Contemporary Theory Of Metaphor Research Articles

The contemporary theory of metaphor — now new and improved!

This paper outlines a multi-dimensional/multi-disciplinary framework for the study of metaphor. It expands on the cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor in language and thought by adding the dimension of communication, and it expands on the predominantly linguistic and psychological approaches by adding the discipline of social science. This creates a map of the field in which nine main areas of research can be distinguished and connected to each other in precise ways. It allows for renewed attention to the deliberate use of metaphor in communication, in contrast with non-deliberate use, and asks the question whether the interaction between deliberate and non-deliberate use of metaphor in specific social domains can contribute to an explanation of the discourse career of metaphor. The suggestion is made that metaphorical models in language, thought, and communication can be classified as official, contested, implicit, and emerging, which may offer new perspectives on the interaction between social, psychological, and linguistic properties and functions of metaphor in discourse.

The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: Myths, Developments and Challenges

This article discusses some of the claims of the earlier and later versions of the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (CTM) and addresses some of the criticism that has been leveled against it. It is argued that much of this criticism arises from common misconceptions as to the real claims made by the theory. However, CTM is still in need of further exploration and empirical support. In this connection, we identify some areas where research is still needed and supply our own developments. We argue for a more complex classification of metaphor types, which takes into account various complementary taxonomic perspectives, including the nature of source and target and the genericity and complexity of the metaphoric operation. We also explore metaphor in relation to cognitive prominence and conceptual interaction issues. Finally, we deal with the problem of constraints on metaphor and make a proposal for three complementary kinds of constraint.

Reviewing imagery in resemblance and non-resemblance metaphors

Abstract This article analyses the nature of mental imagery in metaphoric thought as envisaged by the contemporary theory of metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics (Lakoff, Cambridge University Press, 1993). Our study of metaphor in the field of marine biology draws on two crucial aspects of mental imagery, namely dynamicity and pervasiveness. Image metaphors and behaviour-based metaphors have generally been regarded as two different types of resemblance metaphor. In our view, the dynamicity of certain mental images highlights inherent similarities between these two types of metaphor, and makes the differences between them more apparent than real. For this reason, we propose a more refined description of resemblance metaphors in terms of the static or dynamic nature of the mental images underlying them. Our study also underlines the fact that mental images permeate all classes of metaphor, and that the pervasiveness and dynamicity of mental images affords insights into both resemblance metaphors and non-resemblance metaphors.

Wittgenstein, the body, its metaphors

Contemporary theories of metaphor often give the body a foundational status, by claiming that it provides the universal ground upon which imagination engenders figurative thought. This paper goes against this idea, discussing the relationship between the body and metaphor from a non foundationalist point of view. Taking a Wittgensteinean stance on metaphor and on the body, it aims to provide elements to rethink the issue, exploring in particular the path open by the Austrian philosopher in his critique of traditional mental/ physical, inner/outer dichotomies.

Comprehending conventional and novel metaphors: An ERP study

The neural mechanisms underlying the processing of conventional and novel conceptual metaphorical sentences were examined with event-related potentials (ERPs). Conventional metaphors were created based on the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor and were operationally defined as familiar and readily interpretable. Novel metaphors were unfamiliar and harder to interpret. Using a sensicality judgment task, we compared ERPs elicited by the same target word when it was used to end anomalous, novel metaphorical, conventional metaphorical and literal sentences. Amplitudes of the N400 ERP component (320–440 ms) were more negative for anomalous sentences, novel metaphors, and conventional metaphors compared with literal sentences. Within a later window (440–560 ms), ERPs associated with conventional metaphors converged to the same level as literal sentences while the novel metaphors stayed anomalous throughout. The reported results were compatible with models assuming an initial stage for metaphor mappings from one concept to another and that these mappings are cognitively taxing.

Cyclic vs. circular argumentation in the Conceptual Metaphor Theory

In current debates Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory has been charged with the circularity of the relation between the data and the hypotheses. If these charges were justified, they would be fatal for Conceptual Metaphor Theory, because circularity is one of the most serious objections that can be raised against a scientific approach. Accordingly, the paper addresses the following problems: (1) Are the charges claiming that Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory is circular adequate? (2) In what kind of metatheoretical framework can it be decided whether a given argumentation is circular? (3) Is Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory built on circular argumentation? The paper answers these questions as follows: (1) The charges mentioned are not adequate because they are based on defective notions of circularity. (2) An approach to plausible argumentation is proposed. It includes a novel account of fallacies, which facilitates a more adequate definition of circularity than those which the charges use. (3) This novel account yields the result that Lakoff and Johnson's (Metaphors we live by, The University of Chicago Press, 1980) and Lakoff's (The contemporary theory of metaphor, Cambridge University Press, 1993) argumentation is cyclic rather than circular, but the way it treats data includes circular aspects as well.

