In:Analogy and Contrast in Language: Perspectives from Cognitive Linguistics
Edited by Karolina Krawczak, Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Marcin Grygiel
[Human Cognitive Processing 73] 2022
► pp. 47–60
Chapter 2Diagrammatic iconicity and rendering time in a narrative text
Analogies and contrasts
Published online: 27 October 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.73.02tab
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.73.02tab
Abstract
Like contrast and analogy, iconicity defined as correspondence of form and meaning stems from the ability
of human mind to observe similarity between entities. When similarity is perceived and considered with reference to
difference, it gives rise to analogy. In this sense, analogy and contrast can be seen as two sides of a single
“cognitive coin”. Both underlie iconicity (especially individual types of diagrammatic iconicity), which is a
significant property of texts, with the difference between “the literary” and “the non-literary” being mainly a matter
of degree. I discuss some examples of the functioning of diagrammatic iconicity on all levels of text organization and
substantiate the claim that it is one of the reasons why a translation of a text can only be partly analogous
(equivalent?) to the original, the relation between the two being that of (stronger or weaker) contrast.
Keywords: equivalence, text organization, translation
Article outline
- 1.Preliminary
- 2.Iconicity
- 3.The text: “The railway station in Dębica”
- 3.1The book: The experience of time
- 3.2The book: Two extracts
- 4.The workings and the underminings of IP
- 5.Analogy and contrast
- 6.Translation
- 7.Conclusions
Notes References Appendix
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