Chapter 3. Why mixed metaphors make sense
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Cornelia Müller
Abstract
This paper explores why speakers and addressees seem to have no problem in making sense of mixed metaphors. We will argue that the mixing of metaphors reveals something about the nature of conventionalized metaphoric meaning that is as interesting for cognitive linguists as speech errors are for psycholinguists. First, it shows that so-called dead metaphors are alive for speakers, second it reveals that people deal creatively with all the meaning facets of metaphoric meaning – including the uncommon ones, and third we will argue that the mixing of metaphors can be explained by assuming a dynamic view on metaphoric meaning making. This view suggests that rather than being static and fixed, metaphoric meaning is the product of a process of cognitively activating selected facets of source and target, or vehicle and tenor. As a consequence the mixing of metaphors is considered a result of a shifting focus of attention, or of dynamically foregrounding facets of meaning that are backgrounded in the common reading.
Abstract
This paper explores why speakers and addressees seem to have no problem in making sense of mixed metaphors. We will argue that the mixing of metaphors reveals something about the nature of conventionalized metaphoric meaning that is as interesting for cognitive linguists as speech errors are for psycholinguists. First, it shows that so-called dead metaphors are alive for speakers, second it reveals that people deal creatively with all the meaning facets of metaphoric meaning – including the uncommon ones, and third we will argue that the mixing of metaphors can be explained by assuming a dynamic view on metaphoric meaning making. This view suggests that rather than being static and fixed, metaphoric meaning is the product of a process of cognitively activating selected facets of source and target, or vehicle and tenor. As a consequence the mixing of metaphors is considered a result of a shifting focus of attention, or of dynamically foregrounding facets of meaning that are backgrounded in the common reading.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Introduction vii
-
Part I. Is Mixed Metaphor a Problem?
- Chapter 1. A view of “mixed metaphor” within a conceptual metaphor theory framework 3
- Chapter 2. Mixed metaphors from a discourse dynamics perspective 17
- Chapter 3. Why mixed metaphors make sense 31
- Chapter 4. Tackling mixed metaphors in discourse 57
-
Part II. Reasons for Mixing Metaphor
- Chapter 5. Mixed metaphor 75
- Chapter 6. Mixed metaphor is a question of deliberateness 113
- Chapter 7. When languages and cultures meet 133
- Chapter 8. The ‘dull roar’ and the ‘burning barbed wire pantyhose’ 155
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Part III. Effects of Mixing Metaphor
- Chapter 9. We drink with our eyes first 179
- Chapter 10. A corpus-based study of ‘mixed metaphor’ as a metalinguistic comment 203
- Chapter 11. Mixing in pictorial and multimodal metaphors? 223
- Chapter 12. Extended metaphor in the web of discourse 241
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Introduction vii
-
Part I. Is Mixed Metaphor a Problem?
- Chapter 1. A view of “mixed metaphor” within a conceptual metaphor theory framework 3
- Chapter 2. Mixed metaphors from a discourse dynamics perspective 17
- Chapter 3. Why mixed metaphors make sense 31
- Chapter 4. Tackling mixed metaphors in discourse 57
-
Part II. Reasons for Mixing Metaphor
- Chapter 5. Mixed metaphor 75
- Chapter 6. Mixed metaphor is a question of deliberateness 113
- Chapter 7. When languages and cultures meet 133
- Chapter 8. The ‘dull roar’ and the ‘burning barbed wire pantyhose’ 155
-
Part III. Effects of Mixing Metaphor
- Chapter 9. We drink with our eyes first 179
- Chapter 10. A corpus-based study of ‘mixed metaphor’ as a metalinguistic comment 203
- Chapter 11. Mixing in pictorial and multimodal metaphors? 223
- Chapter 12. Extended metaphor in the web of discourse 241
- Index 267
