Why cognitive linguistics requires embodied realism

Book Review. A New Insight into Theory of Conceptual Metaphor

In traditional rhetoric, metaphor is simply a rhetorical device used to make the mentioned things more understandable. It was not until 1980 that two cognitive linguists, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) argued in Metaphors We Live By that the essence of metaphor is the cognitive mechanism by which abstract things are explained through concrete things, shifting the study of metaphor from the linguistic level to the cognitive level. Later on, Lakoff (1996) analyzed political metaphor from a cognitive perspective for the first time in Moral Politics, which drives the upsurge of research on conceptual metaphor in political discourse. Political discourse usually uses metaphor to conceptualize the political ideas and issues it aims to disseminate, and the use of conceptual metaphor is closely related to national culture, so the translation of conceptual metaphor has become the key to the overseas publicity of political discourse. On March 5, 2023, Premier Li Keqiang delivered Chinese Government Work Report at the opening meeting of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress. After reading the official translation on www.china.org.cn, the authors find that the Report contains a wealth of conceptual metaphors, and whether the translation of these metaphors is appropriate or not will affect the accuracy of people’s understanding of the Report. Based on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory and Group’s (2007) metaphor identification procedure, this paper takes the 2023 Chinese Government Work Report and its English translation version on www.china.org.cn as the research corpus. Through manual screening, classification and statistics of conceptual metaphors, this paper explores ten types of conceptual metaphor models, namely human metaphor, journey metaphor, war metaphor, cultural metaphor, architecture metaphor, water metaphor, animal and plant metaphor, machine metaphor, line metaphor as well as object metaphor. Based on Xiao’s (2005) cognitive strategy of metaphor translation, this paper also analyzes the translation of ten types of conceptual metaphors. This paper attempts to explore the following three research questions: (1) What are the types of metaphorical patterns in the Report? (2) How are the conceptual metaphors used in the Report and what cultural connotations and images are conveyed by them? (3) How to effectively translate conceptual metaphors in the Report to achieve a better understanding of the target audience? Microsoft Office (Word and Excel) is used as a statistical tool and a mapping tool to count specific conceptual metaphor categories and record typical metaphor keywords, and visualize the data of the proportion of various types. This paper tries to summarize and analyze the cultural connotations and images conveyed by the conceptual metaphors, so as to provide help for the English translation of Chinese political discourse and promote the international dissemination of Chinese political ideas. Through the analysis of conceptual metaphors, we can judge that although the political concepts in the Report is abstract, conceptual metaphors can express them more concretely and more easily understood by the audience through the mapping from the source domain to the target domain.

