D EXTENDED ESSAY

Luleå University of TechnologyDepartment of Languages and Culture

ENGLISH D

Supervisor: Ulf Magnusson

2006:112 • ISSN: 1402 - 1552 • ISRN: LTU - DUPP--06/112 - - SE

2006:112

Linguistics in the Midnight Sun • Report no 10

Reports from the Department of Languages and Culture no. 11

Adjectives DescribingAttitudes to Possession

– Generous & Greedy

ANGELICA LUNDMARK

D EXTENDED ESSAY

Adjectives describing attitudes to possession –

Generous & Greedy

Angelica Lundmark

Department of Languages and Culture ENGLISH D

Supervisor: Ulf Magnusson

L I M S

___________________________________________________________________________ Linguistics in the Midnight Sun, Report no 10

________________________________________________________________ Reports from the Department of Languages and Culture no. 11

Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 AIM ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 METHOD AND MATERIAL............................................................................................................................... 1 1.4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.5 LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND DIAGRAMS..................................................................................................... 2

2. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS................................................................................................................. 3

2.1 DEFINITIONS OF ‘PROPERTY’, ‘POSSESSION’ AND ‘OWNERSHIP’ .................................................................... 3 2.2 FRAME SEMANTICS........................................................................................................................................ 6 2.3 VERBS DESCRIBING GENEROUS AND GREEDY ................................................................................................. 6 2.4 POLYSEMY .................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.5 SYNONYMY ................................................................................................................................................. 11 2.6 COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH AND SWEDISH......................................................................................... 11

3. CORPUS DATA: GENEROUS ........................................................................................................................ 14

3.1 LITERAL SENSES .......................................................................................................................................... 14 3.1.1 Frequencies of generous ..................................................................................................................... 14 3.1.2 Various patterns of usage.................................................................................................................... 15

3.2 METAPHORICAL SENSES .............................................................................................................................. 16 3.2.1 Objects described as generous............................................................................................................ 17 3.2.2 Metaphorical expressions taken from BNC........................................................................................ 18

4. CORPUS DATA: GREEDY.............................................................................................................................. 22

4.1 LITERAL SENSES .......................................................................................................................................... 22 4.1.1 Frequencies of greedy......................................................................................................................... 22 4.1.2 Various patterns of usage.................................................................................................................... 23

4.2 METAPHORICAL SENSES .............................................................................................................................. 25 4.2.1 Metaphorical expressions taken from BNC........................................................................................ 25

5. GENEROUS AND GREEDY COMPARED...................................................................................................... 29

6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................. 31

7. REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................................. 32

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background

The convention of ‘possession’ and ‘ownership’ is a difficulty which people have to face at

quite an early stage in their life. Children more often than not tend to make several mistakes

before they learn what proper behaviour is when it comes to possession. Children often

quarrel about what things belong to whom and they almost always tend to disagree on this

point. Usually, a child seems to believe that the toys belong to her alone simply because the

toy is placed near her or because of the fact that she is holding it in her hand. The first mistake

a child makes concerning possession is to assume that it is a matter of geography or location;

they believe that they own the things that are near them.

The rules of possession are a phenomenon that all people have to face as soon as they

become aware of the fact that they are part of a society that requires this type of knowledge.

In order for a society to function properly, people have to agree on very basic rules such as

ownership, otherwise there will be conflicts and problems everywhere.

1.2 Aim

The purpose of this essay was to find out in what way and to what extent the adjectives

generous and greedy differ. Which of these two words are more commonly used and in what

contexts are they used. Furthermore, the usage of generous and greedy as well as their

semantic meaning were analysed.

1.3 Method and material

My research for this essay is based on the A files of the British National Corpus and to be able

to collect my data a computer search program called MP2.2 was used. In order to deepen the

lexical analysis, various English-English as well as Swedish-English dictionaries were used.

1.4 List of abbreviations

BNC = British National Corpus

NESO = Norstedts stora engelsk-svenska ordbok

NSEO = Norstedts stora svensk-engelska ordbok

CC = Collins COBUILD English Dictionary

LDCE = Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

2

WDT = Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus

SSO = Stora synonymordboken

1.5 List of figures, tables and diagrams

Figure 1 Commercial transaction frame

Figure 2 A commercial transaction frame explaining the verb sell

Figure 3 Semantic frame of participants involved with generous and greedy

Figure 4 Semantic frame with value judgments

Figure 5 Development of meaning of generous

Figure 6 Participants described as generous

Figure 7 Adjectives and the difference between their antonyms

Figure 8 Development of meaning of greedy

Table 1 Different grades of ‘giving’ and ‘taking’

Table 2 A selection of synonyms in English and Swedish

Table 3 Collocate frequencies of generous

Table 4 Collocate frequencies of 1st word to the right of generous

Table 5 Schematic analysis of metaphorical extensions of generous

Table 6 Collocate frequencies of greedy

Table 7 Schematic analysis of metaphorical extensions of greedy

Table 8 Adjectives surrounding generous and greedy

Table 9 A comparison between the metaphorical uses of generous and greedy

Diagram 1 The most frequently used objects described as generous

Diagram 2 The most frequently used objects described as greedy

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2. Presentation and analysis

2.1 Definitions of ‘property’, ‘possession’ and ‘ownership’

Since generous and greedy are adjectives that describe how people relate to property, the most

logical thing here to do is to begin this section by defining the concepts of ‘property’,

‘possession’ and ‘ownership’.

