Conceptual Metaphor Research Articles

RUN: A COGNITIVE ACCOUNT OF ITS MEANING TRANSFERENCE IN THE LIGHT OF AN IMAGE-SCHEMA BASED MODEL

This article aims at providing a more comprehensive picture of how meanings of “run” are transferred from spatial to non-spatial meanings by using the combined framework of Multimodal Image Theory and Extended Conceptual Metaphor. To be specific, 368 concordances of “run” extracted from the corpus of Contemporary American English in 2017, Genre Spoken were systematically analyzed to first identify the word’s meanings in its contexts of use and then account for its meaning transference. In other words, the prototypical meaning of “run” and its image complexes in three spaces namely Visual space, Maneuver space, and Kinetic space were analyzed in the light of Multimodal Image Theory, which provides concrete image-schemas mapped onto the word’s non-spatial meanings found in its Mental space in association with a range of conceptual metaphors. It has been shown that mapping together with image-schema transformations are the mechanisms of the word meaning transference.

Factors Influencing Comprehension of Metaphors in Academic Reading Texts among Iraqi EFL Learners

Metaphor is recognized as a valuable tool for analysis and as a means to effectively convey meaning. Although metaphor is supposed to be used to effectively convey meaning, learners of English, particularly those in the foreign language context, often have difficulty comprehending metaphors in academic text. The current study aims to contribute to understand deeply of the influencing factors on metaphor comprehension among Iraqi EFL learners when they read academic texts. The study draws on Steen’s (2010) MIPVU model and Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory to identify and analyze the metaphorical expressions. The data for the study were collected from two academic reading comprehension texts. Five Iraqi EFL university learners participated in determining the metaphors contained in the texts. The findings revealed that authors of academic texts often incorporate a wide range of metaphorical expressions. These expressions can vary in their familiarity, ranging from very familiar to less familiar and even unfamiliar, to engage readers’ cognitive processes and facilitate the conceptualization of the metaphor. The findings revealed that the factors influencing metaphor comprehension are varied and that they are of two broad types: external factors related to cultural and social considerations, and internal factors related to linguistic and educational settings. The findings could enable practitioners to devise more effective approaches for teaching metaphor comprehension to EFL learners.

Study of conceptual metaphor in high school English Textbooks: A Case Study of People’s Education Edition

Since Lakoff and Johnson proposed the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, metaphor has gradually been studied as a way of thinking and acting rather than just a rhetorical device. In the past few decades, Conceptual Metaphor Theory has been applied to many fields, especially the field of Foreign Language Teaching. For second language learners, understanding metaphors in a different culture is one of the barriers in the process of second language learning. This paper makes a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the metaphors in the high school English textbooks. By enumerating three different metaphors in the textbook, it is not difficult to see that metaphor has caused obstacles to students' foreign language learning. At the same time, statistics on the frequency of metaphors in books can help us intuitively realize the universality of metaphor in language. Therefore, teachers should adjust their teaching strategies in time and have special teaching methods for learning material that contains metaphors.

A STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSIAN TRANSLATION OF CHARACTER EPITHETS IN THE NOVEL “A DREAM OF RED MANSIONS” BASED ON THE THEORY OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR

In the novel “A Dream of Red Mansions” the author Cao Xueqin connects the characters’ nicknames with the characters themselves and the themes of the work, forming the epithet metaphor. The translation of these metaphors has a far-reaching significance for cross-cultural communication. Thus, the object of our research includes the personal names and nicknames of the novel’s characters, with a special focus on their translation into Russian. The aim of the paper is to confirm or question the adequacy of the translation technique adopted by the translator in each particular case. Based on the conceptual metaphor theory, this paper sorts out some epithets in the 1958 Russian translation of “A Dream of Red Mansions,” explores the formation mechanism of epithet metaphor in the combination of literary and cultural contexts, and puts forward corresponding translation strategies for different interpretations of metaphor in different cultural contexts. The originality of research consists, first, in examining both personal names and nicknames and, second, in evaluating each technique employed by the translator in the light of both the linguo-cultural and text-centered approaches.

