5 Semantics of figurative language Pervasiveness of figurative language ‘As shown in the previous chapters, linguists have searched for ways describing the semantic structure of words and how they relate or refet ‘concepts or to semantic fields. These descriptions were evaluated in ter ‘of how well a taxonomy distinguished related terms in a semantic field ‘Their research demonstrates quite clearly that referential semantics is ail important field of inquiry. However, only since the late 1970s and early 80s have we begun again to realize how important and pervasive fi ative language is. Metaphorical processes are as fundamental as reference in semantics. In Chapter 4, we noted that relational models treat figurative lang. as just one of more than fifty semantic relations. Taxonomies, as we already seen, can be useful but, inthis case, they hide the pervasive na of metaphor as a cognitive and social semantic process. 3 We will return to taxonomic descriptions, but first, to show what We mean by the pervasive nature of metaphor, consider some ordinary, e¥4 eryday language examples from Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Metaph We Live By. In this seminal work, Lakoff and Johnson note that we o talk about abstract concepts using the terms for more concrete conc ‘We use terms from a concrete source field to talk about an abstract ta field. For example, IDEA is an abstract concept. Itis difficult to gi precise definition of the word idea, So, we turn to other source fields. may talk about ideas as though they were plants, food, or people: Source — Target Plants — Ideas Ideas are planted even in a barren mind ideas grow from seeds ideas bud, flower, or die on the vine Food — Ideas cook up an idea idea smells fishy stew over an idea swallow an idea a half-baked idea RK Semantics of figurative language idea is someone's brainchild ica its infancy idea needs to mature; what an adolescent i the idea died but was resurrected you have noticed, we do not select onl aphorically in talking about the target. We often use mul aphor. Several sources may be used for one target concepts ce Target ding — Argument lay 2 foundation ld the argument brick by brick Provide a scaffolding for our side = Argument oot holes in my argument ice aim at a premise ttack an argument or point of view literary as well as everyday tern societies is PEOPLE . Lakoff and Tamer (1989) call our attention to its use in At the violet hour, when the eyes and back ‘Tarn upward feom the desk, when the human engine waits Like a taxi throbbing waiting. (TS. Eliot, “The Waste Land”) Ime metaphor occurs in everyday language. In a note, fe wrote, “I'm running out of steam. think my gears week Bives an example in which the metaphor works both ways: computer is punishing me by wiping out my buffer” Here the isa person who punishes and the person is a machine containing ue of the system behind such metaphors wi i ucl aphors will be discusses ster, but before we do that, we want to review the more clas of identifying and classifying types of figurative language. Practice 5.1 1. Look at each of the three source-to-target mi jetaphors for IDEA. Add as many examples to the list as you can, ThenSemantics of figurative language Vocabulary, semantics, and language education ilar terms in a language you are leaming or In contrast to simile, metaphor does not say that something is ike a ‘aching. How universal are these paricar metaphors it uses the source field to define the target. Emily Dickinson IDEAS are PLANTS, IDEAS are FOOD, IDEAS are j 8 “Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” Here the SpoPLey? : @ distinction between is like and is appears marginal. However, when Carl sible? Can we tak about plants as MMM Sandburg writes, “The fog comes on litle cat feet Ir sits looking over : (ae toed an uaa) ‘people as ideas? In the PEOPLE harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on,” the metaphor is are MACHINES metaphor, we noted that itis possible to. Nas clear. Fog is a cats itis not acat, i reverse the metaphor to MACHINES at les and metaphors are being used. Y machines can be personified). Do you nature of simile and metapho} tic often unidirectional? Give exam-.§ fice taupe your ophion 0 additional terms, symecdoche and metonymy, describe different metaphor from politcal egories (though, perhaps, not different processes) of figurative lan- . Here eee “A much better shot at. 4 lage. Synecdoche covers those cases where we use a part for a whole or paign the state.” Original metaphor: “The White House ‘hole to talk about the part. Metonymry is the category where some- fEnt'a Waite House.” Ist possible fo determine the source’ closely connected (but not a part) is used to refer to the whole. tnd target fil for each? in these metaphor in synecdoche, “ten sails” may be used to refer to ten shi ood wo talk about abstract concepts? Ino 4 ing a sailboat race (“Ten sails can be seen rounding the buoy”), or oH ? beards” might be used to refer to old men (“We need some gray phor employed rds to help us out”). Examples of metonymy include “the crown” to fer to.a queen, “the bench” for a judge, or “the balcony” for the people : the balcony of a theater. Another delightful example reported is “The Categorizing figurative language ; sandwich is a lousy tipper.” The ham sandwich is not part of the figurative language has been described in terms of ca son, who ordered it but is related to him, a clear case of metonymy. ation, and so forth, We ff and Turner (1989) use a slightly different categorization: in meta- s briefly. 