As made clear in the introduction, possession is a social convention that children are

faced with at a very early stage in their life, even before they are able to talk. Michael

Tomasello states that “... observers of young children have found that expressions indicating

exchange and possession are among the earliest topics of conversation for children of all

cultures, again for all of the world’s languages that have been extensively studied”

(Tomasello 1998:349). It is evident that the rules of what belongs to whom are crucial in order

to maintain a functioning society, regardless of whether you are a child or an adult. It is also

interesting to note that possession is among the earliest topics that interest children. That

reveals a very natural interest that almost seems to be inborn. One reason why children are so

interested in this may be because they are striving to resolve or to simplify the complexity of

this phenomenon. Tomasello suggests that: “In the current study, I assume that in the

beginning, possession is basically equivalent to spatial collocation for the child – an object is

located at a person – and thus a request for an object that another person is controlling is

simply a request that the object go from its current location to the self as a location”

(Tomasello 1998:352). As children get older they understand that location is not always a rule

whereby they can draw the conclusion that they own the object. The definition of possession

is sometimes difficult even for an adult.

Andrew Reeve has, in his book Property, put forward the following statement as to how

ownership is defined:

…ownership is defined by reference to a set of constituting rules. To say that ’A owns P’ means that: 1. A has a right to use P. 2. Others may use P if, and only if, A consents. 3. A may permanently transfer the rights under rules 1 and 2 to specific other persons by

consent. (Quoted from Reeve 1986:11)

4

Another way of describing ‘property’, ‘possession’ and ‘ownership’ is by using a so called

“commercial transaction frame” which is a term used by Charles Fillmore (See for example

Fillmore’s article on Frame Semantics). A frame may look like figure 1 below:

(Figure 1 Commercial transaction frame)

The participants involved in a commercial transaction frame are ‘a giver’, ‘a receiver’,

‘property’ which are given and received and finally ‘money’ which is used in cases concerned

with different sorts of trades. It is possible to describe different kinds of events, depending on

what participants are used in a certain scenario. The following definitions may be identified

from figure 1:

Giver – property – receiver:

• A person gives an object to another person permanently without accepting money in

return: donate/give

• A person gives an object to another person temporarily without accepting money in

return: lend

• A person gives an object to another person permanently, accepting money in return:

sell

• A person gives an object to another person temporarily, accepting money in return:

lease/ let/rent

• A person gives an object to another person permanently without the acceptance of the

receiver and without accepting money in return: No verb. This would mean that the

giver forces the object onto the receiver.

Property Giver Receiver

Money

5

Receiver – property – giver:

• A person gets an object from another person permanently without giving money in

return: receive

• A person gets an object from another person temporarily without giving money in

return: borrow

• A person gets an object from another person permanently, giving money in return: buy

• A person gets an object from another person temporarily, giving money in return: rent

• A person gets an object from another person permanently without the acceptance of

the giver and without giving money in return. Perhaps also without the other person’s

knowledge: steal

If the purpose is to explain the verb sell in a commercial transaction frame, then the result

could look something like figure 2 below:

(Figure 2 A commercial transaction frame explaining the verb sell)

Figure 2 shows a giver who gives property to a receiver and the receiver gives money (in

exchange for the property) to the giver. This is as far as this type of action can go, involving

all four participants. In the scenario of generous (give) and greedy (take) the arrows in the

lower part of figure 2 are deleted. The action only takes place between ‘giver’, ‘property’ and

‘receiver’. (Cf. figure 3)

Property Giver Receiver

Money

6

2.2 Frame semantics

The following is a definition of what a semantic frame is:

Semantic frames are schematic representations of situation types (eating, spying, removing, classifying, etc.) together with lists of the kinds of participants, props, and other conceptual roles that are seen as components of such situations.1

By using this type of frame it is possible to see a clear structure of this phenomenon and also

how the different participants interact with each other.

(Figure 3 Semantic frame of participants involved with generous and greedy)

This is quite a simple frame, but it gives a hint as to how the different participants are related

to each other. In the scenario of generous ‘the giver’ gives property to ‘a receiver’. The object

moves in the same direction when it comes to greedy, but instead of ‘a receiver’ there is ‘a

taker’. Obviously, a person who has been more or less forced to give away something cannot

be called ‘a giver’, so therefore it may be more suitable to name this participant ‘an

involuntary giver’.

2.3 Verbs describing generous and greedy

The verbs most closely related to generous and greedy are give and take, due to the fact that a

generous person usually gives an object to someone and a greedy person often tends to take

1 (http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/ (FAQs))

Property

Giver Generous Receiver Involuntary giver Greedy Taker

Property

7

things. This section will try to outline the relation between the adjectives and verbs mentioned

above.

Give and take are the verbs that most correctly explain the fundamental processes of the

commercial transaction frame. Regardless of whether property is donated, sold, borrowed etc.

it is always either given or taken, because in all situations mentioned on page four and five an

object is transferred from the hands of one person to the hands of another.

The verbs give and take and the adjectives generous and greedy are different phenomena

that people in general have many opinions about. The concepts of ‘giving’ and ‘taking’ are a

matter of moral grading and the concepts of ‘givers’ and ‘takers’ are another matter of moral

grading resulting in adjectives such as generous, mean, greedy etc. These two concepts reveal

that there are socially grounded concepts of ‘generosity’, ‘greed’, ‘meanness’ and so on. The

whole scenario is judged and the perspectives are the following:

• Is the price in proportion to the goods?

• Is the gift in proportion to what the receiver deserves?

On the basis of these judgments the action may be labelled positively or negatively by

choosing various verbs. However, if the intension is to label the giver or the receiver/taker an

adjective is chosen after having studied how they act. Therefore, one may claim that it is the

positive or negative impressions of an action or a participant of an action that triggers value-

loaded terms. If a giver is considered to be too generous then he or she may be thought of as

lavishing, whereas the same action may be considered to be simply generous elsewhere.

