Publications
Publication details [#2966]
Bretones Callejas, Carmen María. 2002. Conceptual integration, categorization, metaphor and idiomaticity in the new European monetary Union (the Euro). Alea: Estudos Neolatinos 23 (1) : 25–39. 15 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the new conceptual reality that the European Union and, more specifically, Spanish speakers face nowadays. We will see the cognitive mechanisms that speakers activate in order to face this reality and how Conceptual Integration (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002) is the basic conceptual mechanism that makes the change possible and, therefore, communication successful. In this work, I analyze how speakers face dealing with a new monetary reality, and its retort in language and thought. A somehow imposed new conceptual reality is reflected in the language and shown through the conflict or "epistemic impasse" (Callejas Bretones and Martin Morillas, 1999) that speakers face when they use concepts such as "peseta" or "money," and idiomatic expressions such as 'Nadie da duros par pesetas' (No-one gives dimes for cents) meaning "nobody gives money away."
(LLBA 2003, vol. 37, n. 2)