3 a “whole schematic structure is mapped onto another whole sche- fone turns to traditional treatments of figurative language, two maj tc structure.” Metonymy, for Lakoff and Turner, has only one con- categories stand out: simile and metaphor. When we use a simile we c domain and two things belong to it. So part-whole relations are attention tothe fact that we are asking the listener or reader to consider iymy. Examples from Lakoff and Turner of part for whole include ‘a similar to Y. We do this with the phrase “X is like a ¥.” We make eed some new blood in the organization” and “Mrs. Grundy ‘comparison explicit by asking that there be a transfer of characteristics, is on blue jeans.” They also consider face for person (“We need Y to X. We find many examples of simile in literature, poetry, and eves new faces around here”) and object for user (*The buses ate on day talk. In his poem “A Dream Deferred,” Langston Hughes wrote ke”) as examples of metonymy. In Lakoff and Turner, no distinction is between synecdoche and metonymy, ification is another category of figurati What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ete) ‘objects as though they were people, asking th the and we visualize a strong, dream dying and drying wp int es of humanness to objects. For example, we talk about the health shriveled, ugly raisin, Or consider Robert Burns's poem, “O, my luve’ relationships as though relationships could take on the characteris- like a red, red rose,” and we transfer the characteristics of a red, red r healthy/sickvtired » books, and to a woman. When we read Shapespeare’s satiric sonnet 130, “My mi yisick/tire lewspapers, books, an in talk or perform other y “be tress? eyes are nothing like the sun,” we again transfer character ,” “books tell us,” “the experi- from a source field to a target fication is so common that we are scarcely ‘We find similes in everyday talk, too. 3 ful a process it is. ‘This heat! It’s like the Fourth of July! ature classes learn the three As, a mnemonic device to ber the terms antithesis, allusion, and apostrophe. In each of these, ‘The noise is like a waterfall. How could ic be just a flood?Vocabulary, semantics, and language education a concept by referring to something or someone else. Apos- pws us to address inanimate things or historical personages a8 _ ying old folks need to “shine ust unburished on the shelf" By d ot readers to bring knowledge from the source and appl 3s. The connection is usual going,” The classic example If you consult a source for a list of literary d methods mentioned Some other strategies Klutz) and oxymoron (e hates running). Als ich types of metaphor are ‘Nevertheless, with metaphoric language, whatever the type, we same underlying process: the speaker or reader applies some similarity from a source in order to talk or write about a target. Practice 5.2 tke watching a plark warp."ls this a sie or metaphor?) » » Semantics of figurative language How many jokes can you think of that fit this formula? Are any of them funny if you change t! toa metaphor? Ragevsky (1979) does not separate metonymy and syn- edoche. Instead, metonymy is divided into six types. Add ‘an example to each of Ragevsky’s. 2. sign fer signed thing: grey board that is man, We would expect hyperbole to run rampant (yes, that is a metaphor) in advertising, However, Ragevsky gives us ex: ages,” “lood of tears,” ‘milions of reasons,” “word of ef- fort.” and even “skyscraper’) that occur in everyday talk. Collect examples of hyperbole. In what circumstances are they used? Do you use them? Advertsing is full of oxymorons such as “genuine imitation leather" and ‘real manufactured gemstones.” ‘Free gifts” ‘offered in promotions aro seldom free. Goverment is also guilty of confusing us with terms lke “Value added tax.” No value is added by the tax; in fact, the value of the item ‘once the tax is pald is less, s0 the tax should be called a value subtracted tax. Collect your own examples of oxy- ‘morons. In one sense, such oxymorons are humorous, but they could also be harmful. Are your examples harmless ‘or harmful? A favorite example of paradox is the biblical passage from Ecclesiastes 3:7~8. ‘a time to rend, and a time to sew... atime to love, and a time to hate atime of war, and a time of peace. In this case, is it clear which is source and which is target? Or is the entire passage a source which is to be applied to ‘an overall target? In the Navajo belief system, many of the powers, with the possible exception of Changing Woman, are both good and bad. Is the paradox relation common inthe belt sys- ‘about the role of figurative language in human thought?Vocabulary, semantics, and language education 6. There are many types of correspondence used in analo- gies. Supply the missing member in the second set. branch: tree = (component: tree: forest - (member: col- slice: cake > ‘aluminum: airplane = — paying: shopping We can use such analogies, asking listeners or readers to | apply the characteristics of a source to a target. So we ‘might refer to a search for a book in the library as looking § through a forest in hope of finding one special leat. In forming such analogies, we may employ synecdoche, metonymy, or even personification. Give an example of your own for each of the anal ina figurative way by ‘What would you thin metaphor by second language learners, all the examples ‘of metaphor happened to be personification? If you were designing a special research “caboose” for a proficiency ‘exam, what range of types of metaphor would you want to include in order to feol confident that the results could speak to the issue of leamers’ comprehension of all types of figurative language? Metaphor as a universal process In che remainder ofthis chapter, we use the term metaphor to refer tothe process of applying or using a source to talk about a target. The identi fication is not through ordinary, literal reference but rather via this trans fer of meaning from one area to another. The cognitive poychologise H. Clark (1973) noted