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Chapter 7. When languages and cultures meet

Mixed metaphors in the discourse of Spanish speakers of English
  • Fiona MacArthur
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Mixing Metaphor
This chapter is in the book Mixing Metaphor

Abstract

This chapter examines the metaphors used by speakers of English as a second language (L2), showing how these are often the result of the mixing of two linguistic and conceptual systems. The resulting “hybrid” metaphors may be unconventional in English and therefore seen as problems in need of remedy. However, the concept of native speaker norms as a model for metaphor production may be unrealistic as a goal for learners. As this chapter shows, hybrid metaphors are an almost inevitable outcome of language contact, and emerge in the speech and writing of even highly proficient users of English as a L2. I illustrate the type of hybrid metaphors that learners produce, and how communicatively successful they may be in different contexts, suggesting that proposed remedies for infelicitous metaphor use by L2 users of English can most usefully be framed from the perspective of discourse.

Abstract

This chapter examines the metaphors used by speakers of English as a second language (L2), showing how these are often the result of the mixing of two linguistic and conceptual systems. The resulting “hybrid” metaphors may be unconventional in English and therefore seen as problems in need of remedy. However, the concept of native speaker norms as a model for metaphor production may be unrealistic as a goal for learners. As this chapter shows, hybrid metaphors are an almost inevitable outcome of language contact, and emerge in the speech and writing of even highly proficient users of English as a L2. I illustrate the type of hybrid metaphors that learners produce, and how communicatively successful they may be in different contexts, suggesting that proposed remedies for infelicitous metaphor use by L2 users of English can most usefully be framed from the perspective of discourse.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction
  4. Introduction vii
  5. Part I. Is Mixed Metaphor a Problem?
  6. Chapter 1. A view of “mixed metaphor” within a conceptual metaphor theory framework 3
  7. Chapter 2. Mixed metaphors from a discourse dynamics perspective 17
  8. Chapter 3. Why mixed metaphors make sense 31
  9. Chapter 4. Tackling mixed metaphors in discourse 57
  10. Part II. Reasons for Mixing Metaphor
  11. Chapter 5. Mixed metaphor 75
  12. Chapter 6. Mixed metaphor is a question of deliberateness 113
  13. Chapter 7. When languages and cultures meet 133
  14. Chapter 8. The ‘dull roar’ and the ‘burning barbed wire pantyhose’ 155
  15. Part III. Effects of Mixing Metaphor
  16. Chapter 9. We drink with our eyes first 179
  17. Chapter 10. A corpus-based study of ‘mixed metaphor’ as a metalinguistic comment 203
  18. Chapter 11. Mixing in pictorial and multimodal metaphors? 223
  19. Chapter 12. Extended metaphor in the web of discourse 241
  20. Index 267
https://doi.org/10.1075/milcc.6.07mac

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction
  4. Introduction vii
  5. Part I. Is Mixed Metaphor a Problem?
  6. Chapter 1. A view of “mixed metaphor” within a conceptual metaphor theory framework 3
  7. Chapter 2. Mixed metaphors from a discourse dynamics perspective 17
  8. Chapter 3. Why mixed metaphors make sense 31
  9. Chapter 4. Tackling mixed metaphors in discourse 57
  10. Part II. Reasons for Mixing Metaphor
  11. Chapter 5. Mixed metaphor 75
  12. Chapter 6. Mixed metaphor is a question of deliberateness 113
  13. Chapter 7. When languages and cultures meet 133
  14. Chapter 8. The ‘dull roar’ and the ‘burning barbed wire pantyhose’ 155
  15. Part III. Effects of Mixing Metaphor
  16. Chapter 9. We drink with our eyes first 179
  17. Chapter 10. A corpus-based study of ‘mixed metaphor’ as a metalinguistic comment 203
  18. Chapter 11. Mixing in pictorial and multimodal metaphors? 223
  19. Chapter 12. Extended metaphor in the web of discourse 241
  20. Index 267
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