Open AccessThéorie des catastrophes et dynamisme sémantique
Author(s) -
Steffen Nordahl Lund
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
hermes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.759
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 1903-1785
pISSN - 0904-1699
DOI - 10.7146/hjlcb.v5i9.21511
Subject(s) - adjective , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , humanities , noun
The article focuses on the potential import of catastrophe theory in the study of word semantics. Thus the lexical content of the French adjective terrible is analyzed within the dynamic geometrical frame-work of the catastrophe theoretic schemata in order to apprehend, on the one hand, the continuum of similar meanings between the two senses ( dreadful / formidable ) of the word and, on the other hand, the discontinuous reversal between the two opposite values.