Lorena Pérez Hernández

The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: Myths, Developments and Challenges

This article discusses some of the claims of the earlier and later versions of the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (CTM) and addresses some of the criticism that has been leveled against it. It is argued that much of this criticism arises from common misconceptions as to the real claims made by the theory. However, CTM is still in need of further exploration and empirical support. In this connection, we identify some areas where research is still needed and supply our own developments. We argue for a more complex classification of metaphor types, which takes into account various complementary taxonomic perspectives, including the nature of source and target and the genericity and complexity of the metaphoric operation. We also explore metaphor in relation to cognitive prominence and conceptual interaction issues. Finally, we deal with the problem of constraints on metaphor and make a proposal for three complementary kinds of constraint.This article discusses some of the claims of the earlier and later versions of the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (CTM) and addresses some of the criticism that has been leveled against it. It is argued that much of this criticism arises from common misconceptions as to the real claims made by the theory. However, CTM is still in need of further exploration and empirical support. In this connection, we identify some areas where research is still needed and supply our own developments. We argue for a more complex classification of metaphor types, which takes into account various complementary taxonomic perspectives, including the nature of source and target and the genericity and complexity of the metaphoric operation. We also explore metaphor in relation to cognitive prominence and conceptual interaction issues. Finally, we deal with the problem of constraints on metaphor and make a proposal for three complementary kinds of constraint.

Grounding, semantic motivation, and conceptual interaction in indirect directive speech acts

In this paper we attempt to develop the still programmatic but insightful proposal made by Thornburg and Panther (1997) and Panther and Thornburg (1998), according to which the identification of the intended meaning (or illocutionary force) of indirect requests (and by extension of indirect speech acts in general) is based on conceptual metonymies operating on the grounds of the different components of illocutionary scenarios. We build into Panther and Thornburgs account other aspects of indirect directives which they have not considered yet. Thus we examine issues such as the semantic motivation of indirect directives, the prototypicality degrees of the constructions used to convey them, their instantiation potential, their image-schematic basis, and the cognitive motivation of some of their features in discourse. We argue that calculating the illocutionary force of an utterance is ultimately a matter of conceptual interaction between propositional, image-schematic, metonymic, and metaphorical idealized cognitive models or ICMs.

Análisis léxico-construccional de verbos de habla

This paper presents the results of an analysis of a group of English verbs of speech. The study has been carried out within the theoretical framework provided by the Lexical- Constructional Model as developed by Ruiz de Mendoza and Mairal (2007a, 2007b, 2008a, 2008b), and Mairal and Ruiz de Mendoza (2009) which offers a bridge between projectionist theories of language such as Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin, 1997, 2005) and constructional theories such as those put forward by Goldberg (1995) and Michaelis (2003). The syntactic and semantic idiosyncrasy of the verbs of speech under scrutiny is captured by means of lexical templates, which are subsumed into the higher-level constructional templates for the caused motion and caused motion with way constructions (Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Levin, 1993). A number of internal and external constraints based on semantic, cognitive, and pragmatic aspects of the meaning of the verbs have been shown to determine the degree of compatibility that exists between different sub categories of verbs of speech and the two aforementioned constructions.

A Pragmatic-Cognitive Approach to Brand Names: A Case Study of Rioja Wine Brands

Abstract This paper analyzes a collection of Rioja wine names, looking into the pragmatic and conceptual mechanisms underlying their semantic configuration. It provides some insights into their linguistic adequacy and effectiveness, and offers a preliminary assessment on the strengths and weaknesses of Rioja wine trademarks. The branding of Rioja wines has traditionally been carried out by wine producers themselves. This trend, however, seems to be changing as wine companies increasingly turn to professional branding services. A systematic application of the pragmatic and conceptual strategies isolated in this study results in a rich pool of lexical extensions. It is argued that a careful choice of the initial inventory of key notions as well as of the source concepts used in metonymic and metaphoric extensions would help to minimize the generation of negative connotations. To the same end, branding experts should also take into consideration a number of pragmatic maxims and cultural models.