چكيده لاتين
Polysemy and the semantic networks of linguistic elements across all levels of language constitute key topics in Cognitive Linguistics. Moreover, the notion of space and its extension to the encoding of non-spatial concepts and domains has consistently attracted scholarly attention within this framework. Accordingly, the present study, drawing on cognitive discussions in these areas, investigates the central and peripheral meanings as well as the formulation of the radial categories of the Persian preverbs farā (فرا), foru (فرو), piš (پيش), and pas (پس). To this end, Cognitive Linguistics, the models of systematic polysemy, the extension of spatial concept, and the prototype approach constitute the theoretical foundation and analytical tools of this thesis. The data for this study has been drawn from Farhang_e_ Bozorge Sokhan (Anvari, 2002), with examples and evidence mainly extracted from the HamshahriOnline website, the Ganjoor website, and to a lesser extent, the Persian Linguistic Database (PLDB).The findings indicate that each of these four preverbs possesses a concrete spatial meaning: "farā" denotes “above” or “beyond", "foru" conveys “below” or “down", "piš" means “in front of,” and "pas" represents “behind” or “after". On the other hand, each of these preverbs owns a radial category in which several peripheral meanings are also encoded along with their central spatial meaning. In the case of "farā", these peripheral meanings include entry into the domain of sensory perception, selecting, covering and surrounding a landmark, and crossing its boundary. For "foru", the meanings of being inside or beneath the surface of landmark, reflexivity meaning, removal of or layering the landmark, diminishment, and termination are peripheral. For "piš", they involve entering the domain of cognition, metaphorical extension of targeting, and temporal meanings. and in the case of "pas", the sequence of reversal events and transfer beyond the domain of perception or cognition are encoded as non-core meanings. In shaping the radial category, where a prototypical meaning lies in the center and peripheral meanings radiate systematically around it, processes such as metonymy, metaphor, and abstraction play a crucial role. It should also be noted that these preverbs function in conjunction with the verbs to which they are attached, and both the verb and contextual elements play a significant role in interpreting the meanings of these elements.
