AN INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE POETICS Lecture 2: Conceptual Metaphor and Blending Theories. The notions of Conceptual Metonymy and Oxymoron (September 24-25, 2015) Presented by Svitlana Shurma (Kyiv, Ukraine) Email: lanashurma@gmail.com Outline •Some basic notions of CMT •Conceptual metaphor •Blending theory •Conceptual metonymy •Conceptual oxymoron • Some basic notions •Сoncept •Domain •Image-schema •Idealized Cognitive Model Some basic notions •Concept Concept is basic to Cognitive Poetics. Concept is the basic unit of knowledge. It is central, because meaning of a linguistic unit or expression is connected to a concept. Mental representation which exists in the brain. Preserves contingent and bodily experience. Concept is an intermediary between the words and reality. Some basic notions •Basic unit of knowledge •Mental representation which exists in the brain •Preserves contingent and bodily experience Some basic notions •Concepts and pictures of the world •Concept (O. Vorobyova) •Unit of knowledge and memory •Reflects knowledge and experiences •Partially embodied •Verbalized through language means •Includes non-verbal information (mental imagery) •Bears cultural markers Some basic notions •Ways of concept manifestation in texts •Explication : gradual explication : implication •Concentrated representation : cumulative representation : diffuse representation •Convergent representation : divergent representation •Direct nomination : hint : associated representation • Some basic notions •Concepts •According to the medium •Linguoconcepts •Textual •Discourse •Philosophical •Cultural (linguocultural and ethnical) •Literary •Aesthetic • • Some basic notions •According to their content •Categorial (TIME) •Theosophical (LIFE) •Teleonomic (TRUTH) •Anthropoconcepts (MOTHER) •Emotional concepts •Psychological concepts •Gender concepts •Mythoconcepts, etc. • Some basic notions •Concepts •Degree of abstraction •Universal •Intermediate •Concrete •According to a place in a hierarchy •Mega- / macro- / hyper- / mezo - / cata – Some basic notions •Degree of variance •Variable (constants) •Invariable •According to their format •Singular (LOVE) •Gestalt (LIFE/DEATH) •Cluster (ROAD TO FAME) •Iconic (GOLDEN AUTUMN) •Parables (PRAGUE SPRING) •Essayistic (MODERNISM) • Some basic notions •Picture of the world •A part of individual or collective consciousness •Elements: •Common for the humanity •National •Personal •Language picture of the world •Conceptual picture of the world Some basic notions •Domain • • •CAR Domain is a conceptual entity. A background knowledge structure. Relates to interconnected aspects of experience. Frame analysis is used to reveal the structure of a domain. JOURNEY includes traveller, mode of transport, route, feelings, destination, obstacles. Some basic notions •A conceptual entity •A structure of background knowledge •Relates to interconnected aspects of experience Some basic notions •Image schema Lakoff (1987), Lakoff and Turner (1989), Johnson (1987). Experimental research in psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology. Image – representation of experience. Imagistic domains vs nonimagistic domains. The most rudimentary concepts (Evans). Refer to body experience: movements through space, manipulation of objects, perceptual interactions. Image-schemas are schematic. Help to structure bodily and non-bodily experience. Some basic notions •The most rudimentary concepts (Evans) •Refer to body experience: movements through space, manipulation of objects, perceptual interactions •Schematic •Help to structure bodily and non-bodily experience Some basic notions pact-coffee-pouring-1.gif John went out of the room. Pump out the air. Let your anger out. Pick out the best theory. Down out the music. Harry weasled out of the contract. CONTAINER image-schema consists of structural elements: interior, boundary and exterior. Lexical concepts associated with the following forms: full, empty, in, out. The form of an image schemas mirrors the sensory experience. Can be described using words and pictures. Refer to holistic sensory experiences, similar to an echo of them. Some basic notions* SPACE UP-DOWN, FRONT-BACK, LEFT-RIGHT, NEAR-FAR, CENTER-PERIFERY, CONTACT SCALE PATH CONTAINER CONTAINMENT, IN-OUT, SURFACE, FULL-EMPTY, CONTENT FORCE BALANCE, COUNTERFORCE, COMPULSION, RESTRAINT, ENABLEMENT, BLOCKAGE, DIVERSION, ATTRACTION UNITY/MULTIPLICITY MERGING, COLLECTION, SPLITTING, ITERATION, PART-WHOLE, MASS-COUNT, LINK IDENTITY MATCHING, SUPERIMPOSITION EXISTENCE REMOVAL, BOUNDED SPACE, CYCLE, OBJECT, PROCESS * Clausner, T.C. and Croft, W. Domains and image schemas. In Cognitive Linguistics 10-1(1999), 1-31 Do not look like words. Exist between ordinary language and ‘mental’ language. Domain forms the framework for an image-schema. Image-schemas are often geometrical or topological structures. Image schemas are “abstract concepts consisting of patterns emerging from repeated instances of embodied experience” (Evans). Some basic notions •Idealized Cognitive Models (ICM) Idealized prototypical image. Something typical. Domains of knowledge accompanied by conceptual slots. Individual by nature. Experience-based. Tend to constantly develop with new experience. In the texts are activated by minimal syntactic or lexical marker (Simpson). Allow ‘cognitive short-cuts’ (ibid). Some basic notions •Idealized prototypical image •Domains of knowledge accompanied by conceptual slots •Individual by nature •Experience-based •Develops constantly •In the texts, activated by minimal syntactic or lexical marker • What is conceptual metaphor? A process of mapping between two conceptual domains. A relationship between tenor and vehicle. A girl (vehicle/target) is a flower (tenor/source) What is conceptual metaphor? •People might say that they try to give their children an education so they will get a good start in life. If their children act out, they hope that they are just going through a stage and that they will get over it. Parents hope that their children won’t be burdened with financial worries or ill health and, if they face such difficulties, that they will be able to overcome them. Parents hope that their children will have a long life span and that they will go far in life. But they also know that their children, as all mortals, will reach the end of the road. • Kovecses Z. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. LIFE IS A JOURNEY What is conceptual metaphor? Read by Alan Bates A large part of the way they speak about life in English derives from the way they speak about journeys. Cognitive linguists suggest that they do so because thinking about the abstract concept of life is facilitated by the more concrete concept of journey. One of the startling discoveries of work on poetic language by cognitive linguists is the recognition that most poetic language is based on conventional, ordinary conceptual metaphors. George Lakoff Mark Johnson Zoltan Kovesces Raymond Gibbs Eve Sweetser Mark Turner What is conceptual metaphor? •Metaphor is a matter of thought •Conceptual metaphors are embodied •Organized by cross-domain mappings or projections •Tenor and vehicle are linked to embodied experiences •Based on analogical reasoning •Understanding of complex abstract entities in terms of bodily experiences • • • Lakoff and Turner 1980: Metaphor is a fundamental principle of thought and action. Conventional metaphors structure our conceptual system. Aristotle: Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or no the ground of analogy. (metaphor is a matter of words, metaphor is deviant). Paul Ricoeur (1977): changed meanings of words; deviance; transfer of a name to some object belonging to a different category. Max Black (1962): cognitive status of metaphor; substitution view; metaphors are ornamental; nominative function of metaphor; comparison view (elliptical simile) Types of conceptual metaphors •According to frequency of use •Conventional •Unconventional Types of conceptual metaphors •Source domain •Orientational •Ontological •Structural •Conduit •Container • Types of conceptual metaphors •Origin (Grady) •Primary •HAPPY IS UP •MORE IS UP •SEEING IS TOUCHING •Complex •RELATIONS ARE ENCLOSURES + INTIMACY IS CLOSENESS = INTIMATE RELATIONS ARE CLOSE ENCLOSURES • Primary metaphors have minimal structure and combine sensory and subjective elements. They are automatically construed. Complex ones are usually created of primary metaphors and are based on cultural models, beliefs and knowledge. Structure of conceptual metaphor •She really blew her lid. • •Source domain: HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER •Target domain: ANGER • •She exploded with anger •She let her steam off Simpson: relationship between metaphor and linguistic form is an indirect one => we can express one and the same conceptual metaphor in a variety of ways. In literary works metaphors are more novel and less clear Blending theory Fauconnier and Turner (1994; 1998); Grady, Oakley, Coulson ‘Blending and Metaphor’: Mapping – a knowledge structure; tells how elements in two domains line up. Mental space which depends on domain is the basic unit