How to analyze the semantic structure of a spatial case: A case study on Udmurt inessive

Riku Erkkilä

3.2.2025, 14:15–15:45
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 (Hauptgebäude), room M 105

Zoom:
https://lmu-munich.zoom-x.de/j/93938720682?pwd=ZnRCV1JnL2w4SVdvMHlCTEtWL2NjZz09
Meeting ID: 939 3872 0682
Passcode: 284661

Spatial cases are an important part of the case system of many Uralic languages. They are typically semantically rather versatile and tend to express multiple meanings. This property of spatial cases raises the following questions:

1.    How is the semantic structure of a spatial case best modelled?
2.    How do the different meanings of a spatial case link to each other?

It has been convincingly argued in Cognitive Linguistics that the answer to the first question is polysemy. Spatial cases are considered polysemous elements that have multiple interconnected meanings. This leads to the second question, namely how are these meanings linked to each other, that is, what is the (mental representation of) the semantic structure of a spatial case like, and how can it be explained.
I propose a method based on the Principled Polysemy approach for analyzing the semantic structure of spatial cases. The approach is based in the Cognitive Linguistics framework, and as such it accepts the theoretical assumptions following from the interrelatedness of language and other cognitive phenomena. Principled Polysemy is originally meant for the analysis of meanings (called senses) of English prepositions, so it needs some adaptation to work on cases, which are morphosyntactically different from prepositions.
In this talk, I will discuss some of the theoretical assumptions of Cognitive Linguistics that are relevant to the analysis of spatial cases. Furthermore, I will present the Principled Polysemy approach as well as the modifications necessary for its application to spatial cases. Finally, I will show the analysis of the semantics of Udmurt inessive as an example of application of the method.