Use Of Conceptual Metaphors Research Articles

The role of mitigation and strengthening cognitive operations in brand names design: a case study of Spanish and American wine brands

ABSTRACTDespite the relevance of powerful brands in the present-day market, research on the process of brand name design from a cognitive perspective focuses almost exclusively on the effects of the use of conceptual metaphor, and to a lesser extent, metonymy, overlooking the role played by other cognitive strategies. This paper analyzes the potentiality of mitigation and strengthening cognitive operations as tools for the systematic, risk-free design of new brand names with highly predictable and felicitous connotations. In particular, it focuses on their role in the systematic generation of axiologically positive brands in both Spanish and American wine labels, thus largely reducing the need for the costly and time-consuming cultural checks that branding companies need to run on new brand names before their commercial launching. In so doing, the interaction of the two aforementioned cognitive operations with a number of pragmatic principles and cultural models of social interaction, and their subservience to other cognitive operations, like those of comparison, correlation, and domain expansion and reduction, are also considered. The results of the study offer new insights on the semantics of commercial brand names which should prove useful for branding professionals, as well as data of interest to linguists dealing with inter-linguistic issues and cognitive modeling alike.

Varying Use of Conceptual Metaphors across Levels of Expertise in Thermodynamics

Many studies have previously focused on how people with different levels of expertise solve physics problems. In early work, focus was on characterising differences between experts and novices and a key finding was the central role that propositionally expressed principles and laws play in expert, but not novice, problem-solving. A more recent line of research has focused on characterising continuity between experts and novices at the level of non-propositional knowledge structures and processes such as image-schemas, imagistic simulation and analogical reasoning. This study contributes to an emerging literature addressing the coordination of both propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures and processes in the development of expertise. Specifically, in this paper, we compare problem-solving across two levels of expertise—undergraduate students of chemistry and Ph.D. students in physical chemistry—identifying differences in how conceptual metaphors (CMs) are used (or not) to coordinate propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures in the context of solving problems on entropy. It is hypothesised that the acquisition of expertise involves learning to coordinate the use of CMs to interpret propositional (linguistic and mathematical) knowledge and apply it to specific problem situations. Moreover, we suggest that with increasing expertise, the use of CMs involves a greater degree of subjective engagement with physical entities and processes. Implications for research on learning and instructional practice are discussed.

Conceptual Metaphors of Science Prolegomena to a Cognitive History of Science

The cognitive abilities explained by cognitive science and cognitive semantics can inform us concerning the use of metaphors in science. The thesis is that abstract ideas rest on experiences of the concrete world. In this paper I will explain the use of conceptual metaphors in science, with examples from the mechanistic worldview of the 17th and 18th century. If we proceed from the way people think in general, their mental abilities, reason and cognition, we could get close to an understanding of how scientists during the scientific revolution shaped their ideas about the invisible geometry of matter. This is a cognitive history of ideas. What is called the ‘cognitive turn’ in the humanities has generated vigorous growth of research, for example, in cognitive poetics, neuroaesthetics, and cognitive anthropology. These approaches try to arrive at an understanding of creative processes. In the historical sciences there is also a growing interest in cognitive-historical analyses, particularly in archaeology and history of science. The aim of the cognitive history of science is to reconstruct scientific thinking on the basis of cognitive theories. The starting point for a cognitive history of ideas that I defend here is that philosophy, science, and mathematics do not really happen just in texts, in language, in laboratories, or in social contexts, but in brains and minds in interaction with the world around the subject, and are thus connected to the body, to perception, thoughts, and feelings. We humans are captured in our brains situated in the world, we are dependent on our thoughts and senses, our prior knowledge, our mental images, when we try to create a picture of the world. Science, in other words, is shaped by our distinctive way of reasoning, not least in metaphors.

Exploring Indigenous Interpretive Frameworks in African Music Scholarship: Conceptual Metaphors and Indigenous Ewe Knowledge in the Life and Work of Hesinɔ Vinɔkɔ Akpalu

