ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the introductory background for explorations into semantic variation in natural language by placing it in the larger context of form-meaning correspondences. While investigations in language typology proceed by fixing linguistic functions or meanings and then checking the variation in forms against those functions or meanings, fixing linguistic forms and then observing variation in linguistic meanings cannot be feasible because the forms themselves vary across languages. The latter task is a challenging one and is to be done by looking into systematic correspondences between variations in meanings and patterns of linguistic forms. Then this chapter underscores the cognitive underpinning of typological generalizations that can be drawn up with respect to the unified system of semantic representations to be formulated. Finally, this chapter provides a roadmap for the next chapters.
