Original scientific paper

SEMANTIC FUNCTIONS OF SUBJECT, PROTOTYPE THEORY AND METONYMY

Gabrijela Buljan orcid.org/0000-0001-6197-1829 ; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Osijek
Dubravko Kučanda ; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Osijek

Abstract

This paper has argued that morphological and syntactic properties of subjects decrease as
subjects deviate from the prototypical subject, which simultaneously encodes the semantic
function Agent and the pragmatic function topic. On the other hand, the paper also argues that
the mapping of a particular semantic role/function is not independent of the type of
metonymic mapping, as is evident from the acceptability of some metonymic mappings
(LOCATION-FOR-INSTITUTION vs. LOCATION-FOR-RESPONSIBLE PERSON(S)). The initial hypothesis is that such discrepancies between English and Croatian are an instation of a more
general metaphorical/metonymic difference: INANIMATE-FOR-ANIMATE.

Keywords

subject; semantic roles; prototype theory; metonymy

Hrčak ID:

30920

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/30920

Publication date:

17.12.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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