.3. The Co-occurrence of Pdown and Pin Distribution in {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]}
We can notice that in Figure 4.2, when Pdown has a literal meaning, it tends to
co-appear with a literal Pin, while metaphorical Pdown is very likely to co-occur with a metaphorical Pin. Such examples could be seen in (4.10a) and (4.10b).
(4.10) a. He lay down[lit] in[lit] bed again slowly and unhappily.
b.The removal of the male enables the female to settle down[met]in[met] isolation for a week or so prior to giving birth.
Example (4.10a) has a literally used Pdown which describes the downward movement
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the male agent lay toward, and has a literal Pin which states the spatial destination for the male agent to move. Pdown in example (4.10b) is irrelevant to space and conveys an idea about how the female made a decision to settle her live in a specific condition, and Pin in this example also describes a non-spatial concept concerning the state of being isolated.
Briefly summarizing the results presented in this section, we first found that most of the two co-occurring prepositions in our study are used metaphorically in the {[VP Pup/down] [Pin NP]} construction. Our finding does not echo what Ayano (2004) claimed in his study. Ayano stated that, in the [P P N] construction, the first
preposition could be ‘directional’ while the second is ‘locational’. These two semantic features Ayano proposed are related to space, which we consider as literal in our study. The inconsistency of the semantic meanings carried by two co-occurring prepositions may indicate that prepositions in different constructions could have distinct semantic meanings. In addition, we also found that, based upon the
co-occurrence distribution figure, there are some co-occurring relationships between their semantic meanings of the two co-appearing prepositions. This might imply that when two prepositions, which belong to two patterns, are put together, certain some semantic meaning combination between prepositions could be observed.
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In this section, we probe into the semantic meaning distribution of [VP Pup] in the {[VP Pup] [Pin NP]} construction and also that of the [VP Pdown] in {[VP Pdown] [Pin NP]}. The results are presented in Table 4.4. As aforementioned, in this thesis, the semantic meaning of the [VP Pup/down] pattern is determined by considering both the VP and the Pup/down in the pattern, which is different from what previous
researchers did in their work by only considering the P in the [VP P] pattern.
Table 4.4
The Semantic Meaning Distribution of [VP Pup] and [VP Pdown] Semantic
Completive 777 (78.64%) 462 (87.01%)
Continuative 184 (18.62%) 67 (12.62%)
Inceptive 27 (2.73%) 2 (0.38%)