Metonymic Patterns for WOMEN across Time: A Usage-based Approach to Visualizations of Language Change

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1 Metonymic Patterns for WOMEN across Time: A Usage-based Approach to Visualizations of Language Change Weiwei Zhang University of Leuven RU Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics

2 Outline 1. Metonymy: A variationist CL view 2. Metonymies for WOMAN: Data selection/classification 3. Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes 4. Results and discussions 5. Conclusions

3 Outline 1. Metonymy: A variationist CL view 2. Metonymies for WOMAN: Data selection/classification 3. Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes 4. Results and discussions 5. Conclusions

4 Previous research For metonymy research, Cognitive linguists mainly focus on: allegedly universal, possibly physiological interpretations of metonymies, at the expense of culturally specific explanations (Barcelona 2004: 344) a good number of categories have been proposed as conventional metonymic sources for a target e.g. CLOTHES, BODYPARTS, PROPER NAMES for MAN /WOMAN (Kleparski 2000, 2004; Grygiel 2007)

5 Experiential view of meaning we are embodied beings, and our organic nature influences our experience of the world we also have a cultural and social identity, and our language may reveal that identity (Geeraerts & Kristiansen forthcoming) a historical situatedness of human experience (Geeraerts & Grondelaers 1995: 227)

6 Variations CL view on meto. The variationist CL view on metonymy starts from the assumptions: changes in culture and society through time could modify the use of metonymies metonymy can not simply be reduced to a universal and biologically species-specific human experience the usage of metonymy is highly contextualized and displays diversity in various degrees the variation in metonymy might be co-determined by a number of cultural, historical and social factors

7 Goals The theoretical objective: to provide a clear case of how certain cultural-social factors exert an influence on the diachronic variation in metonymic conceptualization The methodological objective: to demonstrate a quantitative statistical method to explore and visualize the variation

8 Outline 1. Metonymy: A variationist CL view 2. Metonymies for WOMAN: Data selection/classification 3. Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes 4. Results and discussions 5. Conclusions

Data selection Metonymic candidate list: 287 expressions Dictionary of Chinese Metonymic Sense (Han 1995) Dictionary of Chinese Substitutive Words (Zhang 1993) Confronting

9 Data selection Metonymic candidate list: 287 expressions Dictionary of Chinese Metonymic Sense (Han 1995) Dictionary of Chinese Substitutive Words (Zhang 1993) Confronting against the corpus: valid observations Corpus of Historical Chinese (Peking Uni.) 17 million characters of classical texts in Chinese 11 th century B.C. to the early 20 th century

10 Chronological info. in the corpus Time Dynasty Chronological period Zhou Dynasty 1046 BC 256 BC Spring and Autumn Period 770 BC-476 BC 01PrQH Warring States Period 476 BC-221 BC Western Han Dynasty 206 BC-9 Eastern Han Dynasty Six Dynasties Period STF Sui Dynasty Tang Dynasty Five Dynasties Period Song Northern Song Dynasty Southern Song Dynasty Yuan Yuan Dynasty Ming Ming Dynasty Qing Qing Dynasty RC Republic of China

11 Metonymy identification Metonymy for WOMEN or not e.g. 有 [ 青衣 ] 仙女数十人 (There are decades of fairies in [green-clothes].) e.g. 两班 [ 青衣 ] 按时奏乐 (Two groups of [green-clothes] started playing music on time.) e.g. [ 青衣 ] 导生去, 入室, 则九娘华烛凝待 (The [green-clothes] guided the young scholar to the room; Jiu- Niang was waiting for him in the light of candles.)

12 Metonymy identification Metonymy for WOMEN or not e.g. 有 [ 青衣 ] 仙女数十人 Target: SERVANT GIRL (There are decades of fairies in [green-clothes].) Source: PIECE OF CLOTHING e.g. 两班 [ 青衣 ] 按时奏乐 Pattern: PIECE OF CLOTHING FOR PERSON (Two groups of [green-clothes] started playing music on time.) e.g. [ 青衣 ] 导生去, 入室, 则九娘华烛凝待 (The [green-clothes] guided the young scholar to the room; Jiu-Niang was waiting for him in the light of candles.)

