scholarly journals A METAPHORICAL THEORY OF MEANING

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Clifton Pye
Keyword(s):  
Infinite Number ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Pragmatic Information ◽  
Basic Proposition ◽  
Basic Sentence

Languages combine form and meaning in order to express an infinite number of ideas. Modern linguistics has developed sophisticated methods to probe the formal structure of languages from phonetics to syntax, but the study of meaning remains relatively unexplored. The lack of sophisticated methods to document the semantic structure of languages remains a significant problem for work with endangered languages. Research in semantics is limited by semantic theories that can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. These theories assume that languages use a universal set of semantic elements to construct meaning. The classical theories cannot account for semantic change and an explanation of metaphor is completely beyond the scope of such theories. In this paper I propose a theory of semantics that puts metaphor at the center of semantics. Rather than create an artificial dichotomy between figurative and non-figurative language, the metaphorical approach to semantics assumes that all languages are figurative. This approach assumes that a basic sentence as “The cat is on the mat” combines figurative language with pragmatic information to communicate a basic proposition. This approach differs from that of Lakoff (1993) in that its focus is on metaphoric mapping within cognitive domains rather than between domains. The trick in metaphorical semantics is to learn how to detect the metaphors used in basic linguistic expressions and to construct a theory of semantics based on metaphor.

Imagery and Metaphorical Space of the Term in the Language of Scientific Texts by V. Vinogradov

2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (9) ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
N. V. Khalikovа
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Scientific Thinking ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Basic Term ◽  
Pragmatic Information ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Relationship

The article considers the functions of the system of verbal imagery’s in the creation of the scientific style of V.V. Vinogradov. The figurativeness of basic, background and metaphorical terms is described. The semantic structure of the image of the basic term «style» is analyzed, figurative paradigms of the concepts Language, Speech and Style are revealed. The article shows the relationship between scientific thinking and metaphorical style, the role of sustainable cognitive metaphors in the creation, storage and transfer of pragmatic information and the creation of a cultural and historical context.

Johanna Seibt’s Process Ontology of Categorical Inference: On Nomological Axiomatics and Category Projection

Metaphysica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekin Erkan
Keyword(s):  
Limit Point ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Process Ontology ◽  
Representational System ◽  
Cognitive Hierarchy ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Drawing from a Sellarsian realist-naturalist epistemology, we trace different levels of cognitive hierarchy procedures through which a representational system learns to update its own states and improve its ‘map-making’ capabilities from pre-conscious operations which modulate base-localization functions, to patterns of epistemic revision and integration at the conceptual and theoretical levels, producing a nomological double of its world. We show how ontological theorization becomes diachronically coordinated with and constrained by empirical science, and how the formal-quantitative kernel of scientific theories corresponds to qualitative-conceptual determinations at the structural level. Following Johanna Seibt’s characterization of ontology as a theory of categorial inference, we trace the preservation of inferential semantic structure across ontological theories in relation to model languages and provide provisional indications to coordinate Seibt’s account with a convergent realist assessment of systematic modeling, defining the epistemological conditions for articulating the preservation of formal structure in theories toward a limit-point of enquiry.

Figurative language in multilingual students’ L2 Swedish – a usage-based perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-260
Author(s):  
Julia Prentice
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Multilingual Students ◽  
The Core ◽  
Language Class ◽  
Pragmatic Information ◽  
Class Room ◽  
Regular Patterns ◽  
Figurative Expressions

Abstract The aim of the current paper is to reinterpret some results of two previous studies on the mastery of figurative expressions from the perspective of usage-based linguistics. The reanalysis aims to shed more light on the learning and use of figurative language by multilingual students by exploring the complex interplay of linguistic creativity, expressivity, and conventionality in figurative expressions. The reinterpretation shows that many of the examples that were previously categorized as novel figurative expressions used in students’ writing, can be analyzed as instances of regular patterns, i.e. constructions, with certain lexical idiosyncrasies. Modifications of conventionalized figurative expressions are discussed and reinterpreted in terms of strength of entrenchment of links between form and meaning within certain constructions or links between constructions and conventionalized pragmatic information in the multilinguals’ mental construction. Implications for the treatment of Swedish figurative expressions in the second language class room are, in line with previous research, that focusing on regularity might reduce unpredictability, often seen as the core difficulty in the learning of such expressions in an L2. The paper also offers some directions for further investigation of the socio-cognitive processes involved in the learning of figurative language in an additional language.

