Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Metaphorical interplay of words and gestures in the Catholic liturgy

Abstract

This chapter analyzes selected Catholic liturgical rituals as motivated by verbal and gestural metaphors. Lakoff and Johnson (2003/1980) claim that the conceptual systems of religions are of metaphorical nature. The Catholic liturgy contains a number of gestures and movements used in worship, for instance, kneeling, bowing, raising hands, standing up, joining hands together, prostrating, beating oneself in the chest, or washing the hands. These gestures are often accompanied by specific spoken formulas, which express humiliation before God, regret for one’s sins, submission to God, readiness to listen to God’s word, or response to His will. The aim of this Chapter is to show that in line with the claim that metaphor is a multimodal phenomenon (Forceville, 2009), it is possible to interpret the interplay of words and certain liturgical gestures as metaphorical.

Abstract

This chapter analyzes selected Catholic liturgical rituals as motivated by verbal and gestural metaphors. Lakoff and Johnson (2003/1980) claim that the conceptual systems of religions are of metaphorical nature. The Catholic liturgy contains a number of gestures and movements used in worship, for instance, kneeling, bowing, raising hands, standing up, joining hands together, prostrating, beating oneself in the chest, or washing the hands. These gestures are often accompanied by specific spoken formulas, which express humiliation before God, regret for one’s sins, submission to God, readiness to listen to God’s word, or response to His will. The aim of this Chapter is to show that in line with the claim that metaphor is a multimodal phenomenon (Forceville, 2009), it is possible to interpret the interplay of words and certain liturgical gestures as metaphorical.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and acknowledgements vii
  4. Figurativeness all the way down 1
  5. Part I. Figurativeness and theory
  6. Metaphor thoughtfully 13
  7. Separating (non-)figurative weeds from wheat 45
  8. A multi-level view of metaphor and some of its advantages 71
  9. Part II. Figurativeness and constructions
  10. Intensification via figurative language 91
  11. Falling to one’s death in multiple landscapes 107
  12. Metaphorical adjective-noun phrases in German journalese 129
  13. Metonymy meets coercion 151
  14. Part III. Figurativeness, pragmaticity and multimodality
  15. Sources of pragmatic effects in irony and hyperbole 187
  16. Metaphorical interplay of words and gestures in the Catholic liturgy 209
  17. Part IV. Typology of figures and cognitive models
  18. Figures of speech revisited 225
  19. Cutting and breaking metaphors of the self and the Motivation & Sedimentation Model 253
  20. The metonymic exploitation of descriptive, attitudinal, and regulatory scenarios in meaning making 283
  21. Index 309
Figurative Meaning Construction in Thought and Language
This chapter is in the book Figurative Meaning Construction in Thought and Language
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.9.09kuc

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and acknowledgements vii
  4. Figurativeness all the way down 1
  5. Part I. Figurativeness and theory
  6. Metaphor thoughtfully 13
  7. Separating (non-)figurative weeds from wheat 45
  8. A multi-level view of metaphor and some of its advantages 71
  9. Part II. Figurativeness and constructions
  10. Intensification via figurative language 91
  11. Falling to one’s death in multiple landscapes 107
  12. Metaphorical adjective-noun phrases in German journalese 129
  13. Metonymy meets coercion 151
  14. Part III. Figurativeness, pragmaticity and multimodality
  15. Sources of pragmatic effects in irony and hyperbole 187
  16. Metaphorical interplay of words and gestures in the Catholic liturgy 209
  17. Part IV. Typology of figures and cognitive models
  18. Figures of speech revisited 225
  19. Cutting and breaking metaphors of the self and the Motivation & Sedimentation Model 253
  20. The metonymic exploitation of descriptive, attitudinal, and regulatory scenarios in meaning making 283
  21. Index 309
Downloaded on 16.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ftl.9.09kuc/html
Scroll to top button