13 Metonymy classification In total, metonymic mappings were identified. Targets in these mappings were classified into: SERVANT GIRL (srvg, N=5016) BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (btfw, N=4010) WIFE/CONCUBINE (wfcn, N=3394) IMPERIAL WOMAN (impw, N=2062) A WOMAN (woman, N=840) YOUNG WOMAN (ygw, N=809) MOTHER/GRANDMA (mthrg, N=599) RICH WOMAN (richw, N=411) UNCHASTE WOMAN (unchaste, N=399) FEMALE ENTERTAINER (fment, N=83) OTHERS (other, N=6)

14 Metonymy classification In total, metonymic mappings were identified. Patterns in these mappings were classified into: PIECE OF CLOTHING FOR PERSON (N=7278) ACTION FOR AGENT (N=396) LOCATION FOR LOCATED (N=6188) CHARACTERISTIC FOR PERSON (N=1360) BODYPART FOR WHOLE (N=1145 ) POSSESSED FOR POSSESSOR (N=935) ACTION FOR PATIENT (N=229) INSTRUMENT FOR AGENT (N=77) INSTRUMENT FOR PATIENT (N=21)

15 Outline 1. Metonymy: A variationist CL view 2. Metonymies for WOMAN: Data selection/classification 3. Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes 4. Results and discussions 5. Conclusions

16 Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes profile-based distance calculation (Geeraerts, Grondelaers & Speelman 1999) multidimensional scaling interpreting the MDS dimensions adding the diachronic pathway in the MDS maps

17 Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes profile-based distance calculation (Geeraerts, Grondelaers & Speelman 1999) multidimensional scaling interpreting the MDS dimensions adding the diachronic pathway in the MDS maps

18 Profile-based distance calculation Metonymic profile of a target in each time period (absolute frequency) Pattern1 Pattern2 Pattern3 Target1-Time Target1-Time Target2-Time (Geeraerts, Grondelaers and Speelman 1999) The distance matrix based on D CB filtered by D LLR Target1-Time1 Target1-Time2 Target2-Time1 Target1-Time Target1-Time Target2-Time (Speelman, Grondelaers and Geeraerts 2003)

19 dim dim dim Multidimensional scaling dim1.dim2 dim1.dim dim 1 stress: 0.11 dim 1 stress: 0.11 dim2.dim3 targets btfw fment impw mthrg richw srvg unchaste wfcn woman ygw time 01PrQH 02STF 03Song 04Yuan 05Ming 06Qing 07RC dim 2 stress: 0.11

20 Interpreting the MDS dimensions PIECE OF CLOTHING FOR PERSON LOCATION FOR LOCATED

21 Outline 1. Metonymy: A variationist CL view 2. Metonymies for WOMAN: Data selection/classification 3. Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes 4. Results and discussions 5. Conclusions

22 Main results Different targets show different degrees of diachronic variation diachronically more stable targets (e.g. IMPERIAL WOMAN, SERVANT GIRL, FEMALE ENTERTAINER) targets with a dominant trend in diachronic variation (e.g. WIFE/CONCUBINE, A WOMAN) targets with much fluctuant historical variation (e.g. BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, MOTHER/GRANDMOTHER, UNCHASTE WOMAN, YOUNG WOMAN)

23 Main results Different targets show different degrees of diachronic variation diachronically more stable targets (e.g. IMPERIAL WOMAN, SERVANT GIRL, FEMALE ENTERTAINER) targets with a dominant trend in diachronic variation (e.g. WIFE/CONCUBINE, A WOMAN) targets with much fluctuant historical variation (e.g. BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, MOTHER/GRANDMOTHER, UNCHASTE WOMAN, YOUNG WOMAN)

