14. Wot no similes?
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Graham Low
Abstract
Simile is known to be frequent in prose literature (Sayce, 1954; Goatly, 1997) and Carter (2004) found many examples in conversation. Given the long-traditional use of analogy by educationalists and the explicitness of similes, facilitating access to the concepts involved, we might expect to find frequent simile-type comparisons spread through educational discourse of all sorts, especially in the genres that are less formal in style than, say, research reports in academic journals. However, such appears not to be the case, to judge from previous studies of written text (Low, 1997; 2008). The present paper focuses on simile in spoken university lectures and builds on a study of metaphor in three lectures (Low, Littlemore & Koester, 2008), by adding a fourth, to give two conversational-style lectures and two more formal or rhetorical-style ones. The findings are that there are almost no similes at all in the data and where they do occur, it is only in the more conversational-style lectures. They rarely if ever form part of long rhetorical sequences, where the writer or speaker is offering an extended explanation. Rather they are one-off items serving immediate and short-term rhetorical purposes, what Conversation Analysts call ‘local control’, often associated with control of saliency and foregrounding at discourse level.
Abstract
Simile is known to be frequent in prose literature (Sayce, 1954; Goatly, 1997) and Carter (2004) found many examples in conversation. Given the long-traditional use of analogy by educationalists and the explicitness of similes, facilitating access to the concepts involved, we might expect to find frequent simile-type comparisons spread through educational discourse of all sorts, especially in the genres that are less formal in style than, say, research reports in academic journals. However, such appears not to be the case, to judge from previous studies of written text (Low, 1997; 2008). The present paper focuses on simile in spoken university lectures and builds on a study of metaphor in three lectures (Low, Littlemore & Koester, 2008), by adding a fourth, to give two conversational-style lectures and two more formal or rhetorical-style ones. The findings are that there are almost no similes at all in the data and where they do occur, it is only in the more conversational-style lectures. They rarely if ever form part of long rhetorical sequences, where the writer or speaker is offering an extended explanation. Rather they are one-off items serving immediate and short-term rhetorical purposes, what Conversation Analysts call ‘local control’, often associated with control of saliency and foregrounding at discourse level.
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
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
