Metaphorical Conceptualizations

Applications of
Cognitive Linguistics

Editors
Gitte Kristiansen
Francisco J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez

Honorary editor
René Dirven

Volume 45
Metaphorical
Conceptualizations

(Inter)Cultural Perspectives

Edited by
Ulrike Schröder
Milene Mendes de Oliveira
Adriana Maria Tenuta
ISBN 978-3-11-068815-3
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-068830-6
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-068835-1
ISSN 1861-4078

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Contents
Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta
Introduction 1

Section I: Theoretical and methodological reflections

on metaphorical conceptualizations

Zoltán Kövecses
Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 23

Frank Polzenhagen
Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor
research 41

Section II: Cultural metaphorical conceptualizations

Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals in Huni Kuĩ,
Awetý, and Kamaiurá 77

Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Roja

Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon
of the Amazonian language Aguaruna 95

Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English:
novel insights and methodological approaches 125

Section III: Cross-cultural metaphorical conceptualizations

Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic
analysis 159

Augusto Soares da Silva

Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation: metaphors of anger
in European and Brazilian Portuguese 189
VI Contents

Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis in Brazilian Portuguese
and American English: a verbo-gestural data analysis 223

Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations
of Sars-CoV-2 251

Section IV: Intercultural metaphorical conceptualizations

Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German as a Foreign
Language classroom: a multimodal analysis of teacher-student
interactions 279

Ulrike Schröder
How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience:
a cognitive-multimodal approach to talk-in-interaction 309

Index 341
Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira,
Adriana Maria Tenuta

Introduction
1 Metaphor and culture before conceptual
metaphor theory
The development of conceptual metaphor theory in cognitive linguistics can be
roughly divided into two essential periods: the first one being related to individ-
ualistic and universalistic matters, taking a more introspective approach, and the
second one related to increasing research on embodiment in situ, language use,
as well as its social and cultural context. However, research on the relationship of
metaphor, language, and cognition was not first addressed in Lakoff and Johnsons
Metaphors we live by ([1980] 2003), as often assumed. In fact, it can be traced back
even to Aristotle and innumerable philosophical successors especially from the 17th
century onwards.1 Thus, if we take a close look beyond the limits of cognitive lin-
guistics, we find that establishing a connection between metaphor, cognition, and
culture has a long tradition and goes back at least to Johann Gottfried Herder. In
his Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache2 ([1772] 2002), Herder discusses the
gradual evolution of nature, mind, and language, taking the individual and not the
world as the starting point for his epistemology. Therefore, according to Herder, it
is no surprise that the ‘wild languages’ conceptualize the whole kingdom of nature
as a kingdom of acting beings. This corresponds to a “sensuous main idea” (Herder
[1772] 2002: 47–49) which is responsible for the personification of emotions such as
anger (Herder [1772] 2002: 62). Following Herder, as the pioneer of the principle of
linguistic relativity, Wilhelm von Humboldt ([1836] 1992) rejects the possibility of a
language-free knowledge of reality still present in enlightenment and rationalism.
Reality in itself is not accessible epistemologically, since it is always a perspectively
and linguistically bound reality. As a consequence, it can only be perceived as the
corresponding language suggests.
This paradigm of language as being conceptualized by a given cultural commu-
nity coins American anthropological linguistics at the beginning of the 20th century.

1 For the history of cognitive metaphor research cf. Schröder (2012).

2 Treatise on the origin of the language.

Ulrike Schröder, Adriana Maria Tenuta, Federal University of Minas Gerais

Milene Mendes de Oliveira, University of Potsdam

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-001
2 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

Anthropological linguistics introduces an empirical turn by which metaphor comes

into view as an essential constituent in the construction of worldviews. In his essay
Metaphorical expression in the language of the Kwakiutl Indians, Boas ([1929] 1982)
set out an ethnographic sketch of an everyday metaphor of the Kwakiutl naming
instances such as “I follow the road made by my late ancestors” or “walking along on
flat” thereby anticipating the path schema as defined by Lakoff and Johnson ([1980]
2003). Boas functionally arranged his list of expressions utilized metaphorically in
everyday speech by the Kwakiutl speakers according to speech events in which they
occur, and distinguishes between ‘unhappy events’, ‘speeches’, ‘speaking of rival
chiefs’, ‘marriage ceremonies’, ‘talking to children’, and ‘talking to intimate friends’.
Certain metaphors are typical for certain speech events: for instance, when Kwaki-
utl speakers talk about other tribal leaders, they use metaphors related to animals,
while talk in marriage ceremonies shows a high use of metaphors related to the
concept of house etc. Whereas Boas’ approach is still psychologically motivated,
Sapir initiates a communicative and social turn by conceiving the world as an all
along socially, emotionally, and culturally filtered reality, turning language into the
essential guide for thinking: As the grammatical categories vary from one language
to another, conceptual thinking is channeled differently (Sapir 1949: 159). Metaphor
is of crucial importance in this process and Sapir already points to what Lakoff and
Johnson ([1980] 2003: 10–13) will later call ‘highlighting’ and ‘hiding’:

New cultural experiences frequently make it necessary to enlarge the resources of a lan-
guage, but such enlargement is never an arbitrary addition to the materials and forms already
present; it is merely a further application of principles already in use and in many cases little
more than a metaphorical extension of old terms and meaning. [. . .] Language is at one and
the same time helping and retarding us in our exploration of experience, and the details
of these processes of help and hindrance are deposited in the subtler meanings of different
cultures. (Sapir 1949: 10–11)

Yet the starting point of Benjamin Lee Whorf, Sapir’s student, bears many par-
allels to conceptual metaphor theory as well as to cognitive grammar, especially
his references to gestalt psychology, as one may check in Grammatical categories
(Whorf [1939a] 1956) and On psychology (Whorf 1956). Whorf ([1939a] 1956) con-
ceives the configurations that act in language as gestalt principles, since – for
him – grammatical categories are also semantic categories. In his field studies on
Hopi, he points to metaphorical concepts such as personifications (objectifying),
synesthetic metaphors, as well as orientational metaphors typically used in the
so-called Standard Average European (SAE), but by no means regarded as uni-
versal (Whorf [1941] 1956: 243–244). Additionally, Whorf ([1939b] 1956: 154–155)
even points to gestural metaphors which, according to him, show more motion
in speakers of SAE than in speakers of Hopi, what he associates with our more
 Introduction 3

dynamic linguistic conceptualizations of reality. He also analyzes synesthetic meta-

phor and points to the bidirectionality of domains since we do not only map colors,
shapes, textures, etc. onto sounds, tastes, emotions, and thoughts but also reversely:

Our metaphorical system, by naming nonspatial experiences after spatial ones, imputes to
sounds, smells, tastes, emotions, and thoughts qualities like the colors, luminosities, shapes,
angles, textures, and motions of spatial experience. And to some extent the reverse transfer-
ence occurs; for, after much talking about tones as high, low, sharp, dull, heavy, brilliant,
slow, the talker finds it easy to think of some factors in spatial experience like factors of tone.
Thus, we speak of ‘tones’ of color, a gray ‘monotone’‚ a ‘loud’ necktie, a ‘taste’ in dress: all
spatial metaphor in reverse. (Whorf [1939b] 1956: 155–156)

Finally, Whorf anticipates Lakoff and Johnson’s ([1980] 2003) time is money met-
aphor by showing that this metaphor exists in everyday ‘fashions of speaking’ in
SAE languages, being evident in expressions such as spend, save, lose, or buy time,
whereas Hopi does not conceive time as a countable unit (Whorf [1939b] 1956:
153–156).

2 Cognitive schemata and cultural models

in anthropology in the eighties and nineties
According to Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2013: 318–319), the relationship between met-
aphor and culture has undergone three stages in cognitive linguistic research,
namely, a so-called ‘normalized’ situation, a period of ‘culture oblivion’, and a
‘culture renaissance’. The eighties and early nineties represent the first stage of
this development, the late nineties and the turn of the millennium the second
stage, and current research represents the third. It should be highlighted that,
during the first stage, Lakoff and Johnson ([1980] 2003) still drew their attention
to the cultural impact of metaphor, such as the Western influence on the con-
ceptual metaphor time is money. Later, however, they showed an almost exclu-
sive interest in philosophical, neurolinguistic, and universal matters (Lakoff &
Johnson 1999). In the late eighties and nineties, cognitive anthropology gave birth
to concepts such as ‘instituted models’, ‘foundational schemas’ (Shore 1996), ‘cul-
turally shared models’ (Quinn 1991; Holland & Quinn 1987), and ‘tropes’ (Fernan-
dez 1991). As a response to Lakoff and Johnson’s a priori character of conceptual
metaphor, Holland and Quinn (1987), for example, proposed the ‘propositional
model’ of marriage as a journey that is embedded in the background of Amer-
ican culture. The authors do not see metaphors as engines of cultural models
4 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

but rather the other way around: the models should be seen as creators of meta-
phors. In similar ways, many other anthropologically oriented studies deal with
schemata beyond the mere linguistic level. Bradd Shore (1996) has shown how
metaphorical conceptualizations can structure social-physical reality as well as
our cultural practice and, vice versa, how metaphorical conceptualizations are
abstracted from cultural practices. Thus, metaphors can be visually represented,
e.g., in dance, painting, sculpture, gestures, posture, or spatial arrangements. An
example is the fact that, in many societies, important people tend to sit more cen-
trally and in a higher position than people who are less important (Kövecses 2005:
164). According to Shore (1996: 53), cultural communities frequently elaborate
‘foundational schemas’ that provide a source domain for “the creation of a family
of related cultural models”. Foley (1997: 236–237) shows how schemata of cate-
gorizations are intertwined and can lead to a metaphorical extension of such a
system at the level of more abstract domains. He illustrates his point by referring
to some Southeast Asian languages which are strongly stratified. The Burmese,
for instance, have a grammatical classification system in combination with a
schema that ranges from ‘sacred’ to ‘profane’, including the corresponding clas-
sification of the forms of address related to the personal category or object. For
instance, the Burmese address elders, teachers, and strangers through the use of
polite pronouns that are represented by feudal-era third person pronouns in lieu
of first and second person pronouns. In such situations, one refers to oneself in
the third person. In this perspective, in contrast to the occidental scale schema,
with its ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ class, the universe is arranged in concentric circles,
and Buddha is located at the center. Therefore, the crucial schema is represented
by center – periphery.
Thus, when Gibbs (1999) finally calls for Taking metaphor out of our heads and
putting it into the cultural world at the end of the 20th century, this appeal must
be read as addressed rather to the community of conceptual metaphor scholars
since, beyond this universe, one can observe a productive continuum of studies
related to the reciprocity of metaphor and culture.

3 The emergence of studies on conceptual

metaphor and culture in the new millennium
At the beginning of the new millennium, several critical voices began to emerge,
arguing for the inclusion of culture into studies of conceptual metaphor and
metonymy. Enrique Bernardez (2005) launched some interdisciplinary consider-
ations on the importance of culture in linguistic and typological descriptions as
 Introduction 5

well as warnings against the tendency for scholars to lean on theoretical frame-
works based solely on the English language. Moreover, the linguist argued that
cognition should be viewed as not limited to the individual, in a solipsist fashion,
but as including all human activity, which, at the same time, may have an impact
on the very cognitive processes themselves.
One pioneering work within conceptual metaphor theory that seeks to sys-
tematize studies within and beyond the field of conceptual metaphor and culture,
building up a theoretical framework by extending conceptual metaphor theory,
is Kövecses’ Metaphor and culture (2005). Kövecses maintains that our worldview
is at large encapsulated in our conceptual system and that culture is constituted
by frames or cultural models, which are indeed motivated by an embodied basis.
However, concurrently, they are also embedded in a situational context, and culture
is defined by concepts, ideas, values, principles, behaviors, and things that are spe-
cific to a particular language community (Kövecses 2005, 2017).
Therefore, one crucial point of departure for Kövecses’ framework is Grady’s
(1997) distinction between corporally based ‘primary metaphor’ versus experien-
tially based ‘complex metaphor’. Grady asserts that “it may be appropriate to con-
sider primary metaphorical patterns as something like templates, opposed to the
more fleshed-out, blended conceptualizations that constitute metaphors per se.
Primary metaphors are generic patterns, rather than concrete, vivid instantiations”
(Grady 2005: 1608–1609). Now, according to Kövecses (2005: 68–69), while the
primary metaphor is seen as having a nearly universal status, the complex meta-
phor may vary in different languages. The most famous example Kövecses gives is
the primary metaphor the angry person is a pressurized container, which can
be found in languages such as English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Hungarian,
Polish, Wolof, and Zulu. However, questions such as the way in which the con-
tainer reacts, how the pressure arises, what type of substance can be found inside
the container, what the consequences of an explosion are, whether the explosion
will be something socially welcome or not, etc., can only be answered by means
of the concrete, culture-specific metaphors that are intertwined with background
models of the corresponding community.
Over the last ten years, Kövecses (2010, 2015, this volume) has combined culture-
and discourse-oriented approaches in a context-sensitive grounding model of met-
aphorical creativity. As a consequence, the starting point is now the intersubjective
context with its sphere of shared attention as well as the larger context that involves,
in addition to the interlocutor, the circumstances under which an utterance is made:
who interacts with whom, when and where, why the communication is taking place
and what it is about. Those are the driving forces for the construction of meaning,
which is now seen as a dynamic and creative process that interacts with the more or
less conventional meaning of symbols based on an embodied experience (Kövecses
6 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

2015: x–xi). The contexts are frames that are nested in one another, such as the phys-
ical setting as the outermost frame that includes the social frame, which, on its turn,
includes the cultural frame, and where, in the innermost frame, we find the speaker/
conceptualizer, the hearer/conceptualizer, and the topic, as well as the flow of dis-
course, functioning as the immediate linguistic context, or cotext, in the sense of
Langacker’s (2008: 281) “current discourse space”. Importantly, the cultural context
frequently has nothing to do with the existence or the absence of a basic concep-
tual metaphor in a cultural group as compared to another but rather with questions
related to the degree of conventionalization and elaboration of the vocabulary, dif-
ferent preferences concerning the salience of concepts, different ‘experiential foci’,
different forms of framing the same concept, ‘differential cognitive styles’ as well as
different preferences regarding metaphor or metonymy, which are reflected in the
vocabulary (Kövecses 2015: 26–29).

4 Metaphorical conceptualizations
in cultural linguistics
It is still in the nineties that Gary Palmer releases his groundbreaking work Toward a
theory of cultural linguistics (1996). On the basis of the subsequently developed frame-
work, cultural linguistics is established as a new research field, bringing together
cognitive linguistics, anthropological linguistics, and ethnography of speaking.
Palmer’s book covers all fields of cognitive linguistics but focuses particularly on
the idea of linguistic imagery: “The term invokes the anthropological tradition that
culture is the accumulated knowledge of a community or society, including its stock
of cognitive models, schemas, scenarios, and other forms of conventional imagery”
(Palmer 1996: 290). Metaphor is essential for understanding linguistic imagery of
cultural groups, especially Indigenous languages, as is shown in their metaphorical
mappings. Palmer shows, for instance, that, in the Coeur d’Alene language, the tires
of a car or truck are named “wrinkled feet” as a reference to the pattern on their
tread. In a similar vein, according to Basso (1990: 15–24), the system for naming parts
of motorized vehicles in the language of Western Apache of east-central Arizona is
based on mapping the human body parts onto parts of the motor vehicles while
preserving the body’s cognitive topology (Palmer 1996: 224–225).
Later, Farzad Sharifian (2011, 2015, 2017) gives cultural linguistics an even
more multidisciplinary direction by emphasizing that this new line of research
also benefits from and contributes to areas of (applied) linguistics including
world Englishes, intercultural communication, English as an international lan-
 Introduction 7

guage, and cross-cultural pragmatics (Sharifian 2011: xv). One key concept Shari-
fian develops is ‘distributed cognition’, which he describes as

the cultural knowledge that emerges from the interactions between members of a cultural
group across time and space [. . .] cultural cognition is dynamic in that it is constantly being
negotiated and renegotiated within and across the generations of the relevant cultural
group, as well as in response to the contact that members of that group have with other
languages and cultures. (Sharifian 2015: 476)

Frequently, studies in this field go beyond mere conceptual metaphor and its
linguistic expressions. An example can be given by referring to large-scale met-
aphorical conceptualizations that underlie Aboriginal thinking, speaking, and
acting when it comes to the interconnection between land, animals, and people.
It is part of their interlocking cultural model to map conceptualizations of kinship
onto the domain of land and, as a consequence, refer to part of their ‘country’ as
‘grandfather’ or ‘mother’ whereby the underlying metaphor can be described as
land is kin, which emphasizes the relationship between person and place in
the Aboriginal culture. According to this understanding, Sharifian (2011: 57) ex-
plains that members of this cultural group use expressions such as “grow up
the country” meaning ‘care for the country’. But this conceptualization goes far
beyond its mere linguistic expression and has its roots in the concept of Abo-
riginal Dreamtime, during which ancestor beings are imagined as an amalgam
of animal and human forms that traveled the land and created landforms and
customs. In the end, they became transformed into features of the landscape in
the shape of stones, trees, and, therefore, today, the land embodies the spirits of
these ancestor beings as connected to people via kinship.
Also related to fundamental differences in the underlying cultural models,
Yu (2015) points to Western and Chinese conceptualizations of person: While in
Western cultures, person is conceptualized as body + mind, in Chinese culture, it
is conceptualized as body + heart, which concurrently reflects a more dualistic
view of Western culture in contrast to a more holistic view in Chinese culture, which
sees the heart as the center of both emotions and thought. That is to say, although
a person consists of two parts, namely, the body and the heart (xin), these two are
nevertheless not separate since the latter is an integral part of the former. Thus,
the cultural conceptualizations of the heart give rise to metaphors that profile this
internal body organ as a physical entity – the heart as container – as a part of the
body – the heart as a ruler of the body –, and the locus of affective and cognitive
activities, such as the heart as the house of all emotional and mental processes.
Yu sees a connection between these preferential conceptualizations and ancient
Chinese philosophy and medicine, in which the heart was conceptualized as the
organ for thinking, feeling, will, reason, and intuition.
8 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

In a similar vein, Musolff (2017) goes beyond a mere linguistic analysis in

his study on the conceptual metaphor nation (state) is a body in different lan-
guages. He shows this metaphor to be widely known in many cultures, never-
theless: Whereas British and American students, e.g., describe their occidental
political system in terms of a body’s health, anatomy, and metabolism, Chinese
students tend to identify geographical places in China and to link them to parts
of the human anatomy on the basis of functional correspondences between activ-
ities performed by parts of the body and politically significant characterizations
of the locations. In contrast, the origins of this concept in Europe date back to the
medieval Latin terms corpus mysticum and corpus politicum, which were trans-
lated into European vernacular languages in the sixteenth century. However,
more subtle differences have also been detected between European languages: In
English, the physical body of a prominent politician can be the ostensive target
referent of the phrase body politic, whereas, in Germany, the term Volkskörper
is negatively connoted since it is related to Nazi-reminiscent vocabulary. Yet in
French, corps politique can be traced back to Rousseau’s impact on revolutionary
and republican thought.

5 New directions in research on metaphor,

cognition, and cultural practice
Over the last twenty years, new directions have arisen in the field of metaphor,
cognition, and culture that indicate upcoming tendencies. In this volume, we
will focus on four lines of research, each looking at different aspects of the cul-
ture-cognition interface. Topics addressed by the authors are varied and include
(a) cultural conceptualizations found in varieties of pluricentric languages such
as English and Portuguese, (b) a dynamic view of culture which takes a cogni-
tive-pragmatic perspective into account, and (c) the interplay between culture,
language, and gesture, also in indigenous languages. It should be noted that
these topics can converge and overlap in different ways. However, in the follow-
ing we will discuss them more or less separately only for heuristic purposes.
A current tendency in studies of metaphor and culture addresses cultural
aspects of word choice (more specifically of metaphorical expressions) in one
language used in different geographical regions. Within this group, studies under
the rubric of world Englishes (WE) are now prominent. However, Wolf and Pol-
zenhagen (2006a) reminded us that, due to a strong focus on functional matters
in pragmatics and intercultural studies over a long period of time, the important
role of diverging conceptualizations in varieties of English had been neglected.
 Introduction 9

However, lately, scholars from the field of cultural linguistics as well as cognitive
linguistics show more and more interest in those varieties and provide examples
of cultural variation in metaphorical conceptualizations in WE as well as English
as a Lingua Franca (ELF) (e.g., Sadeghpour and Sharifian (eds.), forthcoming).
In another study, Wolf and Polzenhagen (2006b) compared Hong Kong English
and German English, revealing the strong presence of the university is a family
metaphor in Hong Kong English. When students were asked what they associate
with this metaphor, they answered “obedience”, in contrast to one of the studies’
hypotheses that expected answers related to ‘nurture’ and ‘care’. This reveals that
it is not the metaphor itself that is unusual for participants of a Western culture
but rather the lack of knowledge about the specific cultural inferences that are
connected with it.
Another line of research that has gathered momentum in the last decade
is one which brings together semantic and pragmatic aspects of metaphor use.
Senkbeil (2020), for instance, looks at examples of idiomatic language in authen-
tic discourse and shows that figurative meanings of idioms are closely connected
to embodied or empractic knowledge. The author concludes that those idiomatic
expressions are in general easily reconstructed in intercultural interactions and
present no hindrance since they are transculturally shared or constructed in situ.
Additionally, speakers are shown to employ metadiscursive cues to introduce
their idioms. Mendes de Oliveira (2020) reports on a study on respect in business
communication based on the analysis of e-mails and interviews with Brazilian
and German co-workers in an international company. One decisive result of this
study showed that the recurrent image schema vertical splitting in the Brazil-
ian interview excerpts was related to how participants acknowledge ‘hierarchy’
in their construals of ‘face’ in e-mail interactions in English as a lingua franca,
whereas the image schema horizontal splitting indicated how German partic-
ipants construe ‘face’ as a transactional phenomenon in their e-mail exchanges.
It should be noted that the focus on in situ aspects of metaphor can be mag-
nified when multimodality comes into play. In this respect, conceptual metaphor
theory has profited from a comprehensive amount of work that draws attention to
the gestural level of metaphor use in real interaction. One crucial contribution of
these studies on metaphoric gesture is the finding that the so-called dead verbal
metaphors may still be processed actively and be foregrounded and highlighted
in gesture (Müller & Cienki 2009). Moreover, there is a growing number of studies
showing how metaphoric gestures are related to cultural practice. These studies
start from a more praxeological and phenomenological approach to embodi-
ment by assuming that thinking, gesturing, signifying, and enacting habits are
embodied by body-subjects in interaction with the world they inhabit as well as
with other body-subjects their actions are coupled with. While the first genera-
10 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

tion of cognitive linguists has mainly adopted a more individual-psychological,

meaning-as-conceptualization notion of linguistic meaning, this approach takes
intersubjectivity and embodiment as ultimately fused together in structures of
intercorporeality (Schröder & Streeck forthcoming; Cuffari & Streeck 2017).
A prominent example for the interconnectedness of metaphor, gesture, and
cultural practice is the study on the Aymaras’ mapping of the future onto the
space behind and the past onto the space in front of the speaker (Núñez & Sweet-
ser 2006; Reiter 2014). These mappings reflect their strong emphasis on visual
perception as a source of knowledge since what is known – the past – is projected
in front of ego and what is unknown – the future – in the back. In compliance with
this conceptualization, speakers point to a more distant location in front of them
when indicating an event that was further in the past and to a location nearer
them to indicate an event that happened more recently. Moreover, by pointing in
an upward angle to the front, they express that a referent event lies further in the
past than events located by low pointing. In a similar vein, Yukatec Maya speak-
ers employ a space-to-time metaphorical mapping in that they point towards the
space at the speaker’s feet when referring to ‘now’ or ‘precise/specific’ time and
towards the space above the head of the speaker when referring to ‘far/remote’
time, either past or future. Furthermore, unfolding time is represented by a cycli-
cal, rolling gesture (Brown 2014: 1211).
A more holistic view of the body is given by Geurt (2003), who conducts a
study on the balance schema in the Anlo Ewe culture and language in South
Ghana. She points to the kinesthetic and proprioceptive schemas within the
theory of seselelame (‘feeling in the body, flesh, or skin’) as a cultural model of
this socio-cultural group. In Ewe, there is no distinction between emotion, sensa-
tion, perception, and cognition. Rather, Anlo epistemology and ontology depend
upon the indigenous schema of seselelame. That means there is a sensibility in
which the bodily feeling of balance is foregrounded as a source of vital infor-
mation about the environment and the self. The balance schema is needed to
carry heavy loads on the head in everyday life, and someone’s posture and gait
are seen as indexes for a person’s moral fortitude and psychological disposition.
In addition to that, the balance schema also participates in dancing rituals as
well as in extra- and introverted modes of being across time. Such a schema can
be understood as a ‘foundational schema’ in the abovementioned sense of Shore
(1996) since it builds up the basic cultural model for a given community.
Another foundational schema is the guiding metaphor life is a show, specta-
cle, play or entertainment in the American culture, which is reflected not only
in linguistic expressions Americans use in everyday life such as “You’re on”, “It’s
showtime”, or “He turned in a great performance”, as Kövecses (2005: 184–186) illus-
trates. Hall, Goldstein, and Ingram (2016) show how this metaphor is enacted in
 Introduction 11

Donald Trump’s gestures by bodily quoting, transmodal stylizations, and metonym-

ical reductions of others to laughable portrayals. In another study, Schröder (2017)
reveals how the interconnected metaphor rap is a game / rap is competition is at
the core of all four elements of Hip Hop – DJing, breakdance, graffiti, and rap – and
incorporated in the whole gestural attitude of rappers, such as body posture, hand
and facial gestures, gaze, object manipulation, movement as well as orientation in
space.

6 Structure and chapters of the volume

This volume is a contribution to the current discussions on metaphorical con-
ceptualizations and cultural variation. Most of the chapters comprise papers
presented at the International Symposium on Linguistics, Cognition, and Culture
(LCC), held in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) on 13–15 March 2019,3 whose aim was to
bring together contributions from researchers in the fields of cognitive and cul-
tural linguistics who work on current issues related to metaphor from a(n) (inter)
cultural perspective. The discussions in this volume are concerned with cogni-
tive and cultural linguistics’ theory regarding metaphorical conceptualization,
the influence of culture on metaphor and metonymy, the impact of culture and
cognition on metaphorical lexis, the interface of pragmatics and cognition when
metaphor is studied in situ, that is, in real multimodal interaction, the applica-
tion of insights into metaphorical conceptualizations to language teaching, and
recent methods for revealing (inter)cultural metaphorical conceptualizations in
corpus-based approaches as well as gesture studies. Therefore, the volume is
organized into four sections, the first one dealing with theoretical and methodo-
logical issues, the second one being related to cultural metaphorical conceptual-
izations in specific cultural groups, the third one offering contributions from the
perspective of cross-cultural metaphorical conceptualizations, and the last one
introducing studies that point to the relevance of metaphorical conceptualiza-
tions in face-to-face intercultural communication.
The first section, Theoretical and methodological reflections on meta-
phorical conceptualizations, comprises two contributions. In chapter 1, Zoltán
Kövecses explains his recent “extended conceptual metaphor theory”, which
deepens both our cognitive and situational understandings of conceptual meta-
phors in that it specifies different schematicity levels of metaphors and provides
a description of types of context influencing the use of metaphor in discourse.

3 <http://www.letras.ufmg.br/simposiolcc/>
12 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

Within this framework, ‘culture’ can occupy different spaces. Kövecses explains
that ‘culture’ can be equated with the notion of a ‘conceptual system’ and there-
fore represents a constantly evolving system characterizing a group of socially
and historically situated individuals who make sense of their experiences in a
more or less unified way. Alternatively, culture can be regarded as the situational
context, which comprises ideas, values, artifacts and practices that characterize
a linguistic community and are fairly active and salient in the minds of speak-
ers employing particular cases of metaphorical conceptualizations. In chapter 2,
Frank Polzenhagen proposes a critical reflection on the use of XXL-sized corpora
in studies dealing with metaphor variation. By leaning on the analysis of the con-
ceptualization the nation is a family in American and West-African Englishes,
he explains and illustrates several problems researchers can be confronted with
by relying on results provided by different big-sized corpora in cross-varietal
studies. While using meticulously selected examples of corpus searches, the
author highlights the fact that such corpora differ substantially with respect to
how they satisfy some important criteria in corpus linguistics, such as represent-
ativeness and reliability of search results. The chapter scrutinizes corpora that are
widely used by world Englishes scholars, such as BNC, COCA, and GloWbE, but
its insights can be easily generalized into cross-varietal corpus studies, serving
thereby the readership of this volume interested in contrastive studies. Polzen-
hagen concludes his chapter by making a case for the use of small-scale corpora
compiled for the specific purposes in a study.
The second section of this volume, Cultural metaphorical conceptualiza-
tions, includes three chapters that report on empirical studies concerning how
metaphors are deployed in a certain culture or set of cultures. The first paper
in this section, in chapter 3, presents Vera da Silva Sinha and Heliana Mello’s
in-depth description of how the indigenous languages and cultures Huni Kuĩ,
Awetý, and Kamaiurá in the Amazonian region conceptualize time. In these cul-
tures, time is shown to be ‘event-based’ (Silva Sinha et al. 2012) and thus to be
indexicalized by environmental ‘happenings’ related to, for instance, water level,
the singing of birds and animals, or the position of the Moon, the Stars, and the
Sun. The metaphorical expression of time as space, so popular in Indo-European
languages, is not present. The authors also explain that event-based time inter-
vals in the three investigated languages are included in temporal landmarks of
lifestages, and life is considered an evolving learning process marked by different
stages. These stages are not lexicalized as points or spatial positions on a time-
line but as categories of social status. Another Amazonian language, Aguaruna,
is the focus of chapter 4, which depicts an interdisciplinary study by the linguists
Ketty García-Ruiz and Jaime Huasco-Escalante, and the biologist Jhon Jairo
López-Rojas on resemblance metaphor (Ureña and Faber 2010) and metonymy.
 Introduction 13

In their analysis of compound nouns (binomials) of the ethnozoological lexicon

of Aguaruna, the authors build on Berlin’s (1992) fifth principle of ethnobiologi-
cal nomenclature. This principle postulates that ethnobiological names often
have metaphorical features that reveal a motivation for relating the name and
the named referent. One of their findings is that most metaphorical mappings
seem to be based on similarities of color or shape. Apart from these color and
shape motivations (called prototypical image metaphors), the authors name
other types of resemblance metaphor found in their corpus of binomials, such as
behavior-based ones, as well as independent metonymies. In Chapter 5, Patrick
Kühmstedt and Hans-Georg Wolf report on an investigation of metaphorical
and cultural conceptualizations in a web-derived corpus of leading articles and
letters to the editor in Guyanese (newspaper) English. This analysis aims to fill
in the research gap on cultural conceptualizations in Caribbean Englishes and,
at the same time, deepen the pool of research methods in cultural linguistics,
which, to date, often takes a primarily ethnographic approach. Kühmstedt and
Wolf’s bottom-up approach consists of a cultural keyword analysis (Rayson 2008;
Leech and Fallon 1992; Wierzbicka 1997), a keyword chain analysis (Peters 2017),
and a semantic key domain analysis. Examples of conceptualizations found in
the corpus are guyana is a company, guyana is an oil company, up to guyana
is a subsidiary of exxonmobil.
The third section of this edited volume, Cross-cultural metaphorical con-
ceptualizations, takes a comparative approach in looking at conceptualizations
in data from different languages. In Chapter 6, Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes
de Oliveira, and Thiago da Cunha Nascimento explore the repercussion of an
event at the Olympic Games in Brazil in 2016. The event in case is the booing action
of the Brazilian crowd towards a French athlete at an Olympic stadium. Conceptu-
alizations in reader comments in French, German, and English are contrasted with
conceptualizations in Portuguese in the Brazilian media. The striking difference
between the findings in Portuguese as compared to the ones in the other languages
is that the cultural category sports fans is construed in a very idiosyncratic way
in the Brazilian comments and is often combined with in-group and out-group
schemas as well the mongrel complex cultural schema, the latter one as defined
by Brazilian readers themselves. These findings are complemented by the subse-
quent analysis of a radio broadcast in which sports commentators recalled and
reflected upon the incident. This analytical step highlights how cultural concep-
tualizations can be reflected upon, reinforced, and/or rejected in the here-an-now
of interaction, and how they are interwoven with different speech styles (Spen-
cer-Oatey 2008). In Chapter 7, Augusto Soares da Silva also turns his attention
to the Portuguese language in an investigation of conceptualizations of anger in
personal-experiential blogs. However, in this chapter, it is intralinguistic variation
14 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

that is explored by looking at two varieties of this pluricentric language (Soares

da Silva (ed.) 2014): European and Brazilian Portuguese. Since anger is claimed
to be a universal emotion and to have a biological basis, a study that considers its
linguistic expression in different cultures is especially interesting for a more thor-
ough understanding of the interaction between language and culture. The study
follows a sociocognitive framework and adopts a corpus-based and onomasiolog-
ical profile-based methodology in investigating alternative metaphorical patterns
related to the conceptualization of anger. The findings reveal that metaphorical
expressions used in European Portuguese can be associated with conceptualiza-
tions that highlight an attempted regulation and an internalized expression of
anger. By contrast, the expressions in Brazilian Portuguese unveil a more open
and unrestrained manifestation of anger as an affirmation of the self. The author
argues that these results are in line with previous research on Portuguese and
Brazilian cultures which shows Brazil as more individualistic, indulgent, and
emotionally expressive than Portugal. In Chapter 8, Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari,
and Vera Pacheco contrast literal and metaphorical verbo-gestural expressions
of locative deixis in TV news and talk shows in Brazilian Portuguese and Amer-
ican English. Such a contrast is particularly intriguing given the fact that these
two languages count on different configurations of locative deictic forms. While
Brazilian Portuguese shows a fourfold system with the expressions “aqui” (nearer
the speaker), “aí” (nearer the addressee), “ali” (near both the speaker and the
addressee), and “lá” (distal from both the speaker and the addressee), American
English relies on a twofold system with “here” (near the speaker) and “there”
(either distal from both the speaker and the hearer or distal from the speaker,
but near the addressee). Findings reveal that the most frequent gesture that goes
along with the verbal expression of the deictic term is pointing. However, a pref-
erence for pointing with the index finger is identified in the Brazilian data and the
salience of pointing with the open hand is identified in American English deictic
occurrences. The prototypical function of gestures in the two groups was the ref-
erential one, with Brazilian speakers often making more references to narrative
scenes being reenacted, and American English speakers making more references
to people located in the immediate scene where interaction was taking place. In
Chapter 9, Karsten Senkbeil and Nicola Hoppe address the recent discussions
on the coronavirus and its associated disease, Covid-19, based on an analysis of
news articles in the UK, the USA, and Germany. Each metaphorical expression
is analyzed for its source domain, and this step is complemented by an exami-
nation of the communicative purpose of the metaphorical expression. Findings
show that the metaphors corona pandemic is a war and Sars-CoV-2 is an
enemy dominated the political discourse in the UK and the USA in the spring
of 2020, and also appeared consistently in the German public discourse. In the
 Introduction 15

latter, however, sports metaphors were also often used by German government
officials in order to tone down some of the entailments of the war metaphor, even
though, as the authors explain, war and sports metaphors generally relate to
the same event structure, as both emphasize agency, the combination of strategy
and willpower, and the possibility of winning or losing. By exploring the intersec-
tion between cognitive linguistics and pragmatics, Senkbeil and Hoppe show that
metaphors can help push political agendas while motivating the public to comply
with public-health-oriented – yet often pretty unpopular – measures.
The last section of this volume, Intercultural metaphorical conceptual-
izations, contains two contributions that address in situ and multimodal use of
metaphorical conceptualizations in interactions between cultures. In Chapter 10,
Adriana Fernandes Barbosa examines the interplay of conceptualizations and
gesture in a German as a foreign language class. After videotaping and transcrib-
ing both the verbal and the gestural levels of classroom exchanges, the researcher
analyzes teacher-student interactions in explanations of particle and prefixed
verbs provided by the instructor and negotiated with the learners. The findings
of this study show that gestures used by the teacher in explaining prefixed verbs
often portray image schemas and metaphorical mappings that evidence the online
activation of certain cognitive structures. The author interprets the findings from
her fine-grained analysis against the concept of ‘embodiment’ in cognitive lin-
guistics. Moreover, she leans on Danesi’s (2017) notion of ‘conceptual fluency’,
which associates learning a second/foreign language with acquired conceptual –
or, more specifically, metaphorical – competence in that language. In Chapter 11,
Ulrike Schröder shows how verbal, corporal-gestural, and prosodic means are
interwoven in intercultural talk-in-interaction. The author investigates insitu and
ad hoc co-constructions of ‘intercultures’ and provides a detailed multimodal
analysis of three sequences of face-to-face interactions. The analyses point to the
fact that the pervasive metaphor culture is a container is often activated and
elaborated upon, via gestures, as part of the (self)reflexive experience of alterity
involved in intercultural encounters. This chapter adds to the growing body of
studies on multimodal aspects of metaphor use in real interaction and makes
important considerations about the connection between cognitive linguistics and
intercultural pragmatics.
The chapters in this volume make evident the variety of theoretical orienta-
tions, methods, as well as applications that can be associated with the study of
metaphor and culture. With respect to theoretical foundations, the connection
between cognition and culture, language in use, context, and multimodality
can be identified. As for methods, two points are in order. First, the tendency to
examine metaphorical conceptualizations in discourse, lexis, and interaction
was evident in the chapters of this volume, which seems to set a definitive separa-
16 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Adriana Maria Tenuta

tion from studies that rely solely on introspection. Secondly, a variety of methods
such as ethnography, gesture analysis, as well as corpus-based data collection
and analysis stand out. These methods reflect the multiplicity of research ques-
tions that can be asked within the field. And last but not least, applications of
metaphor studies that take a(n) (inter)cultural perspective are addressed for the
fields of language teaching and intercultural communication. On a more general
note, all the contributions in this volume should be acknowledged for enabling
amplified (inter)cultural understanding.

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Section I: Theoretical and methodological
reflections on metaphorical
conceptualizations
Zoltán Kövecses
Extended conceptual metaphor theory:
the cognition-context interface
Abstract: My goal in the paper is to offer a new perspective on how conceptual
metaphors (subsumed under “cognition” in the title) and culture (subsumed
under “context” in the title) are related to one another. The view of conceptual
metaphors that I employ here is a recent one called “extended conceptual meta-
phor theory” (Kövecses 2020). The new view is, in large part, based on two ideas:
first, the notion that all conceptual metaphors exist on (roughly) four levels of
schematicity and, second, that metaphors (including conceptual metaphors) are
always used in the context of our available experiences at the time of their use. I
dub this the “multilevel” and “contextual” view of conceptual metaphors, respec-
tively. In other words, the question I am trying to answer is this: How can we fit
together conceptual metaphor with the cultural context in which it is used?

Keywords: extended conceptual metaphor theory, cultural context, conceptual

metaphor

1 Introduction
If we think of conceptual metaphors as sets of systematic relations (mappings)
between two conceptual domains (or frames, or scenes) that are based on univer-
sal bodily experiences, it becomes very difficult to say how cognition interfaces
with context at large, or, more specifically, how conceptual metaphors interface
with cultural context. This is because, first, if conceptual metaphors reside in the
head as a result of the effect of embodied cognition, it is hard to say what role
context plays in the production of metaphors. In a way, when we use a metaphor,
everything is already decided: we have stable mappings between the two domains,
and there are metaphorical conventionalized linguistic expressions associated
with those mappings. The production of metaphor is simply a process of selecting
a linguistic metaphor that is attached to the mapping relevant to the situation at
hand. Second, if conceptual metaphors are based on universal embodiment, the
idea of universal meaning, or universal meaningfulness, preempts the possibility
for contextual-cultural influence on metaphorical meaning making.

Zoltán Kövecses, Eötvös Loránd University

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-002
24 Zoltán Kövecses

I believe we can get around these difficulties if we work with the new con-
ception of conceptual metaphor I call “extended conceptual metaphor theory,”
or extended CMT, for short (Kövecses 2020). Two pillars of the new conception
are that, first, it is a “multilevel” view of conceptual metaphor and that, second,
it has a robust contextual component. What I do in the following sections is spell
out some of the relevant details of this view and note, as we go along, how cog-
nition and context, in general, and metaphor and cultural context, in particu-
lar, interact. I first describe the multilevel nature of conceptual metaphors, and
then turn to its contextual component and how the multilevel and the contextual
aspects are interlocked with each other in specific usage events.

2 The multilevel aspect of extended CMT

Following a long line of researchers (Rosch 1978; Lakoff 1987; Langacker 1987), in
essence, this is what I suggest: Much of our knowledge about the world comes in
large systems of concepts organized into hierarchies at various levels (superordi-
nate level, basic level, subordinate level). The systems of concepts so connected
are related by schematicity. This also applies to the “source domains” of concep-
tual metaphors that we can take to be large systems of concepts related to each
other at several levels, or layers, of precision of specification (on the notion of
“precision of specification”; Langacker 1987). The view entails that, given par-
ticular concepts, the various levels of schematicity form a continuous hierarchy;
the various levels shade gradually into more or less schematic levels. My claim is
that most (or, maybe, all) conceptual metaphors involve four different kinds of
conceptual structure: image schema, domain, frame, and mental space. By “con-
ceptual metaphor” I mean a subset of metaphors that are correlation-based, as
opposed to resemblance-based ones (Grady 1999).
I propose that these conceptual structures can be regarded as occupying dif-
ferent levels in various schematicity hierarchies (Dancygier and Sweetser 2014).
The four levels go from the most schematic to the least schematic, as represented
in the diagram below:

Most schematic: image schema

domain

frame
Figure 1: Schematicity hierarchy for four
Least schematic: mental space conceptual structures.
 Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 25

The upward arrow in the diagram indicates increasing schematicity, whereas

the downward arrow indicates increasing specificity.
In brief, image schemas, domains, frames, and mental spaces are all used by
conceptualizers / speakers for the purposes of lending organization and coher-
ence to our experience. I take image schemas to be the most schematic and mental
spaces the least schematic (i.e., the conceptually richest) cognitive structures that
can have this organizing function. As we will see in the next section, they all can,
and do, play a role in metaphorical conceptualization. In addition to these four
levels, there is of course the level of communication, Level 5, where speakers and
hearers use some symbols (linguistic or otherwise) that make manifest, or elabo-
rate, the content of particular mental spaces. We can represent the relationship
between the four levels in a schematicity hierarchy (SH) as follows:

SH 1 SH 2 SH 3 SH 4 Schematicity hierarchies

L1 Image schemas

L2 Domain matrixes

L3 Frames

Mental spaces
L4

L5 Utterances used in actual communication

Figure 2: The schematicity hierarchy with three major distinctions between the levels.

The diagram represents the four levels of conceptual structures in four differ-
ent schematic hierarchies (SH), one of which could be, for instance, the SH for
building. The dotted line that separates image schemas and domains / frames
26 Zoltán Kövecses

is intended to indicate that image schemas are analogue structures, whereas

domains and frames are not. The bold dotted line between domains / frames
and mental spaces indicates that domains and frames are in long-term memory,
whereas mental spaces are used in online processing in working memory, as
noted by Fauconnier (1994). The dotted line between L4 and L5 separates the
conceptual from the linguistic.
To take a simple example from Kövecses (2017), consider the following sen-
tence: “John’s life is without a foundation.” It is clear that the sentence involves
the life is a building conceptual metaphor, where we have the domain of build-
ing. But it also involves both more schematic and more specific metaphorical
conceptual structures. It is based on the highly schematic image schema struc-
ture of object, on the one hand, and on the physical support frame (founda-
tions support the walls) that structures the very specific mental space of john’s
house is without a foundation, on the other. Thus, the speaker of the sentence
seems to simultaneously rely on four conceptual metaphors – instead of just one,
which in the “standard” view would be at the domain level. These are:

Image schema level:

complex abstract systems are complex physical objects.
Domain level:
life is a building.
Frame level:
social / psychological stability is physical support: stability in one’s
life is strong physical support in the structure of a house.
Mental space level:
the lack of stability in john’s life is the absence of a foundation under
john’s house.
Utterance level:
“John’s life is without a foundation.”

Now let us see in somewhat more detail what characterizes these different con-
ceptual structures (image schema, domain, frame, mental space), the conceptual
metaphors that are based on them, and the issue of the degree to which the met-
aphors are embedded in context.

2.1 Image schema-level metaphors

Image schemas are essential conceptual structures that imbue experience with
meaning (Johnson 1987; Lakoff 1987). Hampe (2005: 1–2) finds four features of
 Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 27

image schemas especially characteristic. Image schemas are (1) directly mean-
ingful preconceptual structures; (2) highly schematic gestalts; (3) continuous
analogue patterns; and (4) internally structured, consisting of only a few parts.
Because of their highly schematic nature, image schemas range over the entire
conceptual system making a wide variety of concepts and experiences meaning-
ful. For example, in the schematicity hierarchy above, the object image schema
is present in the concept of building, that of physical support (of the walls),
and that of lack of foundation in john’s house.
Many (if not all) conceptual metaphors involve image schemas. life is a
journey is based on the source-path-goal schema, anger is a hot fluid in a
container on the temperature (hot/cold) schema. Many primary metaphors
involve image schemas, like the container schema in states are containers.
As a result, the conceptual system, including abstract concepts, becomes embod-
ied, that is, perception-based. This is precisely the property that enables them to
make concepts, including metaphorical ones, meaningful.
On the whole, these and similar image schemas tend to be universal. The
reason for this is that they are based on universal bodily experience (Johnson
1987; Kövecses 2005). Consequently, the conceptual metaphors that involve them
also tend to be universal. If an image schema can be established in genetically
unrelated languages, we can be reasonably certain that it is potentially univer-
sal or near-universal. What this means is that such image schemas are for the
most part independent of context. They evolve in spite of the huge differences
in the circumstances of human life. However, the issues of what particular use is
made of them, which image schemas are particularly characteristic of a cultural
context, and in what ways, may remain open to variation (Sinha and Lopez 2000).