It is also possible to identify different grades of these concepts, which has been done in

table 1.

8

Table 1 Different grades of ‘giving’ and ‘taking’

Give out/spend

too little/little

Give out/spend

Much/too much

Take

Take

Economise Squander Deprive Accept

Save and scrape Waste Steal Catch

Put by Lavish Shoplift Capture

Reserve Donate Receive Seize

It is interesting to note that it is not possible to grade the verb take in the same way as one can

do with give. The definition of ‘taking’ is more clear-cut than ‘giving’ because either an

object is taken or it is not. One possible exception might be steal and shoplift, where shoplift

signifies a minor theft of an object. However, it may be argued that regardless of the legal

definition of ‘stealing’, it can still be considered to be a matter of ‘taking’.

In order to make the relations between action and adjectives totally clear, a semantic

frame with judgment values has been inserted below. The relations between actions and

adjectives are illustrated in the semantic frame with judgment values in figure 4.

(Figure 4 Semantic frame with value judgments)2

2 Pos: source: BNC

COMPENSATION Value judgment:

Pos: a generous endowment

Neg: –

PROPERTY Value judgment:

Pos: a generous gift Neg: be chary of praise

RECEIVER Value judgment:

Pos: – Neg: greedy

GIVER Value judgment:

Pos: a generous donor Neg: stingy, mean

9

Figure 4 reveals how different value judgments may be attached to the participants involved

in certain events and it gives a hint as to what adjective belongs where in the semantic frame.

When figure 4 is studied it is important to keep in mind that this picture describes an event

containing a maximum number of participants which results in verbs such as sell, buy, lend,

lease, let, rent etc. The arrows establish in what direction an action or an object is moved and

the block arrows in the middle of the picture show that the action takes place between the

giver and the receiver.

2.4 Polysemy

A word is usually referred to as being polysemous when it has “multiple meanings that are

related conceptually or historically” (Fromkin et al 2003:180). The dictionary CC (1995) has

the following definitions of how the word generous should be interpreted:

Generous: 1. A generous person gives more of something, especially money, than is usual or expected. German banks are more generous in their lending… The gift is generous by any standards. ♦generously We would like to thank all the judges who gave so generously of their time. 2. A generous person is friendly, helpful, and willing to see the good qualities in someone or something. He was always generous in sharing his enormous knowledge… It would have been agreeable if Mr Ross could have been generous enough to congratulate his successor on his decision. ♦generously The students generously gave them instruction in social responsibility. 3. A generous amount of something is much larger than is usual or necessary. …a generous six weeks of annual holiday… He should be able to keep his room tidy with the generous amount of storage space. ♦generously Season the steaks generously with salt and pepper.

It is possible to identify three different definitions of how the word generous may be inter-

preted according to CC. The two definitions mentioned first concern people that either give

much to other people or are simply helpful and friendly. It appears as though a person can be

defined as being generous without actually giving away concrete things. The concept of

generosity may be more a matter of friendliness and how a particular person approaches other

people. This reveals something about society’s attitudes towards generosity, namely that

being helpful and friendly is considered to be a very important aspect of generosity.

The third definition is quite interesting, because after reading it one almost instantly

wonders if it is possible for things to be generous. “A generous six weeks” and “generous

Neg: source: NSEO/NESO

10

amount of storage space” imply that it is the nouns that are being generous, but that is not the

case. If you give more than is necessary, such as storage space, you are generous and

therefore the result is also generous. Usually, a generous gift is a result of generous giving and

generous giving is done by a generous person. When these statements are taken into

consideration sentences such as “a generous amount of storage space” becomes a bit more

logical and it becomes evident that generous has a slightly different meaning in this context

which has to do more with unexpected quantity than with the more prototypical definition of

generosity.

The interpretation of a word is a matter of context, because more often than not a word

that has similar or identical spelling can mean two entirely different things and therefore

context is the key to understanding a sentence completely. Different sentences containing

greedy and generous have been listed below to give examples of how these two words can

mean different things in different contexts. The following sentences are taken from BNC:

Generous:

(1) …Bo-Bo was generous with advice…

(2) A regular brisk walk will improve muscle tone, but in winter protect your cheeks

with a generous application of moisturiser and a soft woollen scarf pulled up round

your face.

(3) Chancellor Kohl has promised generous aid to support reforms in East Germany.

Greedy:

(4) You haven’t got one asset; and above all, you’re spiteful and greedy.

(5) He took in her appearance in a moment’s frank and greedy scrutiny and then gave a

little…

(6) Sometimes I’m really embarrassed about eating in front of people, in case they think

I’m greedy or fat.

The first thing that comes to mind when comparing greedy and generous is that while

generous has several meanings, greedy has not. According to LDCE (2003) greedy has the

following definition: “always wanting more food, money, power, possessions etc than you

need…” It cannot mean anything else, so therefore greedy is not part of the problem of

polysemy.

11

Generous, however, has a differentiation in meaning when comparing sentence (1), (2)

and (3) with each other. (1) means that Bo-Bo is giving a lot or perhaps too much advice to

other people. In (2) “…a generous application of moisturiser…” simply states that one should

use plenty of moisturiser in the winter. In (3) it is possible to say that it is a mix of both

explaining the action of ‘giving’ as well as the amount of aid that will be given. By using the

word generous in this sentence Chancellor Kohl may be perceived more positively than if

generous was substituted by another word. In this case generous gives a hint about the giver’s

generosity as well as the great amount of aid that will be given.