Conventional Figurative Language Theory and idiom motivation

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30
Author(s):  
Dmitrij Dobrovol’skij ◽  
Elisabeth Piirainen
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Central Point ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Figurative Meaning ◽  
Actual Meaning

AbstractThe central point of discussion is how idiom motivation is reflected in the Conventional Figurative Language Theory. Most lexical units are motivated to a certain extent, i.e. they point to their actual meaning via the meanings of their parts, either parts of their structure or of their conceptual basis. Several types of motivation can be distinguished in the field of phraseology. Apart from the quite small number of idioms where no comprehensible link can be found between the literal reading and the figurative meaning that would allow for a meaningful interpretation of a given expression, all other idioms have to be considered transparent or motivated. Idioms form a very heterogeneous domain in terms of motivation. There are levels of motivation and semantic predictability both from the perspective of a speaker and from the perspective of the semantic structure of a given unit. In this paper, we present a typology of motivation that captures all types of transparent idioms. The typology of idiom motivation connects our theory to the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor and to the Construction Grammar approaches.

Análisis discursivo del ciberconsejo en el género foro virtual de discusión/consulta médica no especializada

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 486-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Rodríguez Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Global Structure ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Medical Appointment

The present research, firstly, aims to determine the global structure of the virtual discussion forum/unspecialized medical appointment genre from the analysis of its superstructure. The pattern of the genre presents a tripartite division in which three types of postings succeed each other: problem messages, advice messages and thanks messages. Secondly, the study of the sections and movements that establish the formal structure of these types of messages is completed with the description of the macrostructural level, in which the content or semantic structure of textual productions is covered, without sacrificing the functional exponents and the microstructural supports that contribute to its elucidation.

scholarly journals Features of the Semantic-Syntactic Process of Adverbialisation in Modern Colloquial Speech

2019 ◽  
pp. 113-121
Author(s):  
Anna Degaltseva
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Syntactic Process ◽  
Basic Proposition ◽  
Objective Content ◽  
Confidence Category ◽  
Colloquial Speech

The study of semantic-syntactic compression is an urgent linguistic problem. One of the processes that lead to the statement meaning complication is adverbialisation, the essence of which is that the adverb, which is grammatically dependent on the verb, semantically refers to the statement or one of its basic proposition components. This work is carried out in line with semantic syntax and is devoted to studying the adverbial complicator functioning (adverbs that complicate the semantic structure of the sentence) in modern colloquial speech. Native speakers use these language units to add event propositions, logical propositions of characterization or comparison to a statement, to characterize the actants of basic propositions and to express the confidence category or the statement objective content evaluation as well. The adverbial complicators which can be transformed into social actions, emotional or mental states of a subject prevail in colloquial speech. Adverbs-complicators are used most frequently with the verbs of speech and intellectual activity expressing the emotional or mental state of a person. Adverbs that involve logical propositions are usually used to describe a person's behavior or character. Such language units, which are used to evaluate the objective content of a statement, prevail among the adverbs expressing modus categories.

scholarly journals The loss of poetic effects: From indeterminate to conventionalised meaning

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-71
Author(s):  
Héloïse Vande Wiele
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Conventional Meaning ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions ◽  
Over Time