Reviewed by: Metaphor in cognitive linguistics: Selected papers from the Fifth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, Amsterdam, July 1997 ed. by Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., Gerard J. Steen Kenneth A. McElhanon Metaphor in cognitive linguistics: Selected papers from the Fifth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, Amsterdam, July 1997. Ed. by Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr. and Gerard J. Steen. (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV-Current issues in linguistic theory, 175.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999. Pp. viii, 225. $72.00. The book consists of eleven diverse articles on metaphor. Noteworthy articles include Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano’s [End Page 605] ‘Metaphorical mappings in the sense of smell’, which rejects suggestions that the sense of smell is mapped metaphorically and proposes a process of property selection within an inherent structure that is similar to the concept of radial structure. Joseph E. Grady, Todd Oakley, and Seana Coulson (‘Blending and metaphor’) argue that conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) and conceptual blending theory (BT) represent complementary approaches that differ mainly in (1) the number of mental representations each allows (CMT—two, BT—more than two); (2) basic unit of cognitive organization (CMT—semantic domain, BT—mental spaces as scenarios structured by given domains); (3) strict directionality (CMT—yes, BT—no); and (4) the kinds of relationships they posit between mental representations (CMT—entrenched and conventional, BT—short-lived and novel). They propose a principle of BT, that a blend is based upon particular connections within the network of input spaces not upon a systematic mapping of one domain onto another. Noticeably absent, however, is a consideration of whether or not such mental spaces are grounded in ICMs (Idealized Cognitive Models) and, if so, how the ICMs might frame the scenes and contribute encyclopedic knowledge. Gerard Steen, ‘From linguistic to conceptual metaphor in five steps’, attempts to develop a procedure for identifying conceptual metaphors in discourse. The primary task of the linguist who wishes to describe and explain the structure and function of language is metaphor analysis, not metaphor understanding—a purely cognitive process. Nevertheless, his procedures are very much grounded in understanding inasmuch as metaphor identification ‘is fundamentally a matter of conceptual analysis’, and an ‘analysis . . . lays bare how metaphors can differ from each other with respect to important dimensions of conceptual structure’ (64–65). The proposed methodology seems complex, perhaps because it is bound to a theory that requires a propositional analysis of literal and nonliteral meaning and is designed to assist an analyst who is apparently not a native speaker of the language under analysis. Joseph E. Grady, ‘A typology of motivation for conceptual metaphor: Correlation vs. resemblance’, explores systematic analyses of conventional and novel metaphorical expressions to discover ‘primary metaphors’, those fundamental, experientially motivated metaphors which serve as the basis for further mappings. Grady suggests two distinct classes of metaphors which differ in terms of directionality, ontology, and conventionality: One is based upon resemblance (rather than similiarity) and the other upon correlation. Four papers address the relationship between cultural metaphors and cultural models and claim that cognition is inextricably culturally-based. Raymond Gibbs, ‘Taking metaphor out of our heads and putting it into the cultural world’, suggests that metaphorical mappings are grounded in embodied behavior which in turn is connected with cultural experience. Zoltán Kövesecs, “Metaphor: Does it constitute or reflect cultural models?’, claims that basic experiences select the appropriate, simple, generic cultural metaphors that constitute the cultural models that structure abstract concepts. Alan Cienki, ‘Metaphors and cultural models as profiles and bases’, adopts Ronald Langacker’s base-profile model and claims that metaphors are profiled against cultural models. Michele Emanation, ‘Congruence by degree: On the relation between metaphor and cultural models’, suggests that a scale of congruence may be useful in accounting for the varying relationships between cultural models and conceptual metaphors. Kenneth A. McElhanon Summer Institute of Linguistics Copyright © 2002 Linguistic Society of America

One of the concerns of Cognitive Poetic critics has been with the issue of how literary authors make meaning by means of metaphor. Building on the Cognitive Linguistic theories of metaphor, the field of Cognitive Poetics has been concerned, among its many diverse areas, with the studying of metaphor in literary texts. Proposing the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), cognitive linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argued in Metaphors We Live By that our conceptual system is metaphorically shaped. In addition, they claimed that the metaphoric linguistic expressions are the manifestation of the fundamental conceptual metaphors forming individuals' cognitions. Conceptual metaphors were defined as the underlying structures of these expressions by means of which people comprehend intangible concepts through more tangible ones. Using the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), the present essay explores the conceptual metaphor of LIFE IS A PLAY in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Glengarry Glen Ross. In these plays, Mamet depicts a world in which performance, in its theatrical sense, becomes the characters' survival strategy and a manner of living. As one of the most influential playwrights of his time, Mamet has always been concerned with the issues which most afflict America. He finds the ills of his society manifested in the relation among people. An attempt is made to explain the ways in which life-as-play finds expression both linguistically and thematically in the different contexts of these works. Keywords: cognitive poetics; metaphor; conceptual metaphor ;David Mamet; Sexual Perversity in Chicago; Glengarry Glen Ross DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2016-2202-05

