Metaphors Dead and Alive, Sleeping and Waking

by Muller, Cornelia

• ISBN13: 9780226548258
• ISBN10: 0226548252
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Traditional thinking on metaphors has divided them into two camps: dead and alive. Conventional expressions from everyday language are classified as dead, while much rarer novel or poetic metaphors are alive. In the 1980s, new theories on the cognitive processes involved with the use of metaphor challenged these assumptions, but with little empirical support. Drawing on the latest research in linguistics, semiotics, philosophy, and psychology, Cornelia Muller here unveils a new approach that refutes the rigid dead/alive dichotomy, offering in its place a more dynamic model: sleeping and waking. To build this model, Muller presents an overview of notions of metaphor from the classical period to the present; studies in detail how metaphors function in speech, text, gesture, and images; and examines the way mixed metaphors sometimes make sense and sometimes do not. This analysis leads her to conclude that metaphors may oscillate between various degrees of sleeping and waking as their status changes depending on context and intention. Bridging the gap between conceptual metaphor theory and more traditional linguistic theories, this book is a major advance for the field and will be vital to novices and initiates alike.

Author Biography

Cornelia Müller is professor of applied linguistics at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). She is coeditor of several books and the author of Co-verbal Gestures: Cultural History—Theory—Cross-linguistic Comparison.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Typographical Conventions for Transcripts	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Dead and Live Metaphors: Two Examples	p. 2
Consequences: Sleeping and Waking Metaphors	p. 8
Bridging Gaps: Realms of Metaphors in Language Use	p. 12
Objective, Scope, and Structure of the Book	p. 18
Metaphors and Cognitive Activity: A Dynamic View	p. 22
Metaphors Are Based on a Cognitive Activity	p. 23
Metaphors Are Based on a Triadic Structure	p. 26
Metaphors Are Modality-Independent	p. 32
Metaphors Are a Matter of Use	p. 36
Summary: The Dynamic View	p. 39
Metaphors in Thought and Language: Fundamental Issues	p. 40
Metaphor, Reason, and Understanding? Epistemological Discrepancies	p. 41
The Nature of Metaphor: Cognitive or Linguistic?	p. 52
Conclusion: Establishment and Creation of Metaphoricity Is a Cognitive Process with Multimodal Products	p. 58
Realms of Metaphors: Activation in Language Use	p. 62
Conceptual Metaphors	p. 63
An Example: Lakoff and Kovecses's Conceptual System of Anger	p. 63
Primary and Complex Conceptual Metaphors	p. 71
How Are Conceptual Metaphor Systems Activated during Speaking?	p. 76
Verbal Metaphors	p. 81
Weinrich's Image Fields (Bildfelder), and Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphors	p. 81
Activation of Verbal Metaphors	p. 86
How Are Verbal Metaphors Activated during Speaking?	p. 89
Verbo-gestural Metaphors	p. 95
Gestural Metaphors and How They May Relate to Language	p. 96
How Are Verbo-gestural Metaphors Activated during Speaking?	p. 99
Verbo-pictorial Metaphors	p. 103
Pictorial Metaphors and How They May Relate to Language	p. 103
How Are Verbo-pictorial Metaphors Activated during Writing?	p. 109
Conclusion: Dead Metaphors Are Alive during Speaking and in Writing	p. 111
The Core of Metaphors: The Establishment of a Triadic Structure	p. 114
Duality of Meaning	p. 115
Triadic Structures in Historical Accounts: Constants and Variants	p. 116
Conclusion: Activated Metaphors Establish a Triadic Structure	p. 132
Mixed Metaphors: Selective Activation of Meaning	p. 134
What Are Mixed Metaphors? How Linguistic and Conceptual Metaphor Theory Set the Stage	p. 135
The "Butter-Mountain" Example from a Conceptual Metaphor Theory Point of View	p. 143
Discussion	p. 145
Why Mixed Metaphors Don't Make Sense! "Thinking Flaws" and Semantic Inconsistency	p. 147
The Rope Example	p. 148
The Put-on-the-Last Example	p. 154
The Molting River Example	p. 157
Why Mixed Metaphors Make Sense! Blending and Salience	p. 160
Metaphor, Blending, and Conceptual Integration: The Butcher Example	p. 161
Conclusion: Dead Metaphors Are Available for Conceptual Integration	p. 175
Sleeping and Waking Metaphors: Degrees of Metaphoricity	p. 178
The Dead versus Alive Distinction: A Critical Evaluation	p. 178
The Dead and Alive Assumption: A New Proposal	p. 188
Degrees of Metaphoricity and Salience	p. 201
Verbal Level Only	p. 202
Verbo-pictorial Metaphors	p. 203
Verbo-gestural Metaphors	p. 204
Conclusion: Dead Metaphors Vary in Activation and Salience	p. 208
The Refutation of the Dead versus Alive Distinction: A New Approach and Some of Its Implications	p. 210
Lieb's Sources	p. 223
Appendix	p. 227
Notes	p. 229
References	p. 243
Name Index	p. 263
Subject Index	p. 267
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