Article published In:
International Journal of Language and CultureVol. 2:1 (2015) ► pp.38–61
Society and culture as container
(Re-)drawing borders and their metaphorical foundation from a communicative and extracommunicative point of view
Within the social sciences and humanities, especially in the field of cultural studies, research has increasingly been dealing with the dissolution of cultural and social boundaries. However, the question of how interactants perceive themselves and construct and describe their interaction space in a certain ‘culture’ or ‘society’ can only be answered empirically. In this regard, the methodological framework of cognitive metaphor theory has proven to be facilitative. From a cognitive semantics point of view, metaphors by no means refer to an external world in a descriptive sense, but are important mediators between cognition and language, as well as between the individual and society. On the basis of two research projects — one on the metaphorical construction of society in German and Brazilian written and spoken corpora, and another on filmed intercultural interactions in the context of an ongoing research — it will be revealed how participants in communication use culture-specific metaphorizations when localizing themselves and others. In addition, the role of animated ‘compound image schemas’, such as container, outside-inside and up-down, will be explored at the linguistic as well as the gestural level when functioning as ‘patterns of orientation’ and ‘meaning formulas’. While from a communicative-participative perspective such schemas serve to reduce complexity, they are also highly significant from the participants’ own extracommunicative-reflexive point of view where interpretations regarding divergent behavioral patterns are concerned.
References (60)
Almeida, A.C. (2007). A cabeça do brasileiro. Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo: Editora Record.
Bachmann-Medick, D. (2009). Cultural turns. Neuorientierungen in den Kulturwissenschaften. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.
Bhabha, H.K. (1994). The location of culture. New York: Routledge.
Boers, F., & Demecheleer, M. (1997). A few metaphorical models in (western) economic discourse. In W. Liebert, G. Redeker, & L.R. Waugh (Eds.), Discourse and perspective in cognitive linguistics (pp. 115–129). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 
Boroditsky, L. (2007). Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers’ conception of time. In V. Evans, B. Bergen, & J. Zinken (Eds.), The cognitive linguistics reader (pp. 881–901). London: Equinox Publishing.
Bude, H. (2008). Die Ausgeschlossenen. Das Ende vom Traum einer gerechten Gesellschaft. München: Carl Hanser Verlag.
Cameron, L. (2007). Confrontation or complementarity? Metaphor in language use and cognitive metaphor theory. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 51, 107–135.
. (2008). Metaphor and talk. In R.W. Gibbs, Jr. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 197–211). Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Cienki, A. (2008). Why study metaphor and gesture? In A. Cienki & C. Müller (Eds.), Metaphor and gesture (pp. 5–25). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Cienki, A., & Müller, C. (2008). Metaphor, gesture, and thought. In R.W. Gibbs, Jr. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 483–501). Cambridge: University Press.
Clifford, J. (1997). Routes: Travel and translation in the late twentieth century. Cambridge, London.
Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (1999). Bridges to learning. Metaphors of teaching, learning and language. In L. Cameron & G. Low (Eds.), Researching and applying metaphor (pp. 149–176). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dreher, J. (2007). Konstitutionsprinzipien ‘kultureller Differenz’: Zur Analyse der Konstruktion kultureller Grenzbestimmungen in grundlagentheoretischer Absicht. In J. Dreher & P. Stegmaier (Eds.), Zur Unüberwindbarkeit kultureller Differenz. Grundlagentheoretische Reflexionen (pp. 129–151). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
Freyre, G. (1933/1999). Casa Grande & Senzala. Formação da Família Brasileira sob o Regime da Economia Patriarcal. Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo: Editora Record.
Geideck, S., & Liebert, W.A. (2003). Sinnformeln. Linguistische und soziologische Analysen von Leitbildern, Metaphern und anderen kollektiven Orientierungsmustern. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kasper, G. (2008). Data collection in pragmatics research. In H. Spencer-Oatey (Ed.), Culturally speaking: Culture, communication and politeness theory (pp. 279–303). London: Continuum.
