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Zoltán Kövecses: IDIOMS, METAPHORS, AND MOTIVATION IN FOREIGN ...
questions, corresponding to these four ways: (1) How and to what degree are idioms
motivated in one language? (2) How and to what degree are idioms motivated
in relation to two languages? (3) How do different languages express idiomatic
meanings? (4) How and to what degree do the cultural-ideological bacgrounds underlying
particular languages play a role in the expression of idiomatic meanings?
The paper attempts to answer these four questions, with an eye on the relevance
of the answers to the teaching of idioms in a foreign language.
I will be concerned with idioms in English that can be claimed to be based
on conceptual metaphors. I call such idioms metaphor-based idioms. My particular
interest is in metaphor-based idioms that are instances of large metaphor and
cultural systems. I feel that this is a relatively unexplored area of research in foreign
language teaching. However, other areas in the study of metaphor are in the
focus of intensive investigation (see, e.g., Boers and Lindstromberg, eds., 2008).
As a first example of this, consider the teaching of idioms by means of the
potential application of ‘dual coding’. (I borrow the example from Frank Boers,
personal communication, September, 2008). The association of a word or expression
with an image is called dual coding. The basic idea is that if we make
students conscious of the metaphorical nature of certain words or expressions, we
can take advantage of dual coding for the purposes of teaching English (Boers
2000). Take, for example, the phrasal verbs such as figure out, point out and find
out. Imagine that you want to teach learners of English why we have the word
out in all of them. It might help students visualize a(n image) schema associated
with out in which something is first inside a container and thus not visible from
the outside but when, subsequently, it moves out of the container, it becomes visible.
In other words, all three expressions rely in part on the conceptual metaphor
knowing is seeing. It is this conceptual metaphor that explains why the word out
occurs in the expressions and it means what it does (i.e., ‘to get to know something’).
This procedure can greatly facilitate the learning of idioms.
Another example of the use of conceptual metaphor theory in teaching
English in general (including stylistics and literature) comes from the study of
poetic language. The innovative use of metaphors (Lakoff and Turner 1989) and,
more surprisingly, grammar may account for what we find beautiful in language.
Poetic language commonly exploits grammar to create esthetically effective and
pleasing lines. As a matter of fact, underlying some of the most beautiful lines in
English poetry we often find innovatively used grammatical devices. In Hamlet,
Horatio says this at the prince’s deathbed:
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Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!