scholarly journals What's in a title? The strategic use of metaphor and metonymy in "Some like it hot"

1999 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
María del Rosario Caballero Rodríguez

The aim of this paper is to call attention upon the strategic and relevant use of the polysemous nature of language as it is instantiated in film titles such as the one in our discussion. The theoretical framework adopted in our analysis of the concept hot in our title is that of Cognitive Linguistics (Lakoff 1987; Langacker 1987), which explains polysemy in terms of conceptual organisation and categorisation. We defend that the cognitive approach to lexis as an array of semantic networks triggered by the words within them proves a useful explanation in solving a number of troublesome issues in the analysis of short texts like titles, namely the use of implicatures, polysemy, and the ambiguity usually resulting from both.

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 262-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Samaniego Fernández

Although metaphor has always been a main concern in TS, little has been done to apply a far-raging cognitive theory of metaphor and metonymy to translation. As a rule, the few authors that have tried to deal with it are eclectic in their cognitive approach and show a prescriptive bias as concerns translation theory. However, thanks to the influence of disciplines like Cognitive Linguistics, among others, Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) can undertake a more realistic study of metaphor translation which reflects the true nature of metaphor and the underlying regularities of its interlinguistic transfer, including cases excluded a priori by traditional studies for being ‘unfaithful’, ‘anomalous’ or ‘incorrect’ renderings.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
saber lahbacha

From polysemy to meaning change: lexical cognitive perspectivesSaber Lahbacha By:PhD. Arabic language and Literature, University of Manouba, Member of association of Arabic lexicology in TunisAbstract:Many essays to find a model to study polysemy in most words emerged in several semantic, lexical, cognitive and pragmatic perspectives. Diverse dimensions of this phenomenon are activated according to the requirements of each discipline. If the lexical treatment gives priority to distinguish between polysemy (one entry) and homonymy (many entries), the pragmatic approach includes the contextual non-linguistic operators in building polysemy. The cognitive approach considers that lexical concepts are sets of semantic complicated nuances built on polysemy. This cognitive approach considers that there is no way to distinguish between meanings and the boundaries between them are ambiguous.Key words: Semantics – Polysemy – cognitive linguistics – lexicology – homonymy. ملخصلم تنقطع محاولات إيجاد منوال لمقاربة الاشتراك الدلالي (تعدّد المعاني) في معظم الكلمات عن البروز ضمن منظورات دلالية ومعجمية وعرفانية وتداولية متعددة. وبحسب مقتضيات كلّ فرع لساني، يجري تنشيط الأبعاد المختلفة للظاهرة ويتم التركيز على مناحٍ دون أخرى. فإذا كانت المعالجة المعجمية تضع أولوية اهتمامها في توضيح التمييز بين الاشتراك الدلالي (مدخل واحد) والاشتراك اللفظي (مداخل متعددة)، فإن المقاربة التداولية تؤصل مشاركة العوامل السياقية غير اللغوية في تأسيس الاشتراك الدلالي. أما المقاربة العرفانية فترى أن المفاهيم المعجمية هي مجموعات من الفروق الدلالية المتراكبة التي تقوم على الاشتراك الدلالي ولا ترى أن التمييز بين المعاني ممكن بل إن الحدود بين المفاهيم المعجمية ضبابية.الكلمات المفاتيح: علم الدلالة - الاشتراك الدلالي – اللسانيات العرفانية – المعجمية - الاشتراك اللفظي.


Author(s):  
Zoltán Kövecses

The chapter reports on work concerned with the issue of how conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) functions as a link between culture and cognition. Three large areas are investigated to this effect. First, work on the interaction between conceptual metaphors, on the one hand, and folk and expert theories of emotion, on the other, is surveyed. Second, the issue of metaphorical universality and variation is addressed, together with that of the function of embodiment in metaphor. Third, a contextualist view of conceptual metaphors is proposed. The discussion of these issues leads to a new and integrated understanding of the role of metaphor and metonymy in creating cultural reality and that of metaphorical variation across and within cultures, as well as individuals.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSANNE WAGNER