that we tall abo standing as though it wer Seer eda ee csons ie nee eo Seca ceere ‘we feel feeling up.” “That lifts my spirits.” “He’s really down.”), In his research Clark found that many of our ordinary ways of talking about our exper Semantics of figurative language nce relate to our human perceptual system and our experiences with the teal world, This is quite clear in the many visual metaphors in the English ‘To explain the #p-dowm metaphors, Clark related their use to the three physical reference planes and three associated directions. The normal unter in conversations is face to face. Our eyes, ears, and feet all point to the front. The first of the three physical reference planes, when ‘Weare standing, is ground level. Everything that is aboveground and seen __ sup and positive. Things unseen, down, belowground are negative. This use of up and down as positive and negative in value is then applied to a ‘Variety of targets. We talk about our conscious and unconscious states as and down (e.g., “wake up” vs, “fall asleep”). When we talk about control, we use up and down for being subject to control ld down” or we “rise to the occa: ether one is up or down (“high on the ladder” vs. “fll from office,” low man on the totem pole”). Rational and emotional terms are con- in terms of up for fat jown for emotions (“fallin love wed as ues,” shaving to take sides” all are viewed as distrac- to our normal straight ahead orientation. ird physical reference plane is the front-back vertical plane. ‘Things in front are positive (“look ahead”) while those behind are usually ‘css positive (“don’t look back”). This third physical reference plane is basis of many of the metaphors we have for life because we use this reference plane to talk about time. We view time as though we are ahead along a highway. We talk about future time as “coming vents” (“I'm looking forward to your party"), We say that time comes id goes by us (“This week really rushed by. Before I knew it, the week flew by”). We talk of “trouble ahead.” We worry about being early or ate, “ahead of time” and “behind schedule,” as though time and space se to our physical reference planes, umples such as these led Clark to that much of everyday iphor in language has a perceptual basis, and since humans all have ie same perceptual mechanisms, he hypothesized that these same meta- hors would occur across languages. They are universal Lakoff (1987) and colleagues (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Lakoff & furmer, 1989) have provided a more comprehensive argument that meta: ot is perceptually based. They have demonstrated that metaphor is both perceptually based system and a socially based system. Before looking at taphor as a socially based system, we will look at three importantVocabulary, semantics, and language education uestions that Lakoff and colleagues have addressed regarding metaphor 352 perceptually based system, One question has to do with system within Sets of metaphors. Can such a system be discovered? A second question is whether some metaphors are more basic (and acquired earlier) than oth- | ers? A third question has to do with the distinction berween everyday | metaphor and literary metaphor. The first two questions may be more ‘cognitive in nature than the thied, but the research and the claims regard ing each question concern the universality ofthe process. ‘System in perceptual metaphor “To illustrate the notion of system in perceptual metaphor, we Wi ‘an example of metaphor of emotions. Emotions are abstract, nd so it is only natural that we would use other source fields to talk) about the target field of emotion. Howeve: es, we do have perceptions of tension, of heat or chi perceptions arc clear in the metaphors we use for love and anget/ Kaveeses (1986) gives us many examples for the emotion of anger. W. feel body heat, pressure, agitation; notice the redness of skin that results and perhaps our anger even interferes with normal perception (sce exam ples below). Notice that the feeling of heat leads us to a FIRE source as, metaphor for anger. In our agitation, we may take on our opponent ans Body heat ANGER is FIRE hot under the collar inflammatory remarks all hot and bothered add fuel to the fire Pressure burst a blood vessel have a hemorthage Redness scarlet with rage flushed with anger red with anger Agitation ANGER is an OPPONENT shaking with anger hopping mad overcor quivering with rage surrender to, come to grips with all worked up Interference with perception ANGER is INSANITY blind with rage drives me out of my mind seeing red drives me nuts/bananas couldn't see straight go crazy, berserk/bonkers Semantics of figurative language es then looked for system within metaphors of emotion. A basic is that we contain our emotions inside our bodies. This the BODY is a CONTAINER metaphor. Lakoff and Johnson any English examples that fit this notion (“she is -was filled with anger”), Kavecses suggests that th ion has to do with how filled the container becomes. We talk about the lepth of our love as a measure of its intensity. When the container be- | comes filled, the emotion overflows, We pour out our feelings as our joss overflow. furning to anger, Kévecses and Lakoff see stages in the degree snount of anger. According to Lakoffand his colleagues, we can oe in a systematic way if we i - for of the physical body os a coomines eee »Y IS A CONTAINER ith anger, love, despair, loneliness rimming with happiness ion is the heat of a fluid in a container pressure, explosi Elecamed up, foming e blew up “blew a gasket (piston), erupted (volcano), blew a fuse (electricity), ona ww my stack, flipped her lid, hit the ceiling, we fw my tack, Hipp the ceiling, went through the roof ired out her love, oozed sweetn ke Bicone er love, on ess, smoke