scholarly journals A Metaphorical Analysis of Female Worship in the Kam Epic: Songs of Kam Remote Ancestors

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-113
Author(s):  
Chunmian Long ◽  
Jianbin Zhu ◽  
Shihao Li ◽  
Wen Li

Metaphor is a cognitive mechanism in which people understand an abstract and unfamiliar object by comparing it to a more concrete and familiar one, according to rhetoric, while modern cognitive linguistics holds that metaphor is a cognitive mechanism in which people understand an abstract and unfamiliar object by comparing it to a more concrete and familiar one, according to modern cognitive linguistics. It’s a basic human cognitive and thinking model. Therefore, cognitive metaphor study is devoted to revealing the deep cognitive patterns of language and explaining various cognitive behaviors through languages. Myth is an important vector of human culture and has a profound influence on the formation of national cultural psychology. The Kam’s epic Songs of Kam Remote Ancestors as a narrative ancient song of the Kam covers the longest history of the Kam and has the highest content about the Kam’s ancestors. This epic has many descriptions of woman ancestors and a large number of metaphors of women as well, which reflects the unique position of women in the Kam culture. This study draws on the cognitive metaphor theory to investigate the female metaphors with the purpose of uncovering the development and evolution of the Kam’s woman worship perception in their history by using MIP metaphor identifying method.

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Katalin Reszegi

The paper discusses the cognitive mechanics of metaphorical name-giving with a focus on place names, following an overview of cognitive metaphor theory and the questions of metaphorically used proper nouns. In cognitive linguistics, the use of metaphors is a cognitive mechanism that plays a fundamental role in human thought and understanding, and the creation of our social, cultural and psychological reality. A particular form of this also manifests in name-giving, creating a small but influential category of names. The category of place names also influences the application of this name-giving method: it is generally used in more informal names and name types. The creation of such a name requires the speaker to detach themselves from the conventional norms of direct descriptionand metonymic name-giving, and relies on their lingual creativity and ability to detach themselves from dominant name-giving models. However, names in the category can also be divided into subcategories. Beyond the typical common-noun-based metaphorical name-giving, more complex parallels can also be found, resulting in the associations connecting the names of several nearby locations. Place names can also serve as the base of metaphorical name-giving, supporting the complex meaning of these names. Despite the fact that the majority of metaphorical names are available from contemporary data collection, it is obviously a long-standing and ancient method of name-giving, as it is based on a cognitive mechanics that seem to be as old as humanity itself.


2008 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 168-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses

Despite its popularity in and outside cognitive linguistics, cognitive metaphor theory (CMT) has received a wide range of criticisms in the past two decades. Several metaphor researchers have criticized the methodology with which metaphor is studied (emphasizing concepts instead of words), the direction of analysis (emphasizing a top-down instead of a bottom-up approach), the category level of metaphor (claiming its superordinate status instead of basic level), the embodiment of metaphor (emphasizing the universal, mechanical, and monolithic aspects instead of nonuniversal, nonmechanical, and nonmonolithic aspects of embodiment), and its relationship to culture (emphasizing the role of universal bodily experience instead of the interaction of body and context). In the paper, I respond to this criticism largely based on my own research and propose a view on these issues that can successfully meet these challenges and that can be regarded as an alternative to the “standard theory.”


2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Musolff

AbstractThomas Hobbes's condemnation of metaphor as one of the chief "abuses of speech" in Leviathan occupies a famous (to some critics, infamous) place in the history of thinking about metaphor. From the viewpoint of cognitive metaphor theory, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980,1981) have depicted Hobbes and John Locke as the founding fathers of a tradition in which "metaphor and other figurative devices [became] objects of scorn". Similar verdicts on Hobbes and on Locke as arch-detractors of metaphor can be found in many other accounts of the history of semantics. However, these indictments stand in marked contrast to a considerable number of scholarly publications that have shown that Hobbes's assessment of rhetoric and metaphor is far from a 'straightforward' denunciation of anything non-'literal'. In this paper I shall use results of this research in an analysis of key-passages from Leviathan to re-assess Hobbes's views on metaphor. I shall demonstrate that some critics of Hobbes have overlooked crucial differentiations (in particular, of different kinds of metaphor and similitude) in his concept of metaphor as a key-issue of public communication. Furthermore, I shall argue that Hobbes's foregrounding of the 'dangers' of metaphor use in political theory and practice should be interpreted as an acknowledgement rather than as a denial of its conceptual and cognitive force.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38
Author(s):  
Aunga Solomon Onchoke