While null subjects are a well-researched phenomenon in pro-drop languages like Italian or Spanish, they have not received much attention in non-pro-drop languages such as English, where they are traditionally associated with particular (written) genres such as diaries or are discussed under a broader umbrella term such as situational ellipsis. However, examples such as the one in the title – while certainly not frequent – are commonly encountered in colloquial speech, with first-person singular tokens outnumbering any other person.This article investigates the linguistic and non-linguistic factors influencing the (non-) realisation of first-person singular subjects in a corpus of colloquial English. The variables found to contribute to the observed variation are drawn from a variety of linguistic domains and follow up on research conducted in such different fields as first language acquisition (FLA), cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and language variation and change. Of particular interest is the finding regarding the link between null subjects and complexity of the verb phrase, which patterns in a clearly linear fashion: the more complex the verb phrase, the more likely is a null realisation. Not discussed in this form before, this finding, given its high significance and its robustness in light of alternative coding, may prove to be an important candidate for inclusion in future studies on (English) null subjects.


Author(s):  
Nedas Jurgaitis ◽  

The present article deals with the genesis of the notion “concept” in German cognitive semantics. The aim of the study is to present the origin and development of the notion “concept” from a diachronic perspective. The genesis of the notion “concept” in linguistics, particularly cognitive semantics, is an object of discussion. It reveals a connection between ancient ideas about word meaning and trends in modern linguistics. The roots of the notion can be traced back to ancient Greek philosophy – the concept debuts as a primal notion of mental experiences in Aristotle’s writings. However, the controversial translation of ancient works leaves room for scientific discussion regarding the prototype of the notion. In the Middle Ages, the word concept originated in European languages from Latin, later establishing itself in scientific discourse through the influence of Neo-Scholasticism, Frege’s conception of logic and the semiotic triangle, as well as the principle of the arbitrariness of linguistic signs. Finally, the notion concept gains importance in the transition from objective to the subjective perception of the meaning of linguistic units (the shift from structuralism to cognitivism) and becomes under the influence of cognitive psychology, the central term in cognitive linguistics in the 1970s and 1980s. The unconventional use of the notion in linguistic studies, on the one hand, makes meta-analyses of the semantics of certain concepts more difficult; on the other hand, it favours disciplinary and methodological diversity in today’s linguistic research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-497
Author(s):  
Cun Zhang

Abstract Economic globalization has resulted in more frequent trading frictions, some of which have escalated into trade wars such as the one between China and the US. Drawing on the same corpus built by Zhang and Forceville (Zhang, Cun & Charles Forceville. 2020. Metaphor and metonymy in Chinese and American political cartoons (2018–2019) about the Sino–US trade conflict. Pragmatics and Cognition 27(2). 476–501), and complementing insights of that paper, this paper investigates how the Sino–US trade war is metaphorically and metonymically constructed in 129 Chinese and American political cartoons respectively from a synthesized perspective. Based on comparative analyses, cross-cultural similarity and uniqueness in the semiotic, cognitive, and cultural aspects can be concluded as follows: (a) at the expression level, the shared dominant mode configuration pattern of metaphor and metonymy requires extra-textual knowledge to identify the target domain/concept while the source domain/vehicle concept is pinpointed through pictorial resources; (b) at the cognition level, “us” and “them” are distinctively evaluated by using the metonymy BODILY REACTION FOR EMOTION, cultural symbols, and the Great Chain metaphor. The Chinese cartoons converge on disapproving of “them” while the American cartoons converge on disapproving of “us” and diverge on conceptualizing “them”; (c) a variety of cross-cultural default scenarios are employed in the Chinese cartoons whereas the American cartoons utilize non-default scenarios influenced by only American cultures. Both aim for persuasiveness by employing emotionally charged source domains/vehicle concepts, but to different audiences.