poured out his ears, she (Adapted from Lakoff, 1987, pp. 380-397) ese metaphors all relate to the human perceptual systems, to the erceive the world around us and the feelings within us. Some of the hors are more prototypic than others. For example, we can talk, t “cold anger,” but the use of heat and fire for anger would be moreVocabulary, semantics, and language education prototypic than cold, “Cold anger” seems to be anger that is very tightly controlled, unable to surface but stored in an intense form for later | All humans have the same perceptual system, so it follows that many of these metaphors should be universal in nature. Shyu (1989) and Kelly | (1989) investigated the issue of universality by comparing the system of joy, anger, and pride, respectively. Normally, the ch’ 1 body stays calm and unnoticed. However, when someone is in tated, the air appears (“his chest full of angry ai within the container (“he is bearing pent-up air’ may be warned to calm or cool the air. But if the air increases, it resul aggressive facial behaviors ( caused his face to become gree purple”; “his air caused his green blood vessels to pop out, he sudden! changed color”) and then escapes (“the angry air caused the smoke pour out of his seven holes [mouth, nose, eyes, and ears)”; “his ai his eyebrows to become straight and his eyes to become whi ‘can see, there are strong similarities to the system of metaphor tion that begins with the body as a container. In English, the anger is the change from a liquid, to heat, to steam. In Chinese, which becomes 's to be released as steam. De yystem appears to be the same. became purple), renk vermemek (not to give color, me feelings). Anger is also fire: ates sacmak (to s burnundan ates fiskiriyordu (fire spouted out from ‘extreme anger). Anger is seen as affecting the senses: iden goau hic birsey gormuyordu (from nerves, his eyes don’t see a thing, meaning he was blind with anger); and anger is insanity: Del {to send someone crazy). The body-is-a-container metaphor is also ly’s data. Yuregi sinirle dolu fies the heart as one of the first parts of the con sinirle doluydu (he was filled up to his throat with nerves) shows building up to the moment before it explodes, bardagi tasiran son di Semantics of figurative language last drop that made the cup overflow) is the straw that bi tame!’ back, and sinilerim Bosadi (my nerves are emptied) shore the iner overflows. Je dfer, we would e some differences in the metaphors across languages. For camp al (of the love poems in Arabic use metaphors that link the desert and thirst ‘with longing for love. Our folk models or commonsense models of our ‘social world migh te different types or different uses of meta hor: The issue of uni and language or culeure-specific metaphors “heeds much more detailed research. ‘The metaphors we have listed here for emotions are so common that ome scholars have suggested that they are dead metaphors. However, it lear that we draw upon these metaphors in order to express cut ings in new situations. In 1992, Los Angeles was the center of ice from a White House Rose Garden meeting, 3s just bottled up anger and it exploded in violence. ‘were venting the anger they felt. They’re still simmering over the verdict. King lic the match and now we're burning. {in Los Angeles, community leaders went on TV to speak to those ‘were rioting: ‘cool out. Back off. Mave down, out, folks. We're all outraged. shore fused. leashed fury but you gotta cool down. issue of whether or not such metaphors are dead is of little impor- Metaphor permeates all of language and reflects thi = ot worlds, and, thus, helps others understand us.” Practice 5.3 1. In torms of reference planes, right and left are both said to be positive yet there are many expressions in Ei ‘Suggest that right is positive and left is less so. ‘meaning correct, is positive. “My right-hand mé ‘son who gives unquestioning support ( to male secretaries who sat to the right tle attention is paid to the person who sit while a “left-handed compliment” is qualified support. List ‘as many other examples of right and left expressions asVocabulary, semantics, and language education you can. Are they equally positive or negative? Do the ‘same expressions appear in another language you may be 7 studying or teaching? 2 In a rnguage you know, list examples for anger which par- allel or differ from those offered by Kévecses and Lakoff. Do your examples support the claim of a universal concep- tual basis for metaphors of emotion? mA emotion of love is commonly linked to water. such as “I . sides of her head, and drank deeply as a thirsty man drinks from the cool water of a pond,” or the less elegant (i Engist) nes that deserbe unatainable love sin the desert, nearly dying of caning ir backs.” Poets write of longing and desire as stages in the “need for water.” Are such terms Used widely in most desert cultures? How widespread is love-as-thirst metaphor in English? Give examples to justify your answer. 