Metaphors as Linguistic Keys to Access Knowledge (original) (raw)
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Metaphor in language and thought: How do we map the field
This paper suggests that metaphor research can benefit from a clearer description of the field of research. Three dimensions of doing metaphor research are distinguished: metaphor can be studied as part of grammar or usage, it can be studied as part of language or thought, and it can be studied as part of sign systems or behaviour. When these three dimensions are crossed, eight distinct areas of research emerge that have their own assumptions about metaphorical meaning which have their own implications and consequences for the aims and evaluation of research. It is suggested that these distinctions will help in clarifying the validity of claims about the role of conceptual metaphor in language.
2020
The paper explores the different approaches to metaphor understanding and metaphor translation within the fields linguistics and cognitive linguistics. Semantics scholars view metaphors as "the application of an alien name by transfer either from genus to species, or from species to species, or by analogy"(Aristotle), while pragmatics scholars view metaphor as being dependent on context. Scholars of the cognitive linguistics school (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1987) portray metaphor as a system used to comprehend one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain via sets of correspondences between these two domains. This paper focuses on the main approaches to metaphors understanding, and approaches to metaphor transfer and translation, as metaphor translation represents a burden for translators no matter the language. This is due to the fact that translation involves multiple processes that include both linguistic and non-linguistic elements. Based on linguistics and cognitive linguistics theories, a number approaches and procedures such as prescriptive approach, the descriptive approach and the cognitive approach have been developed by scholars for the translation of metaphorical expressions.
The General Science Journal, 2022
The interest in the study of figurative language dates back to the Greek era, but it is in the last decades of the 20th century when it reaches its greatest intensity, especially the study of metaphor and its relationship with cognitive processes [3]. The analysis of this relationship is the objective of this work, which begins with a brief historical introduction to the philosophy of language. After it, a first reflection on knowledge and figurative language in which the most outstanding positions are analyzed: the standard pragmatic model, the theory of prototypes, and idealized cognitive models. This initial approach ends by considering the possible differences between literal and figurative language processing. This first reflection is followed by another on metaphor as a form of figurative language, which gives way to a summary of the most representative positions on the study of metaphor: M. Black; D. Davidson; J. Searle; G. Lakoff and M. Johnson; and WL Benzon and D, G, Hays. In the last part of the work, some considerations on the frequency and ubiquity of metaphors are exposed and some elements from organic evolution are suggested that could enrich the debate on metaphor and knowledge.
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2020
This paper is concerned with cognitive research advances in a comparative study of the metaphor within educational contexts. By focusing on the role of metaphorical processes in reasoning, we investigate the metaphor over a period of time from 334 B.C. to 2014: specifically, from Aristotle's seminal rhetorical theorytradition acknowledges him as the founding father of the metaphor as a research method and as a scientific toolup to Lakoff and Johnson's [1] and Gola's [2] arguments. The pivotal role of metaphor in the evolution of linguistics and neuroscience is represented through three diagrams in a Cartesian reference system, highlighting its ascending staircase paradigm: the undisputed star of many essays and theories, as stated by Eco and Paci [3], either despised or cherished as it happens with any star. The abscissas (i.e., x-axis) and the ordinates (i.e., y-axis) draw the biography of metaphor: since birth, Aristotle describes its embellishment qualities in the linguistic labor limae, but it is even more exalted as a sign of ingeniousness which develops different research perspectives. This paper aims to clarify the development path of the metaphor: until the seventeenth century, after losing its cognitive quality detected in paternal writings, it was diminished as a similitudo brevior, a "will-o'-the-wisp" or sentenced to a sort of "linguistic deceit". Furthermore, the paper aims to share a theoretical and methodological approach which releases the metaphor from the rhetorical cage where it has been enveloped by some ancient and modern authors of the rhetorical tradition. Indeed, we embrace the idea that metaphor is not merely a part of language, but reflects a primordial part of people's knowledge and cognition. In so doing, we show who and how has outlined that the pervasiveness of metaphors cannot be overlooked in human understanding and life, although, among the mysteries of human cognition, metaphor remains one of the most baffling.
The conceptual and the linguistic factors in the use of metaphors
DELTA: Documentação de Estudos em Lingüística Teórica e Aplicada, 2006
The purely cognitive representation of metaphor poses some difficulties. It is proposed that these difficulties can be tackled down in the alternative view proposed in this article, according to which there is an interdependence of conceptual and linguistic factors in the use of metaphor. Some linguistic regularities are identified in the interpretations of some types of metaphor, such as personification, and is argued that a richer description of these types of metaphor is obtained if the linguistic knowledge and semantic compositionality of topic and vehicle are taken into account.
