1. CONTEXT IN METAPHOR PRODUCTION
Zoltán Kövecses
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

2. Structure of the talk
1. Brief intro to CMT 2. Some preliminary notions of metaphorical meaning making and communication 3. Common contextual factors 4. Local and global contextual factors 5. Conclusions

3. 1. Introducing CMT Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) A IS B
Mappings between A and B
Metaphorical inferences from B
Embodiment: meaningfulness
ANGER IS FIRE

4. Linguistic metaphors:
That kindled my ire.
Those were inflammatory remarks.
Smoke was coming out of his ears.
She was burning with anger.
He was spitting fire.
The incident set the people ablaze with anger.

5. A conceptual metaphor is a systematic set of correspondences between two domains of experience.
Source and target domain.
Correlation between the two.

6. the cause of fire  the cause of anger
causing the fire  causing the anger
the thing on fire  the angry person
the fire  the anger
the intensity of fire  the intensity of anger
Coherent view of fire mapped onto anger.
Conceptualizing a domain.

7. Do metaphors arise from the body alone?

8. 2. Some preliminary notions of metaphorical meaning making and communication
Relevant context
What is the appropriate context for the interpretation of this metaphor?
Hearer’s perspective vs. Speaker’s perspective
What is it in the present context that I can make use of to create the appropriate metaphor that the hearer can understand and will interpret correctly?

9. Referential scene and joint attention
Based on Sinha (2007).

10. Joint action and common ground
Using symbols with another interlocutor about a referential situation as part of a communicative exchange, that is, symbolically representing it for the other, is a form of “joint action” (Clark, 1996).
using symbols (making utterances), just like other joint actions, assumes a large amount of shared knowledge between speaker and hearer. Clark (1996) calls this “common ground.”

11. 3. Common contextual factors
Knowledge about the main elements of the discourse
Speaker, Hearer, Topic
„You’re documenting something that was never intended to live this long. You never intended to live this long.”
Frank Jump, New York City photographer
surviving aids despite predictions to the contrary is for the old mural advertisements to survive their expected “life span”

13. Common contextual factors
Surrounding discourse – cotext
„The Americanization of Japanese car industry shifts into higher gear.” (USA Today)
[showing „contempt” for the law] which helped to tilt the balance – and Mr Hain – over the edge (The Times)

14. Common contextual factors
Previous discourse on the same topic
Tony Blair example, from Semino (2008):
I can only go one way. I’ve not got a reverse gear. progress is motion forward
but when you’re on the edge of a cliff it is good to have a reverse gear

15. Common contextual factors
Ideology
Conservatives:
the nation is a strict father family
Liberals:
the nation is a nurturant parent family
(Lakoff)

16. Common contextual factors
Physical environment
Flora, fauna, landscape, weather conditions, sounds, etc.
British English vs. American English
Dutch vs. Afrikaans (Dirven)

17. Common contextual factors
Social situation
gender, class, politeness, work, education, social organizations, social structure, etc.
American men and women.
Frontier as virgin land vs. garden (Kolodny)

18. Common contextual factors
Cultural situation
Anger metaphors.
Hot fluid, fire in Europe (Grondelears and Geeraerts)
Gas in China (Ning Yu)

19. Common contextual factors
History
American vs. Hungarian history
Conceptualization of life.
LIFE IS A PRECIOUS COMMODITY / A GAME
LIFE IS A STRUGGLE / A COMPROMISE (Köves)

20. Common contextual factors
Concerns and interests
Action-oriented vs. passive / hedonistic
take a shower vs. have a shower (Wierzbicka)
Professional interests
teachers, doctors, athletes use of metaphors

21. Common contextual factors
The body as context
Primary metaphors –
embodiment - universality (Grady, Lakoff, Johnson)
The „local body” – variation
Casasanto: MORAL IS RIGHT / LEFT

22. Common contextual factors
The conceptual system as context:
Concerns and interests; ideology; history; +
What we have in the metaphorical conceptual system can influence the choice of particular metaphors (either conceptual or linguistic).
defend: argument is war
travel: I've lived a life that's full I traveled each and every highway And more, much more than this, I did it my way

23. 4. Context types Summary of types Situational context
Discourse context
Conceptual-cognitive context
Bodily context
Why these four?

24. Context types and contextual factors
SITUATIONAL CONTEXT
DISCOURSE CONTEXT
BODILY CONTEXT
CONCEPTUAL-COGNITIVE CONTEXT
Physical environment
Surrounding discourse (co-text)
Correlations in experience
Metaphorical conceptual system
Cultural situation
Previous discourse
Bodily conditions
Ideology
Social situation
Knowledge about speaker, topic, hearer
Body specificities
Concerns and interests
Dominant forms of discourse
History

25. Local and global contextual factors
Local context: involves the specific knowledge conceptualizers have about some aspect of the immediate communicative situation
Global context: consists of their general knowledge concerning the nonimmediate situation that characterizes a community.
The two can be combined.
They form a gradient.

26. Summary

27. 5. Conclusions Conceptual metaphor theory:
Many metaphors in real discourse are „context-induced” metaphors.
Theories of context:
Context involves more than just linguistic and situational context: the totality of our experiences – direct or represented.
Theories of cognition:
Cognition is grounded in multiple ways, including our situational, linguistic, bodily, and cognitive-conceptual experiences and knowledge.

28. Much of this work comes from
WHERE METAPHORS COME FROM. RECONSIDERING CONTEXT IN METAPHOR.
Oxford University Press
THANK YOU!!