Using Metaphors to Unpack Student Beliefs About Mathematics

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the mathematical beliefs of a group of ninth and tenth grade students at a large, college preparatory, private school in the Southeastern United States. These beliefs were revealed using contemporary metaphor theory. A thematic analysis of the students' metaphors for mathematics indicated that students had well developed and complex views about mathematics including math as: an Interconnected Structure, a Hierarchical Structure, a Journey of Discovery, an Uncertain Journey, and a Tool. Another prevalent theme revealed by the metaphors was that students believe perseverance is needed for success in mathematics. The data also suggest an impact of gender and tracking on students beliefs about mathematics. Creating metaphors for mathematics provided a catalyst for student reflection, class discussion, and qualitative data, which could aid program evaluation. Several areas for future research were identified through this exploratory study.

USING CRITICAL METAPHOR ANALYSIS TO EXTRACT PARENTS' CULTURAL MODELS OF HOW THEIR CHILDREN LEARN TO READ

This research presents an empirical study on metaphor based on numerous interviews with parents of young children. Contemporary metaphor theory is complemented by a well-articulated place for culture and the role metaphor plays in cultural understanding. I demonstrate that 1) parents understand learning to read as the acquisition of reading skills; 2) different parents repeatedly use the same metaphors when describing these reading skills; 3) because parents have a folk or common-sense understanding of learning to read, the metaphors help organize their reasoning; 4) the metaphors also index sociocultural information at the level of the communicative event, specifically aspects of morality; 5) the hegemonic structure of this morality is evoked through indirect indexicality and is therefore registered and reproduced below the speaker's threshold of awareness.

Complementary perspectives on metaphor: Cognitive linguistics and relevance theory

Contemporary theories of metaphor differ in many dimensions, including the discipline they originate from (e.g., linguistics, psychology, philosophy), and whether they are developed primarily within a cognitive or pragmatic theoretical framework. This article evaluates two directions of metaphor research within linguistics, cognitive linguistics and relevance theory, which both aim to capture essential aspects of the reason for metaphor, and how people ordinarily use and understand metaphor in daily life. We argue, contrary to most received opinion, that cognitive linguistics and relevance theory provide complementary perspectives on metaphor. Both theories offer important insights into the role of metaphor in cognition and language use, and suggest detailed hypotheses on metaphor understanding that surely are part of a comprehensive theory of metaphor.

Metaphors

The purpose of this paper is to contextualize the study of metaphors within constructivist-informed research, in the hope that this process will orient cognitive scientists to the usefulness of implementing qualitative research methodologies, especially to using the person of the researcher as the primary research instrument. First, I explore some of the differences between Johnson and Lakoff’s Contemporary Metaphor Theory (CMT) and approaches evolving from it on one hand, and the clinical approach to metaphor based on a constructivist therapy model, on the other. CMT has been one of the most significant forces that helped shift cognitive science toward an embodied approach to cognition. While it has succeeded to place physical experience back where it belongs in reason and meaning, CMT has, however, also fallen into some positivist traps which lead to problems such as a dualism, a split between the knower and the known, and with that, to a distrust of introspective, first-person accounts. In the process of finding conceptual metaphors — generalizations that govern metaphorical expressions — CMT often deletes the idiosyncratic characteristics and presuppositions implicit in linguistic metaphors; it divorces them from people’s sensory experiences, the “here and now” and the intent of their communications. The constructivist approach to metaphor that I present here accepts as a priori assumptions much of what workers of CMT are out to prove. In particular, it takes the correlation of conceptual metaphors and physical experience, as well as the unity of language and thought as pragmatic givens. Emulating the constructivist therapist’s approach to metaphors, I show how it is possible to deconstruct conceptual metaphors into minute sensory distinctions, using one’s own person as the main tool, for the purpose of helping people change their experiences in desired ways, at will. I illustrate this process by numerous examples from a wide field of applications, including mathematics education and psychotherapy.

Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China

This book presents a systematic account of the role of the personal spiritual ideal of wu-wei-literally no doing, but better rendered as action-in early Chinese thought. Edward Slingerland's analysis shows that wu-wei represents the most general of a set of conceptual metaphors having to do with a state of effortless ease and unself-consciousness. This concept of effortlessness, he contends, serves as a common ideal for both Daoist and Confucian thinkers. He also argues that this concept contains within itself a conceptual tension that motivates the development of early Chinese thought: the so-called paradox of wu-wei, or the question of how one can consciously try not to try. Methodologically, this book represents a preliminary attempt to apply the contemporary theory of conceptual metaphor to the study of early Chinese thought. Although the focus is upon early China, both the subject matter and methodology have wider implications. The subject of wu-wei is relevant to anyone interested in later East Asian religious thought or in the so-called virtue-ethics tradition in the West. Moreover, the technique of conceptual metaphor analysis-along with the principle of embodied realism upon which it is based-provides an exciting new theoretical framework and methodological tool for the study of comparative thought, comparative religion, intellectual history, and even the humanities in general. Part of the purpose of this work is thus to help introduce scholars in the humanities and social sciences to this methodology, and provide an example of how it may be applied to a particular sub-field.

Conceptions of the Self in the Zhuangzi : Conceptual Metaphor Analysis and Comparative Thought

The purpose here is to explore metaphorical conceptions of the self in a fourth century B.C.E. Chinese text, the Zhuangzi, from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and the contemporary theory of metaphor. It is argued that the contemporary theory of metaphor provides scholars with an exciting new theoretical grounding for the study of comparative thought, as well as a concrete methodology for undertaking the comparative project. What is seen when the Zhuangzi is examined from the perspective of metaphor theory is that conceptions of the self portrayed in this text are based on a relatively small set of interrelated conceptual metaphors, and that the metaphysics built into the Zhuangzi's classical Chinese metaphors resonates strongly with the (mostly unconscious) metaphysical assumptions built into the metaphors of modern American English. This should not be surprising, considering the claims of contemporary cognitive linguists that the metaphoric schemas making up the foundation of human abstract conceptual life are not arbitrarily created ex nihilo, but rather emerge from common embodied experience and are conceptual, rather than merely linguistic, in nature.

To know how to find. To find without knowing: Wisdom in the Gospel of Thomas

At the SBL meeting in Orlando in 1998, the contemporary metaphor theory practised by cognitive linguists such as Lakoff, Johnson and Turner, was used to identify some of the basic metaphors appearing in Thomas 1-5, which the author believes to be important for coming to terms with the metaphoricity of many of the sayings in the Gospel. The ensuing discussion of Thomas 08 and Thomas 109 is yet another attempt to show how the insights of cognitive linguistics, which have for the most part been ignored by contemporary commentators on the parables and aphorisms of Jesus, can perhaps provide us with fresh insights into this part of the sayings of the Jesus tradition.

Pattern and Process: A Whiteheadian Perspective on Linguistics (review)

Reviewed by: Pattern and process: A Whiteheadian perspective on linguistics by Michael Fortescue Edward J. Vajda Pattern and process: A Whiteheadian perspective on linguistics. By Michael Fortescue. (Human cognitive processing 6.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001. Pp. vii, 311. ISBN: 1588110583. $95.00. Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) is remembered largely for his writings on mathematics and philosophy, and it may come as a surprise to see a book devoted to linguistic metatheory written in the context of his world of ideas. In this thoughtful essay, published as part of a recently inaugurated series on human cognition and language (the first volume, Ning Yu’s The contemporary theory of metaphor: A perspective from Chinese, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, appeared in 1998), Fortescue revisits the perennial dichotomy between linguistic form and function. More importantly, he reassesses the contemporary orientational division between formalists and functionalists from a temporally detached perspective. By revealing the linguistics in Whitehead’s ‘philosophy of organism’, F is able to reassess the positions of both generativists and functionalists from a refreshingly neutral vantage, though F himself ‘confesses’ (3) to being more in sympathy with the functionalists. The result is a thought-provoking journey into philosophical and sometimes metaphysical realms that proves to be of unexpected relevance to the possible future trajectories of many trends dominant in linguistics today, from optimality theory to emergent grammar. There are nine chapters and two appendices. After answering the anticipated question ‘Why White-head?’ (1–23), F proceeds to apply Whitehead’s writings on symbolism to language behavior (cf. especially Alfred North Whitehead, Symbolism, its meaning and effect, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928). Although this is the first thorough-going attempt to connect Whitehead’s ‘philosophy of organism’ with modern linguistics, its outlines were already adumbrated in F’s earlier monograph, A discourse production model for twenty questions (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1980). F’s core argument throughout is that form and function—though distinct in the Saussurean sense—are far more interdependent in reality than many linguists have been wont to treat them. Whitehead’s philosophy provides one key to this new holism. Individual chapters explore language as a unified system of signs but also separately from a form-oriented and a content-oriented perspective. There are also discussions of mental language processing, the comprehension of written texts, and the role of the individual language user in the historical transmission of language. F argues that language must be conceived of as a ‘complex external object’ rather than an ‘organism’. He further suggests (256) that full human language could well have developed as a postevolutionary consequence of social transmission rather than strictly in tandem with biological changes. Finally, F admonishes the linguist that langue and parole—or pattern and process—though real, separable aspects of language often warranting their own approaches, can never be studied entirely apart from one another. Appendix 1 (245–50) briefly assesses White-head’s legacy within modern philosophy. Appendix 2 (251–53) uses Whiteheadian principles to schematically represent the production of the utterance ‘I wouldn’t have thought it was possible’. There is also a lengthy accumulation of endnotes (255–98) that more than reward the effort needed to check and read them as one moves through the chapters. Any book that helps to bridge the often unnecessarily deep divide between formalism and functionalism is well worth the read. This is one such book. Edward J. Vajda Western Washington University Copyright © 2003 Linguistic Society of America

