The Pragmatic Functions of Metaphorical Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
Bálint Forgács
Keyword(s):  
Metaphorical Language

The Philological Endeavours of the Early Arabic Linguists: Theological Implications of the tawqīf-iṡṫilāh Antithesis and the majāz Controversy (Part II)

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Shah
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Ibn Taymiyya ◽  
The Aesthetic

The concluding part of the article pursues the theoretical arguments which relate to the tawqīf-işṭilāḥ debate on the origin of language and the intricate link with the concept of majāz. The article attempts to show how the question of the origin of language was imported into the controversy relating to the resort to metaphor and figurative language in the exegesis of the Qur'an and Prophetic dicta. Moreover, there was concern in some quarters that religious doctrines were being articulated through a veneer of metaphorical language. Some theologians had, in presenting a hypothesis for the existence of tropical expressions in the idiom of Arabic, referred to the concept of işṭilāḥ to justify their arguments, whilst tawqīf al-lugha was adduced to counter such reasoning. The religious significance of the issue is highlighted by Ibn Taymiyya who advances the thesis that the evolved concept of majāz was expressly formulated at a posterior juncture in the development of the Islamic tradition. He vociferously argues that a developed concept of majāz was insidiously exploited by those with preconceived theological motives. The article shows why Ibn Taymiyya had to discard the perceived sacrosanct doctrine of tawqīfal-lugha in order to refute theoretically the concept of majāz. This also meant that for scholars of the same view as Ibn Taymiyya, the aesthetic features associated with the device of majāz were summarily disregarded. Nevertheless, a concept of majāz was explicitly endorsed as an indisputable feature of the Arabic language by a majority of scholars.

THE HERALD OF SPRING. IMAGE OF ARMENIAN HERO IN THE POEM OF AHMAD SHAMLU "VARTAN

2021 ◽  
pp. 240-250
Author(s):  
Lilit Safrastyan
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Love Poetry ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Special Place ◽  
Creative Life

THE HERALD OF SPRING. IMAGE OF ARMENIAN HERO IN THE POEM OF AHMAD SHAMLU "VARTAN" Ahmad Shamlou is one of the most prominent representatives of the Iranian literature of the 20th century, who stood at the roots of the anti-dictatorship struggle, carrying out creative and social activities. Shamlu's unbreakable revolutionary spirit, love for the homeland and a human being have found their vivid expression in his works. In the very first period of his career, Shamlu was persecuted and imprisoned many times as a dissident. Many of his works, including translations, literary works, were censored and burned in printing houses. Armenians have a special place in Shamlu's personal and creative life. The main heroine of Shamlu's inspiration was his wife Aida Sargsyan, to whom he dedicated the most beautiful poems of modern Iranian love poetry. Armenian revolutionary hero Vartan Salakhanyan's character was also immortalized by the poet in the famous poem "Vardan" or "Nazli's death". In this poem Ahmad Shamlu depicts the heroic feats of the Armenian hero in metaphorical language, calling him "The Herald of Spring".

What Time Does in Language: a Cross-Linguistic Cognitive Study of Source Related Variation in Verbal Time Metaphors in American English, Finnish and Hungarian

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-238
Author(s):  
Zsuzsa Máthé
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
American English ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Source Domain ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Related Variation ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Cognitive Study

"What Time Does in Language: a Cross-Linguistic Cognitive Study of Source Related Variation in Verbal Time Metaphors in American English, Finnish and Hungarian. Such a universal yet abstract concept as time shows variation in metaphorical language. This research focuses on metaphorical language within the framework of the cognitive metaphor theory, investigating time through a contrastive cross-linguistic approach in three satellite-framed languages. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this study attempts to identify what time does in language in a metaphorical context, with a focus on verbs in causative constructions (e.g. time heals) as well as manner of motion verbs (e.g. time rushes), through an empirical corpus-based study complemented by the lexical approach. The two main conceptual metaphors that are investigated in this study are TIME IS A CHANGER and TIME IS A MOVING ENTITY. While these two conceptual metaphors are expected to be frequent in all three languages, differences such as negative/positive asymmetry or preference of a type of motion over another are expected to be found. The primary objective is to explore such differences and see how they manifest and why. The hypothesis is that variations among the three languages related to the source domain (CHANGER and MOVING ENTITY), are more likely to be internal and not external. The purpose is to investigate these variations and to determine what cognitive underpinnings they can be traced back to, with a focus on image schemas. The study reveals that source internal variation does prevail over source external variation. The results show that cross-linguistic differences of such a relevant concept as time do exist but more often through unique characteristics of the same source domain rather than new, distinctive domains. Keywords: cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, conceptual metaphor theory, metaphorical entailments, source domain "

Metaphor and Analogy in Theology: A Choice between Lions and Witches, and Wardrobes?

2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 696-717
Author(s):  
Ligita Ryliškytė
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Mystical Tradition ◽  
Theological Discourse

Through a reconsideration of metaphorical language in its relation to analogy, this essay brings into conversation the divergent currents of spirituality and theology. The author advocates a theological approach which values and appropriately employs both analogical and figurative language as the means for integrating the speculative and spiritual dimensions of theological discourse. In particular, by referring to the Christian mystical tradition, metaphor can be deployed as a creative modification of the standard triplex via of analogical predication.

scholarly journals Metaphor and Reading Comprehension

1976 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Cloze Test

In this study the influence of the amount of metaphor in written language upon reading comprehension is analyzed. Subjects in this study, 190 sixth graders, read two passages, relating the same events, but differing in the amount of metaphorical language used. Comprehension was measured by means of a cloze test. Though both passage versions yielded identical readability estimates, cloze comprehension of the metaphorical passage was lower than the comprehension of the non-metaphorical version.

scholarly journals The King Never Dies: Royal Renunciation and the Fiction of Jain Sovereignty

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 986
Author(s):  
Sarah Pierce Taylor
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Political Problem

To theorize Jain sovereignty, this essay takes up Ernst Kantorowicz’s underlying query of what happens when a king dies. In turning to medieval Jain authors such as Jinasena, we see how sovereignty and renunciation were mutually constituted such that the king’s renunciation completely subverts the problem of the king’s death. If the fiction of Jain kingship properly practiced culminates in renunciation, then such a movement yields up a new figure of the ascetic self-sovereign. Renunciation does not sever sovereignty but extends it into a higher spiritual domain. Worldly and spiritual sovereignty share a metaphorical language and set of techniques that render them as adjacent but hierarchical spheres of authority. In so doing, Jain authors provide a religious answer to a political problem and make the political inbuilt into the religious, thereby revealing their interpenetrating and bounded nature.

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