Transcript Lecture 6. Metaphor - Filozofski fakultet u Splitu

Prof. dr. sc. Danica Škara
University of Split
[email protected]
Week 5:
Metaphor and its role in categorization and
conceptualization in language
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE/METAPHORS
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Metaphors are very powerful and natural cognitive
processes, which help us to understand the complex issues
in nature and society.
Metaphors can be described as mediators between the
human mind and culture.
New metaphors change both the ordinary language we
use and the ways in which we perceive and understand
the world.
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Metaphors cause the audience to see things in a new
light.
In politics, the explanatory function of metaphors is
often subjected to the goal of manipulation, which
means that metaphors are often primarily selected
for their emotional and strategic effect.
Prime candidates in political speeches in general are
metaphorical links with familiar words, e.g. WIND
(e.g. the new breeze, wind of change), ILLNESS
metaphors, e.g.
Our country can be healthy; it has friends, allies and
enemies.
Cognitive Linguistic theories see metaphor as basic to
human cognition and language behavior (Lakoff and
Johnson 1980; Lakoff 1987)
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Political mind:
http://fora.tv/2008/06/20/George_Lakoff_on_The_Political_Mind
Metaphors are necessary for our basic grasp of time,
evaluation, emotions and so on
Go back in time
in the distant future
in a black mood
their hot love cooled
What is a metaphor?
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Metaphor is usually used to compare two unlike
things, which in result improve our understanding.
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Metaphor can be used as “filter” for our perceptions.
If inaccurately used, they may distort information or
cause false generalizations.
G. Lakoff: (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Lakoff 1987)
Lakoff argues that our worldviews are based largely on
different frames that provide us with structure for
our thinking.
 ‘Because conservatives have framed political debate
in their own terms for the past few decades, our
country—and its politics—are now based on a
conservative worldview. In order for progressives to
create change, they must re-frame the way we think
about politics, ourselves, and America.’
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Every word evokes a frame. A frame is a conceptual
structure used in thinking. The word elephant evokes a
frame with an image of an elephant and certain
knowledge: an elephant is a large animal (a mammal)
with large floppy ears, a trunk that functions like both
a nose and a hand, large stump-like legs, and so on.
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Every frame is realized in the brain by neural circuitry.
Every time a neural circuit is activated, it is
strengthened.
The more abstract the idea, the more layers of
"framing" or analogy are required to explain the
concept.
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Definition of metaphor
The essence of metaphor is understanding one kind of
thing in terms of another.
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It has been described in terms of transfer from one
cognitive domain (donor) to another (recipient)
domain: People tend to draw upon experiences in one
area of life in order to give fresh insights and
understanding to experiences in another, creating new
conceptual realities, e.g.
Life is battle.
the wolf in a sheep’s clothing.
.
Example in Conventional Language
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the ‘ARGUMENT IS WAR’ metaphor
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She attacked every weak point in my argument.
Your claims are indefensible.
They had to surrender to the force of our arguments.
I’ve never won an argument with him.
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Other terms: strategy, barrage of words, winning/losing an argument
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Being in an argument is viewed (and talked about) in terms of fighting a war.
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Two important points about metaphor:
is a tool of cognition, i.e. helps us to conceptualise the world
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Allows us to deal with abstractions by conceptualising them in terms
of something more concrete/basic/perceptual in our experience of the
world
Metaphorical Mapping (terminology)
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A metaphor is a relation between two disparate domains
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(Conceptual) Domain – any kind of coherent organization of experience
Source – domain from which the metaphors are drawn
Target – domain that we are trying to understand , or where the
concepts from the source domains are applied
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Source/Target relations (2)
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A metaphor is a relation between two disparate domains. Conventional metaphors are stored domain
relations.
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A target domain can be conceptualised from more than one source domain.