Kimmel, M. (2005). Culture regained: Situated and compound image schemas. In B. Hampe & J.E. Grady (Eds.), From perception to meaning: Image schemas in cognitive linguistics (pp. 285–311). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kohl, K. (2007). Metaphor. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler.
Kövecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
. (2003). Metaphor and emotion: Language, culture, and body in human feeling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
. (2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
. (2010). A new look at metaphorical creativity in cognitive linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics, 21(4), 663–697.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980/2003). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York: Basic Book.
Lakoff, G. & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 202–251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leezenberg, M. (2001). Contexts of metaphor. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Linz, E. (2004). Sprachlose Metaphern. Zur Rhetorizität der Kognition und ihrer Modellierung in der kognitiven Linguistik. In J. Fohrmann (Ed.), Rhetorik. Figuration und Performanz (pp. 246–266). Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler.
Littlemore, J. (2008). The relationship between associative thinking, analogical reasoning, image formation and metaphoric extension strategies. In M.S. Zanotto, L. Cameron, & M.C. Cavalcanti (Eds.), Confronting metaphor in use: An applied linguistic approach (pp. 199–222). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Marschark, M. (2005). Metaphors in sign language and sign language users: A window into relations of language and thought. In H.L. Colston & A.N. Katz (Eds.), Figurative language comprehension: Social and cultural influences (pp. 209–334). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
McNeill, D. (2008). Unexpected metaphors. In A. Cienki & C. Müller (Eds.), Metaphor and gesture (pp. 155–170). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Müller, C. (2008a). What gestures reveal about the nature of metaphor. In A. Cienki & C. Müller (Eds.), Metaphor and gesture (pp. 219–245). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
. (2008b). Metaphors, dead and alive, sleeping and waking: A dynamic view. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Musolff, A. (2000). Political imagery of Europe: A house without exit doors? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 21(3), 216–229.
Núñez, R.E., Neumann, V.G., & Mamani, M. (1997). Los mapeos conceptuales de la concepción del tiempo en la lengua Aymara del norte de Chile. Boletin de Educación de la Universidad Católica del Norte, 281, 47–55.
Parrill, F. (2008). Form, meaning, and convention: A comparison of a metaphoric gesture with an emblem. In A. Cienki & C. Müller (Eds.), Metaphor and gesture (pp. 195–217). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Peirce, C.S. (1965). Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (Vol. I and II1) (C. Hartshorne & P. Weiss, Eds.). Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Quinn, N. (1987). Convergent evidence for a cultural model of American marriage. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (Eds.), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 173–192). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
. (1991). The cultural basis of metaphor. In J.W. Fernandez (Ed.), Beyond metaphor: The theory of tropes in anthropology (pp. 56–93). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Ribeiro, D. (1983). As Américas e a civilização. Formação histórica e causas do desenvolvimento desigual dos povos americanos. Petrópolis: Editora Vozes Ltda.
Schmidt, T., & Wörner, K. (2009). EXMARaLDA-Creating, analysing and sharing spoken language corpora for pragmatic research. Pragmatics, 191, 565–582.
Schmitz, H.W. (1985). Die durchgängige Tropisierung der Sprache. Über einen Aspekt von ‘Zeichen im Wandel. In K.D. Dutz & P. Schmitter (Eds.), Historiographia Semioticae. Studien zur Rekonstruktion der Theorie und Geschichte der Semiotik (pp. 241–270). Münster: MAkS Publikationen.
Schröder, U. (2004). Der Selbstbeobachter-ein deutsches Phänomen? Kodikas/Code Ars Semeiotica. An International Journal of Semiotics, 27 ¾1, 201–218.
. (2009). Preferential metaphorical conceptualizations in everyday discourse about love in the Brazilian and German speech communities. Metaphor and Symbol, 24(2), 105–120.
. (2010a). Der Einfluss kultureller und kontextueller Faktoren bei der Konstruktion integrierter Netzwerke in metaphorischen blends
. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Linguistik, 11, 81–102.