Cultural–Cognitive Study of Selected Death-Oriented Personal Names in Igbo

Working chiefly within the tenets of Cultural Linguistics (CL), this study examines the cultural and cognitive motivations that underlie selected death-oriented personal names among the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria. Based on the cultural linguistic perspective, the analytical tool for the study is shaped by insights from cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors as signifiers of ideation and social meaning. The cultural frames enable the language user to have a better understanding of the cultural and cognitive motivations that underlie the conceptualization of names and naming among the Igbo. Much has been done on the structure and sociological forms of Igbo personal names and their meanings, but only a few studies have been undertaken on the names that express the notions of death and dying in Igbo. More importantly, no previous study has used insights from Cultural Linguistics (CL) or the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) to explain the motivations for the preponderance of death-oriented names among the Igbo people. Thus, this study specifically aims to address the lacuna. The study reveals that the Igbo, like most African and other human societies, recognize and accept the inevitability of death. Consequently, they use language in diverse forms and contexts to express their perceptions of the horrors and pains associated with the inevitability of death. Songs, proverbs and ritual practices are some of the verbal and social semiotic forms through which the Igbo express their knowledge of and attitude toward death and dying. However, names and naming are the most vivid cultural cognitive patterns by which the Igbo show their understanding of the nature of death and dying and their psychological effects on the living. Constrained by space and scope, this study identified and classified six major death-oriented names among the Igbo, as follows: names that depict the overwhelming power of death; names that make an appeal to death; names that depict death as wicked/evil/terror; names that depict death as no respecter of wealth/social class; names that challenge/mock the assumed power of death; and names that depict death as an insensitive entity. Thus, the above frames constitute the major paradigms by which the Igbo express their knowledge of and attitudes toward death and dying.

Analysis of Metaphors in The Old Man and the Sea from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics

There has been growing interest in investigating metaphors in literary works recently. However, most studies in the field of metaphor have only focused on its rhetorical function. However, little research has been carried out from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. This study adopts a cognitive linguistics approach to explore how conceptual metaphors function in literary works based on some analyses of the well-known novel The Old Man and the Sea from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The results show that conceptual metaphors do play a very important role which helps people comprehend literary works much better. In the point of cognitive linguistics, metaphor is a kind of mapping tool and plays an important role in understanding some abstract concepts with specific things. Therefore, conceptual metaphors could definitely reveal the thinking mode of mankind to a great degree. And this study confirms the complex association between conceptual metaphors and The Old Man and the Sea. On the one hand, the findings in this study seek to understand and explain the role of metaphors in novel writing. On the other hand, it also presents a new way of appreciating literary works.

Metaphoric Conceptualizations of Georgian Cultural and National Identities in Oliver Wardrop’s The Kingdom of Georgia

The aspiration of Georgia to be part of the Western Culture has always been an irrevocable vector. Nevertheless, it is of immense importance to discursively scrutinize how Europeans perceive this aspiration. Metaphors possess an inherent capacity to represent cultural values of a society and communicate established or competing worldviews. From this perspective, the choice of metaphors, which is cognitively reinforced, conceptualizes culture-specific and national-emotive attitudes that are ascribed to certain communities. The aim of the present paper is to explore conceptual metaphors that contribute to the representation of Georgian cultural and national identities in the eye of a beholder - Sir Oliver Wardrop, who was a British Diplomat and the United Kingdom’s first Chief Commissioner of Transcaucasia in Georgia in 1919-1920 manifesting his take on Georgian cultural and national characteristic features in his work The Kingdom of Georgia (1888). Corpus linguistic software tool AntConc® is used for generating concordance lists for a qualitative discourse analysis of a verbal milieu of the target lingual units – Georgia and Georgian. The research reveals that Georgian cultural and national identities manifested in the discursive realm through the observer’s lenses, which could be referred to as Georgian cultural and national eye-dentities, possess signaling and meaning sides. The latter reinforces the idea that identities function as discursive signs in the narrative of a beholder. What is more, a meaning side of cultural and national identities expressed via the conceptual metaphors acknowledge the emergence of a reshaped Georgian identity that prepared a foundation for establishing Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921).