2.5 Synonymy

There are different words or synonyms for greedy and generous, which, when studied, may

give a wider view of these words’ different meanings and interpretations. Therefore, a number

of synonyms have been listed below to show how many words are considered to have the

same, or nearly the same, meaning as generous and greedy respectively. The following list of

synonyms is quoted from WDT (1999):

Generous: altruistic, beneficent, charitable, giving, lavish, liberal, magnanimous, munificent, noble, open-handed, philanthropic, unselfish; abundant, ample, bountiful, copious, flowing, overflowing, plentiful. Greedy: avaricious, covetous, grasping, mercenary, miserly, niggardly, parsimonious, rapacious, selfish, stingy, tight; devouring, gluttonous, insatiable, intemperate, ravenous, voracious.

Synonyms may give an insight as to how greedy and generous are valued. By studying words

with closely related meanings, it may be easier to gain a wider perspective of what, in this

case, generous and greedy really mean. Synonyms can never fully replace another word.

However, synonyms may be regarded as building bricks, each of them containing a piece of

information about a certain meaning of a word, which together can form a cohesive picture of

a word.

Another way of broadening one’s knowledge is to make a comparison between

languages.

2.6 Comparison between English and Swedish

A comparison between English and Swedish is useful because it increases our understanding

of how the different synonyms and antonyms are used in these two languages. It may also be

12

interesting to see if there are any differences concerning the interpretation of the two concepts

in the two languages. The words in table 2 are a selection from SSO (1990) and WDT (1999).

NSEO (2000) and NESO (2000) have been used for the translations.

Table 2 A selection of synonyms in English and Swedish

Generous Generös Greedy Girig charitable

/välgörande

frikostig

/liberal

avaricious

/girig, sniken

sniken

/avaricious

giving

givmild

/open-handed

voracious

/glupsk, omättlig

snål

/stingy, mean

lavish

/slösaktig

spendersam

/liberal, generous

insatiable

/omättlig

gnidig

/niggardly, miserly

magnanimous

/storsint, ädel

slösande

/lavish, abundant

grasping

/vinningslysten

fiken

/greedy, covetous

open-handed

/frikostig, givmild

gentil

/generous

mercenary

/egennyttig

vinningslysten

/grasping

abundant

/överflödande

oförbehållsam

/open

miserly

/gnidig, snål

njugg

/parsimonious

bountiful

/givmild, frikostig

vidhjärtad

selfish

/självisk

lysten

/covetous, desirous

beneficent

/välgörande

storsinnad

/magnanimous

stingy

/snål, njugg

närig

/stingy, grasping

Table 2 reveals a very clear pattern when it comes to evaluating what characteristics stand for

generous versus greedy. Generous is a very positively loaded word and a person who is

generous is distinguished by being charitable and giving. This adjective symbolises a desire to

give away concrete or abstract objects to people in need. However, generous has a more

negative feature as well, which is to be lavishing and abundant, which may imply

exaggerating things a bit.

Once again, greedy has proved to be much less complex than its antonym. Greedy has

nothing but negative features such as stingy, mean or avaricious. Grasping is quite an

interesting word, because here it is possible to actually see the basic meaning of this adjective,

13

namely to grasp things and take them into possession. Voracious and insatiable are two other

words that reveal a connection between greedy and the act of eating. To be greedy is never to

be satisfied with food and beverage you are offered to drink and eat.

In chapters three and four generous and greedy will be more thoroughly studied. Each

adjective will have its own chapter where it will be examined from a literal as well as a

metaphorical point of view.

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3. Corpus Data: Generous

3.1 Literal senses

WDT (1999) has the following definition as to what characteristics the adjective generous

has: “Giving or bestowing heartily and munificently… Having noble qualities… Bountiful…

Having stimulating qualities…”

3.1.1 Frequencies of generous

The search in BNC resulted in 398 matches of generous. The most frequent collocations are

shown in table 3.

Table 3 Collocate frequencies of generous

2nd left 1st left Generous 1st right 2nd right

17 the 73 a 20 and 47 of

16 a 39 and 14 with 29 to

15 and 26 the 9 in/support 18 and

14 was 23 more 8 to 16 the

11 were/for/of 17 very 7 than/the 14 for

And has a frequency of 15 and 39 to the left of generous and the frequency on the right side is

20 and 18. And in first position to the left and right of generous, reveals that the adjective is

often combined with other words. BNC gives examples of this such as:

(7) … he had been remarkably enlightened and often liberal and generous ruler.

(8) … kind and generous people…

(9) … generous and charitable…

(10) … very generous and very warm…

Examples (7) to (10) shows that and often combines generous with other positively loaded

words. One reason for this may be the desire to elaborate the concept of generosity.

15

Of was mentioned 47 times in the second position to the right and one possibility why

this is so is that of exists in constructions such as “…a generous slice of the United

Kingdom’s art” (BNC). That is to say, of explains the noun that comes after generous.

The frequency of 23 times that more preceded generous is also worth mentioning

because that word reveals something about how people may value generosity. A few

examples from BNC may display this phenomenon.

(11) … Americans tend to be more generous when pouring drinks…

(12) An account of his career from the French point of view would be much more

generous.

(13) I’m sure that many men are more generous than that.

Sometimes when a sentence contains the word combination “… more generous…” it is often

a way of comparing a thing or event with another. In (11) one could make the assumption that

it is a comparison between the generosity of the Americans, and perhaps most likely, another

nationality.

To is mentioned 29 times in the second position to the right which shows an interest in

naming to whom or what the generosity is directed. It is also a way of showing in what

direction generosity goes, which is from the hands of the giver (the generous person) to the

receiver who benefits from the action.