This study investigates the diachronic evolution of poetic figurative language and some of its aesthetic effects. It suggests that poetic expressions can lose their poetic force over time as they conventionalise through repetition. A hypothesis based on the concept of poetic effects developed in Relevance Theory (Pilkington, 2000; Sperber and Wilson, 1995 [1989]) and on the theory of semantic change (Traugott and Dasher, 2002) is proposed to explain this phenomenon. This hypothesis was successfully tested through three case studies, in which French idiomatic expressions that have originated in poetry were shown to have progressively lost their aesthetic power and to have become cliché phrases as they were gaining a clearer, more determinate and conventional meaning. The methodology makes use of various sources to determine the poetic power of an expression and its change through time: literary critiques, newspaper corpora, Google Ngram graphs, translations into foreign languages and date of appearance in the dictionaries.

scholarly journals Chope dos Mortos – a tradução de jogos de palavras em um estudo direcionado pelo corpus / Beer Hall of the Dead – the translation of puns in a corpus-driven study

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Nilson Roberto Barros da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Beer Hall

RESUMO: Este trabalho discute a tradução de jogos de palavras (JPs) na direção português-inglês, mais especificamente o JP intitulado ‘Chope dos Mortos’, que faz parte do romance O xangô de Baker Street (SOARES, 1995). O artigo é o recorte de nossa tese de doutorado, e tem como objetivo analisar a tradução do JP citado para a língua inglesa. Utiliza-se da abordagem teórico-metodológica da Linguística de Corpus para selecionar o JP como dado a ser analisado na pesquisa e identifica-se como um estudo direcionado pelo corpus, conforme discutido por Tognini-Bonelli (2001). A análise baseia-se principalmente nas estratégias de tradução de JPs apresentadas por Delabastita (1996) e considera, dentre outras, as postulações de Raskin (1985) e Attardo (1994). Como resultado, verifica-se que as estratégias de tradução usadas para recriar (traduzir) o JP em inglês são compatíveis com a estratégia JP → JP, em que um JP é traduzido por outro na língua-alvo, sendo permitidas diferenças em termos de estrutura formal, estrutura semântica ou função textual.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: tradução; jogos de palavras; Linguística de Corpus. ABSTRACT: This study discusses the translation of puns in the Portuguese-English direction, more specifically the pun 'Beer hall of the dead', which is part of the novel O xangô de Baker Street (SOARES, 1995), translated into English as 'A samba for Sherlock'. The article derives from our doctoral thesis, and aims to analyze the translation of the pun into the English language. It uses the theoretical-methodological approach of Corpus Linguistics to select puns as data to be analyzed and is characterized as a 'corpus-driven approach' as discussed by Tognini-Bonelli (2001). The analysis is based mainly on the strategies of pun translation presented by Delabastita (1996) and takes into account theoretical conceptions of Raskin (1985) and Attardo (1994). As a result, it verifies that the translation strategies used to recreate the pun in English are compatible with the PUN → PUN strategy, in which a pun is translated by another one in the target language, being allowed differences in terms of formal structure, semantic structure, or textual function.KEYWORDS: translation; puns; Corpus Linguistics.

scholarly journals TRANSLATION OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN THE LEGAL DISCOURSE OF EU WHITE PAPERS

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasa Gražytė ◽  
Nijolė Maskaliūnienė
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Cognitive Domains

Traditionally legal discourse has been perceived as an area of human activity where every attempt is made to speak or write precisely, clearly and unambiguously—i.e. no room is left for figurative language. In this context the use of metaphor is naturally unacceptable. With the change in the approach to metaphor as a mental phenome­non, rather than a language phenomenon or a means of embellishing the text, the study of metaphor in various types of discourse has received a new impetus. This ar­ticle addresses the issue of conceptual metaphor translation in the legal discourse of EU White Papers. Metaphorical expressions are categorized into cognitive domains such as dealing with a problem is war, a problem is an enemy, responsibility is a burden, pro­gress is a motion forward, etc. The analysis confirms the hypothesis that if metaphorical expressions exploit the same cognitive domain both in English and Lithuanian, me­taphoricity is fully preserved in translation. Where cognitive domains differ, metap­horicity manifests itself in a different domain or is lost altogether.

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