Metaphors They Kill by: Dehumanization of Palestinians by Israeli Officials and Sympathizers

Within the cognitive paradigm, metaphors are said to play a key role “not just in language but in thought and action” (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: p. 3). As a form of action, genocide in recent human history has been incited by metaphor, with Holocaust Jews as “parasites” (Musolff 2010), Iraqis as “rapists” (Lakoff 1991), Rwandan Tutsis as “cockroaches” (Hintjens 1999; Mowarin 2014), Bosnians as “Islamic fundamentalists” (Karčić 2022), etc. The aim of the present study is to investigate the ongoing genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by bringing political ideology to bear on cognition both in thought and action (Gibbs 2017). In particular, it will be shown that the conceptual metaphor politics is religion (Charteris-Black 2004) in the Christian Zionists’ in-group’s socio-cultural cognition, acts in tandem with and motivates the “animalized dehumanization” (Sevillano and Fiske 2023) of Palestinians. Such an ideology, which is tainted by psychological essentialism (Leyens et al. 2001) of the Jews supremacy, is instrumentalizing the deliberate, superordinate conceptual metaphor (Steen 2023) humans are animals and other basic-level metaphors such as Palestinians are rats, ants and cockroaches, therefore stripping the Palestinian outgroup of their humanity (Leyens et al. 2000; Leyens et al. 2003; Haslam 23.2.2024, 2006; Haslam, Loughnan and Sun 2011; Harris and Fiske 2011) in order to legitimize the Palestinian genocide. Animalized dehumanization, which is a blue print for genocide, will be accounted for using Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980, 1999) Conceptual Theory of Metaphor together with Lakoff and Turner’s (1989) Great Chain of Being Metaphor.

Conceptual Metaphors in Psychotherapeutic Discourse (Using the Example of the Works of Art by Irwin Yalom and Ken Kesey)

Introduction. The article discusses the role and features of the conceptual metaphor in psychotherapeutic dis-course using the examples of fiction works by Irwin Yalom “The Schopenhauer Cure”, “Mommy and the Meaning of Life” and Ken Kesey “Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (translated by 2003 by D. Shepelev). The purpose of the article is to illustrate the metaphorical language of psychotherapeutic discourse (PD), involved in the fiction works. The widespread use of metaphor makes it possible to distinguish PD into an independent one. The relevance of linguistic analysis lies in expanding the language of discourses of helping professions.Methodology and sources. The article is based on the provisions of the theory of conceptual metaphor formulated by J. By Lakoff and M. Johnson. The methodological basis of the analysis are the works about PD and the metaphorical language of psychotherapy (I.V. Karasik, A.R. Markin, M.S. Grineva, E.V. Ermolaeva, etc.). Results and discussion. The article describes the characteristics of PD, describes the types of conceptual metaphors that are used in psychotherapeutic discourse based on the analysis of the fiction works. Among the main conceptual metaphors are the metaphors “dispute is war”, “time is money”, “psyche as a machine”, orientation metaphors, where UP is associated with the concept of mental health, well-being, altruism, strength, high status, rationality, and DOWN – with images of illness, failure, low social status, emotionality. Conclusion. The study shows the specifics of PD, primarily related to its metaphorical language. The examples of the conceptual metaphors highlighted by J. By Lakoff and M. Johnson illustrate the specific feature of PD of I. Yalom and K. Kesey.

