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Drawing Attention to Metaphor: Case studies across time periods, cultures and modalities
Edited by Camilla Di Biase-Dyson and Markus Egg
[Figurative Thought and Language 5] 2020
► pp. 93–128

Deliberate use of metaphor and metonymy as mnemonic devices for identification in a non-linguistic modality

The case of Deir el-Medina (Egypt)

| Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

The paper concerns a non-linguistic marking system from ancient Egypt in which metaphor was used as a means of communication to specifically refer to identity. The degree to which metaphor was deliberately used, however, differed, depending on the history of the marks in the system (a diachronic dimension) and individual usages by members of the system with various degrees of contextual knowledge (an individual dimension). The use of metaphor is considered in the light of CMT and DMT.

Keywords: metaphorical construct, metonymy, identification, non-linguistic, mnemonic device, ancient perspective, cultural specificity, connectionism, individual dimension, diachronic dimension
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The archaeological material
  • 3.The workings of the system
    • Examples of connections between mark and man
      • Example 1
      • Example 2
      • Example 3
      • Example 4
      • Example 5
    • 3.1A family mark: Semiosis over the passage of time
      • Example 6
  • 4.The role and nature of metaphor and metonymy in the system over time
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 April 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.5.05moe
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