Article In:
Cognitive Approaches to Mind, Language and Society: Theory and descriptionEdited by Mario Serrano-Losada and Daniela Pettersson-Traba
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 11:1] 2024
► pp. 8–33
Edited by Mario Serrano-Losada and Daniela Pettersson-Traba
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 11:1] 2024
► pp. 8–33
Theoretical approaches to figurative language
Metaphor as a resemblance phenomenon
A re-examination of the role of similarity in conceptual metaphor
Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) departed from tradition in metaphor studies by treating this phenomenon as an ordinary one used in everyday reasoning. From its inception, this theory made emphasis on the role of experiential correlation in accounting for metaphorical thought to the detriment of its long-standing treatment in terms of similarity. This experientialist thesis was later strengthened by making it part of a broader theoretical framework that treated correlation metaphor as an embodied phenomenon where an essential part of its role in reasoning was due to its ability to give rise to conceptual conflation. Against the background provided by this theoretical context, this article reexamines the role of correlation, conflation, and embodiment in terms of two distinctions: low and high-level similarity, on the one hand, and structural and non-structural similarity, on the other hand. The analytical categories that support these distinctions are used to provide an improved understanding of the nature of metaphorical thought, including correlation metaphor, structural metaphor, several forms of analogy, synesthetic metaphor, and metaphorical amalgams.
Keywords: analogy, correlation metaphor, correlation metonymy, experiential correlation, low and high-level similarity, mediated resemblance, resemblance metaphor, structural and non-structural similarity
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Conceptual metaphor theory
- 2.1Correlation versus similarity
- 2.2Experiential correlation in metaphorical reasoning
- 3.Revisiting experiential correlation
- 3.1Correlation and metonymy
- 3.2Differences between correlation metonymy and metaphor
- 4.The role of structural resemblance in metaphor
- 4.1Non-eventive structural resemblance
- 4.2Eventive structural resemblance
- 5.Mediated structural resemblance
- 6.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References
Barcelona, A.
(2018) General
description of the metonymy database in the Córdoba project, with particular attention to the issues of hierarchy,
prototypicality, and taxonomic domains. In O. Blanco-Carrión, A. Barcelona & R. Pannain (Eds.), Conceptual
metonymy: Methodological, theoretical, and descriptive
issues (pp. 27–54). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 
Bergen, B. K.
(2012) Louder
than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning. New York: Basic Books.
Bhatt, R.
(1999) Ability
modals and their actuality entailments. In K. N. Shahin, S. Blake & E.-S. Kim (Eds.), The
proceedings of the 17th West Coast Conference on formal
linguistics (pp. 74–87). CA: CSLI.
Bond, B., & Stevens, S. S.
(1969) Cross-modality
matching of brightness to loudness by 5-year-olds. Perception &
Psychophysics,
6
(6A), 337–339.
Casasanto, D., & Gijssels, T.
(2015) What
makes a metaphor an embodied metaphor?. Linguistics
Vanguard,
1
(1), 327–337.
Dodge, E., & Lakoff, G.
(2005) Image
schemas: From linguistic analysis to neural grounding. In B. Hampe (Ed.), From
perception to meaning: Image schemas in Cognitive
Linguistics (pp. 57–92). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Dupriez, B.
(1991) A
dictionary of literary devices: Gradus,
A-Z. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gibbs, Jr. R. W.
(2006) Metaphor
interpretation as embodied simulation. Mind and
Language,
21
(3), 434–458.
(2014) Embodied
metaphor. In J. Littlemore & J. R. Taylor (Eds.), The
Bloomsbury companion to Cognitive
Linguistics (pp. 167–184). London: Blooomsbury.
Grady, J. E.
(1997) Theories
are buildings revisited. Cognitive
Linguistics,
8
(4), 267–290.
(1999) A
typology of motivation for conceptual metaphor: Correlation vs.
resemblance. In R. W. Gibbs, Jr. & G. J. Steen (Eds.), Metaphor
in Cognitive
Linguistics (pp. 79–100). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Grady, J. E., & Ascoli, G. A.
(2017) Sources
and targets in primary metaphor theory: Looking back and thinking
ahead. In B. Hampe (Ed.), Metaphor:
Embodied cognition and
discourse (pp. 27–45). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Karttunen, L.
(1971) Implicative
verbs. Language,
47
(2), 340–358.
Lakoff, G.
(1993) The
contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor
and
thought (pp. 202–251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2008) The
neural theory of metaphor. In R. W. Gibbs, Jr. (Ed.), The
Cambridge handbook of metaphor and
thought (pp. 17–38). New York: Cambridge University Press.
(2014) Mapping
the brain’s metaphor circuitry: Metaphorical thought in everyday reason. Frontiers in Human
Neuroscience,
8
1, Article 958.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M.
(1980) Metaphors
we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
(1999) Philosophy
in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York: Basic Books.
Langacker, R. W.
(1987) Foundations
of Cognitive Grammar: Vol. I: Theoretical
prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Leech, G. N.
(1969) A
linguistic guide to English
poetry. London: Longman.
Panther, K.-U., & Thornburg, L.
(1999) The
potentiality for actuality metonymy in English and
Hungarian. In K.-U. Panther & G. Radden (Eds.), Metonymy
in language and
thought (pp. 333–357). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Peña-Cervel, M. S., & Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J.
Plümacher, M.
(2007) Color
perception, color description and metaphor. In M. Plümacher & P. Holz (Eds.), Speaking
of colors and
odors (pp. 61–84). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Rich, A. N., & Mattingley, J. B.
(2002) Anomalous
perception in synaesthesia: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. Nature Reviews
Neuroscience,
3
1, 43–52.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J.
(2017) Metaphor
and other cognitive operations in interaction: From basicity to
complexity. In B. Hampe (Ed.), Metaphor:
Embodied cognition and
discourse (pp. 138–159). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2020) Understanding
figures of speech: Dependency relations and organizational patterns. Language &
Communication,
71
1, 16–38.
(2021) Ten
lectures on cognitive modeling: Between grammar and language-based
inferencing. Leiden: Brill.
(2022) Analogical
and non-analogical resemblance in figurative language: A cognitive-linguistic
perspective. In S. Wuppuluri & A. C. Grayling (Eds.), Metaphors
and analogies in sciences and
humanities (pp. 269–293). Cham: Springer.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Masegosa, A. G.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Barreras Gómez, M. A.
(2022) Linguistic
and metalinguistic resemblance. In A. Bagasheva, B. Hristov & N. Tincheva (Eds.), Figurativity
and human
ecology (pp. 15–41). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Pérez Hernández, L.
(2001) Metonymy
and the grammar: Motivation, constraints and interaction. Language &
Communication,
21
(4), 321–357.
Santibáñez Sáenz, F.
(1999) Semantic
structure, relational networks, and domains of reference. Journal of English
Studies,
1
1, 271–288.
Shams, L., Kamitani, Y., & Shimojo, S.
(2000) Illusions:
What you see is what you
hear. Nature,
408
1, 788–788.
Strik Lievers, F.
(2016) Synaesthetic metaphors in translation. Studi e Saggi Linguistici,
54
(1), 43–69.
(2017) Figures and the senses: Towards a definition of synaesthesia. Review of Cognitive Linguistics,
15
(1), 83–101.
Winter, B.
(2019) Synaesthetic
metaphors are neither synaesthetic nor metaphorical. In L. J. Speed, C. O’Meara, L. San Roque & A. Majid (Eds.), Perceptual
metaphors (pp. 105–126). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.