Three ways to view a sonnet: Metaphor and poetic structure in three translations of Shakespeare’s sonnet XC

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Kassner
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Poetic Form ◽  
Paul Celan ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Poetic Structure ◽  
Metaphor Theory

AbstractShakespeare’s works have been translated many times throughout different historical eras, and these translations vary considerably both in their poetic form and in their cognitive underpinnings. This paper investigates the cognitive and poetic differences between three translations of Shakespeare’s sonnet XC: a 19th-century translation by F. A. Gelbcke (Gelbcke 1867), a translation by Paul Celan (Celan 1967) and a translation by A. Thalmayr (Thalmayr 1985). In particular, the use of conceptual metaphor across all versions is compared, and it is established that primary conceptual metaphors tend to remain intact across translations whereas complex conceptual metaphors tend to be replaced by different complex metaphors specific to the era and cultural background of the respective translators. This observation has broader implications for metaphor theory in general: Cross-linguistic studies of literary translations may be useable as a metric for the basic-ness or universality of metaphors. The poetic form variation found in the translations reflects the variation in metaphor material, and the mechanisms of foregrounding and parallelism postulated for poetic language by formalist poetics are shown to be useful for investigating the phenomenon of translation.

scholarly journals Conceptual metaphors in poetry interpretation: A psycholinguistic approach

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Rasse ◽  
Alexander Onysko ◽  
Francesca Citron
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Psycholinguistic Research ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Metaphor Comprehension ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Poetic Metaphor

Psycholinguistic research has shown that conceptual metaphors influence how people produce and understand language (e.g., Gibbs 1994, 2017a; Kövecses, 2010; Jacobs & Kinder 2017). So far, investigations have mostly paid attention to non-poetic metaphor comprehension. This focus stems from the original discovery of Conceptual Metaphor Theory that much of everyday, non-poetic language is metaphorical. The present study aims to expand this focus and explores whether people access conceptual metaphors during poetry interpretation. To answer this question, we conducted a psycholinguistic experiment in which thirty-seven participants, all L1 speakers of English, completed two tasks. In each task, participants read excerpts of poetry containing conceptual metaphors before selecting or rating items that indicated their implicit and explicit awareness of the conceptual metaphors. The results of both tasks show that participants retrieve conceptual metaphors when reading poetry. This provides empirical evidence in favor of the idea that crucial aspects of poetic thought and language arise from conceptual metaphor.

scholarly journals Conceptual Metaphors in Theory and Practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2 (17)) ◽  
pp. 83-91
Author(s):  
Narine Aghajanyan
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Fundamental Part ◽  
Linguistic Unit ◽  
Metaphor Theory

Languages can be viewed as metaphorical due to their linguistic and cultural background. The connection between the image and abstract meaning can be understood in cognitive terms using a particular concept of metaphor. The notion “metaphor” can be applied to any linguistic unit used in an indirect sense. In contrast to previous theories of metaphor, conceptual metaphor theory proposes that metaphor is not just a language unit but a fundamental part of human thought. The aim of this paper is to bring forward different aspects of theoretical studies on this important issue and show how new realities in politics automatically cause metaphorization of language.

scholarly journals Cognitive Semantic Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ismail A. Abdulla ◽  
Abbas F. Lutfi
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Everyday Language ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Cognitive Semantic

There has always been a widely held view among literary and linguistic circles that poetic language and naturally occurring language represent two quite different registers; hence, they can by no means be subjected to treatment through the same rout of analysis. Another problem is that poetic language is said to utilize some special figures as meaning construction devices that are called meaning devices, which are purely literary devices and have little value outside literature. This paper aims at analyzing poetic language in terms of the renowned cognitive semantic model known as conceptual metaphor theory which was first prosed for the analysis of everyday language and cognition. Another aim of this study is to prove the fallacy of the traditional view that treated metaphor as an ornamental literary device and one source of linguistic or semantic deviation. Adopting the conceptual metaphor theory, the present research hypothesizes that the conceptual metaphor theory is applicable to the poetic language as well. It is also hypothesized that traditional view toward metaphor is completely false. To achieve the above aims and check the hypotheses, the researchers have analyzed one of the most renowned metaphysical poems by John Donne, titled “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.” Through the analysis, it has been concluded that the conceptual metaphor theory is applicable to poetic language as it is to everyday language and the conceptual metaphors are basic, rather than ornamental, for understanding poetry, and for the meaning construction in poetic language as they are in non-poetic one.

