To what extent and in what ways is metaphorical thought relevant to an understanding of culture and society? More specifically: can the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor simultaneously explain both universality and diversity in metaphorical thought? Cognitive linguists have done important work on universal aspects of metaphor, but they have paid much less attention to why metaphors vary both interculturally and intraculturally as extensively as they do. In this book, Zoltán Kövecses proposes a new theory of metaphor variation. First, he identifies the major dimension of metaphor variation, that is, those social and cultural boundaries that signal discontinuities in human experience. Second, he describes which components, or aspects of conceptual metaphor are involved in metaphor variation, and how they are involved. Third, he isolates the main causes of metaphor variation. Fourth Professor Kövecses addresses the issue to the degree of cultural coherence in the interplay among conceptual metaphors, embodiment, and causes of metaphor variation.

The often-overlooked views of political scientists and journalists who conceive of the world in terms of zero-sum games are explored, as are the issues of the symbolism associated with cultural metaphors. The book concludes with a description of specific uses of cultural metaphors or metaphorical applications."--BOOK JACKET.

This book analyses the emotional message of Hungarian folksongs from a Cultural Linguistic perspective, employing a wide range of empirical devices. It combines theoretical notions with analytical devices and has a multidisciplinary essence: it relies on the latest Cultural Linguistic findings, employing spatial semantics, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and ethnography. The book addresses key questions including: How is nature conceptualized by a folk cultural group? How are emotions and other mental states expressed via nature imagery with respect to metaphors and construal schemas? The author argues that folksongs reflect the Hungarian peasant communities’ specific treatment of emotions, captured in an underlying cultural schema ‘reservedness.’ This schema is grounded in principals of morality and tradition, and governs the various levels of representation. The main topics discussed are related to two core issues: cultural metaphors and cultural schemas of construal in folksongs. It provides a detailed example, based on over 1000 folksongs, of how a cultural group’s cognition can be analyzed and better understood through a representative corpus-based linguistic approach. The research is also pioneering in constructing a comprehensive analysis framework adapted to folk poetry, and offers an example of how cultural conceptualizations can be investigated in various discourse types. Last but not least, the book offers insights into the work of Hungarian linguists and folklorists concerning cultural conceptualizations, which have largely been unavailable in English.

Are human emotions best characterized as biological, psychological, or cultural entities? Many researchers claim that emotions arise either from human biology (i.e., biological reductionism) or as products of culture (i.e., social constructionism). This book challenges this simplistic division between the body and culture by showing how human emotions are to a large extent "constructed" from individuals' embodied experiences in different cultural settings. The view proposed here demonstrates how cultural aspects of emotions, metaphorical language about the emotions, and human physiology in emotion are all part of an intergrated system and shows how this system points to the reconciliation of the seemingly contradictory views of biological reductionism and social constructionism in contemporary debates about human emotion.

Metaphor is a fascinating phenomenon, but it is also complex and multi-faceted, varying in how it is manifested in different modes of expression, languages, cultures, or time-scales. How then can we reliably identify metaphors in different contexts? How does the language or culture of speakers and hearers affect the way metaphors are produced or interpreted? Are the methods employed to explore metaphors in one context applicable in others? The sixteen chapters that make up this volume offer not only detailed studies of the situated use of metaphor in language, gesture, and visuals around the world – providing important insights into the different factors that produce variation – but also careful explication and discussion of the methodological issues that arise when researchers approach metaphor in diverse 'real world' contexts. The book constitutes an important contribution to applied metaphor studies, and will prove an invaluable resource for the novice and experienced metaphor researcher alike.

Using dominant metaphors in American English and the Chinese language, Metaphor, Culture, and Worldview explores how metaphor is a product that is simultaneously shaped by and is shaping the culture and the worldview of the people who use it, and how it showcases some unique features of communication of the speakers of the two languages.

This book provides an innovative contribution to debates about the use of metaphor in the social sciences written by one of today's foremost archaeological theorists. Christopher Tilley combines theoretical interpretation with practical examples to show the significance of the concept of metaphor in the study and writing of material forms. The first part of the book provides an overview of the use and value of the notion of metaphor in its broadest sense. Tilley argues that without metaphor human communication would be almost impossible and he shows how metaphors provide the basis for an interpretative understanding of the world. He then presents three archaeological and ethnographic studies of metaphors chosen to demonstrate the richness of the concept for understanding texts, objects and artworks. Part III of the book examines metaphor more specifically in relation to the social construction of landscape and the meaning of place in the prehistoric past and the present. The author concludes by developing elements of a theory of material forms as "solid metaphor". The book will be of interest to all those examining metaphor in its various applications.