On the diversity of linguistic evidence for conceptual metaphor
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Date
2009
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
In this article my main concern is the linguistic evidence for the view that metaphor is conceptual
in nature. Since the fact that there is a great diversity of linguistic evidence for patterns of metaphorical
thought has been, by and large, not emphasized enough, I overview a variety of such
evidence, which can be derived from the study of different aspects of meaning within a particular
language, crosslinguistically, and at a metalinguistic level. However, in itself the variety of linguistic
evidence, even though it speaks very strongly for the idea that metaphor is conceptual in
nature, is not sufficient to justify it. Therefore, recognizing the fact that claims about our conceptual
system which are based on linguistic analyses alone remain within the “language – thought –
language” circle, the article discusses also some kinds of nonlinguistic evidence for conceptual
metaphors. Psycholinguistic research on metaphorical reasoning is presented as a major source of
such nonlinguistic verifications. Drawing on Daniel Barenboim’s BBC Reith lectures of 2006, it is
also argued that convergent evidence from language and music may serve to break open the “language
– thought – language” circle.
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Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 45.2 (2009), pp. 81-106