The linguistic, conceptual and communicative dimension of metaphor: A corpus study of conversational Polish

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2019.03.005

Journal of Pragmatics

Volume 153, November 2019, Pages 80-91

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.03.005 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Recurrence of metaphors involving mappings from ILLNESS and METABOLIC WASTE source domains.
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Conventionality versus creativity of the metaphorical language used in the communicative functions of deliberately used metaphors.
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Deliberate metaphors and humour in Polish conversational style.

Abstract

The paper presents the results of qualitative research into metaphors in Polish conversational style, based on the analysis of conversations on education-related topics. The conversations were conducted by young speakers aged 20–25. The function of metaphor is discussed by referring to the three-dimensional model of metaphor, i.e. metaphor in language, thought, and communication, as proposed by Steen (2008).

The analysis of figurative language used by the Polish speakers suggests a consistent framing of the learning experience under two major conceptual metaphors, with their source domains allocated to the semantic fields of ILLNESS and DEFECATION. The article investigates the link between the linguistic expressions and some ‘primary metaphors,’ or analogical schemas, which are assumed to stem from embodied experience (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, 1999). In this part of the study, the primary focus remains on the cognitive function of metaphor in thought, and its linguistic realizations in figurative language used by the speakers. In the discussion of the data, the creative use of metaphors is also dealt with. Generalizations made on the basis of the analysis show that the novelty of metaphors used by the Polish speakers is achieved mainly through mixing up elements of well-established metaphorical expressions, combining two or more metaphorical concepts in one utterance, and constructing easily interpretable conceptual blends.

In the next part of the study, the role(s) of deliberate and non-deliberate metaphors in the conversations is investigated, focusing on their communicative dimension. According to Steen, ‘a metaphor is used deliberately when it is expressly meant to change the addressee's perspective on the referent or topic that is the target of the metaphor, by making the addressee look at it from a different conceptual domain or space, which functions as a conceptual source’ (Steen, 2008: 222). Several cases of this change of perspective during discourse processing are examined, and the functions of the metaphors commented upon – all in compliance with Steen's view of discourse as a genre event in terms of language level, language concepts and communication. The communicative function of metaphor takes into account such elements of the recorded material as the content of the conversations, participants and setting, and register.

Introduction

The overall aim of this study is to investigate the metaphorical aspects of Polish conversational style by analyzing conversations on learning-related topics conducted by Polish native speakers aged largely 20–25. Following Steen's three-dimensional model (Steen, 2008), the study views metaphor from three perspectives: as a metaphorical linguistic expression (metaphor in language), a conceptual system of mappings (metaphor in thought) and a communicative element (metaphor in communication).

The study opens with identifying linguistic metaphors which are used by the speakers to talk about their learning experience or education-related topics. The analyzed Polish material shows that in most cases the figurative language consists of highly conventionalized linguistic expressions, deeply entrenched and used automatically by the speakers, who do not seem to realize that they use a metaphor. One of the research questions that this study attempts to answer is what conceptual metaphors are systematically used by Polish speakers to talk about education and learning, and what understanding of or attitude to education are suggested by the metaphors. In other words, I am interested in the framing effects of the metaphors (see 3.1. for details), i.e. what the metaphors that the speakers use imply of their school experience.

The analytical part focuses on the communicative dimension of metaphor, with the distinction between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphors (Steen, 2008). In this section an interaction between conventionality and creativity in the use of metaphor is also investigated and the communicative functions of metaphor are discussed, which leads to formulating some tentative conclusions about metaphors in Polish conversational style.

Section snippets

Corpus data

The data used in this study come from two corpora of conversations recorded and transcribed by students of the English departments of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, and Krosno State College over a period of 2015–2017. All the participants are native speakers of Polish, most of them are college or university students, aged 18 to 30, with just a few speakers in their 30s-50s. The conversations were conducted in home conditions or in a café, for the sake of relaxing the speakers. The subject

Three interrelated perspectives on metaphor

In his three-dimensional model of metaphor, Steen (2008) differentiates between the linguistic, cognitive and communicative dimensions of metaphor. Although the focus of the present special issue is on communication style, most naturally connected with the communicative dimension of metaphor, a comprehensive metaphor analysis should also include the investigation of the metaphorical systems underlying the speakers’ utterances, and accessible through words and phrases identified as metaphorical

Metaphor analysis

This part of the paper focuses on metaphor analysis of three conversations from the Kraków corpus.

