Representations of major subcategories of LOVE

Abstract

This contribution is part of Chapter 3 of my book A Cognitive Study of the Concept of Love in English (2002). The book is a detailed analysis of the semantics of the word love in modern English. What is unique about it is that the lexeme love is shown to be a polysemous lexical item with several distinct senses, such as Erotic Love, Parental Love (with its two subcategories Motherly Love and Fatherly Love), Man’s Love of God, etc., each represented as a separate cognitive model in the form of a Parallel Distributed Sub‑Symbolic Representation (PDSSR), which has the overall structure of a script. The initial chapters of the book present critical discussion of other studies of Love in English, in particular those of Wierzbicka and Kövecses, and argue in favour of the cognitive approach to Love as a polysemous category. The model of representation is based on Langacker’s notion of domain matrix and the theory of Parallel Distributed Processing. In subsequent chapters the differences and links as well as projections between the particular subcategories of Love are discussed and explained in terms of the theory of Intracategorial Projection Hypothesis. In addition, two separate chapters are devoted to the most common metonymies and metaphors of Love.