Metaphoric cognition as social activity

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond W. Gibbs
Keyword(s):  
Social Activity ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Metaphoric Language ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Metaphor Use ◽  
Communicative Actions ◽  
Social Communicative

Metaphoric thought is often viewed as a property of individual minds that is quite separate from people’s social, communicative actions with metaphoric language and gesture. My goal in this article is to argue that metaphoric cognition is fundamentally linked to human social activities. I defend this idea by focusing not only on metaphor use in overt communicative situations, but by suggesting ways that individual metaphoric cognition is implicitly social. Many of the experimental tasks used in psychology to demonstrate the psychological reality of conceptual metaphors reflect intricate couplings between cognitive and social processes. This argument demands a reorientation in how metaphor scholars interpret empirical findings related to conceptual metaphor theory, and more broadly aims to dissolve the long-standing theoretical divide between metaphoric cognition and metaphoric communication.

Visual Metaphor and Embodiment in Graphic Illness Narratives

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth El Refaie
Keyword(s):  
Illness Narratives ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Illness Narrative ◽  
Social Semiotics ◽  
Individual State ◽  
Visual Metaphor ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Sociocultural Practices ◽  
Metaphor Use

This study uses the analysis of visual metaphor in 35 graphic illness narratives—book-length stories about disease in the comics medium—in order to re-examine embodiment in traditional Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and propose the more nuanced notion of “dynamic embodiment.” Building on recent strands of research within CMT, and drawing on relevant concepts and findings from other disciplines, including psychology, phenomenology, social semiotics, and media theory, the book develops the argument that the experience of one’s own body is constantly adjusting to changes in one’s individual state of health, sociocultural practices, and the activities in which one is engaged at any given moment, including the modes and media that are being used to communicate. This leads to a more fluid and variable relationship between physicality and metaphor use than many CMT scholars assume. For example, representing the experience of cancer through the graphic illness narrative genre draws attention to the unfathomable processes going on beneath the body’s visible surface, particularly now that digital imaging technologies play such a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. This may lead to a reversal of conventional conceptualizations of knowing and understanding in terms of seeing, so that vision itself becomes the target of metaphorical representations. A novel classification system of visual metaphor, based on a three-way distinction between pictorial, spatial, and stylistic metaphors, is also proposed.

Integrating constructional semantics and conceptual metaphor

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Unified Model ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Structures ◽  
Metaphoric Language ◽  
Metaphor Theory

Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) aims to represent the conceptual structure of metaphors rather than the structure of metaphoric language. The theory does not explain which aspects of metaphoric language evoke which conceptual structures, for example. However, other theories within cognitive linguistics may be better suited to this task. These theories, once integrated, should make building a unified model of both the conceptual and linguistic aspects of metaphor possible. First, constructional approaches to syntax provide an explanation of how particular constructional slots are associated with different functions in evoking metaphor. Cognitive Grammar is especially effective in this regard. Second, Frame Semantics helps explain how the words or phrases that fill the relevant constructional slots evoke the source and target domains of metaphor. Though these theories do not yet integrate seamlessly, their combination already offers explanatory benefits, such as allowing generalizations across metaphoric and non-metaphoric language, and identifying the words that play a role in evoking metaphors, for example.

A deep semantic corpus-based approach to metaphor analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen K. Dodge
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Metaphor Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Source Domain ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Metaphor Use

This paper demonstrates the fruitful application of the formalization of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, combined with metaphor constructions and computational tools to a large-scale, corpus-based approach to the study of metaphor expressions. As the case study of poverty metaphor expressions illustrates, the representation of individual metaphors and frames as parts of larger conceptual networks facilitates analyses that capture both local details and larger patterns of metaphor use. Significantly, the data suggest that the two most frequently used source domain networks in poverty metaphor expressions each support different types of inferences about poverty, its effects, and possible ways to reduce or end it.

Confrontation or complementarity?

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 107-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Systems Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Complex Dynamic Systems ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
On Line ◽  
Metaphor Use ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation

Theoretical and methodological challenges presented by studying metaphor in its discourse environment are addressed. Complex dynamic systems theory provides a theoretical ‘discourse dynamics’ framework for describing metaphor in face-to-face conversation, and more generally, as a phenomenon that is at once linguistic, cognitive, affective and socio-cultural. Empirical data from post-conflict reconciliation conversations illustrate the procedures of metaphor-led discourse analysis, using metaphor to investigate patterns of talking and thinking. Identification of linguistic metaphors is followed by the extraction of patterns of metaphor use, which include metaphor clusters and ‘systematic metaphors’. Connections are made between metaphor in on-line talk, patterns of metaphor use in discourse events and metaphor in socio-cultural life. The final section of this article discusses whether the differences found between metaphor as hypothesised in conceptual metaphor theory and metaphor in real-world discourse reflect an essential incompatibility or can be used more positively in developing cognitive approaches to metaphor.