This study is entitled (Analysis of the idioms of (head) in Kurdish language, from the perspective of cognitive linguistics). Language is one of the most important human achievements and occupies a large space in human life. Therefore, since the ancient times, humans have paid attention to it and tried to understand its secrets. Idioms are an important part of any language, and studying them helps us to understand the relationship between idioms and metaphors. The school of cognitive linguistics looks at idioms differently from all other linguistic schools. Other linguistic schools have studied the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects of idioms and viewed them as fixed and inseparable structures and expressions. However, the cognitive linguists have a completely different view; they see idioms as conceptual metaphors and interpret every conceptual metaphor in terms of the conceptual matching and interaction between the source and target fields. Our study is an interpretation of the idioms of (head) from the school of cognitive linguistics’ perspective, in light of the theory of conceptual metaphor, the interpretation of idioms has been conducted. In general, the study consists of the introduction, two chapters, the results and the list of references. The first chapter discusses the perception of both schools of ancient and cognitive linguistics for idioms as well as the theory of conceptual metaphor, types of conceptual metaphors and metaphorical interaction between the source and target fields. In the second chapter, the idioms of (head) have been analyzed according to the theory of conceptual metaphor, followed by the results and a list of references.

In this paper, four conceptual metaphors very frequently used in the Montenegrin language are analyzed. These are conceptual metaphors: <i>Negotiation is Boxing Match, Stone is Weak, Bad, Low-Quality, Humorous is Bloody and Capital is a Woman (During Intercourse, with an Intention for Procreation)</i>. The mentioned conceptual metaphors have entered the focus of our scientific interest because they reveal some very important facts about the Montenegrin mentality. We can say that these facts are immanent to the way of thinking of the average resident of Montenegro to the extent that they are firmly woven into the linguistic expression. These conceptual metaphors can be found in all functional styles of the Montenegrin language, and, most importantly, they are most often used in everyday language. The conceptual metaphors we deal with in this paper, however, are not only related to the way of thinking of the inhabitants of Montenegro, but are, potentially, also part of the universal way of functioning of the human mind. In the explication of the mentioned conceptual metaphors, we will apply the methodology of cognitive linguistics, and above all, we will focus on the theory of conceptual metaphor. The literature on the phenomenon of conceptual metaphor in contemporary world and domestic linguistics is extremely large and diverse. In our research and theoretical foundation of the concept of conceptual metaphor, we will start, of course, from the now classic book by Lakoff and Johnson "Metaphors We Live By", and then we will add to this classical study in the continuation of the paper the insights that individual (cognitive) linguists have gained about conceptual metaphor in the last twenty years.

Despite of many previous studies related to conceptual metaphor have been conducted since George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have introduced their work known as Metaphor We Live By in 1980, but none of them have analysed oral discourse as their corpus. This study aims to reveal the concept of death belonging to one of the Indonesian indigenous tribes located in Sulawesi Island called Kajang tribe. The Kajang tribe has an ancient oral discourse which delivers orally from generation to generation known as Pasang ri Kajang, and it is full of metaphorical expressions. This present study employs the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 2003), and the approach of conceptual metaphor analysis (CMA) by Charteris Black (2004) to reveal the concept of death found in Pasang ri Kajang. This qualitative research obtained the data through semi-structured interviews, field observation, recording, and note-taking. The conceptual metaphor techniques comprising three CMA stages, namely identification, interpretation, and explanation, were used for data analysis. The results of the study indicate that the concept of death as found in Pasang ri Kajang is DEATH IS A JOURNEY. This conceptual metaphor gives a detailed description of death as a journey of the soul to the hereafter. This research concludes that people of Kajang believes only good souls are rewarded with eternal life (Karakkang) and extraordinary wealth (Kalumannyang kaluppepeang) in the hereafter (ahera).

A selection of idiomatic expressions is analysed here using Conceptual Metaphor Theory as an analytical framework. This theory is critiqued with reference to the “invariance principle,” which aims to explain the mechanisms behind the mapping of metaphors, including the factors which restrict these mappings. Following cognitive linguists like Gibbs, idioms are seen as analogous to any other linguistic metaphors, and are presented as conventional manifestations of underlying conceptual metaphors. The idioms were selected from two texts, and were attested by six native speakers of Northern Sotho, who checked both the accuracy of the translation and the import of the metaphorical idioms. The standard version of the invariance principle, as presented by George Lakoff in his initial works, needs to be updated, as it fails to account for how idioms are interpreted. The findings here concur with the critiques of this principle as found in works by scholars like Wallington and Stockwell.

The Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) established the pervasiveness of metaphor in thought and language and provided evidence that metaphor is, in fact, deeply embedded in our conceptual system. Contrary to the original claim that conceptual metaphors are largely universal, in almost four decades after its inception, the CMT researchers including George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have advanced the idea of cultural influence on metaphorical conceptualisation. In recent years, the trend in metaphor research has been to study how metaphor behaves in naturally occurring discourse. It is in this context that the current study explores conceptual metaphors in India's rich cultural context. The main objectives of the current study are, (i) to examine conceptual metaphors of womanhood found in English literary works set in India's three culturally diverse linguistic regions, and (ii) to compare and contrast them across literary works of the three regions.�The data of linguistic metaphors was collected from 21 literary works, seven in each linguistic region. This data was tested for metaphoricity using the Metaphor Identification Procedure, Vrije University, Amsterdam (MIPVU) developed by the PRAGGLEJAZ Group, after which it was analysed using the CMT. The CMT enabled the identification of the source domain used in each linguistic metaphor and subsequently, the uncovering of conceptual metaphors through the establishment of cross-domain mappings between the source and target domains. The framework of the Cognitive Dimension of Metaphor Variation by Zoltan K?vecses has been used to analyse the metaphors for similarities and variations across the three regions. The Great Chain of Being metaphor or the GCB model has guided the understanding of the negative and positive conceptualisation of the metaphors of womanhood.�The analysis revealed that a total of 30 source domains have been utilised by the authors across the three regions. Of these, 21 in the Indo-Aryan, 27 in the Dravidian and 23 source domains in Tibeto-Burmese literary works. Of these, the source domains, ANIMALS, OBJECTS, SUPERNATURAL ENTITIES, PLANTS, and ELEMENTS OF NATURE are the most frequently used. The source domain, ANIMALS tops in the aggregate with approximately 25% of total metaphors across the three regions conceptualising women in terms of animals. The next most frequently used source domain is OBJECTS with 22% of the total metaphors conceptualising women in terms of objects.�In terms of the target domains of womanhood, the Indo-Aryan works focus more on the conceptualisation of motherhood, the Dravidian works focus more on the conceptualisation of wifehood and metaphors found in the Tibeto-Burmese literary works focus more on the women's physical attributes and beauty. Lastly, the conceptualisation of womanhood in the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian literary works is more negative than positive, with the negative conceptualisation of womanhood being the higher in the Dravidian literary works. In the Tibeto-Burmese literary works, the percentage of positive and negative metaphors was found to be proportionate. The main implication of this research is that it is the first comprehensive study of literary metaphors ever conducted. The study analysed 708 linguistic metaphors of womanhood from 21 literary works across India.

This article studies the EU’s role conceptions and projections towards its Eastern Neighbourhood, and Ukraine specifically. Informed by the novel focus on narratives and emotions in International Relations (IR) theory and in EU foreign policy studies, we propose an innovative interdisciplinary synergy between IR’s role theory [Harnisch et al. 2011; Holsti, 1970] and cognitive linguistics’ conceptual metaphor theory [Lakoff and Johnson 1980]. Using the tool of conceptual metaphor, we systemically explore the EU’s role conception (self-image) as well as its perception and expectations of the Eastern partners (role prescriptions). In doing so, we put forward a new method to systemically analyse cognitive and emotive elements in the EU’s foreign policy roles based on the notion that conceptual metaphors reveal fundamental cognitive and emotional traits central to the roles actors play. Empirically, we analyse the EU Global Strategy (June 2016) and the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit’s Official Memorandum (November 2017), as well as 12 interviews with EU practitioners dealing with Ukraine (conducted in 2017).