4 Eartpes of ‘metaphors for the emotion of love include heart, often used (metonymy) to refer to the emotion of love. Thus, love becomes an object which can be given to | a his another (“I gave him my heart’; “he held my heart in hands), tf a sold object butt can be broken (she broke his heart’). The object is a commodity (‘I paid a tot for so as a plant that don't know why it died.” Shu-ing Shyu (1989) reports a Chinese expression, “this red apricot blossoms outside t ‘a metaphor for a married woman who is he be talked about as food (honey, sugar, hunger for your touch). Love is insanity ("'m crazy about her,” “he’s di me wild’) and causes us to behave as animals (wolf, tiger) Lovers are birds (turtladoves, my litte chickdee, love nest For some, love is a game (‘can’t get to frst base” war (conquest, shot down, war paint, dressed to kill). Ho Similar are the metaphors of love in the language you us foritem President Clinton has talked about “growing the ecor 7 omy He has also said, “We've been in the basement so long, we don’t know looks like up in the sunshine. Collect and analyze examples of his use (or that of some (‘Our love flowered. Our love grew. 1 Semantics of figurative language other leader of your choice) of figurative language related to the economy, When Clinton fired the head of the FBI for suspected mis- Use of perks, a commentator said that the FBI head was “not just under a cloud but out in the rain for six months.” st as many metaphors of suspicion and shame as you Can. Is it possible to group them as Lakoff and Kévecses have the metaphors of emotion? ° ion of metaphor -number of conflicting claims have been made about the acquisition and se of metaphors, arising from two points of view about the nature of taphor. The first point of view is that metaphors are higher order uses f language: they are creative and occur: the types of metaphor discussed in the previous section are of o ft because they are dead metaphors and so are akin to clichés. The id, opposing point of view is that metaphor is a basic process in tous. This second point of view states that meta ted literary metaphor, cannot be entirely ne is conflict about the nature of metaphor ion of metaphor. If one believes that metaphor is @ ly in literature, the claim that children do rocess in language, claims metaphor at an early age are quite tenable. In if one believes that metaphor relates to basic perception, then types of metaphor should be acquired earlier than others. There is fh in the literature that takes each position. MacKay (1987) hypothesized that spatial and personification meta- ors should be the most basic since they relate most directly to percep- He surveyed the metaphors in 59 children’s poems. The poems lined 864 “live” (newly created) metaphors, 43 percent of which fe personifications. He then went on to look at an additional 177 ty thymes and found 111 live metaphors, 77 percent of which were nifications. Poets writing for young children must believe, there- that young children are able to understand personification. low (1981) and Leondar (1975) studied the language of preschool fen and found that they spontaneously produced metaphors (e.g. ctibing themselves as “barefoot all over,” using “daddy hopper” for 2Vocabulary, semantics, and language education large grasshopper, or saying that mint candy produces a “draft in the mouth” or that a chimney is “a house hat” If we look at Chukovsky’s (1968) (translated from the Russian), we find some exai ‘For example, a child became {quite upset on hearing an adule ask for the lady fingers. He protested that they are not made out of fingers but of dough. Chukovsky suggests, in spite of the many examples in the book, that children only create novel metaphors by accident. Yet examples of such accidents are numerous. F ‘example, one child asked, “What's a knife? The fork’s husband?” ‘each bite, another child stopped and listened. Then he s ladder to my stomach.” Another I drink | id, “Te just ran down the lit child marveled at the process of digestion: “Isn't it wonder coffee, tea, cocoa, but out of me pours only tea!” : (1978) say thatchildren can produce such metaphors but that they do not appreciate the metaphors of others nor can they offer a rationale for their own metaphors. Gardner et al. suggest there is a “U-shaped curve” for production of metaphors. Young children through a “wild” stage where they do produce metaphors without tr metaphoric capacity, followed by a period when they do not, only rediscover metaphor at around 10 to 12 years of age. This position sug: gests that a child first learns literal meanings of words and only later begins to comprehend and use metaphor. iagetian theory suggests that children in the “preoperational stage” vgnize metaphors if they apply to physical objects, but only lat atthe “concrete operational” stage will they agree that metaphoric me ings can extend to people. According to this school of thought, the pr duction of metaphor requires the child to think of an object as though ‘were another, to perce ‘override the bout aries. Marti (1987) claims ‘metaphors are a result of the c incapacity to differentiate identity, resemblance, and differen relationships. Tina series of experiments, Palmero and associates found that chil aged from 3 to 10 years, given a context and task that is appropriate fo) their age, do comprehend metaphorical relations. For example, presch Tn a stu same story), mero (1986) says, given that such stu: which young children deal with metaphor, it seems highly unlikely children learn only literal meanings at first. The question, he believes, i children come to understand metaphors as adults do. “Thus, soul is an enchanted boat’ may be understood only by. Semantics of figurative language dren are acquiring meanings of a word, “they are ready to nd that word or domains of words to metaphoric uses.” Practice 5.4 1. Palermo (1986) says that in the story retelling task, the only item which caused children problems was a metaphor revolving around yesterday (behind) and tomorrow (in front). Several children explained that one can see yester- day but not tomorrow, so yesterday I i to conflict with Ciark’s notion that 5 vides us with our metaphor for spact hand, preschool children may not yet have leamed that metaphor well. How would you design a project to re- ‘search this question further? Children begin pretend play at a very early age. They pour ‘sand’ tea and offer it to imaginary playmates. To the distress of their parents, they pretend their sandwiches are airplanes soaring through the air. Would you equate such