2.2 Domain-level metaphors

According to Langacker (1987: 488), a “[d]omain [is] a coherent area of concep-

tualization relative to which semantic units may be characterized.” Unlike image
schemas, domains are not analogue, imagistic patterns of experience but propo-
sitional in nature in a highly schematic fashion. They are at a level immediately
below image schemas. Image schemas make domains such as journey, body,
and building (as concepts) meaningful. Domains have many more parts than
image schemas, and are thus more information-rich.
Conceptual metaphors in CMT are usually described as relationships between
domains. However, to think of conceptual metaphors as a set of mapping relations
between two domains leads to a major problem: Source domains typically contain
a lot more conceptual material than what is actually carried over to the target
28 Zoltán Kövecses

domain. If we think of all the concepts that are simultaneously presupposed by a

given concept, that is, a domain matrix (Langacker 1987), it is clear that domains
(in the sense of domain matrix) are highly inclusive knowledge structures. Not
all concepts in a domain matrix are utilized in metaphorical conceptualization.
The domain matrix for, say, building, represents our entire knowledge structure
associated with this concept. But only select aspects of the domain matrix partic-
ipate in the mappings between source and target concepts, and this is, as we will
see, what leads us to the notion of frames in a schematicity hierarchy.
In CMT, we customarily distinguish concrete and abstract domains. Typical
concrete domains that show up in metaphors include space, people, human
body, animal, plant, temperature, food, nature, tool, building, travel,
game, and so on. Typical abstract domains include time, mind, emotion, moral-
ity, marriage / relationship, society, and others. Most of these domains (both
concrete and abstract) may be universal (but not uniform), like people, animal,
food, on the concrete side, and probably some conception of time, mind,
emotion, morality, marriage, society, on the abstract side. They have a much
more complex structure than image schemas (e.g., they consist of many more
elements). As a result, they are prone to a great deal more contextual-cultural
shaping than image schemas (e.g., as regards the elements that make them up or
how the elements are related to one another). They create the impression that, on
the one hand, they tend to be (near-)universally spread across cultural contexts,
but, on the other, they may be present in somewhat different shapes and sizes.
This impression builds on observations that, for example, anthropologists, social
psychologists, and linguists commonly make about the general presence of such
conceptual metaphors as humans are animals or time is space in languages of
the world.

2.3 Frame-level metaphors

Frames (Fillmore 1982) are less schematic conceptual structures than domains.
The difference between a domain and a frame can be captured by a difference in
schematicity between the two: Frames elaborate particular aspects of a domain
matrix; that is, particular higher level concepts within a domain. It can be sug-
gested that frames involve more conceptually specific information than domains.
For example, the body domain can be seen as being elaborated by several distinct
frames, such as perception, ingestion, and exercising (Sullivan 2013). These
frames account for such metaphorical linguistic expressions as I see what you mean
(perception), digest an idea (ingestion), and a mental exercise (exercising)
(Sullivan 2013). Together, such frame-level metaphors as understanding is
 Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 29

seeing make up what is known as the generic-level metaphor the mind is the
body (Johnson 1987; Sweetser 1990). In general, the frames elaborating a domain
consist of roles and relations between the roles, and the roles can be filled by
particular values.
Those aspects of a domain that do participate in metaphorical mappings can
be, and usually are, given in the form of frames – at a lower level of schematicity
than that of domains. The frames elaborate the select aspects of domains. Thus,
the source frames offer more specific information than domains, but they do not
cover or exhaust all aspects of a source domain (matrix). We can illustrate this
with our initial example life is a building. Out of the many aspects of the build-
ing domain, the one that gets elaborated by a frame is that of physical support
(that captures the stability aspect of one’s life). This has a variety of roles and
relations, such as foundation, walls, support, and strength of structure. These are
mapped onto a particular aspect of one’s life.
Clearly, while domains can easily be near-universal (such as that of build-
ing), the frames that elaborate on aspects of a domain may not be. In the present
example, support works only for cultural contexts where buildings are built in
a particular way: with foundations that support walls strongly enough for the
whole structure to stand. In cultures where this is not the case, this frame-level
metaphor would not work. Frames and frame-level metaphors, then, are not only
less schematic than domains and domain-level metaphors, but they are also more
sensitive to the influence of the cultural context in which they function.

2.4 Mental-space level metaphors

Mental spaces are the least schematic conceptual structures of the four discussed
here (i.e., image schemas, domains, frames, and mental spaces). They are highly
specific structures occurring in online processing in particular communicative
situations. They contain the most specific information that derives from filling
out generic roles with particular values (Fauconnier 1994).
Metaphors at the mental space level are elaborations of metaphors at higher
levels (typically the level of frames). For instance, the mental space-level met-
aphor the lack of stability in john’s life is the absence of a foundation
under john’s house derives from the frame-level metaphor social / psycho-
logical stability (in life) is physical support (of a building). The mental
space-level metaphor is more specific than the higher level ones (in a given
schematicity hierarchy) because the roles and relations are filled by particular
values (e.g., it is John’s house, not a generic building). In addition, the mental
space-level metaphor may make changes to the relevant frame; in this case, for
30 Zoltán Kövecses

example, it negates the existence of one of the elements of the frame. The pro-
cesses of filling the roles and relations with specific values and making changes
to the frame occur in a fully explicit context, that is, in natural discourse in a real
communicative situation.
Given that mental spaces and mental space-level metaphors occur in real
communicative situations, they are most susceptible to the influence of cultural
context. Mental spaces borrow their structure from frames, but the generic struc-
tures from frames are further elaborated by specific information from context.
In summary, it makes sense to suggest that, given the schematicity hierar-
chy for conceptual metaphors, the influence of universal bodily experience is
strongest in the case of image schema-level metaphors and weakest in the case
of mental space-level metaphors. At the domain level, the influence is weaker
than at the image schema level and with frames it is weaker than with domains.
As regards the influence of cultural context, it is strongest in the case of mental
space-level metaphors and weakest in the case of image schema-level metaphors.
Frame-level metaphors display less contextual influence than mental space-level
ones, but more than domain-level metaphors.

3 The contextual aspect of CMT

At this point the question arises: What do we mean by context? Among other things,
a contextualist version of conceptual metaphor theory requires the characterization
of the following issue: What are the most common contextual factors that play a
role in the production and comprehension of metaphors?

3.1 Types of context and kinds of contextual factors

In my 2015 book Where Metaphors Come From, using examples from naturally
occurring discourse, I presented a large amount of evidence that shows that the
use of metaphors in discourse is influenced by a variety of contextual factors.
These various contextual factors can be grouped into four large categories: sit-
uational context, discourse context, conceptual-cognitive context, and bodily
context. Now let me briefly describe the various types of context and the more
specific contextual factors that constitute them (for a detailed discussion and a
large number of examples, see Kövecses 2015).
 Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 31

3.2 Situational context

The situational context comprises a variety of different contextual factors. Most

commonly, this type of context can be thought of as including the physical envi-
ronment, the social situation, and the cultural situation.
The physical environment can shape metaphorical meaning making. It includes
the flora, the fauna, the landscape, the temperature, the weather, perceptual prop-
erties of the situation, and so on. For example, it is a common observation that
American English metaphors relating to the physical environment are character-
istically different from those of other English-speaking countries (Kövecses 2000).
The small-scale, local environment, such as the visible events in or the perceptual
properties of a situation, can also make its influence felt in shaping metaphors.
The social situation consists of social aspects of life that typically center around
notions like gender, class, politeness, work, education, social organizations, social
structure, and others. All of these can play a role in metaphorical conceptualiza-
tion. For example, Kolodny (1975, 1984) shows that American men and women
developed very different metaphorical images for what they conceived of as the
“frontier” in America in the period before the 20th century. While the women com-
monly thought of the American frontier as a “garden to be cultivated,” men con-
ceptualized it as “virgin land to be taken” (for several additional examples on gen-
der-related metaphors, see Kövecses 2005). Gender can of course also be thought of
as part of culture, not only a social issue. In general, the distinctions in this section
serve heuristic purposes only.
The cultural situation involves both the global context (the shared knowledge
represented in the conceptual system) and the local context (the specific knowl-
edge in a given communicative situation). An example of how the global context
can affect metaphorical conceptualization is the way different concepts can
produce differential metaphorical source domains in different cultures and lan-
guages, such as the metaphors for anger: anger is heat (of fluid or solid) in a
large number of languages such as English and Hungarian, whereas in Chinese
the metaphor can also involve gas as its source domain – as a result of the influ-
ence of Yin and Yang theory (Yu 1998). The more immediate local context can play
a similar role in the production of metaphors (Kövecses 2010, 2005, 2015).

3.3 Discourse context

The discourse context involves the surrounding discourse, knowledge about the
main elements of discourse, the previous discourses on the same topic, and the
dominant forms of discourse related to a particular subject matter.
32 Zoltán Kövecses

The surrounding discourse is simply the linguistic context – often referred to

as “cotext”. Viewed from the perspective of the discourse’s producer (the speaker),
elements of the preceding discourse (either by the speaker / conceptualizer 1 or the
hearer / conceptualizer 2) can influence the (unconscious) choice of metaphors, as
is shown by an example taken from The Times by Kövecses (2010): “which helped
to tilt the balance – and Mr Hain – over the edge”. In this case, the contextually
induced metaphor arises from the elliptical use of the verb tilt in the phrase tilt Mr.
Hain over the edge. It is the presence of the word tilt in the immediate cotext that
leads to the second use of the metaphor.
Conceptualizers often rely on their knowledge concerning the main elements
of a discourse: the speaker, hearer, and the topic. For example, it is a common
phenomenon in many newspaper articles that knowledge about the topic as a
contextual factor leads to the creation of new metaphors (Kövecses 2010, 2015).
An example of this involved David Beckham in an article in which the journal-
ist remarked: “Los Angeles Galaxy are sardines not sharks in the ocean of footy”
(Kövecses 2010). Here the relevant contextual knowledge includes that Beckham
played for the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team and that Los Angeles is located on
the ocean with all kinds of fish in it.
The metaphors in one discourse can also derive from previous discourses on
the same topic. This can take a variety of forms ranging from elaborating, extend-
ing, questioning, negating, reflecting on, ridiculing, to otherwise taking advantage
of a metaphor previously introduced. For example, an MP in the British Parliament
responded to the then Prime Minister Tony Blair who had said he did not have a
reverse gear (i.e., he can only go forward) with the following statement: “but when
you’re on the edge of a cliff it is good to have a reverse gear” (example taken from
Semino 2008). This was a humorous twist induced by the prior discourse on the
progress is motion forward conceptual metaphor.
Certain forms of discourse can acquire dominant status in a community.
When a dominant form of discourse related to a subject matter emerges, the met-
aphor used in or based on this discourse can become widespread both temporally
(historically) and spatially (cross-culturally). For example, the discourse of Chris-
tianity commonly gives rise to the use of metaphors in the Christian world.

3.4 Conceptual-cognitive context

This type of context includes the metaphorical conceptual system at large, ideol-
ogy, knowledge about past events, and the characteristic interests and concerns
of a community or individual.
 Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 33

Concepts can stand in a metaphorical relationship with one another (e.g., life
is a journey, argument is war) in long-term memory. Given such metaphori-
cal relationships between concepts (such as between, say, argument and war),
their presence or absence in the metaphorical conceptual system may lead to the
production and comprehension of particular metaphors. If the metaphorical con-
nection between two domains does not exist in the user’s conceptual system, he/
she would not be able to come to use a particular metaphor. A metaphorical con-
ceptual system can function as context in this sense. Given an intended metaphor-
ical meaning (say, “supporting an argument”), we can search the conventional
metaphorical conceptual system for the best choice of metaphor. This happens
in cases where a conventionalized metaphorical meaning (“supporting an argu-
ment”) is expressed via a conventional linguistic metaphor (such as defend), with
a matching target element activating the relevant mapping in an existing concep-
tual metaphor (e.g., the meaning “supporting an argument” by means of the word
defend in the argument is war conceptual metaphor as based on the mapping
“defending one’s physical position in war” corresponding to “supporting one’s
position in an argument”). The conventional metaphorical conceptual system is
especially utilized this way when there are no other overriding contextual factors
in the discourse situation that might influence the (unconscious) choice of a met-
aphor. In other words, it functions as the default case.
Ideology can also be a formative factor in how metaphors are used in dis-
course. One’s ideological stance concerning major social and political issues may
govern the choice of metaphors as work by, for instance, Goatly (2007) shows. A
good example of how ideology might influence the choice of metaphors is George
Lakoff’s (1996) study of American politics, where, according to Lakoff, conserva-
tives tend to use the nation is a strict father family metaphor, while liberals
prefer the nation is a nurturant parent family version of the generic meta-
phor the nation is a family. For another example, we can mention the Marxist
version of the society is a building metaphor with talk about “superstructure”,
and so on, or the Marxist idea of “class struggle”. Goatly (2007) provides an impor-
tant exploration into the metaphor-based ideology of capitalism.
Being aware of past events and states (i.e., items in short-term and long-term
memory) shared by the conceptualizers may also lead to the emergence of spe-
cific metaphors in discourse. A special case of this involves a situation in which
the speaker assumes that the hearer has a particular mental state. Such memories
of events can belong to the life of a community or an individual. It has been often
observed that the memory of historical events can lead to the production (and
comprehension) of some metaphors (Deignan 2003; Kövecses 2005). Different
historical contexts can create differential preferences for particular life meta-
phors among Hungarians and Americans (Kövecses 2005). The particular events
34 Zoltán Kövecses

in a specific communicative situation preceding an act of metaphorical conceptu-

alization may also produce similar effects.
People are commonly prompted to use particular metaphors (more precisely,
metaphorical source domains) relative to their interests and concerns about the
world (Kövecses 2005). Entire groups and individuals can be said to have certain
characteristic interests or concerns that may affect the way they make meaning
metaphorically. Since Americans are commonly regarded as dynamically-oriented,
rather than passive, in their attitude to life, and, relatedly, are sports-loving in
general, it is not surprising that they use a large number of sports metaphors. Simi-
larly, if a person has some kind of professional interest, that person is likely to draw
metaphors from his or her sphere of interest (for specific examples, see Kövecses
2005). In other words, the kinds of activities we engage in routinely affect the meta-
phors (the source domains) we use (Gelfand and McCusker 2001).

3.5 Bodily context

A particular state of the body can produce particular metaphorical conceptualiza-

tions in specific cases, such as a poet’s or writer’s illness. For example, I showed
how Dickinson’s choice of metaphors may have been influenced by her optical
illness (Kövecses 2010, 2015). Such cases illustrate, more broadly, that people’s
bodily specificities influence which metaphors they tend to use. For instance,
there is experimental evidence (Casasanto 2009) that left-handers prefer to use
the moral is left, as opposed to the moral is right, conceptual metaphor.
Such metaphors contrast with the metaphors that evolve on the basis of universal
properties of the human body (i.e., the correlation-based primary metaphors).
Given this kind of evidence and the many metaphorical examples that are
based on local and temporary specificities of the human body (i.e., not on univer-
sal embodiment), one might take the body as a further form of the context. In this
view, the body – especially those aspects of it that are activated in the ongoing
communicative situation – can influence the choice of metaphors in natural dis-
course (Kövecses 2015a). The body is not only responsible for the production of
hundreds of conceptual metaphors through the many correlations between sub-
jective and sensorimotor experience (Grady 1997a, b; Lakoff and Johnson 1999),
but it can also prime the use of particular metaphors in more immediate, local
contexts, as further experimental evidence by, e.g, Gibbs (2006), Gibbs and
Colston (2012), Boroditsky (2001) as well as Boroditsky and Ramscar (2002) indi-
cates. In other words, the body can lead to the production of metaphors in dis-
course in the same way as the other contextual factors previously mentioned can.
Given this, we can think of the body as an additional context type.
 Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 35

3.6 Local and global context

Within the varied set of contextual factors that were briefly introduced above,
two general types of context can be distinguished: local and global. The local
context involves the specific knowledge conceptualizers have about some aspect
of the immediate communicative situation. Thus, the local context implies spe-
cific knowledge that attaches to the conceptualizers in a specific communicative
situation. It corresponds, at least roughly, to Clark’s (1996) “personal common
ground”. By contrast, the global context consists of the conceptualizers’ general
knowledge concerning their community’s environment (physical, social, cul-
tural). It involves knowledge shared by an entire community of conceptualizers.
Thus, it is close to Clark’s (1996) “communal common ground”. The distinction
between local and global context is mostly of theoretical nature. In many actual
communicative situations, there is no sharp dividing line between the two general
types of context.

4 The relationship between culture and context

From a cognitive anthropological perspective, the conceptual system can be equat-
ed with what we mean by culture. In perhaps the best-known formulation of this
idea, Clifford Geertz wrote: “Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance
he himself has spun. I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be
therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretative one in
search of meaning" (Geertz 1973: 5). This view of culture-as-conceptual system also
resonates in cognitive linguistics that adopts an encyclopedic view of meaning, in
which our conceptualization of the world at large is encapsulated in our conceptual
system, which, in turn, is shaped by the context at large.
I suggest that this way of thinking about the conceptual system enables us to
view culture, in one sense, as (one kind of) context for metaphorical conceptual-
ization. As I remarked earlier, the culture / conceptual-system-as-context may be
the default case in the production of metaphors. The culture-as-conceptual system
is a dynamic and constantly evolving system characterizing a group of people (a
language community) who live in a social, historical, and physical environment
making sense of their experiences in a more or less unified manner.1 We can think

1 However, the metaphorical system of an individual may also be influenced by a person’s unique,
individual history (see, e.g., Kövecses 2005: 182–184).
36 Zoltán Kövecses

of the conceptual system conceived of this way as one form of culture, which can
function as context of a particular kind.
Culture can also be thought of as situational context. In this case, we can think
of culture as defined by concepts, ideas, values, principles, behaviors, and things
that are specific to a particular (language) community. These unique products
of culture can also function as context for metaphorical conceptualization. The
cultural factors that affect metaphorical conceptualization include the dominant
values and characteristics of members of a group, the key ideas or concepts that
govern their lives, the various subgroups/ subcultures that make up the group,
the various products of culture such as artistic works, physical artifacts, TV shows
and films, and a large number of other things. All of these cultural aspects of the
setting can supply members of the group with a variety of metaphorical source
domains (Kövecses 2005). In other words, I distinguish the general conceptual
system as context from the set of specific ideas, values, practices, artifacts, etc.
that characterize a linguistic community, and are thus fairly active and salient in
their members’ minds in particular cases of metaphorical conceptualization. I
view this as the cultural aspect of the general situational context.
Given the classification of context types above, culture would be involved in
two types of context: the situational and the conceptual-cognitive context. Aren’t
the other two types, discourse and bodily context, cultural then? Since we use
our conceptual system to conceptualize everything – including, not only, the
situational context, the various forms of conceptual-cognitive context, such as
memory and concerns, but also the discourse context and the bodily context –,
culture (as conceptual system) pervades all conceptualization. This is because the
concepts (frames) constituting the conceptual system come with particular per-
spectives, elements of frames, emotions, evaluations, associations, etc. that are
characteristic of communities of speakers. Thus, the concepts (frames) impose
particular ways of seeing the world (i.e., the four, or more, types of context). In
other words, when I speak about the discourse context or the bodily context, I
do not mean that these types of context are culture-free. That is to say, one can
think of culture most broadly as the conceptual system, which is inherent in and
pervades anything we care to conceptualize. Nonetheless, as we know, there are
less encompassing conceptions of culture, such as what I referred to as the situa-
tional context. In my view, the situational context, like the other types of context,
consists of a global (less immediate) and a local (more immediate) aspect, as
described above (for more discussion of the distinction, see Kövecses, 2015), and
they both may fall under the influence of the general conceptual system, includ-
ing its metaphorical part.
 Extended conceptual metaphor theory: the cognition-context interface 37

5 Conclusions
The idea that conceptual metaphors exist not on a single level of schematicity
(such as that of domain) but consist of distinct but hierarchically related meta-
phors on four levels changes many things about the way we think about metaphor
(Kövecses 2020). One of these issues, the one that I dealt with here, is the ques-
tion of the nature of the interface between metaphorical cognition and (cultural)
context. If we view conceptual metaphors as conceptual structures on a single
level, it is next to impossible to capture the full complexity of the relationship; a
metaphor will only be either a matter of embodied cognition or a matter of con-
text-based (cultural) conceptualization. In the new view, a conceptual metaphor
exists on four levels of schematicity and the constituent metaphors display con-
ceptual structures with increasing and decreasing degrees of embodied cognition
and contextual influence. A conceptual metaphor in natural usage is always a
composite of both, the levels reflecting different degrees of them.
The other pillar of the new view is context. On the basis of a large amount of
empirical evidence, I found that context affects metaphor use in such a way that
contextual factors from the four context types (situational, discourse, bodily, and
conceptual-cognitive) prime conceptualizers to choose conceptual and linguistic
metaphors (Kövecses, 2015).
The bridge that connects context with higher-level metaphors (i.e., image
schema-, domain-, and frame-level metaphors) in long-term memory is provided
by mental space-level metaphors in working memory. It is the level of mental
spaces that “absorbs” information from context and at the same time unites it
with (schematically) higher-level metaphor structures. This way, it becomes pos-
sible to arrive at (at least) a tentative account of the interface between embodied
metaphor cognition and (cultural) context.

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(eds.), Cognition and Categorization, 27–48. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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Frank Polzenhagen
Critical reflections on the use of corpora
for cross-varietal metaphor research
Abstract: The present chapter critically reflects on the use of corpora for cross-
varietal metaphor research. My immediate example is the conceptualization of
community/nation in terms of a family and, more specifically, its linguistic
manifestations in American and West-African English, traceable in corpora of
these varieties. However, my paper will be mainly concerned with methodological
questions. In particular, issues of representativeness, manageability, comparabil-
ity, and reliability of the available corpora will be foregrounded. I.e., rather than
aiming at a detailed analysis of the community/nation as a family metaphor in
itself, I will use this particular conceptualization primarily as a test case in order
to point to some advantages and limits of various types of corpora.

Keywords: metaphor, corpora, American English, West-African English, concep-

tualization of community/nation

1 Introduction
For one of his landmark publications, Sinclair (2004) opted for the programmatic
title Trust the Text, making a case for corpus-linguistic approaches. “Trust” in
real life arises from “knowing” someone and from the “reliability” of this person.
Hence, if Sinclair’s metaphor is taken seriously, “to trust the text” implies (i) that
the researcher undertakes a close analysis of the tokens obtained from corpora
and (ii) that the reliability of the sources is checked and guaranteed. These aspects
of trustworthiness are often difficult to meet with current XXL-sized corpora.
Searches in, e.g., the BNC (British English, henceforth BrE) or COCA (American
English, henceforth AmE) often yield a number of tokens that cannot be inspected
individually anymore. In order to account for (i), we generally resort to sampling
procedures. However, for most of the World Englishes no corpus equivalent in size
to BNC/COCA is available, which makes comparison problematic. Corpora such as
GloWbE add the concern with reliability. Culled from the Internet, its trustworthi-
ness is rather limited. Websites come and go, the domain label of a site is no safe
indicator of the country of origin of the contents, the date of online appearance

Frank Polzenhagen, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-003
42 Frank Polzenhagen

is not conclusive as to the period of time the text was produced in, material from
websites is copy-pasted to others in prolific number, etc. Those who use this corpus
with due caution are well aware of these problems. In particular, the country labels
assigned to the source texts are not reliable, which is highly detrimental to sound
WE research. In order to obtain authentic and manageable data-sets from GloWbE,
sampling needs to be followed by a careful check of each token as to its correct
association with a particular variety. In sum, the researcher ends up in a time-con-
suming chain (if not circle) of sampling, checking, re-sampling and normalizing,
without reaching a satisfying level of confidence. Much pain with limited gain.
In this light, much can be said in favor of another, lesser known, stance taken by
Sinclair, i.e. that corpus “comparison uncovers differences almost regardless of size”
(Sinclair 2001: xii). The 1-million-word corpora of the BROWN-family in particular
have important advantages for WE research. They are compiled according to roughly
the same principles, have about the same size, yield a manageable number of tokens,
represent several text types (or genres), and make sure that the material stems from
a specific time frame and a specific variety. A further option researchers have is to
compile small-size corpora tailored for the specific needs of an investigation.
In the present paper, I wish to make a case for an approach that backs the
decision in favor of a specific corpus as the basis of a study with a cross-check of
the data in corpora of different types. I will mainly take the conceptualization the
nation is a family and its linguistic manifestations in AmE and West-African
English (WAfrE) as an illustration. It was analyzed for the West-African setting by
Wolf and Polzenhagen (e.g., 2009) and postulated by Lakoff (e.g., 2002 [1996]) to
underlie dominant models of politics in the US. I will give substance to the above
methodological considerations using data from COCA, GloWbE, BROWN-family
corpora and a small corpus compiled for my specific purpose. My paper has the
following structure: In section 2, I will give a brief introduction to the immedi-
ate subject of the paper, i.e. conceptualizations of the state/nation. Section 3
starts with some general considerations on how metaphors can be identified and
studied using corpus-linguistic means. I will then address three issues related to
the use of large corpora: Corpus size and manageability (section 3.2), represent-
ativeness (section 3.3), and reliability (section 3.4). Section 4 presents data from
a small-scale corpus of inaugural addresses delivered by US American and Nige-
rian presidents, respectively. Section 5 traces one specific fixed expression across
the corpora. Some tentative conclusions are given in section 6.
A note may be in order on the corpora used in the present study. My data for
AmE come from two standard corpora: FROWN and COCA. FROWN is a 1-million-
word corpus from the so-called BROWN family of corpora, i.e. those modeled on
the BROWN corpus of AmE compiled at Brown University (Rhode Island) in the
1960s. BROWN comprises 500 samples from texts from the year 1961. FROWN
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 43

(compiled at the University of Freiburg) is a remake of this corpus for the early
1990s. COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) is a monitor corpus that
has been updated on a yearly basis since 1990, and it has reached a size of more
than 1 billion words. It also contains spoken texts; this component, however, was
not considered for the present study, because other corpora used here do not
contain spoken material. Thus, only the categories fiction, newspaper, magazine,
and academic are considered, which yields a corpus of ca. 486.6 Mio words. The
version of COCA I used was the one available on www.english-corpora.org/coca/
in February 2020.1 This website also provides a sample of COCA texts (COCA_
sample, 1.7 Mio words),2 which I used as an additional source.
My data for West African English come from three corpora: ICE-Nigeria (ICE-
NIG), CEC and the Nigerian component of GloWbE (GloWbE_NIG). In terms of their
design, ICE-Nigeria (representing Nigerian English, NigE) and CEC (representing
Cameroonian English) belong to the extended family of BROWN corpora. ICE-Ni-
geria was compiled as part of the ICE project (International Corpus of English). It
also contains spoken data; however, for the present study, only the written com-
ponent was considered (ca. 400,000 words). The CEC (Corpus of English in Cam-
eroon) was originally compiled as part of the ICE project by a team of Camerooni-
ans (see Tiomajou 1995). Work on it stopped before completion, and the version
used here is an unfinished one from this period and was also the basis for the
analyses in Polzenhagen (2007) and Wolf and Polzenhagen (2009). It represents
11 genres and has ca. 900,000 words. Work on the corpus continued, and a revised
version, under the label CCE, is available (Nkemleke 2008). GloWbE (Global Web-
based English) contains 20 country-specific sub-corpora, the Nigerian component
having more than 42 Mio words. All of the texts in GloWbE are taken from the web.
The composition of the small-scale corpus of inaugural addresses compiled
for the present study is explained in section 4.

2 The conceptualization the nation as a family

In the Western cultural context, there is a set of well-established metaphorizations
of the state/nation with a long history in philosophical, political, and public
discourse. Prominent examples include the conceptualizations of the state/
nation as a ship (going back to Plato), as a machine (e.g., within the so-called

1 The most recent version of COCA (March 2020) also contains texts from web-sources and movies.
2 I obtained the sample used in the present study on 23 November 2018, i.e. from an earlier
version of COCA.
44 Frank Polzenhagen

“machine paradigm” in the 17th and 18th century and used in many influential
subsequent socio-political theories, e.g., by Max Weber), as a building (e.g., in
the representation of feudal hierarchy), as an organism/person (e.g., prototyp-
ically Hobbes’ Leviathan), and, finally, as a family. There are several studies
analyzing these metaphors from a cognitive-linguistic vantage point and tracing
their development over time. The nation as an organism/person metaphor, for
instances, has been thoroughly investigated by Andreas Musolff (e.g., 2010), the
state as a machine is the scope of Stollberg-Rilinger (1986). Family metaphors
in politics are studied in Lakoff (2002 [1996], 2006a, 2006b, 2008).
In addition to these metaphors with a general prominence across the Western
context, we find metaphorizations that are more or less specific to particular coun-
tries or settings. Well-known examples are those proposed to characterize the US
American nation, i.e. the traditional melting pot metaphor (e.g., John de Creve-
coeur 1782 and Frederick Jackson Turner 1983 [1893]) and its numerous alterna-
tives including salad bowl, mosaic, pizza, orchestra. Since these metaphors
have been hotly debated in American culture, there is a rich body of literature
dealing with them. Classics include Kallen (1915) and Glazer and Moynihan (1963).
Furthermore, discourse brings forth a wealth of new metaphors, often with a
very local application and short-lived, sometimes, however, with a broader pres-
ence. A recent cognitive-linguistic study of such metaphors is Vogelbacher (2019),
in the specific context of the discourse on the Brexit.
The various metaphorizations differ quite significantly in the specific way
they frame their target, i.e. the nation/state. From a cognitive-linguistic vantage
point, these differences can be spelled out in terms of the specific image-sche-
matic structures and figure-ground constellations underlying the metaphors.
Some of them are based on a hierarchical conception, along the vertical axis (up/
down), e.g., the building metaphor, encoding social stratification. A prototypical
example is the well-known representation of feudal society as a pyramid. Others
are explicitly non-hierarchical, e.g., the neighborhood metaphor representing
coexisting nations. Some highlight human agency, which is in turn hidden by
others, e.g., the machine metaphor. The family metaphor, specifically, is based
on a hierarchical conception, views the nation as a whole consisting of parts
with different functions, and brings into play primordial ties and mutual obliga-
tions as well as an emotional component.
However, these general metaphors can be spelled out quite differently, depen-
ding on the cultural model underlying their basic notions. This point is high-
lighted in Lakoff’s (e.g., 2002 [1996]) analysis of family metaphors in US
American politics. Lakoff distinguishes between a strict-father and a nurtur-
ant-parent model of family, with distinct sets of priorities and moral values,
which are mapped onto the concept of the nation yielding, according to Lakoff,
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 45

a conservative conception of society (strict-father model) and progressive one

(nurturant-parent model), respectively. I will return to Lakoff’s account in
section 4, from a cross-cultural perspective.

3 Issues of corpus-based metaphor research

3.1 Metaphor identification in corpora

Metaphor identification in corpora is still very much a manual procedure involv-

ing a close inspection of individual tokens. However, standard corpus-linguistic
search options are a useful means of detecting at least a set of potential tokens of
specific metaphors. Stefanowitsch’s MPA (= Metaphorical Pattern Analysis; e.g.,
2004, 2006), for instance, proposes to use a set of lexemes from the target domain as
search items in order to identify potential metaphoric tokens. However, as the target
domains are not always made explicit, a search along these lines will only produce
a limited sub-set of potential tokens. In the sequence he insulted her and she fumed,
for instance, there is no lexeme indicating anger other than fume, i.e., a source-do-
main item. In turn, a search restricted to potential source-domain items is limited,
inter alia, in that it does not detect alternative metaphorizations of the target.
Metaphor studies using corpora thus often combine a source-domain and a
target-domain approach. Then, their starting point is two lists of lexemes repre-
senting these domains. Ideally, these lists are encompassing (the more items they
include, the better the coverage) and comprise the various word forms as well as
relevant items from different word classes. Since the present paper is concerned
primarily with methodological issues, I will, however, only use a minimal set of
nominal items representing the source and target domains of the nation as a
family metaphor under analysis. They are given in Table 1:

Table 1: Selected search items (source and target domain)

for the nation is a family.

Potential family Potential citizen

source father target nation
domain mother domain country
items parent items government
sister president
brother state
son
daughter
46 Frank Polzenhagen

It is evident that these are only potential source-domain or target-domain

items for the metaphor pattern under analysis. This potentiality applies mainly to
source-domain items: the majority of tokens produced by a search is likely to be
literal, others might express metaphorizations of target domains other than the
one investigated. However, potentiality may also apply to target domain items:
for instance, citizen and president are also brand names, and such tokens do not
refer to the domains under analysis. Given this potentiality, the raw list obtained
from a corpus search has to be checked manually for the relevant metaphoric
tokens. Several methods have been proposed for this purpose, the best-known
being MIP (= Metaphor Identification Procedure) by the Pragglejaz Group (2007)
and its elaboration MIPVU (proposed by a team from VU Amsterdam; e.g., Steen
2010). These methods have been used in many studies and thus can be said to
serve as a standard of metaphor identification that ensures comparability in met-
aphor research.

3.2 Corpus size and manageability

An obvious argument in favor of large corpora is that they yield more tokens for
analysis than small ones, i.e., they provide a broader empirical basis. This is less
trivial than it may appear. While obtaining more tokens is desirable for many
studies, in particular for items or structures with a relatively low frequency, it may
well be a disadvantage for studies of high-frequency and moderate-frequency
phenomena. The enormous number of tokens produced by XXL-size corpora
in these cases easily exceeds what is manageable for a context-sensitive analy-
sis. Table 2 shows the frequency data in the written component of COCA for the
minimal list of lexical items proposed in section 3.1 to represent the source and
target domains of nation/state as a family.3 As stated in the introduction, the
search was restricted to the written component of COCA in order to stay within the
same medium as in later searches of other corpora, since the latter do not always
contain sections with spoken language. Table 2 also presents the data for FROWN:

3 The search items in the list were not POS-tagged, i.e., the output does not only include sg. and
pl. of the nominal forms but also some (though not all) forms of the zero-derived verbs, if appli-
cable (e.g., to father, to mother, which are also relevant in the given context). A comprehensive
search would need to consider further morphological forms of the verbs (e.g., participles) and
other items obtained through word-formation processes, e.g., adjectives (fatherly, motherly, etc.).
They were not included here since the search only serves the purpose of illustrating some issues
rather than providing a comprehensive analysis. For the same reason, the data for the item state
are not included (also see below).
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 47

Table 2: Absolute frequency of selected search items

(source and target domain) for the nation is a family in
COCA_written (ca. 486.6 Mio words) and FROWN (1 Mio words).

Type Tokens Tokens

COCA FROWN
Potential family 283,201 573
source father 177,119 448
domain
mother 208,243 479
items
parent 141,760 225
sister 60,473 143
brother 76,423 195
son 97,318 217
daughter 69,715 153
Potential citizen 42,558 108
target nation 99,720 331
domain
country 219,927 580
items
government 202,787 527
president 187,596 553
total 1,866,840 4,532

Identifying the relevant metaphoric uses and classifying them requires a

close inspection of each token and its context. The need for manual filtering is
inarguably obvious: The vast majority of the tokens listed as “potential source
domain items” in Table 1 are literal, others exemplify metaphoric uses other than
those brought forth by nation/state as a family. For instance, among the 419
tokens of singular father in FROWN, about 60 are metaphoric. The vast majority
of them, however, are used against the background of a religious model, father
referring to God or a priest. There are 4 tokens that use father metaphorically for
the originator of a particular notion or movement (1a-d):

(1) a. Tony Pastor, often called the father of American vaudeville

b. Lynden Pindling, the founding father of Bahamian independence
c. Wolfgang Pauli, ‘father’ of the neutrino
d. Kant is, in a sense, Kierkegaard’s intellectual ‘father’.
(FROWN)

Only 4 tokens of sg. father are instantiations of the conceptualization of the

state/nation as a family. (2) and (3) stem from the same source text and contain
3 of them; (4) refers to Native-American usage.
48 Frank Polzenhagen

(2) Quayle makes much of the theme of the absent father; America under the
Bush Administration looks like a house with an absent father. A man has
no right to abandon the family for years and then show up one day and go
upstairs and start spanking the kids. (FROWN)

(3) Children need love and discipline. They need mothers and fathers. A welfare
check is not a husband. The state is not a father. (FROWN)

(4) Native Americans were often referred to as children protected by the ‘Great
White Father’ in Washington. (FROWN)

The item state (excluded in Table 2) exemplifies yet another recurrent issue that
calls for the individual inspection of the tokens. Verbal to state, which is not rel-
evant in the present context, can be filtered out through a POS-tagged search
restricted to nominal tokens. However, polysemy or homonymy require manual
filtering. The following screenshot (Figure 1) illustrates this point for the case of
the senses of state:

Figure 1: Screenshot of hits of nominal state in the COCA.

The need for a close inspection of all individual tokens gets us to the follow-
ing hypothetical scenario for the COCA data in Table 2: Suppose that a manual
filtering of the 1,866,840 tokens produced by the search can be performed at a
rate of 10 per minute, such a (still very rough) preparation of the data set would
take the devoted scholar about 390 working days, 8 hours each. This amounts
to about 1.5 years of doing just that and is far beyond of what is reasonable.
This is certainly not a problem restricted to metaphor research. The same type
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 49

of context-sensitive manual inspection is required, for instance, in studies of

morpho-syntactic structures.
Generally, this problem is circumvented by sampling procedures that cut the
number of tokens down to a manageable size. For large corpora such as COCA
and BNC, standard samples exist that can be used instead of the full data set (the
so-called BNC-baby with 4 Mio words and a 1.7-Mio-word sample of COCA, also
used in the present study). Sampling, however, somehow caricatures the original
argument that large corpora yield a broader empirical basis. More importantly,
sampling inevitably introduces a certain bias, potentially affecting the original
representativeness of the data set, and it needs sophisticated techniques to keep
this effect to a minimum.
Standard 1-million-word corpora of the BROWN family often provide an alter-
native to large corpora or samples based on them. The number of tokens obtained
in FROWN for the exemplary list of source and target domain items, i.e., 4,532 (see
Table 2), for instance, is both reasonably large and manageable for context-sen-
sitive manual filtering. If the number of relevant tokens turns out to be too small,
the search can be easily extended to bigger corpora. Furthermore, BROWN-type
corpora have the advantage that they are mutually comparable, being modeled
on roughly the same design principles. Even more importantly, they are carefully
curated, a crucial issue highlighted in section 3.4.

3.3 Corpus size and representativeness

The second key argument made in favor of large corpora is their safer level of rep-
resentativeness. As with corpus size, and closely related to it, this is not trivial. Cer-
tainly, low-frequency phenomena cannot be appropriately assessed and studied
in small corpora; for them to reveal their profile, it needs a broad empirical basis.
High-frequency and moderate-frequency phenomena, however, can often be traced
in a reliable way with smaller corpora. Table 3 provides the frequency data for the
minimal list of lexical items proposed earlier in three corpora: COCA (written compo-
nent: 486.6 Mio words), the COCA_sample (1.7 Mio words), and FROWN (1 Mio words).
The left columns show the absolute numbers, the right columns give the normalized
frequency per 1 Mio words. As Table 3 shows, the aggregated normalized frequen-
cies of the potential source items are consistent across these corpora. FROWN is
richer with respect to the potential target domain items.
In the realm under investigation, the standard 1-million-word corpora also
prove reliable and largely consistent with regard to variety-specific frequency
patterns. Table 4 gives the normalized frequencies for the set of potential target
domain items in corpora of AmE and WAfrE. They are significantly more frequent
50 Frank Polzenhagen

Table 3: Frequency of selected search items (source and target domain) for the
nation is a family in COCA (written), COCA_sample and FROWN compared.

absolute frequency normalized frequency

(per 1 mw, rounded figures)
COCA COCA FROWN COCA COCA FROWN
sample sample
Potential family 283,201 932 573 582 548 573
source father 177,119 737 448 364 434 448
domain
mother 208,243 981 479 428 577 479
items
parent 141,760 385 225 291 226 225
sister 60,473 210 143 124 124 143
brother 76,423 268 195 157 158 195
son 97,318 339 217 200 199 217
daughter 69,715 261 153 143 154 153
total 2,290 2,420 2,433
Potential citizen 42,558 124 108 87 73 108
target nation 99,720 350 331 205 206 331
domain
country 219,927 840 580 452 494 580
items
government 202,787 670 527 417 394 527
president 187,596 846 553 386 498 553
total 1,547 1,665 2,099

in both corpora of WAfrE, ICE-Nigeria (written component, ca. 400,000 words),

and CEC (ca. 900,000 words) for Cameroonian English.

Table 4: Normalized frequency of selected potential target domain items

for the nation is a family in AmE (COCA_written, FROWN) and WAfrE
(ICE-NIG_written, and CEC) compared.

American English West-African English

COCA FROWN ICE-NIG written CEC
(per 1 mw) (per 1 mw) (per 1 mw) (per 1 mw)
citizen 87 108 135 263
nation 205 331 610 728
country 452 580 1,125 1,424
government 417 527 2,193 1,746
president 386 553 520 883
total 1,547 2,099 4,583 5,044
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 51

3.4 Corpus size and reliability

Standard corpora of the BROWN/ICE-family are carefully curated. In particular,

the researcher can rely on the correct association of the source texts with the
respective variety of English and a specific time frame. These standards of reli-
ability, however, cannot be assumed to be met by large-size corpora culled from
the internet, most notably GloWbE. Since more and more studies in WE use this
corpus, and do so often quite uncritically, the question of its reliability is a growing
and crucial concern.
GloWbE contains 20 country-specific sub-corpora, with a total of 1.9 billion
words. The algorithms used in its compilation are outlined in Davies and Fuchs
(2015a, b), in a special issue of English World-Wide devoted to the GloWbE shortly
after its release. Reservations were expressed very early. Gerald Nelson, for
instance, in the same special issue, raises, along with other problems, the issue
of the correct association of a web-text with a particular variety of English. He
concludes that “it may be that the sheer size of GloWbE will somehow statisti-
cally ‘even out’ these problems, [. . .]. I do hope that this will be the case, but in
the meantime there are still many reasons to recommend the ‘carefully-curated’
approach to corpus building” (Nelson 2015: 39). Those who have worked with this
corpus with due caution will agree with Nelson’s skepticism. Davies and Fuchs
(2015b: 46) acknowledge this problem in their response to Nelson’s criticism:

Of course, we never make the claim that the speakers are actually speakers of the dialect in
question (it would be impossible to determine this for all 1.8 million web pages), but rather
that the web page is simply from a web site in that country. Fortunately, however, we have
provided researchers with the URLs for each of the 1.8 million web pages in the corpus, and
links to the original web pages are given in the GloWbE interface as well. If there is a man-
ageable number of web pages to work with [. . .], users may want to examine the original
web pages, and see if they can identify the country of origin of the author/s.
(Davies and Fuchs 2015b: 46)

To put it plainly, the responsibility lies with the individual researcher. Then, however,
this should be clearly communicated. A statement to this effect is missing on the
website of GloWbE. It is also far from clear how this issue should be dealt with in
large-scale quantitative studies. While in qualitatively oriented studies a close
inspection of the individual tokens has to be performed anyway, this is not gener-
ally done in quantitative ones. Such studies rather presuppose the reliability of the
corpus, in particular with respect to the numbers that enter the statistics. In order to
assess the extent of the problem, I will have a closer look at the Nigerian component
of the corpus (GloWbE_NIG).
52 Frank Polzenhagen

Results from a search in GloWbE_NIG for the item nation, i.e., one of the
lexical items on our list, may serve as a starting point. This search yielded 14,441
tokens. Figure 2 is a screenshot of the first 30 hits.

Figure 2: Screenshot of the first 30 hits for the search term nation in GloWbE_NIG.

A manual check of the source texts reveals that only 13 of these 30 tokens can be
(more or less) safely said to stem from Nigerian speakers of English. 8 tokens are
definitely not of Nigerian origin: 2 of them come from a speech by Bill Clinton, 1
from Mitt Romney, 4 from texts written by US-American journalists, 1 from a fan-
blog of FC Chelsea. 2 tokens are flagged as duplicates. The remaining 7 tokens
cannot be fully recovered anymore, due to broken links; however, they come from
abcnews.com and are not likely to stem from Nigerians. The detailed breakdown
is given in Table 5.
The reason why non-Nigerian texts feature in the Nigerian component of
GloWbE appears to be quite straightforward: in the compilation of GloWbE, a
google-based algorithm was used that associates a site with a specific country not
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 53

Table 5: Origin of the first 30 tokens of the search term nation in GloWbE_NIG.

token(s) source (likely) not duplicate no longer

Nigerian Nigerian traceable
1–2 speech by Goodluck Jonathan 2
(Nigerian president)
3 authors: Helen Cooper / Ashley 1
Parker (US)
4–5 speech by Bill Clinton 2
6–9 author: Emmanuel Onwubiko 4
10 UEFA announcement 1
11 source: a Nigerian university 1
12 report on a Nigerian trade union 1
13 author: Candice Carter (Florida) 1
14–18 Nigerian blog on music 5
19 author: Matt McGarry (ABCnews) 1
20 speech by Mitt Romney 1
21 ABCnews report on Boko Haram 1
22 author: Christy Lemire (US) 1
23 1
24–28 ABCnews feed on Bin Laden 5
29 ABCnews report on Nicola Sarkozy 1
30 1
total 13 8 2 7

only on the basis of the respective country domain (e.g., .ng in the case of Nigeria).
It also assigns country labels on the basis of questions such as “who links to that
website [?]” and “who visits the website [?]” (see Davies and Fuchs 2015a: 4). It is
not surprising, for example, that Nigerians “visit” or “link to” the various interna-
tional standard outlets of daily news, e.g., abcnews.com. This, however, is not an
indicator of a Nigerian origin of the authors of such source texts.
A look at the list of the 37,285 source texts of GloWbE_NIG (provided online
with the corpus on english-corpora.org) quickly reveals that it is a far more
systematic problem of the corpus, not restricted to texts from general news
sites. Another domain that is particularly affected is sports, especially football
(soccer). Source texts from this domain constitute a very substantial part of the
entire corpus. This is, in itself, again not surprising, given the popularity of foot-
ball in Nigeria. However, many of these source texts do not stem from Nigerian
websites but are taken from popular international fan-blogs related to various
top teams (e.g., FC Chelsea, FC Arsenal, AC Milan, FC Barcelona) and from general
54 Frank Polzenhagen

non-Nigerian news-websites related to football (e.g., goal.com, laligatalk.com,

theshedender.com). The first 30 hits for the search term nation (Figure 2) pro-
vided an example thereof, with token 10 coming from a Chelsea fan-blog. In
fact, when you take Chelsea-related websites as a case in point, the picture is as
follows: About 1,200 source texts in the GloWbE_NIG come from various inter-
national Chelsea fan-blogs/websites (e.g., from justchelsea.com, thechelseablog.
org, chelseafc360.com, chelseadaft.org, bluechampions.com, to name just a few);
they alone represent well over 3% (!!!) of the source texts of GloWbE_NIG. The
detailed breakdown is given in Table 6, considering only websites/blogs that
contributed more than 10 source texts to GloWbE_NIG.

Table 6: Number of source texts in GloWbE_NIG coming

from non-Nigerian Chelsea-related websites/blogs.

Chelsea website / fan blog number of texts that

entered GloWbE_NIG
justchelsea.com 92
thechelseablog.org 62
chelseafanzone.com 88
chelseafc360.com 126
chelseafcfansclub.com 45
chelseatickets.org 33
mychelseafc.com 18
chelsea-news.org 11
bluechampions.com 66
chelseadaft.org 201
weaintgotnohistory.com 454
total 1,196

In fact, when you search the entire GloWbE for tokens of Chelsea, you get the fol-
lowing result (Figure 3), showing its conspicuous presence in the Nigerian com-
ponent (and, to a lesser degree, also in the Ghanaian sub-corpus):

Figure 3: Tokens of Chelsea in GloWbE.