Visibility and economy as dimensions of metaphoric language

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Scaling Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Metaphoric Language ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Comprehensive Comparison ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Impact

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’.

scholarly journals An investigation into metaphor use in learner language: the interaction of word class and L1

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Yaser Hadidi ◽  
Nastaran Behshad
Keyword(s):  
Word Class ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
Metaphor Use ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Learner Language

This study aims at investigating the use of metaphor in learner language with a focus on interaction of word class and L1. The findings of previous studies on metaphor use in learner language point to the fact that metaphor is found in all word classes in learners’ written production, but that some word classes clearly favor metaphorical usage more than others. In similar fashion, the present investigation looked into the interaction between metaphor, word class, and L1, although within a single register and text type, i.e. argumentative essays produced by 20 novice writers. The model underlying the current study was Conceptual Metaphor Theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Identification of metaphors was carried out based on MIP (Metaphor Identification Procedure) (Pragglejaz Group, 2007), a reliable and explicit tool for marking and identifying metaphorically used words. The hypothesis, based on previous research establishing this finding, was that prepositions top the list in this regard, being by far the most metaphorical word class. The cognitive predispositions made available by the student’s L1 are also of importance in this equation. Similar research would advance our understanding of the role of metaphor teaching, and in what form and to what degree it should be explicitly carried out.

Bodily experience as both source and target of meaning making

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Tay
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Bodily Experiences ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Embodied Experiences ◽  
Metaphor Use ◽  
Programmatic Statement

Bodily experiences (BE) are often theorized by cognitive linguists as sources of meaning making, encoded and projected at the levels of grammar, semantics, and discourse. For example, Conceptual Metaphor Theory regards embodied image schemas (Johnson 1987) and, more recently, live simulations of embodied experiences (Gibbs 2013) as vital to the emergence and understanding of conceptual metaphors. Interestingly however, BE also feature as targets or topics in certain discourse contexts, which leads to underexplored scenarios where BE is simultaneously a source and a target of meaning making. This paper presents examples of metaphors in psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a case in point. In psychotherapy, experientially concrete sources are often used to conceptualize abstract issues such as emotions and subjective experiences. In the case of PTSD, however, bodily experiences turn out to be both potential source concepts as well as target topics of therapeutic discussion, a phenomenon seldom discussed in cognitive linguistics. I examine psychotherapy transcripts involving victims of the 2010–12 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, discuss how this source-target simultaneity of BE is exploited for therapeutic ends, and highlight three strands of implications pertaining to cognitive, discursive, and strategic aspects of metaphor use in psychotherapy. I conclude with a more programmatic statement about psychotherapeutic discourse as a productive site of inquiry for applied cognitive linguistics and applied metaphor research.

Dispositional Properties of Metaphor

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam K. Fetterman ◽  
Brian P. Meier ◽  
Michael D. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Positive Affect ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Taste Preferences ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Prosocial Motivation ◽  
Sweet Food ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Sweet Foods ◽  
Dispositional Properties

Abstract. Metaphors often characterize prosocial actions and people as sweet. Three studies sought to explore whether conceptual metaphors of this type can provide insights into the prosocial trait of agreeableness and into daily life prosociality. Study 1 (n = 698) examined relationships between agreeableness and food taste preferences. Studies 2 (n = 66) and 3 (n = 132) utilized daily diary protocols. In Study 1, more agreeable people liked sweet foods to a greater extent. In Study 2, greater sweet food preferences predicted a stronger positive relationship between daily prosocial behaviors and positive affect, a pattern consistent with prosocial motivation. Finally, Study 3 found that daily prosocial feelings and behaviors varied positively with sweet food consumption in a manner that could not be ascribed to positive affect or self-control. Altogether, the findings encourage further efforts to extend conceptual metaphor theory to the domain of personality processes, in part by building on balance-related ideas.

Metaphor of BPJS Kesehatan as a Sick Patient in Indonesian Media Headlines

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
Muhammad Adam
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Financial Condition ◽  
Medical Supplies ◽  
Medical Terms ◽  
Sick Patient ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Media Outlet ◽  
The Government ◽  
Financial Subsidy

Indonesian health insurance (BPJS Kesehatan) has been facing financial deficit and during the coverage of its deficit, media frequently use many medical terms metaphor to describe the financial condition of BPJS Kesehatan. This study aims to examine the medical terms metaphor used to describe the financial deficit of BPJS Kesehatan to further identify the entailments and to pin point what is the cause of sickness and what could cure the sickness. Qualitative method is used in this study with conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) as the conceptual framework. There 10 headlines from various online media outlet that are collected as the source of the data. The study examines the particular terms which described BPJS Kesehatan as a sick patient and further analysis is conducted to identify the closest entailments of metaphor, which are to identify who will be the doctor and what cause its sickness. The results shows that the particular conditions  as  metaphor used to describe the financial condition of BPJS Kesehatan is dying (sekarat), critical (kritis), swell (bengkak), and wound (luka).  From the analysis of entailments, the doctor is the government equipped with medical supplies and procedures to cure the patient which is the financial subsidy and the second entailment is the cause of the sickness which is the lack of awareness from the member to pay the premium regularly on time.

Metaphor, Cognition, Culture

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
The Other ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Culture And Cognition ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
The One ◽  
Cultural Reality ◽  
Metaphor And Metonymy

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.

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