Indigenous and frameworks are increasingly gaining discursive currency in studies and its cognate fields. While Indilinga: Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems has exclusively been devoted to African indigenous for example, the 2006 book edited by David Millar, Stephen Bugu Kendie, Agnes Atia Apusigah, and Bertus Haverkort consists of thematically related articles on indigenous that advocate development in different spheres of Africans' lives. Yet, closer to the geo-cultural focus of my article is Gbolonyo (2009), a study of forms of indigenous in Ewe musical practices. With a strong conviction about the importance of the preceding direction for music scholarship, I write this article aiming to abstract paradigms of indigenous epistemology. Given that conferences are fertile sites for advocating new directions in scholarship, I presented this article at the Third International Symposium on the Music of Africa at Princeton University in April 2009. (2) I argue that ethnomusicology and its related disciplines will become richer when scholars rigorously and constantly explore the hermeneutical and epistemological tools that are embedded in the very music cultures we study. They are an integral facet of indigenous and would contribute to our African-centered representation of Africa and Africans in revealing ways with added fresh insights. In this article, I examine Vinoka Akpalu's use of metaphors in (1) the nomenclature of an Ewe music genre he invented, (2) his song texts and poetry, and (3) his sayings and position on dissemination strategies of his songs. This discussion is based on my 1998-1999 and 2003 field conversations with selected Ghanaian Ewe traditional music composers, Nicholas Nayo's seminal study of Akpalu (Nayo 1964, 1973), (3) Sheshie's (1991) biographical insights on Akpalu's life and work, (4) and perspectives from Daniel Avorgbedor, Kofi Gbolonyo, Kofi Anyidoho, and James Essegbey (Anlo Ewe Africanist scholars). Also, Kobla Ladzekpo (a renowned Ghanaian master drummer from Anyako) shared perspectives that complementarily enrich this article. Further, as this article advocates the use of conceptual metaphors, an element of indigenous knowledge, as interpretive frameworks in music scholarship, I give each of the preceding themes a critical discussion at vantage points, intended to illuminate and legitimize Akpalu's case evidence and my positioning. Interpretive Frameworks: Prevailing Practices and Landscape Although it has long been proven that the attribute of humans as knowledgeable beings is not the exclusive monopoly of certain cultural communities (Boas [1894] 1982), the place of prize and prominence given to different forms of within the larger academic community is far from satisfactory. Admittedly, most of today's ethnomusicologists and other ethnographers have, to some extent, acknowledged the richness and power of local knowledge (Geertz 1983) as idiosyncratic of every single cultural group in the world. Feld (1982), Seeger (1987), and Blum (1999) have provided texts that exemplify the specificities of in diverse musical practices. However, one is inclined to suggest that we Africanist music researchers have not consistently and fully explored the question of models and processes through which our informants really interpret their worlds and lives. This practice and subjugation of an aspect of indigenous in the academy can be attributed to (1) the imprints of colonial legacies that linger in discourses on Africa (Mudimbe 1988; Appiah 1992; Yankah 1996; Agawu 2003; Mazama 2003; Asante 2007); (2) researchers' conscious or inadvertent extreme subjective reflexivity that pushes their researched subjects to the mire; and/or (3) lack of consciousness of and appreciation for the richness of a body of traditional systems and their custodians whom we study and whose voices need foregrounding in our research reports. …

Metaphors in the Freedom Day addresses of South African presidents (1995–2012)

Political discourse draws quite extensively on metaphor in construing a range of issues. Previous research on South African politicians has focussed mainly on the metaphor of A RAINBOW NATION, except Malan (2008) who analysed a wider range of metaphors. This study analyses the use of conceptual metaphors in the annual Freedom Day (celebrated on 27 April) addresses by post-apartheid presidents. The most frequently used domain is WARFARE, within which South Africans are construed as WARRIORS. They struggle against the ENEMIES of apartheid/racism and current socio-economic problems. The second domain is A JOURNEY, which starts in 1994, meets OBSTACLES like racism and current problems on the road, but will eventually reach A DESTINATION of a better life for all. The last major source domain is THE LIFECYCLE OF A CHILD, where the fall of apartheid is THE BIRTH of a new nation, which matures as A CHILD over time. A number of clear differences in the selection and use of metaphors are identified between the Freedom Day addresses of South African presidents from 1995 to 2012.

