Conceptual Structure and Conceptual Variation

Covering the entire span of his career, the ten chapters of this volume
of selected papers represent what may be considered ten specifically
relevant contributions that Dirk Geeraerts has made to lexical semantics
and lexicology, viz. a systematic analysis of the various dimensions
and types of prototypicality; a demonstration of the fundamental
instability of the distinction between vagueness and ambiguity; the
elaboration of a referential methodology for prototype theory; a
prototype-based analysis of metonymy that clarifies the distinction
between metaphor and metonymy; the formulation of a ‘prismatic’ model of
semantic compositionality; the exploration of diachronic prototype
semantics; the defense of a cultural-historical perspective in
conceptual metaphor research; the definition of lexical sociolectometry;
the introduction of quantitative corpus methods in lexical research; a
revival of onomasiological research.