Basic Metaphor Research Articles

Affect and artifice in cognitive literary theory

Abstract This essay suggests that separating emotionally immersed and reflectively rational ways of experiencing fiction on the basis of ontological structures and spatio-temporal metaphors is hampering our understanding of the experience of fiction. Beginning in a rhetorical approach, I argue for a model where engagement with fiction is seen in terms of joint attention. Using joint attention rather than knowledge of ontological realms as a reference point has two distinct benefits: it refocuses attention on literature as a rhetorical mode, and it takes mental action to be a system of parallel processes, thus giving an alternative to the back-and-forth movement between the interior and exterior of imagined worlds. My focus is on Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000), a memoir that embeds an autobiographical narrative within self-reflective commentary, and which explicitly calls attention to the issues of emotional sincerity and rational distance.

Las metáforas comestibles en los rituales mexicanos

This article introduces a method of semantic decoding of certain dishes cooked as part of the rituals of the Aztecs at the time of Spanish Conquest and of several contemporary Indian groups. Starting from the idea that, in a ritual nothing is unpredictable and everything has a sense, it introduces a reflection about the categories of metaphor and metonymy conceived as two founding mechanisms of the human mind, at the same time distinct and closely linked, which express themselves in a verbal and material manner. Difrasismos, often considered to be linguistic techniques typical of ritual mesoamerican speeches, are considered here to be particular cases of « definition by extension », which forms « metonymical series ». The ritual dishes are analysed as material and eatable difrasismos which first of all represent a metonymical technique, and constitute the basis of metaphors.

Metaphoricity in the History of Economic Thought (on the Basis of the 17th Century Economic Discourse)

At all times economists resorted to metaphors to explicate abstract phenomena like money, market, labor and so on. The article is devoted to the analysis of metaphoricity in the works of philosophers and pre-classical economists of the 17th century with the aim to trace the source of economic metaphors and look into the factors that have bearing on the proclivity of metaphorical mappings of the nascent intellectual discipline. Each epoch is characterized by a specific metaphorical paradigm which is a result of systematic correlations across domains and carries an impact of the general state of knowledge, relative significance of different areas of learning, national and cultural specificity. These paradigms supply basic guiding images to express new cognitive contents and shape the ways in which reality can be visualized and a new theory constructed. We proceed from the assumption that metaphoricity is the foundational feature of economic discourse and the basis for the conceptualization of economic reality and postulate that economic metaphors are dependent on and epistemologically correlated with the general metaphorical paradigm of the period in question. Adaptations and modifications of universal absolute metaphors (organic – mechanical) are carried out in full conformity with the existing metaphorical paradigm. A historical perspective adopted in this article allows us to discover the cognitive basis of economic metaphors, their pattern setting capacity and implications for modern-day economics.

A Comparative and Contrastive Study of Sadness Conceptualization in Persian and English

Metaphors are both of mind and language as was proposed by contemporary metaphor scholar (Lakoff, 1993). Sadness as a basic metaphor was investigated in the present study to mainly uncover the similarities and differences in sadness conceptualization and the governing pattern in both Persian and English. For the purpose of the study, total 115 expressions were collected from different sources in the two languages. English data was extracted from the work of Kovecses (1990, 2005), British National Corpus, and NTC dictionary of idioms. Persian expressions, in turn, were extracted from Amsal & Hekam Dehkhoda (1960), and Estelahat-e-Amiyane Anvary (2004 ). Lakoff & Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory was adopted as a main instrument to uncover the conceptual system of both languages under study. In addition, to identify the governing pattern in Persian and English Kovecses’s linguistic expressions of metaphor model (2003) was adopted to identify the dominant pattern in this study. The results revealed that, although some salient differences were observed in the case of sadness conceptualization at the general level, the principal pattern in this study was partially the same (PS=47%), that is, those with the identical conceptual metaphor but different literal meaning. It was concluded that although both languages share most sadness conceptual metaphors, some differences were observed at generic-level relating to the existence/nonexistence of metaphors in Persian and English.