 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 55

As to be expected, the problem extends to websites/blogs related to other

British and non-British European top teams and to international sites on football
in general. The following table gives the number of source texts in GloWbE_NIG
that stem from such sites; the list is not exhaustive:

Table 7a: Number of source texts in GloWbE_NIG stemming from various non-Nigerian
websites/blogs related to European football teams.

fan blogs/websites of number of fan blogs/websites of number of

selected British football texts that selected non- British texts that
teams entered football teams entered
GloWbE_NIG GloWbE_NIG
allarsenalnews.com 17 justbarcelonanews.com 26
arsenalblogger.com 19 barcacentral.com 32
myarsenalblog.com 25 barcafan-club.com 78
arsenalterritory.com 12 fcbarcelonaticketsonline.com 7
arsetalks.com 26 barcelonafans.org 7
welcometothegunnerstown.com 42 acmilan-online.com 87
goonermemoirs.com 59 valenciafootballclub.com 25
mufcdevils.com 11 justrealmadrid.com 27

Table 7b: Number of source texts in GloWbE_NIG stemming from various non-Nigerian
websites/blogs related to football.

websites number of websites number of

texts that texts that
entered entered
GloWbE_NIG GloWbE_NIG
soccerfanbase.com 82 goal.com 255
soccerlimeyinamerica.com 42 todaysfootballnews.com 112
tribalfootball.com 187 breakingfootballnews.com 17
soccerroomtoday.com 63 footballgalleria.com 14
theshedender.com 141 latestfootballnews.net 28
john.futbal-fans.com 72 laligatalk.com 56
soccercaffe.com 30 footballlatestnews.com 11
footballmood.com 13 eyefootball.com 11

The problematic source texts from the domain of football listed in Tables 6 and
7a, b add up to ca. 7.5% of the total of source texts in GloWbE_NIG.
56 Frank Polzenhagen

Given the popularity of football in Nigeria, it is not surprising that a consider-

able share of the internet activity of Nigerians is connected to that sport and that
they frequently visit and link to the popular international fan blogs and news
sites related to football in general and to specific teams in particular.4 Nigerians,
of course, also actively contribute to such sites and blogs, e.g., with texts they
post as well as with comments. I.e., international football-fan blogs that are not
Nigerian in the first place may contain some “Nigerian element”.
In order to assess this potential Nigerian element, I had a closer look at the
Chelsea blog bluechampions.com. It contributed 66 texts with a total of 258,169
words to the Nigerian component of GloWbE. This blog, which is no longer
online,5 was run by two Chelsea fans. The self-description of the first one, with the
nickname BlueChampion, reads: “English is not his first language. Indian by birth
and lives in Kuala Lumpur.” The second one introduces himself as “Matt Clark.
A 19 year old English student [. . .] at the University of Birmingham, England.” 63
of the 66 texts taken from this blog were posted by Matt Clark or BlueChampion,
only 3 are guest posts. Plainly, these texts represent British and Indian English,
respectively, rather than Nigerian English. A Nigerian element in these source
texts (if there is any) would thus be restricted to the comment section below the
posts and would be very small. Indeed, below at least some of the posts, there
are short comments by users with nicknames that suggest a West African origin.
A parallel situation can be assumed (and is present) in domains other than
football, e.g., daily news (as illustrated above with the example of texts taken from
abcnews.com), life style, religion, science and popular science, where general
non-Nigerian websites appear frequently. In the domain of religion, for instance,
one source text which contributed 27,855 words6 to GloWbE_NIG is a mere repro-
duction of the entire First Book of Mormon (from wjesus.org/nephiA.htm), which is
surely not a Nigerian text. The website wjesus.org is run by a speaker of Canton-
ese from Hong Kong and contributed 2 further source texts to GloWbE_NIG that
are not of Nigerian origin either. 27 source texts stem from a website called space-
ship-earth.org, authored by a white male (born in London, www.spaceship-earth.
org/Index.html); it contributed 48,051 words to GloWbE_NIG and I could not find
any Nigerian element. Many other problematic websites can be added.

4 Recall that “who visits” and “who links to” websites were criteria of the google-based algo-
rithm used for the assignment of a particular country label to a site.
5 The relevant web-pages from bluechampions.com were recovered via archive.org and checked
manually for authorship. The self-presentations of the bloggers come from a recovered version
of bluechampions.com/bloggers/ from Oct. 13th, 2015. A video clip advertising the website is still
online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbgqQSoCtBI (last access 27 July 2020).
6 This is noteworthy as the average length of the source texts in GloWbE_NIG is 1,143 words.
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 57

It is difficult to assess the full extent of the problematic cases in GloWbE_NIG

and GloWbE in general. In any case, it cannot be taken for granted that we are
still in the realm of what might be “somehow statistically ‘even[ed] out’” by “the
sheer size of GloWbE”, to return to Nelson’s criticism.7 This has to be established
individually for each study based on the corpus.

4 Small-scale specific-purpose corpora

4.1 A corpus of inaugural speeches

The present section makes a case for small-scale corpora compiled for the specific
purpose of a study. Obvious advantages of such corpora include that (i) they are
thematically adapted to the scope of the investigation, (ii) they hence contain far
less tokens that are irrelevant to the study, and (iii) they are small enough to allow
for a close reading of the contexts.
The standard objection made against them is that they are not representative.
This is most certainly true, in a trivial sense. However, the underlying notion of ‘repre-
sentativeness’ is worth considering: corpora such as COCA, BNC, BROWN-family type
(including ICE) are “representative” in particular in that they are “big”, in that they
comprise different text types (in the case of BROWN-type corpora even according to
the same design principles), and in that some of them comprise different modalities
(written and spoken components). However, whether this type of “representative-
ness” is needed and useful depends on the specific object of investigation. If we wish
to study, for example, the conceptualization of homosexuality, we do not really need
a corpus with sections of texts from computer science and stock-market reports. Texts
that are largely irrelevant given the scope of the investigation will blur the results of
quantitative analyses. Furthermore, small-scale specific-purpose corpora may even
be maximally “representative” in that they comprise the entire body of discourse in a

7 The impact of problematic source texts may be quite significant. I had a closer look at a recent
large-scale study based on GloWbE on the present perfect across varieties of English (Fuchs 2016,
summarized in Fuchs, van Rooy and Gut 2019). The problems come to the fore immediately when
you have a look at the list of hits for individual verbs. Among the total of 723 tokens of have got,
for instance, I counted more than 120 that come from the football-rated sites listed above, i.e.,
about 17%, leaving problematic cases from other domains aside. For lexical items with a strong
affinity to the domain of sport, the problem is even bigger. Among the 584 tokens of have won, for
instance, I found more than 200 of the kind described above, i.e., more than a third of the total,
again leaving aside other issues. Unfortunately, Fuchs, van Rooy and Gut (2019) are mute on these
problems with GloWbE.
58 Frank Polzenhagen

given realm exhaustively, e.g., the texts of the successive constitutions of a country, or
at least in a given time frame. It is this understanding of the notion of ‘representative-
ness’ that guides and licenses small-scale specific-purpose corpora.
Among the text types, or genres, that are particularly promising for an anal-
ysis of the metaphor system nation as a family are political speeches. In the
following, I will have a closer look at one sub-genre of political speeches, i.e.,
presidential inaugural addresses. The rationale of this choice is straightforward:
major functions of this genre are to re-unite the nation after a divisive election
period, to provide a vision for the nation and to define the role of the elected
president. Hence, appeal to generally accepted conceptualizations of the nation
in the respective cultural context can be expected to be prominent.
The following exemplary analysis is based on a small-scale corpus of inaugu-
ral addresses by American and Nigerian presidents, INAUG_US and INAUG_Nig
respectively. INAUG_US comprises the inaugural speeches from Carter 1977 to
Trump 2017 (see Table 8), with a total of ca. 22,000 words. All of them are the offi-
cial transcripts provided on www.americanrhetoric.com (last access 27 July 2020).8
INAUG_Nig is its Nigerian near equivalent (ca. 13,800 words);9 not included,
however, are the periods of military rule and the inaugural address by Shonekan,
which I could not obtain. Its source texts are given in Table 8.

Table 8: Source texts of INAUG_US and INAUG_Nig.

INAUG_US
Jimmy Carter, 1977–1981 Inaugural Address. January 20, 1977
Ronald Reagan, 1981–1989 Inaugural Address. January 20, 1981
Inaugural Address. January 21, 1985
George H. W. Bush, 1989–1993 Inaugural Address. January 20, 1989
William J. Clinton, 1993–2001 Inaugural Address. January 20, 1993
Inaugural Address. January 20, 1997
George W. Bush, 2001–2009 Inaugural Address. January 20, 2001
Inaugural Address. January 20, 2005

8 For analyses of the history and structure of the inaugural addresses of American presidents,
see, e.g., Campbell and Jamieson (1990) and Austermühl (2014).
9 In order to obtain a corpus that is sufficiently big to be comparable to INAUG_US, I included
two acceptance speeches (by Jonathan and Buhari) in INAUG_Nig in addition to their inaugural
addresses. All of the sources of INAUG_Nig were last accessed 27 July 2020, Buhari’s Accept-
ance Speech is no more available on the site indicated but can be accessed on vanguardngr.
com/2015/04/buharis-acceptance-speech/.
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 59

Table 8 (continued)

INAUG_Nig
Barack Obama, 2009–2017 Inaugural Address. January 20, 2009
Inaugural Address. January 21, 2013
Donald J. Trump, 2017–present Inaugural Address. January 20, 2017
Shehu Shagari, 1979–1983 Inaugural Speech. October 1, 1979
maxsiollun.wordpress.com/great-speeches-in-nigerias-
history/
military rule and a short presidency no text from this period
(Ernest Shonekan, 83 days)
Olusegun Obasanjo, 1999–2007 Inaugural Speech. May 29, 1999
maxsiollun.wordpress.com/great-speeches-in-nigerias-
history/
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, 2007–2010 Inaugural Speech. May 29, 2007
maxsiollun.wordpress.com/great-speeches-in-nigerias-
history/
Goodluck Jonathan, 2010–2015 Inaugural Speech. May 5, 2010
sahelblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/nigeria-
president-goodluck-jonathans-inaugural-speech/
Acceptance Speech. April 28, 2011 (Jonathan 2011a)
vanguardngr.com/2011/04/president-jonathans-
acceptance-speech/
Inaugural Speech. May 29, 2011 (Jonathan 2011b)
visionafricamagazine.com/President_Goodluck_
Jonathan%27s_Inaugural_Speech.html
Muhammadu Buhari, 2015–present Acceptance Speech. April 1, 2015 (Buhari 2015a)
cnbcafrica.com/news/special-report/2015/04/02/
muhammadu-buhari-speech-nigeria/
Inaugural Speech. May 29, 2015 (Buhari 2015b)
vanguardngr.com/2015/05/read-president-buhari-
inaugural-speech/

The search in the corpus for the list of potential source and target domain
items yielded the results given in Table 9. Not surprisingly, there is a much higher
frequency of potential target-domain items in INAUG compared to the general
corpora (Table 10), i.e., INAUG has a far greater density of relevant material due to
its genre-specific thematic focus. The potential source-domain items, as a whole,
have about the same frequency in both corpus components of INAUG, with 2045
per 1mw in INAUG_US and 1957 per 1mw in INAUG_Nig, although the frequency
of individual items differs quite significantly (see Table 9).
60 Frank Polzenhagen

Table 9: Frequency of selected search items (source and target domain) for the
nation is a family in INAUG_US and INAUG_Nig compared.

Inaug_US Inaug_NIG Inaug-US Inaug-NIG

(absolute (absolute (per 1 mw) (per 1 mw)
frequency) frequency)
Potential family 18 8 818 580
source father 13 5 591 362
domain
mother 6 2 273 145
items
parent 4 0 182 0
sister 1 3 45 217
brother 1 8 45 580
son 1 1 45 72
daughter 1 0 45 0
Potential citizen 52 22 2,364 1,594
target nation 117 67 5,318 4,855
domain
country 47 50 2,136 3,623
items
government 81 65 3,682 4,710
president 37 46 1,682 3,333
total 379 277 17,227 20,072

Table 10: Frequency of potential target-domain items for

the nation is a family in INAUG_US and INAUG_Nig compared
to general corpora (COCA_written and ICE-NIG_written).

COCA ICE-NIG IINAUG_US INAUG_Nig

per 1 mw per 1 mw per 1 mw per 1 mw
1,547 4,310 15,182 18,116

In the following two sections, I will take a more detailed look at these items
in order to see whether they are indeed used figuratively in the relevant sense.
These two sections will also provide a more general analysis of how the domain
of nation/state is conceptualized in the inaugural addresses.
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 61

4.2 The conceptualization of nation/state in INAUG_US

Of the 45 tokens of the potential source-domain items from the family domain,
32 are literal. Father is the only metaphorically productive kinship term in the
data, with 10 figurative uses among the total of 13 tokens. 8 of these 10 tokens are
instances of the fixed expression founding fathers, or refer to specific founders as
fathers:

(5) a. George Washington, father of our country (Reagan 1981)

b. one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren
(Reagan 1981)
c. Two of our Founding Fathers, a Boston lawyer named Adams and a
Virginia planter named Jefferson (Reagan 1985)
d. Washington remains the Father of our Country (Bush 1989)
e. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. (G.W. Bush 2005)
f. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine,
drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man (Obama
2009)
g. At a moment when the outcome of our Revolution was most in doubt, the
Father of our Nation ordered these words be read to the people (Obama
2009)
h. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our Fathers once declared.
(Obama 2013)

The expression founding fathers, however, does not frame the nation as a family.
Instead, it is a procreation metaphor in which the nation is a metaphoric child, i.e.,
a version of the nation as a person metaphor. It is the same conceptualization that
was famously used by Lincoln in his Gettysburg address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
(Lincoln. The Gettysburg Address. 1863)

As a fixed expression, founding fathers emerged only at the end of the 19th century,
and it gained currency from the 1920s onwards. Framing, e.g., George Washing-
ton as the father of the country, as it is done by Reagan (1981) and Bush (1989), is,
from a modern perspective, also a procreation metaphor: Washington is presented
as having brought forth the country. Historically, however, i.e., at the time of the
US Independence movement, it is a metaphorization with a much broader back-
ground of interpretation: George Washington was viewed as an alternative father,
alternative to the English King George III, who liked to present himself as the father
62 Frank Polzenhagen

of his subjects. As shown by Schulz (1992), the Independence movement was, in

this logic and respect, a metaphorical revolt against a father who mistreats his
children. This is made very explicit in the following passage from Thomas Paine’s
Common Sense:

But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even
brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; [. . .] I rejected
the hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh of England for ever; and disdain the wretch, that
with the pretended title of FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE, can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter,
and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul. (Paine 1776)

In addition to instances of founding fathers, there is 1 token in INAUG_US of father

referring to God:

(6) Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. (Bush 1989)

Again, this is primarily a procreation metaphor. However, the Christian notion of

the ‘family of man’ certainly provides for the conceptualization of community
(ranging from a community of believers to the entire human kind) in terms of a
family.
1 token of father and the only figurative one of mother use these terms to refer
to earlier generations:

(7) Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire
us or condemn us. (G.W. Bush 2001)

The remaining 2 figurative uses of kinship terms in INAUG_US are, in fact, the
most interesting ones from the present perspective. They come in Obama’s second
inaugural speech and involve the only tokens of brother and sister in INAUG_US:

(8) Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like
anyone else under the law -- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the
love we commit to one another must be equal as well. (Obama 2013)

Here, the American nation is indeed framed as a family. However, it is important

to notice that in Obama’s speech, this passage comes immediately after a direct
reference to Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech:10 “to hear a preacher say
that we cannot walk alone; to hear a ‘King’ proclaim that our individual freedom

10 An explicit reference to Martin Luther King is also made by Clinton in his 1997 inaugural
speech.
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 63

is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth” (Obama 2013).

Obama thus extends the concern of the civil-rights movement to LGB rights.
Martin Luther King’s own use of brother and sister in his speech11 is rooted in the
Christian notion of the ‘family of man’ and the well-known usage of kinship terms
in Black English, both being invoked by Obama.
In addition to the 13 figurative usages of kinship terms, there is one token that
expresses an explicit analogy between nation and family in terms of a simile. It
comes from Clinton’s first inaugural address:

(9) We must provide for our Nation the way a family provides for its children.
(Clinton 1993)

Here, too, the nation is the metaphoric child. It is not a procreation metaphor;
rather, it highlights the notion of ‘nurturing’ (also see below).
Generally, however, the relevant domains appear as distinct, albeit related, in
the INAUG_US data: We find them catenated rather than metaphorically blended,
as a chain ‘self – family – community – nation’, e.g., in the following examples:

(10) Let us all take more responsibility not only for ourselves and our families but
for our communities and our country. (Clinton 1993)

(11) Each and every one of us, in our own way, must assume personal responsi-
bility not only for ourselves and our families but for our neighbors and our
Nation. (Clinton 1997)

In the use of kinship terms in INAUG_US, there is hence only scarce direct expres-
sion of a conceptualization of the nation as a family. This is somehow difficult
to match with Lakoff’s (e.g., 2002 [1996]) influential account of the conceptual
models underlying US-American political belief systems. According to Lakoff, con-
servative and progressive world views in the US reflect a metaphoric mapping of
two distinct, competing, cultural models of the family: the strict-father model
for conservatives and the nurturant-parent model for progressives, respec-
tively. These two models have quite different priorities, in particular the empha-
sis on strength in the strict-father and on empathy in the nurturant-parent
model. The strength of Lakoff’s analysis is that it can account for the mutual

11 The relevant passage reads “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious
racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nulli-
fication” – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join
hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” (King 1963, my emphasis).
64 Frank Polzenhagen

misunderstanding that exists between the two camps: while both conservatives
and progressives generally share the same well-known set of American cultural
keywords and ideals (e.g., self-reliance, liberty), they derive them from the foci
and the logic of their respective model, i.e., from different bases, and they do not
mean the same things when they use the same terms. Furthermore, Lakoff’s anal-
ysis can account for apparent incongruencies of stances taken by a specific camp,
e.g., that conservatives generally advocate a pro-life attitude on the issue of abor-
tion but support death penalty, while progressives, in turn, are pro-choice and
reject death penalty, with both camps thus being “inconsistent” regarding their
stance towards protecting or taking life. However, against the background of the
specific priorities and foci of the underlying models, these stances are coherent.
In Lakoff’s model, the nation as a family metaphor has to carry the load of
providing the conceptual link between the relevant domains, cf.:

I believe that the Nation As Family metaphor is what links the conservative and liberal
worldviews to the family-based moralities [. . .]. I believe that this metaphor projects the
Strict Father and Nurturant Parent moral systems onto politics to form the conservative and
liberal political worldviews. (Lakoff 2002: 154)

Lakoff introduces this metaphor explicitly as an indisputable “fact”:

This is not a metaphor that I, as a cognitive scientist, like or dislike. It just is. That neural
mapping exists just like gravity exists and species exist. I didn’t create the metaphor. I’m
just describing it. (Lakoff 2008: 88f.)

Given the assumed centrality of this metaphor at the conceptual level, one would
expect that it is also central in the respective discourse domain, and thus trace-
able in terms of linguistic manifestations. As stated in section 4.1., inaugural
addresses should be a particularly fertile ground for this metaphor system: they
highlight traditional themes and values, have the function of providing common
ground for the nation beyond political divisions and of presenting a vision of
societal coherence. Furthermore, the INAUG_US corpus prominently represents
both conservative and liberal worldviews. As seen above, however, nation as a
family does only scarcely manifest in the data.12 Instead, the speeches are dom-
inated by two other metaphor systems, i.e., the general conceptualization of the
nation/state as an organism, in particular a person, and as a unity of parts.

12 The relevant metaphors were difficult to trace linguistically also in other studies. Cienki
(2004, 2005), for instance, analyzed a corpus of TV debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush
and found only few direct expressions of the metaphor sets in terms of which Lakoff spelled out
the strict-father and nurturant-parent models. At the level of entailments of these meta-
phors, Cienki’s data also yielded a rather diffuse picture.
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 65

Expressions of the former abound in the speeches, including the following

examples:

(12) Two centuries ago, our Nation’s birth was a milestone in the long quest for
freedom (Carter 1977)

(13) It is to make kinder the face of the Nation (G. Bush 1989)

(14) a nation still mighty in its youth and powerful in its purpose (Reagan 1985)

They often come in communion with healing and journey metaphors, e.g.

(15) I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land (Carter
1977)

(16) And though our Nation has sometimes halted and sometimes delayed, we
must follow no other course (G. W. Bush 2001)

The unity of parts metaphor is exemplified by the following extract:

(17) These questions that judge us also unite us, because Americans of every
party and background, Americans by choice and by birth are bound to one
another in the cause of freedom. We have known divisions, which must be
healed to move forward in great purposes, and I will strive in good faith
to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt the unity
and fellowship of our Nation when freedom came under attack, and our
response came like a single hand over a single heart. (G. W. Bush 2005)

4.3 The conceptualization of nation/state in INAUG_Nig

In INAUG_US, roughly 30% of the kinship terms considered were instances of

metaphoric usage, with father accounting for 10 of the 13 metaphoric tokens (see
section 4.2). The situation is quite different in INAUG_Nig. There, 17 of the 27 kin-
ship-term tokens are figurative (i.e., more than 60%). Brother stands out with 8
figurative tokens and no literal ones; however, family (a total of 8 tokens), father
(a total of 5 tokens), and sister (a total of 3 tokens) also contribute 3 figurative
instances each.
Among the figurative tokens of the kinship terms considered, there are 2
instances of founding fathers (Jonathan 2011b, Buhari 2015b) with reference to
66 Frank Polzenhagen

the founders of Nigeria. All the other 15 tokens are expressions of the concep-
tualization of various communities as families, where community members
are brothers and sisters and leaders/community elders are fathers. Refer-
ence points range from local communities to Nigeria as a country and Africa as a
whole. In (25), a political party is conceptualized as a family. The full data set is
provided in (18) to (29); the relevant items are italicized:

(18) I salute all our traditional rulers, fathers of our communities and custodians
of our cultural heritage. (Shagari 1979)

(19) To our larger African family, you have our commitment to the goal of African
integration. (Yar’Adua 2007)

(20) I ask you, fellow citizens, to join me in rebuilding our Nigerian family, one
that defines the success of one by the happiness of many. (Yar’Adua 2007)

(21) My dear brothers and sisters, it is with deep sense of loss and profound
sorrow that I received the news of the passing on of His Excellency, President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua [. . .] (Jonathan 2010)

(22) My brothers and sisters, I call on all Nigerians to pray for the repose of the
soul of our departed President. (Jonathan 2010)

(23) I have lost not just a boss but a good friend and brother (Jonathan 2010, with
reference to Yar’Adua)

(24) I would like to specially acknowledge the presence in our midst today, of
Brother Heads of State and Government, who have come to share this joyous
moment with us. (Jonathan 2011b)

(25) To members of the PDP family and members of other political parties, who
have demonstrated faith in our democratic enterprise, I salute you. (Jonathan
2011b)

(26) At this juncture, let me acknowledge and salute my friend and brother, Vice-
President Namadi Sambo, and my dear wife, Patience, who has been a strong
pillar of support. (Jonathan 2011b)

(27) My brothers and sisters, fellow citizens, we are all winners. (Jonathan 2011a)
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 67

(28) Our neighbours in the Sub-region and our African brethren should rest
assured that Nigeria under our administration will be ready to play any lead-
ership role that Africa expects of it. (Buhari 2015b)

(29) Finally our brothers in the African Union and ECOWAS have truly and clearly
shown and demonstrate their commitment to our democratisation process.
(Buhari 2015a)

The data are fully in line with the earlier comprehensive analysis of the African
model of community in Polzenhagen (2007) and Wolf and Polzenhagen (2009).
Triangulating findings from various realms and obtained through various meth-
odologies, their comparative account shows that the conceptualization of societal
units (community, country, etc.) in terms of families is not only far more frequent,
salient, and productive in the (Sub-Saharan) African context than in the Western
one, but that it is indeed the backbone of the cultural model of community in this
setting, including the domain of politics.

5 Brothers and sisters: tracing a fixed

expression
While the previous sections took the path from big to small corpora, the present
one follows the inverse direction. It rests on the argument that findings from
small corpora provide meaningful starting points for more extensive searches in
larger data sets.
One of the observations from the analysis of INAUG_US and INAUG_Nig was
the fairly prominent figurative usage of the expression brothers and sisters in
the latter, encoding membership in a community. It has 3 tokens in this corpus,
compared to 1 in the US data. A frequency search of this expression in the other
corpora used in the present study yields the results in Table 11 (normalized fre-
quencies). The table also provides the data for the items brother and sister in
isolation.
68 Frank Polzenhagen

Table 11: Normalized frequency (per 1mw) sister, brother, brothers and sisters.13

AmE WAfrE
COCA COCA FROWN ICE-NIG CEC GloWbE_
sample written NIG
sister 124 124 143 113 183 121
brother 157 158 195 155 192 179
brothers and sisters 3.5 2.4 2 20 7.8 11.9

There is nothing particularly remarkable about the frequency profiles of sister

and brother when the items are looked at in isolation. However, the fixed expres-
sion brothers and sisters is far more frequent in all the corpora of West African
English. What is even more interesting for the present perspective, beyond mere
frequency, is the distribution between literal and figurative usages.
ICE-NIG (written) produces 8 tokens of the expression. 6 of them are literal, refer-
ring to biological siblings. However, 5 of these 6 literal tokens stem from the same
text, in which the narrator learns about having biological brothers and sisters. Both
figurative usages of the expression in this corpus specify community membership.

(30) In as much as the government and oil/gas multinationals have their own
faults, much of the problems confronting us today in the Niger Delta region,
are caused by our own brothers and sisters.

(31) The NDDC has become highly politicized that it is regarded as a conduit pipe
for siphoning public funds. It is on record that the top management staff of
the NDDC who incidentally are from the Niger Delta region, had governor-
ship ambition and thus rely on public funds to achieve these goals, deceiving
our ignorant brothers and sisters that they have marching orders to address
our developmental needs.

13 In the light of the criticism expressed in section 3, the data from GloWbE need to be taken
with due caution. I went through the lists of websites from which the tokens stem. Among the first
1,000 hits for brother in the Nigerian component of GloWbE, I found only 23 tokens from prob-
lematic football-related source texts. The amount of problematic source texts from this realm is
even smaller for sister. The list for the expression brothers and sisters is virtually unaffected by
the above problem; I have checked all the 508 tokens manually. This is not surprising since these
two kinship terms have no affinity to the domain of sports. However, their normalized frequency
is counted on the basis of the total corpus size, which includes problematic source texts. The fig-
ures are hence not reliable; they can be expected to be higher. Furthermore, problematic source
texts from other domains, e.g., in the present context, in particular ‘religion’, were not checked.
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 69

The CCE has a total of 7 tokens of this expression, all of them figurative. 5 of them
are used against the background of the Christian notion of ‘family of man’ (i.e., the
notion that all human beings are God’s children and thus equal), 3 of them come in
quotes from the Bible. The remaining 2 tokens express membership in a community
in general:

(32) He stressed that his Government is not only interested in the Fund because
GTZ initiated it but because it concerns the health development of brothers
and sisters in Cameroon.

(33) From early in life children are introduced to adult kin as “other” fathers and
mothers and to their children as brothers and sisters.

FROWN, by contrast, returns only 2 tokens, 1 of them literal, the other one figura-
tive against the background of the notion ‘family of man’:

(34) Now is a time for blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, and others to respect
diversity. No nation has ever done so. It can only work seeing that all folks
under the sun are brothers and sisters.

COCA produces 1,740 tokens of brothers and sisters. In order to assess the share of
literal and non-literal cases, I manually checked a random sample14 of 1,000 hits,
in which I counted 533 literal usages, i.e. 53%.15
Given that for a larger-scale comparative look at NigE there is, in terms of
size, no alternative to GloWbE_NIG, I searched this corpus for tokens of brothers
and sisters. This search yielded 508 hits. As stated above, the list is virtually unaf-
fected by the problems with sports-related source texts discussed in section 3.4.
I manually checked all of them and counted 54 literal usages, i.e., about 11%.
Table 12 shows the results for COCA and GloWbE_NIG side by side. Hence, the
expression brothers and sisters has a very distinct profile in NigE, compared to
AmE, not only in terms of overall frequency but, in particular, with its high per-
centage of figurative tokens.

14 The online-interface on www.english-corpora.org/coca/ allows for automatic random sampling.

15 A parallel count in a random sample of 200 hits produced 110 literal cases, which confirms
the results of the bigger sample.
70 Frank Polzenhagen

Table 12: Normalized frequency (per 1mw) brothers and

sisters and the distribution between literal and
figurative usages in COCA (sample of 1,000 tokens)
and GloWbE_NIG.

COCA GloWbE_NIG
brothers and sisters 3.5 11.9
literal usages 53% 11%
figurative usages 47% 89%

6 Conclusions
Corpus linguistics has proved to be an enormously fertile tool for the study of
metaphor in and across varieties of English. In particular, it has contributed to
a stronger empirical foundation and usage-based commitment of this research
agenda, both complementing and challenging introspection-based approaches.
Regular corpus work does not require sophisticated equipment and resources
anymore, and the software needed for corpus analyses is readily available to every
researcher who wishes to engage in corpus-based studies.16 What is also available
is a growing body of corpora covering varieties hitherto not or only poorly docu-
mented this way.
However, the corpora that are available differ quite significantly in terms of
their design, size, and composition. The aim of the present paper was to reflect on
this condition and in particular on what it needs to make sure that we can “trust
the text”, to use Sinclair’s metaphor. Sinclair’s trust metaphor inspires several
crucial considerations that can help us determine which corpus, or corpora, we
choose for a specific investigation. Criteria I highlighted in the present paper are
representativeness, comparability, manageability and reliability. The different
types of corpora differ with respect to how they satisfy these criteria; hence, the
criteria should be carefully considered and weighed in communion prior to the
actual analysis.
The present paper made a case for small-scale and standard 1 Mio word
corpora. They are particularly suited for studies targeting metaphor in terms of
their comparability and manageability. Metaphor-oriented studies usually operate
with fairly extensive lists of lexis from both the source and the target domain, and

16 For a very useful overview of what is available in this realm, see Esimaje and Hunston (2019).
 Critical reflections on the use of corpora for cross-varietal metaphor research 71

they require a close inspection of the individual tokens. Representativeness can be

further ensured, if need be, in a follow-up study of larger corpora. A crucial advan-
tage of these small-scale and BROWN-family corpora is their reliability, since they
are carefully curated. The currently available large corpora such as GloWbE cer-
tainly are a major achievement; however, their reliability is still limited. Cleaner
corpora of this size remain a desideratum.

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Section II: Cultural metaphorical
conceptualizations
Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello
Indexicalization and lexicalization
of event-based time intervals in Huni Kuĩ,
Awetý, and Kamaiurá
Abstract: This chapter explores the multiple ways in which human cultures and
languages conceptualize time. We discuss the very notion of time from different
perspectives as well as through the comparison of well-studied languages with
lesser-known ones. Our focus is on concepts of time in three indigenous lan-
guages and cultures of Brazil: Huni Kuĩ, Awetý, and Kamaiurá. In these cultures,
time is not organized and expressed metrically but is event-based. There are no
lexical translation equivalents for ‘time’ in any of these languages and no names
for days of the week, months of the year, year, or month. The data discussed
are derived from a field-based anthropological linguistic study, demonstrating
how event-based time intervals are indexed to temporal landmarks. The chapter
focuses on time intervals in three domains: life stages, times of day, and seasons.
The event-based time intervals are indexicalized by environmental happenings
(water level, cool breeze, bird and animal songs), celestial bodies (sun, moon,
and stars), and activities. The metaphorical-metonymical source domains for
referring to past and future are cognitive and perceptual processes. For Awetý and
Kamaiurá the past is not located behind the speaker but is in their eyes. The past
consists of memories, which can be ‘seen in the mind’s eye’, and so remember-
ing is seeing. The future for Awetý and Kamaiurá is right in front of the speaker’s
eyes. For Huni Kuĩ, past events are located in the heart, and future events and
plans are located in the head (mind). Therefore, in these cultures, past and future
are conceptualized in terms not of spatial direction but by reference to embodied
mental capacities: memory, anticipation, intention, and imagination.

Keywords: Time, event-based intervals, index, culture, language, Amazonian

1 Introduction
As Franssinetti et al. (2016: 1) have pointed out, “[t]ime is the most elusive di-
mension of everyday experiences”. Despite the absolute impossibility of seeing or

Vera da Silva Sinha, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Heliana Mello, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CNPq

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-004
78 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

touching it, time can be sensed and represented in several different ways and on
different scales. Drawing on naturalistic and experimental investigations, Benini
(2017) argues that all living beings endowed with a nervous system, albeit basic,
have a sense of time. Despite the different research fronts that have been explored
to date, we still do not have a comprehensive mapping of all possible ways in which
human beings conceptualize and represent time through linguistic means. Many
well-studied languages, such as English, seem to have linear spatial metaphors
at the core of temporal conceptualizations (Boroditsky 2000; Lakoff and Johnson
1999). Others, such as Spanish, take volume as a preferred source domain for met-
aphorical projection (Bylund and Athanasopoulos 2017). Our goal in this chapter is
to contribute to knowledge and understanding of the multiple ways human cultures
and languages have of conceptualizing and linguistically encoding time, through a
discussion of the very notion of time from different perspectives, as well as through
the comparison of well-studied languages with lesser-known languages.
Our focus is on concepts of time in three indigenous languages and cultures
of Brazil: Huni Kuĩ, Awetý, and Kamaiurá. In a field-based anthropological lin-
guistic study, the lexicalization and indexicalization1 of time intervals by tempo-
ral landmarks in these languages were mapped out, focusing on three domains:
life stages, times of day, and seasons (Silva Sinha 2019). The data collection used
a combination of methods that varied from structured elicitation and compre-
hension tasks to open-ended questionnaires and interviews. Ethnographic infor-
mation and observations of traditional time reckoning practices were gathered.
This chapter is organized as follows: we first briefly discuss the notion of time
and its representation through linguistic means and we review the literature on
event-based time intervals. After that, the methodology employed in the data col-
lection is described. We then provide a discussion of event-based time in Huni
Kuĩ, Awetý, and Kamaiurá. Finally, we conclude by summarizing our findings and
exploring their possible generalization to other Amazonian languages.

2 Time across languages and cultures

Time is fundamental to human experience, cognition, and action (Klein 2008).
However, the way it is perceived and encoded in language is highly variable and
this variation seems to be partly dependent on culture. While some languages

1 Indexicalization: the temporal landmarks to which event-based time intervals are indexed;
a lexicalized concept is one that is expressed by a regular and conventional word, phrase, or
construction. (cf. Silva Sinha 2019)
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 79

have grammatical markings such as tense and aspect that signal temporal con-
cepts, others lack these formal devices and rely on other means to convey such
notions, such as a rich adverbial system. Languages such as Yukatec Maya and
Mandarin lack grammatical tense, others such as Standard German lack gram-
matical aspect encoded in the verbal system. The calendric systems that speak-
ers of the world’s major languages rely on in their daily lives are unknown in
many cultures, such as the Yélî Dnye, in Papua New Guinea (Levinson and Majid
2013) and the Maori in New Zealand (Meijl 1993). Thus, varied encodings for the
notion of time have been documented in the languages of the world. Time is per-
ceived in several ways: as fixed or continuous, static or flowing, as horizontally,
vertically, leftwards or rightwards moving, besides moving from front to back
(Fulga 2012: 29). Boroditsky et al. (2010), for example, mention that both English
and Mandarin use horizontal/front-back special metaphors to talk about time;
Mandarin speakers, however, also use vertical metaphors (shàng for ‘up’, xià for
‘down’), employing a spatial metaphor related to the notion of “up” for earlier
events, while “down” is used to refer to later ones. Frequency of use might moti-
vate preferences in different languages. For instance, while English uses verti-
cal metaphors (e.g., hand down knowledge) as well as Mandarin, they are not
as frequent as horizontal ones (e.g., pass knowledge on), which are much more
prevalent.
The study of lesser-described languages and their expression of time is a
valuable enterprise, as it makes possible the appreciation of a multitude of con-
ceptual structures that inform linguistic encoding. As will become apparent in
section 3, Awetý, Kamaiurá, and Huni Kuĩ do not share the familiar view of time
as contained amounts or lengths. The metaphorical expression of time as space,
so popular in Indo-European languages, is not present. We thus invite our readers
to delve into a universe that might be entirely new to them, in which time is con-
ceptualized in terms of natural and social events themselves, making explicit an
intrinsic connection between culture and language.
Although the term event-based time is recent, coined in relation to research
on the Amazonian language Amondawa (Sinha et al. 2011; Silva Sinha et al. 2012),
the phenomenon has been noted in several other anthropological and linguis-
tic studies of non-Western societies. Huang (2016) investigated Bunun linguistic
expressions of time in Isbukun, a dialect of Bunun (an Austronesian language
spoken in the central and southern mountainous areas of Taiwan). As reported by
Huang (2016), speakers of Bunun do not talk about time in terms of calendars and
clocks; their time is “expressed in terms of daily chores and traditional rituals in
the Bunun Community” (Huang 2016: 1). The Bunun do not have a word for time;
neither do they have concepts of hour, minute or second.
80 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

The Bunun language has borrowed from Japanese the term zikan, which has
the meaning of Japanese ‘year’ (official calendar from 1873),2 and speakers employ
this when it is required. However, traditionally they have used seasons to repre-
sent ‘year’, so the term Hamisan (winter) can also be used to express the notion
of year. In this culture, there are only two seasons: hamisan (winter) and talapal
(dry season). Furthermore, they also refer to buan (moon) to represent or ‘count’
the 12 months of the year. The moon has an important role for marking temporal
events, so that festivals and rituals are planned in accordance with the lunar cycle.
The words hanian and dihanin are used to designate ‘day’ and the dihanin refers
both to ‘day’ and to ‘sky’, meaning ‘day time’, in opposition to ‘night’. The author
also notes that although the Bunun express ‘calendrical units’ such as ‘month’,
it is “unusual to refer to a time point by its order in a year or a month” (Huang
2016: 6). The author concludes that the Bunun time concepts are derived from the
event process and that “the starting of TIME coincides with the beginning of an
activity and its ending with the activity’s completion” (Huang 2016: 18). Time in
this system is not a separate category but is fused with the event per se, as also
reported for the Amondawa language (Sinha et al. 2011; Silva Sinha et al. 2012).
A similar system is reported by Bohannan (1953), who describes concepts of
time among the Tiv community in Central Nigeria. The Tiv language does not have
a word meaning ‘time’, and this notion is expressed by the use of terms referring
to long and short ‘duration’. For example, the word cha meaning ‘far’ “is used of
space, of time and of kinship. However, such words are not dependent on time
indication or reckoning for their primary meanings” (Bohannan 1953: 251). This
language is reported to have three terms, shighen, dzum, icin, meaning ‘occasion’,
all of which can be used nominally to refer to ‘a time’ or ‘an occasion’ and all of
which can be used in the sense of ‘at that time’. Icin can be counted; shinghen is
used in the sense of ‘now is the time’, and dzun applies to longer intervals. These
words can be used to indicate a temporal landmark for locating another event in
time. The author states that when Tiv speakers place an event in time they “do so
by referring it to a natural or social activity or condition using solar, lunar, sea-
sonal, agricultural, meteorological or other events. Tiv ritual is not associated with
a calendar, and for these reasons, ritual events are not usable as time indicators”
(Bohannan 1953: 252). In these examples, the fusion of environmental happenings
and activities to conceptualize event-based time intervals is evident.
There are several other cultures and languages that have been reported to use
event-based time intervals. For example, in Tarifit (a Tamazight [formerly known

2 The traditional Japanese Calendar used before the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in
1873 was lunisolar based on the seven-day week.
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 81

as Berber] language of North Africa) there is no word that designates the full cycle
of day and night, and speakers use the Arabic loan word yawm to express this
concept. “Day” is expressed by swass ‘daylight’ and night by djirth ‘absence of the
light’. Human activity is governed in the first of these by the sun, and in the second
by the constellations: “The parts of each entity are connected to certain events”
(El-Arbaoui Jelouli 2013: 221).3 The position and heat of the sun, meal times, light
and dark, the breeze, and the length of shadows serve as indexes of temporal land-
marks and time intervals. The author points out that, for these desert people, the
day has more negative connotations than the night, because the light of the sun at
‘t’haa’ [noon] is dreaded, for the reasons that it hurts the body, and is an obstacle
to all human activities (El-Arbaoui Jelouli 2013: 223). The fusion of event-based
time and human value is clearly illustrated in this example.
More linguistically and geographically close to the languages that we describe
below is the description (without using the term) of event-based time already pro-
vided by Baldus (1940), who describes concepts of time in a Tupian language of
coastal Brazil. The Tupian people at this time used to have time intervals named
after the acajus ‘cashew fruit’ and the stars ceixu ‘a constellation that appears in
May’. These words were also used to name ‘year’. Baldus suggests that this was
because the caju tree gives fruit only once a year. The Tupian people also indexed
time intervals to other natural events: fruits ripening, fishes in the river, the level
of the water, the heat of the sun, the rain and the sun, moon and constellations
(Baldus 1940: 90–93). These same characteristics are found in the Awetý, Kamai-
urá, and Huni Kuĩ cultures and languages described in this article.

3 Methodology
The Kamaiurá, Awetý, and Huni Kuĩ linguistic and cultural data described in this
article were first detailed in Silva Sinha’s (2018) PhD Thesis. The methods used in
the field research were elicitation, comprehension tasks, open-ended question-
naires and interviews, enhanced by information from ethnographic observations
of traditional time reckoning practices.
This research looked at the interaction of language and culture in a variety of
situations that could not be predicted. Therefore, it did not involve testing a spe-
cific linguistic feature in one particular situation with controlled variables, but it
rather comprised an act of interpretation of multiple cultural and language fea-

3 The cited author does not specify which constellations, and in any case these do not corre-
spond with those common to the European languages.
82 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

tures in different environments and situations, such as cooking, fishing, bathing

in the river, walking in the field, harvesting cassava. There was a need for under-
standing cultural meanings, and this process required mediation and interaction
between individuals and groups of people, and, sometimes, interaction between
individuals and objects. We cannot understand another culture immediately in
one conversation, or through a pre-designed interview or questionnaire, without
the risk of misinterpretation.
The research also considered that the investigation of cultural concepts re-
quires the unfolding of different layers of meanings. This scenario demands an
understanding of the ways people construct explanations and thoughts about the
world. All humans are social beings, and they interact with each other, mainly
through language. People talk with each other to express and to share feelings,
experiences and to communicate their ways of living in this world. The multiple
methods employed were necessary to unravel how Kamaiurá, Awetý, and Huni
Kuĩ people understand and conceptualize time.
The fieldwork was carried out with the collaboration of native speaker linguists
and with the participation of members of each community. The engagement of the
community and Collaborating Researchers was essential to the research method-
ology. The key roles of community members were designated as Collaborating
Researcher, Research Consultant, and Research Facilitator. Research Consultants
are all persons from the community who participated in the research by providing
language and culture consultancy, conducted in data collection sessions. They
actively participated in the entire process, providing data collected using all the
different research instruments. The Research Facilitators are all persons from the
community who participated actively in the project, helping as liaisons with other
members of the community, with translation during informal conversations, clar-
ifying cultural information and operating recording equipment.
The procedure to create engagement between the researchers and the commu-
nity members followed a protocol that consisted of a formal conversation between
the researcher, the Collaborating Researchers, and community leaders (chiefs and
other authorities such as shamans). The community leaders were briefed about the
project, its aims, and methods. The leaders of each community gave their public
endorsement to the project and to our fieldwork visits. During this process, we had
the opportunity to ask the community members for their support and permission.
Informed consent for research participation was given verbally and collectively
and was then registered in writing by the Collaborating Researchers.
The initial establishment of trust was mediated by the exchange of gifts. Gift
exchange is a significant and highly appreciated cultural practice for these com-
munities. In giving and receiving gifts, a bridge of communication is constructed,
making it possible to establish a relationship of mutual respect, appreciation,
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 83

trust, and friendship (Mauss 1966). The research team was aware of this practice
and tried to fulfil specific requests from the community leaders, who were respon-
sible for the further distribution of the gifts to community members.
An open-ended questionnaire that addressed the following topics was used:
time adverbs, time interval terminology, and concepts (seasons, festivals, etc.), social
activities during the day and night, cardinal points, names of celestial bodies,
numbers, spatial metaphors for time. Interviews were carried out immediately fol-
lowing the administration of the questionnaire in order to clarify, supplement, and
disambiguate the questionnaire data. The research also used structured language
elicitation and comprehension tasks that consisted of drawings or photos on cards
representing temporal sequences: the human life course, the divisions of the day,
and the seasons and familiar crop life cycles. Consultants were asked to arrange
the cards in accordance with their typical sequences, without instructions or cues
being given about the configuration that they should follow; and to describe card
arrangements. Ethnographic observation focused on traditional time reckoning
practices specifically to understand cultural concepts of time, their linguistic
expression, and the ways they are embedded in social life. Conversations about
time concepts were observed. They either occurred spontaneously as part of
everyday life, or emerged from structured discussions, sometimes in the context
of the administration of the tasks, and sometimes in the context of demonstra-
tions of time reckoning practices or engaging jointly in other activities such as
crafting, fishing, food preparation, cooking, harvesting, and hoeing. All interac-
tions were audio and video recorded. All the questionnaire data were transcribed
in the native language, and then translated into Portuguese; the analysis was
carried out in collaboration with the native speaker Collaborating Researchers.
For more details, see Silva Sinha (2018: 101–131).