Robert Hunter's Oral Poetry: Mind, Metaphor, and Community

This essay takes an oral poetics approach to the analysis of the song lyrics of Robert Hunter as performed by the Grateful Dead from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Hunter's work is treated as an exemplary case for the study of the use of oral poetry within the contemporary electronic communication milieu. The reception of the poetry by the specific listening audience is considered, with special attention given to the functioning of metaphor in relation to states of mind brought about by the use of psychedelics, such as LSD. The poetry itself is situated as both contribution to and commentary on American folk poetry and its accompanying mythology. Reference points include Ruth Finnegan on oral poetics, George Lakoff on the contemporary theory of metaphor, and Aldous Huxley on the nature of altered states of consciousness.

Metaphor as Categorization: A Connectionist Implementation

A key issue for models of metaphor comprehension is to explain how, in some metaphorical comparison "A is B," only some features of B are transferred to A. The features of B that are transferred to A depend both on A and on B. This is the central thrust of Black's (1979) well-known interaction theory of metaphor comprehension. However, this theory is somewhat abstract, and it is not obvious how it may be implemented in terms of mental representations and processes. In this article, we describe a simple computational model of online metaphor comprehension that combines Black's interaction theory with the idea that metaphor comprehension is a type of categorization process (Glucksberg & Keysar, 1990, 1993). The model is based on a distributed connectionist network depicting semantic memory (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1986). The network learns feature-based information about various concepts. A metaphor is comprehended by applying a representation of the first term (A) to the network storing knowledge of the second term (B), in an attempt to categorize it as an exemplar of B. The output of this network is a representation of A transformed by the knowledge of B. We explain how this process embodies an interaction of knowledge between the 2 terms of the metaphor, how it accords with the contemporary theory of metaphor stating that comprehension for literal and metaphorical comparisons is carried out by identical mechanisms (Gibbs, 1994), and how it accounts for existing empirical evidence (Glucksberg, McGlone, & Manfredi, 1997) and generates new predictions. In this model, the distinction between literal and metaphorical language is one of degree, not of kind.

METAPHOR: THE IMPOSSIBLE TRANSLATION?

ABSTRACT The linguistic concept‘metaphor’ has an established place in clinical as well as theoretical psychotherapy. It has been seen as analogous to or even fundamental to the analytic concept of transference. Metaphors have been thought to have a special role in enhancing therapist‐patient communications. By contrast, in linguistics itself, metaphor has been relatively neglected, viewed as irrelevant and unscientific. That conventional approach to metaphor has recently been challenged by Contemporary Metaphor Theory.This new theory suggests that language depends upon a largely unconscious system of conventional metaphor. Our bodily experiences are the basis of our understanding of abstract concepts such as emotions and relationships. Novel and imaginative metaphors build upon this fundamental biological structure.The traditional approach placed metaphor, along with rhetoric and, by inference, psychodynamic thinking, at the periphery of science. Cognitive linguistic research is now showing that language is fundamentally structured by metaphorical processes, which enhances the scientific status of psychoanalysis and supports and extends the view of metaphor as at the heart of language and meaning.