nonverbal symbolic play with the use of verbal metaphor? Teachers at a workshop reported the following metaphors used by very young children. A 3 year old looked at moon and said, "Oh, it's a toenail moon!” Another child, seeing a parrot at the 00, said “Look, a rainbow! A rain- bow!” If you can observe young children, collect examples of their creative use of metaphor. Can you categorize your collection in terms of different types of metaphor? Which ‘type is most common in your data? Since so many words have different meanings and can, on ‘occasion, be used in sentences which allow for ambiguity ‘of meaning, and since so much of meaning in discourse is also ambiguous, we are constantly creating our own inter- pretation of meanings. Why, then, should interpretation of metaphor be a higher-order capacity? Try to relate your re- ‘sponse to the acquisition research above. Do you agree with Ragevska (1979), who wrote that “metaphoric exten- sion . . .is always at work in the acquisition of vocabulary and the development of thought" (p. 153)? » » aVocabulary, semantics, and language education Semantics of figurative langu ics tive language Literary and conceptual metaphor Ww leak away as “the crack in the tea- yc up opens”), LIFE is FIRE and LIFE isa PLANT (see the sonnet belo ave ’ koff and Tumer not onl he . difference between literary and conceptual metaphor BD reationed here, but they also discuss thec sipecatnoss eins tae Best (1989) say itis a matter of degree and skill others say itis in the aptness _ ising the standard example of metaphor in Exell I ise metaphors of the metaphors. _speare's sonnet 73, Literature teachers an “To investigate this question in depth, Lakoff and Turner compared M™M cited it as the supreme example of nike wea rave long metaphors used in poetry and literature with those of ordinary talk. The ingle piece of lierature hors for life within a f year hou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or fev, do hang Upon those boughs which shake agai Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet ary | language use. The basic parts identified by Lakoff and Turner for the metaphor are as follows: 4 Maes seest the twili ‘ a after sunset fadeth in the west, ee Aer by and by black ight ‘doth take away, “The traveler moves through a series of locations; one or more may be an” tae ns eet feceer ery ended destination. q _- Thaton the ashes of his youth doth li ‘Travelers with destinations choose paths to get where they want t0 0, ‘As the deathbed whereon There may be impediments to travel (bumpy roads, quicksand). ‘was nourished by. The traveler needs provisions. | 1 kes thy love more strong, ‘The traveler may require a guide. : ich thou must leave ere long. ‘Along the route, the traveler passes landmarks that help in gaugit 1 through 4 use the lifecycle year of plants (LIFE is a YEAR, LIF progress. NT) a ol FE isa » LIFE is ‘Along the route, the traveler encounters crossroads and must d PLANT) as a metaphor to describe life. As Lakoff and Tu which way t0 go. dae ae f approaching death. Line In ordinary conversation, we use these metaphors in talking about in ines 9 through 12 Ties roueh ties during Life (e.g, education, marriage, work). We vee long way to go” to make our work perfect. We needs noes plea for love that nourish get sidetracked ("I cealy got off the track”), encounter impediments 6 ors way ("we're going over some rocky ground there”). We may nee help (without my friends Pd really be lost”) and worry about the cho cl we make (“I shouldn't have taken this route”) rare able to arrange and use metaphor rost's poem (“Two roads diverged and I, | took the one ls pres and pace, Decause we share the nerying models of ife org fe Twwenty-Thied Psalm (“Fle leadeth me beside the s in these metaphors, we understand and ate moved by such l Craters”) exemplify literary use of these metaphors. Such metaphors a ige-Even when our models differ we are able to recognize many ofthe wat different from or more apt than those of everyday talk, Rather, th hors of other cultures and appreciate the models revealed through Employed with great skill, and many (rather than just one) api Compare the Shakespeare soninet with the English rendition of the intone passage to produce a layered effect. Lakoff and Turner i ional Navajo prayer, di ‘ecamples along with many others to show the richness of metap Tn beauty may I wal ‘Through the retusni day long may I walk. sons may I walk. + Beautifully joyfal bieds. seature. 4 ther LIFE metaphors include LIFE is a DAY (see Dylan Thoma poem “Do not go gentle into the night,” where the end of life is the endVocabztlary, semantics, and language education On the trail marked with pollen may I walk. With grasshoppers about my feet may 1 walk, ‘With dew about my feet may I walk. With beauty may I walk, With beauty before me may I walk. With beauty behind me may T walk. ‘With beauty above me may I walk. With beauty all around me may T walk, age wandering on a tral of beauty, ‘may I walk. ‘old age wandering on a trail of beauty, (Rothenberg, 1982, p. 208) Practice 5.5 41. Collect examples from oral language of metaphors of in another language. Are they the same as those given by Lakoff and Turner? . Select one of the poems mentioned in this section and ask. ‘a speaker of another language to study it with you. Are the metaphors clear to both of you? If this poem were trans- lated into the other language, would the same metaphors be used as effectively in that language? .. Can you find passages similar to the Twenty- in the literature of other religious traditions? In what way: are the passages sit ples of a guide that attempts to misiead one on the jour- “| ney? Are the passages that describe this less p nature than that of the guide we can trust? . At his death, former