Embodied learning with metaphors and Rich Picture-like diagrams in actor training: an articulated, playful approach to teaching and practice-led research

Metaphors and diagrams are underutilised in actor training, both for teaching and practice-led research, creating a gap in the literature. Combining practice-led research and phenomenology as a methodology, this paper examines the author’s metaphor exercise “INTERACTION IS PLAYING TABLE TENNIS” and four Rich Picture-like diagrams, all constructed through a personal philosophy lens as an acting teacher/coach in the process of redefining Stanislavski’s term “communication” as “psychophysical interaction” and inventing the corresponding technique named “Transitive Psychophysical Interaction Score (TPI Score)”. This examination draws on an interdisciplinary perspective, incorporating Johan Huizinga’s cultural theory of “play” metaphor, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s, and Zoltán Kövecses’s theories of “conceptual metaphor”, along with Simon Bell, Tessa Berg, and Stephen Morse’s “Rich Pictures” concept, to reveal how metaphorical and visual elements rooted in physical experiences such as “games/sports”, “colour”, “icons”, and their inherent quality of “playfulness’ reshape actors” embodied understanding of the concept of “interaction” and fostering trainer-trainee dynamics. This inquiry also critically reflects on ineffective instructions commonly used by trainers, arguing that the combination of metaphor exercises and visual metaphors can bridge tacit and explicit knowledge in a structured, engaging way, thereby improving practitioners’ and researchers’ ability to articulate complex knowledge and reveal deep insights in teaching and academic writing, and fostering a more effective and relaxed communication. This creative approach to teaching and practice-led research can be used by a broader community of actor trainers and researchers in the future.

Abstract algebra students’ conceptual metaphors for isomorphism and homomorphism

Group isomorphism and homomorphism are core concepts in abstract algebra, and student understanding of isomorphism has received extensive attention in line with the centrality of this topic. However, limited work has directly examined student conceptions of homomorphism or what metaphors students use to express their thought processes while problem solving. Based on interviews with four students, we contrast two students who used predominantly formal definition and mapping-centered metaphors for homomorphism with two who additionally used sameness-centered metaphors and note that the usage or non-usage of sameness-centered metaphors was not indicative of successful problem solving. Implications include the alignment between students’ metaphors and those used in instruction, indicating the importance of attending to metaphors when teaching, and the importance of discussing what is intended by some sameness-based metaphors, such as operation-preservation.

Understanding the use of metaphors by parents of children with cancer in blogs: a qualitative analysis

Parents of children with cancer, who face significant financial and psychological burdens, often employ metaphors to convey their distinctive experiences and inner realms. However, these metaphors have received scant attention in prior research. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the utilization of metaphors in blogs authored by parents of children with cancer, aiming to shed light on this understudied area. This study collected data from blogs authored by 33 parents of children with cancer spanning the period from 2019 to 2022, yielding a total of 181 metaphors. Drawing upon Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the method of qualitative content analysis was employed to analyze how parents of children with cancer utilize metaphors. This study found that “Game”, “War”, “Journey” and “Plant” metaphors were the most commonly used by parents of children with cancer. Game and war metaphors occupy a dominant position, followed by journey and plant metaphors. Additionally, these parents frequently employ mixed metaphors. The use of metaphorical language enables these parents to effectively articulate their distinct experiences and emotions. The use of metaphors may serve as a means for parents to articulate their feelings and motivate their children to actively fight cancer. By recognizing the metaphors embraced by these parents, we can gain a deeper understanding of their internal world and potentially offer support through both online and offline channels to mitigate their stress levels.

A Study of Metaphorical Color in Visual Texts in Science Fiction Films - The Matrix as an Example

This research article focuses on the symbolic and metaphorical roles that color plays in the visual text in the science fiction film The Matrix. First, the article discusses the concepts of visual text and metaphor, providing theoretical support for the subsequent analysis of color in The Matrix. Again, the article examines in detail the use of different colors and their symbolism in the film. Finally, it is pointed out that color in The Matrix not only deepens the audience's understanding of the film s themes and emotions, but also shows its far-reaching influence in the wider field of science fiction cinema. Overall, through an in-depth analysis of the use of color in The Matrix, this essay demonstrates how color plays a key role in the art of cinema, particularly in its ability to convey metaphorical and symbolic meaning.

