Where Lexical Semantics Meets Spatial Description: A Framework for 'Klettern' and 'Steigen'

Abstract

When representing motion linguistically, more information is hidden in the interaction of verb, subject, object and directional PP than current linguistic theories normally use. In order to capture this information interplay lexical verb entries must look deeper into the situation, using a formalization of conceptual knowledge – the information gained can be used to make lexical entries of verbs more simple and more efficient. After a case study of German steigen and klettern (both: climb) we want to propose a toolkit to model both semantic and conceptual knowledge and their interaction, thereby proposing a three-level framework. As a result, we will present both lexical entries and conceptual knowledge modules of the associated parts of information, to the effect that lexical entries can be kept less complex than suggested in previous theories.