Size in English: large & big

Giota SyrpaPhD candidate in Cognitive Linguistics

School of EnglishThessaloniki Cognitive Linguistics Reading Group

Aristotle University

large big

Positive polarity of the SIZE axis

A case of synonymy?

• Do large & big refer to the same aspects of the concept of SIZE?

• Are there aspects of SIZE that are foregrounded by using either large or big?

• Which domains of experience do large and big pertain to?

• Which size aspects and/or domains of experience do they share?

• What kind of figurative extensions do they encourage and on what grounds?

Methodology

• British National Corpus

• 400 collocates of large (15704 tokens)

• 400 collocates of big (10517 tokens)

large + types of nouns

• Quantity nouns: large number, large amount, large quantity, etc• Gradation nouns: large scale, large proportion, large extent, etc• Segmentation nouns: large part, large section, large piece, etc• Collective nouns: large family, large group, large collection, etc• Financial transaction nouns: large budget, large investment, large

profits, etc• Legal & economic institutions nouns: large company, large firm,

large corporation, etc• Spatial extensions: large area, large house, large room, etc• Physical objects: large bowl, large pan, large stone, large glass,

etc• Animate entities (people/ animals) & parts of their bodies: large

man, large bowel, large animal, large body, large hand, etc

Aspects of size / domains of experience for large

• Physical size• Quantity / Amount / Number• Gradation• Legal & Economic organizations• Money issues / Financial transactions

Figure 1

Quantity/amount/number

Physical size

Gradation

Legal & economic organizations

Money issues / Financial transactions

Various

big + types of nouns

• Abstract nouns: big problem, big fight, big worry, big question, decision, etc

• Collective nouns: big family, big group, big crowd, etc• Legal & economic institutions nouns: big company, big firm, big

corporation, etc• Financial transaction nouns: big money, big bonus, big sales, etc• Spatial extensions: big area, big house, big room, big city, etc.• Physical objects: big bowl, big pan, big car, big glass, etc• Animate entities (people/animals) & parts of the human body:

big girl/boy, big brother/sister, big body, big hand, big head, etc

Domains of experience for big

• Physical size• Evaluation• Age• Fixed expressions & Idioms• Number / Quantity (collective nouns) • Legal & Economic Organizations• Money Issues / Financial transactions

Figure 2

Evaluation

Physical size

Fixed expressions / Idioms

Legal & Economic organisations

Money Issues / Financial transactions

Quantity/number

Age

SENSES SHARED & NON-SHARED

•Quantity / amount / number

•Gradation

•Evaluation

(seriousness/Importance/Popularity)

•Age

physical size

number (group nouns)

legal & economic organizations

Money Issues financial transaction

Large: different aspects of Size

• Physical size

• Quantity / amount / number

• Gradation

Large: Physical size

• people, eg: large man• animals, eg: large dog• spatial extensions, eg: large area• physical objects, eg: large bowl• edifices, eg: large building

Large: Quantity / Number / Amount

large + quantity nouns

eg: a large number of people, a large amount of money,

a large quantity of fuel

large + group nouns (collective nouns)

eg: a large family, a large group, a large collection,

a large audience, large herds

large + segment nouns

eg: large section, large part, large piece

Large: Gradation

large + scalar / gradational nouns

eg: large scale emergency relief

a large degree of control

a large scale producer

big: Physical size

• people, eg: big man• animals, eg: big dog• spatial extensions, eg: big area• physical objects, eg: big glass• edifices, eg: big house

Big: Evaluation

big + troublesome/complex situations

eg: big problem, big trouble, big fight

big + important issues

big match, big race, big game, big difference

big + serious/important situations

big mistake, big issue, big effort

Big as an intensifier

big + positively evaluated entities

eg: big success, big boost, big advantage, big improvement, big win

big + negatively evaluated entities

eg: big noise, big con, big disappointment, big catastrophe

Big: Age

• big brother• big sister• big boy• big girl

SENSES SHARED & NON-SHARED

•Quantity / amount / number

•Gradation

•Evaluation

(seriousness/Importance/Popularity)