President Richard Nixon was described as a giant, one who never traveled in the shadow of others but in whose shadow other political leaders labored. He left, it was said, giant f is on th land, footprints that others might do well to follow. In Am ican mythology, the giant Paul Bunyan and Babe the Bh x stride across the continent. They leave giant footprt which, when filled with water, form the Great Lakes. The) carve the land, and the plowing they do directs rivers in their courses. Do all cultures use the metaphor of heroes striding out across the land, leading others to follow in t giant footsteps? What evidence can you give from ‘ogy or from everyday use to support your answer? Ithough E. and H. Clark and other cog Semantics of figurative language ocial models and metaphor psychologists have been interested in metaphor for what it can tell us about human | cognitive processes, Lakoff and his associates have always considered taphor to be both cognitively and socially determined. Kovecses 986, 1988) talked about world models that are reflected i lected in 0 - ‘hors. Though some metaphors ate more central (or prototypic) than _ others, they are organized to reflect our common-sense understanding of — a folk theory that acts as a standard for determining normality ithin a culture (D’Andrade, 1987). Thus, its both a social and cognitive metaphors form the basis for understanding many areas of life. For example, our understanding of politics is also organized id the journey metaphor, After President Ci cses's scenario of anger, the folk theory of anger fending events, at ', attempt at control, loss of ution. In Shyu's (1989) investigation of meta- ‘of emotion in Chinese, we find a fe causes of anger include the lack fetraint. Anger itself is seen as fire or hot liquid in a fs heated air in acontainer in Chinese. C ay any expressions of “hot spleen ait.” Both | hi 1 languages have meta- +hich anger is a dangerous animal with which we struggle, but ification of anger in Chinese is much more common h r and the is expected to struggle valiandy to control anger. In Chinese, an ‘person is very dangerous and shoul. q Pes very dangero should not be touched or provoked.areas SEER EEEEEEUeaEe Vocabulary, semantics, and language education are also very similar in these two 3 Janguages but there mension of yuan (destiny) which differs from the differences in detai of the metaphors are related ‘Looking at other met: shors (other may reveal stronger sociocultural through metaphor. Id expect strong similarities since so many. viata to the physiological effects of the emotions. than those associated with emotions) differences in the models reveale Practice 5.6 -7) gives evidence for a cuiture model of Amet: + aa rage using the metaphors of youn? rubande ang couple), interviewed separately (approximate 48 or 16 hours each) about marrage, As you right imag: marriage is seen as something which is ; foundation’ “bulding on te relationship,’ “8 do4 ourselves project. ‘using pars) en ongring oumey the good , 06 . (ct teat nay ext oo mach “bong sho changed inthis relationship", mutually benef (4 of us” and "vce vers), knowing and seeing ("de know who he was," > *My eyes were 1 obstacles ("ul a Fn her analysis ofthe metaphors avon by es person, Quinn discovered eight propositions about Ame jago is a joint entorprise, it may SUC iis fal of unknowns atthe outset is aif tffortf, itis mutually beneficial, and sa ye shes Ho each of ose proposes a cast h meepior by nda speaker, Fr oxen 8 ‘may state through metaphor : age sbout rnarrage leads to cifiuty, which leads to Ghorce. If cificulies are “worked through” in a way then marriage is enduring. Spi talk about the work and tearing needed to make ma “etick about loarning a lot, and they also ast d wurney failed, Where else will one ficial, vi eon to ft your folk model of marriage? Read an discuss the model with someone from another cultur How different is this model from their own? ‘Shyu suggests that, despite Semantics of figurative language 2. Collect as many metaphors of WORK as possible. How ight these be collapsed into statements that would form ‘@ model of work? Is the model culturally specific? is it spe cific to some particular type of work? . A claim has been made that the United States is a violent and military culture. Reporters, as well as polit often use WAR and GAME metaphors. One U.S. 2 game. Another said, “With all the smoking mirrors thrown up around us-.” Is this a combination of “smoking gun” and “mirrors,” or confusion with “smoke and mirrors,” or is there an expression “smoking mirrors"? Col- lect examples from news programs that use WAR or GAME metaphors. Do these same metaphors occur in news reporting in other languages? Does your collection support the claim about U.S. cul taphors of teaching and learning bury (1991) suggests that there are a number of recurrent meta~ that teachers use to characterize teaching. Included are LEARN- ‘2 JOURNEY, the LESSON is a MOVING OBJECT, LEARNING [ECHANICAL or COMPUTATIONAL PROCESS, and LEARN- PUZZLE SOLVING. We can easily find examples of each of these hors, which include groups of metaphors them, Just as we many other metaphors under the LIFE is a JOURNEY metaphor, are many other metaphors within the LEARNING is a JOURNEY hor. Here are a few collected by graduate students at Temple Uni- » Japan, from classrooms, from comments teachers wrote on stu- spers, and from their reading of applied linguistics texts on logy. Y rered a lot of ground today. the discussion get a bit derailed? idea home. aving to wade through all their homework. )FOR A GUIDE ON THE WAY 00k is your guide to language acquisition. ok is the instructor’s companion in teaching.Vocabulary, semantics, and language education Semantics of figurative language IMPEDIMENTS ON THE