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Encyclopedia > Conceptual metaphor

Conceptual metaphor: In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain; for example, using one person's life experience to understand a different person's experience. A conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of experience. In linguistics and cognitive science, cognitive linguistics (CL) refers to the currently dominant school of linguistics that views the important essence of language as innately based in evolutionarily-developed and speciated faculties, and seeks explanations that advance or fit well into the current understandings of the human mind. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Frame semantics (linguistics). ...


Other cognitive scientists study subjects similar to conceptual metaphor under the labels "analogy" and "conceptual blending." Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Analogy is either the cognitive process of transferring or giving information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ... Conceptual Blending is a theory of cognition[1]. According to the Theory of Conceptual Blending, elements and vital relations from diverse scenarios are blended in a subconscious process. ...

Contents

Mappings

There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in conceptual metaphors:

  • Source domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions.
  • Target domain: the conceptual domain that we try to understand.

A mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain. Many elements of target concepts come from source domains and are not preexisting. To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing. The same idea of mapping between source and target is used to describe analogical reasoning and inferences. Analogy is either the cognitive process of transferring or giving information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ...


A primary tenet of this theory is that metaphors are matter of thought and not merely of language: hence, the term conceptual metaphor. The metaphor may seem to consist of words or other linguistic expressions that come from the terminology of the more concrete conceptual domain, but conceptual metaphors underlie a system of related metaphorical expressions that appear the linguistic surface. Similarly, the mappings of a conceptual metaphor are themselves motivated by image schemas which are pre-linguistic schemas concerning space, time, moving, controlling, and other core elements of embodied human experience. Image schema is a recurring structure of, or within, our cognitive processes, which establishes patterns of understanding and reasoning. ...


Conceptual metaphors typically employ a more abstract concept as target and a more concrete or physical concept as their source. For instance, metaphors such as 'the days [the more abstract or target concept] ahead' or 'giving my time' rely on more concrete concepts, thus expressing time as a path into physical space, or as a substance that can be handled and offered as a gift. Different conceptual metaphors tend to be invoked when the speaker is trying to make a case for a certain point of view or course of action. For instance, one might associate "the days ahead" with leadership, whereas the phrase "giving my time" carries stronger connotations of bargaining. Selection of such metaphors tends to be directed by a subconscious or implicit purpose, in the mind of the person employing them.


The principle of unidirectionality states that the metaphorical process typically goes from the more concrete to the more abstract, and not the other way around. Accordingly, abstract concepts are understood in terms of prototype concrete processes. The term "concrete," in this theory, has been further specified as more closely related to the developmental, physical neural, and interactive body (see embodied philosophy). One manifestation of this view is found in the cognitive science of mathematics, where it is proposed that mathematics itself, the most widely accepted means of abstraction in the human community, is largely metaphorically constructed, and thereby reflects a cognitive bias unique to humans that uses embodied prototypical processes (e.g. counting, moving along a path) that are understood by all human beings through their experiences. Embodied philosophy (also known as the embodied mind thesis, embodied cognition or the embodied cognition thesis) usually refers to a set of beliefs promoted by George Lakoff and his various co-authors (including Mark Johnson, Mark Turner, and Rafael E. Núñez), which suggest that the mind can only be... The cognitive science of mathematics is the study of mathematical ideas using the techniques of cognitive science. ... Cognitive bias is any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science and social psychology including very basic statistical, social attribution, and memory errors that are common to all human beings. ...


Propaganda

While neither a cognitive linguist nor a conceptual metaphor theorist per se, another prominent linguist, Noam Chomsky, proposed, along with Edward S. Herman, a propaganda model consisting of media filters which prevent news or opinions that violate the basic conceptual metaphors of the listeners from being heard in the public arena at all, meaning that the media has a tendency to screen their content in order to restrict the metaphors employed, deliberately controlling the ways in which their audiences understand content. In Chomsky's view, the basic human capacity to acquire language and believe metaphor is abused by restricting, in the mass media, the range and type of metaphors to which the citizen is exposed. Specifically, mappings that emphasize the security of property or the fear of conflict with authority would tend to be highlighted in a mass media controlled by private corporate interests, while mappings that tended to emphasize the risk of conflict over resources or fairness would tend to be de-emphasized or censored altogether. Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph. ... Edward S. Herman is an economist and media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy and the media. ... The propaganda model is a theory advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky that alleges systemic biases in the mass media and seeks to explain them in terms of structural economic causes. ... A media filter is a type of filter utilizing a bed of sand, crushed granite or other material to filter water for drinking, swimming pools, aquaculture, irrigation, and other applications. ...


