Abstract
This paper explores the polyfunctionality of pang3 in Taiwanese Southern Min with respect to the relationship between form and meaning. We propose a more economic analysis to fill in the lacunae in the lexicographical treatment of word meaning based on the principle of synonymity. We establish a central conceptual structure with a set of inherited conceptual structures. There are two types of event structures of causativity underpinning such a network of conceptual structures: (1) the causative event that involves locomotion, and (2) the causative event that involves change of state. There are constraints in the profiling and shading of semantic roles in the mapping of conceptual structure to syntactic structure. Our approach not only accounts for the routes of semantic extension of polysemous words, but also makes explicit the relationship between synonyms. Furthermore, the findings can form a basis for contrastive studies.