Peter Crisp

Metaphor identification and analysis, classification and quantification

Identifying metaphorically used words in the way we have proposed in the other articles in this special issue inevitably leads to the detection of recurring structural patterns of metaphor usage. It is the aim of the present article to explore these patterns in a systematic fashion and develop a taxomony of the propositional structure of metaphors. As a preliminary step, a decision has to be made about the units of discourse within which one may examine patterns of the propositional structure of metaphorical language. This article has adopted the position that all non-downgraded clauses, in the manner of Mann and Thompson’s Rhetorical Structure Theory (1988), would be the most eligible candidate. Inside the boundaries of these text units, we have found single as opposed to multiple metaphor, simple as opposed to complex metaphor, pure as opposed to mixed metaphor, and restricted as opposed to extended metaphor. Moreover, these four oppositions may also be combined with each other. Of the 16 logically possible combinations, 2 are ruled out, but the other 14 combinations present just as many structural types of metaphor. We then move on to discuss how such a taxonomy may be used in the quantitative characterization of the metaphorical style of an author. We show how the taxonomy may be applied at various levels of measurement, ranging from the word through the proposition to the text unit itself. Another possibility is to perform these measurements at the level of metaphorical mappings, which is the option we have chosen to apply to two stretches of fiction, by Sara Maitland and Salman Rushdie. The provisional results of this analysis are then finally presented and discussed.

Imagism's metaphors - a test case

Imagism is centered on the image metaphor, and so is a valuable resource for studying this kind of metaphor. Image metaphor raises questions for any theory that sees metaphor as something conceptual. Such theories entail the rejection of truth-conditional semantics and are thus rejected by proponents of truth conditionalism, such as Donald Davidson. Imagism embodies an extreme form of image metaphor that avoids generating any clear propositional entailments. The problem it poses for conceptual theories of metaphor is thus considerable. The solution lies in the concept of the image schema as the basis of propositional reasoning. Image metaphor can be seen as displaying the matrix out of which conceptual metaphor proper itself develops. Image metaphor shows that matrix to be bound up with the nature of aesthetic affect. It thus points the way to a view of poetry that does justice to its aesthetic passion without opposing it in some absolute way to the rationality of logic and science.

Allegory: conceptual metaphor in history

Far from denying the importance of social contexts, a commitment to the existence of universal, human, mental properties deepens our understanding of such contexts by directing our attention to how they interact with such properties. One universal mental property appears to be the cognitively central role of metaphor. The study of the surface, linguistic or otherwise, manifestations of conceptual metaphor is important for its interaction with specific contexts. Allegory is one such surface manifestation. The study of western allegory should provide important insights into the roles of conceptual metaphor in western cultures. The concept of allegory as a sharply differentiated category dates from the late 18th century. The earlier rhetorical tradition saw allegory, correctly, as part of the natural continuum of metaphorical expression. The study of allegory as a discourse form reveals both a set of universal pragmatic constraints and the way in which these constraints are exploited by specific contexts to produce unique generic constructs such as that of Prudentian allegory.

Metaphorical propositions: a rationale

This article is an overview of the approach to metaphor analysis expounded in the following three articles. Until now the study of conceptual metaphor has been based mainly on the evidence of invented linguistic examples. Although the great value of the work done within this framework is clear, a more empirically oriented approach will need to engage with metaphorical language in naturally occurring discourse. To study this an explicit analytic procedure is required. Although such a procedure should ultimately provide a new source of evidence for underlying cognitive processes, it will not provide a direct path from linguistic to cognitive reality. When our group classifies an instance of language as metaphorical we thus do not claim that it realizes a psychologically real conceptual metaphor, but only that it provides the linguistic basis for such a realization. In specifying the conceptual metaphorical potential of this linguistic basis, we have found the tools of propositional analysis, as developed by discourse psychology, as well as the concept of cross-domain mapping familiar in cognitive semantics, to be extremely useful. Our approach to metaphor analysis thus has three levels: that of metaphorical language; that of the metaphorical proposition; and that of the cross-domain mapping.