WAY Ies articles that get in the way. Weiters stil fall into this trap no matter what I do. LANDMARKS TO GAUGE PROGRESS ‘Watch for signposts along the way. ICN oe NE ‘The meraghors the graduate students collected fas extend thee Tr “The cure for interference is simply the cure for ignorance. Toned by Thombury. They found many journey metaphors, metaphors for ineefence snp : of mechanical or computational processes (“processing it auto- ming was dificult an matic production of well-constructed paragraphs,” “language acqui ‘arm your students experience, or arouse him to a defensive kind of learning. tion device,” “adding new material to the lesson’ (clues to the question,” “decode,” “decipher. But they found many other metaphors as w FOOD Students are starved for challenges of any kind. tasteless ideas, concoct something new spice up your thesis up your paragraphs it all boils down to two points chop it up into understandable thoughts OSMOSIS and CONDUITS It just won't sink int Students have to absorb what was said. MINING. Dig out the answer. break new ground today just on the surface jown the argument ding basic language skills THEOLOGY 7 high Language teaching is a high calling. ta place redemption on the shoulders of the language teacher awaken and revive in them a passion for learning LAW learning the laws of grammar never arrive at the freedom to speak SPORTS The leaner can now tackle much harder task. Students engage in a cognitive wrestling mat ‘competent coaching from the skilled teacher ? tantrums harvest of strange ideas the first language eaving of old and new information talk that is being woven If we look through such metaphors, we see that many encompass and roles such as teaching/learning, the teacher/the rs and patients, players and coaches, supervisors and (Others emphasize the creative side of learning — weaving, Block (1992) asked language teachers and learners what they think the of a teacher is. Teachers supplied a number of roles: coordinator, itator, giver of information, disciplinarian, motivator, friend, coor- + Parent. Many of these imply corresponding student roles. Block ited the roles of students: worker, recipient of information, and He also surveyed the metaphors in a number of teacher-trai Block then compared existing models in the field of applied linguis- 9f teacher and learner roles to those offered by teachers and students. ock’s work is important to students and teachers, to researchers and trainers, for we need to know what our folk model or folk theo- (our shared commonsense ideas) about teaching and learning are. We to know if the model(s) that emerge from our methods courses areVocabulary, semantics, and language education Semantics of figurative language Jing teachers and students. We need to know _ 1 as those of practicing teacher end the mero ha coo angen the eaching and learning proce hea - anions sely where our metaphors contrast and how nde 4 teachers and professional writers differ in their use of met- we nee isely wher ” hors are to those who might imp aphors to describe the writing process? How might you in- standable and sensible our new metaphor : vestigate this question further as a research project? ment them. 4, Program administrators often talk about “team spirit” as though staff members were playing a game. They may use mniltary or religious metaphors, claiming the team has a Into relevant “mission.” Collect metaphors used by or for those in ad- 1. Classify each of the following metaphors cae gaol the analogies fotod above. ministrative positions. How do the metaphors differ from those of teaching or wilting? Clean up your spelling errors and return. 8. We have many metaphors for the ways words might be gh | could just unlock the door for you but you must : represented in the brain. Sometimes we talk about the it yoursel. the step in cookbooks to “correct for seasoning,” The ‘choice of metaphor, in particular when writing becomes ifficult, shows how writers think about their work. How do your metaphors fit ito those listed by Tomlinson? Do Practice 5.7 brain as though it were a warehouse. We “store” vocabu- ‘What makes this class tick? lary and “retrieve” it from storage. In thi think of found in the warehouse or organized in different ways. If ‘we do not think of words as objects, but rather as forms produced by connections as various parts of systems are activated (the brain as electrochemical wiring), we cannot talk about just two things - word and concept ~ but rather ‘of multiple connections at many different levels. There are, of course, many metaphors for the connection between ‘words and their mental representations. In another lan- ‘guage of your choice, determine what metaphors are used for the mental representation of words. japter we have said that metaphor is a basic proce lects our perception of the world and our fee ‘order process (although skilled writers select and combine meta- re artful manner than most of us can attain in everyday ‘The metaphors we use reflect our common-sense under- yn student compositions. theory 7 eee ‘ortng er from those of other ‘ ‘4 and about our emotional experiences. Thus, it cn ors listed by Tomiinson (1266) methodology book and sean it for metaph : re sept eaming: DO they fit into the groups you 2 ‘more than the relation Figur described in Chapter 4, The relation asive process in language learning and language use. This sthaps, something new but rather somethi , Weekley wrote, “Every expression we employ, apart from those ied with rudimentary objects and action, is et 6 will consider another grou in relational models: the semat rediscovered anew.‘of broken images. a All prayers are the same grief fying.guage and for language learning. How might they advance or im: pede our understanding of language and learning? |