via Zoom
Organizer:
PD Dr Julia Landmann
A historical perspective on conventional metaphor
Over the past four decades, there has been a huge amount of work on conventional metaphor, and a great deal of interest in the nature of sources and targets. Metaphorical sources are generally understood to be more experientially basic, involving concrete meanings that are mapped to abstract targets, and these source meanings are also generally assumed to be historically older. However, in English there some cases that show the opposite pattern, where metaphorically polysemous words have earlier meanings that are more abstract, and change semantically in unexpected ways; for example, slow and dull appear to have mental meanings before they are used to refer to speed and sharpness respectively. In this session we will explore the value of a historical perspective in metaphor studies, and the way this can challenge our assumptions and intuitions.
Please contact Julia Landmann to register for the event.
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