7. Love, metaphor and responsibility
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Heli Tissari
Abstract
Diachronic corpus linguistics can help us trace changes in the usage of metaphors within various stages of one and the same language. This article deals with conceptual metaphors occurring with the verb and noun love in Early Modern and Present-Day English. The aim is to describe the seeming paradox that while frequency counts based on corpus data yield similar metaphors for both periods, reading the data, one cannot help thinking that there are important cultural differences between these periods. A close reading of selected examples suggests that the conceptual metaphors love is a (fluid in a) container and love is a valuable commodity/economic exchange are so general that they can be used for many arguments and purposes which may even conflict with each other. The concept of responsibility is invoked in this article as a means of showing how this works.
Abstract
Diachronic corpus linguistics can help us trace changes in the usage of metaphors within various stages of one and the same language. This article deals with conceptual metaphors occurring with the verb and noun love in Early Modern and Present-Day English. The aim is to describe the seeming paradox that while frequency counts based on corpus data yield similar metaphors for both periods, reading the data, one cannot help thinking that there are important cultural differences between these periods. A close reading of selected examples suggests that the conceptual metaphors love is a (fluid in a) container and love is a valuable commodity/economic exchange are so general that they can be used for many arguments and purposes which may even conflict with each other. The concept of responsibility is invoked in this article as a means of showing how this works.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors’ introduction vii
- 1. The wonderful, chaotic, creative, heroic, challenging world of Researching and Applying Metaphor 1
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1. Metaphor and language learning
- 2. Can people be cold and warm? 21
- 3. Grasping the point 35
- 4. “Drugs, traffic, and many other dirty interests” 63
- 5. The gaps to be filled 81
- 6. A cross-cultural study of metaphoric understanding 105
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2. Capturing and analysing metaphors
- 7. Love, metaphor and responsibility 125
- 8. A critical look at the desktop metaphor 30 years on 145
- 9. Pragglejaz in practice 165
- 10. Mapping principles for conceptual metaphors 185
- 11. Systematicity in metaphor and the use of invariant mappings 209
- 12. Attitude, style and context 245
- 13. A genre approach to imagery in winespeak 265
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3. The function of metaphor in discourse
- 14. Wot no similes? 291
- 15. Metaphor marking and metaphor typological and functional ranges in business periodicals 309
- 16. Critical analysis of creative metaphors in political speeches 321
- 17. Metaphor in physical-and-speech action expressions 333
- 18. The evaluative properties of metaphors 357
- Index of names 375
- Index of terms 381
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors’ introduction vii
- 1. The wonderful, chaotic, creative, heroic, challenging world of Researching and Applying Metaphor 1
-
1. Metaphor and language learning
- 2. Can people be cold and warm? 21
- 3. Grasping the point 35
- 4. “Drugs, traffic, and many other dirty interests” 63
- 5. The gaps to be filled 81
- 6. A cross-cultural study of metaphoric understanding 105
-
2. Capturing and analysing metaphors
- 7. Love, metaphor and responsibility 125
- 8. A critical look at the desktop metaphor 30 years on 145
- 9. Pragglejaz in practice 165
- 10. Mapping principles for conceptual metaphors 185
- 11. Systematicity in metaphor and the use of invariant mappings 209
- 12. Attitude, style and context 245
- 13. A genre approach to imagery in winespeak 265
-
3. The function of metaphor in discourse
- 14. Wot no similes? 291
- 15. Metaphor marking and metaphor typological and functional ranges in business periodicals 309
- 16. Critical analysis of creative metaphors in political speeches 321
- 17. Metaphor in physical-and-speech action expressions 333
- 18. The evaluative properties of metaphors 357
- Index of names 375
- Index of terms 381
