The Effects of Input Specificity on the Metaphoricity of Blends

Abstract

Debate has raged for decades over what counts as metaphor. Do proverbs, such as can lead a to water, but can't make it drink, involve metaphor? When we refer to a generic-brand tissue as a Kleenex, is that a metaphor? In this paper, we apply Blending Theory (Fauconnier 1997) to show why some borderline cases of look more or less metaphoric, based on the specificity of the blend's input space, and on the specificity of the lowest-level category to which both input spaces can be assigned. A range of blends, sometimes called Generic is Specific metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), apply inferences about a category prototype to other category members. Some of these blends give the impression of as in my cat is an Einstein, which ascribes the qualities of a prototypical human genius to an intelligent cat; while others seem less like such as here's a Kleenex used in reference to a generic-brand tissue. Blending diagrams reveal that in examples such as my cat is an Einstein, a set of scalar qualities related to EINSTEIN (intelligence, respect, etc.) are projected to the blended space. In here's a Kleenex, the name for a category prototype is applied to a less central member, which enables scalar qualities related to KLEENEX to be projected to a blend involving the generic-brand tissue. The major difference between the two blends is that in the Kleenex blend, both input spaces belong to a specific low-level category (TISSUES), causing the blend to feel less metaphoric than the Einstein blend relating members of two different animal species. However, the input in both blends (an individual and a brand of tissue) is more specific than in standard metaphors such as THE MIND IS A BODY or TIME IS A RESOURCE. Many proverbs, such as you can lead a to water... likewise obtain their force from a highly specific input space, which projects more generally-applicable inferences to a blended space. The horse proverb involves the Location Event-Structure Metaphor (ACHIEVING A PURPOSE IS REACHING A DESTINATION). However, the horse proverb's input space is much more specific than that of the metaphor - a HORSE maps to a VOLITIONAL BEING, and DRINKING maps to TAKING ADVANTAGE OF AN OPPORTUNITY. These are not conventional mappings in a conceptual but they are conventionally part of the meaning of the horse proverb. As in the Generic is Specific examples, the source input is richer and more specific than in typical metaphors. Also as in the earlier examples, proverbs with more differentiated input spaces feel more metaphoric. the horse proverb therefore feels more metaphoric when applied to a human being who refuses a job opportunity, as opposed to a mule who refuses the opportunity to feed. Borderline cases of metaphor, including Generic is Specific examples and proverbs, involve highly specific input spaces that project structure to a blend. These blends seem even less metaphoric when their input spaces are closely related.