4 Event-based time intervals in three indigenous

Brazilian cultures and languages
Awetý, Kamaiurá, and Huni Kuĩ people experience and define time through events
that occur in nature, e.g., water level, sunlight, heat and position of the sun, and
through activities in their social world, e.g., returning from the fields, wrestling
competitions etc.. There are no lexical translation equivalents for ‘time’ in any
of these languages and no names for days of the week, months of the year, or for
year. These characteristics are also found in Amondawa (Sinha et al. 2011). In all
these cultures, time is not organized and expressed metrically but is event-based
(Silva Sinha et al. 2012). The event-based time intervals are indexicalized by envi-
84 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

ronmental “happenings” (water level, cool breeze, bird and animal songs), celes-
tial bodies (sun, moon, and stars), and activities. These happenings enable the
people of these communities to define the time intervals that regulate their every-
day life, their daily activities, and their cultural festivals. The event-based time
interval is co-terminous with the event itself, in which the time interval is indexed
to the event or activity that lends its name to the interval (e.g., “the sun is gone”
[sunset]). In all these languages these indexes are related to environmental hap-
penings and social activities (see Sinha et al. 2011, 2012; Silva Sinha 2018, 2019).
The lexicalization and the indexicalization of the event-based intervals and
their temporal landmarks of life stages (lifespan) in these communities (Kamai-
urá, Awetý, and Huni Kuĩ) are expressed and conceptualized in terms of social
and biological indexes. In these cultures, people do not count their age in terms
of years or months. These languages (like many other Amazonian languages) have
very small number systems. In most cases, these consist of distinct terms for ‘one’
and ‘two’ with the combination of these words allowing for counting to ‘three’,
‘four’, ‘five’ or more, based on a compounding process, such as by juxtaposition,
agglutination, or reduplication (Silva Sinha et al. 2017). Speakers of these lan-
guages consider life as being a process of learning, punctuated by different stages.
Life stages for these communities should be thought of as categories of social
status, not as points or spatial positions on a lifeline. For each life stage, there
are certain kinds of knowledge and social responsibilities that are appropriate
and necessary. The transitions between these stages can involve rites of passage
and organized learning. However, the knowledge associated with one life stage
category is not strictly demarcated from those of another. The knowledge of each
stage can be acquired during previous stages. For example, if a young person has
acquired ‘adult’ knowledge and responsibility (such as being a skilled fisherman
or taking on household responsibilities, with a level of knowledge recognized by
the entire community), he or she will be regarded and respected as a fully-grown
person, at least as far as those activities are concerned. For these communities, the
life stages are also characterized by physical and biological changes. For example,
a girl will be considered a fully responsible person after she has gone through
the rite of passage following her first menstrual period, in which she acquires the
knowledge and skills of a woman in her community. Similarly, a boy, after the first
manifestations of puberty, will undergo the rite of passage. Stages of life in these
communities are not age-based. A very ‘young’ (in ‘our’ terms) girl who is married
is considered an adult, but an older woman who has never married or had chil-
dren will still be considered and treated as a youth, unless the biological signs of
ageing are very evident. The difference from the age categories of ‘western’ soci-
eties is the focus on skills and abilities within life stages, rather than a point in a
numbered timeline such as implied by the notion of ‘teenage’ in western culture.
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 85

An important feature to be noted about the conceptualization of time in Kamai-

urá, Awetý, and Huni Kuĩ cultures and languages is that although many event-
based time intervals and temporal landmarks are indexed by the spatial positions,
shapes, and configurations of the sun, moon, and stars, these time expressions are
not metaphors. The indexicalization of time intervals or landmarks seems to be
metonymic (see García-Ruiz et al, this volume, sections 2.2.2 and 4.2), in the sense
that an event-based interval or temporal landmark in all three languages can be
defined by the spatial position, motion, or orientation of a heavenly body (or its
emanation) in relation to a spatial landmark.

5 Indexicalization of time by ‘happenings’

and spatial landmarks
The position of the sun in the sky and the appearance of constellations indicate
the period or time interval that is used to regulate social activities that people in
the communities conventionally might do or can do. The position of the sun is a
highly prominent temporal index, and the names of the parts of the day are in
many cases based upon the sun’s position and the presence or absence of light
(Table 1).

Table 1: Parts of the day and night (some examples).

Language Event-based Literal translation Meaning Index

intervals

Huni Kuĩ Bariã kapukea ‘sun-be turn-do’ ‘the beginning of position of the sun
the afternoon’
Awetý Kwat o’awajeju ‘sun lean/ ‘the beginning of position of the sun
beginning’ the afternoon’
Kamaiurá Kaaruk amue ‘forest-is ‘in the afternoon’ the sunlight intensity
[in shade]’ and position of the sun

These event-based time intervals combine natural with social-conventional mean-

ings, such that when the sun is in a certain position, people would habitually
engage in certain activities, for example, the name of the interval used to refer to
‘middle day’ are Bari manã nabi raka ‘sun half head lying’ (Huni Kui), Apyter-ype
kwar-up ‘head over sun is’ (Awety), and Apyter uwaj ‘[the sun] head half’ (Awety).
To refer to the intervals before the middle of the day and after early morning, they
use the following expression: bar kaya txakama ‘return from the field’ (Huni Kuĩ),
86 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

Ko kytsaput aipok ‘comeback from the field’ (Awetý), and Ko-pe-wara ‘[back] from
the field’ (Kamaiurá). Niwe raya ibu be ikaya means ‘working in the field time’
(Huni Kuĩ). The word niwe means ‘wind’ and be means ‘blow’, so they refer to this
time frame as ‘a fresh time’ to work in the fields since after that it becomes too
hot to stay out in the open air. In this example, it is not only the natural environ-
ment happenings that index time but the activity ‘back from the field time’. It was
noticed that the absence of activities also index event-based intervals, e.g., ypyp-
ipawamue ‘later in the night’ in Kamaiurá refers to the ypy ‘beginning’ of -pipaw
‘silence’, -amue ‘when’. In the house at this time there is no noise, it is time to go to
sleep (see Table 2). These are true time intervals, distinct from the actual activity,
because the name of the interval does not imply that the activity is actually taking
place. The temporal labels that refer to the position of the sun are not actually refer-
ring to exact points in time, but are also intervals (see also Silva Sinha 2019: 131).

Table 2: Parts of the day and night (some examples).

Languages Event-based Literal Meaning Index

intervals translation
Kamaiurá Ypy pipawamue beginning- ‘the silence begins the absence of
silence -when later in the night, activities
time to sleep’
Awetý Tatykym mokotu moon-dark is ‘is the night’ moonlight
Huni Kuĩ Bari mexu-aya sun dark-be ‘there is no sunlight the absence of the
in the night’ sunlight

Other indexical markers identified were the birdsong, monkey calls, the sound of
the cicadas, the ripening of forest fruits, and the movement of animals. In Kamai-
urá, for example, when a bird called Yrywu’ajang sings, it indicates that it is day-
break, and it is time to get up; the same is true for other birds, Muruwiri and Ykyju.
However, it is important to note here that these indices vary from season to season.
The moment when these birds, which never sing together, appear and sing, is
dependent on the season. In Huni Kuĩ there is one species of monkey and several
birdsongs that are also indices for daybreak. For example, when a Hu monkey
calls, and the birds named Hasin and Kebu start singing, everybody in the village
knows that daylight is coming. However, if the monkey Hu is singing at any other
time, this indicates that the rain is coming. These animal behavioral indices are
widespread, and they are also known by non-indigenous local people in the Ama-
zonia region.
The seasonal intervals in Awetý, Kamaiurá, and Huni Kuĩ are named in cate-
gories for the dry and rainy seasons. These are usually translated into Portuguese,
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 87

respectively, as summer and winter.4 There are also names for subdivisions of
these seasons. The indexical markers for seasonal time intervals in these cultures
are also the sun, the intensity of the sunlight, the level of water in the rivers, the
intensity of the rainfall, and the coolness of the air (breeze). The categorization of
the seasonal event-based intervals by reference to the sun and the rain (and levels
of water) is common to all these languages (see tables 3, 4, and 5).
For Huni Kuĩ, Awetý, and Kamaiurá, the sun has a central importance in both
seasonal (Tables 3, 4 and 5) and the day and night intervals in these communities.
The sun Bariã (Huni Kuĩ), Kwaryp (Awetý), Kwarip (Kamaiurá) is used to name
the dry season, and its light and heat intensity indexes also the subdivision of
the dry season as well as the part of the day. The absence of light at the end of the
day indicates the end of the day and the beginning of the night. The moon is used
to index parts of the night in Awetý, e.g., taty-puku ‘later at night’. The moon is
also employed for reckoning time. It can also index and reckon agricultural and
hunting practices. Additionally, it can reckon and index women’s periods and
pregnancy. For these communities, the moon is a being represented in cosmol-
ogy and mythology (Villas Boas and Villas Boas [1974] 2009; Seki 2010; Faleiros
and Yawabane, 2015).

Table 3: Huni Kuĩ seasonal intervals.

a. ui-yã b. ui-yã tae-i c. ui beruKuĩ

rain-is rain-is beginning-prog rain fright
Raining The beginning of raining The rain suddenly arrived
d. ui napumã e. ui-yã reske-aya
rain strong rain-is finished-is
The rain is strong The raining is finished
f. Bari-ã g. bari-ã tae-i h. bari-ã beruKuĩ
Sun-is sun-is beginning-prog sun-is fright
Summer The beginning of [summer] The summer suddenly arrived
i. bari-ã napumã l. Bari-ã reske-aya
sun-is Strong sun-is finished-is
The is [summer] is strong The [summer] finished

4 The rainy season in tropical Northern Brazil more or less temporally coincides with the sum-
mer in temperate Southern Brazil, and the dry season in the North coincides with the Southern
winter. The naming of the tropical dry season as “summer” and the rainy season as “winter”,
based upon weather patterns, is a feature of Brazilian Portuguese.
88 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

Table 4: Awetý seasonal intervals.

a. Jo’yk-ype b. O’-aju jo’yk c. Jo’yk mytet

breeze-density 3p.stat breeze/water Breeze half
[cold breeze] winter Is cold breeze water
Half way of cold breeze
d. Y-watupe e. Jo’yk opap
water-full breeze/water finished
The [river] is full of water The [winter] finished
f. Kwarype g. Kwa- za ju me
sun-inside sun-coll stat assert
Summer Is [summer]
h. Kwaza tupyte-zan i. Kwa-za -tu opap
sun- coll is- transl Sol – coll nom/action end
The [summer] is [strong] The [summer] finished

Table 5: Kamaiurá seasonal intervals.

a. y-wp b. i-ro’ytsanga ypy c. i-ro’ytsanga Mytet

water-density 2p/his-cold breeze beginning 2p/his-cold breeze half
Rain seasons The cold breeze is beginning Half [way] of the cold breeze
d. i-ro’ytsanga r-ahwa’apyt
2p/his-cold breeze tip end
The end of the tip of the cold breeze
e. Kwar-ip f. kwara ypy g. Kwara mytet h. Kwa-rahwa’apyt
sun -postp sun beginning sun half sun- tip end
Summer the [summer] Half of the summer The end of the tip
beginning of the [summer]

Furthermore, to the water and sun indices, there are additional features that
index some intervals in each of these three languages. In each case, these are related
to the particular environmental conditions of the locality in which the community
lives, and, in each language, specific events or happenings index the seasonal time
intervals. For example, in Awetý and Kamaiurá seasonal terms, there is, in addition
to the water-level index, a reference to the ‘cool breeze’ and the sensation of cold:
Jo’ykype (Awetý) and iro’ytsanga (Kamaiurá) mean ‘cool breeze’, which is an index
of the rainy season. In Huni Kuĩ, too, the rain, the level of the water, the sun and the
intensity of heat and light are the basis of the seasonal indexicalization. However,
there is also a reference to astonishment or surprise at the beginning of both rainy
and dry seasons. The term berukuĩ literally means ‘surprise, astonishment’; it does
not make reference to activity but rather to the way people perceive the beginning
of the fall of rain in the wet season and the heat of the sun in the dry season.
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 89

Some animal behaviors are used to indexically mark seasonal changes and
associated activities. For example, in Kamaiurá, the onset of the sound of the
cicada Kuarai Jumi’ã signifies the dry season when the river is drying up and there
will be a lot of fish to catch. The event-based time gives us support to argue that the
concepts of time are, in many cultures, directly linked with environmental hap-
penings, celestial bodies (sun, moon, and stars), and social activities. Therefore,
there are enough linguistic and cultural shreds of evidence confirming that event-
based time concepts and this system are more widespread in traditional cultures
than calendar and clock time concepts. The use of event-based time concepts can
be claimed to exist in many cultures, but they are culture-specific, and occur in
their ecological niches, having their own social structure and value system. It is
important to highlight here that the totality of the indices based upon the environ-
mental occurrences, social activities, and biological change in the body together
make up the temporal fabric of life in Awetý, Kamaiurá, and Huni Kuĩ societies.

6 Time is not a line

Events do not occur on their own; they occur in the ‘flow’ of time or in a ‘stream’
of events. They are happenings that occur in relation to the time of utterance, in
the past or future (Deictic time: D-time); or in relation to other happenings, in
an event sequence (S-time). Both D-time and S-time are spatialized in many lan-
guages in terms of a timeline in which events are either “ahead” or “behind” the
present moment (D-time); or ordered from earlier/before to later (S-time).
In these three languages, both D-time and S-time are expressed. For example,
there are words for ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’. Some event-based time intervals
make up ordered, sequential systems (e.g., parts of the day, life stages). However,
as we have emphasized, there is no representation of time in terms of a line in any
of these languages. In all three languages and cultures, the past and future are not
located behind (past) and in front (future) of the deictic origin ‘now’, as they can
be in English. Nor is the past above and the future below the present, as some-
times occurs in Chinese (Boroditsky 2001; Fuhrman et at., 2011; Yu, 1998, 2012).
Nor do we see the reverse pattern as in Aymara (Núñez and Sweetser 2006), in
which the future is behind and the past in front; or in Vietnamese, in which time
‘approaches’ from the future, behind Ego, and continues ‘forward’ into the past
(Sullivan and Bui 2016). Nor do the Huni Kuĩ, Awetý, and Kamaiurá speakers men-
tally travel in time, as it is claimed for Malagasy: “Malagasy moves backward into
the future” (Dahl 1995). In fact, in the three languages, there is no ‘mental time
travel’ metaphor of the Moving Ego. Events do not move on the timeline either,
90 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

although they can “approach” the speaker and they can “pass” and “disappear”.
In fact, for Huni Kuĩ, Awety, and Kamaiurá, the past and future are not spatialized
in relation to a time line, but are psychological concepts related to memory and
anticipation of events. In Huni Kuĩ, past events are located in the heart and future
events and plans are located in the head (which is thought of as the location of
the mind and thinking). The source domain for conceptualizing past and future is
not a spatial orientation (in front/behind, up/down, left/right), but it is the senses
and their embodiment.
In Awetý and Kamaiurá, the past is located in their eyes. The past in this sense
is linked with memories, and the memories can be seen in the mind’s eye. This met-
aphor for the past can be compared with the English metaphorical usage of ‘see’
to mean ‘understand’, with the source domain vision mapping to mental process
through the conceptual metaphor understanding is seeing (Lakoff and Johnson
1980; Sweetser 1990). In Awetý and Kamaiurá, however, remembering is seeing.
This has some similarity to what Dahl (1995: 199) reports for Malagasy, in which
“The past . . . is seen ‘in front of the eyes’.”
For Awetý and Kamaiurá, by contrast, it is the future that is in front of the
eyes. But this should not be understood as a ‘reversal’ of a time line, or different
orientations of a time line. In front of the eyes should not be understood as meaning
either ‘future is ahead on a time line’ (Awetý and Kamaiurá), or ‘past is ahead on
a timeline’ (Malagasy). In fact, none of these languages have metaphors for past
and future based on the model of time as ‘passage’, or the ‘flow’ of the ‘river of
time’ (Smart 1949). The metaphor is different, and it has to do with memory and
imagination.
In Huni Kuĩ, Awetý, and Kamaiurá, the future is marked in the language as a
possibility of completion, or desire for completion, of an anticipated or intended
event. The event is metaphorically located within sight, but not far away; it can
be seen, it is not unknown. The visual field is the source domain to express future
or desired events. The evidence gathered in this research suggested that in these
cultures past and future are conceptualized not in terms of spatial direction but
in terms of the embodiment of mental representational capacities: memory, antic-
ipation, intention, and imagination.

7 Conclusion
Event-based time intervals exist in all cultures and languages, in contrast to
metric time intervals (e.g., clock time and calendar time), which are not found in
all cultures. Metric time is a cultural creation, which leads to the notion of ‘Time
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 91

as Such’. Event-based time intervals have been reported to exist in many other
cultures all over the world; e.g., Bunun in Taiwan, the Malagasy people in Mad-
agascar, the Tiv community in Central Nigeria, the Tarifit (known as Berber), the
Amondawa, and other Tupian language-cultures in Brazil (see El-Arbaoui Jelouli
2013; Huang 2016; Sinha et al. 2011; Dahl 1995; Bohannan 1953; Baldus 1940). In
English, event-based time is used in expressions like let’s meet at lunchtime or I
will be around yours at teatime.5 In the city of Belém, in Northern Brazil, people
traditionally make an appointment based on the rainfall, e.g., vamos nos encon-
trar antes da chuva da tarde ou depois da chuva da tarde (‘let’s meet up before the
afternoon rain or after the afternoon rain’).
The event-based time reported in this article is related to seasons, times of
day/night and life stages in Huni Kuĩ, Awetý, and Kamaiurá cultures, as well as
in the other cultures and languages that we have briefly discussed. The indexes
used by speakers to refer to an event-based time interval are embedded in every-
day life, in the communities’ relationships with the environment, and in their
cosmology. The sun, the moon, the stars, and natural and social happenings
index the intervals of time. In all three languages, years are referred to as the dry
season only, using the root meaning ‘sun’. This indicates that the dry seasons are
used as a basis to understand ‘year’. The sun is central to the concept and to the
naming of part of the day and the dry season in all three cultures. The same way,
the moon and the absence of the sunlight are used to name the night intervals;
the rain, on the other hand, is an intensity index for the rainy season.
All these cultures (Awetý, Huni Kuĩ, and Kamaiurá) have significant similari-
ties in the ways in which they conceptualize event-based temporality. Their time
intervals are indexicalized not only by environmental happenings, the move-
ments of celestial bodies (sun, moon, stars) but also by the regularities of social
life and habits.
The temporal concepts for these communities are not metric, not cyclical
and not based upon a timeline. Traditionally, there are no references for weeks,
months, and years; there is no term in the languages for ‘time’. The same way,
the life stages are not fixed to a point of a timeline (birthdays), and they are not
a ‘progression’ on a timeline either; rather, life stages comprise a sequence of
states of being. In this sense, we argued that life stages are events in the process
of learning and acquiring skills, and therefore the stages are categories of social
life and cannot be fixed points on a ‘lifeline’. In contrast with ‘Time as Such’ and
‘linear time’, which relate to precisely measured (metric) time, in which punc-
tual moments are located on a linear or cyclical timeline, event-based intervals

5 This is an attested expression in British English, in which ‘yours’ is used to refer to ‘your house’.
92 Vera da Silva Sinha, Heliana Mello

cannot be precisely measured. In event-based time cultures, schedules cannot

be exactly fixed. This is because the rhythm of everyday happenings brings the
subjective necessity for people to experience and do things at or around the
occurrence of the events that will trigger the activities. It is important to empha-
size that ‘time’ is not the trigger of the event, but rather the event generates the
relevant actions.
It is evident that the absence of metric time, of a concept of ‘Time as Such’,
does not necessarily imply the absence of time. The cultural and linguistic reper-
toires of event-based time concepts described above used by these communities
has illustrated this complex way to think and talk about ‘time’. It is also impor-
tant to emphasize again that metric time is a cultural invention, and the associ-
ated, resulting notion of ‘Time as Such’ is also a cultural invention. It is only our
cultural familiarity with this notion that leads us to assume that it is common to
all cultures. The assumption that linear time is predominant in all cultures can
lead to misunderstanding of cultures that use exclusively event-based time con-
cepts (Sinha and Gärdenfors, 2015).
Conceptually, speakers of the three languages locate past and future events
in embodied cognitive and perceptual processes, rather than locating them along
an oriented timeline. For Awetý and Kamaiurá, the past is in their eyes. Their past
consists of memories, and memories can be ‘seen’ in ‘the mind’s eye’. Therefore,
in Kamaiurá and Awetý, remembering is seeing. The future for Awetý and Kamai-
urá is in front of the speaker’s eyes but not far away; it is located in the immediate
visual field. Past is not located behind the speaker for these cultures. As pointed
out in section 6 above, it is likely that in these cultures past and future are con-
ceptualized in terms not of spatial direction but of embodied mental capacities:
memory, anticipation, intention, and imagination.
In the absence of metric time, of a concept of ‘Time as Such’, and of lexical-
ized concepts of past and future, Event-based time intervals give structure to a
complex and traditional lifeworld. Overall, the evidence presented through this
research shows that there are many similarities in the ways in which Awetý, Huni
Kuĩ, and Kamaiurá conceptualize event-based time. These findings, together with
other research on Amazonian languages referred to in this chapter, suggests that
they all participate in a cultural areal conceptual complex encompassing Ama-
zonian and many other South American linguistic families. However, there are
many aspects of such cultural, linguistic, and cognitive systems that need further
research in order to deepen the analysis of language, cognition, and culture.
 Indexicalization and lexicalization of event-based time intervals 93

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Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante,
Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

Resemblance metaphor and metonymy

in the ethnozoological lexicon of the
Amazonian language Aguaruna
Abstract: This chapter focuses on the analysis of resemblance metaphors and
metonymies that operate in the ethnozoological lexicon of the Amazonian lan-
guage Aguaruna. Our corpus is basically composed of binomials (noun-noun
compounds) in which these semantic mechanisms are representative and useful
for naming sub-generic species. In our analysis, we have mostly identified the
mapping of prominent characteristics such as color and shape (metonymic bases)
in resemblance metaphors. Many of our examples also reveal the preference for
metonymies constituted by habitat data and the diet of the named entities, sig-
nificant information for a hunting people like the Aguaruna. Finally, we see that,
in the binomials analyzed, the source domains are not always other biological
organisms (plants and animals), but can be elements of nature, cultural objects,
and even mythological characters.

Keywords: ethnobiology, fauna, cognitive linguistics, metaphor, metonymy, Agua-

runa, Jivaroan

What is relevant here is that the semantic resources of language are productively employed
in what might be called the metaphorical mapping of the ethnobiological landscape.
—Berlin (1992: 259)

1 Introduction
Metaphors and metonymies are essential in our conceptualization of reality and
in the understanding and the expression of our environment (Lakoff and Johnson
1980). Their effects can be seen in everyday language and in specialized areas
such as the ethnobiological lexicon. Academic interest in exploring this nomen-
clature, directly or indirectly, by approaches that consider metaphoric and meto-

Ketty García-Ruiz, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú / Universidad Privada del Norte, Peru
Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru
Jhon Jairo López-Rojas, Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria – INIA, Peru

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-005
96 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

nymic mechanisms, can be seen, for example, in the analysis of names of marine
biology of Western languages (Ureña and Faber 2010; Ureña 2011; Tercedor,
López, Márquez, and Faber 2012; Guasparri 2019). To a lesser extent, studies have
also identified such mechanisms in Australian (Turpin 2013) and Amazonian lan-
guages (Valenzuela 1998; Zariquiey 2018).
This chapter builds on Berlin’s1 (1992) fifth principle of ethnobiological nomen-
clature. According to this principle, ethnobiological names usually have metaphor-
ical features that reveal a motivation for relating the name to the named referent.
In addition, for Berlin (1992), the names of animals and plants of sub-generic ranks,
which usually include linguistically complex forms such as compound nouns
(e.g., in English, white oak, black oak, and red oak), reflect this principle in the mod-
ifying constituent, where the shape, color, texture, smell, flavor, and other ecolog-
ical characteristics of particular species are addressed. In this perspective, the aim
of this chapter is to analyze metaphors and metonymies that operate in compound
nouns (binomials) of the ethnozoological lexicon of the Amazonian language Agua-
runa. In our analysis, in addition, we intend to reveal regularities in metaphorical
and metonymic mappings as well as particular issues of the Aguaruna ethnozoolog-
ical nomenclature system.
In theoretical terms, our analysis is framed by cognitive semantics as we con-
sider that this approach allows us to understand, through the lexicon, how the
speakers of Amazonian communities conceptualize their natural environment and,
particularly, how they structure their deep ethnobiological knowledge, in which cog-
nitive operations and cultural factors relevant to speakers (habits, beliefs, taboos,
myths) come into play. Our study also includes an interdisciplinary perspective. This
is reflected in our team, which is made up of both linguists and a biologist who
works in the area under study. Considering the small number of publications of this
nature related to Amazonian languages, we hope to encourage the development of
similar studies with this paper.
In section 2, we show the relationship between ethnobiology and cognitive
linguistics. We also review the classification of resemblance metaphors of Ureña
and Faber (2010) and Ureña (2011). Next, we discuss the classification of meton-
ymies as proposed by Radden and Kövecses (1999), Kövecses ([2002] 2010), and
Evans (1997). Likewise, we present the linguistic nature of Aguaruna in broad
terms and aspects related to the ethnobiological lexicon. In section 3, we present
the methodology for data collection. In section 4, we analyze the metaphors and
metonymies of the selected corpus, focusing on the regularities and particularities

1 Berlin (1992) proposes seven general principles of ethnobiological categorization (taxonomy)

and five of nomenclature of plants and animals (lexical structure).
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 97

that emerge from the Aguaruna ethnozoological nomenclature. Finally, in section

5, we present the conclusion of our paper.

2 Theoretical framework
2.1 Ethnobiology and cognitive linguistics

In the late sixties and during the seventies of the last century, the so-called cog-
nitive anthropologists strengthened fields of study that would become impor-
tant for linguistics and psychology: perception and categorization. Berlin and
Kay (1969), in their widely known work on the perception and categorization of
color in traditional communities, proposed a universal approach to color based
on basic categories (Boster 2005). Rosch, from a cognitive psychology viewpoint,
also studied categorization and established that prototypical colors could be
found in the chromatic complexity (Luque 2001).
The color studies showed that perception centered on focused colors, so that
these colors were more likely to be named in various languages. Regarding this
contribution from Berlin and Kay, Schmid states that “[t]heir research proved to
be an important inspiration for cognitive linguists, because it indicated that there
was a much closer and more direct tie between perception and naming than had
previously been assumed” (Schmid 2007: 122). Certainly, categorization and per-
ception, and their implications for the lexicon, are not only appreciated in the
field of color research, but also in folk-biological taxonomies.
Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven (1973), as well as Berlin (1992), suggest pre-
cisely that societies basically organize the ethnobiological domain into five hier-
archical ranks: (i) unique beginner, which considers the most inclusive catego-
ries, such as ‘plant’ and ‘animal’; (ii) life-form, which includes subdivisions of the
unique beginner, such as ‘tree’, ‘mammal’ or ‘bird’; (iii) generic, which includes
the largest number of biological entities that are derived from life-forms, such as
‘oak’, ‘cow’, or ‘parrot’; (iv) specific, which specifies the generic, although it is
less numerous; and (v) varietal, which specifies the previous rank, although its
presence is quite small (see Figure 1). Among these, Berlin (1992) argues that the
generic is the most psychologically prominent rank (therefore, it would be among
the first that children learn) and the most numerous of all, since in folk taxon-
omies it can include around 500 taxa. Thus, the notion of a generic taxa in the
naming and categorization of animal and plant domains is central. Along these
lines, Schmid (2007) considers that the generic level is like a strip that divides bio-
logical reality and that it is helpful for speakers to name organisms at this level.
98 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

Figure 1: Ethnobiological ranks for the taxonomic organization (based on Berlin, Breedlove,
and Raven 1973).

Berlin’s notion of generic level is related to Rosch’s concept of basic level.

Essentially, basic level in taxonomies is an abstraction level that includes ele-
ments of easy cognitive recovery (dog), since they are quite clear mental images,
as opposed to the subordinate (poodle) or superordinate (animal) items (Cuenca
and Hilferty [1999] 2007). In this way, the basic level represents “a fundamental
one for the organization of concepts underlying concrete nouns and it is one of
the key concepts of cognitive linguistics” (Mihatsch 2016: 461–462).
At the linguistic level, Schmid (2007) points out that the terms at the basic
level are usually morphologically simple, as at the generic level of folk taxono-
mies. In addition, he states that this level provides “the raw material for exten-
sions of the lexicon by means of metaphor, metonymy, and word formation”
(Schmid 2007: 124). In fact, in ethnobiological nomenclature, extensions of the
lexicon operate with visibility at the sub-generic levels (specific and varietal),
which is especially identified in compound words. For example, in their study of
ethnobiological nomenclature in the Aguaruna language, Berlin and Berlin (1979)
showed that both generic and life-form names are linguistically simple. By con-
trast, sub-generic level names have generally complex structures, such as bino-
mials [N-N]N, where the head noun indicates the category that includes the named
species and the modifying noun defines the referent, thanks to the metaphorical
and metonymic load it has. To that extent, and as we consider it in our work,
ethnobiological binomials constitute fertile ground for studies in the field of cog-
nitive semantics. Even though Berlin’s proposal has been problematized (Boster
2005; Hunn and Brown 2011), many of the author’s concepts remain relevant,
such as, for example, the fifth of Berlin’s nomenclature principle which specifies
the semantic motivation revealed by ethnobiological names. Likewise important
is the second principle, which states that “[n]ames for plants and animals com-
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 99

monly allude metaphorically to some typical morphological, behavioral, ecologi-

cal, or qualitative characteristic feature of their referents” (Berlin 1992: 31). In our
analysis of ethnozoological binomials, we consider these traits in metaphorical
and metonymic transfers.

2.2 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the lexical

analysis

2.2.1 Resemblance metaphor

The concept of metaphor is central to cognitive linguistics. With the studies pre-
sented by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) as well as Lakoff (1987), metaphor is con-
ceived not as a mere poetic operation, but as part of the conceptualization process
that human beings carry out. In broad terms, metaphor is seen as “understand-
ing and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lakoff and Johnson
1980: 5); that is, we understand a conceptual domain through another domain
(Kövecses 2010: 4).
As part of the theoretical development of the conceptual metaphor theory,
from the beginning there has been a concern to establish typologies. For example,
Lakoff (1987) distinguishes image metaphors from structural metaphors, and
Grady (1999) differentiates resemblance metaphors from correlational metaphors.
According to Ureña and Faber (2010), to a greater or lesser extent, these classifi-
cations make a distinction between metaphors based on comparisons of physical
or behavioral features (for example, the computer mouse or Achilles is a lion2) and
metaphors based on more abstract and subjective correlations (such as love is a
journey or a discussion is war).
If we focus on the study of names of animal and plant organisms, several
investigations have revealed the constant participation of metaphors based on
physical or behavioral analogies (Guasparri 2007; Juliá 2009; Ureña 2011; Turpin
2013; Zariquiey 2018). Along these lines, it is pertinent to present the proposal by
Ureña and Faber (2010) of resemblance metaphors, because it precisely includes
these analogies. Basically, resemblance metaphors consider physical (shape, color,
dimension) or behavioral (behavior, performance) characteristics as the basis of

2 The technological device is called a mouse because there is an analogy between the device
and the physical appearance and movements of the rodent (Ungerer and Schmid [1996] 2006:
148). On the other hand, in Achilles is a lion, the brave behaviors of both Achilles and the lion are
associated with how they face an opponent, and not with a comparison of the physical aspect
(Grady 1997).
100 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

metaphorical projections from one domain to another. In this way, Ureña and Faber
(2010) include in their proposal of resemblance metaphor, Lakoff’s (1987) image
metaphor, and Grady’s (1999) resemblance metaphor. The criteria for both being
part of a single category is due to the fact that mental images underlie both.
Although mental images are generally considered to be associated with the
visual perception of physical attributes (such as color and shape), Ureña and
Faber (2010) argue that it is possible that events or actions also evoke mental
images (in this case, dynamic images). This means that mental images are formed
not only through visual perception, but also through other channels of percep-
tion. Coinciding with this, for Ureña and Faber (2010), Lakoff’s image metaphor
and Grady’s resemblance metaphor would be related to static mental images and
to dynamic images, respectively.
Following the mental images criteria and the examples presented by Ureña
and Faber (2010) in their study of marine biology, the following classification of
resemblance metaphors is established: (i) image metaphors, based on static images,
which prototypically consider color and shape traits; (ii) behavioral based-meta-
phors, which may have dynamic images or static images; and (iii) metaphors with
physical and behavioral motivations, which constitute a transition between the first
two (see Figure 2).
In the field of marine biology studied by Ureña (2011), there are prototypical
examples for each group. A clear example of the first group, image metaphor, is
seahorse (Hippocampus); named as such because the shape of the horse’s head
is projected towards the top of the named marine species. This is a metaphor
based on visual perception (static image). According to Ureña (2011), these meta-
phors maintain a high level of iconicity between the source domain and the target
domain. Likewise, these metaphors (which consider color and form) are seen as
prototypical (Ureña and Faber 2010). Correspondingly, for our analysis, we chose
to name as non-prototypical image metaphors those that take into account other
features (texture, pattern, flavor, smell, sound). For the second group, archer fish
(Toxotidae) is an example of a behavior based-metaphor with dynamic image, since
it is not based on a correspondence of form or color (static image), but on the
dynamic behavior performed by both the archer and the fish. In this case, actions
are mapped: the archer throws an arrow towards a target as the fish throws drops
of water at an insect close to the surface of the sea. Within this second group, Ureña
and Faber (2010) state that it is possible to find behavior based-metaphors with
static image such as in hawk fish (Cirrhitidae), in which the waiting position of the
fish on the reefs is compared with the position of the hawk looking out for potential
prey. As for the third group, they indicate that it is possible to find metaphors with
physical and behavioral motivations such as in boxer crab (Lybia tessellata), where
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 101

there is a similarity between the tweezers and the arms of the boxer as well as in
the defense actions that both entities perform with their limbs.

Figure 2: Classification of the resemblance metaphor based on Ureña and Faber (2010).

2.2.2 Metonymy

The revised resemblance metaphors do not operate in isolation, but are presented
together with metonymies. As Kövecses (2013) suggests, in image metaphors it is
a constant that there is a metonymic basis, given that a part of the entire entity
is mapped to make the conceptual correlation with a part of another entity. This
occurs when “the inevitably partial structure of the source, B, is used to concep-
tualize an equally inevitable part of the target, A, resulting in the metonymies
‘a part of b for the whole of b and a part of a for the whole of a’, given the
general metaphor format A IS B” (Kövecses 2013: 75). Following this observation,
several ethnozoological names involve metaphoric mechanisms that originate
from metonyms or partial identifications of a whole.
Therefore, the definition and taxonomy of conceptual metonymy proposed
by Radden and Kövecses (1999) and Kövecses (2010) is useful for our analysis due
to their organization of a wide variety of metonymic relationships based on ideal-
ized cognitive models (ICMs). Precisely so, the definition of Radden and Kövecses
(1999) of metonymy as “a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the
vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target, within
the same idealized cognitive model [ICM]” (Radden and Kövecses 1999: 21) helps
to understand the ICMs as organizing domains of the world, since, as speakers,
we understand ‘reality’ as parts of a whole (in a metonymic way).
Radden and Kövecses (1999) begin their organization of the various types
of metonymies with two broad relational categories, whole-part and part-part.
According to Littlemore (2015), Radden and Kövecses’s proposal includes 6 ICMs
102 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

within the whole-part category, and with them derives up to 21 types of meton-
ymies (part for whole, ends for whole scale, material for object, etc.).
Regarding the part-part relationship, the proposal includes 10 ICMs that allow
them to activate up to 43 metonymies (thing perceived for perception, effect
for cause, producer for product, etc.). Particularly, in our ethnozoological
corpus, in addition to the names that contain metonymies that interact with
resemblance metaphors, there is a considerable group of binomials in which
metonymy operates independently in the modifier (Benczes 2006).
As a complement to the classification of Radden and Kövecses (1999), we
consider the sign metonymy developed by Evans (1997). This metonymy is acti-
vated when “one biological entity signals the presence or availability of another”
(Evans 1997: 136). We must consider that these metonymies are not limited
to relating biological entities, but also include cultural elements (taboos and
myths). Turpin (2013) presents examples of the Australian language Kaytetye in
which she describes the presence of hazards through the songs of various species
of birds. In addition to cultural factors, sign metonymies include associations of
biological entities with meteorological occurrences. This is of special interest for
our analysis because, in the Aguaruna lexicon, there are cases in which the pres-
ence of an ethnozoological species indicates the arrival of summer or the abun-
dance of rainfall.

2.3 The Aguaruna language, its speakers,

and its ethnobiological lexicon

Aguaruna is an Amazonian language spoken in the Peruvian regions of the

Amazon, Cajamarca, Ucayali, Madre de Dios, and San Martín. Together with the
Shuar, Wampis, Shiwiar, and Achuar, the Aguaruna is part of the Jivaroan lan-
guages spoken in Peru. According to the national census of 2017, in regions men-
tioned above there are 419 communities that house approximately 52,573 people
who have Aguaruna as their first language (INEI 2018).
Historically, and after several migratory movements, many Aguaruna commu-
nities have occupied the upper basin of the Mayo River, known as the Alto Mayo
region, located in the provinces of Rioja and Moyobamba, in the region of San
Martín (Elliot 1998). According to Barreto (2009), these communities were strate-
gically located near the Mayo River and its tributaries in order to take advantage
of natural resources. Currently, there are 14 Aguaruna communities in this area
(see Figure 3).
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 103

Figure 3: Location of the Morroyacu community. Source: Elaborated by the Environmental

Engineer Raúl Reátegui-Ruiz.

The data we use in this chapter were collected and elicited in the community
of Morroyacu (Moyobamba) in the months of January, July, and December 2019.
This is a hamlet that has just over 30 homes, a kindergarten, and a primary school
(both are bilingual). The population has a strong rooting towards their native lan-
guage, as people of all ages speak it and, until now, children acquire Aguaruna
as their first language. As for their daily activities, families cultivate agriculture,
hunt, and fish for food. Morroyacu has a warm and moderately rainy climate with
a temperature that varies from 16.4 to 28.4°C, which are appropriate environmen-
tal conditions for maintaining a varied flora and fauna.
Aguaruna is an agglutinative language of the nominative-accusative type with
dominant SOV syntactic order (Corbera 1994). In relation to the class of words,
it has open categories such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives, which are comple-
mented by minor words, such as pronouns, determiners, adverbs, and interjections
(Overall 2007). Phonologically, this language is characterized by its nasality, and
at the morphosyntactic level, it presents case markers that are added to nominal
categories.
In our study, we will analyze ethnobiological names. In Aguaruna, we can
find names of animal and plant entities with the following profile: (i) simple
nouns, which make up the majority and especially name generic levels of ethnobi-
104 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

ological taxonomy, such as punúk ‘crab’ (Cambaridae spp.3); (ii) derivative nouns,
which can be located at the sub-generic level, such as jempé-kit ‘hummingbird
with yellow beak’ (Trogonidae spp.); (iii) noun-noun compounds, which have an
important presence in the lexicon and which essentially cover sub-generic cate-
gories, such as shuin katíp ‘type of rat’ (Akodon sp.); and (iv) constructions with
genitive, which are rare and also cover sub-generic categories, such as iwanchí
tugkuíji ‘type of stick insect’ (Phasmatidae spp.). In this study, we focus only on
the last two cases.

3 Data and methodology

Following the methodological proposal of Fleck (2007), this work is the result
of an interdisciplinary effort between biology and linguistics. To that extent, the
work team is composed of linguistic specialists and a biologist who works in the
San Martín region. It is also important to recognize the active participation of
members of the Morroyacu community in the interviews we conducted.
Within the framework of the ethnographic nature of our study, we can point
out the following work sequence. First, we prepared a database of 151 entries
with the help of Aguaruna-Spanish dictionaries (Minedu 1996; Aidesep 2011),
technical documents on food (Creed-Kanashiro, Roche, Tuesta and Kuhnlein
2009), fauna (Dauphiné 2008; Patton, Berlin, and Berlin 1981), reports of field-
work in Aguaruna communities (Brown 2014, Berlin and Berlin 1979), and texts
of Aguaruna mythology (Chumap and García-Rendueles 1979). In other words,
we elaborated what Fleck (2007) calls an “expected species checklist”. Next, we
made three trips to the Morroyacu community in the months of January, July, and
December 2019. In each visit, we developed two group sessions and one personal
interview with each collaborator. We usually worked with five adults (the men
dedicated to hunting and the women to the care of the orchards) and one elderly
male (a connoisseur of myths). In data elicitation, as proposed by Fleck (2007),
we sought to compile ethnobiological names in the vernacular and to match these
names to those in the initial list. Finally, we processed all the information and
consolidated the final database of 92 entries.4

3 Throughout this paper, when we do not fully identify the species, we use the abbreviation sp.
(singular form of species), and,- if it refers to multiple species of the same genus – spp. (plural
form) after the generic name.
4 The final corpus can be seen at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fKicrnoHFkBOFC-
Q1ZJAhKZiPX_cZQxCD9URzIuz6zg/edit?usp=sharing
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 105

In the formation of our database, we considered the noun-noun compounds

that have the scheme [N(MOD) N(HEAD)]N. We have chosen these binomials because
their semantic motivation still maintains some transparency. In these binomials, the
modifying name presents the metaphorical or metonymic load, while the head noun
identifies the category that includes the referent named by the entire compound (in
Aguaruna, this category usually refers, in taxonomic terms, to a generic rank or life-
form rank). It should be noted that in our final database we have included two spe-
cific cases. Their specific nature lies in their complex structure (constructions with
genitive) while their elements do not reveal the identity of the designated referent.

4 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy

in the ethnozoological lexicon of the Aguaruna
In this section, following the classification of resemblance metaphors and the
taxonomy of metonymies described above, we organize our analysis into three
groups: (i) resemblance metaphors (prototypic and non-prototypic image meta-
phor, behavior-based metaphor, and metaphor with physical and behavioral moti-
vations), (ii) independent metonymies, and (iii) specific cases.

4.1 Resemblance metaphors

In our corpus of 90 ethnozoological binomials, 72 present resemblance meta-

phors, which amounts to 80% of the total. Regarding the classification of resem-
blance metaphors (Ureña and Faber 2010), we note that there is primacy of the
image metaphor with 67 cases; while there are only four behavior-based metaphors
(with dynamic image) and one metaphor with physical and behavioral motivations
(see Table 1).

Table 1: Distribution of resemblance metaphors in the analyzed corpus.

72 cases of resemblance metaphor

image metaphor with physical behavior-based metaphor
color, form texture, pattern, and behavioral with with
(prototypical) flavor, sound motivations dynamic static
(nonprototypical) images images
52 15 1 4 0
93 % 1.4 % 5.6 % 0
106 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

Of the 67 binomials that present image metaphors, most are prototypical

(52), that is, metaphorical mappings are based on the similarity of color or shape.
There are also cases that we have called non-prototypical (15), which associate
other features (dimension, texture, pattern, and even flavor). However, in many
cases, it is natural that color is linked to shape, pattern, or texture. With regard
to domains, in Aguaruna, the entities that serve as source domains are mostly
animal and plant organisms, although there is a preference for naming animals
in terms of other animals. To a lesser extent, we find comparisons with cultural
objects (such as vessels and ornaments) and natural products (such as salt and
stones).

4.1.1 Prototypical image metaphors

Initially, we focus on color. In (1) and (2), the preference of speakers to name
two types of tarantula accurately makes them turn to widely known species of
monkeys to perform metaphorical transfer. Of the species that serve as source
domain, yakúm (Alouatta seniculus) and wáshi (Ateles belzebuth) speakers select
the reddish and black colors, respectively, to identify tarantulas that have similar
colors. In these metaphors, in addition, the identification of the hairs is impor-
tant because these tarantulas are profusely hairy which bears resemblance to
monkeys. Undoubtedly, speakers take advantage of the profound knowledge they
have of monkeys in the designation of arachnids. These mammals are part of the
Aguaruna diet and even their skin and teeth are used to make products (Creed-
Kanashiro, Roche, Tuesta, and Kuhnlein 2009). On the other hand, the highlight
of these binomials is that the modifying nouns identify species of monkeys and
not a generic taxon or another grouped form. Then, the image metaphor operates
in the binomial and manages to particularize the entity named by the head noun,
that is, it allows the naming of sub-generic organisms (tarantula types):

(1) yakúm tséje ‘reddish spider’ (Theraphosidae spp.)

reddish howler monkey – spider

(2) wáshi tséje ‘black spider, big and hairy’ (Theraphosidae spp.)
black spider monkey – spider

As we have seen in the first cases, the colors of a known species are selected to
overlap with another species. The same mechanism is observed in (3) and (4),
in which the red color of the jápa ‘deer’ (Mazama americana) clearly defines the
chromatic characteristics of two types of ants, yutúi and tíship. Our collabora-
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 107

tors affirm that jápa is a red deer that stands out culturally because it appears in
several Aguaruna myths. In these binomials, once more, image metaphors based
on color underlie names that identify organisms of the sub-generic level:

(3) jápa yutúi ‘reddish ant of painful sting’ (Paraponera clavata)

red deer – ant

(4) jápa tíship ‘reddish ant’ (Odontomachus bauri)

red deer – ant

In the examples presented, image metaphors have a metonymic basis. Following

Kövecses (2013), we assume that a part of a source entity (color, shape, pattern,
texture, etc.) is selected by the entire entity to map it onto a similar part selected
from another target entity. Thus, in (1), (2), (3), and (4), the part of a thing for
the whole thing metonymy is activated, in which the color is the prominent
part. With respect to the metonymic basis of color, Biggam (2012) has presented
examples in which a fruit, for example strawberry, is identified by its chromatic
characteristics, the color red, as seen in the names of horses in English, as it is the
case of the ‘strawberry roan’ horse.
Plants are also considered in the lexical construction of ethnozoological names.
The cases in which the ipák ‘annatto’ (Bixa orellana) and súa ‘genip’ (Genipa amer-
ican) appear are especially relevant and regular, since both have great cultural
importance for speakers. The seeds of the ipák vary from red to orange depending
on the variety and the degree of maturity. That range of colors is the basis for identi-
fying intensely red species such as an ant species in (5), a type of snake in (6), and a
wasp in (7). In Figure 4, we show two cases:

(5) ipák kámpa ‘red ant’ (Solenopsis invicta)

annatto – ant

(6) ipák dápi ‘medium red snake’ (Colubridae sp.)

annatto – snake

(7) ipák éte ‘red wasp’ (Vespidae spp.)

annatto – wasp
108 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

Figure 4: Metaphorical mapping of ipák ‘annatto’ onto two insects: a red ant and a red wasp.
Drawing by Jaime Huasco.

On the other hand, the faint orange color of the ipák is also used to identify a
species of hummingbird in (8) and a medium sized bird in (9). It should be noted
that these types of birds have an orange color that is far from their most prototyp-
ical specimens; the prototypical hummingbird is green and blue and the latter is
brown, hence the need to differentiate them lexically:

(8) ipák jémpe ‘orange hummingbird’ (Trochilidae spp.)

annatto – hummingbird

(9) ipák chígki ‘orange baking bird’ (Furnarius leucopus)

annatto – bird

It should be remembered that ipák is a plant that grows without difficulty and is used
in several activities of notorious cultural importance in the community, such as paint-
ing ceramics, dyeing textiles, and painting the body in ceremonial activities. In addi-
tion, in Aguaruna mythology, ipák and her sister súa were originally women who,
because of the loss of the husband they shared, decided to become plants that give
people color. Ipák would provide warm colors, while súa would supply dark colors.
The seeds of súa (Genipa americana) are used to make natural hair dyes, to
keep it silky and to cover gray hairs. As with her sister ipák, súa is a source of a
color (deep dark) that stands out metonymically to establish similarity with black
animal species. For example, a black owl in (10), a variety of dark ant in (11), and
snakes covered in dark skin in (12) and (13). In fact, in the myths of Aguaruna, the
animals that hugged ipák and súa had their skin dyed and changed their appear-
ance forever. In Figure 5, we show two cases:
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 109

(10) súa ampúsh ‘black owl’ (Strigiformes spp.)

genip – owl

(11) súa kámpa ‘black ant’ (Solenopsis invicta)

genip – ant

(12) súa dápi ‘black and aggressive snake’ (Colubridae sp.)

genip – snake

(13) súa págki ‘black anaconda’ (Eunectes murinus)

genip – anaconda

Figure 5: Metaphorical mapping of súa ‘genip’ onto two animals: a black owl and a black
anaconda. Drawing by Jaime Huasco.