3.1.2 Various patterns of usage

271 examples were found of generous in an attributive position and only 93 of generous in a

predicative position, which means that it is more common to say “a generous man” rather than

“the man was generous”. The reason for this may be because of the large quantity of

sentences of the more metaphorical kind. Consider this example from BNC: “…it is a big-

hearted, generous book”. It is impossible to say: *”The book is very big-hearted and

generous”. Metaphorical expressions almost always use the attributive position of the

adjective rather that the predicative position.

Only one negation was to be found in the result from BNC, which is a clear sign that the

collocation “not generous” is very seldom used and that another word, such as stingy or

greedy, is chosen instead.

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3.2 Metaphorical senses

Metaphorical uses of words and meanings are often based on the literal meaning, but when

the desire is to express something figuratively the literal meaning is used on another level. It

is crucial to have a knowledge of the literal meaning before being able to understand the

metaphorical one. Consider (14) and (15) from BNC.

(14) I shall miss the kind and generous people of Normandy…

(15) … a beautiful horseshoe-shaped model village built around a generous green.

As perhaps is evident, (14) is the more literal example of generous and (15) is more of a

metaphorical kind. The most basic meaning of generous and the one that first comes to mind

when hearing that adjective is “a person being kind and giving to someone else”. This

meaning may later on have been applied to other words and circumstances, such as example

(15). When reading (15) it is easy to picture a village being situated around an enormous

green lawn. But where does generous fit in semantically if the meaning of (14) is taken into

account? Consider figure 5 below.

GENEROUS

↓

“GIVING MUCH AWAY”

↓

MUCH

↓

A LARGE QUANTITY OF AN ENTITY

(Figure 5 Development of meaning of generous)

Figure 5 shows a possible explanation of how generous may have developed into signifying

quantity. As is already made clear, generous means “to give away much” and after a while

this adjective may have come to be used when the purpose was to focus more on the word

much rather than the actual act of giving. As a result of this, generous began to be used when

referring to a large quantity of an entity.

This may be what has happened in (15). Hypothetically, people may have thought of

(15) as the result of God’s generous giving which resulted in a large area of a grass-covered

17

piece of land. It is impossible to say exactly where the literal meaning of a particular word

turns into being accepted figuratively as well as what may have caused this event.

3.2.1 Objects described as generous

Since this is an adjectival study, it is interesting to pay extra attention to what words follow

generous. Therefore, I have added the rest of the words that occur more often than three times

in table 4. Thus, table 4 is an extension of table 3.

Table 4 Collocate frequencies of 1st word to the right of generous

Generous 1st right

5 as/benefactor

4 terms/sponsorship/enough/but

3 financial/character/help/of/it/gesture

/one/people/gift/though

The word in first position to the right of generous may reveal a lot about the adjective that is

interesting in this study. For example “…generous support…”, “…generous benefactor…”,

“…generous sponsorship…”, “…generous character…”, “…generous gesture…” and

“…generous gift…” all help to add further information as to what generosity signifies.

Benefactor is perhaps the most evident example of this. A generous person is someone who

does good things to other people for example giving things away, being friendly, charitable

and so on. Since it is usually a person who is a benefactor the collocation “…generous

benefactor…” is more of a literal expression.

Support and sponsorship reveal other aspects of the meaning of being generous. One

can be supportive either by simply being there for someone else and sharing their feelings and

beliefs or it could be a matter of supporting for example a person or an institution financially.

All the examples listed above clearly show that generosity almost always favours the

recipient, because the giver ends up with less than what he or she had to begin with.

The objects most frequently mentioned as being generous in the result from BNC were

the following: help or aid, gesture and term. These were the results after having studied all of

the examples from BNC and not just the collocation frequency.

Being generous is about giving things of different kinds to other people and the first

three words are evidence of this. Particularly help and aid reveal how generous may be

18

apprehended by other people, because the purpose of being generous is often to benefit the

recipient and to help the recipient. The word term, however, is a bit trickier. An example of a

sentence containing term is sentence (16).

(16) We will offer the Loan Guarantee Scheme for small firms on more generous terms

in inner city areas.

The true meaning of generous is more hidden in a sentence like example (16). The

gesture is not quite as clear as it is in the collocation “…generous aid…” symbolising

kindness and friendliness. In (16) it is possible to say that the characteristics of “we”, that is

the giver in this example, has been extended into signifying the terms’ features as well.

3.2.2 Metaphorical expressions taken from BNC

It is often very difficult to establish whether an expression is metaphorical or not, and it is

also a matter of personal opinion which makes the whole thing even more complex.

Therefore, this paper includes a list of criteria which is based on my own idea of how an

expression can be labelled as being figurative or literal.

Criteria of characteristics of generous in literal expressions:

1. A human being functions as the agent in a sentence.

2. A human being expresses generosity.

3. Generosity is expressed towards a human being.

4. The object given is concrete.

These four criteria were taken into consideration when studying the result from BNC and the

list below is just a few examples from BNC that were particularly interesting. The total

number of metaphorical expressions was 308.

(17) …my standard glass, poured with a generous hand, would contain four or five

single measures.

(18) What is needed is generous help to ensure their children survive and aid systems

which really are of benefit to the people.

(19) …generous apologies and expressions of concern are far more effective…

(20) …a generous layer of peat…

19

(21) Like Modigliani, Jeanne was a romantic, a mysterious young woman with soulful

blue eyes and a generous mouth.

(22) …his more generous poetic or letter-writing hand.

(23) …in 1930, generous provision of land had been made and that was prudently

added to over the years.

