Maria Rosenberg

The polysemy of agent nouns : diachronic, synchronic and contrastive evidence from French and Swedish

Abstract This study addresses Agent polysemy diachronically, synchronically, and contrastively. It examines the semantic structure of three French agentive formations, [VN/A]N/A compounds, and derivations with ‑eur and ‑ant. The semantics of four Swedish agentive formations which correspond to French [VN/A]N/A compounds are also studied. My results suggest that the polysemy of Agent is not uniformly hierarchically structured, with the Agent on top, for different agentive formations. They do not confirm that semantic extension emanates from the Agent. Instead, they speak in favour of blocking as the most plausible explanation for Agent polysemy and meaning extension.

Non-established NN compounding in child language as reflections of early categorization

This study addresses one aspect of conceptual development, viz. categorization, in connection with children’s compounding. It is based on diary data of 392 non-established NN compounds, spontaneous ...

L'impact du contexte sur l'interprétation des composés : le cas des composés NN en suédois et des constructions correspondantes en français

Las metaforas espacio-temporales y la percepcion del tiempo. Un estudio comparativo sobre el espanol y el sueco [Spatio-temporal metaphors and time perception: a crosslinguistic study on Spanish and Swedish]