How does conceptual metaphor theory handle mixed metaphors? Several metaphor scholars argue that mixed metaphor is a phenomenon that conceptual metaphor theory cannot handle. Their argument is that, given the claims of conceptual metaphor theory, mixed metaphors should not occur at all. This is because once a conceptual metaphor is activated in discourse by means of a linguistic metaphor, that conceptual metaphor should lead to and support the use of further linguistic examples of the same conceptual metaphor. However, in real discourse, the argument goes, most metaphors are mixed, which indicates that conceptual metaphors are not activated and thus do not lead to further consistent linguistic metaphors of the same conceptual metaphor. In the paper, I will argue that the idea of the production of consistent and homogeneous linguistic examples does not necessarily follow from conceptual metaphor theory and that, as a matter of fact, the opposite is the case: given conceptual metaphor theory, we should expect the use of mixed metaphors in natural discourse.

In this article, the author analyzes the conceptual metaphors politics is a pond, a politician is a carp and a politician is a pike in Czech political discourse. The investigation is based on the theory of conceptual metaphor and follows the principles of ethnolinguistics and cognitive linguistics. The author shows how the specific features of these conceptual metaphors relate to the Czech linguistic worldview and proposes metaphorical mapping that conveys salient features of the target domain (politics and politicians). The conceptual metaphor politics is a pond helps the speaker to depict a problematic domestic political situation that needs to be changed. The metaphors a politician is a carp and a politician is a pike are usually used to create the “friend-foe” opposition in political discourse. The conceptual metaphor a politician is a carp discloses the passivity and laziness of politicians and their inability or unwillingness to change the current situation. On the other hand, the conceptual metaphor a politician is a pike can be used to indicate both the positive qualities of a politician (activity, energy, initiative) and the negative ones (greed, selfishness, cruelty). The use of culturally specific conceptual metaphors allows a politician to establish close contact with the audience to increase the number of loyal voters.

Reviewed by: Conquered Conquerors: Love and War in the Song of Songs by Danilo Verde J. L. Andruska danilo verde, Conquered Conquerors: Love and War in the Song of Songs (AIL 41; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2020). Pp. xvi + 271. Paper $40. In this book, Danilo Verde examines the metaphors and figurative language displayed in the Song of Songs and argues that "LOVE IS (also) WAR" is one of the Song's main leitmotifs (p. 4). A number of recent works have addressed the Song's metaphors and figurative language: Othmar Keel's Deine Blicke sind Tauben: Zur Metaphorik des Hohen Liedes (SBS 114/115; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1984) and his Das Hohelied (Zürcher Bibelkommentare: Altes Testament 18; Zurich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 1986); Hans-Peter Müller's Vergleich und Metapher im Hohenlied (OBO 56; Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984); Jill Munro's Spikenard and Saffron: The Imagery of the Song of Songs (JSOTSup 203; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995); and Fiona C. Black's The Artifice of Love: Grotesque Bodies in the Song of Songs (LHBOTS 392; London: T&T Clark, 2009). Yet V.'s unique contribution is to bring recent developments in metaphor studies in contemporary linguistics into [End Page 490] the discussion, offering a theoretical framework and clear methodology for assessing the vast number of metaphors in the Song. The book comprises an introduction, four main chapters and a conclusion. V. begins by giving an overview of where he finds the Song's military imagery, arguing that "LOVE IS WAR" is a main leitmotif, by which he means that the Song "describes the lovers in military terms," which he interprets as showing "their courtship as a war-game" (p. 5). He laments the lack of scholarly research on the Song's military metaphors and warlike imagery, as well as the fact that research on the Song's figurative language has completely overlooked a number of developments in metaphor studies outside biblical studies. V.'s theoretical framework is cognitive linguistics, which has recently shed new light on figurative language in biblical literature and is the main reference point for scholarly discussions of metaphors, according to V. (p. 21). He discusses conceptual metaphor theory, blending theory, and other recent developments, which he uses to explain the Song's metaphor LOVE IS WAR. V. follows George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Metaphors We Live By [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980]) in arguing that metaphors are a pervasive linguistic phenomenon, universal and cross-cultural, which involve a person's conceptual system, so that concepts in the human mind are structured metaphorically. According to conceptual metaphor theory, the cognitive process that generates metaphors in one's mind involves conceptualizing a segment of experience or "target" "in terms of another segment of experience called the "source" (p. 22). "The mind creates a set of conceptual correspondences, called 'mapping', between conceptual elements of the source and conceptual elements of the target" (p. 23). As V. explains, blending theory, as developed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner (The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities [New York: Basic Books, 2002]), holds that the metaphorical process involves four elements: (1) input 1 or the "source" domain in conceptual metaphor theory, (2) input 2 or the "target" domain in conceptual metaphor theory, (3) the tertium comparationis or generic space, that is, what the domains have in common, making mapping possible, and (4) the "blended space," a new structure composed of blended elements of the first two domains and which cannot be gathered from the single domains (p. 24). Thus, according to blending theory, metaphor is not just the result of cross-mapping conceptual domains, but an entirely new concept resulting from the blending of source and target. Both theories were intended to explain the cognitive mechanisms underlying metaphor in human thought, yet they were soon also applied to literary metaphors. As V. explains, literary works often display "extended metaphors" (also called "sustained metaphors" or "megametaphors") which function as an "undercurrent" running throughout the text as a whole and underlie a large number and variety of "single" or "surface" metaphors (p. 26). V.'s main thesis is that LOVE...

