Conceptualizing the Preposition /ʕalaa/ in the Taizzi Dialect: a Cognitive Semantic Approach

Abstract

Adopting the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG), developed by Langacker (1987), this paper investigated the semantics of the preposition /ʕalaa/ in order to obtain a cognitive semantic analysis of this preposition as it is used in the Taizzi dialect, (TD from now onwards). Typically, /ʕalaa/ is used to encode verticality. That is, it is used to describe a spatial relation between two physical entities where one physical entity is located on/supported by another one. The crucial conundrum of /ʕalaa/ is that it is very appealing to be used in the locative sense in which one physical entity is LOCATED ON another one. However, the analysis of /ʕalaa/ provided justifications of its use in many instances of the TD where this preposition was seemingly exploited to encode non-support-related spatial relations. The data presented in this paper showed that speakers of the TD extend the use of /ʕalaa/ to depict spatial relations other than the ones where the Trajector (TR) is actually located on the Landmark (LM), and spatial relations in which the TR and the LM are horizontally or vertically related to each other. Pedagogically speaking, developing semantic awareness of the use of prepositions is crucial for teaching purposes. This study helps students and learners of a language to reinforce their awareness of concepts like polysemy, idiomaticity, cultural diversity, universality, and language specificity…etc. Furthermore, this study supports Mohammed, Turki (2012) and Mohammed, Turki et al (2012) proposal that the use of prepositions by speakers of the TD to encode spatial or temporal relations depends on how they cognitively characterize the relation between the TRs and the LMs.

Keywords

• conceptualization
• verticality
• prepositional semantics
• Arabic prepositions
• Taizzi dialect