The Journey Metaphor’s Entailments for Framing Learning

D framing is clearly becoming an important part of our work as writing teachers. This insight, made most notably by Linda Adler-Kassner, focuses on the use of conceptual metaphors and framing for communicating what writing instruction means to stakeholders and students outside the composition and rhetoric community. Yet Adler-Kassner argues that writing program administrators and writing instructors as a group have used frames that are all over the map, without any shared ideals or strategies, and so a more consistent use of framing is needed (5-6). Lad Tobin agrees that the pedagogical metaphors writing teachers use are often offered so haphazardly that “most are rarely integrated into the course as a whole or into the students’ own conception of and experience in composing” (446). This problem has culminated most recently in the position statement “Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing.” Created by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project—this document is designed to offer a shared set of ideals for discussing what is meant by “college readiness” in terms of writing. Though the document never explicitly states that its goal is to “frame” first-year writing, some of its authors, e.g., Adler-Kassner and Peggy O’Neill, have extensively researched and discussed framing as part of their own scholarship. Moreover, Judith Summerfield and Philip Anderson write that they applaud the “Framework’s” effort, even though they are disappointed with the result (544). For those outside the field, the document helps focus the conversation about the kind of framing consistency that writing teachers can use to discuss what it means to be prepared for first-year writing. While much of our use of conceptual metaphor remains tacit, we must pay careful attention to how shifting the use of conceptual metaphors can lead to a shift in the way that a concept is framed. As Keely R. Austin states, repeated and wide-spread metaphor use “offers the potential for change if a community chooses to strengthen a new, repeated pathway (270). When a discourse community collectively uses one set of conceptual metaphors over another, the cumulative effect reframes the concept being discussed.1 In recent years, writing teachers have shifted away from framing learning to write as collecting ideas (i.e., writing is a process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing) to moving through space, following what Nedra Reynolds terms contemporary theories’ “fascination with ‘movement’” (“Who’s Going” 541). I would argue that this shift is occurring for two

Three ways to view a sonnet: Metaphor and poetic structure in three translations of Shakespeare’s sonnet XC

AbstractShakespeare’s works have been translated many times throughout different historical eras, and these translations vary considerably both in their poetic form and in their cognitive underpinnings. This paper investigates the cognitive and poetic differences between three translations of Shakespeare’s sonnet XC: a 19th-century translation by F. A. Gelbcke (Gelbcke 1867), a translation by Paul Celan (Celan 1967) and a translation by A. Thalmayr (Thalmayr 1985). In particular, the use of conceptual metaphor across all versions is compared, and it is established that primary conceptual metaphors tend to remain intact across translations whereas complex conceptual metaphors tend to be replaced by different complex metaphors specific to the era and cultural background of the respective translators. This observation has broader implications for metaphor theory in general: Cross-linguistic studies of literary translations may be useable as a metric for the basic-ness or universality of metaphors. The poetic form variation found in the translations reflects the variation in metaphor material, and the mechanisms of foregrounding and parallelism postulated for poetic language by formalist poetics are shown to be useful for investigating the phenomenon of translation.

Internal media, conceptual metaphors and minority cultural identities

In recent times we have witnessed a growth in the number of groups who are calling for cultural recognition on the basis of a putative discrete ethnicity. In this article we examine one such group, the ‘Ulster-Scots’ in Northern Ireland. We examine how this group metaphorically conceptualize their identity within their internal press media output, specifically the monthly publication The Ulster-Scot. Drawing on the conceptual metaphor approach of Lakoff and Johnson, which argues that metaphors are central to how we define and understand our everyday world, we examine the discursive construction of an Ulster-Scots collective identity and history through an analysis of the metaphors employed. We argue that a focus on the use of conceptual metaphors within discourses of ethnicity provides a valuable insight into ethnic self-understanding at a given point in time, and that, consequently, this approach is a valuable addition to the analytic repertoire for researchers concerned with issues of emergent ethnicity and the construction ethnic identities in general.

Exploring the Use of Conceptual Metaphors in Solving Problems on Entropy

A growing body of research has examined the experiential grounding of scientific thought and the role of experiential intuitive knowledge in science learning. Meanwhile, research in cognitive linguistics has identified many conceptual metaphors (CMs), metaphorical mappings between abstract concepts and experiential source domains, implicit in everyday and scientific language. However, the contributions of CMs to scientific understanding and reasoning are still not clear. This study explores the roles that CMs play in scientific problem-solving through a detailed analysis of two physical chemistry PhD students solving problems on entropy. We report evidence in support of three claims: a range of CMs are used in problem-solving enabling flexible, experiential construals of abstract scientific concepts; CMs are coordinated with one another and other resources supporting the alignment of qualitative and quantitative reasoning; use of CMs grounds abstract reasoning in a “narrative” discourse incorporating conceptions of paths, agents, and movement. We conclude that CMs should be added to the set of intuitive resources others have suggested contribute to expertise in science. This proposal is consistent with two assumptions: that cognition is embodied and that internal cognitive structures and processes interact with semiotic systems. The implications of the findings for learning and instruction are discussed.

