This volume is the first to be devoted specifically to the study of
lexical semantics in Ancient Egyptian. While much research has been
dedicated to a wide range of grammatical issues in past decades, lexical
semantics has rarely been treated in a systematic fashion. The papers
collected here treat a range of semantic phenomena, from the lexical
semantics of spatial expressions, to the problems of analyzing
polyfunctionality and even to the semantics of the Egyptian writing
system. The scope of these issues goes well beyond the individual 'word'
or lexical item, as a number of papers address the semantics of
syntactic constructions. Some authors call into question the distinction
between lexicon and grammar, or analyze the lexical semantics of items
usually considered 'grammatical' or 'function' words, such as discourse
particles. This volume also spans a number of theoretical frameworks and
methodologies that have not been prominent in Egyptian linguistics and
philology, such as typologically-oriented semantic maps and other visual
tools. The papers in this volume do not aim to define the 'state of the
art, ' but rather seek to stimulate the study of meaning in Ancient
Egyptian, to point to innovative avenues for future research, and to
engage in a broader dialogue between Egyptian linguistics and philology,
on the one hand, and the research frameworks and agendas of general
linguistics, on the other.
