Cognitive Linguistics Croft&Cruse

5: Polysemy: the construal of sense boundaries, pt. 2

5.3 Sub-sense units with near-sense properties

• Q: What are “micro-senses” and “facets”?

5.3 Sub-sense units with near-sense properties

• Q: What are “micro-senses” and “facets”?• Microsenses: submeanings that have

significant autonomy but can be unified in a superordinate category

• Facets: submeanings that can be unified only in a global Gestalt

• Note that micro-senses and facets are not antagonistic (as opposed to full-sense units)

5.3.1.1 Introduction to facets

• Facets are not given separate entries in a dictionary, but are autonomous: book (as a physical object vs. the content of text). Facets are part of the construal process. Facets typically co-occur in use.

5.3.2 Microsenses

• A word has microsenses if it names both a superordinate category and more specific items in that category, cf. card.

5.4 Autonomy

• The construal of autonomy among sense units is complex and is not inherent to a lexical item. Autonomy of senses results from conventional, cognitive, and contextual constraints and is itself variable.