the contemporary theory of metaphor - uni …masta/ws15/mahsa.pdf · george lakoff 1993 the...

71
George Lakoff 1993 The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor Reading Through the Decades Seminar Mahsa Vafaie Language and Communication Technologies University of Saarland

Upload: dinhminh

Post on 06-Sep-2018

227 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

George Lakoff1993

The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor

Reading Through the Decades Seminar

Mahsa VafaieLanguage and Communication Technologies

University of Saarland

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Fog as cat?

• Instances of novel poetic language in which words are used outside oftheir normal everyday senses to express a similar concept

• A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting onekind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likenessor analogy between them (as in drowning inmoney); broadly : figurative language — compare SIMILE (MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY)

• a way of describing something by referring to it as something differentand suggesting that it has similar qualities to that thing (Longman Dictionaryof Contemporary English)

metaphor noun met·a·phor \ˈme-tə-ˌfor also -fər\

• What are the generalizations governing the linguistic expressions referred to classically as poetic metaphors?

• The generalizations governing poetic metaphorical expressions are not in language, but in thought: They are general mappings across conceptual domains. These general principles apply not just to novel poetic expressions, but to much of ordinary everyday language.

• Everyday metaphor is characterized by a huge system of thousands of cross-domain mappings, and this system is made use of in novel metaphor.

Research question

• Metaphor: A cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system

• Metaphorical expression: a linguistic expression that is the realization of such a cross-domain mapping

Revision

• The locus of metaphor is thought, not language.

• Metaphor is a major and indispensable part of our ordinary, conventional way of conceptualizing the world.

• Our everyday behavior reflects our metaphorical understanding of experience.

The Conduit Metaphor by Reddy

• All everyday conventional language is literal, and none is metaphorical.

• All subject matter can be comprehended literally, without metaphor.

• Only literal language can be contingently true or false.

• All definitions given in the lexicon of a language are literal, not metaphorical.

• The concepts used in the grammar of a language are all literal; none are metaphorical.

Literal: Traditional false assumptions on the word prior to Reddy’s work

• Those concepts that are not comprehended via conceptual metaphor might be called literal.

The balloon went up.

The cat is on the mat.

• Metaphorical understanding is the norm when talking about abstraction and emotions.

The novel literal-metaphorical distinction

1- Generalizations governing polysemy

2- Generalizations governing inference patterns

3- Generalizations governing novel metaphorical language

4- Generalizations governing patterns of semantic change

5- Psycholinguistic experiments

The evidence for the contemporary theory

• Our relationship has hit a dead-end street. Look how far we’ve come. The relationship isn’t going anywhere. It’s been a long, bumpy road.

Source domain → Target domain

Journey Love

travelers → lovers

destinations → goals

vehicle → relationship

impediments → difficulties

Conceptual Metaphor

r

TARGET-DOMAIN IS SOURCE-DOMAIN

TARGET-DOMAIN AS SOURCE-DOMAIN

Conceptual Metaphor

• LOVE IS A JOURNEY: a mnemonic for a set of ontological correspondences that characterize a mapping, not to be confused with the mapping itself.

• Metaphors are mappings, i.e., sets of conceptual correspondences , and not propositions.

• Such correspondences permit us to reason about love using the knowledge we use to reason about journeys.

Conceptual Metaphor

• TRAVELERS can try to get the VEHICLE moving again, either by fixing it or getting it past the IMPEDIMENT that stopped it.

• They can remain in the nonfunctional VEHICLE and give up on REACHING THEIR DESTINATIONS.

• They can abandon the VEHICLE.

• The alternative of remaining in the nonfunctional VEHICLE takes the least effort, but does not satisfy the desire to REACH THEIR DESTINATIONS.

Inference pattern: source domain

• LOVERS can try to get the RELATIONSHIP moving again, either by fixing it or getting it past the DIFFICULTY.

• They can remain in the nonfunctional RELATIONSHIP, and give up on ACHIEVING THEIR LIFE GOALS.

• They can abandon the RELATIONSHIP.

• The alternative of remaining in the nonfunctional RELATIONSHIP takes the least effort, but does not satisfy the desire to ACHIEVE LIFE GOALS.

Inference pattern: target domain

• The metaphor is not just a matter of language, but of thought and reason. The language is secondary.

• The mapping is conventional, a fixed part of our conceptual system.

• There might be many different linguistic expressions for realization of a single metaphor such as LOVE IS A JOURNEY.