Allegory, Blending, and Possible Situations

Allegory is closely related to but importantly different from extended metaphor. Extended metaphors set up blended spaces. Mental spaces, of which blended spaces are a subset, are radically different kinds of things from possible worlds, having, unlike possible worlds, no definable metaphysical status. Extended metaphors set up blended spaces but allegories refer to and describe possible fictional situations. The distinction between possible situations and blended spaces accounts for important differences of imaginative effect between allegory and extended metaphor. Although allegorical scenes are not blended spaces, they do have their origin in such spaces. The differences revealed between allegory and extended metaphor emphasize the need for cognitive semantics to give a detailed account of the relations between mental spaces and questions of reference and truth.

Allegory and symbol - a fundamental opposition?

For the last 200 years in literary aesthetics a radical opposition has been drawn between allegory and symbol, though no opposition like this was drawn previously. Allegory has generally been regarded as inferior to symbol, supposedly being arbitrary and mechanical where symbol was motivated and imaginative. Although more recently post-structuralists have praised allegory over symbol, they have still believed that it is radically arbitrary. In fact, allegory and symbol are both large-scale expressions of conceptual metaphor and as such are both equally motivated and equally suggestive in meaning. The illusion of a radical opposition between them is to be explained by the ideological self-interest of literary and artistic intellectuals.

E-learning and Language and Style in Hong Kong

This article presents something of the experience of teaching and studying web-based Language and Style at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, concentrating mainly on the 2004–5 running of the course, which was taught in a blended traditional + web format. It concentrates on this experience and only briefly presents some degree of the socio-linguistic and cultural context to make the experience accessible for those not familiar with Hong Kong. Some quantitative data are given and are supplemented by qualitative discussion of student comments. A particularly important qualitative resource was the weekly journals kept by the students. The main conclusion to be drawn is that the students want to retain the major features of the traditional lecture and tutorial approach to teaching, but value having this supplemented with the interactive dimension of the web-based approach.

The Pilgrim’s Progress: Allegory or novel?

A tradition going back to Coleridge asserts that The Pilgrim’s Progress is not a true allegory but rather a proto-novel expressive of early modern individualism. The work is radically individualistic, but it is also truly an allegory. Recent research has emphasized how closely related metaphor often is to metonymy and how intimately the two can interact to produce metaphtonymy. This interaction is just as important in allegory as in purely linguistic metaphor and metonymy. The Pilgrim’s Progress makes subtle use of conceptual metaphtonymy to express its individualism. Although the degree of individualism these cognitive structures express is greater than anything in earlier allegorical tradition, the structures themselves are inherited from medieval allegories such as Everyman. This sharing of major cognitive structure with earlier medieval allegories shows that The Pilgrim’s Progress is truly an allegory. An area in which the interaction of metaphor and metonymy is particularly notable is that of blending. The occurrence of highly creative blending in at least some of its scenes is further evidence for the truly allegoric nature of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Honeymoons and Pilgrimages: Conceptual Integration and Allegory in Old and New Media

The cultural-historical manifestations of allegory are extensive and varied. We present detailed analyses of two allegorical texts from disparate historical formations: a Prudentian allegory from 17th century England and a short, 21st century viral video uploaded to YouTube. Despite vertiginous differences, a common conceptual core is identifiable and, we argue, best modeled by Conceptual Integration Networks. These networks, however, vary in systematic ways. While in the viral video attention is focused primarily upon its blended space, in the Prudentian allegory attention is distributed more uniformly over the entire Integration Network.

Book Review: Washing the Brain — Metaphor and Hidden Ideology by Andrew Goatly, 2007. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. xvi + 431. ISBN 978 90 272 2713 3 (hbk)

Language and Literature 2008 17(4) There is yet one more aspect that requires attention, that is, the postcolonial voice which has never been loud enough to be heard above the din of Maltese voices that have recently emerged quite strongly in the local literary works. The question of identity has been addressed in the study as part of the process by which authenticity is gained, but by focusing on such a situation unique to the Maltese context – a native writer adopting the L1 to a Maltese setting – a rare voice has come to the fore. While Caruana presents the four dimensional model of ‘reality’ in translating literary texts, she has created a tool for exposing the postcolonial identity of the text, allowing the projection of its voice to reach beyond the interest in literary translation and move to a wider context – cultural studies.