The purpose of this paper is to study how ‘joy’, an emotional concept, is metaphorised in English from a cognitive perspective. It introduces the theoretical framework of Cognitive Linguistics, then briefly touches upon the definition of metaphor, the different types of conceptual metaphors and, finally, the conceptual metaphors of ‘joy’. We think in metaphors, which we learn very early. Our conceptual system, in terms of what we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature (Lakoff, &amp; Johnson 2003: 8). Lakoff and Johnson’s book Metaphors we live by changed the way linguists thought about metaphor. Conceptual Metaphor Theory was one of the earliest theoretical frameworks identified as part of the cognitive semantics enterprise and provided much of the early theoretical impetus for the cognitive approach. The basic premise of Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that metaphor is not simply a stylistic feature of language, but that thought itself is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. The cognitive model of joy can be described using the example of Lakoff for anger: JOY IS A FLUID IN A CONTAINER: She was bursting with joy; JOY IS HEAT/FIRE: Fires of joy were kindled by the birth of her son; joy is a natural force: I was overwhelmed by joy; JOY IS A SOCIAL SUPERIOR: If I ruled the world by joy; JOY IS AN OPPONENT: She was seized by joy; joy is a captive animal: All joy broke loose as the kids opened their presents; JOY IS INSANITY: The crowd went crazy with joy; JOY IS A FORCE DISLOCATING THE SELF: He was beside himself with joy.

The study explores the conceptual metaphor of "MEDIA AS A TRAP" in Vietnamese and English, aiming to understand perceptions of media in these linguistic contexts. Using the theory of conceptual metaphor in cognitive linguistics, alongside descriptive and semantic analysis methods, the research establishes and analyzes the mapping from the source domain of "TRAP" to the target domain of "MEDIA." By examining metaphorical expressions in press texts, the study uncovers underlying cognitive models, including media as trickery and media as a scam. Survey data reveals similar frequencies of metaphorical expressions in both languages, with 110 instances in Vietnamese and 90 in English, indicating a shared understanding of the metaphor. The analysis highlights significant parallels and distinctions in the conceptual metaphor "MEDIA IS A TRAP" between Vietnamese and English, underscoring its universal cognitive and linguistic significance. Both languages employ similar conceptual metaphorical expressions, yet exhibit subtle differences reflecting distinct cultural perspectives.