Metaphors are not mere words.

LOVE IS A JOURNEY

• Why are words for travel used to describe love relationships?

Polysemy generalization: A generalization over related senses oflinguistic expressions, e.g., dead-end street, crossroads, stuck, spinningone’s wheels, not going anywhere, and so on.

• Why are inference patterns used to reason about travel also used toreason about love relationships.

Inferential generalization: A generalization over inferences acrossdifferent conceptual domains.

Back to the evidence

• new and imaginative uses of the mapping can be understood instantly,since the mapping is a fixed part of our conceptual system.

We’re driving in the fast lane on the freeway of love.

• Each mappings should be seen as a fixed pattern of ontologicalcorrespondences across domains that may, or may not, be applied to asource domain knowledge structure or a source domain lexical item.

Novel extensions of conventional metaphors

Imageable idioms• Classical view: idioms have arbitrary meaning

• Cognitive linguistics: idioms arise automatically by productive rules, but they fit into one or more patterns present in the conceptual system.

Imageable Idioms

• Mappings are at the superordinate (VEHICLE) rather than the basic (CAR) level.

LOVE RELATIONSHIP IS A VEHICLE.

Car (long bumpy road, spinning our wheels)

Plane (just taking off, bailing out)

Train (off the track)

Boat (on the rocks, foundering)

Mappings are at the superordinate level

• Categories:

CLASSICAL CATEGORIES ARE CONTAINERS

Bounded regions/ containers

Inheritance of logical properties

• Quantity and Linear Scales:

MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN.

LINEAR SCALES ARE PATHS.

The logic of paths maps onto the logic of linear scales.

Metaphorical Basic Semantic Concepts

• Metaphorical mappings preserve the cognitive topology (that is, the image-schema structure) of the source domain, in a way consistent with the inherent structure of the target domain.

• The image-schematic structure of the target domain cannot be violated. Thus, the inherent target domain structure limits the possibilities for mappings automatically.

ACTIONS ARE TRANSFERS.

• you can give someone a kick and they don’t have it afterwards.

The Invariance Principle

The Invariance Principle raises the possibility that a great many, if notall, abstract inferences are actually metaphorical versions of spatialinferences that are inherent in the topological structure of image-schemas.

Abstract inferences as metaphorical spatial inferences

• Time in terms of space:

Times are things.

The passing of time is motion.

Future times are in front of the observer; past times are behind the observer.

One thing is moving, the other is stationary; the stationary entity is the deictic center. (location/object)

Metaphorical Basic Semantic Concepts

• There are also other metaphors with location-object pairing.

• Such pairs are called duals, and the general phenomenon in which metaphors come in location-object pairs is referred to as duality.

Duality

Within the coming weeks

• Within : TIME AS A STATIONARY LANDSCAPE

• Coming: TIMES AS MOVING OBJECTS

Simultaneous mapping

• States are locations (bounded regions in space).

• Changes are movements (into or out of bounded regions).

• Causes are forces.

• Actions are self-propelled movements.

• Purposes are destinations.

• Means are paths (to destinations).

• Difficulties are impediments to motion.

• Expected progress is a travel schedule; a schedule is a virtual traveler, who reaches pre-arranged destinations at pre-arranged times.

• External events are large, moving objects.

• Long term, purposeful activities are journeys.

Event Structure metaphor

• Manner of action is manner of motion:

We are moving right along.

• A different means for achieving a purpose is a different path:

She did it the other way.

• Speed of action is speed of motion:

He flew through his work.

• Progress made is distance traveled or distance from goal:

We’ve made it this far.

Basic entailments

Metaphorical mappings do not occur isolated from one another. Theyare sometimes organized in hierarchical structures, in which ‘lower’mappings in the hierarchy inherit the structures of the ‘higher’mappings.

Level 1: The Event Structure Metaphor

Level 2: A PURPOSEUFL LIFE IS JOURNEY

Level 3: LOVE IS A JOURNEY

Inheritance Hierarchies

• Target Domain: Life

• Source Domain: Space

• The person leading a life is a traveler.

• Inherits Event Structure Metaphor, with:

Events = Significant Life Events

Purposes = Life Goals

I’m where I want to be in life. I’m at a crossroads in my life. He’ll go places in life. He’s never let anyone get in his way. He’s gone through a lot in life.

A PURPOSEFUL LIFE IS A JOURNEY

• Target Domain: Love

• Source Domain: Space

• The lovers are travelers.

