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Poetic Comparisons How Similes Are Understood

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POETIC COMPARISONS HOW SIMILES ARE UNDERSTOOD Adam Gargani School of Arts and Media University of Salford, Salford, UK Submitted with corrections in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, June 2014 CONTENTS Tables and Figures ............................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. v Abstract .............................................................................................................. vi Terminology and conventions for presentation ................................................... vii Chapter 1: Why simile? ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 Where to start investigating simile understanding? ............................................ 2 1.2 Should metaphor and simile be investigated side by side?................................ 5 1.3 Relevance theory and figurative language research: why so little attention to simile?.................................................................................................................... 14 1.4 The choice and presentation of data ................................................................ 18 1.5 The structure of the thesis ............................................................................... 21 Chapter 2: Relevance, communication and style ...................................................... 24 2.1 Communication and context ............................................................................ 24 2.2 Towards an inferential model of communication: communicative intentions .... 30 2.3 The problem of context selection ..................................................................... 31 2.4 Relevance and ostension ................................................................................. 44 2.5 The cognitive principle of relevance ................................................................. 47 2.6 The communicative principle of relevance ....................................................... 51 2.7 The relevance-theoretic comprehension procedure ......................................... 54 2.8 The role of inference in communication: explicit and implicit content ............... 57 2.9 Pragmatic interpretation of lexical content: ad hoc concepts ........................... 67 2.10 Non-propositional effects ............................................................................... 80 2.11 Relevance theory and style ............................................................................ 89 2.12 Metaphor: lexical pragmatics and style .......................................................... 95 2.13 Intentional communication and literary utterances ......................................... 98 2.14 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 107 Chapter 3: How relevant is metaphor in an account of simile understanding? ........ 109 3.1 Emergent property metaphors ....................................................................... 113 i 3.2 Is figurative language relevant to the study of meaning? ............................... 120 3.3 Metaphor and simile as indexical items: the operator mthat .......................... 124 3.4 Metaphor as elliptical simile ........................................................................... 134 3.5 Metaphor as implicated simile ........................................................................ 137 3.6 Conceptual structure-mapping and metaphor understanding ........................ 145 3.7 Conceptual metaphor theory .......................................................................... 152 3.8 Conceptual metaphor, hybrid theories and emergent properties ................... 163 3.9 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 169 Chapter 4: Evaluating claims on the metaphor/simile relationship .......................... 170 4.1 Both metaphors and similes are universal. .................................................... 179 4.2 Metaphors and similes are intersubstitutable in terms of (i) content and/or (ii) effects. ................................................................................................................. 185 4.3 Similes are hedged metaphors. ..................................................................... 189 4.4 Similes (typically, or elliptically) come with explanations. ............................... 194 4.5 Similes tend towards extension ..................................................................... 200 4.6 Similes are miniature narratives. .................................................................... 208 4.7 Metaphor is better than simile. ....................................................................... 211 4.8 Similes succeed and fail for different reasons to metaphor. ........................... 215 4.9 Similes can be easily distinguished from literal comparisons. ........................ 218 4.10 Desiderata in a theory of simile understanding ............................................ 223 Chapter 5: How similes are understood .................................................................. 224 5.1 When is a comparison a simile? .................................................................... 227 5.2 Simile and comparison diagnostics ................................................................ 245 5.2.1 The non-reversibility of similes ............................................................... 247 5.2.2 Conceptual tension between tenor and vehicle in similes ...................... 251 5.2.3 Concrete-to-abstract conceptual mapping in similes .............................. 255 5.2.4 Familiar-to-unfamiliar conceptual mapping in similes ............................. 258 5.2.5 Difficult similes........................................................................................ 262 5.3 How qualified similes affect interpretation ...................................................... 266 5.4 Additional conceptual content as a means of broadening context ................. 272 5.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 286 Chapter 6: Implications: the scope and utility of poetic comparisons ...................... 287 ii 6.1 Simile-related phenomena ............................................................................. 291 6.2 Are there any emergent property similes? ..................................................... 295 6.3 How are cases of extended metaphor and metaphor-simile interaction understood? ......................................................................................................... 298 6.4 Simile failure .................................................................................................. 321 6.5 Narrative intrusion .......................................................................................... 321 Conclusion............................................................................................................... 326 Rights-holders of published literary works and songs ............................................. 329 References .............................................................................................................. 331 Index ....................................................................................................................... 352 iii Tables and Figures Table 2.1 Mutual parallel adjustment in interpreting Buster is a lion. (modelled after Sperber and Wilson, 2008/2012: 113, Table 5.2) ...................................................................................................... 97 Table 3.1 Encyclopaedic assumptions of lexically-encoded concepts versus ad hoc concepts in understanding emergent property metaphors (3a-d) ........................................................................ 115 Table 3.2 Examples of linguistic realisations of conceptual metaphors LOVE IS A JOURNEY and ARGUMENT IS WAR (examples from Lakoff and Johnson, 2003: 4, 44f) ................................................................... 153 Table 3.3 Example conceptual analysis for LOVE IS JOURNEY (adapted from Lakoff, 2008: 36f) ............ 154 Table 3.4 Shared aspects of concepts in conceptual metaphors AN ARGUMENT IS A JOURNEY, AN ARGUMENT IS A CONTAINER and AN ARGUMENT IS A BUILDING. Based on Lakoff and Johnson (2003: 98f) .................... 155 Table 3.5 Proposed conceptual metaphors in English compounds. Data from Benczes, 2006. ......... 163 Figure 3.1 Structural alignment of WOLVES and MEN in Men are wolves. (based on Ritchie, 2013: 30 Figure 2.2) ........................................................................................................................................... 147 Figure 3.2 Projecting candidate inferences in understanding Men are wolves. (based on Ritchie, 2013: 31 Figure 2.3)....................................................................................................................................... 147 Figure 3.3 Conceptual integration network for That surgeon is a butcher (adapted from Tendahl, 2009: 133). .......................................................................................................................................... 168 iv Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my fellow
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