Metaphor-II Metaphor-II Contents: 10.1 Dead Metaphors 10.2 Conceptual
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Metaphor-II Linguistic Stylistics Metaphor-II Figures of Speech Paper Coordinator Prof. Ravinder Gargesh Module ID & Name Lings_P-LS10 Metaphor-II Content Writer Dr. V.P. Sharma Email id [email protected] Phone 9312254857 Contents: 10.1 Dead Metaphors 10.2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory 10.3 Extended Metaphor 10.4 Mixed Metaphor 10.5 Metaphor in Literary and Non-literary discourse 10.1 Dead Metaphors We have noted that a metaphor is characterized by linguistic deviation. This characteristic allows metaphor, particularly poetic metaphors, to create novel and original combinations of ideas, objects and sensations. But as they come into common use, the novelty wears off and there is no perception of semantic deviation. More significantly, they lose their iconicity: in ‘root cause of the problem’ or ‘heated argument’, the original metaphor has lost its figurative ‘charge’; ‘root cause of a problem’ is simply the ‘fundamental reason for the occurrence of the problem’, and ‘heated argument ‘ is another expression for ‘angry exchange of words’. Such metaphors are dead metaphors. But metaphors never really die. The metaphors that ‘die’ in poetic language come to ‘live’ in ordinary language. The habit of words to extend their meaning by metaphor and then cease to be metaphorical is a fact of language. It further allows metaphors to be used to fill gaps in vocabulary: leg of a table, wings of a building, clock hands, World Wide Web, crashing or hanging (as in computer hangs), surf, crash course. In such cases of metaphorical extensions, there are no literal substitutes for these expressions. This is true of all languages. In Hindi, metaphorical extension has often been accompanied by phonological variation. Thus, shikh (head) becomes shikhar (peak of a mountain) pet (belly) becomes peti (box) kuhni (elbow) becomes kona (corner) Language is full of such dead metaphors. It has led many scholars to believe in the inescapable metaphorical quality of all human discourse. Cognitive linguists have criticized the traditional dead metaphor theory--the view that a conventional metaphor is "dead" and no longer influences thought. Conceptual Metaphor Theory, advanced by them, while rejecting the notion that metaphor is a decorative device, asserts that metaphor is central to thought, and therefore to language: "The 'dead metaphor' account misses an important point: namely, that what is deeply entrenched, hardly noticed, and thus effortlessly used is most active in our thought. The metaphors . may be highly conventional and effortlessly used, but this does not mean that they have lost their vigor in thought and that they are dead. On the contrary, they are 'alive' in the most important sense--they govern our thought--they are 'metaphors we live by.'"(Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2002) http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/conceptmetaphorterm.htm 10.2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory A metaphor that “governs our thought”, may be reflected in our everyday language by a wide variety of expressions; it is no longer simply a dead metaphor but what cognitive linguistics call a conceptual metaphor. A conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another. In Metaphors We Live By(1980), Lakoff and Johnson introduced the terms source domain and target domain to understand the notion of conceptual metaphor. If ‘Time is money’ is the conceptual metaphor before us, ‘time’ is the target domain which we are trying to understand in terms of the source domain ‘money’. Target domain and source domain are roughly equivalent to Tenor and Vehicle respectively of I.A. Richards but unlike in the case of tenor and vehicle, there is a unidirectional mapping of source domain on the target domain in the conceptual metaphor system. So, here we have ‘Time is money’ reflected in (14) You are wasting my time (15) This gadget will save you hours. (16) I don’t have the time to give you. As the authors explain, the conceptual metaphor ‘Time is money’ reflects the notion of time in Western culture: ‘Time in our culture is a valuable commodity. It is a limited resource which we use to accomplish our goals.’ (Lakoff and Johnson 1981:290) The phrase "giving my time" carries stronger connotations of bargaining. Selection of such metaphors tends to be directed by a subconscious or implicit habit in the mind of the person employing them. Similarly, the conceptual metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR is reflected in our everyday language by a wide variety of expressions: (17) He attacked every weak point in my argument. (18) His criticisms were right on target. (19) I demolished his argument. (20) He shot down all of my arguments. The authors suggest that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, and the way we think what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor. Among the most important implications of this theory are: Conceptual Metaphors structure our thinking, our knowledge, and indeed our communication. They are grounded in physical experience. http://theliterarylink.com/metaphors.html http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/sourcedomainterm.htm Exercise 1: Comment on the statement: they (Dead metaphors) are 'alive' in the most important sense--they govern our thought--they are 'metaphors we live by.’ 10.3 Extended Metaphor An extended metaphor is a group of several metaphors developing a single image. An author uses an extended metaphor to build a larger comparison between two things. The extended metaphor works with a sustained analogy with multiple-linked tenors running through a given text. In Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, for example, we have the extended metaphor of faith throughout the third stanza: (21) The Sea of Faith Was once too at the full Lay like the folds of a bright girdle-furled! But now I only hear Its melancholy, long withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Dover Beach (ll. 21-29): Matthew Arnold An extended metaphor is made up of a primary metaphor and a string of secondary metaphors ‘whose vehicles are metonymic of the primary vehicle and whose tenors are metonymic of the primary tenor’ (Riffaterre 1978: 5n 182). In (21) above, the primary tenor is ‘Faith’ (in the given context, the vanishing faith in religion in the post-Darwinian world) and the primary vehicle ‘the sea’ (at low tide).The melancholy roar, the night wind, the vast edges and naked shingles are metonymic images of the primary vehicle, the Sea; likewise, there is a parallel chain of metonymic images of the primary tenor: (vanishing) Faith –despair, uncertainly, ugliness in the human world. The central metaphor of ‘Faith is a vast sea’ is developed in secondary metaphors. The situation of the sea waters flowing around the earth like a belt clasping the earth (which is a simile) once in high tide but now at low tide, withdrawing and making a melancholy sound leaving behind an ugly shore covered with naked shingles, even as the night-wind has started blowing, is a metaphoric image of the disappearance of faith from human life leaving bare the sense of insecurity, uncertainty, and ugliness of human situation. Extended metaphors occur in ordinary discourse as well but they do not generally extend beyond one or two sentences: (22) My drooping spirits were uplifted by the news. (23) He has a dense head which logic can never penetrate. 10.4 Mixed Metaphor Mixed metaphors are different metaphors occurring in the same utterance, especially the same sentence, which are used to express the same concept. In simpler terms, a mixed metaphor is an incongruous combination of two or more dead metaphors that have not quite lost their imaginative force, and which somtimes results in an unintentionally comic effect. (24) *The departed leader’s footprints will be our beacon lights for future. (25) *The plan is tailor-made to suit our requirements but will have to be pruned for lack of adequate funds. (26) Corruption is the biggest bottleneck holding up India’s passage into the 21st century. (27) We'll burn that bridge when we come to it. It will be noticed that there is no perception of incongruity in (26) and (27). In (24), we notice the incongruity of footprints becoming the beacon lights, because the two are still not completely dead metaphors. The same applies to (25). In contrast, ‘bottleneck’ in (26), has come to simply mean ‘obstacle’, and is quite acceptable. (27), combines the meaning of the two metaphors ‘to cross the bridge when we come to it’ and ‘burn the boats’ into something like “We're ready to fight when the right time comes,” and still maintains imagery that makes sense. According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980) mixed metaphors often, but not always, result in a conflict of concepts. They place mixed metaphors into two categories: (a) Impermissible metaphors (b) Permissible metaphors Impermissible mixed metaphors are metaphors that conflict because they serve different purposes. In the following examples, there is a conflict between two conceptual metaphors, ‘Argument is journey’ and ‘Argument is container’: (28) * We can now follow the path of the core of the argument. (29) * The content of the argument proceeds as follows. Permissible mixed metaphors, according to them, are mixed metaphors that do not conflict with each other because they serve the same purpose, and exhibit a correlation with each other. They suggest that Argument-as-journey can address the “direction” of the argument and the argument-as-container can address the “amount of content” of the argument. Hence these are permissible mixed metaphors: (30) At this point our argument doesn’t have much content.