This paper analyses place names in the Ekegusii language from the cognitive linguistics point of view. The study is grounded on three objectives: to identify and explain the Ekegusii names of places, to describe the social cultural values, and to account for the cognitive processes involved in their mapping, analysis and elucidation. The data comprises of a list of Ekegusii place names collected from two counties, Kisii and Nyamira, by interviewing people through snowballing, and later holding a panel discussion with selected elders regarding the mapping processes and meanings associated with them. The Cognitive Metaphor Theory was used to map them to the different types of conceptual domains. Findings from this study show that place names in Ekegusii are conceptualized as seasons, topography, people, animals, plants and objects (as source domains which are social-culturally determined), and portray their cultural identity and tradition. The study concludes by suggesting further research in onomastics, especially on metaphor and metonymy in other languages of the world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Dr. Musferah Mehfooz ◽  
Dr. Syed Naeem Badshah ◽  
Dr. Hafiz Hifazatullah

This study aims to explore the metaphors of fire and hell from Holy Qur'ān utilizing conceptual analysis and by keeping in view the discussion of cognitive linguistic and cognitive perspectives of metaphor. This research has attempted to apply the semasiological approach to Qur'ānic corpus wherewith the figurative significance of fire and hell is linked with Fire/Hell as a metaphor in the Holy Scripture. The Cognitive Theory of Metaphor (CMT)interpreted by linguists Lakoff & Johnson (1980) and developed later by Lakoff and Turner (1989), and others, e.g. Wreth (1994, 1999)  has been applied as the theoretical framework and the translations of specific extracted verses of Holy Qur'ān are interpreted logically and compared with concerning religious aspects. Originally the principles of Cognitive Metaphor Theory have been employed for the study of Conceptual Metaphorical Analysis (CMA) revealing how metaphors of fire and hell have been used creatively affecting the understanding of much broader aspects of life in light of the teachings of Qur'ān. The tenor and vehicle illustration is taken from I.A Richards’ concept of ground, tenor, and vehicle, and the source and target domain are also debated to bring forth a holistically semasiological understanding after the analysis of the metaphors.


2019 ◽  
pp. 218-255
Author(s):  
T.Yu. Kobischanov

Quite often in the course of historical events, social and economic changes obscure the changes in cultural psychology of ethnic groups and their representatives. The historical science explains what happened, how and why it was happening but very rarely gives us a chance to understand what people were feeling in this respect, what processes were going on in their individual and common consciousness and in the subconscious. The drama that the Christians of the Middle East are going through, the final act of which we are probably witnessing these days, urges us to look for its roots in the distant past. The Ottoman period in the history of East Christian communities is of particular significance. The Middle East Christians got under the Turkish rule as a discriminated minority pushed out on the curb of sociopolitical life, but by the beginning of the 20th century the Christians of the Middle East as a whole, and Christian communities of Syria and Lebanon in particular, were flourishing and were perfectly well adapted to possibilities that inclusion of the Ottoman state into the world capitalist system had to offer. The upgrade of the Christians status was accompanied by gradual changes in their social psychology including self identification of the members of the Christian communities, remodelling of their behaviour patterns in everyday life and in conflict situations as well as psychology of introconfessional relations. This research is an attempt to describe and analyse this cultural and psychological transformation.Нередко в ходе исторических событий социальноэкономические изменения затмевают изменения в культурной психологии этнических групп и их представителей. Историческая наука объясняет, что произошло, как и почему это происходило, но очень редко дает нам возможность понять, что чувствовали люди в этом отношении, какие процессы происходили в их индивидуальном и общем сознании и в подсознании. Драма, которую переживают христиане Ближнего Востока, заключительный акт которой мы, вероятно, наблюдаем в эти дни, побуждает нас искать ее корни в далеком прошлом. Османский период в истории восточных христианских общин имеет особое значение. Ближневосточные христиане попали под турецкое правление как дискриминируемое меньшинство, вытесненное на обочину общественнополитической жизни, но к началу 20 века христиане Ближнего Востока в целом, и христианские общины Сирии и Ливана в частности, процветали и были прекрасно приспособлены к возможностям, которые могло предложить включение Османского государства в мировую капиталистическую систему. Обновление статуса христиан сопровождалось постепенными изменениями в их социальной психологии, включая самоидентификацию членов христианских общин, перестройку их моделей поведения в повседневной жизни и в конфликтных ситуациях, а также психологию внутриконфессиональных отношений. Это исследование является попыткой описать и проанализировать эту культурную и психологическую трансформацию.


Author(s):  
Bart J. Wilson

What is property, and why does our species happen to have it? The Property Species explores how Homo sapiens acquires, perceives, and knows the custom of property, and why it might be relevant for understanding how property works in the twenty-first century. Arguing from some hard-to-dispute facts that neither the natural sciences nor the humanities—nor the social sciences squarely in the middle—are synthesizing a full account of property, this book offers a cross-disciplinary compromise that is sure to be controversial: All human beings and only human beings have property in things, and at its core, property rests on custom, not rights. Such an alternative to conventional thinking contends that the origins of property lie not in food, mates, territory, or land, but in the very human act of creating, with symbolic thought, something new that did not previously exist. Integrating cognitive linguistics with the philosophy of property and a fresh look at property disputes in the common law, this book makes the case that symbolic-thinking humans locate the meaning of property within a thing. The provocative implications are that property—not property rights—is an inherent fundamental principle of economics, and that legal realists and the bundle-of-sticks metaphor are wrong about the facts regarding property. Written by an economist who marvels at the natural history of humankind, the book is essential reading for experts and any reader who has wondered why people claim things as “Mine!,” and what that means for our humanity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52
Author(s):  
Sui He