Author(s):  
Sabine De Knop

AbstractThe study of German posture verbs has attracted the interest of many linguists, e.g. Berthele (2004 and 2006), Fagan (1991), Kutscher-Schultze-Berndt (2007) and Serra-Borneto (1996). It is surprising that most studies disregard the posture verbThe study aims at making up for these deficits. With examples from the German corpora from the Digitales Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache (DWDS), it first describes the different uses of the verbIn the framework of Cognitive Linguistics the study also proposes some ‘conceptual tools’ to facilitate the learning of the more abstract uses of the verb sitzen. These tools are semantic networks, visuals, and conceptual metaphors. Spatial distinctions such as those between container and contact are extended to more abstract areas of experience, especially in the context of situations describing abstract states. Here one of the main issues for the learner is to find out whether the abstract goal is conceptualized as a container, a contact or still another basic spatial relation. The efficiency of these conceptual tools is tested with a cloze test conducted with French-speaking students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1(14)/2020) ◽  
pp. 143-149
Author(s):  
Natalia Grushina

The aim of this paper is to study different time representations in language and text. Time is an abstract category firmly connected to human life, it can be considered to be the fourth dimension of reality, used to describe events in three-dimensional space. Time has been studied from different points of view and in different aspects. The perception of time can vary depending on the social and cultural environment. That is why it is so important to pay special attention to a variety of time representations when studying a foreign language. In this article I consider different time markers represented in language (English and Russian) and contextual time markers we can find in texts for reading comprehension activities at advanced levels when studying Russian as a foreign language. I compare language and contextual time markers using a cognitive approach to text units. As an example, I take time markers from the texts published in a popular Russian literary magazine Novy mir at the turn of the 21 century. Novy mir is a very famous in Russia for its liberal position and history within the dissident movement during Soviet epoch Keywords: concept of time, time markers, text and discourse, cognitive linguistics


2021 ◽  
pp. arabic cover-english cover
Author(s):  
لعبيدي بو عبد الله ◽  
شيماء عبد الله عبد الغفور

تُعَدُّ ظاهرةُ الاشتراكِ الدلاليّ ظاهرة مركزية في جميع اللغاتِ الإنسانيّةِ، فهي تستمدُ كينونتها من الهيكل المفاهيمي للإنسان، ومن تفاعل إدراكه مع العالم الخارجي. وقد جاءَتْ هذه الورقة لتقارب ظــاهرة الاشتراك الدلاليّ إدراكيًّا في المعجم العربي -وفق منهج وصفي تحليلي-، متخذةً من كلمة (الرأس) أنموذجًا. وتهدفُ هذه الدراسة للإجابة عن التساؤلات الآتية: ما البنية الإدراكية الكامنة وراء حدوث ظاهرة الاشتراك الدلاليّ في ألفاظ أجزاء الجسد عامة وكلمة (رَأْس) خاصةً؟ وما الحقول الدلاليّة التي امتد إليها واتساعاتها الاستعارية والكنائية؟ كما تعمل الدراسة على الكشف عن البنية الإدراكية التي تجمع المعاني المتعددة للفظ (الرأس) بالإضافة إلى الكشف عن شبكة العلاقات الدلاليّة بين المعاني المتعددة التي يضمها. وقد خَلُصَتْ هذه الورقة البحثية إلى كون التوسعاتِ الدلاليّةِ، والاستعمالاتِ الاستعاريّةِ، والكنائيّةِ لكلمة (رَأْس) تتصلُ بنسقنا التصوّري، وبالتفاعل الدائم بين تجاربنا اليوميّة مع رؤوسنا والعالم الخارجي. الكلمات المفتاحية: (الاشتراك الدلاليّ، اللسانيات الإدراكية، تاريخ اللسانيات الإدراكية، الجسد، رأس) Abstract Polysemy is a central phenomenon in all languages. It shows the interaction between human cognition and human environment. This paper aims to answer the following questions: what is the language mechanisms that is used among Arabs and makes sense of body part terms extend to a new semantic domain? And What are the semantic domains that the word ‘head’ extended to? To achieve the objectives this paper, the researchers adopted the cognitive approach. As well as the descriptive and analytical approaches using the word ‘head’ as a case study and traced its meaning as it developed through metaphor and metonymy. Also, it crossed over from one semantic field to another. It will show that demonstrate of ‘head’ and its semantic extensions derive directly from conceptual patterns that were created as a result of experiences and interaction between our heads, and the outside world. Key words: (polysemy, cognitive linguistics, the history of cognitive linguistics, body, head).


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