In addition to the examples presented, there is a significant number of cases in

which a high variety of colors is considered salient elements that are metaphor-
ically projected to entities of the animal world. Speakers take advantage of the
intense green of the parrots, the white of the cotton, the luminosity of the firefly,
the multicolor of the toucan and even the gray of the stones. That is, they use a
wide color palette as a reflection of their thorough perception of the colors and
tones that their surroundings offer.
After color, shape is highly regarded as the basis of image metaphors. In (14),
the shape of a prototypical leaf is selected (in Aguaruna, there are approximately
17 words to name 17 varieties of leaves respectively) to establish the similarity
with the wings of a lobster type. The resemblance is obvious, especially if we take
into account the green color of the leaf and the type of lobster named. That is,
there is a high iconic correspondence.
110 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

(14) dúka mánchi ‘lobster with leaf-like wings’ (Scudderia sp.)

leaf – lobster

In (15), the long, sinuous, and green stems of the climbing plants have metaphori-
cal correspondence with long and green snakes, since they are similar. In (16), the
elongated tubular shape and the dark brown color of the loose branches that rest
on the banks of the rivers, and that are usually in a state of decomposition, are
highlighted to map onto the shape and color of another type of snake. It should
be noted that the named snakes hide precisely in places where the stems and
branches described abound. Consequently, these metaphors also provide essen-
tial information for the conservation of life:

(15) káap dápi ‘snake similar to vine’ (Philodryas argentea)

vine – snake

(16) wíchi – págki ‘rotten trunk-like anaconda’ (Eunectes murinus)

rotten trunk – anaconda

Another group of names that represent interest for speakers are those that iden-
tify wasps.5 In these cases, the recurring pattern is the designation of these insects
based on the identification of their nests. In (17), the nest of a wasp species is
identified by its similarity with the muzzle of the kushi ‘coatis’. A similar mech-
anism is observed in (18), in which the comparison is projected from the ovoid
shape of the human head to the oval shape of the nest of another type of wasp:

(17) kúshi éte ‘type of wasp’ (Vespidae spp.)

coatis – wasp

(18) buúk éte ‘type of wasp’ (Vespidae spp.)

head – wasp

We consider that, in (17) and (18), the nest is a metonymic vehicle used as access
to the type of the designated wasp. It is possible that the nest has been selected
as a metonymic vehicle because it is an element of easy perception, due to its
volume and outstanding shape. In addition, we can highlight the pragmatic value

5 The wasps listed in this section were recognized in fieldwork as part of the family Vespidae.
We maintain this label in the cases presented because we are still uncertain of the wasp’s iden-
tification at the species level.
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 111

of appointing wasps by their nest, since in entomology it is affirmed that nests

are peculiar for each species (García 1978). Basically, we understand the nest
as a form of habitat, which is why we propose that the metonymy that serves
as basis for metaphorical comparison would be habitat for inhabitant. The
same scheme is identified in (19), where the nest is compared with a clay vessel
of an ovoid shape. In (20), the similarity is established with a basket made of dry
braided leaves (in this case, the shape interacts with the pattern). Finally, in (21),
the similarity of the nest with a container made of pumpkin is highlighted. In
Figure 6, we show three cases:

(19) piníg éte ‘type of wasp’ (Vespidae spp.)

clay vessel – wasp

(20) piták éte ‘type of wasp’ (Vespidae spp.)

hanging basket – wasp

(21) tsápa éte ‘type of wasp’ (Vespidae spp.)

pumpkin bowl – wasp

In our initial database, there are up to 14 compound names for wasps. Although
many of these names have lost semantic transparency, it is logical to assume that
some follow the nest identification pattern. Regarding these names, it is possible
to think that this pattern could be recurrent in other Amazonian languages. For
example, Valenzuela (1998) has presented the shipibo name of oxe bina ‘moon
wasp’ for a wasp whose nest is shaped like a moon.

4.1.2 Non-prototypical image metaphors

Another interesting group that we call non-prototypical image metaphors is

related to the texture, pattern, dimension, and even flavor of the named species.
According to Ureña (2011), the concepts respond to our interaction with the
environment, within a process in which all our senses intervene: “[t]his means
that [the concept] emerges because we receive information from different sen-
sory-perceptual inputs” (Ureña 2011: 38). In the metaphors that we exemplify in
this section, we evidence that the perception expands: in addition to the visual
perception, flavor, and touch are considered.
In (22), the rough and bristly texture of the nája ‘nettle’ leaf resembles the
lateral and spiny part of the body of the pútu ‘armored catfish’. In fact, what has
been compared is the sensation we experience with our hands when we manip-
112 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

Figure 6: Metaphors based on the shape of the wasp’s nest. Drawing by Jaime Huasco.

ulate both entities. On a perceptual level, nettle is a highly visible wild plant
because it grows profusely in the surroundings of the community; in addition, it
has medicinal relevance. Consequently, the use of this plant as part of the bino-
mial allows the immediate identification of the variety of armored catfish that is
named:

(22) nája pútu ‘nettle-like armored catfish’ (Loricariidae spp.)

nettle – armored catfish
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 113

With regard to pattern, visual perception focuses more on the details of the skin
of mammals or snakes and the wings of insects. In (23), speakers mentioned that
the skin of a type of sloth has scattered spots on the body, such as the spotted skin
of the jaguar. In this case, the perception of the similarity of patterns in the skin
of mammals serves to perform metaphorical transfer. In (24), speakers name a
butterfly ántach wámpishuk, comparing its wings with the wings of an exemplary
dragonfly. These wings are like transparent plastic sheets that have scattered
lines on the surface. Even when the wings differ in shape, the speakers clearly
recognize the similarity of the pattern; for this reason, the image metaphor in this
binomial operates successfully:

(23) yawá uyúsh ‘sloths with skin spots’ (Bradypus variegatus)

jaguar – sloth

(24) ántach wámpishuk ‘butterfly with transparent wings’ (Nymphalidae spp.)

dragonfly – butterfly

A particular case is presented in (25) and (26). They are binomials that include the
noun wée ‘salt’ to name and identify the salty taste of the categories they modify:
in (25), a type of river snail and, in (26), a type of coatis, both with a peculiar salty
taste. Regarding the participation of metonymy, we believe that the defining
property for the category metonymy operates, since it evokes the character-
istic flavor of the salt blocks, instead of shape or color. Then, it is the property of
flavor that the speaker experiences when consuming salt that is projected meta-
phorically onto the domain of the designated species.

(25) wée tsúntsu ‘big river snail’ (Pomacea sp.)

salt – snail

(26) wée kúshi ‘type of coatis’ (Nasua nasua)

salt – coatis

As a corollary of the analysis of the prototypical image metaphors (color and

shape traits) and the non-prototypical ones (texture, pattern, flavor), in general,
we observe that, at the taxonomic level, binomials allow subcategorizing mostly
generic categories and, to a lesser extent, life-forms. To sub-categorize, the head
noun indicates the category (generic or life-form), while, through the modifying
noun, a prominent part of a highly perceptible entity (usually plants or animals
of the generic level) is selected to establish the metaphorical mapping. This met-
114 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

aphorical mechanism, then, functionally underlies the naming of entities that

generally occupy specific and varietal levels.

4.1.3 Behavior-based metaphors (with dynamic image)

In our corpus, there are 4 binomial names of behavior based-metaphors. All these
are based on dynamic images (in our data, we have not found behavior based-met-
aphors that have static images). The species named with these binomials are
varied and the source domains involved include ethnozoological entities and a
mythological being.
The metaphorical connection in (27) implies a detailed knowledge of the
activity performed by peccaries (source) and a type of ant (target). The movement
of peccary herds and their grouping around a leader is mapped onto the compact
movement of advancing groups of ants led by a leader. Both entities have the
objective of searching for food and defending against an opponent. Consequently,
speakers understand the peccary and the ant based on their most visible activity,
which is metonymically highlighted for use in the constitution of the metaphor:

(27) páki katsáip ‘type of army ant’ (Eciton sp.)

peccary – army ant

In (28), basically, the action of damage is metonymically highlighted both in an

ant and in a type of armored catfish. Speakers have experienced the accurate
attack of both and that is why the action of biting (of the ant – source) in the pres-
ence of a stranger is transferred to the action of stinging (of the armored catfish –
target) in a risk situation:

(28) yutúi kumpáu ‘type of armored catfish’ (Pimelodidae spp.)

ant – armored catfish

Finally, in (29), the negative and sinister activity of íwanch, a diabolical being in
Aguaruna mythology, serves to establish the metaphor with the perverse behavior
of a species of deer. In the community of Morroyacu, several speakers represent
íwanch as a hairy being who harasses people on roads. This description coincides
with the stories collected by Brown (2014) in other communities of Alto Mayo.
With regard to metaphor, this is activated because the deer (target domain) is
described as an inedible animal, negatively connoted since it represents a danger
to people, just like the íwanch (source domain). Some speakers even stated that
the deer had the ability to hypnotize them to carry out its attack. Definitely, in this
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 115

metaphor, there are restrictive cultural factors that delimit the conceptualization
of the named referent. A similar situation is observed in (30), where aggressive
behavior is again mapped:

(29) íwanch jápa ‘deer that attacks man’ (Cervidae sp.)

devil – deer

(30) íwanch éte ‘wasp that attacks man’ (Vespidae spp.)

devil – wasp

As we have seen, the recovery of deeper ecological and cultural knowledge is

essential to clarify the semantic motivation involved in behavior-based meta-
phors (with dynamic images). In addition, although there are only four cases, the
data shows that the entity that constitutes the source domain is not limited to the
biological world, but also considers elements of the supernatural world, always
as part of the process of sub-categorization of ethnozoological entities.

4.1.4 Metaphors with physical and behavioral motivations

In this section, behavioral traits and some “physical” similarity are shown to
coexist. In (31), the dynamic image of an arrow traveling through the air at full
speed (functional pattern of an object) is superimposed on the image of the hum-
mingbird in rapid flight. In this case, although there is movement of the arrow
and the bird, it is possible to think that the point of comparison is the line drawn
by the two entities. That is, the speaker would compare an imaginary line pro-
duced by the movement. It is also likely that physical similarity is established
between the arrow and the elongated peak of this type of hummingbird. In our
corpus, there is only one case of this type of metaphor.

(31) tséntsak jémpe ‘fast hummingbird’ (Trochilidae spp.)

arrow – hummingbird

4.2 Independent metonymies

In line with what has been suggested by Kövecses (2013), we have seen that in
resemblance metaphors, metonymy plays an essential role. In this section, the
relevance of metonymy is maintained, however, it does not operate together with
the metaphor, but independently through a modifying noun. As Benczes (2006)
116 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

argues, the modifying element allows access to the target element within the same
ICM; in addition, “the meaning of the compound is a combination of the second
constituent, which also acts as the profile determinant, and the metonymical
understanding of the first constituent” (Benczes 2006: 142). In our corpus, we have
identified 18 such cases. It is interesting to see that almost all cases (16) refer to the
knowledge of the habitat or of the diet of the named species.
In (32) and (33), as part of the Containment ICM, the habitat for inhabit-
ant metonymy is activated to identify some species. Kövecses (2010) has already
argued that it is common to conceptualize places as containers for people. In
Aguaruna, this metonymy not only implies a location, but also provides informa-
tion for hunting, such as recognizing danger or building knowledge of a complex
environment such as the Amazon forest. In (32), the meaning is related to location
by identifying the space that a type of termite inhabits. In (33), a detailed location
is evoked (a certain leaf) with the intention of staying protected from a dangerous
insect, a type of wasp:

(32) núgka kábau ‘type of termite’ (Isoptera spp.)

soil – termite

(33) dúka éte ‘type of wasp’ (Vespidae spp.)

leaf – wasp

For the following cases, considering the example of metonymy food for cus-
tomer by Lakoff (1980), ‘the ham sandwich is waiting for his check’, we propose
the metonymy food for consumer for cases in which the species is named by
the food that it consumes, as in (34), (35), and (36).6 Kövecses (2010: 184), with
respect to Lakoff’s example, states that the conceptual relationship between the
food and the customer is undetermined. However, he adds that the relationship
is ‘clearly determined’ within the restaurant. In the examples we present, the
food-consumer relationship is determined because speakers are familiar with
the diet of animals that surround them. Logically, their status as hunters has led
them to consolidate this knowledge.
In this way, in (34), the fishing activity of Aguarunas has allowed them to
identify a type of armored catfish through their peculiar consumption of rotten
wood accumulated in superficial parts of the rivers. In (35), the information on the

6 These cases show a type of metonymy with some regularity in Aguaruna. However, as Bernár-
dez (2005, 2016) points out, it is convenient to continue investigating to determine if cases such
as ‘the ham sandwich is waiting for his check’ or other similar ones are only isolated metonymic
references or long-range metonymies which can lead to generalization.
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 117

fruit of a palm tree consumed by a type of peccary serves to increase the chances
of the Aguaruna people of hunting it. Finally, in (36), they manage to identify a
group of edible birds through what these consume: a leafy green fluff that covers
the trunk of some trees. In the latter case, it should be noted that the head noun
shigki (bird in general, of considerable size and hunted for consumption) is not
a generic taxa, but of a life-form taxa (Berlin and Berlin 1979). Despite this and
according to our collaborators, the binomial juú chígki can accurately identify a
particular bird (medium size, and gray and brown plumage).

(34) wíchi tsuútsun ‘type of fish’ (unidentified)

rotten wood – fish

(35) tuntúam páki ‘type of peccary’ (Pecari tajacu)

palm fruit – peccary

(36) juú chígki ‘medium gray and brown bird’ (unidentified)

green bush trunk hair – bird

In Aguaruna, we can also find the so-called sign metonymies (Evans 1997: 136;
Turpin 2013). In our corpus, there are cases in which biological entities are asso-
ciated with weather changes and the presence of other species. For example, in
(37), the presence of páki ‘a type of peccary’ is interpreted by speakers as an accu-
rate sign of the arrival of summer, hence the binomial presents the noun modifier
esát ‘summer’. In (38), the song of the pururi ‘a type of bird with onomatopoeic
name’ is a sign of high probability of the presence of the páki ‘peccary’, whose
flesh is one of the favorite dishes in the community.

(37) esát páki ‘type of peccary’ (Pecari tajacu)

summer – peccary

(38) páki pururi ‘type of bird’ (unidentified)

peccary – bird

4.3 Specific cases of ethnozoological names

In addition to all the binomials reviewed, in our corpus, there are two specific con-
structions. Both ethnobiological names are constructions with genitive and differ
semantically from the revised binomials in that their elements do not reveal the
identity of the named referent. In (39), yumí dukuji ‘mother of water’ is the name
118 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

of a larva that is temporarily concentrated on the banks of the rivers. Apparently,

in this compound, a sign metonymy is activated, since the speakers affirm that,
when they observe these larvae, they know there will be plenty of water (through
rain). Considering the myths related to water, as well as possible threats to the
stability of water in their territory, it is understandable that the Aguaruna people
have lexicalized the expression yumí dukují to name a biological species that is an
indicator of abundance of water. After all, this species is conceived as a mother
who has a resource that, on the one hand, is sacred and, on the other, vital:

(39) yumí duku-jí ‘water bug’ (Belostomatidae sp.) (Lit.: mother of water)
water – mother.GEN

On the other hand, in (40), iwanchí tugkuiji ‘devil’s stick’ is the name of an insect
that has an elongated body and legs very similar to thin brown branches. In this
sense, there is a metaphorical correspondence between the plant element tugkui
´stick´ and the insect, based on its similarity in shape, pattern, and color. Speak-
ers state that, of all varieties, this is the most difficult to identify, due to their
natural camouflage conditions:

(40) iwanchí tugkuí-ji ‘type of stick insect’ (Apioscelis spp.) (Lit.: Devil’s Stick)
devil – stick.GEN

Regarding the presence of the íwanch,7 this is explained by the diabolical being
playing with appearances to deceive men (Chumap and García-Rendueles 1979).
For speakers, that would be the reason why there are ‘false’ plants very similar to
the original ones. For example, iwanchí kukushji ‘devil’s cocona’, iwanchí papaiji
‘devil’s papaya’, and iwanchí munchiji ‘devil’s passionfruit’ are fruits harmful to
human consumption, and they are more dangerous because they are extremely
similar to their original versions: cocona, papaya and passionfruit.
So, iwanchí tugkuíji is an insect that can be deceiving because it looks like
a thin branch. According to our collaborators, the damage caused by the insect
is the confirmation of death. That is, if a person sees the insect, he/she would
realize that he/she is dead. The íwanch, therefore, is a being that causes harm and
for that purpose it uses the game of appearances.

7 We have already referred to this mythological being in binomial constructions in (29) and (30).
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 119

5 Conclusion
In this chapter, we have presented an analysis of resemblance metaphors and
metonymies that operate in ethnozoological names of the Amazonian language
Aguaruna, basically in binomials of the structure [N(MOD) N(HEAD)]N. The lexical
preference for this type of compounds to name animal and plant organisms has
already been shown to stand out in Amazonian languages (Valenzuela 1998, Zari-
quiey 2018). In general, in these binomials, the modifying noun is the element
that concentrates the metaphorical or metonymic load, while the head noun lit-
erally identifies a taxonomic category (generic or life-form) that includes the ref-
erent named by the entire compound.
First, following the proposal of Ureña and Faber (2010), we grouped resem-
blance metaphors into three classes: (i) prototypical image metaphors (color and
shape) and what we have called non-prototypical ones (texture, pattern, flavor),
(ii) behavior based-metaphors (with dynamic images), and (iii) metaphors with
physical and behavioral motivations. The distribution shows that most resem-
blance metaphors select a static image of an entity (source domain) to metaphor-
ically project it onto the named biological organism (target domain). Of the 72
binomials that have resemblance metaphors, 67 correspond to the image met-
aphor group. Of this group, most cases are prototypical, that is, they consider
color and shape as a prominent feature. To a lesser extent, there are non-proto-
typical cases that consider texture, pattern, and flavor. However, there are cases
where these features interact. That is, the perception of speakers jointly takes into
account color and form, texture and color, or form and texture to name a particu-
lar species. This joint participation of color, shape, and texture traits is consistent
with the visual metaphors that Turpin (2013) analyzes in the semantic extensions
of plant and animal names in the Kaytetye language.
In this group of image metaphors (prototypical), the prevalence of color is
not only linked to the perception of the environment (animals, plants, stones)
but also to knowledge with a cultural and mythological basis. At this point, the
regular presence of the ipák ‘annatto’ and súa ‘genip’ plants is significant. The
data show relatively systematic mapping of ipák and súa to map colors (red and
black, respectively) in various species. After color, shape is the most prominent
image in metaphorical mappings. The data show an important regularity in the
denomination of several types of wasp. Essentially, the speakers select the shape
of the nests and establish the similarity with various elements (basket, plate,
animal head, human head, etc.). In this case, the nest is a metonymic vehicle that
allows us to access and identify the insect. It should be noted that the perception
of the nest for naming a type of wasp was also recorded by Valenzuela (1998),
who presents a case in the Amazonian language Shipibo. This gives rise to the
120 Ketty García-Ruiz, Jaime Huasco-Escalante, Jhon Jairo López-Rojas

need to verify whether the identification of wasps through their nests is a con-
stant in Amazonian nomenclatures.
As for the group of behavior-based metaphors, we have only found four cases.
In these occurrences, the behavior of animals and that of a mythological being
(íwanch) have been mapped. This shows that the selection of elements of the
source domain projecting onto the target domain is more complex and, in two
cases, exceeds the sensory perception. This last feature is also seen in our specific
cases, which are constructions with genitive (yumí dukují and iwanchí tunkuíji)
that require deep cultural and mythological information for the recovery of their
semantic motivation. On the other hand, it should be noted that we have only
found one case of metaphor with physical and behavioral motivations.
In our analysis, we have also detected an important group of binomials
(18 cases) in which the modifying noun presents the metonymic load; that is, it
is an element that operates within an ICM (Benczes 2006). The interesting thing
about these cases is the systematic presence of two types of metonymy: habitat
for inhabitant and food for consumer. This means that speakers have lexi-
calized information on the habitat and diet of ethnozoological organisms because
it is essential for hunting, for being alert to possible dangers, or for organizing
the copious knowledge of the Amazonian environment they have. Additionally,
although to a lesser extent, we have found some sign metonymies linked to mete-
orological occurrences (summer and rainfall), important data for daily activities
in the community.
Likewise, it is necessary to highlight two aspects that emerge from our anal-
ysis. The first is the predominance of the generic category as a head noun of the
binomials, data that correspond to the findings of Berlin (1992). However, there
is also a significant number of head nouns that name a life-form category. In both
cases, these head nouns are modified by a noun that mostly names generic or spe-
cific levels, and which contains the metaphorical or metonymic charge. In this way,
with the union of the head noun and the modifier, the speaker basically manages
to subcategorize his/her ethnozoological reality. The second aspect to highlight is
the recurrence of some significant references that are presented as head nouns.
The most subcategorized references are mánchi ‘lobster’, jémpe ‘hummingbird’,
chígki ‘bird’, éte ‘wasp’, and dápi ‘snake’. These five names appear in 44 binomials,
which evidences their high ethnozoological importance for the community. As for
the modifying noun, the most relevant and productive ones are jápa ‘deer’, ipák
‘annatto’, súa ‘genip’, and dúka ‘leaf’. These four expressions appear in 17 binomi-
als, a number to consider.
In summary, our findings show the complex system of resemblance meta-
phors and metonymies that operate in the Aguaruna ethnozoological lexicon, in
which the mapping of biological domains (animal and plant) and cultural refer-
 Resemblance metaphor and metonymy in the ethnozoological lexicon 121

ences of the community come into play. In this sense, from the lexicon studied,
our analysis contributes to the understanding of Aguaruna speakers’ deep ethno-
zoological knowledge and, in turn, some of the conceptualization of their envi-
ronment.

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Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf
Metaphorical and cultural
conceptualizations in Guyanese
newspaper English: novel insights
and methodological approaches
Abstract: Many studies in cultural linguistics and cognitive sociolinguistics tend
to employ a “top-down” procedure to identify cultural conceptualizations, i.e., they
“determine conceptual metaphors first and only then look for linguistic evidence”
(Krennmayr 2011). To this end, they are more often than not ethnographically
informed by an emic and etic perspective as well as by intuition (see Sharifian 2011).
While recognizing the value of those analyses, the present paper applies a cor-
pus-assisted textual approach in order to explore – in a predominantly “bottom-up”
fashion – culture- and variety-specific metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations
in a Guyanese newspaper corpus. The corpus we compiled consists of a randomized
selection of leading news articles and letters to the editor taken from the online ver-
sions of the country’s two largest dailies, the Guyana Chronicle and the Stabroek
News, which are published in (standardized) English. A British English subcorpus
consisting of the same types of newspaper extracts from The Guardian provides a
basis for comparison. The cultural metaphors and conceptualizations discussed are
retrieved from a combination of corpus-linguistic methods that encompass a (cul-
tural) keyword analysis (Scott 2001), an analysis of “cultural keyword chains” (Peters
2017), and a key semantic domain analysis conducted with the web-based corpus
analysis software Wmatrix4 (Rayson 2008). Thus, the following chapter represents
one of the first studies on Guyanese (acrolectal) English in decades and hopes to
enhance the understanding of the idiosyncratic interplay of language and cognition
in the cultural context of Guyana.1

Keywords: cultural conceptualizations; Guyanese English; corpus linguistics; key-

word chains; key semantic domains

1 We would like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments and constructive feedback.

Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf, University of Potsdam, Germany

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-006
126 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

1 Introduction
Various varieties of English – more often than not, L2 varieties – have recently
become subject to cultural-linguistic or cognitive-sociolinguistic analyses, mostly
in an (ongoing) endeavor to unveil and systematize underlying cultural models
and cultural conceptualizations in world Englishes. This has been the case for
Australian Aboriginal English (e.g., Sharifian 2011, 2015), West African English(es)
(e.g., Polzenhagen 2007; Wolf 2001; Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009), Hong Kong
English (e.g., Latić and Wolf 2017; Polzenhagen and Wolf 2010; Wolf and Chan
2016), Indian English (e.g., Polzenhagen and Frey 2017), and Irish English (Peters
2017), to name just a few publications. The Caribbean, however, seems to be by
and large terra incognita as far as cultural-linguistic or cognitive-sociolinguis-
tic research is concerned. Apart from a book-length cognitive/anthropological-
linguistic study on traveling conceptualizations in Jamaican (Patwa) by Holling-
ton (2015), there are, to the best of our knowledge, no further in-depth accounts
on cultural conceptualizations in Caribbean Englishes. The research gap is even
more blatant when it comes to Guyanese (Standard) English, for which only very
few (older) linguistics treaties exist in general (e.g., Edwards 1977). Hence, the
present chapter intends to start filling this void by shedding some light on meta-
phorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese (newspaper) English.2
A former British colony, the Co-operative Republic of Guyana (hereafter, shortly
‘Guyana’) is located at the north-eastern Atlantic coast of South America, between
Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname, and has a population of approximately 750,000
inhabitants. Though Guyanese Creole, or ‘Creolese,’ may be de facto the most-widely
spoken language in the country, Guyana is nowadays the only state on the South
American continent with English as the official language. For this reason, also the
largest newspapers of the country, among them the state-owned Guyana Chronicle
and the independent Stabroek News – which form the basis for this study – are pub-
lished in (standardized) English.
A further, more specific objective of the present paper is to contribute to the
methodological discourse in the fields of conceptual metaphor research and
cultural linguistics/cognitive sociolinguistics. As can be noticed, a multitude of
studies carried out within the theoretical paradigms of these disciplines prove
to be “informed by both an emic and an etic [extra-linguistic] perspective”; and
more often than not, these studies start off with an “ethnographic approach”
(Sharifian 2011: 13), scrutinizing more or less cohesive corpora for certain a priori
determined cultural categories. While the legitimacy of this “top-down” modus

2 See below for a distinction.

 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 127

operandi (Krennmayr 2011) shall not be doubted, the question of a complemen-

tary – more textual, inductive – approach arises. In this sense, we aim to intro-
duce a novel combination of corpus-linguistic methods for the identification of
metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations (cf. also Polzenhagen, this volume).
This primarily “bottom-up” methodological procedure, consisting of a cultural
keyword analysis (Leech and Fallon 1992; Wierzbicka 1997), a ‘chain’ analysis of
keywords (Peters 2017), and a key semantic domain analysis conducted with the
web-based corpus analysis software Wmatrix4 (Rayson 2018), shall be exemplarily
applied to a corpus that includes leading articles and letters to the editors from
the two above-mentioned Guyanese (English) newspapers. Relying in particular
on this genre, the present explorative analysis seeks to evaluate the relevance
and salience of certain conceptualizations in public Guyanese English (GuyE) dis-
course and, by doing so, lay the groundwork for further more in-depth research on
metaphoricity and cultural conceptualizations in Caribbean Englishes and, above
all, GuyE.

2 Theoretical framework
The theoretical concept of cultural conceptualizations, as applied in this study, is
rooted in the linguistic paradigms of cognitive sociolinguistics and cultural lin-
guistics, which are cognate strands of (cognitive) linguistics.3 Both disciplines
share the basic assumption that “language reflects and is shaped by cultural
experience” (Polzenhagen and Wolf 2010: 284), though cognitive sociolinguistics
tends to place social and cross-cultural linguistic variation at the center of inves-
tigation, whereas the exploration of “cultural conceptualisations” and “distrib-
uted cultural cognition” is foregrounded by Sharifian’s (2011, 2015, 2017) cultural
linguistics framework.
In the taxonomy of cultural linguistics, the notion cultural conceptualization
serves as a “cover term” (Sharifian 2011: 3) for what Sharifian labels as ‘cultural
categories,’ ‘cultural schemas,’ and ‘cultural(-conceptual) metaphors,’ all of which
may be understood as concrete instantiations of cultural conceptualizations. As
such, they represent the major analytical tools cultural linguistics deals with.

3 We take the conceptual frameworks of the two branches to be well-known and do not review
their theoretical premises in detail (see, e.g., Wolf and Chan 2016: 249–250 for a comprehensive
overview).
128 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

Cultural categories, as “the product of culture-specific categorizations” (Peters

2017: 131), may vary across different varieties of a global language such as English,
which is usually reflected at a lexico-semantic level.4 In particular, this variation
may surface in the existence of certain culture/variety-specific signifiers and/or
lexemes from the so-called ‘common core’ that carry different meanings, as is, for
example, the case with the notion of the concept of family in Hong Kong English (cf.,
e.g., Latić and Wolf 2017; Geers 2018) or with expressions from the domain family/
kinship in Aboriginal English (cf., e.g., Sharifian 2006) as compared to (White)
British or American English. ‘Cultural schemas,’ on the other hand, “extend the
dimension of mere semantic categorisation” (Peters 2017: 131) in that they “capture
beliefs, norms, rules, and expectations of behaviour as well as values relating to
various aspects and components of experience” (Sharifian 2017: 7).
The third form of cultural conceptualizations is that of ‘(cultural-)concep-
tual metaphors,’ which is based on the well-known Conceptual Metaphor Theory
(CMT), first expounded by Lakoff and Johnson (1980; also see Kövecses, this
volume). Thus, cultural linguistics and CMT provide a set of methodological tools
that enable the analyst to access the specific beliefs and weltanschauung of a
cultural group. It should be noted, however, that what from an etic perspective
seems to be a cultural-conceptual metaphor may not necessarily be perceived as
a conceptual ‘mapping’ from one domain onto another on the part of the speaker
(Sharifian 2015: 524). In other words, from an emic perspective, no cross-domain
mapping may take place. For this reason, we take a rather critical stance vis-à-vis
the usage of the term ‘metaphor’ in this context, and prefer to replace it by the
term ‘cultural conceptualization’ in order to avoid an overtly Western-centered
cultural bias (see Wolf and Chan 2016: 266).
Hence, for the purpose of this paper, metaphorical conceptualizations are
those conceptualizations where source and target domain can be clearly dis-
tinguished; they can but need not necessarily be culture-specific. For cultural
conceptualizations, on the other hand, it is often not easy to say – at least for
‘cultural outsiders’ – whether a given conceptualization involves one or two
domains. Furthermore, cultural conceptualizations are cultural in the sense that
they are culture-specific or restricted to a small number of cultures.
As the aforementioned manifestations of cultural conceptualizations are real-
ized in actual language-in-use, the researcher can draw conclusions on “broader
cultural cognitions associated with languages and language varieties” (Sharifian
2017: 5) by means of the analytical tools outlined above. Since cultural conceptual-

4 For intralinguistic cultural variation in Portuguese, see Soares da Silva (this volume).
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 129

izations and the collective cognition of a cultural group, in general, are constantly
“negotiated and renegotiated across time and space” (Sharifian 2011: 8), it seems
reasonable to expect a spectrum of within-group variation of certain cultural
conceptualizations. Finally, although cultural cognitions are shared among all
members of a cultural group, they are not evenly, but heterogeneously distributed.
In other words, “all members of a speech community are linked to each other by a
shared set of conceptualizations” (Peters 2017: 131), but not all members capture
the same elements of this set of cultural conceptualizations in their individual
cognitive systems (cf. Sharifian 2011: 5–8).

3 Data and methodology

3.1 Web-derived newspaper corpus

Given that to date, to the best of our knowledge, no corpus of GuyE is available,
we chose to compile a corpus that makes use of the internet archives of national
newspapers. Though there are a number of limitations of this particular genre
with regard to a series of linguistic research questions, our rationale for the choice
of newspapers as a data source is based on Mukherjee and Bernaisch (2015: 419),
who state that

newspapers may be considered ‘cultural loudspeakers’ with a nationwide range. They

grant access to important local as well as international issues and events, provide inter-
pretation schemata for – and relevant opinions on – these issues and events, and dissem-
inate these interpretation schemata and opinions among millions of readers, thus possi-
bly shaping their readers’ world views and, on a larger scale, cultural connotations in the
speech community.

In this sense, newspapers may well be regarded as both carriers and reflectors of
a society’s cultural cognition, since they usually tend to “address and potentially
influence nation-wide audiences” (Mukherjee and Bernaisch 2015: 418–419) or
well-defined local readerships. Hence, written press communication proves to be
a useful and (relatively) easily accessible database that provides valuable insights
into locally accepted norms and cultural conceptualizations. Note, however, that
since newspaper corpora essentially embody sampled collections of very specific
text categories, their representativeness – as that of virtually most other corpora –
remains inherently limited in this respect (see Schilk, Bernaisch, and Mukherjee
2012: 147; and also McEnery, Xiao, and Tono 2006: 13–16).
130 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

Newspapers usually consist of diverse text categories5 (e.g., news, editorials,

comments, classified advertisements, obituaries, etc.), many of which have been
subject to previous cultural-linguistic analyses (see, e.g., Peters 2018; Polzenha-
gen and Frey 2017; and Ranaweera 2018). Compiling our Guyanese (newspaper)
English corpus, we basically followed the methodological approach applied by
Hundt and Biewer (2007: 251–252). When building their SPEAC corpus (on South-
ern Pacific Englishes), they included front page leading articles as well as letters
to the editor “[i]n order to cover more formal [journalistic] and more informal,”
casual writing styles. Especially the latter have been selected because they “rep-
resent [. . .] the least edited” parts of a newspaper and are “most typical of indi-
vidual style” (Kachru 2003: 503). Thus, they allow a less ‘filtered’ view into the
cognitions of (ordinary) language users than texts by professional reporters,
though it has still to be taken into account that the (non-journalist) writers are
presumably aware that their texts are being published, and correspondingly, may
adhere to a more formal register in their writing.
In total, the GuyE newspaper corpus that forms the basis for our present study
consists of a GuyE sub-section and a British English (BrE) reference sub-corpus.
The former encompasses 192 newspaper articles and letters to the editor that were
derived, in equal shares of 48 text items each, from the online platforms of the
Stabroek News and the Guyana Chronicle, respectively.6 These are two of Guy-
ana’s three largest daily newspapers with a nation-wide circulation (The States-
man’s Yearbook 2019: 568), and possess easily accessible (and complete) internet
archives. As, in addition, they are held to be quality newspapers – though it has
to be mentioned that the Guyana Chronicle is a state-owned paper and has tended
to report in favor of the ruling governments – rather than tabloids (such as, e.g.,
Kaieteur News) (Smock 2008: 88; Commonwealth Observer Group 2012: 18), they
have been identified as suitably comparable to The Guardian, which was selected
as the present-day BrE ‘counterpart.’ In particular, we normally downloaded two
randomly selected text items each (or, more precisely, the whole webpages) pub-
lished on the first and fifteenth day of every month in the year 2018 on the news-
papers’ websites. During this process, we paid particular attention to deriving

5 While newspaper-based corpus studies frequently employ the term ‘text type’ (cf., e.g., Schilk,
Bernaisch, and Mukherjee 2012), we prefer the more neutral term ‘text category’ in order to avoid
confusion with Biber’s (1993: 244–245) notion of text type (see also Lee 2001).
6 At an earlier stage of this research project, Kühmstedt (2019) presented data at the Internation-
al Symposium on Linguistics, Cognition, and Culture in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, that was retrieved
from a smaller corpus comprising articles and letters to the editor merely from the Stabroek News
(01/2018–12/2018). For the study presented here, this GuyE corpus was extended by adding news-
paper extracts from the Guyana Chronicle.
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 131

only letters to the editor and news articles7 whose author(s) could be identified
by name (and whom we accordingly took to be native speakers of GuyE). By doing
so, we intended to discard news reports (usually labeled on the newspapers’
websites with “staff editor” as publisher) that had been wired to some extent by
international press agencies, such as Reuters or DPA, or had even been copied
from other newspapers (cf. Hoffmann, Hundt, and Mukherjee 2011: 268; Hundt
and Biewer 2007: 252). For this reason, we sometimes had to deviate from the
above-mentioned dates by one or two days, if necessary. Furthermore, we made
sure that each author was only included once each month in order to increase the
balance of our corpus. In this way, we obtained, in the end, a corpus comprising
a total number of 205,702 words (see Table 1).

Table 1: Design of the GuyE newspaper corpus.

Variety Newspaper Section Number of tokens

GuyE Stabroek News Leading articles 54,307
Letters to the editor 26,658
Guyana Chronicle Leading articles 35,347
Letters to the editor 32,255
BrE The Guardian Leading articles 30,585
Letters to the editor 26,550

It is worth noting that the material for the BrE sub-corpus has largely been col-
lected in exactly the same manner as for the GuyE one. However, since the letters
to the editor in The Guardian turned out to be much shorter than the Guyanese
equivalents, we decided not to download just two letters for each day, but the
complete webpages with all relevant letters to the editor. Subsequently, we deleted
those letters which were submitted by more than one person or by institutional
representatives whose names were not given. Thus, we hoped to yield sub-cor-
pora of similar sizes. Though the final distribution of tokens varies slightly, the
different sizes should not pose too much of a problem, as all three newspaper
sub-corpora consist of approximately 8,300 word types and the following analy-
ses will generally be run, where necessary, on the basis of relative (normalized)
frequencies.

7 We take those pieces as leading news articles that have been published in the sections ‘(Guy-
ana) News’ and ‘UK News,’ respectively.
132 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

3.2 Corpus-based identification of conceptualizations

The plethora of corpus-based analyses especially in the fields of cognitive soci-

olinguistics as well as metaphor research in general have testified to the rele-
vance and manifold possibilities of corpus-linguistic approaches at the nexus of
language, culture, and cognition, and have “put metaphor theory on a sounder
empirical footing” (Semino 2008: 1999). Though their number has been increas-
ing in the course of the past years, one of the main issues that remains is the
retrieval of relevant data – viz. (cultural-)conceptual metaphors and metony-
mies – because conceptual mappings are apparently “not linked to particular
linguistic forms” and there are, to date, hardly any annotated corpora that “cor-
pus-based research on conceptual mappings [could] rely on”8 (Stefanowitsch
2006: 1–2). Consequently, as a literature review attests, a broad spectrum of “strat-
egies for extracting linguistic expressions manifesting conceptual mappings from
non-annotated corpora” have been developed and employed in the framework of
previous studies, some of which are summarized in Stefanowitsch (2006: 2–5):
(i) manual searching;
(ii) searching for source domain vocabulary;
(iii) searching for target domain vocabulary;
(iv) searching for sentences containing lexical items from both the source
domain and the target domain;
(v) searching for metaphors based on ‘markers of metaphor’ (e.g., metaphori-
cally/figuratively speaking).

This overview is by far not exhaustive, and all of these “automatic or semi-auto-
matic” methodological approaches (Stefanowitsch 2006: 2) additionally require
some form of manual annotation/extraction in order to determine if a potential
lexical candidate is used in a literal or metaphorical sense.
Furthermore, Krennmayr (2011, 2013) distinguishes two basic major approaches,
a “bottom-up” and a “top-down” mode of analysis, into which not only the tech-
niques listed above can be classified but also more recently proposed corpus-linguis-
tic modi operandi for the identification of cultural conceptualizations. According to
her, top-down procedures (e.g., inquiries for source and target domain vocabulary,
respectively) “determine conceptual metaphors first and only then look for linguistic
evidence,” whereas a textual bottom-up approach (e.g., manual search or exploring
metaphors by means of ‘markers of metaphors’) is “interested in identifying linguis-

8 The largest – and, if not at all, only – available corpus annotated for metaphorical language use
in English is the VU Amsterdam Metaphor Corpus Online (Steen et al. 2010).
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 133

tic – not conceptual – metaphor” (i.e., metaphorical expressions) first; conceptual

metaphors that may underlie a text are “[o]nly at a later stage [. . .] formulated” on
the basis of semantic allocation to possible conceptual domains (Krennmayr 2011:
193–194; cf. also Krennmayr 2011: 179–185, and 2013).
When it comes to research concerned in particular with cultural conceptu-
alizations, it can be observed that the majority of studies conducted within the
frame of this paradigm so far may actually be ascribed to Krennmayr’s top-down
approach. As stated above, much of the scholarly publishing in the fields of cultural
linguistics and cognitive sociolinguistics employs an “ethnographic approach,”
and more often than not, papers appear to be based, to varying degrees, on a good
bit of (well-informed) “intuition” (Sharifian 2011: 13). The present study recog-
nizes the value of these approaches and intends by no means to replace them.
In essence, however, we attempt here to approximate a rather ‘bottom-up’ inves-
tigation by “prompting the corpus itself to provide all lexis” (Güldenring 2016:
230) that might serve as a starting point for identifying relevant source and target
domains, and to uncover prevalent cultural conceptualizations present in GuyE
newspaper discourse. Since relying solely on such an approach would be insuffi-
cient, we have designed a mixed-methods approach, in the framework of which
the principal bottom-up process is complemented by top-down analyses. More-
over, both quantitative as well as qualitative methods are employed with regard to
the overall aim of extracting salient metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations
from the collection of Guyanese newspaper excerpts at hand.9

3.2.1 Keyword analysis

In a first step, we carried out a cultural keyword analysis. The importance of key-
words – that is, of words which occur significantly more frequently (in terms of
relative frequencies) in one corpus than in a reference corpus (Scott 2001: 115) –
was already highlighted by Leech and Fallon (1992). Along these lines, Polzenha-
gen and Wolf (2010: 294) attest the relevance of keywords from a cultural-linguis-
tic perspective, too, given that “such frequency data may be readily interpreted
in terms of Wierzbicka’s notion of ‘cultural keywords’ [. . .], i.e. their ‘statistical
keyness’ in the corpus reflects their ‘cultural keyness’.” For Wierzbicka (1997: 16),
keywords take an important role, as she deems them to constitute “focal points
around which entire cultural domains are organized,” which is why we believe

9 Consequently, the approach introduced here could be referred to as corpus-driven. Since defi-
nitional demarcations to ‘corpus-based’ approaches are, however, not clear-cut, we will use both
terms by and large synonymously here (for a discussion, see, e.g., Deignan 2005: 88–90).
134 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

they may be considered as potential indicators for culture-specific and culturally

relevant source and target domains. Therefore, we conducted a keyword analysis,
using the corpus analysis program AntConc (Anthony 2019).

3.2.2 Extended keyword chain analysis

The second step of our combination of methods leans on a novel (bottom-up)

approach devised by Peters (2017), which he refers to as “extended ‘cultural
keyword chains.’” Using the keyword fairy/fairies as an example in the framework
of his study on cultural conceptualizations in Irish English, he argues that each
of the lemmata collocating with this keyword “has the potential to be a keyword
in its own right” (Peters 2017: 139). Thus, Peters (2017: 143) was able to unveil, for
example, “‘banshee’ > ‘fairy’ > ‘fairy music’ > ‘music’ > ‘traditional music’” as
cultural keywords of Irish English. Based on the keywords found by means of the
previously described keyword analysis (see 3.2.1), Peters’s procedure was then
applied to our GuyE newspaper corpus.

3.2.3 Key semantic domain analysis

In addition to the previous two steps, which focused on keywords, we under-

took a key semantic domain analysis, applying the web-based corpus-analysis
software Wmatrix4 (Rayson 2008). By means of the UCREL Semantic Annotation
System (USAS), the semantic annotation component of this online tool automat-
ically assigns each lemma of an uploaded corpus to a corresponding semantic
field. The semantic tagset consists of 21 major semantic fields, which are further
subdivided into 232 more fine-grained category labels. Furthermore, the seman-
tic tagger works context-sensitively, so that not only multi-word units are recog-
nized, but semantic discourse labels are also allocated on the basis of statistical
probability in the case of conflicting semantic classification possibilities (Krenn-
mayr 2011: 183). Given that “the semantic fields included in the tagset” – though
not meant to represent source and target domains themselves – “can be broadly
related to the domains of conceptual metaphor theory,” the Wmatrix4 interface
for corpus analysis has been applied in conceptual-metaphor research before
(Deignan and Semino 2010; see, e.g., Güldenring 2016, Krennmayr 2011), but, to
our knowledge, not in cultural linguistics or cognitive sociolinguistics so far.
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 135

4 Results and discussion

4.1 Keywords

The 15 most frequent keywords in the GuyE newspaper sections in comparison

to the corresponding British ones – as the result of the keyword analysis carried
out by means of AntConC – are depicted in Table 2. Grammatical words, such as
prepositions, pronouns, etc., have been omitted; the ‘keyness,’ as calculated by
means of the default settings of the AntConc software, is established on the basis
of the log-likelihood value, with a statistic threshold of p < 0.05, and ranges, for
the below lexemes, from 409.93 through 45.84.

Table 2: Keywords (lemmatized) sorted by sections in comparison

to the counterparts in The Guardian.