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.

Once Upon a Time in the Realm of Notions : The Conceptualisation of Novak Djokovic-Inspired Personality Shifts

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Nenad Blaženović ◽  
Emir Muhić
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
The Other ◽  
Tennis Player ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Metaphor Theory

An analysis was carried out with two interviews given by the tennis-player Novak Djokovic, one of which was in English and the other in his native Serbian. In both instances, Novak Djokovic used many conceptual metaphors throughout his speech, some of which were analysed in more detail. The main premise of the research was that people’s personalities change in accordance with language they speak at any given time and that they use different conceptual metaphors to describe the same events in different languages. The aim of the paper was to investigate whether personality shift in bilingual speakers can be observed through the speaker’s use of conceptual metaphors in different languages. Through the framework of conceptual metaphor theory, it was shown that Djokovic’s personality does change with the language he speaks. This change was shown through the conceptual metaphors, i.e., source and target domains that Djokovic used during the interviews. He does indeed use different source domains to conceptualise the same target domains in different languages.

scholarly journals Conceptual Metaphor of Eliot’s Waste Land Versus Al-Sayyab’s Rain Song

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ayed Ibrahim Ayassrah ◽  
Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Modern Poetry ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
The Waste Land ◽  
Waste Land ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Logical Mapping ◽  
Modern Arabic

Of the rhetorical tools, metaphor still has insufficient interest, primarily as a crosscultural phenomenon though it is an attractive and vivid area, so it should be studied and highlighted (Suhadi, 2018) and (Barton, 2017). This comparative study investigated the conceptual metaphor in modern Arabic versus English poetry with reference to Al-Sayyab and T. S. Eliot as two poles of modern poetry in Arabic and English. This study tried to shed light on the frequency of the conceptual metaphors in Al-Sayyab’s The Rain Song versus Eliot’s The Waste Land. Besides, it aimed to explore the similarities and differences between the two poems in using the CMT orientational ’Up’ and ’Down’ strategy. However, to accomplish its aims, this study adopted Lakoff and Jonson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory ’CMT’ (1980); this theory asserted that metaphor is an inborn mental system in which we understand a certain concept in terms of another by drawing a logical mapping between the source domain and the target one. Finally, the study found that modern poetry was wealthy of conceptual metaphors. It also discovered that The Rain Song involved 65.29% conceptual metaphors of its total lines, so it exceeded The Waste Land which comprised only 39.40%. Furthermore, the study revealed that the two poems were generally pessimistic in which the ’Down’ domain exceeded the ’Up’ one in each poem. Also, it detected that Eliot was more pessimistic than Al Sayyab who was more optimistic.

The structure of our concepts: A critical assessment of Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a theory of concepts

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peer F. Bundgaard
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Specific Domain ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Cross Domain ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
George Lakoff ◽  
Experimental Findings

Abstract George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory is by and large a theory of what (abstract) concepts are, how they are structured, and how this structure is acquired — i.e., by mapping of structure from one more concrete or sensory-motor specific domain to another more abstract domain. Conceptual metaphors therefore rest on “cross-domain mappings.” The claims to the effect that our abstract concepts are metaphorically structured and that cross-domain mappings constitute one of the fundamental cognitive meaning-making processes are empirical and can therefore be put to the test. In this paper, I will critically assess Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a theory of concepts in light of recent experimental findings. Many such findings provide evidence for the psychological reality of cross-domain mappings, i.e., that structure activated in one domain actually can perform cognitive tasks carried out in another domain. They do not, however, support the claim that the structure of our (abstract) concepts is still metaphorical, as Lakoff and Johnson claim — that is to say, that our mind actually does perform cross-domain mappings when we process conventional conceptual metaphors such as “Death is Rest” or “Love is a Journey.” Two conclusions can be drawn from this: (1) it is necessary to distinguish between cross-domain mappings (which are psychologically real) and the metaphoric structure of our concepts (which is not, in the sense that such concepts do not any longer activate cross-domain mappings when processed); (2) Conceptual Metaphor Theory is not an adequate theory of concepts. I will therefore sketch another more viable theory of concepts where the structure of our concepts is defined as the full ecology of their situations of use, which includes the kind of situations (objects, agents, interactions) they apply to and the kind of emotional, cognitive, bodily, and behavioral responses they elicit. On this view, the contents of our concepts are to be considered as vague predicates, with vague extensions, which take on a specific form in their situation of use.