• The love relationship is a vehicle.

• Inherits the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor.

LOVE IS A JOURNEY

• The object-dual of the event structure system: a system based on objects rather than locations.

• CHANGE IS MOTION: the motion of an object to, or away from, the thing-changing.

• The object in motion: possession

• The thing-changing: possessor

• Change: acquisition or loss of an object

• CAUSES ARE FORCES: giving or taking

I got a headache.

The noise gave me a headache.

Duality in the Event Structure System

• Attributes are possessions

• Changes are movements (of possessions, namely, acquisitions or losses)

• Causes are forces (controlling the movement of possessions, namely, giving or taking away)

• ACTIONS ARE SELF-CONTROLLED ACQUISITIONS OR LOSSES.

• PURPOSES ARE DESIRED OBJECTS.

• ACHIEVING A PURPOSE IS ACQUIRING A DESIRED OBJECT.

Object-version of The Event Structure Metaphor

LIFE IS A BUSINESSHe has a rich life.

It’s time to take stock of my life.

It’s an enriching experience.

LOVE IS A PARTNERSHIPLovers as partners

Marriage contracts

Abstract reasoning is a special case of imaged-based reasoning. Image-based reasoning is fundamental and abstract reasoning is image-basedreasoning under metaphorical projections to abstract domains.

The Invariance Principle: consequence

My wife . . . whose waist is an hourglass

• ‘One-shot’ metaphors, which map one conventional image onto another.

• Mapping the structure of one domain onto the structure of another

• Domains: conventional mental images

• Such mappings of one image onto another can lead us to map knowledge about the first image onto knowledge about the second.

Image metaphors

• What constrains the mappings?

• What kind of internal structures do mental images have that permit some mappings to work readily, others only with effort, and others not at all?

The Invariance Principle: image-metaphors preserve image-schematic structure, mapping parts onto parts and wholes onto wholes, containers onto containers, paths onto paths, and so on

Image metaphors

• Death drivers, coachmen, devourers, destroyers

Why not a teacher or a carpenter?

• Events: actions by some agent, and the agent is personified

EVENTS ARE ACTIONS

DEATH IS DEPARTURE

• Departure -> event -> causal agent -> drivers, coachmen, etc.

• Generic level structure: The overall event shape of the target domain limits the applicability of the metaphor. What is preserved across the mapping is the causal structure, the aspectual structure, and the persistence of entities.

Personifications

The knowledge structure of “Blind blames the ditch”:

• There is a person with an incapacity, (namely, blindness).

• He encounters a situation, (namely a ditch,) in which his incapacity, (namely his inability to see the ditch,) results in a negative consequence, (namely, his falling into the ditch).

• He blames the situation, rather than his own incapacity.

• He should have held himself responsible, not the situation.

the class of possible ways of filling in the generic-level schema of the proverb corresponds to the class of possible interpretations of the proverb.

Proverbs

“Gary Hart was like a blind man who fell into a ditch and blamed the ditch.”

• a knowledge schema for the blind man and the ditch

• a knowledge schema concerning Gary Hart

• GENERIC IS SPECIFIC metaphor

Analogy

• Extensions of conventional metaphors

• Generic-level metaphors

• Image-metaphors

Dante: “In the middle of life’s road I found myself in a dark wood.”

LIFE IS A JOURNEY.

KNOWING IS SEEING.

Novel metaphors

• Is there any reason why conceptual systems contain one set of metaphorical mappings rather than another?

MORE IS UP in many languages because it is grounded in experience.

A PURPOSEFUL LIFE IS A JPURNEY inherits the experiential basis of PURPOSES ARE DESTINATIONS.

The Experiential Basis of Metaphor

Realizations of metaphor

Manami Sato, Amy J. Schafer, and Benjamin K. Bergen

METAPHOR PRIMING IN SENTENCE PRODUCTION

CONCRETE PICTURES AFFECT ABSTRACT LANGUAGE PRODUCTION

Language and Communication TechnologiesUniversity of Saarland

RESEARCH QUESTION

When we speak about abstract concepts concretely,

are we also thinking about them concretely?

Message formulation

Grammatical encoding

Phonological encoding

Does the activation of concrete domain concepts influence the conceptualization phase of message formulation?

