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Metaphor across Time and Conceptual Space
The interplay of embodiment and cultural models
Contemporary linguistic forms are partially the product of their historical antecedents, and the same is true for cognitive conceptualization. The book presents the results of several diachronic corpus studies of conceptual metaphor in a longitudinal and empirical “mixed methods” design, employing both quantitative and qualitative analysis measures; the study design was informed by usage-based theory. The goal was to investigate the interaction over time between conceptualization and cultural models in historical English-speaking society. The main study of two linguistic metaphors of anger spans five centuries (A.D. 1500 to 1990). The results show that conceptualization and cultural models—understood as non-autonomous, encyclopedic knowledge—work together to determine both the meaning and use of a linguistic metaphor. In addition, historically a wide variety of emotion concepts formed a complex cognitive array called the Domain Matrix of emotion. The implications for conceptual metaphor theory, research methodology, and future study are discussed in detail.
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts, 3] 2013. xv, 237 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 3 September 2013
Published online on 3 September 2013
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- Tables and figures | pp. xv–xvi
- Part I. Theoretical foundations
- Chapter 1. The Cognition-Culture interface | pp. 3–38
- Chapter 2. Diachronic aspects of synchronic concepts | pp. 39–62
- Chapter 3. Metaphor across historical time | pp. 63–82
- Part II. A macro-study of human emotion in cultural context, A.D. 1500–1990
- Chapter 4. Research questions and methodology | pp. 85–102
- Chapter 5. Results of the ancillary study of non-linguistic data | pp. 103–132
- Chapter 6. The main study of two diachronic metaphors of anger | pp. 133–162
- Part III. Micro-studies of emotion – the 19th century
- Chapter 7. The edge of anger: The spleen metaphor across emotion domains | pp. 165–176
- Chapter 8. Bubbling happiness: Properties of emotion | pp. 177–188
- Part IV. Conclusions and implications
- Chapter 9. The non-autonomous nature of cognition, language, and culture | pp. 191–214
- Epilogue. “Bridging the Gap” between theory and real-world language use | pp. 215–218
- Appendices | pp. 229–232
- Index | pp. 233–237
“Metaphor Across Time and Conceptual Space is a useful addition to a currently popular research area—the diachronic study of metaphors of emotion—and as such it should find a ready audience. Its particular contribution lies in the very explicit attempt to bring notions of embodiment together with cultural considerations, and it does so persuasively. It will be of relevance to scholars with an interest in the conceptualization of emotions, as well as historical linguists, and should also offer a useful perspective to historians, particularly early modern historians, given the use of corpora with a center of gravity in this period”
Wendy Anderson, University of Glasgow, in Metaphor and Symbol Bol. 32, No. 1 (2017)
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[no author supplied]
2026. Introduction. In At the Crossroads of Historical and Cognitive Linguistics [Figurative Thought and Language, 21], ► pp. 1 ff.
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