(17) – (23) are more or less metaphorical expressions compared to the most fundamental

features of generous, which is ‘a person expressing generosity to another person by giving

him or her something’. As soon as one of the four criteria mentioned earlier is not fulfilled,

the sentences express more of a metaphorical meaning. This may be more easily understood

when studying table 5. (X stands for a fulfilled criterion of one particular example).

Table 5 Schematic analysis of metaphorical extensions of generous

Criteria:

Examples:

1 2 3 4

(17) X

(18) X

(19)

(20)

(21) X X

(22) X X

(23)

As is evident from table 5, there are few examples where the criteria for the literal uses of

generous may be applied. (19), (20) and (21) do not fulfil any of the criteria. None of the

sentences have a person who expresses generosity, which is one of the most fundamental

features of generous. The reason for this is because examples (17) – (23) contain an object,

either concrete or abstract, which is described as being generous. In (17), the generous hand

pours liquid into a glass and here the hand could be seen as an entity that instigates the action.

Therefore, it is possible to extend the literal meaning to a more figurative one. (18), (19) and

(20) all have abstract objects and since it is impossible for these kinds of objects to be

20

generous, they are bound to be more metaphorical. However, (21) contains a concrete object

that is generous, but in this example generous is used to express quantity or size.

(23) is quite an interesting example of a metaphorical expression where the generosity

has been transferred from the giver to the given object and it is even possible to describe the

action itself as generous. Consider (24a-d).

(24 a) The generous council provided plenty of land.

(b) The council generously provided plenty of land.

(c) A generous provision of land was made by the council.

(d) The council provided a generous area of land.

(24) takes the concept of generosity a step further and shows that generosity can be applied to

other participants besides the giver. This may be more easily understood when figure 6 is

studied.

(Figure 6 Participants described as generous)

In (24 a) the giver is seen as generous and nothing is strange about that since such a feeling is

something which only humans can feel. In (24 b) the giver’s generosity has rubbed off on the

action, so the generous giver also performs an action that is generous. In example (24 c, d) the

generosity has been extended into signifying an object that may carry this feeling as well, that

is the provision is seen as being generous. What has happened here is that the giver’s feelings

have been transferred to the objects. (24 c, d) indirectly means that it is the giver who is

generous and that one can tell so because of the object given.

Giver (24 a)

The object given (24 c, d)

Recipient The action (24 b)

21

It appears as though most of the metaphorical expressions contain an object being

generous and diagram 1 reveals what inanimate objects are most frequently used with

generous.

Diagram 1 The most frequently used objects described as generous

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

subsid

yoffe

r

sponso

rship

supp

ort

help/ai

dter

ms

amount o

f

Being generous is about helping and giving support to other human beings, which may

explain why support, help/aid, subsidy, offer and sponsorship are so frequently used

according to BNC.

Generous has also come to be used to express quantity, because the result from BNC

showed that expressions such as the following were quite common: “…a generous

number/amount/slice/range/portion of…”

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4. Corpus Data: Greedy

4.1 Literal senses

For greedy, LDCE (2003) gives the following definition: “always wanting more food, money,

power, possessions etc than you need…” Being greedy is about wanting as much as is

possible to get and it seems as though a greedy person particularly wants food or money.

CC (1995) has offered a slightly different explanation: “If you describe someone as

greedy, you mean that they want to have more of something such as food or money than is

necessary or fair.” CC points out that being greedy is not fair to other people since they are

deprived of what may be rightfully theirs. Being greedy may affect other people negatively.

4.1.1 Frequencies of greedy

Greedy had a frequency of only 79, which is a significant difference compared to generous.

The most common collocates of greedy are listed in table 6.

Table 6 Collocate frequencies of greedy

2nd left 1st left Greedy 1st right 2nd right

4 to 10 the 8 and 3 of

9 and 3 horse 3 and

5 a/too 3 you

4 or

3 are/is/be

And had a total frequency of 20. However, the first position to the left and the first position to

the right are the most interesting ones to focus on. This word may help to conjoin other words

related to greedy which may give an insight as to how people view greedy and the people who

possess this characteristic. The following examples were found in the result from BNC:

(25) “…greedy and tyrannous… “,

(26) “…greedy and self-interested…”

(27) “…greedy and materialistic…”

(28) “…rich and greedy…”

23

(29) “…ferocious and greedy…”

The examples pretty much speak for themselves, but (28) is especially interesting. That

example reveals a behaviour which unfortunately is quite a common phenomenon. To be rich

does not hinder people from wanting to have even more and it seems as though people are

never satisfied, which is what greedy is all about. A greedy person wants to have everything

and the fact that he or she may be rich and others are poor and needy is not important. The

only thing that matters is to have as much as possible which brings me to example (27). It

seems as though being greedy usually signifies wanting concrete things such as food, money

and other objects that may be used. People are seldom greedy for love. Is it possible to draw

the conclusion that being greedy is about caring more about dead things than the living ones?

Too is another interesting collocate with a frequency of 5. Obviously, there exists such a

thing as being ‘too greedy’. Study examples (30) and (31).

(30) … Hitler’s getting altogether too greedy.

(31) Liza burned her tongue, testing whether it would set or not, and being too greedy to

taste or anxious to please.

To be a bit greedy may be considered to be quite a good quality in a leader or a politician.

However, it is possible to be too greedy and (30) is a clear-cut example of this phenomenon.

Hitler’s evil greediness got out of control and millions of people lost their lives. Even though

(30) is a somewhat extreme example, it helps to shed a light over what greed once has caused.