Metaphorical motion in mathematical reasoning: further evidence for pre-motor implementation of structure mapping in abstract domains

The theory of computation and category theory both employ arrow-based notations that suggest that the basic metaphor "state changes are like motions" plays a fundamental role in all mathematical reasoning involving formal manipulations. If this is correct, structure-mapping inferences implemented by the pre-motor action planning system can be expected to be involved in solving any mathematics problems not solvable by table lookups and number line manipulations alone. Available functional imaging studies of multi-digit arithmetic, algebra, geometry and calculus problem solving are consistent with this expectation.

Metaphors of Peace in Nancy Farmer's The Saxon Saga

One of the most deeply ingrained and most often bemoaned patterns in modern fantasy is its propensity to project violence as a solution. The tacit or explicit glorification of rightful violence has usually been accompanied by a host of attitudes that promulgate war as the basic metaphor of group activity. Yet, human interaction can also be described by metaphors of peace and through stories in which characters employ means other than violence to deal with aggression and situations of hurt. Focusing on Nancy Farmer's The Saxon Saga—The Sea of Trolls (2004), The Land of the Silver Apples (2007) and The Island of the Blessed (2009)—this essay examines the metaphors of peace Farmer employs to suggest that the work of peace requires a whole new way of looking at the world. Although the novels are set in a world torn by violent conflicts, they offer compelling alternatives to violence. Through the adventures of the protagonist Jack, the servant of the life-force and a mediator between three different cultures...

The Functioning of the CONTAINER Conceptual Metaphor in Doris Lessing’s "Children of Violence"

This paper is based on the assumption that there is a system to conceptual metaphor and to its conceptualized linguistic expression. Conceptual metaphor is not a matter of arbitrary fixity. Individual basic metaphors and even generic-level metaphors are not isolated. There is a higher unity to metaphor that governs not only all basic and generic-level metaphors, but novel metaphors as well. When we understand a scene, including those described in literary texts, we naturally structure it in terms of conceptual mega-metaphors which may structurally unite the patterns of meaning throughout the whole of the text and find expression in various minor novel metaphors. As the subject matter of this analysis I have chosen the series of novels Children of Violence by the famous British writer Doris Lessing (1919-2013), the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 2007.

Boundary Zone between Cultural Worlds or the Edge of the Dominant Culture? Two Conceptual Metaphors of Marginality

Two notions of marginality are distinguished. The polycultural notion implies the existence of a boundary zone between cultural worlds. Its roots lie in Robert Park's notion of ‘marginal man’. The unicultural notion assumes a single referent culture that has a normative centre and a periphery to which the ‘social outcasts’ are relegated. This usage is common in the public and policy discourse and in studies of crime and poverty, for example in Loïc Wacquant's theory of regime of advanced marginality. Conceptual theory of metaphor is used to work out this distinction and to explore the metaphorical foundations of the concept, connecting it to the basic metaphor of society or culture as a bounded entity. The issue of margin is thematised as principal for the notion of marginality. These findings are discussed in the light of John Urry's and others' post-societal concepts of social and cultural life as well as Homi Bhabha's post-colonial notion of hybridity.

A Comparative Study on Basic Emotion Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Literary Texts

Metaphor becomes the subject of interest for many researchers in recent decades. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the universality of emotion metaphorical conceptualization and the dominant pattern in English and Persian based on Kovecses’s (2003) model for Linguistic expression of Metaphor. The emotions under study were happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and love. Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory was adopted as a model for the purpose of comparison. To do so, 782 emotive metaphorical expressions were compiled from different literary works and related articles on the field and Dictionaries in both languages. The study was conducted through two main phases of categorization and comparison. First expressions were categorized under their general and specific target and source domains. At the second phase, in each category, metaphorical expressions were compared with based on their conceptual metaphor and literal meaning. At this phase, three patterns of totally the same, partially the same, and totally different were identified. Also the results of Chi-Square applied to these three patterns demonstrate that anger ( = 108.85, P<0/000) was the most universal emotion, whereas sadness ( = 31.40, P< 0/000) was the least universal emotion during this study. In addition, the dominant pattern at the end of analysis was the pattern of totally the same.

