IMAGE-SCHEMA AS A MEANS OF EXPLAINING POLYSEMY (THE CASE OF GERMAN VERB ZIEHEN)

Abstract

The article deals with the multiple meanings of the German verb ziehen, previously studied in the works of W. Porzig, F. Hundesnursch and G. Fritz. These linguists worked at distinguishing only the selected meanings of the polysemant, not at studying the interrelation of its meanings. In this article, the invariant of the verb ziehen is developed by means of using the image-schemas, created after the study of the contextual examples taken from a German Text Corpus. The German Text Corpus DWDS (subcorpus Kernkorpus des 20./21. Jahrhunderts) was used as the source of the contextual examples. The examples were divided into 18 groups according to the image-schemas, which serve to their representation. Some image-schemas embrace several dictionary meanings, both direct and transferred, including the verb ziehen in fixed phrases (e.g.in Betracht ziehen, Konsequenzen ziehen, Kritik auf sich ziehen, in Kalkül ziehen, Nutzen ziehen, eine Niete ziehen). Despite the differences between the imageschemas, they show the linear character of the referent’s form (e.g. eine Linie, einen Strich ziehen), motion trajectory (e.g., seine Bahn ziehen, Kreise ziehen) or both (e.g. einen Draht, eine Leitung ziehen, den Faden durchs Nadelöhr ziehen). Although the image-schemas vary, they all represent the linear character of the referent’s form or motion trajectory. The latter can be regarded as the invariant of the verb ziehen, which explains its extreme polysemy.