Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Metaphor in Culture
- 1 Introduction: Metaphor and the Issue of Universality
- PART I UNIVERSAL METAPHORS
- PART II DIMENSIONS OF METAPHOR VARIATION
- PART III ASPECTS OF METAPHOR INVOLVED IN VARIATION
- 6 How Components of Conceptual Metaphor Are Involved in Variation
- 7 Conceptual Metaphors and Their Linguistic Expression in Different Languages
- 8 Metaphor in Social–Physical Reality
- 9 Metaphors and Cultural Models
- PART IV CAUSES OF METAPHOR VARIATION
- References
- Index
8 - Metaphor in Social–Physical Reality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Metaphor in Culture
- 1 Introduction: Metaphor and the Issue of Universality
- PART I UNIVERSAL METAPHORS
- PART II DIMENSIONS OF METAPHOR VARIATION
- PART III ASPECTS OF METAPHOR INVOLVED IN VARIATION
- 6 How Components of Conceptual Metaphor Are Involved in Variation
- 7 Conceptual Metaphors and Their Linguistic Expression in Different Languages
- 8 Metaphor in Social–Physical Reality
- 9 Metaphors and Cultural Models
- PART IV CAUSES OF METAPHOR VARIATION
- References
- Index
Summary
As we have noted throughout, metaphor is primarily conceptual in nature and as a conceptual phenomenon is capable of organizing our thought. In chapter 7, we saw how conceptual metaphors can be expressed linguistically, that is, by means of metaphorical linguistic expressions. In this chapter, I will turn to another aspect of conceptual metaphors, namely, their ability to be realized in social – cultural practice and institutions, as well as in modalities other than language. This ability gives the study of metaphor a preeminent role in the study of cultures – concerning both their universal and their particular aspects. I will single out one culture – American culture – for the demonstration of this point.
HOW CAN CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS BE REALIZED IN SOCIAL PRACTICE?
There are several possible ways for metaphors to be realized in other than linguistic ways. (These nonlinguistic realizations of metaphors would be called “instituted models” by the anthropologist Bradd Shore, 1996.) If we take a conceptual metaphor to be a pairing of domains A (target) and B (source), such that “A is B,” then the realization can occur in at least the following ways:
The source domain, B, can turn into social–physical reality;
The entailments of the source domain, B, can turn into social – physical reality;
The target domain, A, can actually become the source domain, B, and, at the same time, turn into social–physical reality.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Metaphor in CultureUniversality and Variation, pp. 163 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005