John Benjamins Publishing Company
The metaphorical basis of discourse structure
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Abstract
The present chapter provides an alternative approach to discourse analysis based on the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 1999; Johnson 1987; Lakoff 1993, inter alia). Unlike other studies on text structure, this paper argues that our metaphorical conceptualization of discourse as a form of motion through space and time is one of the basic structuring devices that shape the internal architecture of a text. To explore how this conceptualization of discourse affects the organizational patterns of texts and how it manifests in linguistic terms, a collection of journal abstracts from the field of biology is analyzed qualitatively. Our results seem to indicate that the configuration of this type of text is stable and tends to reproduce the topological structure of the metaphor discourse is a form of motion along a path influenced by force dynamics.
Abstract
The present chapter provides an alternative approach to discourse analysis based on the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 1999; Johnson 1987; Lakoff 1993, inter alia). Unlike other studies on text structure, this paper argues that our metaphorical conceptualization of discourse as a form of motion through space and time is one of the basic structuring devices that shape the internal architecture of a text. To explore how this conceptualization of discourse affects the organizational patterns of texts and how it manifests in linguistic terms, a collection of journal abstracts from the field of biology is analyzed qualitatively. Our results seem to indicate that the configuration of this type of text is stable and tends to reproduce the topological structure of the metaphor discourse is a form of motion along a path influenced by force dynamics.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction ix
- Collocations, lexical bundles and SciE-Lex 1
- SciE-Lex 21
- Formal and functional variation of lexical bundles in biomedical English 39
- A corpus-based analysis of the collocational patterning of adjectives with abstract nouns in medical English 55
- As described below 73
- Negation in biomedical English 105
- A cross-disciplinary analysis of personal and impersonal features in English and Spanish scientific writing 121
- Gender assignment in present-day scientific English 145
- The metaphorical basis of discourse structure 165
- Frames, constructions, and metaphors in Spanish FrameNet 185
- Subject index 211
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction ix
- Collocations, lexical bundles and SciE-Lex 1
- SciE-Lex 21
- Formal and functional variation of lexical bundles in biomedical English 39
- A corpus-based analysis of the collocational patterning of adjectives with abstract nouns in medical English 55
- As described below 73
- Negation in biomedical English 105
- A cross-disciplinary analysis of personal and impersonal features in English and Spanish scientific writing 121
- Gender assignment in present-day scientific English 145
- The metaphorical basis of discourse structure 165
- Frames, constructions, and metaphors in Spanish FrameNet 185
- Subject index 211
