The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor

Paper Review: Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. Originally published in Metaphor and Thought, Ortony A. (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 202-251.

Transcript

1. The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor Morteza Ansarinia Institute for Cognitive Science Studies May 2016
2. Cover image courtesy of Vladimir Kush (1965-) Outline ▸ Classical and contemporary theories of metaphor ▸ Metaphor as a set of conceptual mappings ▸ Basic semantic concepts that are metaphorical ▸ The Invariance Principle ▸ Novel metaphors ▸ Experimental basis of metaphor ▸ Literal meaning commitments ▸ Summary 2 Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. Originally published in Metaphor and Thought, Ortony A. (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 202-251.
3. Image courtesy of Mastislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky (1875-1957) Classical Theories of Metaphor ﻪﺸﯿﻤﻫ ﺶﺗدﺎﻌﺳ نﺎﻤﺳآ» ﺶﻨﯾﺮﯿﺷ ﺪﻨﺨﺒﻟ و ﻦﺷور «ﺎﻓﻮﮑﺷ ﻪﺘﺳﻮﯿﭘ ﻦﺷور یﺎﻫ‌ﺐﺷ ،ﯽﮑﺴﻓﻮﯾﺎﺘﺳاد رودﻮﺌﻓ ‐ 3
4. Classical Theories of Metaphor ▸ Since Aristotle, metaphor has been referred to instances of novel poetic and figurative language in which words are not used in their normal everyday sense. ▸ Metaphor was seen as a matter of language, not thought. ▸ Metaphors was only used to express similar concepts outside of their normal conventional meaning. ▸ Metaphors and everyday
 language were assumed to
 be mutually exclusive. 4 Figurative Language Everyday Language Thought Metaphor
5. But… ▸ Those generalizations are not in language, but in thoughts. ▸ They are general mapping across conceptual domains. They apply not just to novel poetic expressions, but to much of ordinary everyday language. ▸ Metaphor is the main mechanism through which we comprehend abstract concepts, and perform abstract reasoning. 5 Figurative Language Everyday Language Thought Metaphor
6. ▸ Metaphor is characterized by several asymmetric and partial cross-domain mappings. ▸ The study of literary metaphor is an extension of the study of everyday metaphor. 6 Conceptual Domain #1 Conceptual Domain #2 Metaphors
7. Contemporary Theory of Metaphor ▸ Metaphor: A cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system. ▸ Metaphorical Expression: A linguistic expression that is the surface realization of such a mapping. This is what the word “metaphor” referred to in the old theory. ▸ Metaphor is primarily conceptual, conventional, and part of the ordinary system of thoughts and language to conceptualize the world (Reddy, 1993). 7 Experimental results and further readings: Turner (1987), Gibbs (1993), Lakoff and Turner (1989), Turner (1991), Reddy (1993[1979]).
8. ▸ Our everyday behavior reflects our metaphorical understanding of experience (Reddy, 1993). ▸ Modern views challenge traditional division between literal and figurative language, with metaphor as a kind of figurative language (i.e. what is literal is not metaphorical). ▸ Traditional false assumptions: ▸ All everyday conventional language is literal. ▸ All subject matter can be comprehended literally. ▸ Only literal language can be true or false. ▸ All definitions given in the lexicon of a language are literal. ▸ The concepts used in the grammar of a language are all literal. 8
9. ▸ We can’t turn back now. ▸ We’re at a crossroads. ▸ The marriage is on the rocks. ▸ We may have to go our separate ways. MAROON TEXTS are mnemonic names for metaphorical mappings (sets of correspondences). Example: LOVE IS A JOURNEY ▸ Our relationship has hit a dead-end street. ▸ Look how far we’ve come. ▸ It’s been a long, bumpy road. ▸ The relationship isn’t going anywhere. ▸ Our relationship is off the track. 9 LOVE IS A JOURNEY
10. 10 LOVE IS A JOURNEY Mappings Traveler Vehicle Destination Lover #1 Lover #2 Common Goal loves pursues pursues travels to is in Love Conceptual Domain (Target) Journey Conceptual Domain (Source) Relationship METAPHOR mapping
11. Conduit Metaphor ▸ IDEAS (or MEANINGS) are OBJECTS. ▸ LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS are CONTAINERS. ▸ COMMUNICATION is SENDING. 11
12. Two Commonplace Questions ▸ Is there a general principle governing how linguistic expressions about journey are used to characterize love? Yes! ▸ Is there a general principle governing how our patterns of inference about journey are used to reason about love? Yes! ▸ There is a general principle that is neither part of the grammar, nor lexicon. Rather, it is a part of the conceptual system underlaying language. ▸ LOVE IS JOURNEY metaphor is used to systemically understand the domain of love in terms of the domain of journeys. 12
13. Novel Metaphors ▸ Mechanism to interpret novel metaphors: 1. Extensions of conventional metaphors 2. Image metaphors 3. Generic-level metaphors 13 “In the middle of life’s road I found myself in a dark wood.” - Dante, Divine Comedy LIFE IS A JOURNEY KNOWING IS SEEING My wife … whose waist is an hourglass.
14. 3. Generic-level metaphors ▸ Personification ▸ Proverbs ▸ The Glucksberg-Keysar Claim: Metaphor is simple a matter of categorization (“metaphoric attributive category”). 14
15. Mappings ▸ Superordinate level: Mappings are at the superordinate rather than
 basic level (e.g. VEHICLE, not CAR or BOAT categories). ▸ Inheritance hierarchies: ▸ Mappings are not isolated. They are sometimes organized in hierarchical structure. ▸ Simultaneous mappings: Two different parts of a sentence make use of two distinct metaphorical mappings at once. ▸ Mappings are not arbitrary, but grounded in the body and in everyday experience and knowledge. ▸ Two types of mappings: Conceptual and Image mappings. 15 Level 1: Event Structure Level 2: A PURPOSEFUL LIFE IS JOURNEY Level 3: LOVE IS A JOURNEY; CARRIER IS JOURNEY