Sentence (31) is less extreme, but still Liza burns her tongue because she is too greedy in

tasting the jelly. The message is obvious: being too greedy may be harmful to oneself or other

people. Possibly it is good to be a little greedy sometimes, but it is seldom good to be too

greedy and this is shown in the outcome of the events in (30) as well as (31).

4.1.2 Various patterns of usage

It appears as though it is mostly humans who are greedy because the result from BNC showed

that over half of all the examples listed there involved a person expressing greed. However,

the same sentences almost always lacked the source of greed and therefore it may be suitable

to draw the conclusion that people find it less important to state what someone is greedy for

and that it is enough to simply highlight the greedy person.

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Greedy was found to be placed in an attributive position in 46 instances and only 30 in a

predicative position. The reason why this is so may be because the attributive use of greedy

involves a simpler syntax and contains fewer words compared to the predicative use of the

adjective.

Only one negation was found in BNC, which reveals that it is not very common to say

“not greedy”, because that collocation is more difficult to use. It is also rather vague because

the antonyms for that collocation are many. Anything from giving, generous, kind etc to

lavishing, liberal and magnanimous. These words are more expressive and they all show

different angles of being “not greedy” but they do not have the same meaning. Words such as

lavishing or generous may present a better picture of a particular situation.

Figure 7 shows a selection of some typical human characteristics and their antonyms

within parenthesis.

A selection of a person’s characteristics:

(Figure 7 Adjectives and the difference between their antonyms)

One reason why negations may not be used so frequently is because it only can tell something

which that particular person is not, rather than something he or she is. To say “she was not

greedy” simply points out that maybe at first she was considered to be greedy, but it later on

turned out that she was not. If she is not greedy, then that particular characteristic is removed

from her. Naturally, greedy should be replaced by one of its antonyms and in figure 7

generous and liberal are given as possible replacements. However, it is important to

HANDSOME

(UGLY, REPELLING) SUCCESSFUL MEAN (FAILED, FRUITLESS) (KIND, FRIENDLY)

(GENEROUS, LIBERAL)

GREEDY

25

remember that “not greedy” does not always mean that the person is generous, which may be

one reason why a negation could be preferred instead of an antonym.

4.2 Metaphorical senses

It turns out that metaphorical extensions of greedy were not very common. Out of 79

examples only 14 were of a metaphorical kind. However, it seems as though the metaphors

containing greedy were extended in a manner similar to the metaphors with generous. Figure

8 shows a possible pattern for how greedy has been extended.

GREEDY

↓

“TO WANT OR TAKE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE”

↓

MUCH

↓

TAKE (TOO) MUCH FIGURATIVELY

(Figure 8 Development of meaning of greedy)

Figure 8 shows one possible reason for how greedy may have developed into being used in

metaphorical expressions. Greedy means something like “to want or take as much as

possible” and therefore it is not so far-fetched to extend this into taking too much figuratively

as well.

4.2.1 Metaphorical expressions taken from BNC

Criteria of characteristics of greedy in literal expressions:

1. A human being functions as the agent in a sentence.

2. A human being expresses greed.

3. The source of greed is either concrete or abstract objects.

Based on the criteria above, metaphorical extensions were identified and sentence (32) – (38)

are only a selection of the metaphors of greedy which were found in BNC. The total number

of metaphors was 14.

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(32) With Raskolnikov the issue has been naturalized into a restless and greedy

discontent.

(33) He took in her appearance in a moment’s frank and greedy scrutiny…

(34) But they are greedy plants where space is concerned…

(35) … sexuality today is merely greedy, blind, self-seeking…

(36) The vision of Elena Silves, despite its rather cautious prose style, is in the end a

quite moving story of individuals swallowed up by dogma’s greedy maw.

(37) Sir George put the letters into his wife’s lap. And she turned them over and over,

under the greedy eyes of the two scholars.

(38) …a greedy horse may be upset by empty hands that smell of food…

(32) – (38) may be considered to be more of a metaphorical kind when comparing the features

of the literal meaning of greedy. A sentence with greedy that fulfils all of the three criteria

listed above may look like this: “The man was greedy for food”. When comparing this

sentence to (32) – (38) it may be easier to outline exactly why they are metaphors. Consider

table 7. (X stands for a fulfilled criterion of one particular example).

Table 7 Schematic analysis of metaphorical extensions of greedy

Criteria:

Sentences:

1 2 3

(32)

(33) X

(34)

(35)

(36)

(37) X

(38)

Only (33) and (37) could fulfil any of the criteria, which was the one where a human being

functions as the agent in the sentence. Based on this fact, it is possible to say that (32) – (38)

are more or less metaphorical expressions. None of the sentences could fulfil criteria number

two which may be one of the most important features of a literal expression. Greed is a human

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feeling which does not exist anywhere else, particularly not in inanimate objects as is the case

in (34). In literal contexts, there is no such thing as “a greedy plant”, since obviously, plants

are without emotions. This is a human description of a plant that is growing, perhaps too fast,

and takes up too much space for it to be convenient.

(37) is another interesting example of a metaphor, where the greediness experienced by

a person has been extended to describe the eyes of that person. The purpose of the sentence is

to highlight the fact that the greed the person in question is feeling is revealed through his or

her eyes. “Greedy eyes” makes an attempt at describing the person’s feelings as well as what

the eyes looked like and how they behaved.

An example closely related to this is (33), where it is ‘a scrutiny’ that is greedy. This is

only possible in metaphors since it is an abstract object expressing greed. The picture that is

supposed to pop up in one’s head when reading sentence (33) is a person scrutinising

someone and taking in every single detail and evaluating what is being seen.