К анализу дотеоретических оснований социологии образования: экспликация базовых метафор

Константиновский Давид Львович — доктор социологических наук, руководитель Центра социологии образования, науки и культуры Института социологии РАН. Эл. адрес: scan21@mail.ru Адрес: Россия, 117218, Москва, ул. Кржижановского, д. 24/35, корп. 5.Вахштайн Виктор Семенович — кандидат социологических наук, старший научный сотрудник Центра фундаментальной социологии Института гуманитарных историко-теоретических исследований НИУ ВШЭ. Эл. адрес: avigdor2@yahoo.com Куракин Дмитрий Юрьевич— кандидат социологических наук, научный сотрудник Центра фундаментальной социологии Института гуманитарных историко-теоретических исследований НИУ ВШЭ. Эл. адрес: kourakine@yandex.ru Статья посвящена анализу метафорических оснований социологических исследований образования. Авторы на конкретных примерах из собственных эмпирических проектов показывают механику работы исследовательских языков описания.Исходя из того, что теоретический фундамент — концептуальные определения и исследовательские гипотезы — опирается на нетеоретические (или дотеоретические) предпосылки, авторы демонстрируют связь между научными понятиями и их дотеоретическими основаниями. Используя теорию метафоры в качестве инструмента экспликации аксиоматических допущений, они рассматривают социологическое исследование как серию «переводов» между взаимонепроницаемыми языковыми мирами (миром здравого смысла, миром социологической теории, миром управленческих решений). Выделены точки перехода, в которых исследование приобретает или, напротив, теряет свою строгую научность. Показано, что только шаги концептуализации, разработки инструментария и интерпретации данных совершаются по правилам научного метода. Базовые метафоры (уровень аксиом) опираются, скорее, на интуицию и воображение, процедуры сбора полевых данных — на логику здравого смысла и административные способности исполнителя, разработка рекомендаций же относится к сфере менеджмента. Обсуждаются методологические последствия метафорических смещений и эффектов «неконтролируемой экспансии метафоры». Подробно рассмотрены метафоры организма и рынка применительно к сфере образования.Поскольку фундаментальным свойством метафоры является ее имплицитная экспансия (перенесение свойств вспомогательного субъекта на основной), экспликация исследовательских метафор, по мнению авторов, может существенно упростить решение проблемы «перевода» между различными «реальностями» исследовательского процесса.

Frames and the experiential basis of the Moving Time metaphor

It is not satisfactory to analyze temporal metaphors such Moving Ego (e.g. We are approaching the end of the year) and Moving Time (e.g. The end of the year is approaching) simply as mappings from SPACE to TIME. In this case, the intuitively obvious experiential basis of Moving Ego leads to a paradox if applied (with suitable adjustments) to Moving Time. Frame analysis makes possible an adequate account of the experiential basis of both metaphors.

MAKING ROOM FOR FAITH IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE: A RESPONSE TO DAVID WISDO

Abstract. I respond to the criticisms of David Wisdo of my position on the relationship between science and religion. I argue that although he gives a full and fair account of my position, he fails to grasp fully my use of the metaphorical basis of modern science in my argument that, because of its mechanistic commitment, there are some questions that science not only does not answer but that science does not even attempt to answer. Hence, my position stands and plays a crucial role in our understanding of the science–religion relationship.

(Un)dressing the interface: Exposing the foundational HCI metaphor “computer is woman”

Two fundamental (and oftentimes opposing) metaphors have directed much of HCI design: HCI is communication and HCI is direct manipulation. Beneath these HCI metaphors, however, is the unspoken metaphor of computer is woman. In this paper we expose this foundational metaphor. We begin by identifying the origin of computer is woman in the early history of computing. Drawing upon postmodern feminist theory, we then explore how this metaphor has resulted in the feminization of HCI is communication and second person interfaces. We show how images of femininity proliferate, becoming the projected images of male fantasies and ideals of womanhood. In becoming these idealized images, the interface is revealed as man in female drag. Finally, not only do we undress the interface to uncover how HCI is communication wraps the computer’s difference from human being within the more basic metaphor of computer is woman, but we also disclose dangers that can arise when this metaphor goes unacknowledged and unexamined.