GuyE Letters + News GuyE News GuyE Letters to the editor

Guyana Guyana Guyana
president president editor
Guyanese note PPP
PPP10 be Guyanese
ministry Stabroek president
persons Guyanese ministry
Stabroek persons regards
oil ministry faithfully
note explain sugar
sugar oil Jagdeo
Georgetown GuySuCo oil
minister Williams region
AFC Georgetown government
Jagdeo state Jagan
GuySuCo sugar minister

Given that we are dealing with newspaper extracts, the list of keywords discerned
is, at a first glance, hardly surprising from a discourse-analytic perspective and
does not seem to contain any lexical items that could be immediately identified
as specific of Guyanese culture. Even so, in an effort to unveil potential culture-
and variety-specific conceptualizations, we checked by hand the contexts of the

10 PPP refers to the People’s Progressive Party, whose votership is predominantly of Indian descent.
136 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

above-mentioned keywords in the Guyanese data, and assessed whether the corre-
sponding concordance lines included instances of metaphorical language. In doing
so, we did not subscribe, however, to the wide-spread metaphor identification pro-
cedure (MIP) developed by the Pragglejaz Group (2007; cf. also Steen et al. 2010),
but adhered to Cameron’s (2010) discourse dynamics framework for metaphor. In
contrast to Pragglejaz’ approach, the latter method offers the advantage, as Mendes
de Oliveira (2020: 69) points out, that it allows not only single words, but also
“longer chunks of language to be classified as metaphorical.”
As can be seen in Table 2, Guyana is (not surprisingly) the keyword with the
highest keyness factor in both the news articles and letters to the editor. Hence,
let us begin by analyzing some aspects of how linguistic metaphors containing
Guyana and Guyanese are conceptualized. While doing so, we will largely discard,
however, (general) personifications and orientational metaphors (see Lakoff
and Johnson 1980) as well as metaphorical expressions in which the keyword
in context collocates with a preposition. That is, conceptual mappings like the
country for the people in charge (resulting from phrases such as Guyana has
to agree. . .) or guyana/the country is a container (derived, e.g., from they are
required to remain in Guyana) are not taken into account in our study because we
do not regard them as specific to GuyE.
What is remarkable, first of all, is that Guyana is relatively frequently used
(with more than a dozen instances out of 617 concordances in total, in which
the keyword is used literally and metaphorically) in combination with lexical
expressions from the economy domain, as the selection of representative exam-
ples (1)–(5) illustrates:

(1) The remaining 25% – profit oil – is to be split evenly between Guyana and
ExxonMobil. (Stabroek_News_2018-12-16_MT)11

(2) ExxonMobil will write off any decommissioning costs as expenses and that will
lessen significantly future revenue for Guyana [. . .]. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-01-
15_CSR)

(3) Previously, I had proposed that our economic programme should essentially
focus on making Guyana the Singapore of South America, the business hub in
South America. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-07-01_AT)

11 The structure of filenames of the corpus, from which the samples are taken, indicates, in the
following order, the title of the newspaper, the section (news, letter to the editor), the date, and
the initials of the author’s name.
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 137

(4) Maybe, Guyana’s new parent company ExxonMobil Corporation will show the
heart needed to save the sugar industry [. . .]. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-01-15_NH)

(5) Guyana’s stake in such a large production will continuously build Guyana’s
capacity as a global leader in the industry. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-01-15_CSR)

It can be clearly recognized that Guyana is associated, in the above extracts, with
economic terms like profit, revenue, costs, industry, etc. and is envisaged as a “busi-
ness hub” and “global leader in the industry.” Hence, following Stefanowitsch’s
(2004) metaphorical-pattern analysis, one could formulate the conceptual mapping
guyana is a company. Moreover, since it can be observed that not only Guyana is
conceptualized as an economic corporation, but other countries (Singapore) as well
(see example (3)), one might even generalize the aforementioned formulation and
come up with the conceptual metaphor countries are companies. On the other
hand, there are also examples in which the authors think about how one could create
more value from Guyana (e.g., Stabroek_Letter_2018-07-01_AT). Consequently, it
seems to be a small cognitive step to consider Guyana as a tradable product. The
ambivalent relation that Guyana – on the one hand, as an alleged ‘global player,’
on the other as an ‘object’ that is dealt with – has especially vis-à-vis ExxonMobil,12
seems to be reflected also in people’s minds: guyana is a company, as established
above; simultaneously, however, sample (4) shows that ExxonMobil is perceived as
Guyana’s new parent company, expressing the conceptualization guyana is a sub-
sidiary of exxonmobil. This impression is further reinforced when looking at the
following extract:

(6) Also, writing on the cruel and unusual punishment of the sugar workers must
take priority over the bungling of the Production Sharing Agreement between
Exxon and the Government of Guyana, where the mouse has claimed to have
had his way with the elephant. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-01-15_NH)

By means of the conceptualization of a company is an animal, obviously ground-

ed in the similarities in size and strength, the author of this letter to the editor
expresses how he perceives the relationship between the South American country
and the U.S. oil giant.
Apart from Guyana and Guyanese, oil and sugar constitute two further lexical
items that occur as keywords in the leading news articles as well as letters to

12 ExxonMobil is an U.S. American corporation that has received the right to drill for oil off the
shores of Guyana from 2020 onward.
138 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

the editor and whose ‘keyness’ seems to signal some socio-cultural relevance in
Guyanese public discourse. As both a collocational analysis and a manual review
reveal, oil – occurring 117 times in total – is amongst others associated, and partly
forms nominal compound coinages, with terms such as deal, commercial, profit,
revenue(s), share, money, etc., all of which coming from the economy domain.
Hence, it appears reasonable to postulate the conceptualization oil is money
or, more precisely, that oil stands for money in a metonymical relationship
(cf. Appel, Mason, and Watts 2015: 10); it is literally considered as an apolitical
issue (see, e.g., Stabroek_Letter_2018-01-15_CSR) and seems to constitute, in this
context, merely a commodity.
Likewise, beyond the mere economic dimension, some social significance
appears to be attributed to oil. At the time of the publication of the cited articles
and letters to the editors, there were debates about plans to use a “part of the oil
money as cash transfers to each Guyanese household” (Stabroek_Letter_2018-08-
15_TO) or, at least, to the poorest ones, as the following examples illustrate.

(7) Recent oil finds have created high expectations and hopes for the country
[. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-07-01_AI)

(8) [. . .] assume that utilisation of oil revenues would translate to development

[. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-08-01_MDC)

(9) [. . .] bauxite, gold, silver, manganese, rice, sugar, or oil can save us from impov-
erishment, underdevelopment, and international contempt. (GuyChronicle_
Letter_2018-08-01_MDC)

(10) [. . .] he cited seven areas, all of which and more can be funded from the 95%
of the oil revenue the government will have after giving the 5% in cash trans-
fers to the poor and powerless. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-08-15_TO)

Hence, as can be inferred from examples (7)–(10), Guyanese people seem to share
the conviction that oil brings development, eradicates poverty, and benefits all
citizens. These beliefs can be condensed in the conceptualization the discovery
of oil is hope, or even oil is a savior.13

13 Further evidence for this conceptualization is provided, for example, by Hon. Trotman, Min-
ister of Natural Resources, who, in an official speech, referred to the announcement that Exxon-
Mobil agreed to produce oil in Guyana as “the trumpet call that heralds the coming of ‘first oil’ ”
(Co-operative Republic of Guyana 2016). However, even though this metaphor is clearly motivat-
ed by Christian mythology, we presume that the concept of a ‘savior’ is not exclusively a Christian
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 139

Finally, the keyword sugar occurs 113 times in total (metaphorically and liter-
ally used) and, thus, is almost as salient as oil. In 2018, the Guyanese sugar indus-
try was affected by significant retrenchment measures; see the following excerpts:

(11) One of their flogging horses was the sugar industry. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-
09-01_MAN)

(12) [. . .] it is in full support of the move by the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) to
secure a $30B syndicated bond to aid in revitalisation of the country’s sugar
industry. (GuyChronicle_News_2018-04-01_SM)

(13) The former president had told the nation that if the Skeldon project did not
work, “well the sugar industry is dead.” (GuyChronicle_News_2018-02-01_ZH)

(14) When the Trinidad sugar industry was in its death throes [. . .]. (Stabroek_
Letter_2018-02-15)

The extracts show that the downsizing and successive closing of the sugar indus-
try is notably conceptualized in terms of death and dying. This presupposes
that the sugar industry/companies are conceptualized as living beings, as can
be deduced, for instance, from samples (11) and (12). Hence, it can be supposed
that, in the Guyanese collective cognition, the sugar industry is a living being
that is dead/going to die.

4.2 Extended keyword chains

Examining the AntConc list of collocations with the keyword Guyana (with a mutu-
al-information (MI) score ≥ 3), we discerned that the lemmata nation, national,
and nationality co-occur quite frequently with the search term, altogether 17
times within a window span of five words to the left and right of the noun. For
this reason, these items were taken to be the first potential candidates for the
extended keyword chain analysis (see 3.2.2), which led us to further culture-spe-
cific conceptualizations. Just as in the previous step, we assessed whether these
co-occurrences include instances of metaphorical language and cultural concep-
tualizations. We observed that nation is repeatedly used in combination with a

one, but exists in other religions as well. Therefore, savior is to be understood in a religiously
connoted, yet universalist sense.
140 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

lexical register that is usually found in discourses revolving around architecture

and design (as target domains), as for example in:

(15) [. . .] a campaign free of hate, racial and all other forms of incitement is most
desirable and essential to the efforts of building and sustaining a cohesive
nation with a common destiny. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-11-01_JOS)

(16) The minister added that the purchase of a single plantation and its conver-
sion into a village laid the foundation for establishment of a nation. (Guy-
Chronicle_News_2018-12-02_MO)

(17) She has a proud record of being the matriarch of a family-owned business
that has actively contributed to the academic moulding of the nation of
Guyana for more than 50 years. (GuyChronicle_News_2018-04-15_ST)

(18) We must not glibly claim that we are bringing up the next generation, or
that the children are the future of the nation, or that we mould the nation.
(Stabroek_Letter_2018-10-15_WBA)

Though the conceptualization the nation is a building represents a well-estab-

lished conventional metaphor (see, e.g., Kövecses 2010 [2002], and also Musolff
2000), the latter two examples make clear that the conceptualization of a static
edifice does not go far enough. It seems that not only the internal structures
(the ‘walls,’ so to speak) are open to modification, but that the very shape of the
construct itself is malleable. Hence, we suggest the extended conceptualization
guyana/the nation is an unfinished construction.
Departing from the ‘extended’ key root morpheme nation*, one can realize
that the collocates sport and, in particular, cricket play a notable role in Guyanese
culture,14 as the following examples indicate:

(19) Cricket is our national sport; it is part of our shared heritage. (GuyChroni-
cle_Letter_2018-07-15_DH)

14 This presumption is substantiated by the National Sport Policy of the Co-operative Republic
of Guyana (2019: 6), which states that “Guyana and cricket is synonomous [sic].”
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 141

(20) [. . .] many would realise how simple it could be to have the city vibrant and
full of life again with the great game of cricket in a well maintained historic
venue. It was supposed to be an important part of our culture [. . .]. (Guy-
Chronicle_Letter_2018-09-17_JC)

Therefore, we proceeded by focusing on these new keywords from the sports

domain. Manually checking the corresponding concordances, we found, on the
one hand, that sports may serve as a source domain to conceptualize principles
of economy, which underscores the salience of sports in Guyanese culture:

(21) In sports, when teams don’t perform well, the owners sometimes fire the man-
agers or coaches and even order benching and trading players for poor per-
formance. Some team owners don’t even wait until the end of the season. The
same principles apply in the business sector [. . .]. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-12-
15_EM)

On the other hand, there is a higher number of textual references (some of them
presented below) that point to an intricate relationship between ethnicity –
mainly in the form of racism – and sports:

(22) Cricket is our national sport; it is part of our shared heritage. It is played by
all ethnic groups in Guyana.

(23) Cricket in Guyana is better when it is a source of ethno-racial harmony [. . .].

(24) [. . .] racism has become part and parcel of the official management of cricket
in Guyana.
(all examples taken form GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-07-15_DH)

From the above examples, the conceptualization sports is ethnicity tran-

spires.15 Though the evidence for the existence of this conceptualization is pro-
visionally based merely on one source of our corpus, the reference therein to the
response by Anand Sanasie, member of the Guyana Cricket Board, indicates that
the above-cited letter to the editor is part of a larger public discourse. In fact, as
an additional online search has disclosed, there was a debate about “Dictatorship

15 Although it is actually used several times in the Guyanese newspaper sources, we deliberate-
ly intend to abstain from employing the term “race” here. The concept of “race” constitutes an
artificial social construct without any scientific, i.e., biological foundation. Therefore, we wish
not to reproduce it in modern-day (academic) discourse.
142 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

and Racism in Guyanese Cricket,” initiated by columnist David Hinds (2018) with
a same-titled article in the Kaieteur News. While the conceptualization sports is
ethnicity is not necessarily shared by all members of the socio-cultural group
in question, a close reading of the public echo to this issue and of various other
sources found during this literature review has led to the assumption that this
conceptualization does indeed have a larger collective-cognitive salience and is
not merely idiosyncratic.16
Moreover, political and economic terminology, including committee, manage-
ment, monopolize, stakeholder, etc., is employed in Guyanese sports contexts, as
illustrated by example (25). This collocational correlation may be a cognitive-linguis-
tic indication that ethnic contentions do actually not originate in sports, but in other
spheres – politics, economy, etc. – and that these problems are projected onto sports.

(25) I am contending that five or nine Indo-Guyanese men, elected by Indo-Guy-

anese clubs and stakeholders cannot effectively represent the interests of
Afro-Guyanese stakeholders and players and other ethnic groups. (Guy-
Chronicle_Letter_2018-07-15_DH)

To prove this point, terms pertaining to the domain of ethnicity (ethnic, ethnicity,
race, racial, Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, indigenous, etc.) were concordanced
and the contexts of the corresponding occurrences were discursively analyzed:

(26) When you look at someone of African descent, you automatically look at the
PNC, when you look at Indo Guyanese, you automatically think PPP.17 When
you look at the Indigenous person, you have no idea where they are going.
(Stabroek_News_2018-07-01_MLR)

(27) On the idea behind the formation of a party seeking the Amerindian vote,
Shuman, who made the announcement on his Facebook page, said, “We are
very, very aware that the Indigenous vote is a swing vote. [. . .]” (Stabroek_
News_2018-07-01_MLR)

(28) [. . .] leaders are often chosen by citizens based on their race, instead of on
merit. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-08-01_MDC)

16 See, for example, Ramzan (2016) resorting to this conceptualization: football in my humble
opinion is the number one sport in Guyana when it comes to people of ethnicity, when it comes to
disadvantage folks [. . .].
17 PNC is the abbreviation for the People’s National Congress party, which is mainly supported
by the Afro-Guyanese population.
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 143

(29) [. . .] Cheddi Jagan should not be the presidential candidate, as Afro-Guya-

nese would revolt against an Indian leader [. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-
09-01_HG)

(30) Shouting at the top of their lungs, as PPP/C representatives have been doing
on this issue just points Guyanese to the race-based way the PPP/C really
thinks about the nation [. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-06-15_EH)

(31) In their discussions, he said, they noted that ethnic politics has torn the
country apart and done it a disservice. (Stabroek_News_2018-07-01_MLR)

(32) For them, it’s all about race – the good lawyer even had the audacity to say
openly that anyone who doesn’t think voting is based on race in Guyana
should be ignored. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-06-15_EH)

Based on the above samples, in particular (26) and (27), we may recognize, on
the one hand, that ethnicities and ethnic communities are defined in terms of
politics, along the lines of political parties. Hence, the underlying conceptualiza-
tion may be formulated as ethnicities are political parties or, more generally,
ethnicity is politics. On the other hand, the remaining examples illustrate that
ethnic discourses that relate to politics can practically not be clearly distinguished
from ‘ethnicized’ political discourses; they may be considered as manifestations
of the conceptualization politics is ethnicity. So, overall, ethnicity and pol-
itics are so closely entangled in Guyana that they seem to us (almost) isomor-
phic; that is to say, ethnicity is politics and politics is ethnicity appear to be
interchangeable conceptualizations. Furthermore, taking the conceptualization
sports is ethnicity into account (see above), what we find is a kind of ‘blending’
of sports, politics, and ethnicity. In other words, the data suggests that these
domains are highly interwoven in the collective cognition of GuyE speakers.
To complete this section, let us briefly consider two additional aspects. Firstly,
it was possible only due to the ‘extended cultural keyword chain’ technique that
the metaphor a community/the nation is a family – which has been attested in
U.S. American English (Lakoff 2016 [1996]; see also Polzenhagen, this volume) as
well as in Hong Kong English and Chinese English (Wolf 2008; Liu 2002) – could
be verified for GuyE as well, as the following examples show:18

18 a community/the nation is a family – or alternatively, community is kinship – is not

an uncommon metaphor. community is kinship has been discussed extensively by Wolf and
Polzenhagen (2009; see also Polzenhagen, this volume) for the African context, where, in many
instances, it was found to be a cultural conceptualization rather than a metaphor. Unfortunately,
144 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

(33) What manner of people are we, to see the suffocation of our Guyanese broth-
ers and sisters in the sugar industry [. . .]. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-01-15_NH)

(34) Let us also use this opportunity to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood and
sisterhood and to make foremost the welfare of this land that is home to all of
us; our Guyana. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-11-01_JOS)

(35) I am happy to join in this call for an end to discrimination, particularly, the
institutionalised dehumanisation of LGBTIQ persons. I urge us to be proac-
tive in their protection, and to resist the hate perpetuated against our broth-
ers and sisters who on a daily basis face tremendous threats, and are denied
of their basic human rights. (Stabroek_News_2018-06-02_TP)

(36) Ministers must see their own daughter in a next man’s daughter, they must
see the mothers, sisters, aunts as their own [. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-
02-15_GC)

Secondly, when reviewing the collocations of the term Guyana, the verb embark
(see example (37)) sparked our interest, so we proceeded by determining lexemes
containing the root *embark* as new potential keywords, which occur 9 times in
the GuyE subcorpus and not at all in the British part. Investigating their metapho-
ricity yielded, amongst others, the following results for metaphorical expressions:

(37) But there is much more to be fixed before Guyana can confidently embark
upon a renegotiation exercise. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-02-01_TJ)

(38) [. . .] thank you for your faith in me and embarking me upon this journey.
(GuyChronicle_News_2018-12-01_TR)

(39) It confirms the fact that Guyana is about to embark on a path of premature
deindustrialization [. . .]. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-10-15_MIA)

(40) She explained to Stabroek News that as she was not sure of which career path
she wished to embark on [. . .]. (Stabroek_News_2018-08-18_TP)

the data we used was not broad enough to draw any conclusion as to which aspects of the family
model are prevalent in a community/the nation is a family in GuyE: viz. “those grounded on
the notions of ‘birth,’ ‘creation,’ ‘causation,’ ‘lineage,’ and ‘inheritance,’” or rather “mappings
from the nurture-and-care model” (Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009: 68), salient in African English.
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 145

(41) Dr Jason Mars [. . .] has embarked on the establishment of a scholarship

programme that would afford Computer Science Majors at the University of
Guyana (UG) an opportunity to pursue PhD studies at the University of Mich-
igan. (Stabroek_News_2018-06-17_ML)

(42) [. . .] though his government has not embarked on a multi-year negotiation

with the GTU, it is something that is desirable. (GuyChronicle_News_2018-
09-01_SM)

(43) His announcement comes at a time when the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU)
is threatening to up the ante over failed salary negotiations with the Edu-
cation Ministry, which has already resulted in many teachers embarking on
strike action [. . .]. (GuyChronicle_News_2018-09-01_SM)

As these examples show, the lemma embark is metaphorically used in the context
of the well-established conventional conceptualization X is a journey, where
the metaphor vehicle X describes a somewhat challenging action that requires
some commitment. Kövecses (2010; see also Kövecses, this volume), for instance,
discusses this conceptual metaphor in some detail in relation with the target
domains (X) love, life, and argument. Interestingly, however, the semantics
of the verb embark tends to point to a further specification of the source domain,
which might correspondingly be formulated, especially with regard to GuyE, as a
journey is a boat ride. While the extent of the applicability and possible origins
of this (provisional) conceptual metaphor, of course, remain to be explored, it
might seem plausible to assume that it reflects the spatial perception and cog-
nition of GuyE speakers: owing to Guyana’s physical landscape, the country’s
infrastructure has hitherto relied, to a large proportion, on water transportation,
especially in the interior, i.e., the hinterland beyond the municipalities located in
the coastal strip; and also the very name Guyana, which is Amerindian for ‘land
of many waters,’ points to the importance of the nearly 50 rivers in the country (cf.
Seipp 2018; Connolly 2018: 18).

4.3 Key semantic domains

The fifteen most prominent key semantic domains in each text category of our
Guyanese database – i.e., the (automatically tagged) semantic fields occurring
with a significantly higher frequency in the GuyE newspaper subcorpus in com-
146 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

parison to the British Guardian one – are depicted in Table 3, following the order
of their keyness (which, again, is expressed in terms of log-likelihood19).

Table 3: Key semantic fields sorted by sections in comparison to the counterparts

in The Guardian (original UCREL labels are retained).20

GuyE Letters + News GuyE News GuyE Letters to the editor

government education in general government
unmatched unmatched grammatical bin
in power general actions/making in power
general actions/making smoking and non-medical the media
drugs
smoking and non-medical farming & horticulture substances and materials:
drugs liquid
substances and materials: strong obligation or respected
liquid necessity
grammatical bin industry business: generally
industry in power law and order
business: generally no power general actions/making
no power government smoking and non-medical
drugs
strong obligation or work and employment: like
necessity generally
mental object: conceptual business: selling measurement: length &
object height
farming & horticulture evaluation: good/bad belonging to a group
change medicines and medical expected
treatment
speech: communicative substances and materials: industry
liquid

As can be seen, the key semantic field government seems to be overly salient in
the Guyanese part of our corpus. The mere occurrence of the semantic domain

19 The ‘overuse’ of all semantic fields mentioned in Table 3 is statistically significant, each hav-
ing a log-likelihood value of 6.63 or above for a 99% significance (p = 0.01) (cf. also Deignan and
Semino 2010: 173–176).
20 Some of the resulting categories (e.g., ‘Pronouns,’ ‘Negative’) have not been taken into ac-
count here, as they constitute grammatical rather than semantic domains.
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 147

government is not surprising from a discourse-analytic perspective, since we

are dealing with newspaper texts. Its significantly higher occurrence is, however,
insofar remarkable as the same genre (viz. newspaper) holds for both GuyE and
BrE; hence, government-related expressions such as government, president, con-
stitution, etc., to name but a few, seem to have – altogether – a higher presence and
relevance in Guyanese (newspaper) English than in BrE newspaper discourse.21
In a subsequent step, the lemmata tagged as pertaining to one of the above-
mentioned categories were again checked (manually) for their metaphorical-con-
ceptual content; (key)words which have been discussed in the previous sections,
however, have been discarded here. To demonstrate the value of this approach
based on key semantic domains, the lemma government, which is provided by
Wmatrix4 as the expression with the highest frequency within in the semantic field
of government, shall serve as an example as to how some prevalent conceptual-
izations can be derived from its concordances.
Like many of the target domains considered previously, government is con-
ceptualized as a person in GuyE. While general (i.e., neutral) personifications
are not discussed here, some light shall be shed on three specific cases. Firstly,
the following extracts indicate the conceptualization the government is a
manager:

(44) [. . .] Guyanese urgently need to start focusing on having a government

that returns to the proven basic management by objectives principles [. . .].
(Stabroek_Letter_2018-12-15_EM)

(45) While the government should not necessarily take on the management of
those rights, it should be instrumental in the formation of such an agency or
agencies [. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-07-01_AI)

This conceptualization makes sense in that the metonymical relationship of the

management for the company can be paralleled by the metonymy the govern-
ment for the country. Thus, the result ties in with the finding the country
is a company, proposed in section 4.1. Moreover, the verbs and technical terms

21 In fact, some single – rather context-sensitive, culturally bound – BrE expressions (such as
council/councillor, lord(s), prime minister, etc.) occur more frequently in The Guardian than in
the GuyE newspapers. Yet, in their totality, the occurrence of lexical items categorized under
the semantic label government is significantly higher in the Guyanese press. Thus, it may be
inferred that the semantic/discourse field government itself is more salient in the GuyE than
the BrE part of our corpus.
148 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

related to the construction of buildings that collocate with government in the next
examples seem to support the proposition that the conceptual perception the
government is an architect is wide-spread as well:

(46) Government and Opposition must return to the drawing board and address
the concerns and fears of the people [. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-05-
01_LL)

(47) President Granger said Friday that several other government agencies are
building capacity to be able to adequately and effectively deal with the
upcoming oil-and-gas sector. (GuyChronicle_News_2018-09-01_AG)

(48) He also noted that government is looking to reshape and transform Guyana’s
image. (Stabroek_News_2018-04-15_ZF)

Finally, it can be recognized that government is more often than not also used in
contexts that expose a negative semantic prosody:

(49) They further claim that the PPP Government stole 25% of the annual budget
every year [. . .]. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-09-01_MAN)

(50) [. . .] their accusations against the former PPP/C government of wholesale

theft [. . .]. (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-04-15_DG)

(51) Whether it was the waste-to-energy plant or the lotto project to raise money
for the city, it was swiftly shot down by the government. (GuyChronicle_
Letter_2018-12-15_MS)

(52) The US$18 million signing bonus which the Government unlawfully refused to
deposit in the Consolidated Fund [. . .]. (Stabroek_Letter_2018-09-01_MAN)

(53) Time to stop voting for parties that then go on to do whatever they want, includ-
ing facilitating government corruption and inept governance. (Stabroek_
Letter_2018-12-15_EM)

From the partly harsh choice of words and accusations (e.g., stole, theft), one might
draw the conclusion that these samples represent linguistic manifestations of the
government is a criminal.
Departing in particular from the latter conceptual metaphor, it would else-
where be possible to apply, in a recurrent process, an ‘extended keyword chain’
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 149

analysis (as presented in section 4.2) again. By doing so, one might corroborate the
cultural conceptualization corruption is a disease, which can be found in some
of the resulting instances (e.g., corruption is one of the ills that has long plagued
our country (GuyChronicle_Letter_2018-06-01_TD)). Furthermore, it was by means
of this combination of methods – key semantic domain and ‘extended keyword
chain’ analyses – that we were able to identify the conceptualization democracy
is a living being, which is exemplified in the following concordances:

(54) [. . .] lampooning of government is part of the lifeblood of democracy.

(Stabroek_Letter_2018-05-15_MJ)

(55) The competitive races for office in the PNCR are healthy for democracy. (Guy-
Chronicle_Letter_2018-08-15_RB).

However, the ‘semantic’ category that prospectively may be of particular inter-

est for cultural linguistics/cognitive sociolinguistics, and which has largely been
neglected so far in research employing (whichever version of) the Wmatrix soft-
ware, is the one labeled as Z99: unmatched. This domain represents a kind of
‘junk’ section22 subsuming all words and expressions that cannot be automati-
cally identified by the USAS system as belonging to one of the other categories.
The lexical resources of the semantic tagger feed on the dictionaries of the CLAWS
POS tagger (Leech, Garside, and Bryant 1994), which, in turn, was originally
designed to tag the British National Corpus. Furthermore, these resources have
been “expanded by adding words which were collected from large text corpora”
(Löfberg 2017: 74). Thus, it has to be acknowledged that the tagger is, to a certain
extent, culturally biased, given that on the one hand, one of the major lexical
sources is based on BrE and, on the other, no GuyE corpus exists yet, which the
semantic tagger lexicon could have drawn from. For this very reason, however,
the semantic tagger, and in particular the above-mentioned domain Unmatched,
could actually serve as a source that allows not only for the identification of a
range of loanwords in corpora (especially, in varieties other than British or U.S.
American English), but also of culture-specific concepts that have undergone
processes of nativization or contextualization (cf., e.g., Wolf 2001: 244–245).
As a result of the present key semantic domain analysis, the unmatched cat-
egory includes for GuyE, amongst others, names of places, persons, and parties

22 In their USAS guide, Archer, Wilson, and Rayson (2002: 36) even regard this semantic field as
a subdivision of a domain they label as “Trash can.”
150 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

(e.g., PPP, AFC, Berbice, Granger, Jagdeo), technical terms (such as molasses,
bauxite, Filaria), transcriptions from interviewees’ statements in Guyanese Creole
(e.g., seh, deh, fuh, juk, meh) as well as typographical errors (like theyre, wasnt,
etc.). Furthermore, one can find, in this ‘semantic domain,’ the following expres-
sions (Table 4) which (i) are not part of the ‘common core’ of the English language;
(ii) are not elucidated in any form (e.g., by translations in parentheses) in the Guy-
anese newspaper texts; and (iii) can be located, by means of a Google search, in
other contexts and sources as well. As such, they are likely to represent ‘nativized,’
though not necessarily exclusive, idiosyncratic elements of the GuyE vocabulary.

Table 4: Culture-specific GuyE notions found in the GuyE Newspaper corpus.

GuyE expression Explanation (source websites given in brackets)

banna term for a (male) friend (https://www.urbandictionary.com/,
http://wiwords.com/)
belly wuk diarrhea or other form of upset stomach (http://wiwords.com/)
braddar loud, obnoxious (https://islesman.wordpress.com/glossary-of-guyanese-
terms-work-in-progress/)
Mash(ramani) annual festival in commemoration of the foundation of the Republic of
Guyana (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/)
obeah form of sorcery (https://oed.com/)
plimpla thorn (of a plant) (http://www.kaieteur.com/memorybank/,
https://islesman.wordpress.com/glossary-of-guyanese-terms-work-in-
progress/)
soca Caribbean music style (https://oed.com/)
toshao elected tribal leader of an Amerindian village or community (miscellaneous
references)

The very existence of these lexical items as cultural categories – and especially
in newspapers – may be regarded as linguistic evidence for the relevance of the
correlating culture-specific domains such as (amerindian) community, sorcery/
witchcraft, and music in GuyE discourses. To provide but one example, a leading
newspaper article entitled “Laurence Bakhsh: Working to promote an understand-
ing of haemophilia” states:

(56) Growing up Laurence Bakhsh and his brother Lloyd struggled to understand
their condition and it was even more difficult for them to explain it to their
peers many of whom taunted them and believed that someone had worked
obeah on them. (Stabroek_News_2018-04-01_OA)
 Metaphorical and cultural conceptualizations in Guyanese newspaper English 151

This extract points to the fact that the cultural conceptualization a disease is a
result of sorcery (obeah), for instance, which also exists in similar forms in
other varieties of English around the world, seems to constitute a widely distrib-
uted element in the collective cognition of GuyE speakers.

5 Conclusion
In the previous sections, we introduced a text-based, “bottom-up” (Krennmayr
2011) methodological procedure for the retrieval of conceptual metaphors and
cultural conceptualizations. While the three methods employed can be applied
separately, we hope to have demonstrated that they are even more beneficial when
combined, owing to their interaction effects. First of all, a (statistical) cultural
keyword analysis was carried out, following the pioneering work by Leech and
Fallon (1992) and the cultural-linguistic considerations (in a broader sense) by
Wierzbicka (1997). Taking the results from this analysis as a basis, we broadened
the keyword analysis by applying Peters’s (2017) method of analyzing “extended
‘cultural keyword chains,’” which considers collocates of the previously identified
keywords as new potential keywords. Finally, these two approaches were com-
plemented by a key semantic domain analysis, using the online corpus analysis
tool Wmatrix4, developed by Rayson (2008). The lemmata within those semantic
fields that occurred, in their entirety, with a significantly higher frequency in the
GuyE subcorpus than in the texts from the British Guardian, were again regarded
as new potential keywords. Since many of the findings yielded especially by the
last step of our mixed-methods approach turned out to be repetitive (as they had
been discovered by means of the anterior steps already), they were not presented
again in section 4.3; instead, we focused on a selection of newly-gained results. In
doing so, particular emphasis was laid on the category labeled as ‘Unmatched,’
which hitherto had been largely disregarded in research employing the online
tool Wmatrix.
The repetitiveness of results also shows that the approach described in this
paper does not constitute a linear process. While the first and the second step
can be considered as consecutive in that the ‘extended keyword chain’ analysis
necessarily builds on the preceding keyword analysis, the third method, the key
semantic domain analysis, could be applied ‘independently.’ Hence, the appli-
cation of the latter corpus-analytical approach may be considered as one con-
firming the findings of the steps before, but definitely also represents a means
to gain further insights. The order of the methods – all of which are not new in
themselves, but have been combined in a novel way here – is, thus, somewhat
152 Patrick Kühmstedt, Hans-Georg Wolf

flexible, though we would recommend the application of the Wmatrix4 software

as a final step because of the sheer mass of the resulting data sets.
Furthermore, the scope of the present study “in terms of which metaphorical data
could be uncovered” was practically not limited to an a priori selection of possible
cultural domains to be searched for (Güldenring 2016: 231). Yet, a complete autom-
atization of the “bottom-up” (Krennmayr 2011) metaphor/conceptualization-identi-
fication process could not be achieved. It remains inevitable for the analyst, subse-
quent to each of the steps described above, to manually review every concordance
line and assess the metaphorical or literal language use of the respective (statistical)
keywords, in order to decide in each case whether or not they ultimately constitute
cultural ‘keyword candidates’ or cultural metaphors/conceptualizations.
In the end, all of the culture-specific categories and cultural domains/con-
ceptualizations that were identified in our GuyE newspaper corpus by means of
this mixed-methods approach have the potential to constitute promising start-
ing points for the further description and analysis of entire cultural models, i.e.,
complex reticular systems in which culture-specific “metaphoric, metonymic, as
well as non-metaphoric conceptualisations in a socio-cultural group” are inter-
related and linked to one another (Polzenhagen and Wolf 2007: 127). It must be
mentioned, however, that especially a cultural-linguistic/cognitive-sociolinguis-
tic analysis of key semantic domains on the basis of Wmatrix4 is of course to be
treated with caution, as words from the ‘common core’ of the English language are
not recognized by the program as being potentially culture-specific (see the above
example of family in section 2). Hence, it cannot be excluded that some cultural
domains organized around entities from the ‘common core’ have not been detected
here. In this sense, the application of the semantic-tagging function of the corpus
analysis software Wmatrix4 might possibly prove to be more fruitful with regard
to the tenets of cultural linguistics/cognitive sociolinguistics at another stage of
metaphorical/cultural conceptualization research in GuyE (or any other variety of
English), for example, when source or target domains are already known.

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Section III: Cross-cultural metaphorical
conceptualizations
Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural
perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis
Abstract: This article presents a cross-cultural investigation of reactions to the
booing behavior of the Brazilian crowd against the French athlete Renaud Lavil-
lenie during the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. We contrast the repercussion of
the event in the public opinion in Brazil with those in Europe and in the USA and
analyze metaphorical and other cultural conceptualizations as well as speech
styles in comment sections of online news and in a Brazilian radio broadcast. Our
findings show that the group-level conceptualizations by Brazilian fans differ
from those by speakers in other countries. It is additionally revealed that online
meaning construction in the radio broadcast unveils processes in which Brazil-
ians either conform to the cultural conceptualizations identified in the comment
sections or contest them from an outer observational point of view.

Keywords: cognitive linguistics; cultural linguistics; cultural conceptualizations;

intercultural pragmatics; conversation analysis

1 Introduction
In the evening of August 15, 2016, the final of the men’s pole vault took place as
part of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Thiago da Silva, a Brazilian athlete,
won the gold medal, while the French athlete Renaud Lavillenie, previously con-
sidered favorite, won silver. The series of events leading up to this result started
when Thiago da Silva, after three previous failures, passed at 5.98 meters. That
pushed Lavillenie to 6.03 meters. The crowd started booing the French athlete

Acknowledgement: First of all, Ulrike Schröder would like to thank the sponsorship for the insti-
tutional partnership between the UFMG and the University of Potsdam by the Research Group
Linkage Programme, due to the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, Germany. Additionally,
Ulrike Schröder would also like to thank CAPES, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher
Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), for their
fellowship Capes-PrInt programme which enabled her postdoctoral research year at the Univer-
sity of Texas in Austin, USA, and the University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Ulrike Schröder, Thiago Nascimento, Federal University of Minas Gerais

Milene Mendes de Oliveira, University of Potsdam

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-007
160 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

and he failed twice. Thiago da Silva cleared this height and set an Olympic record.
Lavillenie gave a thumbs-down signal to the Brazilian crowd between his attempts
and energetically criticized Brazilian fans’ behavior after the event was over. He
compared himself to the African American sprinter Jesse Owens, who partici-
pated in the Olympic Games in 1936 in Berlin, Germany.1 He apologized for that
comment at a press conference later. However, the Brazilian fans booed Lavillenie
once again during the medal ceremony and by then the event had received quite a
lot of attention from the press in different countries, where the practice of booing
opponents had already come under criticism.
In this article, we explore the repercussion of the booing scene and its con-
sequences for the public opinion in Brazil, in two European countries – Germany
and Switzerland –, and in the USA.2 First, we show the cultural conceptualiza-
tions found in the comment sections of online news items written in French,
German, and American English. Afterwards, we proceed to show the cultural con-
ceptualizations found in two Brazilian sources of media, namely, a radio program
and readers’ comments to online written articles. The analysis of cultural concep-
tualizations in the comment sections is complemented by an analysis of speech
styles conveyed by Brazilians in a radio broadcast in which sports commentators
recalled and reflected upon the incident. It is worth mentioning that our analysis
is mostly based on Brazilian language and culture, which are contrasted with the
abovementioned lingua-cultural units, due to the event in case having taken place
in Brazil, the country that hosted the 2016 Olympic Games. Moreover, we wanted
to look at how the booing behavior, typical of some Brazilian sports events, was
interpreted by people from different cultural backgrounds. This contrastive per-
spective helps us shed light on the essence of intercultural encounters, i.e., the
interaction – and questioning – of differing life-worlds.
In the upcoming section, we present the theoretical background for our study,
which counts on tools and insights coming from cognitive and cultural linguis-
tics, conversation analysis, interactional linguistics, and intercultural pragmat-
ics. In a next step, we describe the empirical data our analysis is based on. We

1 Jesse Owens’ participation in the Olympic Games was historical because he was an African
American athlete playing in Germany, a country that was then being ruled by a Nazi political
regime. However, contrary to Lavillenie’s statement, Owens was not booed by the crowd, but
emphatically celebrated.
2 We have chosen these languages and cultures to be analyzed here for the following reasons:
We chose Brazilian Portuguese due to the place where the intercultural scandal happened;
French for the athlete’s nationality; and German and American English because of the scandal’s
resonance in the media of these countries. Additionally, these languages belong to the authors’
language repertoires.
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 161

subsequently proceed to present the findings of the analysis of cultural concep-

tualizations in comments around the abovementioned event made by readers
of online news reports in different countries and compare the findings with the
Brazilian comments analyzed. In a second step, we choose interactional linguis-
tics and intercultural pragmatics as the tools for the analysis of a radio broadcast
about the event. This framework makes evident the use of different speech styles
by Brazilian speakers and shows how different cultural conceptualizations are
co-constructed in a concrete interactional encounter. Finally, we conclude the
paper with a summary of our findings.

2 Theoretical framework
Traditionally, cognitive and cultural linguistics, on the one side, and conversa-
tion analysis as well as interactional linguistics, on the other side, are considered
to represent two very different strands of linguistic research. Some would even
consider those strands to be non-compatible. The former, cognitive and cultural
linguistics, look primarily at the semantics of meaning making and therefore
focus on more stable features of meaning. The latter, conversation analysis and
interactional linguistics, look at online communication in situ with the aim to
unveil the workings of verbal interactions, concentrating on the co-construction
and negotiation of meaning.
However, recently, some authors working at the interface of cognition and
interaction have started to recognize that the areas are actually not only compat-
ible but complementary (Deppermann 2012; Kecskes 2015; Schröder 2015, 2017).
The basic assumption by these authors is that the co-construction of meaning in
situ has to be seen as an interplay of the basic values and assumptions coming
from the interlocutors’ speech communities and the online cognitive processes
arising at the communicative situation itself.
Cultural linguistics (Palmer 1996; Sharifian 2011, 2017) is a field of studies that
“explores the relationship between language, culture, and conceptualization”
(Palmer and Sharifian 2007: 1). As stated by Palmer (1996), the field arose as a
necessity for cognitive linguistics to include the study of culture in its framework.
The main analytical tool of cultural linguistics revolves around the identification
of ‘cultural conceptualizations’, which refer to products of cognitive processes that
can be identified at a cultural level, such as conceptual metaphors and metonymies
(Kövecses 2002, 2005), conceptual blends (Fauconnier and Turner 2002), as well
as schemas, prototypes, and categories (Sharifian 2011, 2017). Cultural conceptu-
alizations are shared in a cultural group through interaction and can be regarded
162 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

as the group’s ‘repository of meaning’, although they should be conceived as (a)

heterogeneously distributed and (b) dynamic, since they are constantly negotiated
and renegotiated (Sharifian 2011). As shown below, several cultural conceptualiza-
tions could be evidenced in the comments analyzed in this study.
Conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson [1980] 2003) has laid the
foundations for the cognitive linguistic research on our bodily-anchored meta-
phorical talk about the world by revealing the cross-domain mapping of a set
of correspondences, which is established between an already-known source
domain and a still unformed target domain in our underlying conceptual system.
For example, the sentence “that is a remarkably transparent argument” contains
the metaphorical expression ‘transparent’, which unveils the conceptual meta-
phor understanding is seeing (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 104). Later, Kövecses
(2005) focuses on those metaphors understood at the same time as a linguistic,
conceptual, neurological, embodied, social, and cultural phenomenon (Kövecses
2005: 293). In striving for an integration of universalistic and relativistic compo-
nents, he takes up the distinction between ‘primary metaphors’ and ‘complex
metaphors’ as introduced by Grady (1997) and transfers it to the question of uni-
versality and cultural relativity. In this connection, primary metaphors might be
imagined as products of correlations of different dimensions of basic embodied
experience, while congruent or complex metaphors give a vivid structure to these
scaffolds like concrete scenes and images and vary from one culture to another.
An example is the complex metaphor anger is a hot fluid in a container,
based on the primary metaphors intensity is speed, intensity is quantity, and
intensity is heat, and producing metaphorical expressions such as ‘losing one’s
cool’, or featuring anger overcoming – or welling up in – someone, or a person
flaring up (Kövecses 2005: 27).
While metaphor establishes symmetrical correspondences between two do-
mains, metonymy sets correspondences in an asymmetrical way “by conceptually
foregrounding the source and by backgrounding the target” (Barelona 2002: 226).
For example, as Barcelona (2002: 224/226) explains, in the utterance ‘Marcel Proust
is tough to read’, the subject noun phrase highlights the target subdomain proust’s
literary work, even though it is not primary if we consider that Proust was a
person. The target subdomain is backgrounded, giving prominence to the whole
domain matrix of proust, what results in a conceptualization that suggests seeing
the literary work as an extension of Proust’s personality. Here, cultural preferences,
e.g., regarding frame constitution, also play a crucial role.
Categories show a relation between elements that can be described as x is
a kind of y; y being the category and x being a member of it. For instance, the
category bird has as its member the concept ostrich; thus, ostrich is a kind
of bird. In schemas, by contrast, the relationships between elements can be the-
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 163

matic, spatial, or temporal. To illustrate, bill and restaurant are related sche-
matically, since restaurant may evoke the event schema of ‘paying a bill’ in a
restaurant. In this example, the relationship between bill and restaurant is not
only spatial but also clearly experiential (Sharifian 2011: 25). That is to say, cul-
tural schemas are defined as “a sub-class of cognitive schemas that are abstracted
from people’s cultural, and therefore to some extent shared, experiences, as
opposed to abstracted from an individual’s idiosyncratic experiences” (Sharifian
2017). Very importantly, as Sharifian (2017) acknowledges, these afore-mentioned
concepts, namely, conceptual metaphor and metonymy, categories and cultural
schemas provide a basis for pragmatic meanings.
Conversation analysis (Sacks 1995) and interactional linguistics (Selting 1994;
Couper-Kuhlen and Selting 2018) are areas of studies that focus primarily on the
workings of language use in interaction. While conversation analysis (Sacks,
Schegloff, and Jefferson 1974) introduced the basic terminology of the ‘machin-
ery’ of talk-in-interaction (Sacks 1995: 169) such as the turn-taking system or
repair, interactional linguistics was introduced in the nineties and builds on the
groundwork of CA by incorporating the tenets of functional and anthropological
linguistics and bringing into focus the question of prosody (Couper-Kuhlen and
Selting 2001). An example of how cognitive and cultural linguistics, on the one
hand, and conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, on the other hand,
can be used as complementary tools is the study of membership categorization
devices (MCDs), which was initiated as a topic of conversation analysis. Schegloff
(2007a: 467) describes MCDs as collections of categories along with their rules
of application. For instance, ‘mommy’ and ‘baby’ are understood to belong to
the MCD ‘family’. Other analytical tools associated with membership categoriza-
tion are: a) ‘category-bound activities,’ which refer to actions usually linked with
certain categories, as the gendered understanding that ‘men (category) are reluc-
tant to go to doctors (activity)’; and b) category-tied predicates, as in ‘a mother
(category) cares enormously for her baby (predicate)’ (Stokoe 2012: 281). Such
collections of categories, category-related actions, and predicates are not simply
co-constructed in situ but have to be seen as linked to culturally entrenched con-
ceptualizations, since they convey basic values and assumptions that reflect cul-
tural aspects of a speaker’s speech community. In this paper, we make the case
that MCDs correspond to ‘categories’ in a cultural-linguistic perspective. Moreo-
ver, category-bound activities and category-tied predicates can be considered to
be in schematic relations with members of certain categories. We consider the
phenomena of categorization and schematization to be instantiated concurrently
in language-in-use and as a product of cultural conceptualizations. This was
shown to be the case in the analysis of comment sections below.
164 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

Finally, based on the assumptions of intercultural pragmatics (Kecskes 2014,

2015), reference will be made to Spencer-Oatey’s (2008) rapport management
framework since this approach offers a useful background for the analysis of cul-
tural conceptualizations in situated language use. Spencer-Oatey introduces a
holistic view on the way in which people manage harmony and disharmony in
interaction and describes four types of ‘rapport orientation’ by which the polar
separation between politeness and impoliteness is no longer maintained (Spen-
cer-Oatey 2008: 31–33): (1) rapport enhancement orientation refers to the desire
to strengthen or enhance harmonious relations between the interlocutors; (2)
rapport maintenance orientation refers to the desire to maintain or protect harmo-
nious relations between the interlocutors; (3) rapport neglect orientation refers to
the lack of concern or interest in the quality of relations between the interlocutors;
(4) rapport challenge orientation refers to the desire to challenge or impair harmo-
nious relations between the interlocutors.
Schröder (2003, 2010, 2014a, 2014b) has shown in her work on different narra-
tive perspectives applied by Germans and Brazilians in interviews about life con-
cepts, as well as face strategies in intercultural encounters, how rapport can be
intertwined with divergent speech styles: although complex, a tendency to rapport
enhancement and maintenance orientation was revealed as being more present in
the Brazilian participants’ behavior as opposed to the German participants’ com-
municative style that showed stronger rapport neglect or even rapport challenge
orientation (Schröder 2014a, 2014b). When asked about influences in their past that
contributed to the choice of their professional path or university course, German
interviewees preferred to give a compressed answer from a more (self-)reflected
point of view, whereas the Brazilian interviewees showed a tendency to switch
back to the past and retell the story by ‘zooming in’ (Günthner 1999) to the original
scenario. This frequently included more rhetoric means, a more poetic and appel-
lative speech style, as well as more reenactments while the German interviewees
were less involved and rather detached (cf. also Chafe 1982; Schröder 2003, 2010).

