-Truman Capote
Showing posts with label metaphor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metaphor. Show all posts
Monday, August 24, 2009
Linguistics Quotation Favorites - Metaphorically Speaking
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Analyzability of Exocentric Compounds - Buckle Bunny and Puck Bunny
In looking up information for the post about skiers' slang last week I came across two other sport-related terms that fascinated me: buckle bunny and puck bunny. Both buckle bunny and puck bunny are considered exocentric compounds (not definable by either constituent and considered semantically un-analyzable).
Buckle bunny: a female groupie of rodeo cowboys.
Puck bunny: a female fan of hockey or hockey players; a hockey groupie, especially one who has casual sexual relations with players.
These so-called exocentric compounds are clearly modeled on the linguistic template provided by the compounds beach bunny and snow bunny. The productivity of this template combined with the metaphoric interpretation of the word bunny is what allows these new compounds to be definable or semantically analyzable and therefore not truly exocentric.
Buckle bunny: a female groupie of rodeo cowboys.
Puck bunny: a female fan of hockey or hockey players; a hockey groupie, especially one who has casual sexual relations with players.
These so-called exocentric compounds are clearly modeled on the linguistic template provided by the compounds beach bunny and snow bunny. The productivity of this template combined with the metaphoric interpretation of the word bunny is what allows these new compounds to be definable or semantically analyzable and therefore not truly exocentric.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Great Chain of Being Metaphor System and ANIMAL for HUMAN metaphors
A little more about the Great Chain of Being Metaphor System ---
The mapping between HUMANS and ANIMALS is one of the most productive metaphors in the system. This can be seen by reviewing the large number of animal proverbs and clichés that exist in the English language: “The early bird catches the worm,” “When the cat’s away the mice will play,” and “There are plenty more fish in the sea,” to name a few. In fact, ANIMAL for HUMAN metaphor is so prominent that the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University has devoted an entire web page to lists of animal proverbs and clichés. (http://www.indiana.edu/~animal/fun/wordplay/proverbs.html).
Another example of the prominence of animal metaphor is found in fables. The OED identifies the most prominent sense of a fable as “A short story devised to convey some useful lesson; esp. one in which animals or inanimate things are the speakers or actors; an apologue.”
Some of the best-known fables are those by Aesop which date back to the 6th century B.C., they include: The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Boy who Cried Wolf, The Dog and the Bone , The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, The Lion and the Mouse, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.
The mapping between HUMANS and ANIMALS is one of the most productive metaphors in the system. This can be seen by reviewing the large number of animal proverbs and clichés that exist in the English language: “The early bird catches the worm,” “When the cat’s away the mice will play,” and “There are plenty more fish in the sea,” to name a few. In fact, ANIMAL for HUMAN metaphor is so prominent that the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University has devoted an entire web page to lists of animal proverbs and clichés. (http://www.indiana.edu/~animal/fun/wordplay/proverbs.html).
Another example of the prominence of animal metaphor is found in fables. The OED identifies the most prominent sense of a fable as “A short story devised to convey some useful lesson; esp. one in which animals or inanimate things are the speakers or actors; an apologue.”
Some of the best-known fables are those by Aesop which date back to the 6th century B.C., they include: The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Boy who Cried Wolf, The Dog and the Bone , The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, The Lion and the Mouse, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.
Monday, August 18, 2008
What is the Great Chain of Being Metaphor System?
The “Great Chain of Being” is a concept that was developed by ancient philosophers including Plato and Aristotle to help organize things in the universe by attributes and behaviors arranged in a hierarchy.
A version of the “Great Chain of Being” employed in semantics is as follows (Kieltyka and Kleparski n.d.):
GOD
HUMANS
ANIMALS
PLANTS
INORGANIC THINGS
The “Great Chain of Being” metaphor system maps of the attributes and/or behavior between different categories of the chain in order to better understand one domain in terms of another. Lakoff and Turner (1989: 172) more clearly define the metaphor system as, “a tool of great power and scope,” that “allows us to comprehend general human character traits in terms of well-understood non-human attributes; and conversely, it allows us to comprehend less well-understood aspects of the nature of animals and objects in terms of better-understood human characteristics.”
A version of the “Great Chain of Being” employed in semantics is as follows (Kieltyka and Kleparski n.d.):
GOD
HUMANS
ANIMALS
PLANTS
INORGANIC THINGS
The “Great Chain of Being” metaphor system maps of the attributes and/or behavior between different categories of the chain in order to better understand one domain in terms of another. Lakoff and Turner (1989: 172) more clearly define the metaphor system as, “a tool of great power and scope,” that “allows us to comprehend general human character traits in terms of well-understood non-human attributes; and conversely, it allows us to comprehend less well-understood aspects of the nature of animals and objects in terms of better-understood human characteristics.”
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Animal Phrases Part II
"The cat got your tongue?" -- This phrase is a question commonly posed to shy and or quiet children by adults. It is basically a way of asking a child why he or she is so quiet. The origins of the phrase are based on an ancient belief that a cat could steal the breath from sleeping children.
"Get the monkey off your back" -- This phrase refers to getting rid of a recurring problem, generally an addiction of some form or other. The monkey is a metaphor for the addiction. Think of a crazy monkey riding on your back refusing to let go.
" It's raining cats and dogs." -- This is a very well known phrase which indicates that it is raining very hard. This phrase is also metaphoric and was most likely deduced from the fact that, in Germanic mythology, cats were associated with storms and dogs were associated with rain .
These are just a few examples of fairly common animal phrases, the majority of which are based on metaphor. There are also metaphors that are animal based but don't include an animal in the actual phrase; for example, "don't bite the hand that feeds you."
"Get the monkey off your back" -- This phrase refers to getting rid of a recurring problem, generally an addiction of some form or other. The monkey is a metaphor for the addiction. Think of a crazy monkey riding on your back refusing to let go.
" It's raining cats and dogs." -- This is a very well known phrase which indicates that it is raining very hard. This phrase is also metaphoric and was most likely deduced from the fact that, in Germanic mythology, cats were associated with storms and dogs were associated with rain .
These are just a few examples of fairly common animal phrases, the majority of which are based on metaphor. There are also metaphors that are animal based but don't include an animal in the actual phrase; for example, "don't bite the hand that feeds you."
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