Diagram 2 The most frequently used objects described as greedy

0

1

2

3

elite

eyes

plant

scru

tiny

public se

ctor

Objects were seldom considered to be greedy according to BNC, wherefore diagram 2 looks a

bit meagre. Elite and public sector were mentioned as being greedy two times respectively,

but whether or not these are real objects is ambiguous, because they may be constituted by

people. Perhaps elite is more rightly labelled as metonymy since it is treated as a collective

noun that contains a particular group of people.

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Public sector might also be regarded similarly to elite, but this word is more of a

metaphorical expression. The society is viewed as having the shape of a circle which is

divided up into several sectors, where public sector is one of them.

The rest of the objects mentioned in diagram 2, eyes, plant and scrutiny, are without a

doubt abstract objects and when abstract objects are described as having human feelings they

are metaphors.

As opposed to generous, none of these words in diagram 2 add any further meaning to

greedy.

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5. Generous and greedy compared

Generous had a total frequency of 398 whereas greedy had a result of only 79. This must

mean that people tend to prefer to use generous rather than greedy, but why is this so? One

explanation may be the desire to bring forth people’s good sides rather than their bad ones.

However, one reason for this unevenness is because the result of generous contained 308

metaphorical expressions compared to the 14 metaphorical examples with greedy. The huge

difference between generous and greedy is partly due to the fact that generous is very often

extended to signify quantity. This is illustrated in (39) where it is possible to exchange

generous for large.

(39) Steven paid his neighbour a generous sum of money for a CD.

People are often interested in size which may be one explanation as to why greedy has not

been developed into meaning ‘small’ or ‘little’.

It is not so much the adjectives themselves that may say something about what they

signify. Rather, it is the surrounding words that should be studied more thoroughly. Table 8

shows what adjectives surrounded generous and greedy in the result from BNC.

Table 8 Adjectives surrounding generous and greedy

Adjectives with generous Adjectives with greedy

liberal and generous ruler greedy and tyrannous

kind and generous people greedy and self-interested

very generous and very warm greedy and materialistic

generous and charitable rich and greedy

Table 8 pretty much speaks for itself, but to sum it all up it is possible to say that generous has

only positive qualities whereas greedy has nothing but negative features.

Apart from the surrounding adjectives, one may also consider the objects that are

described as being generous or greedy in the metaphorical extensions. Table 9 clearly shows

what differences there are between these expressions.

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Table 9 A comparison between the metaphorical uses of generous and greedy

Metaphorical expressions with generous Metaphorical expressions with greedy

a generous hand greedy discontent

generous help a moment’s frank and greedy scrutiny

generous apologies greedy plants

a generous layer of peat sexuality today is merely greedy

a generous mouth dogma’s greedy maw

his more generous poetic or letter-writing

hand

greedy eyes

generous provision of land greedy horse

Simply taking a look at the different objects in table 9 clearly reveals what characteristics

generous and greedy have. Besides expressing quantity, generous has “kind” words such as

help and apologies, whereas greedy has more negatively loaded words, for example

discontent and scrutiny.

Hand and eyes may be viewed as being metonymies for the individual owning the eyes

and hands. The individual is generous and gives away much using his or her hand and

therefore the generosity reflects on the object hand. The same thing goes for eyes. The greedy

person may look a lot at the object desired and therefore this has been extended to the eyes

being greedy.

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6. Summary and conclusion

This paper has dealt with an analysis of the adjectives generous and greedy and the purpose of

making this analysis was to find out in what way and to what extent the adjectives generous

and greedy differ regarding usage frequency and in what contexts they are used. My research

for this paper is based on a computer search program called MP2.2 which was applied to the

A files of the British National Corpus.

A search of generous and greedy in MP2.2 had the following result:

– Generous had a result of 398

– Greedy had a result of 79

Generous had such a high frequency partly because of the many metaphorical expressions that

contained this adjective. However, the trend seems to point in another direction as well.

People tend to prefer using generous because it simply is nicer to express people’s good sides

rather than their bad ones.

The objects mostly described as generous in the metaphorical expressions found in BNC

were help, support and offer. The objects described as greedy were eyes, scrutiny and public

sector. When studying these objects it becomes quite evident that the first three objects help

to describe the characteristics of generous, whereas the other three objects do not reveal

anything about greedy. Maybe this result is also due to the fact that generous is more

frequently used which means that people extend the area of usage of generous constantly.

This essay has focused on analysing how generous and greedy are used and also to some

extent how these adjectives may be perceived by others. Making judgments like this is deeply

rooted into society, and therefore it may be interesting to make an in-depth analysis based on

the thoughts and feelings of a group of native speakers. An insight into people’s notions about

language and words would surely take these kinds of researches a step further and it would

also contribute to make adjectives such as generous and greedy more vivid.

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7. References

Primary sources: British National Corpus Secondary sources: Fromkin, V. Rodman, R. Hyams, N. (2003) An introduction to language. Boston: Heinle. Reeve, A. (1986) Property. London: Macmillan Education Ltd. Sinclair, J. (Editor in Chief) (1995) Collins COBUILD English Dictionary. London: HarperCollins

Publishers. Strömberg, A. (1990) Stora synonymordboken. Stockholm: Strömbergs. Tomasello, M. (1998) ‘One child’s early talk about possession’. In Newman, J. (ed), The linguistics of

giving. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Author unknown (2005) ‘What is a frame and how do you know that you’ve got one?’

http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu (FAQs) (March 26, 2006). Norstedts stora engelsk-svenska ordbok. Gjøvik 2000: AiT. Norstedts stora svensk-engelska ordbok. Gjøvik 2000: AiT. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Harlow, Essex 2003: Pearson Education Limited. Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus. Chicago 1999: Trident Press International.