Meaning in flux: Connecting development, variation, and change

Certain referential expressions are used to refer to rather distinct entities in the world depending on the context of use, e.g. Dickens to refer to the author or his work or ham sandwich to refer to the food or the food orderer/eater (as in The ham sandwich wants to pay.). A systematic investigation of the processing of different types of such metonymic expressions registered discrete electrophysiological patterns that cannot be explained in a straightforward manner by theoretical models of meaning selection/enrichment. The observed pattern shows two classes of metonymic types – one showing no processing differences for different uses and the other yielding a late positive electrophysiological signature for the extended meaning relative to the more basic reading. This latter effect is discussed within a discourse representational account, in which reconceptualization from the basic to the intended meaning results in discourse updating costs for less conventionalized meaning extensions. It will be discussed whether the source of the observed neurotypology is rooted in the historical development of the particular uses.