Abstract of the Dissertation

Prominence: from Sensation to Language: 

by 

Tracy Cameron Mansfield 

Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Science and Linguistics 

University of California, San Diego, 1997 

Professor Ronald W. Langacker, Chair 

Two written corpora were sifted to uncover 1,452 contemporary American 
English words in declarative sentences that were isolated for prominence 
with italics. This research shows that conversants rely upon a direct 
iconic proportion between phonological and semantic intensity, resolving 
ambiguous form-meaning associations by exceeding the dimensional 
limitations of sequential segmentation. A speaker/signer aligns a model of 
reality adopted by a looker/listener with its own, either identifying a 
word-internal meaning disparity through ELABORATION, or revealing a word 
which can repair a word-external mismatch with REVELATION. These functions 
have their basis in the cognitive abilities of POWER and PRECISION, whose 
primitive progenitors provided the threshold across which sensation was 
adapted for communication. Elaboration signifies either an increase in 
semantic power (‘huge’ is ‘very huge’) or a discharge of EMOTION. Meanings 
portrayed with essentially spatial imagery are articulated with greater 
PRECISION, often as INTOLERANCE (‘all’ is ‘absolutely all’). Also, 
parcelling semantic variations as a type’s instances allows a POSITION in 
that type to elaborate a word’s meaning. PROPER instances are paragonal 
(where ‘green’ is ‘a real green-green’), and odd ones are PERIPHERAL 
(where ‘green’ is ‘a weird green’). In revelation, contextual mismatches 
are identified by shifting the intensity or location of primary 
prominence. The prominent word is exchanged for a counterpart located in a 
parallel setting either in discourse or in common knowledge. SUBSTITUTION 
exchanges an explicit, single-word discourse counterpart. DERIVATION 
exchanges implicit or multi-word counterparts through an appeal to 
conventional or contextual associations. Greater prominence is used to 
repair broader mismatches in construal, correcting errors which are rooted 
more deeply inside common knowledge or memory. With LINKED close 
instances, mutual prominence is /interpreted/ as significant. Mutually 
prominent words are taxonomically DISSOCIATED as labels, or COORDINATED 
according to their pre-existing causal or consequential links. Both 
dissociation and coordination can be augmented by the TIMING provided by 
close structural parallels.