•Age

physical size

number (group nouns)

legal & economic organizations

Money Issues financial transaction

PHYSICAL SIZE I

PEOPLE

• All she could see of him from this angle was that he was a very large man, broad as well as tall -- so tall that he had to bend his

head over his task. • The bridegroom was a very tall young man with reddish hair, a very big man altogether, and as so often happens then, the bride was

very small. Her head did not nearly reach his shoulder. ANIMALS• Still, smacking the dog on the snout might not be the easiest thing to

do. It was a very big dog, after all. And Anabelle was a very small hedgehog.

• A six-month-old Rottweiler dog may appear quite a large dog in

size, but mentally he is still very much a baby.

PHYSICAL SIZE IICONCRETE PHYSICAL OBJECTSContaining capacity: large + kitchen utensils / containers: 420 instances in the BNCbig + kitchen utensils / containers: 214 instances in the BNCeg: large bowl, large pan, large saucepan, large envelope, large

bucket, etcInterference of width / weight / height:large + voluminous objects: 254 instances in the BNCbig + voluminous objects: 67 instances in the BNCeg: large stone, large rock, large leaves, etcInterference of height / length: large + high / long objects: 200big + high / long objects: 401eg: big car, big table, big pile, big lorry, big boat, etc

PHYSICAL SIZE III

SPATIAL EXTENSIONS

large + spatial open surfaces: 672 instances in the BNC

big + open spatial extensions: 132

eg: large area, large estate, large garden, large field, large farm, etc

BUILDINGS & PARTS

large + buildings & their parts: 737 instances in the BNC

big + buildings & their parts: 564 instances in the BNC

eg: large building, large room, large hall, large kitchen,etc

Physical Size: a remark

• the use of large reflects the overall size of physical entities; the overall size of the entity described is its active zone elaborated by large

→ large is related to situations of determinacy

• the use of big does not always reflect overall size of physical entities; the overall size of the entity described is not its active zone elaborated by big; speakers may implicitly refer to the dimension (active zone) most prominently exhibited by the entity they modify.

→ big is related to situations of indeterminacy

GROUPS

large + group / collective nouns:

1203 instances in BNC

big + group / collective nouns:

353 instances in BNC

MONEY ISSUES/FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

big + money words: 299

large + money words: 91

eg: big money, big bucks, large budget, large profit, etc

LEGAL & ECONOMIC ORGANISATIONS

Organization nouns + large : 918 instances in the BNC

Organization nouns + big: 220 instances in the BNC

eg: large company, large firm, large corporations,

large factories

Shared domains of experience

• Physical size (people, animals, objects, spatial extensions)

• Group / collective nouns (partially)

• Legal & economic organizations

• Financial transactions

Not-shared domains of experience

• Quantity / amount / number (LARGE)

• Gradation (LARGE)

• Evaluation (seriousness / importance / complexity / popularity) (BIG)

• Age (BIG)

Interplay of lexicogrammar & figuration

LEXICOGRAMMAR

constrainsFIGURATION

encourages

ReferencesLakoff, George, Jane Espenson & Alan Schwartz (1991). Master Metaphor List. Second Edition. Cognitive Linguistics Group. University ofCalifornia, Berkeley

Langacker, Ronald 2009. Metonymic Grammar. In Klaus-Uwe Panther, Linda L.Thornburg, and Antonio Barcelona (eds) Metonymy and Metaphor in Grammar.45 – 71. John Benjamins

Muehleisen, Victoria (1997) Antonymy and Semantic Range in English. PhDThesis.

Panther, Klaus-Uwe and Linda Thornburg 2009. Figuration in Grammar. In Panther, Thornburg &Barcelona (eds), Metonymy and Metaphor in Grammar. John Benjamins. pp. 1-44.

Radden, Günter (2000) How metonymic are metaphors? In: Antonio Barcelona (ed.), Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads. (Topics in EnglishLinguistics 30), 93-108. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.