Book contents
- MetaphorEmbodied Cognition and Discourse
- Metaphor
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Editor’s Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Metaphor in Cognition
- Part II More than Metaphor
- Part III Metaphor in Discourse
- Part IV Salient Metaphor
- Epilogue (A Personal View)
- References
- Person Index
- Subject Index
Part I - Metaphor in Cognition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2017
- MetaphorEmbodied Cognition and Discourse
- Metaphor
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Editor’s Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Metaphor in Cognition
- Part II More than Metaphor
- Part III Metaphor in Discourse
- Part IV Salient Metaphor
- Epilogue (A Personal View)
- References
- Person Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Primary metaphors are deeply entrenched associations of “source” and “target” concepts, e.g. HEAVINESS and DIFFICULTY, that underlie numerous, extremely common metaphoric uses of language both within a given language such as English and across languages. Apart from reviewing relevant existing work on the conceptual and linguistic relationships referred to as “primary metaphors,” especially claims about their unidirectionality and universality, this chapter also suggests a new avenue for future research on aspects of their neural organization/function, asking whether there may be neural correlates of “sourceness” and “targetness” that imply distinct processing profiles for the two sets of concepts, and suggesting plausible directions where such distinctions might be identified. More particularly, the chapter explores the hypothesis that source concepts might be correlated with localized cortical structures organized as neural maps as well as the complementary hypothesis that target concepts are not correlated with such localized structures and instead involve more widely distributed structures or processes, such as the action of diffuse modulatory neurotransmitters. In addition to considering the linguistic, conceptual, and neural distinctions to be drawn between “sourceness” and “targetness,” we consider what the cognitive advantages might be of relatively unidirectional associations between such categories of concepts.
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- Information
- MetaphorEmbodied Cognition and Discourse, pp. 25 - 116Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017