Family roles and ethics

The urban theorist and ethicist Jane Jacobs made this distinction in less gender-driven if not wholely desexualizing terms by differentiating between a 'Guardian Ethic' and a 'Trader Ethic'. She states that guarding and trading are two concrete activities that human beings must learn to apply metaphorically to all choices in later life. In a society where guarding children is the primary female duty and trading in a market economy is the primary male duty, one may posit that children assign the 'guardian' and 'trader' roles to their mothers and fathers, respectively. Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs, OC, O.Ont (May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was an American-born Canadian urbanist, writer and activist. ...


Both of these theories suggest that there may be a great deal of social conditioning and pressure to form specific cognitive bias. Anthropologists observe that all societies tend to have roles assigned by age and gender, which supports this view. Social Conditioning refers to the sociological phenomenological process of inheriting tradition and gradual cultural transmutation passed down through previous generations. ... Cognitive bias is any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science and social psychology including very basic statistical, social attribution, and memory errors that are common to all human beings. ...


Linguistics and politics

Chomsky and Jacobs all devote a significant amount of time to current events and political theory, suggesting that respected linguists or theorists of conceptual metaphor may tend to channel their theories into political activism. Indeed, if conceptual metaphors are as basic as all of them seem to think, they may literally have no choice in doing so.


Critics of this ethics-driven approach to language tend to accept that idioms reflect underlying conceptual metaphors, but that actual grammar, and the more basic cross-cultural concepts of scientific method and mathematical practice tend to minimize the impact of metaphors. Such critics tend to see Chomsky and Jacobs as 'left-wing figures', and would not accept their politics as any kind of crusade against an ontology embedded in language and culture, but rather, as an idiosyncratic pastime, not part of the science of linguistics nor of much use. And others further, such as Deleuze and Guattari, Michel Foucault and, more recently, Manuel de Landa would criticize both of these two positions for mutually constituting the same old ontological ideology that would try to separate two parts of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. An idiom is an expression (i. ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... In the philosophy of mathematics, mathematical practice is used to distinguish the working practices of professional mathematicians (eg. ... In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek , genitive : of being (part. ... Gilles Deleuze (January 18, 1925 - November 4, 1995) was a major French philosopher of the late 20th century. ... Félix Guattari (1930 - 1992) was a French pioneer of institutional psychotherapy, as well as the founder of both Schizoanalysis and the science of Ecosophy. ... Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ; English-speakers pronunciation varies) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Manuel DeLanda, (born 1952 in Mexico City), is a writer, artist and distinguished philosopher who has lived in New York since 1975. ...


See also

Analogy is either the cognitive process of transferring or giving information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ... The cognitive science of mathematics is the study of mathematical ideas using the techniques of cognitive science. ... Concept mapping is a technique for visualizing the relationships between different concepts. ... Conceptual Blending is a theory of cognition[1]. According to the Theory of Conceptual Blending, elements and vital relations from diverse scenarios are blended in a subconscious process. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Embodied philosophy (also known as the embodied mind thesis, embodied cognition or the embodied cognition thesis) usually refers to a set of beliefs promoted by George Lakoff and his various co-authors (including Mark Johnson, Mark Turner, and Rafael E. Núñez), which suggest that the mind can only be... Image schema is a recurring structure of, or within, our cognitive processes, which establishes patterns of understanding and reasoning. ... Language acquisition is the process by which the language capability develops in a human. ... Look up metaphor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek , genitive : of being (part. ... An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One Propaganda is a type of message aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of people. ... A scale-free network is a specific kind of complex network in which the distribution of connectivity is extremely uneven. ... In philosophy, physics, and other fields, a thought experiment (from the German Gedankenexperiment) is an attempt to solve a problem using the power of human imagination. ...

References

  • Johnson, Mark (1987) The Body in the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Johnson, Mark (1995) Moral Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Chomsky, Noam & Herman, Edward, S. (1988) Manufacturing Consent (2nd ed. 2002)
  • Chomsky, Noam (1989) Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies.

External links

  • The Center for the Cognitive Science of Metaphor Online is a collection of numerous formative articles in the fields of conceptual metaphor and conceptual integration.
  • Metaphor Examples lists examples of metaphor by experiential category, including spatial and sensory metaphors.
  • Evidence from cognitive neuroscience for the neural underpinnings of conceptual metaphors is discussed in Tim Rohrer's Understanding through the Body: fMRI and of ERP studies of metaphoric and literal language".

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