Abstract Cognitive metaphor theory provides a systematic framework to better understand the working mechanism of metaphor. Its recent development further allows translation researchers to have a clearer insight into the movement of metaphor across languages and culture. Building on an empirical study, this paper examines the complementary relationship between two prominent cognitive metaphor theories – Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT), and discusses the practical contribution that this relationship could make to the existing research on metaphor translation. To construct a comparable basis for CMT and CBT, two parameters are adopted for data analysis, which is proven useful to serve the purpose. The two chosen parameters are: projection and provenance, denoting the content and the type of metaphor respectively. Metaphorical expressions analyzed in this paper are sourced from cosmology-themed articles published in Scientific American in 2017 and their Simplified Chinese translations published in Huanqiukexue. Findings show that delineated by the two parameters, CMT and CBT indeed share a complementary relationship owing to their different focuses and organizing mechanisms. Furthermore, the collaboration between CMT and CBT offers a well-rounded analytical framework for translation studies. In turn, the correlation between metaphor parameters and translation solutions provides detailed clues for studying metaphor across culture. Finally, the reflection of this dual-model parametric approach regarding its pros and cons is also shown to shed light on future research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Huumo

AbstractRecent groundbreaking work in cognitive linguistics has revealed the semantic complexity of motion metaphors of time and of temporal frames of reference. In most approaches the focus has been on the clause-level metaphorical meaning of expressions, such as Moving Ego (We are approaching the end of the year) and Moving Time (both Ego-centered, as in The end of the year is approaching and field-based, as in Boxing Day follows Christmas Day). The detailed grammatical structure of these metaphorical expressions, on the other hand, has received less attention. Such details include both elements that contribute to the metaphorical meaning and those that have a non-metaphorical temporal function, e. g., tense and (central features of) aspect. I propose a model for the analysis of metaphorical expressions, building on earlier work in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG). I approach the grammatical structure of metaphorical expressions by analyzing the interplay between veridical and metaphorical systems of expressing temporal relations. I argue that these systems relate to two relevant conceptualizations of time. Veridical time (VT) is the non-metaphorical conceptualization of time, where the processual profile of the clause-level metaphorical expression resides. A metaphorical path (MP) is the metaphorical conceptualization of time as a path occupied by the metaphorical motion. A motion metaphor of time tracks the mover’s changing position on the MP against VT. I show how metaphorical expressions based on a motion verb differ from those based on a prepositional construction in grammatical and semantic terms, and how tense and aspect contribute to the conceptualization of the motion scenario. I argue that tense grounds the metaphorical motion event with respect to the speech event. All the participants in the motion event, as well as the metaphorical path itself, are present in each subsequent configuration tracked against VT by the conceptualizer. Thus tense has a wide scope over the motion scenario with Ego’s ‘now’ as a reference point, while Ego’s ‘now’ cannot serve for grounding of tense. This is why expressions such as *The meeting is difficult ahead of us are not acceptable.


Author(s):  
Ekaterina Savitskaya ◽  

In the field of cognitive linguistics it is accepted that, before developing its capacity for abstract and theoretical thought, the human mind went through the stage of reflecting reality through concrete images and thus has inherited old cognitive patterns. Even abstract notions of the modern civilization are based on traditional concrete images, and it is all fixed in natural language units. By way of illustration, the author analyzes the cognitive pattern “сleanness / dirtiness” as a constituent part of the English linguoculture, looking at the whole range of its verbal realization and demonstrating its influence on language-based thinking and modeling of reality. Comparing meanings of language units with their inner forms enabled the author to establish the connection between abstract notions and concrete images within cognitive patterns. Using the method of internal comparison and applying the results of etymological reconstruction of language units’ inner form made it possible to see how the world is viewed by representatives of the English linguoculture. Apparently, in the English linguoculture images of cleanness / dirtiness symbolize mainly two thematic areas: that of morality and that of renewal. Since every ethnic group has its own axiological dominants (key values) that determine the expressiveness of verbal invectives, one can draw the conclusion that people perceive and comprehend world fragments through the prism of mental stereo-types fixed in the inner form of language units. Sometimes, in relation to specific language units, a conflict arises between the inner form which retains traditional thinking and a meaning that reflects modern reality. Still, linguoculture is a constantly evolving entity, and its de-velopment entails breaking established stereotypes and creating new ones. Linguistically, the victory of the new over the old is manifested in the “dying out” of the verbal support for pre-vious cognitive patterns, which leads to “reprogramming” (“recoding”) of linguoculture rep-resentatives’ mentality.


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