Abstract
This chapter deeply relies on the observations of Chap. 8 on mental space evolvement, elaborating on the notion of grounding. Exploring the various forms of spatial grounding in folksongs is based on the presumption that the different configurations of spatial grounding have their metaphorical correspondences and take part in the construal schemas partly presented in the previous chapter. The analysis is focused on two issues, spatial deixis and nominal grounding, and how they govern the process of construal in folksongs. Distal deixis, which is frequent in a stanza-initial position, provides a mental distance between the speaker and the nature scene, which usually displays a fictive or future/past event. Proximal deixis, on the other hand, represents actual reality and mental proximity, and maps immediate experience and positive emotional attitude. The analysis of nominal grounding considers three formal possibilities: nouns with definite articles, proper nouns, and nouns without an article. Based on the investigation of the data, definite nouns in folksongs do not necessarily refer to an object, which is easily accessible in the actual discourse universe but, instead, to one that is good for the community, i.e., easily identified by the schematic features of the object. In another group of folksongs, nominal constructions come up as initials in the stanzas either in a repetitive form or as a list of ungrounded phrases. In this construal schema the inherent schematic features of the concepts designated by nominal expressions establish a rather opaque image of the discourse world, which has a great semantic potential, whereas their follow-up semantic function cannot be anticipated at the beginning of the text. Based on statistical analyses of folksongs, it can be concluded that the commonly-held meaning of proper nouns is valid only in restrained circumstances: in terms of grounding, they only partly serve as salient reference points but, more importantly, they ‘localize’ the represented events in order to ground them in the cognition of the cultural group.
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Notes
- 1.
In Hungarian the future tense is usually expressed using the present tense, see Chap. 8).
- 2.
In the folksong below the peonies represent girls, who, by bending onto the road, are in their maturity and eager to have a relationship or get married.
Két szál pünkösdrózsa
Kihajlott az útra;
El akar hervadni;
Nincs, ki leszakítsa.
Two peonies
Have bent onto the road
They are about to fade,
There is nobody to pick them.
Nem az ám a rózsa,
Ki a kertben nyílik,
Hanem az a rózsa,
Ki egymást szereti!
A peony is not the one
Who grows in the garden.
But a peony is the one,
Who love each other.
(Love song 45)
- 3.
The term consituation is employed in the sense ‘situational context’.
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Baranyiné Kóczy, J. (2018). Spatial Grounding. In: Nature, Metaphor, Culture. Cultural Linguistics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5753-3_9
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