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

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.

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.


Author(s):  
Nenad Blaženović ◽  
Emir Muhić

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Victor Ondara Ntabo ◽  
Moses Gatambuki Gathigia ◽  
Naom Moraa Nyarigoti

A review of literature on pop songs reveals that composers use metaphors to communicate their feelings. In particular, the meaning of the metaphors in EkeGusii pop songs needs to be interpreted to reveal the message of the composers. The EkeGusii pop singer Christopher Mosioma’s (Embarambamba) songs have gained fame in Kenya because of their richness in the usage of metaphors. One of Christopher Mosioma’s songs, amasomo (education) which was launched in 2015 has gained acclaim from Kenyans. The song amasomo (education) is basically presented as a piece of advice to students to embrace education in order to optimally reap from its benefits. The study identified 10 metaphors in the song amasomo (education) through the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit. In order to interpret the metaphors in the EkeGusii pop song amasomo (education), the Conceptual Metaphor Theory complemented by the folk conception of the generic Great Chain of Being Metaphor were employed. The study employed four coders (including the researchers) in the identification of the metaphors. The study found that, inter alia, animal, plant and object metaphors are used in the song amasomo (education). The study concludes that the metaphors in the EkeGusii pop songs belong inherently to different levels of the generic Great Chain of Being Metaphor.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ayed Ibrahim Ayassrah ◽  
Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peer F. Bundgaard

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.


Literator ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suren Naicker

This article investigates the use of metaphorical language in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (henceforth CW). Vivekananda is one of the most important modern-day Hindu scholars because his interpretation of ancient Hindu scriptural lore has been very influential. Vivekananda’s influence was part of the motivation for choosing his CW as the empirical domain for the current study. AntConc software was used to mine Vivekananda’s CW for water-related terms, which seemed to have a predilection for metaphoricity. Which terms to search for specifically was determined after a manual reading of a sample from the CW. The data were then tagged using a convention inspired by the well-known Metaphor Identification Procedure – Vrije University (MIPVU). Then, a representative sample of the data was chosen, and the metaphors were mapped and analysed thematically. Five of these are referred to in this article, but special emphasis is placed on the theme of the Vedanta philosophy as the basis for neo-Hinduism, which has become synonymous with contemporary Hinduism, with Yoga as the practical wing, and Vedanta as the ideological basis for the practice; this aspect is expounded upon in more detail. The study’s main aim was therefore to investigate whether Hindu religious discourse uses metaphors to explain abstract religious concepts in a specific way, and indeed one of the main findings was the pervasiveness of water as a source domain. Hence, the key finding in this article is that neo-Hindu thought, as reconceptualised by Vivekananda, relies heavily on the water frame (as is convention in the field of Cognitive Semantics, conceptual domains are written in upper case, including hypothetical frames and conceptual metaphors), which is not as pervasive in other religio-philosophical traditions.


Orð og tunga ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Yuki Minamisawa

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-353
Author(s):  
Peipei Niu

Abstract Conceptual metaphor theory highlights that metaphor is a matter of thinking. This assumption indicates that metaphors exist not only in language, but also in other modes. This study examines uses of visual and visual-verbal metaphors in 50 Chinese editorial cartoons conceptualizing serious haze problem, with the intention of eliciting implicit meaning conveyed by visual signs alone or together with verbal texts. Both conceptual and critical discourse analysis of the metaphors are conducted. The study finds that the way a metaphor is realized visually and verbally in a cartoon determines the features mapped onto the topic, and further implicitly expresses a critical stance toward the topic under discussion. The metaphors in the cartoons evoke a general understanding of haze problem by activating the war scenario and familiar cultural or social context in viewers. It is found in this corpus that visual fusion and visual replacement are the most frequent kinds of visual metaphors. The study further affirms that visual metaphors are better in conveying rich and implicit conceptual and affective meaning, and can be direct manifestation of the conceptual metaphor without the mediation of language. In sum the study suggests the need for an integrated approach to visual metaphoric representation in multimodal analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuping Gao ◽  
Chun Lan

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.


Lege Artis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses

Abstract I discuss three large issues relating to media language. (1) How does conceptual metaphor theory affect the way we see the conceptual system that characterizes the main participants of communication in the media? (2) How do conceptual metaphors structure the language (and thought) used by the media? (3) Is the metaphorical mind of the participants of media communication a “self-contained” mind immune to the influence of context or is it affected by it?


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