Animal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studies

<p>Many languages, both ancient and modern, make use of devices similar to determinatives in Egyptian by which the meaning of a word can be made more specific. But determinatives are especially rich in their capacity for expression, particularly regarding words for abstract concepts through th...

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Main Author: McDonald, A
Other Authors: Baines, J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2002
Subjects:
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author McDonald, A
author2 Baines, J
author_facet Baines, J
McDonald, A
author_sort McDonald, A
collection OXFORD
description <p>Many languages, both ancient and modern, make use of devices similar to determinatives in Egyptian by which the meaning of a word can be made more specific. But determinatives are especially rich in their capacity for expression, particularly regarding words for abstract concepts through their extensive use of visually-based metaphor. Egyptological research is only now beginning to explore the many levels at which the system functioned. My thesis centres around the metaphorical usages of three signs - the Seth animal, the panther, and the crocodile.</p><p>The introduction lays out my aimes, methods, and textual sources. The first chapter sets my analysis against the backdrop of current research, beginning with a discussion of how determinatives have been treated in the past, comparing that with a survey of how modern linguistics has approached comparable systems in other languages, and finally laying out my own approach to the three signs under study. In the following three case study chapters, I first survey the evidence for how each animal was perceived in the 'real' world, before moving into a detailed analysis of their significance in the script, which is based on a contextually-grounded, diachronic study of the distribution patterns of each of the signs in five genres of text from the Old to the New Kingdom. In a final chapter, I compare my conclusions about the three determinatives, discussing their commonalities and singularities, and relaitng the results of the individual case studies to the workings of the system as a whole.</p><p>My aim is not only to achieve a better understanding of the particular shades of meaning these three animal signs impart to each of the words they determine, thereby leading to a better understanding of these words, but also to examine the wider conceptual metaphors the three determinatives represent.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:c7bf503a-f8d6-47bf-a62e-3ab824cf89522022-03-27T06:47:23ZAnimal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studiesThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:c7bf503a-f8d6-47bf-a62e-3ab824cf8952LinguisticsEgyptologyEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2002McDonald, ABaines, J<p>Many languages, both ancient and modern, make use of devices similar to determinatives in Egyptian by which the meaning of a word can be made more specific. But determinatives are especially rich in their capacity for expression, particularly regarding words for abstract concepts through their extensive use of visually-based metaphor. Egyptological research is only now beginning to explore the many levels at which the system functioned. My thesis centres around the metaphorical usages of three signs - the Seth animal, the panther, and the crocodile.</p><p>The introduction lays out my aimes, methods, and textual sources. The first chapter sets my analysis against the backdrop of current research, beginning with a discussion of how determinatives have been treated in the past, comparing that with a survey of how modern linguistics has approached comparable systems in other languages, and finally laying out my own approach to the three signs under study. In the following three case study chapters, I first survey the evidence for how each animal was perceived in the 'real' world, before moving into a detailed analysis of their significance in the script, which is based on a contextually-grounded, diachronic study of the distribution patterns of each of the signs in five genres of text from the Old to the New Kingdom. In a final chapter, I compare my conclusions about the three determinatives, discussing their commonalities and singularities, and relaitng the results of the individual case studies to the workings of the system as a whole.</p><p>My aim is not only to achieve a better understanding of the particular shades of meaning these three animal signs impart to each of the words they determine, thereby leading to a better understanding of these words, but also to examine the wider conceptual metaphors the three determinatives represent.</p>
spellingShingle Linguistics
Egyptology
McDonald, A
Animal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studies
title Animal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studies
title_full Animal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studies
title_fullStr Animal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studies
title_full_unstemmed Animal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studies
title_short Animal metaphor in the Egyptian determinative system: three case studies
title_sort animal metaphor in the egyptian determinative system three case studies
topic Linguistics
Egyptology
work_keys_str_mv AT mcdonalda animalmetaphorintheegyptiandeterminativesystemthreecasestudies