the target domain is our understanding of the concept of anger because it is
the concept we wish to describe through the metaphor.
The source domain for the
metaphor can be conceptualised as ‘heated fluid in a container’ because that is
the concept which provides the vehicle for the metaphorical transfer. The metaphor
as a whole can represented, using the standard notation
of small capital letters, by
the formula:
ANGER IS A HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER
. This type of formulation
is useful because it abstracts out of the particular linguistic structure of the metaphor
its underlying organisation.
Importantly, the relationship between metaphor and linguistic form is an indirect
one, which means that we can express the same conceptual metaphor through a
variety of constructions. Consider, for instance, an alternative version of example (1):
(2)
Talk about letting off steam . . . She really blew her lid, I mean really blew her
top. She just exploded!
Although this example comprises four grammatical clauses, this is not to say that it
contains four metaphors. All of the clauses in fact express the same source and target
domain, which means that the single underlying conceptual metaphor
ANGER IS A
HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER
is being played out through
a variety of linguistic
constructions.
In his influential study of the poetic structure of the human mind, Gibbs (1994)
highlights the important part metaphor plays in our everyday conceptual thought.
Metaphors are not some kind of distorted literal thought, but rather are basic schemes
by which people conceptualise their experience and their external world. Figurative
language generally, which also includes irony (see A12), is found throughout speech
and writing; moreover, it does not require for its use any
special intellectual talent
or any special rhetorical situation (Gibbs 1994: 21). Indeed, the fact that many
metaphors pass us by in everyday social interaction is well illustrated by this unwit-
ting slip by a venerable British sports commentator:
(3)
We didn’t have metaphors in my day. We didn’t beat about the bush.
Metaphor is simply a natural part of conceptual thought and although undoubtedly
an important feature of creativity, it should not be seen
as a special or exclusive
feature of literary discourse. For instance, examples (4) to (6) below, which embody
the same conceptual metaphor, are from a variety of print and broadcast media
covering the conflict in Iraq in 2003:
(4)
The third mechanised infantry are currently
clearing up parts of the Al
Mansur Saddam village area.
(5)
The regime is finished, but there remains some tidying up to do.
(6)
Official sources described it as a ‘mopping up’ operation.
Examples (4) to (6) rehearse the same basic metaphor through three different
linguistic realisations. The experience of war, which is the topic that forms the target
42
I N T R O D U C T I O N
domain of the metaphor, is relayed through the idea of cleaning, which is the concept
that provides the source domain. The metaphor might thus be represented as:
WAR
IS CLEANING
. Given its context, the ideological significance of this metaphor is worth
commenting on. It suggests that the conflict is nothing more than a simple exercise
in sanitation, a perspective which, it has to be said, is unlikely to be shared by mili-
tary personnel on the opposing side. In an effort presumably to allay domestic worries
about the progression of the conflict, the British and
American press are playing
down both the extent and intensity of the conflict through this strategically
motivated metaphor.
If we accept that metaphors are part and parcel, so to speak, of everyday discourse,
an important question presents itself. Are there any qualitative differences in the sorts
of metaphors that are found in different discourse contexts? An important criterion
in this respect is the degree of
novelty
exhibited by a metaphor. As with any figure of
speech, repeated use leads to familiarity, and so commonplace metaphors can some-
times develop into idioms or fixed expressions in the language. The commentator’s
reference to ‘beat about the bush’ in (3) is a good example of this process. However,
what arguably sets the use of metaphor in literature apart from more ‘idiomatised’
uses of the trope is that in literature metaphors are
on the one hand typically
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