Unweaving the embodied nature of English temporal prepositions

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier A. Morras Cortés ◽  
Xu Wen

Abstract The metaphor time is space (Lakoff & Johnson 1999) and the pervasiveness of metaphor and image-schematic structure in human conceptualization (Johnson 1987; Hampe 2005) have been widely accepted among cognitive scientists as constructs that help explain non-spatial and temporal linguistic constructions. However, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) might not be the whole story. While it is acceptable that moments in time can be construed as being analogous to points in space as in utterances such as at the corner vs. at 2:30, there seems to be much more temporal cognition than previously thought. It turns out that time exhibits its own structure (following Evans 2004, 2013; Galton 2011) that is based on transience. This idea has made some scholars support the weak version of CMT which posits that the temporal meaning of prepositions is represented and processed independently of the corresponding spatial meanings (see Kemmerer 2005 for such a view). The present article supports the idea that spatial and temporal structures complement each other in order to achieve temporal conceptions. This is indeed a conceptual pattern showed by the English preposition at that makes use of an extrinsic temporal reference to activate its temporal semantics. To analyze the different temporal realizations that at may have, the paper aims to identify the topological structure that underlies the conceptual basis of this preposition. This allows us to appreciate how the spatio-conceptual structure of at partially structures temporal conceptions. The paper also identifies the nature of the temporal structure that is involved in temporal realizations. The article concludes with some remarks, among them the pivotal role of the schematic temporal structure that is captured by the extrinsic temporal reference, and the role of conceptual metaphor in underdetermining temporal thinking.

Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses

The chapter reports on work concerned with the issue of how conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) functions as a link between culture and cognition. Three large areas are investigated to this effect. First, work on the interaction between conceptual metaphors, on the one hand, and folk and expert theories of emotion, on the other, is surveyed. Second, the issue of metaphorical universality and variation is addressed, together with that of the function of embodiment in metaphor. Third, a contextualist view of conceptual metaphors is proposed. The discussion of these issues leads to a new and integrated understanding of the role of metaphor and metonymy in creating cultural reality and that of metaphorical variation across and within cultures, as well as individuals.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Forceville

Since the publication of Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By (1980), conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) has dominated metaphor studies. While one of the central tenets of that monograph is that metaphors are primarily a phenomenon of thought, not of language, conceptual metaphors have until recently been studied almost exclusively via verbal expressions. Another limitation of the CMT paradigm is that it has tended to focus on deeply embedded metaphors rather than on creative metaphors of the kind that Black (1979) discusses. One result of this focus is that relatively little attention is paid in CMT to the form and appearance a metaphor can assume (cf. Lakoff and Turner 1989). Clearly, which channel(s) of information (language, visuals, sound, gestures, among others) are chosen to convey a metaphor is a central factor in how a metaphor is construed and interpreted. A healthy theory of metaphor as a structuring element of thought therefore requires systematic examination of both its multimodal and its creative manifestations. Conversely, research into non-verbal and multimodal metaphor can help the theorization of multimodality.In this paper it is shown that creative metaphors occurring in commercials usually draw on a combination of language, pictures, and non-verbal sound. After an inventory of parameters involved in the analysis of multimodal metaphors, ten cases are discussed, with specific attention to the role of the various modes in the metaphors’ construal and interpretation. On the basis of the case studies, the last sections of the paper discuss three issues that are crucial for further study: (1) the ways in which similarity is cued in multimodal, as opposed to verbal, metaphors; (2) the problems adhering to the verbalization of multimodal metaphors; (3) the influence of textual genre on the interpretation of multimodal metaphors.


This paper discusses the system of conceptual metaphors reconstructed via analysis of metaphorical expressions (ME) employed by eight popular Ukrainian newspapers (Holos Ukrainy, Uriadovyi Kurier, Den', Dzerkalo Tyzhnya, Gazeta Po-Ukrains'ky, Segodnya, Ukraina Moloda, and Kommmentarii) published in January – June, 2016. The ME describe perceptions of the EU, Ukraine, and their cooperation in the target conceptual spaces of POLITICS and ECONOMY. The data are processed according to an authentic methodology applicable to multiple metaphorical expressions [Zhabotynska 2013a; 2013b; 2016]. Grounded on the findings of Conceptual Metaphor Theory [Lakoff and Johnson 1980], this methodology represents an algorithm for exposure and further description of conceptual metaphors applied in a thematically homogeneous discourse, and manifested by multiple ME. Their analysis, aiming to portray some metaphorical system as a whole, provides an in-depth study of its target and source conceptual spaces and an empirically rigorous account of their cross-mapping influenced by the discourse type. In this study focused on mass media political discourse, the reconstructed system of conceptual metaphors demonstrates Ukraine’s stance on its relations with the EU and contributes to understanding the role of political metaphor as a mind-shaping device.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Amani M. Alhusban ◽  
Mohammad Alkhawaldah

