Cover not available
Part of
Beyond Meaning
Edited by Elly Ifantidou, Louis de Saussure and Tim Wharton
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 324] 2021
► pp. 79–98

Conceptual mappings and contextual assumptions

The case of poetic metaphor

| University of Neuchatel
This chapter is concerned with what has traditionally been considered as ‘beyond meaning’: poetic metaphor. It specifically focuses on poetic metaphors of time, with the aim to address anew the relationship between pragmatic and cognitive linguistic approaches to metaphor (cf. Tendahl and Gibbs 2008; Wilson 2011). Such metaphors are shown to convey primarily an affective meaning, which can be best explained in terms of affective valence. At the level of metaphor comprehension, I argue for a synergy between metaphor theories but with appropriate adjustments in each framework: an extended view of encyclopedic entries for relevance theory, and a context-sensitive process of pragmatic inferencing for conceptual metaphor theory.
Keywords: poetic metaphor, time, affect, conceptual mappings, poetic effects
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Poetic metaphor: Cognitive linguistics vs Relevance theory
    • 2.1Cognitive linguistics: From time conceptualization to metaphorical creativity
    • 2.2Relevance theory: Pragmatic adjustment and poetic effects
  • 3.Poetic metaphors of time and affective meaning(s)
  • 4.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.324.c5
References (33)
References
Carston, Robyn. 2018. “Figurative Language, Mental Imagery and Pragmatics.” Metaphor and Symbol 33 (3): 198‒217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “Metaphor: Ad hoc Concepts, Literal Meaning and Mental Images.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 110: 295‒321. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2002. Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carston, Robyn, and Catherine Wearing. 2011. “Metaphor, Hyperbole and Simile: A Pragmatic Approach.” Language and Cognition 3 (2): 283‒312. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. 1973. “Space, Time, Semantics, and the Child.” In Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language, ed. by Timothy E. Moore, 28‒63. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Elizabeth L. 2009. “Conceptual Metaphors of Affect.” Emotion Review 1 (2): 129‒139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Draaisma, Douwe. 2004. Why Life Speeds Up as You Get Older: How Memory Shapes Our Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner. 2002. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and The Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
. 2008. “Rethinking Metaphor.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought, ed. by Ray Gibbs, 53‒66. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. From Space to Time: Temporal Adverbials in the World’s Languages. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Keeley, Edmund, and Philip Sherrard. 1992. C. P. Cavafy: Collected Poems. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1993. “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor.” In Metaphor and Thought, 2nd ed., ed. by Andrew Ortony, 202‒251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George, and Mark Turner. 1989. More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levin, Samuel R. 1976. “Concerning What Kind of Speech Act a Poem Is.” In Pragmatics of Language and Literature, ed. by Teun A. van Dijk, 141‒160. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing.Google Scholar
. 1988. Metaphoric Worlds. Conceptions of a Romantic Nature. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Needham-Didsbury, Isabelle. 2016. “Interpreting Metaphor: Perspectives from Pragmatics and Psychotherapy.” PhD diss.,UCL.Google Scholar
Núñez, Rafael, and Eve Sweetser. 2006. “With the Future behind Them: Convergent Evidence from Aymara Language and Gesture in the Cross-Linguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time.” Cognitive Science 30: 401‒450. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pilkington, Adrian. 2000. Poetic Effects: A Relevance Theory Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Radden, Günter. 2006. “The Metaphor Time as Space Across Languages.” In Metonymy Metaphor Collage, ed. by Elżbieta Górska, and Günter Radden, 99‒120. Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.Google Scholar
. 2011. “Spatial Time in the West and the East.” In Space and Time in Language, ed. by Mario Brdar, Marija Omazic, Višnja P. Takac, Tanja Gradecak-Erdeljic, and Gabrijela Buljan, 1‒40. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Scherer, Klaus R. 2005. “What Are Emotions? And How Can They Be Measured?” Social Science Information 44 (4): 695‒729. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
. 2002. “Pragmatics, Modularity and Mindreading.” Mind and Language 17: 3‒23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
.2008. “A Deflationary Account of Metaphors.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought, ed. by Ray Gibbs, 84‒105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015. “Beyond Speaker’s Meaning.” Croatian Journal of Philosophy 15 (2): 117‒149.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Karen. 2007. “Grammar in Metaphor: A Construction Grammar Account of Metaphoric Language.” PhD diss., UC Berkeley.Google Scholar
Tendahl, Markus. 2009. A Hybrid Theory of Metaphor: Relevance Theory and Cognitive Linguistics. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tendahl, Markus, and Ray Gibbs. 2008. “Complementary Perspectives on Metaphor: Cognitive Linguistics and Relevance Theory.” Journal of Pragmatics 40: 1823‒1864. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 1978. “On the Expression of Spatio-Temporal Relations in Language.” In Universals of Human Language, vol. 3, ed. by Joseph H. Greenberg, 369‒400. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre. 2011. “Parallels and Differences in the Treatment of Metaphor in Relevance Theory and Cognitive Linguistics.” Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis 128: 195‒213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre, and Robyn Carston. 2019. “Pragmatics and the Challenge of ‘Non-propositional’ Effects.” Journal of Pragmatics 145: 31‒8. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Ifantidou, Elly & Anna Piata
2021. Metaphor and mental shortcuts. Pragmatics & Cognition 28:2 ► pp. 299 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.