Framing Space. Determining the Meaning of Space-Related Biblical Hebrew Lexemes

Abstract

This paper intends to bridge the gap between spatial approaches to biblical texts and lexical semantics. It introduces frame semantics to the discussion, a cognitive linguistic theory which has already been used to investigate the meaning of biblical Hebrew lexemes. As a test case, verbs of the roots פרד and בדל (“separate”) are examined. The different meanings of these verbs are then assigned to the different “spaces” as defined by Lefebvre and Soja. The paper argues for a combination of established spatial approaches and methods from cognitive linguistics.