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ARGUMENT IS A BUILDING metaphor
Source domain  Target domain
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ARGUMENT  BUILDING
Your argument has a strong foundation
We demolished their theory
Time Examples
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REMEMBER: direction of metaphors typically go from basic/perceptual domains
to more abstract domains
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Concept of time is abstract
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TIME is MONEY metaphor
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You’re wasting my time.
You need to budget your time.
How do you spend your time these days?
You don’t use your time profitably.
Time is a valuable commodity, it is in finite supply
UP is MORE metaphor
vertical
VERTI CAL SPACE
up
QUALI TY / QUANTI TY
more
MORE IS UP
LESS IS DOWN
down
SOURCE DOMAIN
less
TARGET DOMAIN
MORE is UP
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CONSCIOUS IS UP - UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN
Wake up - He fell asleep
HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP - SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN
He's at the peak of health - He came down with the flu.
HAVING CONTROL OR FORCE IS UP - BEING SUBJECT TO
CONTROL OR FORCE IS DOWN
I am on top of this situation - He fell from power.
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MORE QUANTITY IS UP - LESS QUANTITY IS DOWN
The number of books printed every year keeps going up - The number of
errors he made is incredibly low.
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HIGH STATUS IS UP - LOW STATUS IS DOWN
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HIGH STATUS IS UP - LOW STATUS IS DOWN
She'll rise to the top - She fell in status.
GOOD IS UP - BAD IS DOWN
Things are looking up - Things are at an all-time low.
VIRTUE IS UP - DEPRAVITY IS DOWN
She is an upstanding citizen - That was a low-down thing
to do.
UNKNOWN IS UP - KNOWN IS DOWN
That's up in the air - The matter is settled.
Metaphor in categorisation and conceptualisation
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Metaphors are most of the time below our level of conscious awareness.
“Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in
thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which
we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” (Lakoff
& Johnson, 1980:3)
Summary of Metaphor in Language
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Metaphors are mappings across conceptual
domains. Each mapping is a fixed set of
correspondences between entities in a source
domain and entities in a target domain.
Mappings are not arbitrary, but grounded in the
body and in everyday experience and
knowledge.
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Metaphor allows us to understand a relatively abstract or
inherently unstructured subject matter in terms of a more
concrete, or at least a more highly structured subject matter.
Metaphor is the main mechanism through which we
comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract
reasoning.
Metaphor is fundamentally conceptual, not linguistic, in
nature.
(From George Lakoff. The Contemporary Theory of
Metaphor)
Body metaphors
Man is the measure of all things (proverb)
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When the body is mentioned in literature,
philosophy or similar disciplines, it is often
conceptualized as a plant, an animal, a cage or
confinement of the soul, a machine, a container of
emotions, a computer, a communication network,
etc.
Plato describes humankind as a ‘heavenly plant.’
(family tree, the root of the tooth...). Women are
often perceived as fragile flowers.
The human body is often addressed as a metaphor
for society (e.g. the head of the state, the face of the
law, a legislative body, etc.)
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the body parts have individual functions. They can
become symbolic models of stable meanings in
different parts of one’s experience, e.g.
head> the seat of the intellect; director, leader; a
container of thoughts, ideas, memories.
heart >the seat of emotion (sadness, fear, and love)
and the center of bravery
hand > power/control, e.g. to have someone in one’s hands
heart
Metaphorically, it refers to a person’s character, or the
place within a person where their feelings or emotions
(sadness, surprise, fear, love…) are considered to
come. It is also the center of bravery/courage:
 You are doing really well-don’t lose heart now.
(=courage),
 to break someone’s heart (=to cause emotional pain)
 In some languages heart is considered as the centre of
the soul (heart=soul), e.g. Croatian: On je prava dusa
(= soul). > She is all heart.
Linguistic categorization of the body reveals that all
human beings have a common set of conceptual
metaphors (universal/generic level metaphors) that are
based on the following:
 common body structure
 basic sensory experiences
 common features of social organization and
behaviour>common cultural environment
 common features of the natural environment
 globalization (e.g. global village)