LANGUAGE PRODUCTION MODELS

EXPERIMENT

a PERSON’S NAME and an ABSTRACT WORD (e.g., “Sally, trouble”)

LINGUISTIC PROMPT

SEQUENCE OF 2 PICTURES

CONTAINMENT or POSSESSION or NEUTRAL

SENTENCE PRODUCTION

Activating a concrete source domain (CONTAINMENT or POSSESSION) increase the number of compatible metaphorical utterances ?

CONTAINMENT

Bounded regions in space

Change of location with respect to a container

Containment itself

Examples Bottom, top, and sides

Get in trouble or get out of trouble

Be in love

POSSESSION

Possession of objects

Acquisition or loss of objects

Searching for objects

Giving

Receiving

Taking away objects

Examples Give him more trouble

Steal her love,

Bring some questions

The passion is gone

WORD MATERIAL

PICTURE MATERIAL

180 Pictures 60 Critical pictures

120 Additional neutral as fillers

20 Containment

20 Possession

20 Neutral

• A norming study verified each of the 60 critical pictures

British National Corpus

500 sentences from written language components

500 sentences from spoken language components

Each word

novels, journals, etc.

the corpus

Ratio of POSSESSION to CONTAINMENT utterances 1.11:1

EXPERIMENT

Click to begin

1200 ms …

500 ms …500 ms …

1200 ms …

500 ms …500 ms …

1200 ms …500 ms …

1200 ms …500 ms …

Sally

Trouble

1500 ms …

1200 ms …500 ms …

1200 ms …500 ms …

Sally

Trouble

1500 ms …

Type a simple sentence using the two words

Type a simple sentence using the two words

Sally’s life is full of trouble.

Containment

Sally’s life is full of trouble

Sally had trouble with her family

Sally is troubled with a headache

CONTAINMENT

POSSESSION

NEUTRAL

EXAMPLES

3 Practice

Trials

90

Experimental

Trials

30 Critical

Trials

60 Filler

Trials

30 Critical

TrialsThe two pictures

Same type of concept

ContainmentPossession

Neutral

RESULTS

30 subjects 900 Critical responses

•picture primes affect the use of metaphorical language in subsequently produced sentences.

•Metaphor priming vs. Lexical priming

•Linguistic encoding of the picture primes : in

• the alternative explanation is unlikely for 5 reasons :

EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF LEXICAL PRIMING

• the alternative explanation is unlikely for 5 reasons:

1- no prompts for linguistic encoding

2- the descriptions seem more likely to be nouns than prepositions

3- images were thematically unrelated to the subsequent words

4- implicit naming is not an automatic consequence of picture viewing

5- previous work investigating concrete source activation on metaphor comprehension did not find any evidence that potential lexical activation for concrete primes facilitated comprehension times for related metaphorical stimuli

UNLIKELINESS OF LEXICAL PRIMING

• Is linguistic priming responsible for the observed effects?

•Relational terms in picture descriptions from the 10 participants in the norming study:

- CONTAINMENT: in, inside, full (of), and filled (with)

- POSESSION: have, hold, with, carry, pick, grab, and drag

•The subset of responses with potentially primed words included 102 CONTAINMENT responses and 234 POSSESSION responses (across the three conditions).

•The set without those words included only 21 CONTAINMENT responses, but 112 POSSESSION responses

POST HOC ANALYSIS

• the significant effect of picture type remained even after we recoded responses using words that could potentially have been used to describe the priming images, and could therefore potentially be explained by lexical priming.

•Alternative hypothesis: participants first linguistically encoded relations in the pictures, which then activated other associated relational words through links unrelated to the relevant conceptual domains

•at least some degree of conceptual activation is part of the metaphor priming effect.

RESULTS

• For both Containment and Possession picture primes, the number of domain-related metaphorical sentences increased compared to the Neutral condition.

• even after excluding responses using words that could have described the preceding pictures.

• conceptual metaphor is an active component of linguistic cognition

• Further research will be necessary to see if more subtle manipulations, such a design with just a single picture prime, would elicit similar results. source domain activation via non-pictorial means, and more natural speech situations

DISCUSSION

• the use of sensory-motor systems

• Viewing an image of containment or

• possession may activate sensory resources that are also involved in selection of an appropriate metaphorical mapping for a given target domain.

• Mechanisms of speech production

• When concepts that are not components of the message (like containment or possession) are activated, they can influence subsequent speech production.

• a message can be unintentionally framed by the activation state of otherwise irrelevant parts of the cognitive system.

DISCUSSION

ANY QUESTIONS

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Language and Communication TechnologiesUniversity of Saarland