Chapter 9. Why do we understand music as moving?
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Nina Julich-Warpakowski
Abstract
Although musical structure is commonly perceived as moving, its motivation remains a debated issue. Conceptual Metaphor Theory approaches assume that musical motion is motivated by conceptual metaphors like time is motion and change is motion. The current study aims to investigate whether these conceptual metaphors successfully describe musical motion. For the analysis, a corpus of 10,000 words taken from the genre of music criticism (academic musicology journals and newspaper concert reviews of classical music) was compiled and exhaustively analysed with respect to metaphorical expressions. The results suggest that whereas many motion expressions for music seem to be motivated by time is motion as well as change is motion, a number of instances may instead present cases of fictive motion.
Abstract
Although musical structure is commonly perceived as moving, its motivation remains a debated issue. Conceptual Metaphor Theory approaches assume that musical motion is motivated by conceptual metaphors like time is motion and change is motion. The current study aims to investigate whether these conceptual metaphors successfully describe musical motion. For the analysis, a corpus of 10,000 words taken from the genre of music criticism (academic musicology journals and newspaper concert reviews of classical music) was compiled and exhaustively analysed with respect to metaphorical expressions. The results suggest that whereas many motion expressions for music seem to be motivated by time is motion as well as change is motion, a number of instances may instead present cases of fictive motion.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Perception metaphors 1
- Chapter 2. Words of sense 17
- Chapter 3. Perception metaphors in cognitive linguistics 43
- Chapter 4. Perception metaphor in English 65
- Chapter 5. Metaphors and perception in the lexicon 85
- Chapter 6. Synaesthetic metaphors are neither synaesthetic nor metaphorical 105
- Chapter 7. Sensory experiences, meaning and metaphor 127
- Chapter 8. Taste metaphors in Hieroglyphic Egyptian 145
- Chapter 9. Why do we understand music as moving? 165
- Chapter 10. Approaching perceptual qualities 185
- Chapter 11. Grounding mental metaphors in touch 209
- Chapter 12. Polysemy of the Estonian perception verb nägema ‘to see’ 231
- Chapter 13. Evidential vindication in next turn 253
- Chapter 14. Sensory perception metaphors in sign languages 275
- Chapter 15. Metaphors of perception in Japanese Sign Language 303
- Chapter 16. Perception and metaphor 327
- Chapter 17. Perception verbs in context 347
- List of metaphors 369
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Perception metaphors 1
- Chapter 2. Words of sense 17
- Chapter 3. Perception metaphors in cognitive linguistics 43
- Chapter 4. Perception metaphor in English 65
- Chapter 5. Metaphors and perception in the lexicon 85
- Chapter 6. Synaesthetic metaphors are neither synaesthetic nor metaphorical 105
- Chapter 7. Sensory experiences, meaning and metaphor 127
- Chapter 8. Taste metaphors in Hieroglyphic Egyptian 145
- Chapter 9. Why do we understand music as moving? 165
- Chapter 10. Approaching perceptual qualities 185
- Chapter 11. Grounding mental metaphors in touch 209
- Chapter 12. Polysemy of the Estonian perception verb nägema ‘to see’ 231
- Chapter 13. Evidential vindication in next turn 253
- Chapter 14. Sensory perception metaphors in sign languages 275
- Chapter 15. Metaphors of perception in Japanese Sign Language 303
- Chapter 16. Perception and metaphor 327
- Chapter 17. Perception verbs in context 347
- List of metaphors 369
- Index 373