3 Empirical data
In the first part of the analysis, we were interested in looking at interpretations of
the event by different audiences and investigating how they compare with inter-
pretations in Brazil itself. Thus, we chose six online news reports. The criteria
for our choices were (a) our degree of proficiency in the languages featured in
the news and comments (French, English, German, and Portuguese), and (b) the
availability of the news article online as well as open access to comments from
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 165

readers. In the following paragraphs we describe the sources of media and also
the analyzed reports.
News articles in the English language were extracted from The Washington
Post and The Huffington Post. The former is a well-established broadsheet, and
the latter has achieved considerable online reach in the past few years. Regard-
ing the Washington Post’s news report, emphasis was given on Lavillenie’s com-
parison and its negative consequences. It figures a tone of criticism towards the
athlete for his approximation of two incomparable Olympic contexts (i.e. the 1936
Games and the 2016 Games). The Huffington Post’s news report focuses on the
sharp reaction of the Brazilian crowd towards Lavillenie, especially during the
medal ceremony.
The reports in the French language were extracted from Le Monde and Fran-
cetv Sport from France. The former due to its high circulation and reputation
in France and the latter because it provides written versions of news and also
because of its broad reporting on the Olympic Games 2016. Le Monde’s news
report points to the fact that Lavillenie’s bad comparison with Jesse Owens was
due to his aggravation at that moment. Indeed, to report the facts, the news item
makes use of the athlete’s viewpoint, that is, it explores the pole vaulter’s emo-
tions for dealing with the booing. The Francetv Sport’s news article intends to use
Brazil’s perspective to report on the facts, portraying Lavillenie as arrogant but,
at the same time, imputing to the Brazilian crowd its responsibilities for what
Lavillenie has said.
In the German language, Spiegel Online from Germany and NZZ from Swit-
zerland were chosen. The rather reflexive style report of the NZZ in comparison
to Spiegel Online seemed to complement well the latter’s descriptive style. The
Spiegel’s article revolves around reporting on the event as well as on Lavillenie’s
apology for the comparison with Jesse Owens’ participation in the Olympic Games.
The NZZ is quite different in that it provides a meta-analysis of the crowd’s reac-
tion and attempts to explain why the Brazilian fans behaved the way they did.
Brazilian online news publishers chosen were Folha, a stable and traditional
newspaper, and Uol, which mainly focuses on short articles. Folha’s news report
criticizes the Brazilian crowd’s behavior by describing later events in relation to
the Brazilian crowd booing the French athlete: Lavillenie being comforted by
Thiago Braz and the president of the International Olympics Committee after the
medal ceremony as well as the impact of the booing event on Lavillenie’s social
network. Uol’s news report deals with Lavillenie’s case by describing the French
athlete’s deeds after the booing: his apologies for his comparison and his expec-
tations for a possible revenge should France host the Olympic Games in 2024.
In our analysis section, we have identified the comments with codes according
to the online newspaper they were extracted from and their related country: FM
166 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

(France/Le Monde), FF (France/Francetv Sport), GS (Germany/Spiegel), SN (Swit-

zerland/NZZ), USW (USA/ The Washington Post), USH (USA/The Huffington
Post), BF (Brazil/Folha), and BU (Brazil/Uol).
After having organized the data, we proceeded to the identification and anal-
ysis of cultural conceptualizations. This conceptual analysis was connected with
the CA concept of MCDs and its related analytical tools such as ‘category-bound
activities’ and ‘category-tied predicates’.
In a second step, an analysis of communicative styles and cultural concep-
tualizations conveyed by participants of the daily broadcasted Brazilian radio
program Jovem Pan was carried out. The video features Bruno Prado, a commen-
tator and journalist, Joseval Peixoto, a journalist and counselor, Marco Antônio
Villa, a historian, and Thiago Uberreich, a reporter. They recall and reflect upon
the incident involving Renauld Lavillenie. The eight-minute discussion was tran-
scribed with the support of the EXMARaLDA software (Schmidt and Wörner 2009)
following the conventions of GAT 2 (Selting et al. 2009). The aim of the analysis of
this sequence from the Brazilian radio program Jovem Pan is to show how diverg-
ing views on the incident during the Olympics are aligned to some of the cultural
conceptualizations displayed by readers in the comment sections and how these
are displayed in situ.

4 Analysis

4.1 Cultural conceptualizations and categorizations in online

articles’ comments

In this section, we show our analysis of cultural conceptualizations in comments

in reaction to online news articles written in English, French, and German. The
analysis is complemented with insights from CA around the topic of categoriza-
tion. After that, comments written by Brazilian readers are presented.

4.1.1 Readers’ reactions in the international media

A look at the comments generated by the six news reports in the international
media – in English, French, and German – allows us to unveil not only concep-
tual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson [1980] 2003; Sharifian 2011) but also catego-
ries and schemas (Sharifian 2011: 24–29; Sharifian 2017). The results brought to
light that categories are frequently used and mainly refer to national groups (i.e.,
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 167

‘the Brazilians’, ‘the French’), sport types (i.e., ‘soccer’, ‘tennis’, ‘gymnastics’), and
the group of fans associated with them. Moreover, some of the categories related
to expected crowd behavior were perceived to be influenced by a specific sports-
manship which could be described as a cultural schema. In the following, we
present some excerpts in which readers relied on the process of categorization,
and point to their different uses.
Categories often worked as a way to distinguish proper from improper behav-
ior. As the following excerpts show, category-bound activities (Sacks 1972) are
related to the category sports fans and could be found in nearly all comments,
independent of their origin:

(1) GS7: Unterstützung des eigenen Mannes ja, aber ungerechtfertigtes Ausbuhen
des Gegners nein.

(Supporting one’s own team yes, but unjustifiable booing of the opponent no.)

(2) GS12: Die eigenen Sportler anfeuern ist OK, Gegner ausbuhen und stören ein
NOGO.

(Cheering for your own athletes is OK, booing and disturbing opponents is a
NO-GO.)

(3) USH6: Supporting your team does not necessitate denigrating their competition.

(4) FF1: on a l’esprit sportif, on ne hue pas un athlète qui se concentre, même si ça
fait parti de sa préparation mentale de passer outre.

(We demonstrate sportsmanship, we don’t boo an athlete who’s concentrat-

ing, even if it is part of his preparation to overcome his opponent.)

(5) SN2: Bedauernswert, das Fehlen an Fairness.

(Pathetic, the lack of fairness.)

(6) USH7: That’s bad sportsmanship and the very worst of behavior in any condition.

According to the sportsmanship cultural schema, actions like booing and dis-
turbing an adversary are presented as standing in opposition to the sports fans
category. Interestingly, as we can see in the excerpts below, there is also a broader
discussion around the Brazilian crowd’s behavior related to the schema, which
concurrently points to the metonymy soccer matches stand for the olympic
games in the sense that the Brazilian crowd is frequently accused of treating the
168 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

Olympic Games the same as an ordinary soccer match. That includes the idea of
soccer allowing for boos against the adversary:

(7) GS8: Ist ja nicht das erste Mal, dass die Zuschauer bei diesen olympischen
Spielen unangenehm auffallen und sich Benehmen (sic) wie beim Fussball.

(It’s not the first time that the spectators have attracted inappropriate atten-
tion at these Olympic Games and behave like in soccer.)

(8) USW6: he [Lavillenie] got a boorish home crowd that thought they were at a
World Cup match. (. . .) I’m sure he was shocked by the hostility (. . .).

(9) USH23: this sounds more like the behavior at a soccer match than an Olym-
pics event.

Also, recurring within the comments is the conceptualization of ‘nationalism’

schematically linked to the booing behavior of the Brazilian crowd, especially
in comments written in German, but also in one written in French and one in
English:

(10) GS12: Das hat mit gesunder Rivalität nichts mehr zu tun, das ist blanker
Nationalismus.

(That has nothing to do with healthy rivalry, that is pure nationalism.)

(11) GS17: Die eigenen Sportler anfeuern ist legitim aber einen Gast grundlos aus-
pfeifen ist schäbig (hier eher nationalistisch).

(To cheer for the own athlete is legitimate, but to boo a guest with no reason
is sordid (here rather nationalist).)

(12) FM11: On peut convenir que le public brésilien, fan de football, soit particu-
lièrement Chauvin.

(We may agree that the Brazilian crowd, soccer fans, are particularly chau-
vinistic.)

(13) USH13: Patriots do not treat people from other countries like the Brazilians did.
You can be proud of your country without putting anyone else down. They were
rude.
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 169

Nationalism is, according to this view, not related to the sportsmanship schema.
The conceptualization of nationalism is relevant because it contrasts radically
with the mongrel complex cultural schema identified in Brazilian comments
that will be explained in the section below.
To sum up, in the international media, the category sports fans is often con-
nected with the category-bound activity ‘to support one’s own team’. The way to
support a team is influenced by a sportsmanship cultural schema. In the category
soccer fans, on the contrary, a category-bound activity is ‘to boo the adversary.’
The Brazilian crowd – who were expected to belong to the sports fans category
but ended up belonging to the soccer fans category – is frequently described as
nationalist by the international commentators (a category-tied predicate).

4.1.2 Readers’ reactions in Brazil

In the following, we are going to point to the cultural conceptualizations that seem
to mostly contrast from the other conceptualizations identified in the international
media and presented above. We will briefly show how some Brazilians conceptu-
alized the booing action of the crowd differently from commentators in the inter-
national media. After that, we will go on to argue for the existence of an in- x out-
group cultural schema underlying the Brazilian comments. Below, we begin with
excerpts in which commentators position themselves against the French athlete:

(14) BU12: Arrogante! Não foi por causa das vaias que ele perdeu.

(Arrogant! It was not because of the boos that he lost.)

(15) BU10: As vaias não impedem de saltar.

(The boos do not prevent him from jumping.)

(16) BF1: Sempre tiveram vaias, tal como aplausos para Phelps e Bolt, por
exemplo.

(There have always been boos as well as applause for Phelps and Bolt, for
example.)

Whereas the comments in French, English, and German outlined the booing to
have no place in the category sports fans (related to the sportsmanship cul-
tural schema), it seems that, for some Brazilians, booing an opponent does seem
to be a category-bound action linked with the conceptualization of sports fans.
170 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

The process of categorization also serves the purpose of separating in- and
out-groups, which is characteristic of collectivist cultures (Triandis 1995; Pearson
and Stephan 1998).3 We consider these categories to be influenced by a more
general in- x out-group cultural schema. In- and out-groups take different con-
figurations in the data, though. In some cases, they represent national categories
(e.g., the French X the Brazilians); in other cases, they refer to groupings of Bra-
zilians (e.g., Brazilians on the stadium X other Brazilians). Both scenarios are
shown below. The following excerpt shows how a reader categorizes Brazilians
(we) and the Olympic Committee (they):

(17) BU10: . . .infelizmente, é a primeira vez em mais de 100 anos que uma
Olimpíada é disputada na América do Sul. Como eles querem que o povo se
habitue a torcer educadamente se eles nunca nos deixaram participar?

(Unfortunately, it is the first time in more than 100 years that an Olympics
is played in South America. How do they want the people to get used to
cheering politely if they never let us participate?)

The following excerpt points to different categories of Brazilians – viewers of the

Games and athletes themselves:

(18) BF13: Para aqueles que estão falando em falta de educação, não tiro toda a
razão, mas é preciso que tenham em mente que aqueles que estão nos estádios
assistindo aos jogos não são a massa pobre desse país, mas a parcela branca
e “educada”. Os pobres são aqueles que estão dentro das arenas dando um
exemplo de respeito e humildade.

(For those who are talking about lack of politeness, I do not completely dis-
agree with them, but you have to keep in mind that those in the stadiums
watching the games are not the poor mass of this country, but the white
and “polite” part. The poor are those who are inside the arenas giving an
example of respect and humbleness.)

The two categories of Brazilians, as described in the comment, are the wealthy
audience of the Olympic Games and the athletes, many of latter coming from a

3 We are well aware of the weaknesses associated with etic frameworks that attempt to classify
whole cultures as collectivist or individualist. However, we still consider this distinction to be
useful in providing a first interpretation of certain communicative and conceptual patterns in
studies that contrast two or more cultures (in this regard, see Bolten’s dune model for describing
cultures (Bolten 2014)).
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 171

poor social background. The reader explores the paradox of accusing a group of
a lack of politeness who is usually associated with the display of politeness (via
a category-tied predicate, according to which wealthy people are well-acquainted
with ‘refined behaviors’). Note, however, that disagreement is very mildly
marked with “não tirar toda a razão” (lit. ‘not to take out the whole reason’; rough
gloss: ‘not to completely disagree with someone’). This is a metaphorical expres-
sion that underlies the conceptual metaphor reason is a substance in a con-
tainer. That is, reason – a state in which one’s reasoning is conceived of as ade-
quate and correct – is metaphorically described as a substance in a container.
To ‘take out one’s reason’ is to deprive one of a state of self-assurance that results
from the feeling of having made a correct judgment. This deliberate destitution
could qualify as a major personal attack (or face-attack) on the interlocutor in the
Brazilian culture. As can be noticed, the commentator attenuates (Holmes 1984)
the disagreement (in ‘not to take out the whole reason’) in favor of a rapport-main-
tenance style (Spencer-Oatey 2008). This point will be further discussed in the
analysis of speech styles below.
Sometimes, instead of two contrasting categories, just one is created, the
one of the average Brazilian. In some cases, the commentators seem to regard
themselves as an item out of the category. In that case, 3rd person verbs are used.
However, there are also comments in which 3rd person and 1st person verbs are
mixed and so does the position of the self (the commentator) in relation to the
category (in or out of the category).
This mixing up of images of the self seems to be often intertwined with a con-
ceptualization that is commonly referred to as the ‘mongrel complex’ (complexo
de viralata),4 which we will now call the mongrel complex cultural schema. This
schema refers to a feeling of inferiority displayed by many Brazilians when they
compare themselves and their country to other nations, as we can see in the fol-
lowing comments:

(19) BF16: O brasileiro nao tem nocao. Alias, o brasileiro em geral nao é referên-
cia para nada de bom.

(Brazilians have no clue. By the way, Brazilians are no reference for any-
thing good.)

4 Expression coined by the Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues in the 1950s.

172 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

(20) BF9: Os fatos mostram. Brasil: gigante pela própria natureza, porém, um
anão diplomático,5 anão olímpico e anão na educação.

(The facts show. Brazil: giant by nature, however, a diplomatic dwarf, Olympic
dwarf, and dwarf in politeness.)

In the second comment, size metaphors are used to mark contrast. First, an
excerpt of the Brazilian anthem is used in which Brazil is depicted as a ‘giant by
nature’. Then, another size metaphor is used to refer to the mongrel complex
schema. The metaphor in case is to show a reprehensible behavior is to be
small.
In the following comment, the category is not brazilian, but brazilian
crowd. In this case, the reader does not include him/herself in that category of
Brazilian fans who behaved improperly.

(21) BF7: Realmente, vexame, medalha de lata pra torcida, desde abertura, democ-
racia começa com educação, vergonhoso, vaia mundial pra torcida brasileira.

(Really, a shame, tin medal for the crowd, since the opening ceremony,
democracy begins with education, shameful, worldwide boo to the Brazil-
ian fans.)

In the excerpts above, readers seem to try to distance themselves from the cate-
gory. Nevertheless, sometimes the boundaries are not so clear or are mixed, as
shown in the next excerpts in which the readers criticize from an out-group per-
spective, but express a feeling (feeling ashamed) that is usually associated with
in-group members:

(22) BF10: No país do futebol o que esperar? Torcida vê salto com vara como se
fosse um Fla-Flu. Senti vergonha pelo Brasil.

(In the soccer country, what to expect? The crowd sees pole vaulting as if it
were a Fla-Flu.6 I felt ashamed for Brazil.)

5 This seems to be a reference to a statement given by an Israeli spokesperson in relation to a

diplomatic disagreement between Brazil and Israel in 2014.
6 Fla stands for Flamengo and Flu stands for Fluminense; when these two football teams play
against each other, rivalry is rather high.
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 173

(23) BF4: “Uma vergonha o que os brasileiros fizeram. Demonstraram o nível de

educação e cultura que temos. Falta muito ainda para sermos um País civi-
lizado.

(A shame what the Brazilians did. They have demonstrated the level of
education and culture that we have. There is still a long way to go before
we become a civilized country.)

In the latter excerpt, the reader mixes 3rd person verbs (fizeram; demonstraram –
did; demonstrated) and 1st person plural (temos; sermos – we have; for us to be).
The use of 1st person plural is widespread in the comments, which reinforces the
existence of a strong orientation towards in-group:

(24) BU17: Queremos ganhar sempre da maneira mais suja possível.

(We always want to win in the filthiest way possible.)

(25) BF3: Concordo que nos falta educação, mas acho que está havendo um certo
exagero por parte do atleta.

(I agree that we lack politeness, but I think there has been a certain exag-
geration on the athlete’s part.)

But there are also comments pointing to an opposite stance. One commentator
refers explicitly to the mongrel complex cultural schema when criticizing the
negative comments made by other readers:

(26) BF14: Complexo de vira-lata também cansa.

(The mongrel complex makes me tired.)

The examples below show how Brazilians positively represent (at least for them-
selves) the national category brazilians from an ‘in-group’ perspective.7 In the
following example, 3rd person verb and 1st person pronoun are mixed again:

7 For a short description of how a national Brazilian identity was fostered in the beginning of the
20th century as well as how a nationalist narrative featured in the opening ceremony of the 2016
Olympic Games, see Malanski 2019.
174 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

(27) BF12: . . . o brasileiro tem que mostrar nossa alegria, samba, mulatas, etc.

(The Brazilian has to show our joy, samba, mulatas, etc.)

(28) BU20: Sim: aqui é Brasil e somos assim mesmo: vibrantes, intensos e calo-
rosos por demais.

(Yes: here is Brazil and we are exactly like that: very vibrant, intense, and
warm.)

(29) BF5: Graças a Deus que impera aqui e no mundo é a lei do mais forte, aos
fracos como o francês sobra o choro e a ressaca. . .

(Thank God what is valid here and in the world is the law of the fittest, what
is left to the weak like the Frenchman is crying and a hangover. . .)

In the latter excerpt, the out-group (‘weak people,’ with Lavillenie being part of
this category) is also called upon. In general lines, this positive picture of the
category brazilians created by Brazilians themselves – connected with a very
strong demarcation of the out-group (in the latter example, the Frenchman Lavil-
lenie and other ‘weak people’) – might be what commentators in international
media have referred to as ‘nationalism,’ as presented above. In the following, we
present some comments where direct speech is used toward out-group members,
the non-Brazilian athlete(s):

(30) BU17: Meu querido francês, o que rege aqui no Brasil é a lei de Gerson!

(My dear Frenchman, what is valid here in Brazil is Gerson’s law!)8

(31) BU18: Chupa que é de uva!

(Suck it because it has a grape flavor!)9

8 ‘Gerson’s law is an expression used in Brazil that refers to the practice of trying to obtain ad-
vantages without caring about moral or ethical matters. Its origin dates back to 1976 when the
footballer Gerson participated in a marketing campaign for cigarettes. In a TV commercial, the
footballer says he likes to obtain advantages in everything he does, including buying cigarettes
that are cheaper than others.
9 The phrase was used in a Brazilian song that became famous and is generally used for mock-
ing adversaries.
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 175

(32) BU20: E se vocês fossem tão educados e refinados assim sua intenção jamais
seria de pagar com a mesma moeda da qual critica. Aceita que dói menos.
Boa viagem de retorno a seu país.

(And if you were so polite and sophisticated, your intention would never be
to pay back on the same coin you criticize. Accept it, because it hurts less.10
Have a nice return trip to your country.)

(33) BF11: Byte [bye] gringo vocês e sua impafia (sic) colonizadora cansam.

(Bye gringo, you and your colonizing arrogance are tiring.)

Another type of rather negative reference made towards the French pole vaulter
refers to his crying, which is disapproved by some commentators. The exam-
ples below also demarcate very clearly the out-group area, strongly permeated
by a negative emotional stance, which is reflected by the use of upper case and
exclamation points standing for prosodic cues, as well as words representing the
concept of ‘crying’, such as chororo and mimimi:

(34) BU5: Agora o chororo é livre!!

(Now crying is for free!!)

(35) BU7: Portanto, caro francês, volta sim pra tua casa e chora por lá mesmo que
é mais quentinho . . .. O CHORO É LIVRE !!!!! . . . VAI BRASIL !!!!!!!!!!!!!

(So, dear Frenchman, go back to your house and cry there because it is
cozier. . .. CRYING IS FOR FREE!!!!! . . . GO BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

(36) BU14: mimimi. . ..choro de mal perdedor.

(mimimi [imitation of a crying sound]. . . crying from a bad loser.)

To sum up, in the Brazilian comments a category sports fans arises in which
two types of category-bound activities are acceptable: cheering and also booing.
Cheering is, in its turn, a category-bound activity related to another category – the

10 Expression coined by a soap opera character in Brazilian TV in 2013. It refers to a suggestion

given to a person who is in a difficult situation. It means ‘if you accept that the difficult situation
exists, you suffer less.’ It is connected with an arrogant attitude from the person who utters the
expression, as was the case whenever a certain character uttered it in the soap opera episodes.
176 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

in-group. Booing is targeted toward the out-group. In the Brazilian comments,

as was shown, this sports fans category is the default one. However, rejections
of this schema are shown that relate to the mongrel complex cultural schema.
Moreover, it was noted that a negative action (a category-bound activity) from
the perspective of the in-group members is linked with the out-group, namely,
crying.
Until now, we have focused on more stable processes of meaning construc-
tion, which count mostly on long-standing cultural conceptualizations. The fol-
lowing section is going to call attention to how the co-construction of meaning in
interaction brings to the fore and discusses different cultural conceptualizations.
The use of specific speech styles, which sets the tone for the discussions and
reveals either alignment or non-alignment with the cultural conceptualizations
identified in the previous section, is described in detail.

4.2 The use of different speech styles and cultural

conceptualizations in a radio discussion

On August 16, one day after the incident, the participants of the daily broadcasted
radio program Jovem Pan discussed the reactions to Lavillenie’s statement.11 In
the following, we will focus on three participants: the commentator and journal-
ist Bruno Prado, the journalist and counselor Joseval Peixoto, and the historian
Marco Antônio Villa. What caught our attention in analytical terms were the dif-
ferent underlying speech styles accompanied by the positions represented by the
three interactants. The speech styles are salient because they can be concurrently
related to opposing cultural schemas: while Bruno Prado and Joseval Peixoto
do not only defend the Brazilian crowd but also employ a speech style that can
be related to the abovementioned in-group schema regarding the positive self-
image, Marco Antônio Villa argues explicitly against the Brazilian crowd’s behav-
ior and also shows an opposing way of speaking.
Let’s start with Bruno Prado, who is the first to introduce his opinion with
regard to Lavillenie’s reference to the Olympic Games in 1936:

Sequence 1: August 16th, 2016, Jovem Pan ((00:21-00:27))

01 BP: ´é:_´acho que ↑ˋum:_exagEro até do atlEta fran´CÊS,
I think it’s an exaggeration even by the French athlete
02 ele ˋpOde <<l> ter ficado incomodAdo>´com as VAias;=né,
he could be upset about the booing right

11 The video can be accessed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/R1qrrluTJvA

The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 177

03 <<h, creaky> MAS> faz parte °h h° do:: do jOgo;=né,

but that’s part of the game isn’t it

What especially attracts attention in this sequence are the high oscillations with
respect to the intonation contours, pitch jumps, and, additionally, the accent
density which generally all together point to an ‘emphatic speech style’ (Selting
1994). To a certain extent, these prosodic markers indicate a strong negative emo-
tional stance similar to the comments we have seen in the previous section which
referred to the concept of ‘crying’ attributed to the French behavior.
However, in the given context, its function might be additionally conceived as
an attempt to attenuate the tension regarding the extreme attitude of the French-
man. Hence, the prosodic cues serve to mitigate or downplay the situation (Caffi
2007; Holmes 1984). The high use of prosodic elements instead of lexical markers
is typical for a Brazilian speech style even in situations of unease, as Schröder
and Carneiro Mendes (2019) endorse. It concurrently reflects the wish to miti-
gate the whole situation, bringing out what Spencer-Oatey (2008) calls ‘rapport
maintenance orientation’: the desire to maintain or protect harmonious relations
between interlocutors.
When Joseval Peixoto takes the turn for the first time, he begins to defend the
Brazilian crowd explicitly by stating a rhetorical question that displays a strong
assertive force (Quirk et al. 1985):

Sequence 2: August 16th, 2016, Jovem Pan ((02:08-02:11))

01 AV: =<<all> o brasil vai ser legal quando ganha um
Brazil will be fine when it wins a
[prêmio nobel de mateMÁtica.>=né, ]
nobel prize in mathematics right
02 JP: [(Oh professor) (-) quando tem gol]
oh professor when there’s a goal
do sAntos o senhor fica em <<rall> siˆ!LÊN![cio;> ]
by Santos do you stay quiet
03 AV: [não NÃO;]
no no

Similar to the first sequence, we can observe melodic intonational contours with
accentuated rising falling pitch on the key word siˆ!LÊN!cio; (line 02); addi-
tionally, this climax is spoken with decreased tempo. However, in contrast to
Bruno’s speech style, the effect reached by Joseval’s way of speaking can be more
accurately described as rhetorical; it is by intention and not by coincidence that
Joseval puts his words as carefully as he does. When he takes the next turn, he
178 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

retells the story by recreating the scenario, setting up the whole atmosphere and
the emotions which came into play:

Sequence 3: August 16th, 2016, Jovem Pan ((05:41-06:06))

01 JP: °hh (.) ele esteve nos estados unidos foi assim um GRANde do
basquetebol_lá.
he was in the United States and there was a big basketball game
02 (---) chegou ´LÁ os cara também comendo pi´pÓca.=
he arrived there the guys were also having popcorn
03 =e_ele n nas das primEiras ´FILas;
and he was in one of the front rows
04 (---) começou jOgo o cara foi lá CESta;
the game started the guy scored
05 (--) ninGUÉM se manifestou.
nobody cheered
06 (-) foi pra outro lado CESta ali;
score on the other side
07 °h <<all, p> ele falou assim> se´rÁ que essa é uma preliminar
eu entrei no estadio eRRA::do;=
he said like maybe it’s an exhibition match and I’m in the wrong stadium
08 =<<acc> que que é ISso aí.>
what’s this
09 <<cresc> o estádio veio abAixo quando o outro e!RRA!va.>
the stadium yelled when the other failed
10 ((smiles))
11 ((1.1))
12 fizeram manifesta´çÃo (--) ´!CON!tra o ˋ!E!rro.
they cheered against the faults of the others

He retells the story to substantiate the credibility of his argument that this behav-
ior is normal not only in Brazil but also in the USA. Such a ‘retelling’-perspec-
tive – also described as ‘re-enactment’ (Günthner 1999) – is typical for the Bra-
zilian speech style as shown in the theoretical section (Schröder 2003, 2010). In
our case, the story obtains an authentic flair through the scenic descriptions with
emotional load (lines 02–06) and the use of direct speech (line 07). Moreover, the
persuasive effects of the short, self-complacent, well set smile in line 10 along
with the paraverbal elements, i.e., the well projected pauses in lines 02, 04, 05,
06, 11, and 12, display strong rhetoric force, next to the prosodic cues such as
the lengthening of eRRA::do in line 07, and finally the exaggerated extra strong
accents on e!RRA!va in line 09 and on !CON!tra and ˋ!E!rro in line 12.
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 179

In contrast, Marco Antônio Villa, who for the first time takes his turn after
Bruno’s first statement, defends an opposite view maintaining that one cannot
compare football to other individual Olympic disciplines:

Sequence 4: August 16th, 2016, Jovem Pan ((01:28-02:00))

01 AV: °h o sujeito precisa se concentrar por SA:lto tAl;
the guy needs to concentrate on jumping and all that
02 °h eu por exemplo se_eu me colocasse no papel DEle;
me for example if I was in his place
03 (.) °h eu teRIA dificuldade de-=
I would have difficulty to
04 =atÉ no silêncio eu <<all> não ia> me concentrar tudo mUndo
inteiro me assisTI:Ndo tal.=
even with silence I couldn’t concentrate with everyone watching me like that
05 BP: =o usain bo:lt pediu si[LÊNcio também,]
Usain Bolt also asked for silence
06 AV: [(.) é siLÊNcio] tAl,
it’s silence and all that
07 °h agora a torcida no no na giNÁstica;
now the fans at at at the gymnastics
08 °h aplaudia !E!rro.
cheered for faults
09 (-) ah eu nunca vi esse neGÓ no ar;
ah I’ve never seen something like that on TV
10 <<acc, imitating the crowd> aplaudia erro ficava feliz <<all,
slipping gesture> quando o cara escorregava;>=
applauded faults being happy when the guy slipped
11 =<<imitating the crowd, clapping hands, f> êh_êh_êh_Êh,>
hey hey hey hey
12 ˋPÔ (.) que_que_é ´Isso.=
pooh what what’s that
13 =é <<f> bar↑!BÁ!rie.>
that’s barbarism
14 BP: cê tem que saber [se comportar de acordo com o amBIENte.]
you have to know how to behave yourself according to your environment
15 AV: [(-) ´né (.) ˋé: (-) ˇÉ:, (-) ]
right that’s it that’s it
16 nÃo é o coliSEU:.
it’s not the coliseum
17 está achando que é o coliseu ro´MA::no ´tAl;
you think it’s the Roman coliseum and all that
180 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

18 en^tão ↑É sério ter um comportamento civilizAdo.

so it’s important to have a civilized behavior
19 °h entÃo há (.) há há um nacionalismo BObo no brasIl;
so there is is is a stupid kind of nationalism in Brazil

While Joseval Peixoto’s stance shows high engagement and involvement,12 Villa’s
stance can be more accurately described as oscillating between a ‘zooming in’
and ‘reflecting’ perspective, thereby displaying a much more detached style. This
style can be seen when he retells what happened while simultaneously com-
menting on it at the prosodic level by putting an emphasis on !E!rro (line 08)
through an extra strong accent as a verum focus (Höhle 1992), thereby reinforcing
the impudence and incredibility of this act, as well as by imitating the crowd in
an affective manner (line 11). Those prosodic hints can be conceived as implicit
metacommunication (Bublitz and Hübler 2007; Unger 1990) which frame what
is said as unbelievable, in the first case, and as sarcastic, in the second. On the
other hand, the flow of the story is also interrupted explicitly by the insertion
of metacommunicative comments on the situation itself, such as in line 09 and
from line 13 on, when he starts with his summarizing, compressed analysis going
beyond the immediate context of the Lavillenie incident: according to Villa, the
incident can be conceptualized metaphorically (Lakoff and Johnson [1980] 2003)
in terms of the historically entrenched scenario of a Roman coliseum.13 Interest-
ingly, it seems as if he anticipates this scenario metonymically by the gesture of
clapping hands (Müller and Cienki 2009) together with the imitation of the cheer-
ing crowd (line 11) which he then first labels bar↑!BÁ!rie (barbarism) (line 13).
In this way, we can observe what Mittelberg and Waugh (2009) call a ‘two-step
semiotic process’: the metonymy of clapping hands accompanied by the yelling
audience leads to the conventionalized metaphor of the coliseum.
Note that in line with our observations above, in opposition to Villa who
tends to show either a ‘rapport neglect orientation’ or a ‘rapport challenge orien-
tation’, as his communication interest is exclusively directed towards content or

12 In another sequence, he also uses the ‘inclusive we’ (Bühler [1934] 2011: 160) when respond-
ing to Antônio Villa: ent´Ão o ouro tava na ˋnossa ˋMÃO; ((02:49)) (so the gold was
in our hands)
13 This metaphor also appears in one of the comments following the online news published
by the NZZ. SN3: war das nicht eigentlich auch schon bei den Römern im Kolosseum so? (wasn’t
it already like that with the Romans in the coliseum?). As mentioned above, the article by the
NZZ and the comments generated by it are those with the most instantiations of meta-analyses
of this type.
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 181

‘making his point’, Bruno Prado changes his opinion in this sequence and adopts
his stance toward Villa’s point of view which again reveals his ‘rapport enhance-
ment’ or ‘maintenance orientation.’14
Villa continuously adopts an increasingly macro-analytical and educational
stance, first prescinding from the concrete incident with Lavillenie, focusing
on other athletes and other disciplines, then looking at other sport events, and
finally approaching the topic of society itself. In the following sequence, he is
talking about a soccer game between Brazil and Argentina:

Sequence 5: August 16th, 2016, Jovem Pan ((04:05-04:56))

01 AV: quando tUlio fez um gol com a mÃo numa copa aMÉ:rica;=°h
when Tulio scored a goal by hand at the Copa América
02 ele sal´DOU o gol o gol com a o c com a mÃo;
he scored the goal the goal by the b by hand
03 e diz que com argenTIna é melhor fazer um gol de forma
irregulAr;
and said against Argentina an irregular goal is even better
04 ou seja <<f, with raised forefinger> !VE!ja a noção !É!tica
que ele está dAndo> <<with two thumbs behind the
shoulders> a uma criAnça por exemplo.>
just see which kind of ethical idea he is passing to a child for instance
05 porque o fute!BOL:!;
because soccer
06 a gente te (.) ele é ´!MAI:S! do que um esporte.=°h
we you it’s more than a sport
07 <<acc> ele é uma leitura do braSIL.>=
it’s a blueprint of Brazil
08 =o nelson rodriques foi o priMEIro entender Isso.
Nelson Rodrigues was the first to see it this way
09 (-) né (.) ao usar o futebol para expliCAR o brasIl e tal.
right using soccer to explain Brazil and all that
10 então <<f> quando o locutor ba!BA!ca fAla que;
so when the stupid announcer says that
11 faZER um gol com_a mÃo (-) pode ser (.) tUdo bem.>
scoring a goal by hand can be okay

14 It is worth remembering that our aim in this article is not to focus on Spencer-Oatey’s (2008)
categories, but to show some tendencies of the interlocutors towards rapport management.
Being so, the discussion clearly reveals Villa’s interest in content over Prado’s preference for
harmonious relationships (in both respects: regarding the participants in the discussion, as well
as to reestablish the relationship between ‘Brazil’ and potential ‘observers’).
182 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

12 e cOm argentina é melhor ´AIN:da.>=

and against Argentina it’s even better
13 =<<f, pointing with the forefinger in front of him> ele é um
iDIOta.
he’s an idiot
14 ele é um iDIOta.=
he’s an idiot
15 =porque ele tá> <<ff> estimu!LAN:!do °h que as pessoas ´viOlem
por exemplo as !↑LEIS!;
because he’s encouraging people to violate for example the law
16 <<acc, raised forefinger> no conjUnto da sociedade
ele é um iDIOta.>
regarding the society as a whole he’s an idiot
17 <<f, raised forefinger> e quE faz Isso estimUla a
torcida i!ˋDIO!ta.>
and that’s what encourages the idiot crowd
18 <<raised forefinger> que fAz o que ↑FEZ.>
it does what it did
19 entÃo °h a coisa (.) (tão) nós estamos aprende nós estamos
vive é é um processo de CIvilização.
so the thing we learn we live it’s it’s a process of civilization
20 <<gesture of division with vertical hand> a civilização é
muito LONge daqui.>
civilization is very far away from here
21 <<repeats the gesture of division> tem o at´LÂNtico.>
there’s the Atlantic
22 (que_é) (.) <<moving both hands directed to each other>´e:
entÃo deMO:ra para atravessar;>=
and it takes a long time to cross it

Again, Antônio Villa introduces an analogy based on a conventionalized and well-

known metaphor at the reflexive macro-level: brazilian society is a soccer
game (lines 05–07).15 Furthermore, it is striking that he inserts a metacomment
on the ubiquity of this metaphor (lines 08–09). Even more than in sequence (4),
the lexical items Villa uses here to designate Brazil and the Brazilians show the
explicitness of his speech style: while in sequence (4), he already called the atti-
tude of the Brazilian crowd “barbarism” (barbárie) and said that Brazil preserves
a “stupid kind of nationalism” (nacionalismo bobo), he now calls first only the
announcer “stupid” (locutor babaca, line 10), then the announcer alongside the

15 Cf. for example Hardaway (1976); Liu and Farha (1996); Bergh (2011); Vierkant (2008).
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 183

crowd “idiots” (idiota, lines 13, 14, 16, 17). He puts an extra strong accent on those
terms and holds that civilization has not arrived in Brazil yet (lines 19–22). At the
prosodic and nonverbal level, this explicitness is underscored by loudness (lines
04, 10, 13, 15, 17), accent (lines 04, 05, 15, 17), and the raised forefinger (lines
04, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18); hints which frequently co-occur. By this content-oriented,
nearly educational and directness displaying manner, Villa’s speech style can be
seen as opposed to the prototypical Brazilian speech style as revealed in Bruno
Prado’s and Joseval Peixoto’s ways of speaking where rhetoric means, form, and
the interpersonal level come to the fore, and things are said more indirectly, as
other studies have already advocated (Meireles 2001; Carvalho and Trevisan
2003; Schröder 2003, 2014a, b; see theoretical section).
Hence, to sum up, in this section, we could observe on a micro-level an
instructive interplay of what we have called in section 4.1.2 the in- x out-group
cultural schema. While Bruno Prado and Joseval Peixoto strive to maintain
rapport orientations aligned with expected behaviors in the in-group category,
Villa detaches himself from in-group behavior and displays a rapport challenge
orientation by his explicit and direct speech style.

5 Concluding remarks
In this article, we provided a cross-cultural analysis of reactions to an event that
took place during the Olympic Games in Brazil in 2016. Our findings showed
that the group-level conceptualizations of Olympic Games by Brazilian fans can
differ substantially from group-level conceptualizations of speakers from other
countries. More specifically, we have shown that the sports fans category is con-
strued differently by Brazilian fans in comparison with other fans. Moreover, the
in- x out-group and the mongrel complex cultural schemas seem to constitute
many of the Brazilian reactions to the event. We have also shown that instanti-
ations of the in- and out-group cultural schema can be negatively categorized
by people from other cultural backgrounds as behaviors related to nationalism.
At the same time, we have shown that speech styles in online meaning construc-
tion can unveil processes in which Brazilians can either confirm the cultural concep-
tualizations identified in the comment sections, as Joseval Peixoto did in the radio
broadcast, by reinforcing the appropriateness of the Brazilian crowd’s reaction, or
contest them from an outer observational point of view, as Antonio da Villa did.
The analysis has been predicated on two groups of theoretical and method-
ological frameworks: a cognitive and cultural linguistic perspective, as well as
a conversation analytic and interactional linguistic perspective. The former has
184 Ulrike Schröder, Milene Mendes de Oliveira, Thiago Nascimento

pointed to more or less stable meanings identified at the group-level of commen-

tators’ speech communities. The latter has shown that cultural conceptualiza-
tions are also co-constructed during online meaning negotiation and are interwo-
ven with speech styles where also rapport management activities come into play
and interlocutors show flexible stances, as Bruno Prado did. All in all, we have
shown how both theoretical perspectives complement one another and provide a
broader scope for cross-cultural analyses.

6 Appendix: Transcription conventions GAT 2

Short, adapted version of GAT 2 according to Selting et al. (2011).
[ ] overlap and simultaneous talk
[ ]
= fast, immediate continuation with a new turn or
segment (latching)
and_uh cliticizations within units
hm_hm bi-syllabic tokens
(.) micro pause, up to 0.2 sec.
(-) short pause of 0.2-0.5 sec.
(--) intermediary pause of 0.5-0.8 sec.
(2.0) measured pause of 2.0 sec.
:, ::, ::: lengthening (0.2-0.5 sec.; 0.5-0.8 sec.; 0.8-
1.0 sec.)
((laughs)) non-verbal vocal actions and events
<<laughing> > para-verbal and non-verbal action as
accompanying speech with indication of scope
<<acc> accelerando
(may i) assumed wording
(i say/let’s say) possible alternatives
o
hh hho in- and outbreaths
(xxx) one unintelligible syllable
acCENT focus accent
accEnt secondary accent
ac!CENT! extra strong accent
? rising to high final pitch movement of intonation
unit
, rising to mid final pitch movement of intonation
unit
- level final pitch movement of intonation unit
; falling to mid final pitch movement of intonation
unit
. falling to low final pitch movement of intonation
unit
ˆSO rising-falling accent pitch movement
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ from a cross-cultural perspective: a cognitive-pragmatic analysis 185

ˇSO falling-rising accent pitch movement

´SO rising accent pitch movement
`SO falling accent pitch movement
↑ pitch upstep
↓ pitch downstep

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Augusto Soares da Silva
Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic
cultural variation: metaphors of anger
in European and Brazilian Portuguese
Abstract: Assuming that emotions are socially and culturally constructed, this
article compares the metaphorical conceptualization of anger in European Por-
tuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Individualistic versus collectivistic
cultural influences determining the conceptual variation of anger in pluricen-
tric Portuguese are examined. Adopting a sociocognitive view of language and
developing a corpus-based and profile-based methodology, this study analyzes
610 examples of anger emotion as lexicalized in the nouns raiva “anger”, fúria
“fury”, ira “anger/wrath”, cólera “anger/wrath”, and irritação “irritation” from
a corpus of personal-experiential blogs. Cohering with insights from cross-cul-
tural psychological research as well as with the findings of prior linguistic studies
on anger, the study identifies the conceptual and cultural metaphorical profiles
for anger in EP and BP national varieties. The qualitative and quantitative cor-
pus-based analysis shows both the strong similarities as well as the subtle but
relevant differences in the metaphorical conceptualization of anger in EP and BP.
The two national varieties have the same metaphorical conceptual structuring of
the anger emotion, but there are conceptual differences, and these differences are
influenced by culture. EP appears to be more associated with the metaphorically
construed attempted regulation and a more internalized expression of anger,
which is in line with the more collectivistic and restrained culture of Portugal. In
contrast, BP is more connected with the metaphorically unrestrained and open
manifestation of anger as affirmation of the self. This correlation is in line with
the more individualistic, indulgent, and emotionally expressive culture of Brazil.
Accordingly, BP appears to be more akin to metaphorically construed high inten-
sity of anger, while the somatization of anger is more fitting in EP.

Acknowledgements: This study has been carried out under the research project UIDB/00683/2020
(Center for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for
Science and Technology. I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their thorough and
illuminating comments. Needless to say, the remaining errors are only mine.