24 IMPERIAL WOMAN

25 dim 2 dim 3 dim 3 IMPERIAL WOMAN impw -diachronic change impw -diachronic change impw -diachronic change dim 1 LOCATION FOR LOCATED is dominant in all time periods. dim 1 dim 2 e.g. zhong-gong "central palace" "queen" jiao-fang "queen s palace" "queen/imperial woman" dong-gong "eastern palace" "queen mother" liu-gong "six palaces" "imperial concubines "

26 dim 2 dim 3 dim 3 IMPERIAL WOMAN impw -diachronic change impw -diachronic change impw -diachronic change dim 1 LOCATION FOR LOCATED is dominant in all time periods. dim 1 dim 2 a relatively extrinsic attribute compared to body parts, clothing or personal characteristics closeness between source and target the proximity in social status

27 BEAUTIFUL WOMAN

28 dim 2 dim 3 dim 3 BEAUTIFUL WOMAN btfw -diachronic change btfw -diachronic change btfw -diachronic change dim 1 Fluctuating diachronic variation dim 1 dim 2 in 01PrQH: CHARACTERISTIC FOR PERSON is dominant e.g. jia-li "beautiful" "beautiful woman" yao-tiao "gentle and graceful" "beautiful woman" yao-li "beautiful/gorgeous" "beautiful woman

29 dim 2 dim 3 dim 3 BEAUTIFUL WOMAN btfw -diachronic change btfw -diachronic change btfw -diachronic change dim 1 Fluctuating diachronic variation dim 1 dim 2 from 02STF to 04Yuan: PIECE OF CLOTHING FOR PERSON experiences a rise e.g. hong-xiu "red skirt" "beautiful woman" cui-huan "black circular hairstyle" "beautiful woman"

30 dim 2 dim 3 dim 3 BEAUTIFUL WOMAN btfw -diachronic change btfw -diachronic change btfw -diachronic change dim 1 Fluctuating diachronic variation after 04Yuan: POSSESSED FOR POSSESSOR (esp. COSMETICS) shows a consistent increase; PIECE OF CLOTHING FOR PERSON decreases in frequency e.g. dim 1 fen-dai "powder and black dye" "beautiful woman" yan-zhi "blusher" "beautiful woman" dim 2

31 BEAUTIFUL WOMAN The historical change of the Chinese ideal of female beauty The development of the Chinese female beauty historically went through a process from unaffected physical beauty to artificial decorative beauty. The History of Women s Life in China (Chen, 1937)

32 Outline 1. Metonymy: A variationist CL view 2. Metonymies for WOMAN: Data selection/classification 3. Exploring and visualizing the diachronic changes 4. Results and discussions 5. Conclusions

33 Main findings Diachronic variation in metonymy: different kinds of women display different degrees of historical variation historical changes in culture as the probable cause of some of the diachronic changes in the metonymic conceptualization of certain targets

34 Theoretical implication The findings support the idea that: metonymy is not only a physiologically embodied concept or a universal cognitive operation, but also a culturallyhistorically-socially contextualized concept. the usage of metonymy is not only a universal cognitive mechanism, but it is also sensitive to historical and cultural variation.

35 Methodological implication The relevance of quantitative analyses of historical data: an innovative method for visualizing diachronic changes in metonymies has been suggested, i.e. MDS this visualization technique is a powerful and promising instrument for charting diachronic differences in the construal of given target concepts.

36 Thank you! For more information:

Visualizing onomasiological change: Diachronic variation in metonymic patterns for WOMAN in Chinese

Cognitive Linguistics 215; 26(2): 289 33 Weiwei Zhang*, Dirk Geeraerts and Dirk Speelman Visualizing onomasiological change: Diachronic variation in metonymic patterns for WOMAN in Chinese Abstract: This