Gestaltegewing van geloof – Aspekte van outentieke geloofskommunikasie

Faith embodied – Aspects of the authentic communication of the faith In this article a theological theory for the communication of the faith is addressed from the basic metaphor of the Church as the body of Christ, within the fields of church publications, visual communication, the worship service and church music. It is argued that words (spoken, published or sung), music, art, gestures, visual images, silences and open spaces, are all communicative actions performing on a symbolic or metaphorical level to express and communicate the faith. Through these communicative actions the corporate identity of the community of faith is shaped and the body of Christ is built up. It is argued that in the church the act of communicating should adhere to certain theological principles to be true to its essence and aim: to communicate the faith faithfully and trustworthy.

Interpreting Art through Metaphors

AbstractThis article argues that much of the meaning of artworks comes through metaphors, though we do not always recognise them as such. The argument draws on the work of Lakoff &amp; Johnson, who assert a similar claim about metaphors in general (especially in language). It analyses the notion of a visual metaphor, gives a number of illustrations and claims that, contrary to linguistic metaphors, there can usefully be more than one visual metaphor (‘mixed metaphors’) active in a visual image and that visual metaphors can be interpreted in both directions. Verticality is presented as one basic metaphor in visual images.

Beyond Laterality: A Critical Assessment of Research on the Neural Basis of Metaphor

Metaphors are a fundamental aspect of human cognition. The major neuropsychological hypothesis that metaphoric processing relies primarily on the right hemisphere is not confirmed consistently. We propose ways to advance our understanding of the neuropsychology of metaphor that go beyond simple laterality. Neuropsychological studies need to more carefully control confounding lexical and sentential factors, and consider the role of different parts of speech as they are extended metaphorically. They need to incorporate recent theoretical frameworks such as the career of metaphor theory, and address factors such as novelty. We also advocate the use of new methods such as voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping, which permits precise and formal tests of hypotheses correlating behavior with lesions sites. Finally, we outline a plausible model for the neural basis of metaphor. (JINS, 2009, 16, 1-5.).

Metafore metatestuali

In this paper, the cognitive importance of metaphor is shown by analysing text deixis, which can be thought of as an operation based on the metaphor text is space. After reviewing the concept of metaphor as found in cognitive linguistics, text deixis is defined and exemplified as a procedure related to both situational deixis and anaphora. The analysis of narrative examples highlights different types of text deixis which can be understood as metaphoric extensions of the above mentioned metaphor basic metaphor. Metaphorically, demonstratives can indicate proximity or distance from a textual, temporal or emotive perspective; in addition, deixis am Phantasma and presentational deixis, which are not related to any linguistic antecedent, are considered as special cases of text deixis. Keywords: Anaphor, Deixis, Demonstratives, Metaphor, Metalinguistic metaphor, Text deixis

An Approximation to the Ideological Basis of Metaphors Used for Cancer in the English and Spanish Press

La métaphore est un outil très employé dans les articles de divulgation du cancer dans la presse parce que les processus par rapport à l’origine et la dissémination de la maladie restent relativement inconnus. Comme la métaphore implique nécessairement un système de correspondances partielles entre domaines, aussi que l’adoption d’une perspective particulière, elle est étroitement liée à l’idéologie. Cette étude examine la dimension idéologique des métaphores du cancer dans la presse britannique et espagnole dans deux corpus comparables, chacun composé de 34 articles. Les métaphores utilisées ont été identifiées et analysées en tenant compte de l’emploi de relèvement et occultation avec chaque système figuratif. L’étude met en évidence 15 métaphores conceptuelles dans les corpus. La comparaison de ces métaphores permet d’établir des différences transculturelles. La moyenne est de 3 thèmes métaphoriques par texte dans le corpus anglais et de 3,6 dans le corpus espagnol. Les métaphores les plus fréquentes dans les deux corpus sont LE CANCER C’EST LA GUERRE, LES CELLULES CANCEREUSES SONT HUMAINES, LES CELLULES CANCEREUSES SONT DES MACHINES. Les tropes apparaissent combinés pour réaliser trois fonctions principales: attirer l’attention du lecteur, fonction explicative, et fonction structurelle. Certaines images sont aussi privilégiées selon l’aspect du cancer traité dans le texte.