of cognitive organization. Mental space is partial and temporary, conceptual slot. It is constructed. A short-term construct of a particular domain. Generic space is a shared conceptual structure for both inputs. Blend space combines and interacts input from two spaces. Lines represent cross-space correspondence. Emergent structure – juxtaposition of elements from the inputs. A surgeon is a butcher Blending theory Joseph Grady, Todd Oakley, Seana Coulson: Blending involves composition (projection onto blended space), completion (filling out of a pattern in the blend) and elaboration (simulated mental performance of the event in the blend, ‘imagined scenarios’). Optimality principles: integration, web, unpacking, topology, good reason. What happens to a CM in a literary text •Elaboration •Extension •Questioning •Combining Lakoff and Turner (1989): More Than Cool Reason: Poets share most of the CM with other language speakers, yet, they tend to manipulate with them. Kovecses: Elaboration – elaborating of an existing element of the source in an unusual, unconventional way. Extension – conventionalized linguistic expression is expressed by new linguistic means that is based on introducing a new conceptual element in the source domain. Questioning – calling into question the appropriateness of common everyday metaphors. Combining – a combination of several conceptual metaphors. What happens to a CM in a literary text •Types of verbal metaphors (Belehova) •Archetypes •Stereotypes •Prototypes •Idiotypes •Kainotypes • The archetype is regarded as a concept shared by all humans irrespective of their nationality, race, and cultural code [Jung 1991; Wierzbicka 1996]. Stereotype is an idealized image recognized by everybody, a socially coloured prototype. A prototype is understood as a culturally dependent ‘‘best representative’’ of the category [Rosch 1977: 32; Lakoff 1987: 45-49; Taylor 1995: 12]. All these images are presumed to descend to a definite archetype. An archetype can be embodied in several prototypical images. Each of them underlies a number of idiotypes. An idiotype is a prototype’s modification preferred by a particular writer. It is a complex image which reflects idiolect and idiostyle of the author, his peculiarities of world perception. A clash between mental spaces of an archetype and an idiotype gives birth to a kainotype. What happens to a CM in a literary text •Archetype •Homer’s ‘river of life’ (LIFE IS MOTION; HUMAN LIFE IS UNATTENDED MOTION) • •Idiotypes •Owen’s ‘and half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race’ (HUMAN LIFE IS A RACE) •Frost’s ‘two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one lest traveled by’ (LIFE IS A JOURNEY) • •Prototypes •Sandburg’s ‘Life is just a bowl of cherries’ (LIFE IS A CONTAINER) • Conceptual Metonymy •I am reading Shakespeare •America does not want another Pearl Harbor •Washington is negotiating with Moscow •Nixon bombed Hanoi •We need a better glove at third base From Kovesces 2002 Conceptual Metonymy •ICM PART 1 Contiguity Part 2 Kovesces 2002: Metonymy is a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target, within the same domain, or ICM. Single mapping. Relation between more concrete an more abstact entity within one domain Conceptual metonymy •Thing and part ICM (synechdoche) •America for the USA •Constitution ICM •Wood for ‘the forest’ •Complex even ICM •Mother is cooking potatoes •Category and member ICM •Xerox for ‘any copying machine’ •Category and property ICM •Blacks for ‘black people’ Conceptual metonymy •Part and part ICM •To shampoo one’s hair •Causation ICM •She is my ruin •Production ICM •We are reading Shakespeare •Control ICM •The Mercedes has arrived •Possession ICM •He married money •Containment ICM •The milk tipped over Conceptual oxymoron Conceptual oxymoron •Francisco de Quevedo •It’s ice that burns, it is frozen fire, •It’s a wound that hurts and is not felt, •It’s something well dreamt, an evil present, •It’s a brief retiring, that quickly tires. Gibbs The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding: a poem about love and Cupid Conceptual oxymoron •Reflect paradoxical way of conceiving things in life •Is a ground for novel images •Cognitive operations of overlaying, overlapping and clashing •Clash within one conceptual domain • Conceptual oxymoron Conceptual oxymoron •Ontological •Sinful pleasures, awfully beautiful, a perfect fool •POSSIBLE VS IMPOSSIBLE, EVIL VS VIRTUE •Epistemic •Progress is a comfortable disease (Cummings) •You are my future of the past (Bly) •HERE VS THERE, FUTURE VS PRESENT, GOOD VS BAD •