Sources of BET

Ponsford, Dan and Hollmann, Willem and Siewierska, Anna (2013) Sources of BET. Functions of Language, 20 (1). pp. 90-124. ISSN 1569-9765

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Abstract

We investigate the sources of betting constructions, and specifically their predicates. The notion of risking something of value on an outcome is a complex one. Culturally, some degree of disposability of property is required. The concept is nevertheless lexicalized in many parts of the world. Betting takes various forms, ranging from betting between individuals, which we contend is the basic case, to betting in the context of an institution such as horse racing, cockfighting, lotteries, or on games such as card games. Taking a similar approach to Zalizniak (2008), we use polysemy as a means of investigating etymology. A sample of 271 polysemous predicates from 177 languages are surveyed, where one sense is BET. Treating relevant other senses as earlier senses, we find that the most frequent source concepts are ones that profile (in Langacker's 2008 sense) the relation between the bettor and the stake. The most frequent are SECURITY and PUT. Other important sources, profiling instead the relation between the bettors, are ARGUE, COMPETE and AGREE.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Functions of Language
Additional Information:
This article has been accepted for publication in the journal, Functions of Language All contents © John Benjamins 2012.The publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use the material in any form.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/libraryofcongress/p1
Subjects:
?? BETTINGPOLYSEMYSEMANTIC CHANGELEXICALISATIONENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICSLINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGELANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICSP PHILOLOGY. LINGUISTICS ??
ID Code:
59608
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
29 Oct 2012 09:09
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Sep 2023 00:47