. (2010b). Die metaphorische Konstruktion von Gesellschaft in kulturvergleichender Perspektive. Lusorama, 83–841, 183–213.
. (2011). Trinta Anos da Teoria Conceptual da Metáfora: uma Retrospectiva Crítica. Cadernos de Estudos Lingüísticos, 531, 59–71.
. (2012a). Applying conceptual metaphor and blending theory to culture-specific speech functions in rap lyrics. Text & Talk, 321, 211–234.
. (2012b). Kommunikationstheoretische Fragestellungen in der kognitiven Metaphernforschung. Eine Betrachtung von ihren Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
. (2014). The interplay of (im)politeness, conflict styles, rapport management and metacommunication in Brazilian-German interaction. Intercultural Pragmatics, 111, 57–82.
Schröder, U., & Viterbo Lage, C. de (2014). Estratégias de polidez em momentos de dissensão: análise de uma interação entre estudantes brasileiros e alemães. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, 22(1), 153–179.
Selting, M., Auer, P., Barth-Weingarten, D., Bergmann, J.R., Bergmann, P., Birkner, K., Couper-Kuhlen, E., Deppermann, A., Gilles, P., Günthner, S., Hartung, M., & Kern, F. (2009). Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2). Gesprächsforschung-Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion, 101, 353–402.
Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Steen, G.J. (2007). Finding metaphor in grammar and usage. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ungeheuer, G. (2004). Kommunikative und extrakommunikative Betrachtungsweisen in der Phonetik. In G. Ungeheuer (Ed.), Sprache und Kommunikation (pp. 22–34). Münster: Nodus Publikationen.
Wodak, R. (2002). Fragmented identities: Redefining and recontextualizing national identity. In P.A. Chilton & C. Schäffner (Eds.), Politics as talk and text: Analytic approaches to political discourse (pp. 143–169). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Yu, N. (1998). The contemporary theory of metaphor: A perspective from Chinese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
. (2008). Metaphor from body and culture. In R. Gibbs (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 247–261). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cited by (10)
Cited by ten other publications
Dyrmo, Tomasz
2024. Image schemas in gestural metaphorical scenarios of swearing. Multimodal Communication 13:2 ► pp. 117 ff. 
Stephens, Gregory
2023. Postcolonialism as leftist firing squad and procrustean bed: a communicative take. Journal for Cultural Research 27:1 ► pp. 38 ff.
Johnson, Esko
2021. ‘They are not very open to people’: how mobile students construct interculturality through metaphor and narrative. Language and Intercultural Communication 21:5 ► pp. 588 ff.
Johnson, Esko
2023. Figurative language and ‘doing interculturality’ in a lingua franca. European Journal of Applied Linguistics 11:2 ► pp. 410 ff.
Schröder, Ulrike, Milene Mendes de Oliveira & Hans-Georg Wolf
2020. Intercultural Pragmatics and Cultural Linguistics. International Journal of Language and Culture 7:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Schröder, Ulrike
2015. The interplay of verbal, vocal, and visual cues in the co-construction of the experience of alterity in exchange students’ talk. Journal of Pragmatics 81 ► pp. 21 ff.
Schröder, Ulrike
2015. Metaphorical blends and their function in discourse on society. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 2:1 ► pp. 50 ff.
Schröder, Ulrike
2017. Multimodal metaphors as cognitive pivots for the construction of cultural otherness in talk. Intercultural Pragmatics 14:4
Schröder, Ulrike
2019. Comunicação (inter)cultural em interação: Um grupo de pesquisa na interface dos estudos da fala-em-interação e da linguística cultural. In Comunicação (inter)cultural em interação, ► pp. 19 ff.
Schröder, Ulrike
2024. “Open and Closed People” as and in containers: Breaking Down Cultural Conceptualizations in Multimodal Communication. In The Handbook of Cultural Linguistics [Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics, ], ► pp. 3 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.