Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 744ReferenceColmerauer, A. 1978. Metamorphosis grammar. In L. Bolc (ed.), Natural language communicationwith computers. Berlin. 133–88.metaphor [Grk metaphorá ‘transference’]Term taken from ancient rhetoric for a ‘figure of speech.’ Metaphors are linguisticimages that are based on a relationship of similarity between two objects or concepts; thatis, based on the same or similar semantic features, a denotational transfer occurs, e.g.The clouds are crying for It’s raining. Metaphor is also frequently described as ashortened comparison, in which the comparison is nonetheless not explicitly expressed.Metaphors may appear in the context of a sentence as nouns, verbs, or adjectives, e.g.bull’s eye for center of the target, sharp criticism for strong criticism, to peel one’s eyesfor to watch out for something. In contrast to idioms, the literal reading of a metaphor (ina ‘positive’ context) results in a contradiction. More recent approaches view metaphorsnot as a purely semantic phenomenon, but rather see them in connection with their use orestablish them at the cognitive, conceptual level. Seen historically, metaphors are asource of new lexical formations in which the ‘transferred’ meaning is either added to theoriginal meaning (e.g. pansy ‘flower’ or ‘effeminate male’) or displaces the old meaningpartially or completely (e.g. keen, which originally meant ‘bold, powerful’; blankoriginally ‘white’; crop originally ‘cluster, bunch, ear [of corn]’). In many cases,originally metaphoric denotations are no longer perceived as such (e.g. miscarriage).ReferencesAarts, J.M. and J.P.Calbert. 1979. Metaphor and non-metaphor. Tübingen.Ankersmit, F.R. and J.J.A.Mooij (eds) 1992. Knowledge and language, vol. 3: Metaphor andknowledge. Dordrecht.Christopher, M. 1983. A new model for metaphor. Dialectica 37. 285–301.Cooper, D.E. 1986. Metaphor. Oxford.Derek, B. 1969. Prolegomena to a linguistic theory of metaphor. FL 5. 34–52.Kittay, E. 1987. Metaphor: its cognitive force and linguistic structure. Oxford.Kittay, E. and A.Lehrer. 1981. Semantic fields and the structure of metaphor. SLang 5. 31–63.Lakoff, G. 1985. Metaphor, folk theories, and the possibilities of dialogue. In M.Dascal and H.Cuyckens (eds), Dialogue: an interdisciplinary approach. Amsterdam. 57–72.——1987. Image metaphors. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 2. 219–22.Lakoff, G. and M.Johnson. 1981. Metaphors we live by. Chicago.Lakoff, G. and M.Turner. 1989. More than cool reason: a field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago,IL.Martinich, A.P. 1984. A theory for metaphor. Journal of Literary Semantics 8. 35–56.Miall, D. 1982. Metaphor: problems and perspectives. Brighton.Mooij, J.J. 1976. A study of metaphor. Dordrecht.