Примењена лингвистика у част Ранку Бугарском - Језик у

Zoltán Kövecses
IDIOMS, METAPHORS, AND MOTIVATION
IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
UDK 81`37
Abstract. In this paper, I make four suggestions: (1) The existence of many idioms
and their meaning in particular languages derives from the presence of certain
conceptual metaphors and that of systematic mappings in the mind of the speakers
of these languages. (2) The existence of the same conceptual metaphor and their
(metaphor-based) idiomatic expressions (together with their meanings) derive
from some (near-)universal conceptual metaphors and the systematic mappings
constituting them. (3) However, the linguistic expression of the same conceptual
metaphor may vary from language to language. Speakers of different languages
seem to have different patterns in expressing the conceptual metaphors. (4) The
expression of the same conceptual metaphor may differ not only in the types of
patterns speakers of different languages tend to make use of but also in the cultural-ideological
backgrounds underlying the languages.
If the suggestions for greater systematicity described in this paper are found
valid and potentially useful by the applied linguistic community, we could begin
to design new, large-scale projects between two or more languages that would
map the most frequent and important idioms (and metaphorically used words) in
the ways suggested briefly in this paper. The large-scale systematic motivation
for such metaphor-based language may lead to more effective ways of teaching
idioms in a foreign language teaching context than what is available today.
Keywords: idioms, conceptual metaphors, mapping, systematicity, motivation,
foreign language teaching.
It is a commonplace in language pedagogy that one of the most difficult areas of
foreign language teaching is idioms. The problem with idioms is that, according
to the traditional view, most idioms are nontransparent or, in the terminology of
cognitive linguistics, unmotivated, and this lack of transparency, or motivation,
makes their teaching/learning difficult. However, the machinery of cognitive linguistics
allows us to provide motivation for most idioms. As a result, motivation
may facilitate the teaching/learning of idioms in foreign languages.
I will look at four ways in which idioms may be seen as motivated, at least
in a general and loose sense of motivation. My discussion will center around four
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