A Cognitive Semantic Study of HEAD /hǔa/ Compounding in the Thai Language

Abstract

PURPOSE: This research aimed to investigate semantic properties of /hǔa/ in the Thai language by employing cognitive semantics, which is in line with cognitive linguistics by way of the concept that language is cognition. METHODS: Cognitive semantic conceptualization (through metaphoric and metonymic processes) was utilized in the present examination in order to understand and explain the extended senses—in particular, the relationship between the prototypical meaning and its extended meanings was explored in detail. Data from the 1998-2017 Thai National Corpus were sorted and selected. Compounds and their semantic features were chosen as the main focus of the present research since they possess more abstract senses that can be comprehensively explored. RESULTS: The study revealed that there were 495 strings of words that contain /hǔa/, all of which possessing true compounding characteristics, and /hǔa/ had a total of 14 distinct senses, including the basic meaning. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated that /hǔa/ was not a simple polysemous word, and they led to a better understanding of the complex /hǔa/ polyseme.