scholarly journals Going Up Is Always Good: A Multimodal Analysis of Metaphors in a TV Ad with FILMIP, the Filmic Metaphor Identification Procedure

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 177-189
Author(s):  
Lorena Bort-Mir
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Spatial Position ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Identification Procedure ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Tv Commercial

Conceptual Metaphor Theory developed by Lakoff & Johnson (1980) suggested that we use metaphors to evaluate and communicate in our various environments. Although metaphors encompass a large variety of taxonomies, orientational metaphors are those that rely on spatial position to map concepts into other ones, referring to a relation of valence and verticality. Stated by Kövecses (2010) conceptual metaphors such orientational ones draw ‘upward’ and ‘downward’ spatial positions in which ‘upward’ is usually referred to as having positive connotations, whereby their opposites, ‘downwards’, are understood as negative. This paper seeks to unveil how the orientational metaphor good is up is employed in a filmic narrative of a language learning application for technological devices named Babbel. The present analysis is developed under the application of FILMIP (Filmic Metaphor Identification Procedure, Bort-Mir 2019). In the analyzed narrative, the orientational metaphor good is up is represented in the Babbel TV commercial (2018) as a tool for persuading customers that the best way of escalating positions at work is by learning new languages. This analysis demonstrates how orientational metaphors in multimodal media emerge as a convenient device for marketing campaigns in the context of social status improvement.

scholarly journals Metaphor and Collocation. The Case of REIÐI

Orð og tunga ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Yuki Minamisawa
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Similarities And Differences

This paper investigates metaphorical expressions of anger in Icelandic (reiði), based on conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, see section 2.1). In recent years, many studies have been carried out to describe how we understand emotions using conceptual metaphors. Special attention has been paid to the emotion of anger, for which a certain number of conceptual metaphors have been proposed (e.g. Kövecses 1990, 2000; Lakoff 1987). Recently, studies have increasingly focused on cross-linguistic similarities and differences (e.g. Kövecses 1995, 2005; Matsuki 1995, Soriano 2003), finding more or less similar conceptual metaphors in different languages.

Kingdom of heaven versus nirvana: a comparative study of conceptual metaphors for Christian and Buddhist ideals of life

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuping Gao ◽  
Chun Lan
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Kingdom Of Heaven ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Upcoming Event ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract This paper adopts Conceptual Metaphor Theory to compare the Christian ideal of life, i.e. the kingdom of heaven and the Buddhist ideal of life, i.e. nirvana. Through a systematic investigation of the metaphorical expressions bearing the two concepts in the Book of Mathew and the Lotus Sutra, we find that they share the static metaphor (the kingdom of heaven/nirvana is a container), i.e. both religions envision the ideal state of life as entering a container. Dynamically, the kingdom of heaven is conceptualized as an upcoming event while nirvana as the destination of a journey. The two dynamic metaphors reveal four major differences. Firstly, the kingdom of heaven is described as arrival into and nirvana as departure from the mundane world. Secondly, the arrival of the kingdom of heaven aims to eliminate the sin of human beings while the departure for nirvana aims to leave behind bitterness of the mundane world. Thirdly, the kingdom of heaven emphasizes the dichotomy between the good and the evil while nirvana emphasizes delivering all living beings. Fourthly, God acts as a king and judge in the final judgement of the kingdom of heaven while Buddha acts as a guide in the journey to nirvana.

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