Over over again

Abstract

Prepositions, particularly over , have been extensively studied in cognitive linguistics, including two influential approaches:

full-specification account and principled polysemy account. Lakoff’s approach represents all senses of over but has been criticized for its sole reliance on introspection and fabricated examples. In contrast, Tyler and Evans propose fewer senses, separating the semantics of a sense from contextual influences; however, their approach still employs fabricated examples. This study aims to build on these by using natural data from a range of sources in order to identify the breadth of senses over can express. It identifies thirteen senses of over and shows that the preposition is primarily spatial, with temporal and abstract senses less frequent by comparison.