16. Basic Semantic Concepts ▸ Categories ▸ Quantity and linear scales ▸ Time ▸ Event structure ▸ Notions like states, changes, processes, actions, causes, purposes, and means in terms of space, motion, and force. 16
17. The Invariance Principle ▸ The image-schema structure of the source domain is projected onto the target domain in a way that is consistent with inherent target domain structure. 17
18. Realizations of Metaphor ▸ Thermometer and stock market graphs are created by humans to accord with the MORE IS UP metaphor. ▸ Metaphors impose a structure o real life through creation of new correspondences in experience. 18
19. Experiential basis motivates metaphor, they do not predict them. Experimental Basis ▸ Cartoons (ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A CONTAINER): One can be boiling mad or letting off steam. ▸ Literary works (PURPOSEFUL LIFE IS A JOURNEY) ▸ Rituals (STATUS IS UP) ▸ Dream interpretation (TIMES ARE MOVING ENTITIES, ACHIEVING A PURPOSE IS EATING, A PART STANDS FOR THE WHOLE, RESOURCES ARE FOOD) ▸ Myths (EXTERNAL EVENTS ARE LARGE MOVING OBJECTS) ▸ Physical symptoms (DIFFICULTIES ARE IMPEDIMENTS TO MOTION, DIFFICULTIES ARE BURDENS): ▸ Social institutions (TIME IS MONEY) ▸ Social practice (SEEING IS TOUCHING) ▸ Laws (COOPERATIONS ARE PERSONS): Cooperations can be harmed or assigned responsibility. ▸ Foreign policy (A STATE IS A PERSON) ▸ Forms of discourse (THOUGH IS MOTION, ARGUMENT IS WAR) 19
20. Literal meaning commitments ▸ Assumptions about literal meaning are “false” only relative to the kinds of evidences that support the contemporary theory. ▸ Philosophy of Language: ▸ Since it is typically not seen as an empirical discipline, there is not need to abide by generalization and cognitive commitments. ▸ Assumptions: The correspondence theory of truth, definition of meaning in terms of reference and truth, and characterization of NL meaning by the mechanism of mathematical logic. ▸ Metaphorical utterances are either trivially true or trivially false (Johnson, 1981). ▸ Metaphor is in realm of pragmatics, and metaphorical meaning is no more than literal meaning of some other sentences (Grice, 1989; Searle 1993). 20
21. Literal meaning commitments ▸ Continental Philosophers: ▸ Nietzsche held that all language is metaphorical (Johnson, 1981). ▸ Conceptual systems change through time. There are purely historically contingent. There are no conceptual universals. ▸ Distinction between the study of the physical world (scientific) and the study of human beings. ▸ Symbolic AI: ▸ Thought is a matter of algorithmic symbol manipulation. (contemporary theory, however, has an image-schematic basis and requires simultaneous activations where there are multiple overlapping metaphors in a single sentence). 21
22. Summary — The Nature of Metaphor ▸ Metaphor is the main mechanism through which we comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract reasoning. ▸ Much subject matter, from the most mundane to the most abstruse scientific theories, can only be comprehended via metaphor. Metaphor is fundamentally conceptual, not linguistic, in nature. ▸ Metaphorical language is a surface manifestation of conceptual metaphor. ▸ Though much of our conceptual system is metaphorical, a significant part of it is non-metaphorical. Metaphorical understanding is grounded in non-metaphorical understanding. ▸ Metaphor allows us to understand a relatively abstract or inherently 
 unstructured subject matter in terms of a more concrete, or at least more highly structured subject matter. 22
23. Summary — The Structure of Metaphor ▸ Metaphors are mappings across conceptual domains. ▸ Such mappings are asymmetric and partial. ▸ Each mapping is a fixed set of ontological correspondences between entities in a source domain and entities in a target domain. ▸ When those fixed correspondences are activated, mappings can project source domain inference patterns onto target domain inference patterns. ▸ Metaphorical mappings obey the Invariance Principle: The image-schema structure of the source domain is projected onto the target domain in a way that is consistent with inherent target domain structure. ▸ Mappings are not arbitrary, but grounded in the body and in everyday experience and knowledge. ▸ A conceptual system contains thousands of conventional metaphorical mappings which form a highly structured subsystem of the conceptual system. ▸ There are two types of mappings: conceptual mappings and image mappings; both obey the Invariance Principle. 23
24. Summary — Some Aspects of Metaphor ▸ The system of conventional conceptual metaphor is mostly unconscious, automatic, and used with no noticeable effort, just like our linguistic system and the rest of our conceptual system. ▸ Our system of conventional metaphor is alive; namely, it is constantly in use, automatically, and below the level of consciousness. ▸ Our metaphor system is central to our understanding of experience and to the way we act on that understanding. 24
25. Summary — Some Aspects of Metaphor ▸ Conventional mappings are static correspondences, and are not algorithmic in nature. ▸ Metaphor is mostly based on correspondences in our experiences, rather than on similarity. ▸ The metaphor system plays a major role in both the grammar and lexicon of a language. ▸ Metaphorical mappings vary in universality; some seem to be universal, others are widespread, and some seem to be culture specific. ▸ Poetic metaphor is, for the most part, an extension of our conventional system of metaphorical thought. 25
26. Thank you :-)