A Cognitive Semantics Study of Metaphor (1
This article deals with metaphor from a linguistic perspective. A question arises here as to whether to which field of language study metaphor belongs. How to answer the question is subject to our understanding of metaphorical expressions. When one encounters a situation in which a metaphorical expression is used, they have a kind of construal to conceptualize the expression. Thus, the field of linguistics which is concerned with studying metaphors is cognitive linguistics since people use their cognitive abilities to conceptualize and understand the metaphorical expressions. With respect to this, George Lakoff adopted a theory under the title Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). Here I try to shed light on some aspects of this theory. What is taken into consideration in the paper is a detailed account of metaphor as a cognitive device, the three basic types of conceptual metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), namely orientational, ontological, and structural. Also, the characteristic features of conceptual metaphors like asymmetry, systematicity, and conventionality. Additionally, the relationship between conceptual metaphor and image schemas is shown in the last section. One of the conclusions of the article is that conceptual metaphor is an integral part of our everyday lives; we cannot interact normally without using conceptual metaphors.
Metaphor Making and Processing
Journal of Literary Semantics, 1999
For a long time, metaphor has been considered "äs a sort of happy extra trick with words" (Richards, 1936: 90)-a device of the poetic Imagination in which the poet coats his feelings to bestow on the language in which they are wrapped a touch of beauty or unfamiliarity. Accordingly, it has been relegated within this tradition to an ancillary function of mere embellishment. It is only in the early 1970s that its Status started to be rethought, thanks to the progress made in the fields of the philosophy of language, psychology, linguistics, stylistics, discourse analysis, and pragmatics. This period has actually witnessed a proliferation of symposia and publications such äs Black's Models and Metaphors (1962), Shibles's Metaphor. Annotated BMography and History (1971), Sacks's On Metaphor (1979), Ortony's Metaphor and Thought (1979), and Lakoff & Johnson's Metaphors We Live Bj (1980), to name only a few. The outcome of this research has been the questioning of the view of metaphor äs an achievement of the unordinary mind. Hence, it has been claimed that "to be able to produce and understand metaphorical Statements is nothing to boast about" (Black, 1979: 181), and that "children do not learn to speak metaphorically äs a kind of crowning achievement in the apprenticeship of language learning" (Cohen & Margalit, 1972: 723). It has also been claimed that metaphor is not only not a mark of excellence, but also "an incurable infirmity of the human mind" 2 to perceive reality äs it is (Bally: 1951:188). The paper is divided into sections, each studying a pair of dualities. The justification for dealing with metaphor in these terms could be found in the nature of metaphor itself which has been claimed to be "no different from any other kind of duality of meaning" (Morgan, 1979: 139), such äs ambiguity, irony, and indirect Speech acts. The first section will be devoted to dealing with the review of the massive literature about metaphor and the framework. The second section includes the pair imagnation-rationaKty, which is at the heart of metaphor making and processing. The third pair, assertion-speech act, investigates the logical Status of metaphor, and argues that metaphor cannot be approached in terms of truth claims. The fourth couple, convention-intention, seeks to draw a line between what is conventional and what is intentional in metaphor. The fifth, Speaker meaning-sentence meaning exploits the traditional distinction between literal and figurative meaning to show the continuum between the two.
Metaphor: Prominent Views and Critical Assessments
This paper aims at shedding light on some theories and views behind meaning transference in metaphor. The main motive behind handling this article is to show the complexity and pervasiveness of this linguistic device. Metaphor obscures its literal meaning while allowing a new understanding to emerge. Also, it can give concrete illustrations of objects. Most readers find abstractions alien to them that they need a concrete statement such as the one the analogy provides. In fact, metaphor is considered as a powerful device whenever one describes a new situation in terms of what has been described before.
Researching and applying metaphor
Metaphor has become an important area of investigation where fundamental and applied research on language and its use meet. This article presents metaphor as a rapidly developing area of study for applied linguists who are adding an interventionist dimension to the more fundamental research on metaphor pursued in linguistics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. First a brief history of the study of metaphor since the 1980s will be offered, in order to relate the cognitive-linguistic view of metaphor to general interest in metaphor in linguistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Then a few comments will be made about a number of important aspects of metaphor in applied linguistics, including metaphor identification and the distinction between deliberate versus non-deliberate metaphor. Finally an impression will be offered of the applied-linguistic study of metaphor in a few distinct domains of discourse, including politics and health. These topics are intended to demonstrate that metaphor forms an interesting opportunity for applied linguists to engage with complex aspects of meaning and use in a variety of ways in order to develop effective applied research.
Cognitive-methodological functions of metaphors
Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal, 2021
The paper analyzes the cognitive functions of metaphors present in both colloquial and scientific discourse. First, presented is the history of research into linguistic metaphors, followed by a discussion of the psycholinguistic turn towards metaphors as thought schemas (George Lakoff and Mark Johnson), as well as metaphoricality embodied in gestures, images and behaviors and their socio-cultural contexts. Based on the analysis of metaphors in the natural sciences, mainly in physics (Max Black, Mary Hesse, Thomas Kuhn) as well as in psychology (Douwe Draaisma), the heuristic and methodological functions of metaphors in science are discussed. Finally, on this basis, a general model of the cognitive functions of metaphor is constructed in which, apart from the cognitive communicative functions, emphasized are also the pragmatic aspects of metaphorical thinking.