Metaphors in Mathematics: Introduction and the Case of Algebraic Geometry

Analogies play an essential role in Mathematics. George Lakoff and Rafael E. Nunez have shown in 'Where Mathematics Comes From' that our understanding of basic mathematics is deeply linked to our experience of the world. They claim that we understand mathematics throught Conceptual Metaphors between source domains (for example spatial relationships between objects) and target domains (abstract Mathematics). These metaphors are supposed to map certain basic schemata of thought, namely, cross-modal organizational structures. In fact the use of conceptual metaphor is a more general cognitive process, used not only in other sciences (as in physics [6], or Cell Biology and Ecology [7] ) but also in every aspect of our understanding of the world, for example in philosophy [8] and ethics [1]. In this paper, I deal with specific cases of metaphors in advanced and abstract mathematics linked to our conception of space. The goal is both to show that conceptual metaphor theory continues to apply with great success in these areas, and to try to understand the theory more deeply.

The Hero's Journey as a Developmental Metaphor in Counseling

It has been argued that the goal of counseling is development. Through the use of J. Campbell's (1949) treatment of the hero's journey as a conceptual metaphor, this article describes development as a journey and illustrates how the counselor's understanding of the journey can assist the client's development. ********** There is a common thread that runs through myth and legend, across cultures, and presents itself in stories told throughout the world. Campbell (1949) described this thread as the theme of the hero's journey in his work The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The themes described in Campbell's work have permeated American culture, appearing on stage, in movies, and in stories that have become part of everyday life. As such, these themes serve as a powerful metaphor for the human experience and can be easily adapted to the counseling process. Conceptual metaphors are tools that can be used to make abstract concepts more concrete by relating them to better known concepts. This process changes the focus of counseling, making the concepts less threatening, more personally meaningful, and by extension more accessible (Barker, 1996; Lyddon, Clay, & Sparks, 2001; Sharp, Smith, & Cole, 2002; Wickman, Daniels, White, & Fesmire, 1999). In this article, the hero's journey is described as a dynamic process that can serve as a conceptual metaphor for understanding and accessing individual development. This examination begins with an overview of the use of conceptual metaphors in counseling, followed by a description of the hero's journey and a discussion of how the concepts of the hero's journey have previously been applied in clinical work. Finally, I introduce a perspective on how the hero's journey metaphor can be applied within the developmental counseling and therapy (DCT; Ivey, 1991) approach and ultimately used to motivate clients and reframe the challenges they face. Conceptual metaphors are powerful tools with a great deal of potential for counseling applications (Barker, 1996; Lyddon et al., 2001; Sharp et al., 2002). Wickman et al. (1999) made the case that metaphors are not simply linguistic tools but rather important representations of how a person thinks and makes sense of the world. From this perspective, the use of metaphors can help the counselor connect to the client's world. When counselors are in tune with the metaphors that clients frequently use, their language may be more congruent with that of clients. Wickman et al. outlined three stages for the analysis of client metaphors, including mnemonic analysis, cross-domain mapping, and everyday language. The mnemonic analysis is essentially naming the themes, which are reflected in the client's metaphorical language. Cross-domain mapping helps the counselor connect the client's metaphor with the actual experience the client is describing as well as the key concepts that are reflected in the metaphor. Finally, being aware of how the client uses components of the metaphor in everyday conversational language can facilitate counselor insight into the client's experiences. The authors remind us that much of clients' self understanding is the product of the search for appropriate personal metaphors that give meaning to their lives (Wickman et al., 1999, p. 393). Although it is usually most advantageous to work with the metaphors that the client presents, there are opportunities for the counselor to present metaphors, which can be particularly useful to the client. One especially helpful metaphor in counseling is that of the hero's journey. Campbell (1949) offered the concept of the hero's journey as a template for understanding the similarities in stories told around the world. Stories that are similar across cultures are, according to Campbell, expressions of the conscious and unconscious struggles of man, which explains, at least in part, why these stories seem to resonate universally. Campbell suggested that the monomyth describes the stages of the heroic journey as natural, even universal, expressions of the personality archetypes described by Jung. …

