1 As old as time, as straight as a line As royal as a queen, as buzzed as a bee As stealth as a tiger, smooth as a glider Pure as a melody, pure as I wanna be (Lenka) Toward a cognitive typology of like-expressions Wolfgang Schulze (University of Munich) Abstract: From a typological point of view, expressions of likeness are marked for a seemingly heterogeneous set of corresponding linguistic representations, ranging for instance from locative-based case marking strategies to lexical expressions and constructional patterns. I argue that LIKE-concepts represent stative or processual/dynamic transitive relational units and hence entail strong ‘verbal’ features. This aspect links the question of the conceptual background of LIKE-concepts to the domain of word classes. Accordingly, the semantics of LIKE-expressions is conditions both by the underlying conceptual source domain and the syntactic role the expression (lexeme or morpheme) takes up in a LIKE- relation. In this sense, the paper distinguishes intraclausal verbal patterns (she equals/is like a queen) from clause combining patterns that relate to event images (she swims like a fish < *she swims like a fish swims). In addition, LIKE-concepts can show up as relational concepts within NPs or as adverbial elements. Such syntactically and in parts pragmatically controlled features have a strong impact on the semantic instantiation of LIKE-concepts that by themselves form a subtype of projection strategies. In fact, LIKE-concepts can be can be scaled according to the degree to which the domain of the OTHER is mapped onto the identity of the referent. Such a scale may start from the following model: SIMILAR TO Y> ALIKE/EQUAL TO Y > BECOME/CHANGE TO Y > TEMPORARILY BE Y > BE Y. Contrary to identification concepts, LIKE-concepts do not signal the inclusion of a referential unit into a specific set or the referential specification of given ‘properties’. Rather, LIKE- concepts are projection strategies that relate a referential unit to properties of another referential unit in a way that ‘disguises’ or ‘masks’ the trajectory unit with the help of properties typical for the landmark unit. This relates them to BECOME- concepts (temporary transfiguration), MOTION (“X moves into the region of Y thus acquiring properties of Y”) and IMAGING/IMITATION (“X is the picture of Y”, “X mirrors Y” etc.). In addition, disguising processes can be directly expressed by referring to the domain of gestalt/shape. This model is probably related to cultural practices of temporary transfiguration. The paper elaborates these conceptual source domains from the point of view of diachronic lexical typology. Data used to illustrate these domains are mainly taken form Indo-European languages supplemented by data from non-Indo- European, mainly Semitic languages. Additionally, the findings are evaluated with the help of data stemming from basically two East Caucasian languages, namely Udi and its earlier relative Caucasian Albanian. The results of the second part of the paper will elaborate the proposed (diachronic) semantic map of LIKE-concepts that may serve as a preliminary template when searching for features of both Universal Cognitive Semantics and Cultural Linguistics with respect to the typology of LIKE-concepts. Keywords: Historical Cognitive Semantics, Diachronic Typology, source domains of LIKE-concepts, Indo-European, Semitic, and East Caucasian languages 1. Introduction 1 One of the most famous hypotheses uttered by the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) is encapsulated in the dictum homo homini deus est (‘the human is (a) God for the human’) (Feuerbach 1965 [1841]: 408]). This dictum is a quote from Hobbes’ Elementa philosophica de cive, more precisely from the dedication, where Hobbes states: “Profecto utrumque verè dictum est, Homo homini Deus, & Homo homini Lupus” [italics in the original] ‘(…) both sentences are surely true: The human is a God for the human, and the human is a wolf for the human’ (Hobbes 1657: 3). The second part of Hobbes’ formula stems from the Roman poet Titus Maccius Plautus (~ 250 - ~ 184 BCE). In the comedy Asinaria, a trader says: “sed tamen me numquam hodie induces, ut tibi credam hoc argentum ignoto. Lupus est 1 Thanks to Yvonne Treis (Paris), to Dieter Gunkel (Munich), and to an anonymous reviewer who drew my attention to some false assumptions and corrected other erroneous formulations. Manuscript / to appear in a volume edited by Yvonne Treis and Martine Vanhove.