The Process of Meaning-Formation for East and West: Typology of Formulas

The present paper provides the analysis of the process of meaning-formation for the geographical orientations East and West in order to propose a typology for formulas meaning-formation. As a result, several major formulas have been recognized as follows: formation on the basis of movement of the Sun, on the basis of daily times, on the basis of body sides and on the basis of natural phenomena. All these major formulas are developed more or less in several minor formulas. The discussed formulas in the paper are extracted from real applications and verified with one or more samples from different languages across the world. The first result of this kind of study is finding out the various formulas used to build a specified meaning common between the peoples of different areas of the worlds, which leads to a typological semantics. Going through a puzzle-solving way of relationship between the equivalent meanings, we can lead to detect some meanings with complex or unknown formation in comparison. Furthermore, reviewing the surveyed samples, we can realize that the types of meaning-formation are not necessarily the same in cognate languages. Then this sort of study makes a ground for a semantic-typological relationship between the languages in morphology; a relationship which is free from the genetic bounds and mostly refers to the natural and cultural circumstances. Comparative study of meaning-formation formula is such a linguistic research that make comparative studies between languages possible, regardless of language cognation. This kind of research in the context of linguistics, provides a suitable ground for recognizing unknown roots and helps finding lost relations in word changes chain. Beyond linguistics, however, working on meaning-formation formula is actually such a study of history of ideas and can reveal some aspects of thinking ways and culture of various nations. In the present paper, the geographical orientations East and West has been selected as the study subject, because it has been common matter among various east and west nations.