Pain as a Force – A Study of the Conceptual Metaphors of Pain in Vietnamese

This study aimed to investigate the conceptual metaphors of pain in Vietnamese. Twenty-six Vietnamese women with cancer were involved as research participants who took part in one-to-one semi-structured interviews with the researcher to provide information about their pain experience and their cancer condition. Data obtained from the interviews was transcribed, coded and interpreted using qualitative content analysis. Talmy’s (1988) force dynamic schema was employed to identify the structure of conceptual metaphors of pain. The findings indicated that a wide variety of pain metaphors were found in Vietnamese, with PAIN AS A FORCE being the general metaphor followed by many more specific ones. While Vietnamese conceptual metaphors of pain overlap in multiple ways with those typically found in English and Greek, new findings emerged from the Vietnamese data, including PAIN AS A FRIGHTENING ENTITY, PAIN AS AN ENEMY, PAIN AS A REWARD OR A VALUABLE ASSET, and PAIN AS A NET OR A TRAP. The study contributed to validating the role of language in describing pain, enriching the international work concerning the conceptualisation of pain, and facilitating Vietnamese healthcare professionals’ understanding about their patients’ communication about pain using language.

A kimondott szavak súlya, avagy összefüggések a nyelv és az erkölcsi nevelés között magyar és német nyelvű példák alapján

In the public mind, morality is a religious, legal, philosophical and social category. We rarely talk openly about morality, yet our language reflects our concept of morality. The concept is crucial to our decisions in all areas of life, both in our linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour. According to the cognitive paradigm, a close relationship can be assumed between thinking and language: thinking is manifested in language, but language also affects the process of thinking itself. In exploring the links between language, thought and culture, Lakoff-Johnson (1999) introduced the notion of thinking relativism, which argues that different metaphor use causes differences in thinking. Based on this, the question arises as to whether representatives of various nations think differently about a concept - in our case, morality - and how this manifests itself in their language. Thinking about this further, how can culture-specific differences in language affect the conceptualisation process? In this study, we seek to answer these questions. The analysis draws on the concept of morality constructed by Lakoff (1996, 2002) and Lakoff-Johnson (1999), which describes the interpretative process of American society, but some parts of it can be said to be near-universal, and therefore can provide useful insights for the study of other languages. The formation of the concept of morality begins through family education and linguistic and non-linguistic interactions within the family. Lakoff (1996), examining Western political morality, concludes that there are basically two family models, and thus two different conceptions of morality. Conservatives are characterized by the strict father model, while liberals are characterized by the caring parent model. In both models, diverse concepts of morality enjoy priority and treat the concept of 'morality' differently. In the course of our research, we mainly examined metaphorical conceptualization on the basis of Hungarian and German examples of living language, comparing them with the conceptions of morality constructed on the basis of English examples. We have found that the linguistic examples we have examined do not provide a complete metaphor system as outlined by Lakoff (ibid.), but certain elements of it clearly exemplify the similarities and differences between the family morals found in the two languages.