Example 1 (KRA, 2015–2017: 180–183).

This conversation takes place in a dormitory, where the participants have been living for seven months. There are three male speakers S106 (22), S107 (22), S109 (20) and one female speaker S108 (22). In the analyzed parts of the conversation (Extracts 1–4), S107 is just a passive listener. All the participants are students of foreign languages (English and

Conclusions

This article has focused on the use of metaphors in Polish conversational style. The analysis comprises of three-dimensional research into metaphor in the two corpora of 83 conversations. Firstly, the linguistic expressions have been identified as containing metaphor-related words (MRWs), then viewed as realizations of particular cross-domain metaphorical mappings. Finally, their functions as deliberate or nondeliberate communicative metaphors have been discussed.

Although the relatively small

Anna Rewiś-Łętkowska works as a lecturer in the Department of English at Krosno State College, Poland. Her academic interests are in the fields of metaphor studies, conceptualization of emotions and communicative functions of metaphors. She has published articles on emotion concepts, metonymy and metaphor interplay in the conceptualization of fear, and pictorial and multimodal metaphors in advertising and political cartoons.

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Laineste, L., Chłopicki, W., 2019. Co-construction of metaphors in Estonian conversation. J. Pragmat. 153,...

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Example 4 evokes a chain of associated verbs to describe ways of touching objects, and gradually develops into the playful human is an animal metaphor. The focus of the paper is on the deliberate examples of metaphor use, its overlap with humour, and its co-construction by interlocutors, opening the field to cross-cultural comparison with Polish data (discussed by Rewis-Łętkowska, 2019). Our examples demonstrate that Steen's three-dimensional model and the DMIP framework of metaphor identification, including the essential dimension of metaphor in communication (Steen, 2008), are found applicable and effectively help identify cross-domain mappings and thus deliberate metaphors in spoken discourse.
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The discussion in this section will be divided into three parts, which corresponds to the way language material is analysed in the present special issue. We start from the overview of the scale of deliberateness in Polish declaratives along the language-thought-communication triad (see e.g. Steen, 2008, Rewiś-Łętkowska, 2019, as well as Introduction to this issue by Chłopicki and Laineste, 2019, for details of the approach). This is followed by a subsection on features of conventional, largely non-deliberate declaratives – thus the level of ‘language’ in Steen's understanding The section ends with more deliberate conversational examples of the use of declaratives focusing on their communicative functions, especially rhetorical ones (including repetition, discourse emphasis and irony).
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The analysis shows that the Estonian complainant formulates his/her complaints by using words and phrases with negative connotations, extreme case formulations, intensifiers, exaggerations, exclamations, swear words, and idiomatic expressions. Syntactically, many complaints are constructed with negative clauses. Prosodically, the most important words are presented with strong emphasis, marked rhythm, and louder voice. Rhetorical devices such as repetition, rhetorical questions, comparison, irony, and imitation are employed to express emotions and justify that the situation is worth complaining about. Estonians prefer not to name their emotions explicitly.
The paper argues that emotionality and variation in the use of linguistic means in complaint sequences are related to two crucial factors: (1) the extent to which the complaint matter concerns the complainant personally and (2) the distribution of the complainant's and the recipient's roles. If one participant is a complainant and the other is a recipient who reacts, emotionality varies during a complaint sequence. If the participants construct a complaint jointly, they upgrade it constantly, using increasingly strong means.
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The linguistic, conceptual and communicative dimension of metaphor: A corpus study of conversational Polish

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Corpus data

Three interrelated perspectives on metaphor

Metaphor analysis

Conclusions

J. Pragmat.

J. Pragmat.

Haigused ja igatsused. Lilli Suburgi käänuline tee [Sicknesses and longings. The winding road of Lilli Suburg]

Keel ja Kirjand.

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Metaphor in Educational Discourse

Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics

The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language and Understanding

Metaphtonymy: The interaction of metaphor and metonymy in expressions of linguistic action

Emotion Concepts

Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture, and Body in Human Feeling

Metaphor. A Practical Introduction