La catégorisation des métaphores conceptuelles du corps

In the field of clinical psychology and psychotherapeutic techniques, patient and therapist utterances frequently include linguistic metaphors of the body. A metaphor is not only a stylistic device but also a tool for conceptualizing one's experience. In Freud's view, for example, the notion of the body as a “container” or “source” is one of the basic concepts of his psychodynamic theory: “According to a childhood belief, babies come from men urinating into a woman's body” or “It is undeniable that the libido has somatic sources”. More specifically, the following can be observed in psychotherapy: a) Variable-induction relaxation is based on therapeutic suggestions concerning sensations and images. Patients are often surprised by these words and images because they had not succeeded in giving voice to their suffering and, as a result, were confronted with an excess of sensations and feelings: “I feel sick at heart and full of bitterness”, “I feel like my head's in a vise”, “my body had disappeared”; b) La Décentration is based on figurative utterances about the body. During initial instructions the therapist will say, “Imagine that, starting at your toes, imagine that you are a small bubble and that you're going to slowly move up inside your body; when you arrive at the tips of your fingers, stay there, waiting; you're going to feel little hearts that beat at the tips of your fingers; you're waiting, open to everything happening in your body”; c) Ericksonian hypnosis, developed by Milton Erickson, is characterized in part by the use of indirect suggestions based on linguistic metaphors of the body: “You can wake up as a person… but you don't have to wake up as a body”; “You can wake up when your body wakes up, but you won't recognize your body”. Also: “Now, of course, the first step toward dissolving your legs… and… dissolving your hands”. The importance of linguistic metaphors of the body in clinical psychopathology led us to view such metaphors as “indicators of conceptual metaphors of the body”. That is why the fields of psychiatry, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy were a necessary point of departure for our research. In addition, we wanted to extend our investigation to poetic literature because of its large number of highly creative figurative expressions. Firstly, the objective of our study was to identify different types of body conceptualizations expressed in psychoanalytic and psychiatric practise and in poetic works selected for their focus on this theme. Secondly, our objective was to organize these conceptualizations into categories of conceptual metaphors based on a model inspired by the research of Lakoff and Johnson. The analysis of psychiatric and psychoanalytic manuals and works of poetic literature showed differences in the use of conceptual metaphors in these respective discourses. In psychiatric manuals, the conceptualization of the body centers on the idea of the BODY AS CONTAINER, with no stereotyped mental images or specific mental images about body organs. In psychoanalysis, linguistic metaphors of the body focus on the following terms: “genital organs”, “mouth”, “uterus”, “penis”, “phallus”, “anus”, “vagina”, and “body orifice”. Linguistic metaphors of the body in the selected works of poetic literature tended to conceptualize the body as an integrated system of experiences. These metaphors focussed on various organs and bodily substances, such as “heart”, “blood”, “chest”, “arm(s)”, “eye(s)”, “breast(s)”, “face”, “head”, “flesh”, “skin”, “hand(s)” and “tongue”. Poetry offers us the opportunity to create, deepen and reconstruct emotional experiences through the richness of metaphorical thought. With the growth of the neurosciences, poetic thought could serve as an important resource for the conceptualization of the body. Concerning methodology: • we searched for 178 words and their occurrence in manuals and poetic works regarding the concept of corporality and the symbolic parts of the body; • the research corpus for poetry included nine poets (each poet representing a century); overall, we searched for nine works of Italian poetry (579, 469 words) from the 12th to the 20th century using LIZ 3.0 software with textual analysis capabilities; • the research corpus for psychoanalysis included sections entitled “anorexia nervosa”, or “eating disorders” in the most recent manual of Italian psychoanalysis schools (8, 640 words); a traditional French psychoanalytic glossary (195, 320 words); and a single French thematic index (760, 480 words) of Freud's Works; • the research corpus for psychiatry included a well-known Italian manual of psychiatry and psychotherapy; sections entitled “anorexia nervosa” or “eating disorders” in five psychiatric manuals (60, 779 words); and the entire corpus (563, 953 words) of DSM-IV. Our categorization provided an alternative to the anatomical description of the body; we called this alternative a perceptive-literary construction of the body. It is characterized by a bodily narrative based on figurative utterances concerning anatomical and physiological features and conceptual metaphors of reference.

A “Primer” in Conceptual Metaphor for Counselors

Conceptual metaphor provides a potentially powerful counseling framework, generalizable across theoretical orientations. According to the conceptual perspective, metaphor is not merely a matter of language, but is an indispensable dimension of human understanding and experience whereby more abstract ideas (like relationships) are understood in terms of more concrete experiences (like journeys). Consequently, when a couple in counseling says, “we're just spinning our wheels,” they are not only using a common colloquial expression, but also giving information about how they conceptualize their relationship. This article provides a theoretical foundation for use of conceptual metaphor and offers examples of its potential for counseling.

Grounding politeness

Traditional theories of politeness, like Brown and Levinson’s (1987 [1978]) and Leech’s (1983), claim a universal status which can be questioned on the basis of the evidence provided by studies on the politeness mechanisms of the most diverse cultures. In the present paper, we attempt to prove that one of the reasons which prevents those theories from reaching the desired pancultural validity is no other than their use of conceptual metaphors (i.e. a culture-specific construct) in their explanation of politeness. In addition, we would like to establish a firmer ground for a crossculturally valid theory of politeness by considering the workings of some universal cognitive tools (i.e. image-schemas) in the conceptualization of this subject matter.