This paper examines a number of Quranic conceptual metaphors from the perspective of Kövecses (2013) model of metaphor analysis. This is a model of metaphorical expressions’ meaning construction based on the idea of the main meaning construction that incorporates in its analysis aspects from both cognitive theories, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and the Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) (Faucconier and Turner, 1998, 2003). The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the adequacy of Kövecses (2013) four-stage model for studying the meaning construction of metaphorical expressions in the Holy Quran, and to draw attention to the important role of lexical items in the appropriate meaning specification which enables comprehending the divine messages implemented in Quranic metaphorical instantiation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Semino

In this paper I discuss a form of metaphorical creativity that involves the introduction of ‘unrealistic’ scenarios for rhetorical purposes in expository and argumentative texts. I primarily account for the nature and function of this form of creativity in terms of Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) notion of Blending, with some references to Conceptual Metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 1999). I show that a proper account of the textual extracts I analyse needs to include the role of genre in the construction and interpretation of texts, and allow for differences in meaning construction between writers and readers, and between different groups of readers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Sullivan

Metaphoric language can be examined either from the standpoint of conceptual structure or from the perspective of linguistic form. The role of conceptual metaphor in metaphoric language has received considerable attention, notably in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Blending Theory, but the impact of linguistic form remains less well understood. Brooke-Rose’s A Grammar of Metaphor (1958) presents subjective impressions of various forms, and more recently, cognitive linguists have examined the metaphoric uses of individual grammatical constructions. However, Stockwell offers the most methodical and comprehensive comparison of metaphorically used constructions along a specified parameter, that of ‘visibility’ (1992, 2000, 2002). On the cline of visibility, constructions range from the most visible constructions, such as simile, to the least visible, such as allegory. The current article draws on Sullivan’s (2013) study of the role of grammatical constructions in metaphoric language to examine and refine Stockwell’s cline of visibility, inputting the syntactic characteristics of Stockwell’s metaphoric constructions into a multidimensional scaling analysis. The results support Stockwell’s dimension of ‘visibility’, but suggest that the distinctions between metaphorically used constructions are better accounted for in a two-dimensional analysis that considers the dimension of ‘economy’ – the linguistic complexity required to express a conceptual metaphor – alongside ‘visibility’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-32
Author(s):  
Hari Narayanan V ◽  

The paper seeks to argue that different ways in which the self is understood, even if radically distinct from one another, are cases of different narratives. This is done by appealing to conceptual metaphor theory. The paper begins by briefly explaining the difference between the minimal and narrative self and then argues that even radically different ways of understanding the self are cases of different narratives arising out of a metaphorical understanding of abstract concepts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 112-146
Author(s):  
Isabella Sandwell

Abstract This essay explores what Gregory of Nyssa is doing when he claims in Against Eunomius that his use of the language of “father,” “son” and “begetting” for the divine is supported by the “apprehension of ordinary people” and by the “judgement of nature.” It uses conceptual metaphor theory in order to show that while Gregory recognised the role of ordinary human language in comprehending the divine, and so engaged with normal conceptual mappings from the domain of kinship, he also sought to transform those mappings in order to transform peoples’ thought processes and thus how they conceptualised the divine.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amelia Thomley ◽  
Adam Safron

This paper offers an introduction to conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), rooted in the cognitive linguistics field of study, and its application to art therapy theory and practice. Utilizing comics as a form of further elaboration and explanation, this manuscript is divided into five main sections: 1) an overview of current theories of conceptual metaphor, 2) a review of metaphor in art therapy, 3) an introduction to metaphor in comics, 4) a discussion of how CMT applies to art therapy practice, and 5) an encapsulation of these ideas in comic form. CMT proposes that metaphor is one of the main ways that humans are able to have abstract thought, and argues that metaphors often 1) work from the concrete to the abstract, 2) are based in bodily experience, and 3) build on each other over time, forming interconnected conceptual systems. Simultaneously, the field of art therapy utilizes metaphor in the understanding of both the process and product of art-making. The author puts forth that the work being done in cognitive linguistics can enhance and support the work being done in art therapy, and that CMT will further our understanding of art therapy pedagogy and practice.


2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
VICTORIA S. HARRISON

AbstractThis article suggests that different philosophical traditions have developed and matured around particular conceptual metaphors. It proposes that conceptual metaphor theory provides a useful tool with which to think about different world philosophical traditions, as it can reveal the deep structure of networks of ideas. Conceptual metaphors are not just linguistic devices; rather they organize whole networks of thought, experience, and activity. This idea is explored and special attention paid to the role of those conceptual metaphors that structure ways of thinking about knowledge within Western, Indian, and East Asian traditions. The article concludes with some reflections on the implications of this approach for inter-cultural philosophy of religion.


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