The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social (review)

Clough, Patricia Ticineto, with Jean Halley, eds. 2007. The Affective Turn: Theorizing Social. Durham: Duke University Press. $84.95 he. $23.95 sc. xiii + 313 pp.To numerous turbulent and productive turns of 1990s, Patricia Ticineto Clough adds advent of turn, which she sees as an expression of new configuration of bodies, technology, and matter insti- gating a shift in thought in critical theory brought on by transformations in economic, political, and cultural realms (1-2). In tracing genealogy of affect in her introduction through Deleuze and Guattari Spinoza and Bergson, Clough establishes affect as potential [and] often autonom- ic responses (2); different from emotion, which reflects in part product of meaning-making processes, affect exceeds consciousness: it refers pre- subjective agency, a force that delimits boundaries, determining bodily affect and be affected (2).The shift in thought that Clough describes challenges some of basic metaphors of life - from its most basic components its attendant cosmologies - such an extent that I found my studies as a biology major in college poor preparation indeed. In her chapter contribution, Karen Wendy Gilbert situates now axiomatic laws of thermodynamics as a product of nineteenth century and of industrial capitalism, and challenges widely accepted notion that matter and energy are governed by a tendency towards equilibrium or homeostasis within a closed system. The postmodern mantra about fragmented identity is revisited at molecular and cellular levels, opening up and radicalizing organism of subjectivity- - -as unified and enclosed by a discrete boundary or skin - into a concern with affect as flows of energy that pass between porous bodies in open systems or networks.This reconceptualization of body is well illustrated by Elizabeth Wissinger in her chapter on affective labor and modeling industry, where model is shown work in dynamic interaction with information and televisual technologies, making body and image available for circulation in order to feed endless demand for images ... in circulating affective energy in an affect economy. In this sense, what Sara Ahmed calls the very effect of surfaces or boundaries of bodies and worlds (232). Greg Goldberg and Craig Willse's contribution revisits theories of trauma, which presuppose a thermodynamic self vis-a-vis psychoanalysis, and rethinks injured soldier as an assemblage of capacities that are newly constituted through rehabilitation. Such rehabilitation is now understood as an effect/process of biopolitical control that continually calculate^], engineer^], and mutate [s] life itself (266).A subgroup of chapters are concerned with intersection of theory, body, affect, and capital. David Staple's chapter reviews transformation of capitalism from a thermodynamic model a turbulent system via flows of female labor, reconsidering concept of gift in terms of giving of time and information. Ariel Ducey's chapter on healthcare workers offers concrete examples of perpetuation of training and certification programs, which refashio[n] . …

Vive La (Sexual) Révolution: The Political Roots of Bourdieu's Analysis of Gender

This paper argues that the French Revolution constituted the basic metaphor through which Pierre Bourdieu perceived and analyzed gender hierarchies; that the class structure of the ancien régime and the mechanisms of its legitimation were the major metaphors he used through his scathing critiques on the order of the sexes; and that the ideals of liberté, égalité and fraternité were always his reformatory aims for a just, gender-neutral society. The paper shows how this preoccupation with the Revolution of 1789 structured Bourdieu's analysis of gender relations and sexual identities in contemporary society. It exposes the ways in which he identified men with the nobility and women with the third estate; it presents his analyses of the role that traditional ideologies and state bureaucracies play in legitimating this arbitrary order of masculine domination; and it analyzes his proposals for a sexual revolution while exposing the counter-revolutionary forces that persistently negate attempts to reform gender hierarchies. Fundamentally, this new reading of Bourdieu's exegeses on gender suggests that he was working with a ready-made interpretive scheme, a model of society that he was inclined to see as always reproducing itself: the ancien régime.