Conceptual Metaphors in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia

Conceptual Metaphors in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia

Dysphemism in eating expressions in Javanese: A study of cognitive semantics

The word ‘eating’ can produce positive meaning as it is closely tied to human needs. This term is also intricately linked to eating habits. In Javanese society, this term serves to satisfy basic human needs and plays a pivotal role in defining social etiquette. Eating expressions have a broader meaning when examined from a dysphemistic perspective within cognitive semantics. This study employed a descriptive qualitative methodology, with data collection covering interviews, active listening, observation, and note-taking. The data were then analyzed using image schemas and conceptual meaning. The study found that the eating expressions underwent dysphemism in Javanese such as ‘lambene ngemrus wae ket mau! (your mouth keeps eating!), ‘wes, ngrokoti koyo tikus!’ (you eat like a rat!), ‘Gimin esuk-esuk wis nguntal’ (Gimin ate too early this morning), ‘wah, yahene wis nyekek ping pindho’ (you have eaten twice by this time), ‘nyo, badhogen kabeh, aku rasah dingengehi’ (eat all the food and don’t bother to spare for me), ‘panganan kok di gaglak’ (how come you gulping the food?’), and ‘menungso kok gragas?!’ (how on earth could you only eat?!). Moreover, the study identified conceptual metaphors, comprising six structural metaphors and two orientational metaphors. Structural metaphors arise from systematic relationships observed in daily experiences, whereas orientational metaphors impart spatial direction, including the recognition of top-down image schemes, part-whole image schemes, existence image schemes, and merging image schemes.

Is it too much or not enough to click? Examining how and when the vertical visual perspective affects consumers' click-through intention

In addition to explicit informational cues, hotel managers can persuade consumers using subtle visual cues that convey symbolic meanings. This study examines the interaction effects of the vertical visual perspective (low-level vs. eye-level) in hotel cover photos and hotel type (higher-end vs. lower-end) on consumers’ click-through intention on the search results page of OTAs, the underlying mechanism, and the moderating effect of consumers’ power distance beliefs (PDB) based on conceptual metaphor theory. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study tested the proposed model through three scenario-based between-subject experiments and verified it with a large-scale experiment. The findings reveal a metaphoric compensatory effect: a low-level perspective is effective in increasing click-through intention for lower-end hotels, while an eye-level perspective is effective for higher-end hotels, with positive emotions mediating this effect. Notably, this effect holds for consumers with high PDB but not for those with low PDB. This study has theoretical and practical implications.

Exploring EAP English text readability and reader ability of Chinese university students through Lexile measures and metaphorical conceptualizations

This study aimed to ascertain and then close gaps between the readability demanded by degree-level textbooks in English and the reading abilities of Chinese students in a foundation programme of an English-medium university in China. A quasi-experimental research design shows Lexile-based reading interventions conducted both outside and inside class over one year within an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class which might close the reading gap. Participants' English reading experiences were explored through Metaphor Analysis of their constructed metaphors regarding reading, academic reading and EAP reading strategies. The quantitative results show a significant reading ability growth in the experimental group after engaging in Lexile-based reading activities. This suggests that the Lexile-based reading intervention tends to raise students' reading ability towards a desired standard. Students completing inside-class reading journals made greater reading improvements than those joining outside-class reading tutorials. The metaphor analysis showed conceptualisations within five broad functions of reading evident in the participants’ metaphors: cognitive, affective, socio-cultural, moral-spiritual, and aesthetic. The cognitive and emotional aspects emerge saliently in both positive and negative student comments in metaphors on reading. Pedagogic implications and applications are suggested.

Metaphor as a resemblance phenomenon

Abstract Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) departed from tradition in metaphor studies by treating this phenomenon as an ordinary one used in everyday reasoning. From its inception, this theory made emphasis on the role of experiential correlation in accounting for metaphorical thought to the detriment of its long-standing treatment in terms of similarity. This experientialist thesis was later strengthened by making it part of a broader theoretical framework that treated correlation metaphor as an embodied phenomenon where an essential part of its role in reasoning was due to its ability to give rise to conceptual conflation. Against the background provided by this theoretical context, this article reexamines the role of correlation, conflation, and embodiment in terms of two distinctions: low and high-level similarity, on the one hand, and structural and non-structural similarity, on the other hand. The analytical categories that support these distinctions are used to provide an improved understanding of the nature of metaphorical thought, including correlation metaphor, structural metaphor, several forms of analogy, synesthetic metaphor, and metaphorical amalgams.