The contemporary theory of metaphor: A perspective from Chinese By Ning Yu (review)

BOOK NOTICES 231 ing sociological, psychological and linguistic data', 124-36) propose a large-scale longitudinal project on immigrant identity and language choice, planning several sociolinguistic interviews for each of 100 subjects. Probably the most satisfying article here is that by Shana Poplack and Svitlana Budzhak-Jones, "The visible loanword: Processes of integration seen in bare English-origin nouns in Ukrainian', (137-67). With the goal of distinguishing codeswitching and borrowing, the authors compare grammatical treatment of English nouns in the Ukrainian discourse of first- and second-generation Ukrainian speakers in Canada. First-generation speakers treat English nouns as if they were Ukrainian, which argues for a bonowing rather than codeswitching analysis . Second generation speakers, in contrast, 'have not fully acquired either the presciptive details or variable conditioning of Ukrainian inflection' (159), suggesting that the vexed question of bonowing versus codeswitching may not be the most perspicacious approach to this generation's grammar. Only a loose thematic unity brings this volume together, but the variety of approaches attests to the widespread interest in second language acquisition and the likelihood that this book will interest a large audience. [Susan Meredith Burt, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.] The contemporary theory of metaphor: A perspective from Chinese. By Ning Yu. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1998. Pp. vii, 278. Metaphor follows George Lakoffs view that 'figurative language lies at the core of communication and cognition' (2). Yu's stated goals in this book, a revision of his PhD dissertation, are to describe the mapping of the concrete and physical onto the abstract and nonphysical and to compare the Chinese with the English conceptual system. He says he wishes to 'call attention to the importance of metaphors in Chinese', and their 'considerable similarity' to their English counterparts (241). Y concentrates on three main types of metaphors: (1) those expressing anger and happiness, often as a liquid or gas in a container; (2) time as space, with objects moving toward or past a stationary observer, or with an observer walking through a stationary location ; and (3) events as attributes with a physical location (Tm in trouble.'). Y observes that while 'anger is heat' in both English and Chinese—following the métonymie principle of describing the physiological effects of emotions (237)—anger is often imagined as a 'hot liquid in a container' in English but as a 'gas' in Chinese. He also notes that Chinese tends to mention body parts explicitly in expressions involving emotion , e.g. 'spleen gas' means 'temper/anger', while English metaphors like 'he is seething with anger' mention no body part names. The book offers convenient summaries at the end of each topic-centered chapter plus a summary of the summaries in the conclusion. These may be a bit repetitive to an attentive reader, but they are useful for anyone who wants a quick, minimum-effort overview of Y's main points. Y certainly would have made things easier for most ofhis readers ifhe had incorporated the Chinese characters for the examples into the main text instead of relegating them to an appendix in the back of the book. There are a few minor typos, mostly in the Pinyin Romanizations, which very inconveniently lack tone markings. Y collected his data from the official PRC party organ, the People 's Daily, various other publications, and Chinese dictionaries. Y does point out that metaphors exist at different levels of awareness and intentionality . He may be right that more consciouslycreated metaphors are usually extensions of the relatively established ones in the language, but it might have been useful to clearly identify the 'basic' metaphors first, perhaps from a corpus of spoken rather than written Chinese. Many of the examples from the People 's Daily—which tends to employ a relatively stilted, bureaucratic style to report officially approved content—were 'sore thumb' metaphors that stood out as such in a text (example: 'The economy needs soft braking and soft landing.'); while in fact probably few people are conscious of 'gas' being a metaphor when they say someone 'got angry'. Some of the dictionary examples cited, like qián chén, 'previous dust' meaning 'past experience', are low frequency , literary, or dated items, though Y acknowledges this where...

The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese

The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese

Lakoff's roads not taken

This paper is a critique of George Lakoff's theory and practice as presented in his "Contemporary Theory of Metaphor" (Lakoff 1993). It addresses the issue on several planes, on each plane comparing Lakoff's approach to some alternative. The highest plane, affording the widest perspective, concerns two approaches to interpretation and scientific thinking: one that relies on a pre-established set of meanings, and one that assumes that "all the work remains to be done in each particular case ". The two approaches involve different cognitive strategies, rapid and delayed conceptualization. Another plane concerns the cognitive explanation for using spatial images in metaphoric and symbolic processes. Here the "embodied-mind hypothesis" is confronted with the "efficient-coding hypothesis". It is argued that the latter is more adequate, and can better account for the mental flexibility required for "delayed conceptualization ". On the third plane, Lakoff's "Contemporary Theory of Metaphor" is compared to Beardsley's "Controversion Theory of Metaphor". I will assert that precisely in those respects in which Lakoff claims superiority for his theory it is inferior to Beardsley's. On the most concrete plane, Lakoff's handling of three texts is considered, two literary and one nonliter-ary. It is argued that in two cases Lakoff's conceptual apparatus is less than adequate to handle the arising problems; in the third case it allows him to say about the text exactly what every critic would have said about it for the past seven hundred years.