Augusto Soares da Silva, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Center for Philosophical and
Humanistic Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-008
190 Augusto Soares da Silva

Keywords: anger, emotions, conceptual metaphor, intralinguistic cultural vari-

ation, collectivism vs. individualism, corpus- and profile-based approach, Por-
tuguese

1 Introduction
Anger is claimed to be one of the basic or universal emotions (e.g., Ekman 1992,
1999; Ortony and Turner 1990; Wierzbicka 1999), which is accurately recognized
across cultures in terms of the facial expressions associated with it, and regu-
larly lexicalized in the vast majority of languages of the world. The consistent
and productive way in which we speak metaphorically (or otherwise figuratively)
about emotions says a lot about the way we conceptualize the emotional experi-
ence, as stressed by conceptual metaphor theory since its very beginning (Lakoff
and Johnson 1980; Lakoff and Kövecses 1987; Kövecses 1986, 1990). The alleged
universality of the emotion category of anger and its regular and productive met-
aphorical (and metonymic) conceptualization account for the large number of
studies on this subject both in psychology, particularly social psychology, and
linguistics, especially cognitive linguistics (see Fontaine, Scherer, and Soriano
2013 and Soriano 2013 for an overview).
Like any other emotion, anger is by nature a social emotion (Glynn 2014)
that is very sensitive to social variation and cultural influences. Therefore, anger
varies across cultures, especially the specific ways in which anger is perceived,
experienced, evaluated, (un)regulated, and manifested. Conceptual metaphor
is not only constitutive of emotional experience, but it is also grounded in our
individual, collective, and cultural experience, thus being fully contextualized,
both socio-culturally situated, and discursively constructed. Some studies have
shown that the emotion of anger and its metaphorical (and metonymic) concep-
tualization are profoundly associated with culture and that anger is experienced
in different ways across societies and historical periods. For example, Geeraerts
and Grondelaers (1995) and Gevaert (2005) have demonstrated the high influ-
ence of the medieval folk theory of the four humors, or fluids of the human
body, and the four temperaments (yellow bile-choleric, black bile-melancholic,
phlegm-phlegmatic, and blood-sanguine), which dominated medical thinking in
Western Europe for several centuries, on the conceptualization of anger and other
emotions, and Yu (1995) showed the importance of the folk emotion theory of five
elements in Chinese medicine (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). Cross-cul-
tural emotion psychology suggests that in collectivistic cultures, as compared
to individualistic cultures, anger is predominantly viewed as more negative and
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 191

socially disruptive and is reported with a lower emotional intensity (e.g., Markus
and Kitayama 1991; Matsumoto, Yoo, and Chung 2010). Performing a quantita-
tive corpus-based analysis of anger metaphors in English, Spanish, and Russian,
Ogarkova and Soriano (2014) showed both the similarities and particularly the
differences in appraisal, expression, regulation, and the saliency of physiological
aspects of anger in the three languages. However, these cross-cultural studies of
anger, as well as the cross-cultural studies of emotions in general, have analyzed
the differences between (very) dissimilar and geographically separated cultures
and languages. Only a few studies have dealt with cultural differences in experi-
encing and communicating emotions within a single country or a single language
(see Mortillaro et al. 2013; Soares da Silva 2020, on the emotion of pride).
The present study reinforces the idea that emotions have a biological basis
but are socially and culturally constructed and explores this principle in the
context of a pluricentric language (different national geographical centers within
the same language – Soares da Silva 2014). I will analyze the cultural metaphor-
ical conceptualizations of anger in the two national varieties of Portuguese,
namely, European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). This study
adopts a sociocognitive view of language as stressed by the second generation
of cognitive sciences and cognitive linguistics, and the current trend of concep-
tual metaphor theory (extended from the Lakoff and Johnson’s 1980 standard
view), especially the usage-based and socioculturally contextualized approach
to conceptual metaphor (e.g., Stefanowitsch and Gries 2006; Semino 2008; Steen
2011; Kövecses, this volume). It applies a corpus-based and onomasiological
profile-based methodology, focusing on the alternative metaphorical patterns
used to designate the anger emotion. The study combines a detailed qualita-
tive analysis of the conceptual metaphors of anger found in the corpus with a
quantitative analysis of corpus data. The classification of conceptual metaphors
of anger is based on the typology of root metaphors of anger and their subtypes
proposed by Soriano (2005) and Ogarkova and Soriano (2014). The data comprise
610 occurrences of five noun lexemes expressing anger in Portuguese, namely
raiva “anger”, fúria “fury”, ira “anger/wrath”, cólera “anger/wrath”, and irritação
“irritation” extracted from a corpus of blogs consisting of personal diaries about
love, sex, family, friends, violence, etc.
I will first briefly review some evidence of the cultural variability of anger,
focusing on underlying individualistic and collectivistic cultural influences. Sub-
sequently, I will present the data and profile-based qualitative and quantitative
methods for the identification, classification, and cultural comparison of the con-
ceptual metaphors of anger in EP and BP varieties. Finally, I will carry out an
analysis of the corpus data to determine whether and how the metaphorical con-
ceptualization of anger differs between the two national varieties of Portuguese.
192 Augusto Soares da Silva

2 Cultural variability of anger

Some studies have shown that culture influences emotions in many different
aspects (e.g., Mesquita, Frijda, and Scherer 1997; Russell 1991). One of the ways
in which culture influences emotions has to do with the well-known opposition
between individualism and collectivism. Hofstede’s (1980, 2001) original work
led to the mapping of world cultures based on individualism versus collectivism.
Societies can be described in terms of how much they focus on individuals (indi-
vidualism) rather than on society as a whole (collectivism), and this distinction
reflects the extent to which identity is defined by personal choices and achieve-
ments (the independent self) or by the character of collective groups to which one
is more or less permanently attached (the interdependent self). Although indi-
vidualism and collectivism are both present in every society, there are societies
in which individualism predominates and others where collectivism does; in the
former, people perceive themselves as individual, autonomous entities with indi-
vidualized goals and achievements; in the latter, people are not supposed to be
independent from each other but should harmoniously fit into the societal organ-
ization of roles and duties.
Individualism versus collectivism and power distance, which captures the
extent to which social inequality within a society is generally tolerated by its
members (Hofstede 2001), are the main factors that potentially influence the vari-
ation of anger across cultures (see Ogarkova and Soriano 2014; Ogarkova, Soriano,
and Gladkova 2016, for an overview). Cross-cultural emotion psychological res-
earch reveals remarkable differences with regard to the evaluation, regulation,
and intensity of anger across cultures (e.g., Bender et al. 2012; Chon, Kim, and
Ryoo 2000; Fernández et al. 2000; Fischer, Manstead, and Rodriguez Mosquera
1999; Matsumoto, Yoo, and Chung 2010). In collectivistic cultures, anger is pre-
dominantly viewed as more negative and socially disruptive and as an emotion
that challenges social order and harmony, and thus, should be regulated and not
externally manifested. In contrast, individualistic cultures see anger as a relatively
more positive and more socially acceptable emotion, thus being more favora-
ble towards its open and unrestrained manifestation. Moreover, the connection
between anger and the body is emphasized in collectivistic cultures to a higher
degree than in individualistic ones. As for power distance, in societies with high
power distance (power comes before good and evil and inequality is normal; Hof-
stede 2001) such as Russia, Mexico, and China, experiencing or showing anger
towards higher-status people is undesirable and even socially condemned. Coher-
ing with this psychological evidence, Ogarkova and Soriano (2014) developed a
corpus-based cognitively (conceptual metaphor theory) oriented linguistic study
on the metaphorical conceptualization of anger in (British) English, Spanish, and
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 193

Russian, showing that metaphors emphasizing the negativity and enhanced regu-
lation of anger are more salient in the more collectivistic Russian and Spanish soci-
eties than in the more individualistic English culture, and metaphors highlighting
the somatic component of anger are more prominently represented in Russian
than in English.
Hofstede’s (2001) cross-cultural comparison model shows cultural differ-
ences between Portugal and Brazil.1 With a score of 27 on the individualism (-col-
lectivism) scale, Portugal is more collectivistic in relative terms than Brazil, which
has a score of 38. According to Hofstede’s model, the Portuguese collectivism
manifests itself in a close long-term commitment to the member ‘group’, be that a
family, extended family, or extended relationships. Furthermore, loyalty is para-
mount and overrides most other societal rules and regulations. Another relevant
cultural dimension to the comparison between the two countries corresponds to
what Hofstede (2001) refers to as indulgence, which is defined as the extent to
which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they
were raised. Relatively weak control is called indulgence, and relatively strong
control is called restraint. Portugal scores 33 on this dimension and therefore
has a culture of restraint, whereas Brazil’s relatively high score of 59 indicates
that the country has an indulgent society. As for the cultural dimension of power
distance, there are less differences between the two countries, with Brazil (69)
exhibiting a slightly larger degree of power distance as compared to Portugal (63).
Seeking to present a synthetic panorama of Portuguese history and culture,
Real (2017: 193–201) points out as fundamental traits of Portuguese culture col-
lectivistic aspects such as the values of gregariousness and generosity, solidarity,
and fellowship, the spirit of self-sacrifice, the culture of dialogue – in short, the
search for the Other as a defining aspect of one’s own identity. Another comple-
mentary attribute of the Portuguese people, according to Real (2017: 198–200), is
their lyrical-sentimental or emotional character, well reflected in the long history
of Portuguese literature. The expression of emotionality is more extroverted and
more direct in Brazilians than in the Portuguese.
Studies by Brazilian sociologists, anthropologists, and historians, including
the foundational historiographical works of Freyre (1933) and Holanda (1936) on
Brazilian identity, and, more recently, Rezende and Coelho’s (2010) study on the
anthropology of emotions as well as the Almeida’s (2007) sociological study on
“the Brazilian’s head”, all highlight emotionality as a defining feature of Brazil-

1 The comparison between Portugal and Brazil with respect to individualism and to other di-
mensions of national culture (power distance, masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoid-
ance, long term vs. short term orientation, and indulgence) is available at https://www.hofst-
ede-insights.com/country-comparison/brazil,portugal/
194 Augusto Soares da Silva

ian identity and culture. More specifically, Brazilian culture is characterized by

a greater social acceptance of the display of emotions compared to other coun-
tries, i.e., Brazilians tend to express their emotions more easily and openly, in a
more explicit and spontaneous way, in contrast to people from other societies
and cultures.2
I have no knowledge about any empirical study that systematically compares
the role that emotion plays in Brazilian and Portuguese societies. The linguis-
tic studies by Schröder (2009, 2010), who analyzed cross-cultural differences
in Brazilian and German communities found in interviews, show that Brazilian
respondents made use of a more emotive, phatic, and expressive speech style, in
contrast to the more referential and metalinguistic speech style in the German
group (Schröder 2010). In addition, in interviews about love relationships, Brazil-
ian responses contained more metaphors related to the passionate ideal of love,
emphasizing the emotion itself and the present moment rather than the relation-
ship and its future evolution, whereas in the German group, the preferential met-
aphorical conceptualizations focused on the relationship itself and were tied to
a more rational, less emotion-centered ideal of romantic love (Schröder 2009).
The results of Oliveira’s (2020) recent cognitive and cultural-linguistic study on
business negotiations in Brazilian and German speech communities based on
interviews show that the Brazilian interviewees pursued a person-orientation
strategy in the conceptualization of ‘respect in business negotiations’, whereas
a task-orientation strategy stood out more conspicuously in the German set of
responses. More specifically, the interpersonal exchange in business contexts has
a more personal leaning (i.e., the private connection between business counter-
parts is foregrounded) in the Brazilian case and a more operative and task-related
leaning in the German case (Oliveira 2020: 137). Additionally, in the conceptual-
ization of ‘conflict in business negotiations’, Brazilian participants proved often
to conceptualize conflict as something that triggers a set of personal emotions
such as anger associated with game/fight metaphors, whereas the salience
of (task-oriented) resource metaphors was more clearly visible in the German
group (Oliveira 2020: 137).
Based on these cultural differences between Portugal and Brazil, and the addi-
tional comparative studies on Brazilian tendency to a stronger emotional style
and conceptualization in different life domains, we can formulate the hypothesis
that there are small but significant differences in the metaphorical conceptual-

2 The history of Brazilian social thinking since Freyre (1933) and Holanda (1936) considers Bra-
zilian emotionality as something not only characteristic of the national identity but also as an
intrinsically ambivalent feature. It was viewed as being either a synonym of less civilized or,
more recently, as a positive characteristic of Brazilian identity (Rezende and Coelho 2010).
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 195

ization and expression of the emotion of anger between these two national varie-
ties of Portuguese. Specifically, in the relatively more collectivistic and restrictive
culture of Portugal, negative evaluation, controlled expression, enhanced reg-
ulation, and somatization of anger would be more saliently profiled, while the
unrestrained and overt manifestation of the emotion would be more prominently
represented in the relatively more individualistic and indulgent culture of Brazil.

3 Methodology: a corpus-based analysis

of the conceptual metaphors of anger

3.1 Data

The data for the present study were extracted from a 750,000-word corpus of
blogs in EP and BP compiled from 2013–2015, especially designed for the study of
emotions in both varieties, and comprise personal diaries about personal events,
love, sex, family, friends, work, opinions about politics, football, religion, books,
and movies. Despite this diversity of subjects, we selected blogs that were com-
parable, not only in terms of topics but also in terms of language register for both
countries. We left out blogs with markedly literary or philosophical content and
favored texts written in an informal register. Blogs are particularly apt for a study
about emotions because emotions are frequently discussed at a personal-experi-
ential level on blogs, and the language is often narrative in structure (Glynn 2014).
We analyzed 610 occurrences of five noun lexemes expressing the emotion
of anger in Portuguese, namely raiva “anger”, fúria “fury”, ira “anger/wrath”,
cólera “anger/wrath”, and irritação “irritation”. The lexemes raiva and fúria are
the most frequent nouns for expressing the emotion of anger, and raiva works
as a hyperonym of this emotion of anger. The fúria, ira, and cólera lexemes
generally express a higher degree of angry agitation, while irritação generally
expresses a less intense anger emotion. The lexemes cólera and ira are terms
used in formal register. The terms cólera and raiva can also refer to infectious
diseases caused by viruses (cholera and rabies, respectively). Table 1 presents
the number of hits found for each anger noun in our corpus for the two national
varieties of Portuguese.
The number of occurrences that have been analyzed is relatively low and does
not constitute a big sample, which would have been more suitable for a cross-cul-
tural study of this nature. However, as we will show later, the detailed annotation
system developed for this study makes the use of a substantially bigger sample dif-
196 Augusto Soares da Silva

Table 1: Frequency of anger nouns in the corpus.

anger nouns EP BP
cólera 9 15
fúria 106 103
ira 20 28
irritação 29 23
raiva 138 139
Total 302 308

ficult. We only analyzed anger nouns and not adjectives such as furioso “furious”,
irado “angry”, irritado “annoyed, angry”, zangado “angry” or verbs such as irri-
tar-se “become angry”, because emotion nouns better summarize the emotion
than do other parts of speech. Nouns such as aborrecimento “annoyance”, indig-
nação “indignation”, or frustração “frustration” were not analyzed because they
express more specific or different concepts than the anger concept.

3.2 Conceptual metaphors of anger and the profile-based

approach

The present study adopts the onomasiological profile-based approach, focusing

on the conceptual choices made by speakers of different regional, social, etc.
backgrounds, between different lexical expressions for naming a given meaning/
concept. It corresponds to the so-called behavioral profile approach, which com-
bines multifactorial usage-feature analysis and statistical modeling to identify
and quantify complex patterns in usage (e.g., Geeraerts, Grondelaers, and Bakema
1994; Gries 2003, 2010; Divjak 2010; Glynn and Fischer 2010). In our study, a profile
or, more precisely, a metaphorical profile for a particular target concept such as
the anger emotion is the set of alternative metaphorical patterns used to designate
that target, together with their relative frequencies. The onomasiological perspec-
tive on metaphor involves, therefore, the selection of the preferred metaphorical
sources for a given meaning/concept. Many previous studies on the cognitive/cul-
tural model of emotions provide an onomasiological approach to metaphor and
to lexical semantics in general, with an emphasis on how an emotion is expressed
metaphorically in different cultural and historical contexts (e.g., Geeraerts and
Grondelaers 1995; Gevaert 2005; Soriano 2005, 2013; Ogarkova and Soriano 2014).
The method for metaphor identification is based on Stefanowitsch’s (2006)
metaphorical pattern analysis. This method consists of searching for metaphori-
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 197

cal expressions which contain words from their target domains, such as the five
nouns expressing anger in Portuguese. The metaphorical expressions to which
the target concepts and lexical items belong are identified as metaphorical pat-
terns. On the basis of the metaphors they instantiate, groups of conceptual map-
pings are established. The identification of a metaphorical pattern is based on the
syntactic/semantic frame in which the target lexeme occurs. For example, fúria
“fury” was selected as one of the lexical items expressing the target concept of
anger. A search for its occurrences in the corpus yielded the metaphorical expres-
sion ataques de fúria “fury attacks”. This expression is then identified as the met-
aphorical pattern “NP attacks”, in which other target lexemes or lexemes from the
source domain can occur, such as ataques de raiva “anger attacks” or ataques de
armas “weapon attacks”. The pattern ataques de fúria/raiva is then considered to
instantiate the metaphor anger is a weapon.
For the metaphor classification, we followed the anger metaphors seminal
classifications as proposed by Kövecses (1986) and Lakoff and Kövecses (1987),
and, particularly, the revision of the original inventory proposed by Soriano
(2005, 2013) and Ogarkova and Soriano (2014).
Metaphorical patterns of anger were manually extracted from the corpus
and classified into conceptual metaphors. We searched for all the hits of the five
aforementioned anger nouns (cólera “anger/wrath”, fúria “fury”, ira “anger/
wrath”, irritação “irritation”, and raiva “anger”) in the corpus, and then we elim-
inated the literal uses and isolated all the hits that constitute metaphorical pat-
terns in the sense given above. Every metaphorical pattern was individually ana-
lyzed, taking into account the mapping established across the source and target
domains, and was subsequently classified under a specific conceptual metaphor
according to its source domain. The set of conceptual metaphors and their fre-
quencies in the corpus for the anger concept as expressed by each of the five
anger nouns constitutes the metaphorical profile of anger emotion.
The conceptual metaphor inventory is organized in two levels, as proposed
by Soriano (2005) and Ogarkova and Soriano (2014). The higher level embraces
‘root’ metaphors (e.g., anger is a pressurized fluid in the body container)
heading a cluster of sub-metaphors. The sub-metaphors constitute the lower level
of the inventory and comprise entailment (E) sub-metaphors (e.g., explosion in
the root metaphor anger is a pressurized fluid in the body container) and
special case (S) sub-metaphors (e.g., the eyes are a container for anger with
regard to its root metaphor the body is a container for anger).
Table 2 summarizes 13 salient conceptual root metaphors of anger, their
entailments (E) and special cases (S) identified by Soriano (2005, 2013) and Oga-
rkova and Soriano (2014) for different languages (namely Spanish, English, and
198 Augusto Soares da Silva

Russian), and also specific to the representation of anger in Portuguese.3 Exam-

ples from our corpus will be discussed in Section 4.1.

Table 2: Root and subtype conceptual metaphors of anger (adapted from Ogarkova and Soriano
2014: 100–101).

Root conceptual Subtype conceptual Examples

metaphor metaphor
anger is a . . .
pressurized E hot a ferver de raiva “boiling with anger”
fluid in the body- E rise raiva a crescer “anger growing”
container E pressure sufocar de raiva “choke with rage”
E counterpressure engolir a fúria “swallow fury”
E contention fúria contida “contained fury”
E coming out descarregar a fúria “discharge fury”
E explosion explodir de raiva “explode with anger”
fire atiçar a ira “stoke the wrath”
illness não imune à fúria “not immune to fury”
insanity S blindness louco/cego de raiva “crazy/blind with rage”
aggressive animal S emoter is animal fúria de fera do mato “wild beast fury”
opponent in a S controller/superior a fúria invadiu-me “fury invaded me”
struggle
force of nature fúria de um vulcão “fury of a volcano”
weapon alvo dos seus ataques de fúria “target of his
rage attacks”
force E energy movido pela raiva “driven by anger”
physical entity E visible/hidden object esconder a raiva “hide anger”
E possession perder a raiva “lose anger”
E moving object trazer raiva “bring anger”
S solid object barreira de raiva “rage barrier”
S substance raiva misturada com ódio “anger mixed with
hate”

3 The metaphors found in the corpus could be grouped differently. For example, more generic
categories of source domains could be used, like animate vs. inanimate entities, concrete vs. ab-
stract concepts. Some metaphors are more atomic (fire, force) and others more complex (pressur-
ized fluid in the body container). Force of nature could be considered as a special case of force,
just as fluid could be classified as a special case of physical entity, more directly of substance.
The metaphorically conceptualized substance in the body container does not necessarily have
to be a fluid, it can also be a gasiform substance. We prefer, however, to follow the classification
of Ogarkova and Soriano (2014), which comprises an inventory organized into well-defined cate-
gories (root and subtype metaphors, and specific and generic metaphors), as well as the seminal
classification of Kövecses (1986).
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 199

Table 2 (continued)

Root conceptual Subtype conceptual Examples

metaphor metaphor
anger is a . . .
living organism S plant inflorescências de fúria “inflorescences of fury”
S animal urrar de raiva “howl with rage”
S human raiva justa “just/righteous anger”
location S container passar o limite da raiva “cross the boundary
of anger”
the body is a S chest raiva no peito “anger within the chest”
container for S eyes olhar com fúria “look at X with fury”
anger S face fúria estampada na face “fury stamped on
the face”
S hands mãos em fúria “hands in fury”
S head/mind mente em fúria “raging mind”
S voice grito de raiva “cry of anger”
S other raiva sentida na pele “anger felt in the skin”

The inventory comprises eight specific and five generic root conceptual meta-
phors of anger (Ogarkova and Soriano 2014: 100). Specific metaphors involve spe-
cific-imagery source domains invoking complex scenarios rich in detail and entail-
ments, such as pressurized fluid, fire, illness, insanity, aggressive animal,
opponent in a struggle, force of nature, and weapon. In the case of generic
metaphors, the source domain is more generic than in the specific metaphors, and
these source domains such as force, physical entity, living organism, and
location can apply to almost any target domain. There are also conceptual meta-
phors in which the target domain is not the anger emotion per se, but some salient
aspect of the emotion – such as the body of the emoter (the body is a container
for anger) –,4 and conceptual metaphors less frequently instantiated or less
conventionally referred to in literature such as anger is a tool (turn fury to use),
anger is a machine (generate anger), anger is a burden (freighted with anger),
and anger is an idea (understand X’s anger). Certain metaphors may occupy dif-
ferent places in this typology. For example, anger is a hot fluid may be an entail-
ment of the metaphor anger is a pressurized fluid in the body-container, as
shown in Table 2, but it can also be a root conceptual metaphor, as proposed by
Ogarkova and Soriano (2014: 100). We relied on context to distinguish between
the two possibilities. It is interesting to perceive the expressions (specific to Bra-

4 This is why body is a container for anger and anger is a fluid in the body-container are
not included within a broader container category.
200 Augusto Soares da Silva

zilian Portuguese) Não esquenta!, Fica frio! (literally, “Don’t get hot; stay cool!”) as
injunctions to keep calm or to control one’s anger, which instantiate the hot fluid
entailment. Conversely, an expression can instantiate more than one conceptual
metaphor. For instance, olhos inchados de raiva “eyes swollen with anger” mani-
fests both the the body is a container for anger metaphor and the anger is a
pressurized fluid in the body-container metaphor. These cases, which occur
frequently in the expressions that include the emoter’s body parts, were analyzed
as pertaining to the more comprehensive metaphor the body is a container for
anger. In a subsequent and complementary analysis of the productivity of the
root metaphors of anger, these cases were added to the metaphor anger is a
pressurized fluid.
Here are a few more observations regarding the identification and the clas-
sification of the metaphors of anger. First, we considered cases such as ter raiva
“to feel anger”, estar/ficar com raiva “to be angry/to become angry”, causar raiva
“to cause anger”, muita raiva “a lot of anger”, (ai) que raiva! “I’m so angry!” (lit.
“such anger!”) as non-metaphorical and literal. Indeed, although these uses can
be metaphorical (instantiating the metaphors anger is a physical entity, inten-
sity is quantity, the body is a container for anger), they are strongly con-
ventionalized and generalized expressions and, most importantly, do not contain
any word that could trigger a metaphorical use (in contrast to estar cheio de raiva
“to be full of/ filled with anger”, ter uma raiva enorme “to have a great anger”).
Moreover, we did not want to inflate the frequency of anger metaphors. Second,
there are degrees of figurativity in the metaphorical expressions of anger and thus
there is a continuum of conventionality/novelty (Kövecses 2010) of anger meta-
phors from more conventionalized or well-entrenched metaphors (such as estar
cheio de raiva “to be full of/ filled with anger”) to newer or creative ones (such as
ficar roxo/branco de raiva “turning purple/white with anger” compared to ficar
vermelho de raiva “turning red with anger”, and cuspir a raiva como uma cobra
venenosa “spitting out the anger like a poisonous snake”). Third, it is important
to remember that the anger metaphors analyzed in this study are expressed by
one of the five target nouns mentioned above, so some of the metaphors identi-
fied in Table 2 are instantiated in expressions that do not contain any of these
targets, such as cabeça quente “hothead” instantiating the metaphors anger is
a hot fluid and the body is a container for anger. Finally, the figurative
conceptualization of anger as well as of emotions in general usually combines
metaphor and metonymy (cf. the generic metonymy the physiological effects
of an emotion stand for the emotion), as Kövecses has shown (1986), thus
being an emblematic example of metaphtonymy (Goossens 1990), i.e., the inter-
action of metaphor and metonymy. In this study we focus on the metaphorical
conceptualization of anger.
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 201

3.3 Quantitative analysis

The observational data extracted from the corpus identified in Section 3.1 and
annotated through the detailed qualitative analysis of types and subtypes of con-
ceptual metaphors of anger and of the semantic dimensions profiled by these
metaphors presented in Sections 3.2 and 4.1–4.2 (see below) were submitted to
quantitative analysis.
The absolute and the relative frequencies of the 16 types of conceptual meta-
phors of anger found in the corpus (13 types as in Table 2 plus 3 types; see Table 4
below), as well as those frequencies of the five semantic dimensions highlighted
by clusters of conceptual metaphors, were calculated. As argued by Oster (2010),
frequency of occurrence alone is not enough to describe the metaphorical expres-
sion of an emotion; it is also important to calculate the productivity of the concep-
tual metaphors found in the corpus.
The productivity index of a metaphor is defined in Oster (2010: 749) as the
product of the number of patterns of this metaphor divided by the total number
of metaphorical patterns, i.e., the relative frequency of this metaphor and the
number of different linguistic expressions co-occurring with the anger concept
that are a realization of this metaphor divided by the total number of different
linguistic expressions. For example, there are three different linguistic expres-
sions co-occurring with raiva “anger”, fúria “fury”, and ira “anger/wrath” in the
corpus for the metaphor anger is fire, namely the verb atiçar “to stoke” and the
expressions em incandescência “ablazing, glowing”, and clarão de “flashes of”.
Frequent conceptual metaphors can be more or less productive depending on the
high or low number of different linguistic expressions in which these metaphors
are instantiated. Productivity indexes were calculated for all conceptual meta-
phors of anger in the corpus of each national variety.
Chi-square (especially, the Yates chi-square, corrected for continuity) and
Cramer’s V tests were carried out on the absolute frequencies of the conceptual
metaphors of anger found in the corpus in order to calculate the statistical sig-
nificance and the strength of association between clusters of conceptual meta-
phors profiling semantic dimensions of anger emotion and European as well as
Brazilian varieties of Portuguese.

4 Results
In the first two sub-sections, we will develop the qualitative analysis discussing
examples of the conceptual metaphors of anger from our corpus presented in
202 Augusto Soares da Silva

Table 2 and identifying the semantic dimensions profiled by these metaphors.

The quantitative analysis of the results of the profile-based qualitative analysis
will be presented in the last three sub-sections.

4.1 Conceptual metaphors of anger

One of the most salient conceptualizations of anger in the folk model of emotions
is the metaphor of a heated and pressurized fluid inside the body container, as
exemplified in (1)-(5). When the intensity of the emotion increases, the fluid heats
up and can even boil (1), the fluid rises in the emoter (2) until there is no more
space and it begins to exert pressure on the walls of the container. The emoter
can resist the pressure, exerting a counterpressure or containing/refraining the
emotion (3) and keeping the anger inside. Otherwise, he/she can lose control over
the emotion, failing to stop the anger fluid from boiling over or exploding (4–5).

(1) De cada vez que o meu sangue começa a borbulhar de irritação por alguma
malfeitoria, mentira, distorção ou golpe baixo [. . .] (Portugal, albergueespan-
hol.txt)

“Every time my blood starts to boil from irritation from some malfeasance,
lie, distortion or low blow [. . .]”

(2) Senti uma raiva a crescer dentro de mim, como nunca tinha sentido por
ninguém. (Portugal, andrusca95.txt)

“I felt an anger growing inside me like I had never felt for anyone.”

(3) apesar dos flavienses, e dos restantes portugueses, estarem animados de uma
fúria contida, ela não vai permanecer assim indefinidamente (Portugal, jma-
dureira.txt)

“although the Flavians and the rest of the Portuguese are animated by a con-
tained fury, it will not remain so indefinitely”

(4) Descarreguei meus sentimentos de raiva, dor e medo que represava desde
criança, devido a uma educação preconceituosa! (Brazil, amoscaquepertur-
baoteusono.txt)

“I discharged my feelings of anger, pain, and fear that I had been repressing
ever since I was a child, due to a prejudiced upbringing!”
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 203

(5) Lorena vai rumo a São Cristóvão para procurar Juliano e ao chegar se dá conta
de que ele voltou para os braços de Lucrécia. Cheia de raiva, ela tenta atro-
pelá-los. (Brazil, novelasebiografias.txt)

“Lorraine goes to St. Cristóvão to look for Juliano and when she arrives, she
realizes that he has returned to the arms of Lucrécia. Full of anger, she tries
to run them over.”

Anger is also conceptualized as a fire inside a person that can be stirred up,
be ablaze, and manifest itself in flashes in the emoter’s eyes, as in examples
(6) and (7). Still under the same cultural metonymic model of the physiological
effects of anger that can also harm the emoter and those around him/her, anger
can be conceptualized as an illness to which one is not immune (8). Most prom-
inently, it can be construed as a psychological disorder that leads to irrational
and violent behavior, especially as insanity, often expressed as loss of mind or
blindness and in the form of attacks, typically of rage, as in (9) and (10). Irra-
tionality and violence are also elaborated by the conceptualization of anger as
an aggressive animal inside the emoter, evoking the “beast inside” (Kövecses
1990: 62), the instinctual part of our nature that is neither dominated nor domes-
ticated and overrides the purely rational and moral one. A special case sub-met-
aphor leads one to be conceptualized as a dangerous animal and to manifest all
sorts of aggressive animal behavior, as exemplified in (11). The ideas of control
and danger that the lack of control evokes are further elaborated by a very recur-
rent metaphor in which anger is personified as an opponent in a struggle that
must be fought or controlled, as in example (12). If control is achieved, the fight
is won; otherwise, the fight results in the defeat of the emoter. Also associated
with the situation of no control or being out of control is the conceptualization of
anger as a powerful natural physical force that floods the emoter (ondas de
fúria “waves of fury”) and leads them to violent and dangerous behavior, which
can also constitute a resolution (fúria de um vulcão “the wrath of a volcano”) so
that the emoter can face and overcome other forces, as in (13)-(14). This last case
is elaborated by another quite frequent metaphor highlighting the high-power
emotion in which anger is conceptualized as a weapon that the emoter uses effi-
ciently against a target (15).

(6) Sua pose arrogante atiça a ira do espectador (Brazil, cineugenio.txt)

“His arrogant pose stokes the wrath of the spectator”

204 Augusto Soares da Silva

(7) Ela sorriu diabolicamente para Derek, e este atirou-se a ela com uma raiva
em incandescência. (Portugal, andrusca95.txt)

“She smiled devilishly at Derek, and he threw himself at her with glowing
rage.”

(8) Seguravam-no no cargo arames apenas – institucionalmente o Presidente,

aliás não imune aos protestos e à temida fúria das gentes. (Portugal, corta-fi-
tas.txt)

“He was held in office only by wires – institutionally the President, inciden-
tally not immune to protest and the feared fury of the people.”

(9) Orlando aproxima-se da mesa, faz pouco de Paulo, derruba vinho nele;
Capitu, louca de raiva, crava um garfo na mão dele. (Brazil, novelasebiogra-
fias.txt)

“Orlando approaches the table, makes fun of Paulo, pours wine on him;
Capitu, crazy with rage, sticks a fork in his hand.”

(10) Viu nos olhos dele uma loucura que nunca tinha visto antes. Uma raiva incon-
trolável. Viu nos olhos do filho uma cegueira sem retorno. (Portugal, falarso-
bretudoemaisalgumacoisa.txt)

“He saw in his eyes a madness he had never seen before. An uncontrollable
rage. He saw in his son’s eyes a blindness with no return.”

(11) Com isto a fúria dobrou de tamanho. E o delegado escumava pela boca feito
fera do mato. (Brazil, jornaldecaruaru.txt)

“With this the anger doubled in size. And the police chief, foaming at the
mouth, was like a wild beast.”

(12) Apaixona-se por Carlos Daniel, onde enfrentará a fúria de Estephanie, a riv-
alidade com Leda e principalmente o ódio de Paola Bracho. (Brazil, nove-
lasebiografias.txt)

“She falls in love with Carlos Daniel, where she will face Estephanie’s fury,
a rivalry with Leda and especially the hatred of Paola Bracho.”
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 205

(13) Porquê matá-los a todos? Ele simplesmente sorriu e respondeu – Porque é

divertido. Uma onda de fúria inundou-me. Mandei-lhe a poção e ele desvan-
eceu-se. (Portugal, andrusca95.txt)

“Why kill them all? He just smiled and answered – Because it’s fun. A wave
of fury flooded me. I threw the potion at him and he fainted.”

(14) Você tem que ter a força de um leão e a fúria de um vulcão para vencer, ou
você acaba cedendo a eles. (Brazil, amoscaqueperturbaoteusono.txt)

“You have to have the strength of a lion and the fury of a volcano to win, or
you end up giving in to them.”

(15) Os alvos de seus ataques de fúria são qualquer pessoa que se atreva a conte-
star suas idéias mirabolantes e criticar sua maneira estapafúrdia de gover-
nar. (Brazil, raimari9.txt)

“The target of his rage attacks is anyone who dares to challenge his nonsen-
sical ideas and criticize his foolish way of governing.”

Finally, anger can be conceptualized based on more generic domains, as (i) force
and, by entailment, energy, as in (16), (ii) physical entity and, by entailment,
visible/hidden object (17), possession (18), moving/moved object (19) or, by
specification, solid object and substance (20), (iii) as living organism, espe-
cially plant (21) and person (22), (iv) as location and, by specification, con-
tainer (23). Not emotion as such, but a salient part of emotion can be the target of
a metaphorical conceptualization, as is the case with body as container of anger
and, by specification, any of its parts either visible (eyes, face, voice, etc.), as in
(10)-(11), or internal (chest, head, veins, etc.), as in (1)-(2).

(16) percorre os EUA de lés a lés, movido por um sentimento de raiva e de vin-
gança pelo que perdeu, o amor da sua vida. (Portugal, corta-fitas.txt)

“He travels the U.S. from coast to coast, driven by a feeling of anger and
revenge for what he has lost, the love of his life.”

(17) e, na conversa, Lula não escondeu a irritação com as acusações feitas pelo
operador do mensalão. (Brazil, landisvalth.txt)

“and, during the conversation, Lula did not hide his irritation with the
accusations made by the mensalão’s operator.”
206 Augusto Soares da Silva

(18) Como é possível perder-te sem nunca te ter achado, minha raiva de ternura,
meu ódio de conhecer-te (Portugal, portodeabrigo.txt)

“How is it possible to lose you without ever having found you, my anger of
tenderness, my hate to know you”

(19) Enquanto dirigia, continuava mudando de raiva para aceitação e de volta

pra raiva de novo. (Brazil, colunadamorenarosa.txt)

“As he drove, he kept changing from anger to acceptance and back to anger
again.”

(20) O fato daquela manhã se constituíra na gota d’água que fizera extravasar
neles o veneno da raiva. (Brazil, levibronze.txt)

“That morning’s fact had been the drop of water (“the straw that broke the
camel’s back”) that had caused the poison of anger to overflow in them.”

(21) Uma das muitas inflorescências de tal fúria é a história do “certificado

energético” (Portugal, irritado.txt)

“One of the many inflorescences of such fury is the story of the ‘energy cer-
tificate’”

(22) Então, e a liberdade de expressão? E a Constituição?, pergunta o PC, prenhe

de justa fúria. (Portugal, irritado.txt)

“What about freedom of speech? And the Constitution?, asks the PC [Com-
munist Party], full of righteous fury.”

(23) Na sua fúria apenas residia o medo da perda. (Portugal, milrazoes.txt)

“In his fury resided only the fear of loss.”

4.2 Semantic dimensions in the conceptual metaphors

of anger

As suggested by Kövecses (2000: 40–46) and other metaphor scholars (e.g., Soriano
2005, 2013; Ogarkova and Soriano 2014), conceptual metaphors of an emotion
concept tend to form meaningful clusters highlighting affective semantic dimen-
sions or foci. These semantic dimensions are focal characteristics of emotions
profiled by metaphor, they are related to well-known constructs in emotion psy-
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 207

chology like valence (akin to evaluation), arousal (related to intensity), power, or

regulation (Fontaine, Scherer, and Soriano 2013), and they are indicators of cultural
and linguistic differences. Among the semantic dimensions specifically relevant for
anger are evaluation (typically, negativity), regulation, intensity, expression, and
somatization (Ogarkova and Soriano 2014). Table 3 systematizes the conceptual
metaphors of anger presented in Table 2 (above) that profile these five semantic
dimensions. As can be seen in Table 3, the same conceptual metaphor can profile
different semantic foci.

Table 3: Semantic dimensions profiled by conceptual metaphors.

Semantic focus Conceptual metaphors

Negativity (harm/damage) anger is . . .
to self illness, insanity, aggressive animal, opponent,
force of nature, fire, pressure
to others weapon, aggressive animal, force of nature
Regulation anger is . . .
attempted/successful fluid-contention/counterpressure/hot/
pressure/rise, opponent, animal
unattempted/failed fluid-coming out/explosion/hot/rise, illness,
insanity, animal
Intensity anger is . . .
fire, fluid-hot, fluid-explosion, insanity, force
of nature, aggressive animal
Expression . . . is a container for anger / anger is . . .
perceptible eyes, face, voice, hands, mouth / fire, visible/
hidden object
internalized body, heart, chest, head
Somatization body is a container for anger, anger is a
pressurized fluid, anger is illness

Emotions are naturally experienced and perceived as positive or negative. Anger is

typically a negative emotion because it feels unpleasant, it is caused by something
negative, leads to confrontation, and causes disruption to body functions and
other negative effects for one’s well-being. There are, however, some positive uses
of anger in our corpus, such as raiva justa (“just/righteous anger”). As a specifica-
tion of its negativity, anger is also harmful and damaging. The source domains in
the metaphorical conceptualization of anger are intrinsically negative and harmful
to both the self and others. The metaphorical source domains profiling negativity
and harm/damage to the self include the characterizations of anger in terms of a
physiological and psychological disorder (illness and insanity), as an aggres-
208 Augusto Soares da Silva

sive animal causing physical damage to the emoter, as an enemy the emoter fights
against (opponent), as an uncontrollable force of nature causing damage to
the emoter, as fire burning the emoter, and as a physically unpleasant sensation
of swelling or pressure on the body-container. Negativity and harm/damage to
others are profiled by the metaphorical source domains of a tool aimed at harming
another person, especially a weapon, of an aggressive animal, and an uncon-
trollable force of nature potentially causing harm and damage to others.
Another semantic dimension elaborated by metaphors is the self-regulation one
may exert on one’s feelings and/or their manifestation and the intrinsic controlla-
bility of the emotion. The voluntary control exerted by the emoter over the anger
emotion can be both successful or at least attempted and unsuccessful or unat-
tempted. The metaphorical source domains profiling attempted/successful regula-
tion include the characterization of anger as a pressurized, heated fluid kept inside
the body container (contention, counterpressure, hot, pressure, rise), as an
enemy to fight in pursuit of self-control (opponent), and as a controlled animal (e.g.
bridled fury). The metaphors focalizing unsuccessful/unattempted regulation refer
to anger as a fluid that surges out of the emoter’s body (coming out) or makes it
out in a violent way (explosion) or even uncontrollably rises and heats (rise, hot).
They also refer to anger being an illness, insanity, and an uncontrolled animal
(e.g. wild fury), or to the emoter displaying animal behavior (emoter is an animal).
Emotional intensity tends to be associated with high physiological arousal or
excitation (Soriano 2013: 405), although there are intense emotions with no phys-
iological excitation, as is the case of depression. Metaphorically profiled intensity
in the conceptualization of anger is represented in terms of physiological heat, as
in the metaphors anger is fire and anger is a hot fluid, anger is an explod-
ing heated fluid, and in terms of physiological or psychological strong disrup-
tion, violence, and aggression, as in the metaphors anger is insanity, anger
is a force of nature, and anger is an aggressive animal. These metaphors
stress the image of anger as an intense emotional experience with strong effects.
Several anger metaphors profile the perceptible versus internalized expres-
sion or manifestation of the emotion. The metaphors in one of the poles highlight
perceptible manifestations of anger, typically its visibility as visible/hidden
object and fire or located in the eyes, the face, and other visible body parts
or audibility located in the voice. The metaphors in the opposite pole profile an
internalized expression of anger, as located inside the emoter or in internal body
parts such as inside the body, heart, chest, or head.
Finally, metaphorically profiled somatization in the conceptualization of
anger is captured by the generic metaphor the body is a container for emotion
and by the representation of anger as a pressurized fluid in the body container
and as illness.
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 209

4.3 Frequency and productivity differences in the conceptual

metaphors of anger

Table 4 presents the number of hits found for each target anger noun in European
Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) sub-corpora, and how many of
these hits constitute literal and metaphorical expressions.

Table 4: Literal and metaphorical uses of anger nouns in EP and BP sub-corpora.

anger EP BP
nouns
hits literal metaphorical hits literal metaphorical
cólera 9 0 9 15 0 15
fúria 106 8 98 103 7 96
ira 20 3 17 28 6 22
irritação 29 13 16 23 7 16
raiva 138 25 113 139 48 91
Total 302 49 253 308 68 240
% 16.23 83.77 22.08 77.92

The two national varieties of Portuguese show a clear preference for the figura-
tive and metaphorical use (more precisely, metonymic and metaphoric, follow-
ing the general trend of emotion concepts for metaphtonymy) of the five anger
nouns, and the literal use of these terms is a little more frequent in BP than in EP.
The most frequent anger nouns in the two national varieties are raiva “anger”
and fúria “fury” and therefore are also the most used metaphorically. The formal
terms ira “anger/wrath” and cólera “anger/wrath” are more frequent in BP, with
no literal use of the emotion item cólera in our corpus, probably to distinguish
it from the use of the same term with the meaning of infectious disease cholera.
The low frequency of irritação “irritation”, which is the less intense anger term,
is also related to the fact that this emotion meaning is used more as an adjective
(irritado) and as a verb (irritar(-se)) than as a noun.
Table 5 shows the absolute frequency (AF), the relative frequency (RF), the
number of different linguistic expressions (NDE) co-occurring with the anger
concept that are a realization of a certain metaphor, and the productivity index
(PI) of all the conceptual metaphors of anger as expressed by the five target
nouns found in our corpus.
210 Augusto Soares da Silva

Table 5: Frequency and productivity of conceptual metaphors of anger nouns in EP and BP

sub-corpora.

Conceptual metaphors EP BP
anger is . . .
AF (RF) NDE PI AF (RF) NDE PI
pressurized fluid 62 (24.51) 36 600.15 54 (22.50) 39 566.13
hot 5 3 4.03 0 0 0.00
rise 8 6 12.91 5 3 4.03
pressure 24 14 90.34 7 6 11.29
counterpressure 1 1 0.27 0 0 0.00
contention 6 3 4.84 9 6 14.52
coming out 3 2 1.61 0 0 0.00
explosion 15 7 28.23 33 24 212.90
fire 4 (1.58) 3 3.23 2 (0.83) 1 0.54
illness 3 (1.19) 3 2.42 1 (0.42) 1 0.27
insanity 19 (7.51) 12 61.31 35 (14.58) 16 150.54
aggressive animal 6 (2.37) 3 4.84 10 (4.17) 8 21.51
opponent in a struggle 14 (5.53) 12 45.17 24 (10.00) 14 90.32
force of nature 2 (0.79) 1 0.54 2 (0.83) 2 1.08
weapon 19 (7.51) 8 40.87 12 (5.00) 8 25.81
force 10 (3.96) 8 21.51 5 (2.08) 5 6.72
physical entity 29 (11.46) 19 148.15 42 (17.50) 28 316.13
visible/hidden object 3 2 1.61 14 7 26.34
possession 9 4 9.68 4 3 3.23
moved object 0 0 0.00 1 1 0.27
moving object 5 5 6.72 11 9 26.61
object 3 3 2.42 0 0 0.00
food 1 1 0.27 2 1 0.54
intensity is size 4 2 2.15 3 3 2.42
substance 3 1 0.81 5 2 2.69
poison 1 1 0.27 1 1 0.27
intensity is quantity 0 0 0.00 1 1 0.27
living organism 12 (4.74) 7 22.59 7 (2.92) 7 13.17
plant 2 1 0.54 0 0 0.00
animal 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00
human 10 6 16.13 7 7 13.17
location 3 (1.19) 2 1.61 0 (0.00) 0 0.00
danger/threat 1 (0.40) 1 0.27 2 (0.83) 2 1.08
devil 3 (1.19) 1 0.81 0 (0.00) 0 0.00
idea 7 (2.77) 4 7.53 5 (2.08) 4 5.38
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 211

Table 5 (continued)

Conceptual metaphors EP BP
anger is . . .
AF (RF) NDE PI AF (RF) NDE PI
the body is a container for 59 (23.32) 27 428.33 39 (16.25) 20 209.68
anger
chest 0 0 0.00 1 1 0.27
cry 11 3 8.87 5 3 4.03
eyes 8 2 4.30 4 2 2.15
face 16 7 30.11 11 6 17.74
hands 2 1 0.54 1 1 0.27
head/mind 1 1 0.27 2 2 1.08
mouth 1 1 0.27 0 0 0.00
skin 1 1 0.27 0 0 0.00
smell 0 0 0.00 1 1 0.27
voice 19 11 56.20 14 4 15.05
Total 253 147 240 155

The two national varieties of Portuguese converge in some fundamental as-

pects of the metaphorical conceptualization and expression of anger emotion.
First, anger is metaphorically represented by predominantly the same root and
generic conceptual metaphors and their subtypes (entailments and specifica-
tions) in both EP and BP sub-corpora. Cross-linguistically, the metaphorical con-
ceptualization of anger in Portuguese is similar regarding the types and subtypes
of conceptual metaphors to that of other different languages indicated in Table 2
above (cf. Section 3.2). Second, similarity has also been observed in the frequency
and productivity of the conceptual metaphors found in the corpus. In fact, anger
is a pressurized fluid in the body container, anger is a physical entity,
and the body is a container for anger are the most frequent and productive
metaphors in both varieties, the latter being more frequent and productive in
EP and the second one in BP. The less frequent and productive metaphors are
also practically the same in the two varieties. They are those that have force
of nature, danger/threat, illness, and food as source domains. Moreover,
two metaphors less conventionally referred to in the emotion metaphor literature
were found in both varieties, namely anger is a devil, which can be classified
as a special case of anger is a controller (which, in turn, is a special case of
anger is an opponent) or of anger is a supernatural force, and anger is a
poison, a special case of anger is a substance. Finally, the two varieties also
cohere, at some point, in the internal hierarchical organization of some salient
metaphors and in the frequency of the five metaphorically represented anger
nouns (cf. Table 4) as well as their metaphorical co-occurrence patterns.
212 Augusto Soares da Silva

Important differences between EP and BP were also observed in the meta-

phorical conceptualization of anger emotion. Two groups of differences were cap-
tured via corpus-based qualitative and quantitative analysis. The first one is more
direct and superficial and concerns the distribution of the different conceptual
metaphors. The second one is more indirect and fundamental and will be ana-
lyzed in the following sections.
Table 5 shows clear significant differences in the internal structure of the most
salient conceptual metaphors and in the frequency and productivity of some root
metaphors. As for the most salient conceptual metaphor in the corpus, EP shows
a more elaborate internal structure than BP (more subtypes and more competi-
tion between them in EP), and, more importantly, pressure is the most frequent
and productive entailment of the pressurized fluid metaphor in EP, whereas in
BP the most frequent and productive entailment is explosion, which is the third
most productive metaphor in the Brazilian corpus, even more productive than the
body container generic metaphor. The metaphorical representation of anger as
a physical entity is not only more frequent and productive in BP than in EP,
but also shows the high frequency and productivity of its two most perceptible
entailments in BP, namely visible object and moving object. The physiologi-
cal and generic metaphor body is a container for anger is more frequent and
productive in EP than in BP, although both varieties show the same preference for
voice-cry and face body containers. Other differences between the two varieties
in the distribution of the different metaphors involve the root metaphors anger
is insanity, anger is an aggressive animal, and anger is an opponent in a
struggle, which are much more frequent in BP than in EP.

4.4 Cultural differences in the metaphorically construed

regulation and expression of anger

Let us compare the two national varieties of Portuguese regarding the metaphor-
ically construed semantic dimensions or foci of anger emotion as identified in
Table 3 above (cf. Section 4.2). Table 6 presents the distribution of the conceptual
metaphors profiling the successful/attempted versus unsuccessful/unattempted
regulation and the perceptible versus internalized manifestation of anger across
the two national varieties as well as the frequencies of these two semantic dimen-
sions and their four corresponding clusters of metaphors in our corpus.
Some clarifications regarding the clusters of metaphors are necessary before
discussing the results. First, the two clusters of metaphors highlighting regu-
lation of anger include not only the corresponding subtypes of the root meta-
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 213

phor anger is a pressurized fluid in the body container, as mentioned in

Table 2 above and discussed in Section 4.2, but comprise also the same subtypes
encapsulated in the generic metaphor the body is a container for anger. This
means that this generic, primary metaphor has the same entailments as the fluid
root metaphor, as exemplified in (24)-(25). Example (24) from EP instantiates the
emoter’s successful regulation of the pressure exerted by anger on the walls
of the eyes container, whereas in (25) from BP the emoter loses control over the
emotion, resulting the coming out and even the explosion of the anger fluid on
the emoter’s hands.

(24) Elisabeth olhou-o com raiva e, cautelosamente, retirou também a sua espada
do cinto do vestido. (Portugal, andrusca95.txt)

“Elisabeth looked at him angrily and cautiously removed her sword from
her dress belt as well.”

(25) Quando to com raiva, ou sendo forçada a fazer algo que não quero meu rosto
involuntariamente começa a formigar e minhas mãos ficam com o modo
“socar” (Brazil, likecockatoos.txt)

“When I’m angry, or being forced to do something I don’t want to do, my face
involuntarily starts to tingle, and my hands get into ‘punch’ mode”

Second, the hot and rise metaphorical entailments can both be used in con-
texts of the emoter’s attempted and successful regulation of anger and in contexts
of emoter’s loss of control. The same applies to the aggressive animal meta-
phor: although this metaphor typically highlights the emoter’s failed regulation
of anger, as all examples found in the corpus of BP show, it can also profile the
emoter’s attempted regulation, as in the example (26) from EP.

(26) Até podia dizer que tenho pena dele, mas na verdade até parece bastante
feliz, e assim ele ameniza a fúria da fera. (Portugal, andrusca95.txt)

“I could say I feel sorry for him, but he actually seems quite happy, and that
way he eases the fury of the beast.”

Finally, the cluster of the metaphors highlighting the perceptible expression of

anger comprises both the external body parts as containers of anger (the eyes,
face, hands, mouth, skin, smell, voice), as shown in Table 3 above, and the coming
out and explosion of the anger-fluid.
214 Augusto Soares da Silva

Table 6: Distribution of conceptual metaphors profiling regulation and expression of anger.

Semantic focus Conceptual metaphors EP BP

Regulation anger is . . . / . . . is a container for anger

attempted/ fluid/body-contention/counterpres./ 89 (35.18) 48 (20.00)

successful hot/pressure/rise; opponent; animal

unattempted/ fluid-coming out/explosion/hot/rise; 71 (28.06) 114 (47.50)

failed illness; insanity; animal
Expression . . . is a container for anger / anger is . . .

perceptible cry, eyes, face, hands, mouth, skin, 88 (34.78) 93 (38.75)

smell, voice / fluid-explosion/coming
out, fire, visible object, moving object

internalized body, heart, chest, head 45 (17.79) 24 (10.00)

Metaphors emphasizing the successful or at least attempted regulation of

anger are more saliently represented in EP (35.18%) than in BP (20%). In other
words, the metaphorical understanding of anger as a fluid kept inside the emoter’s
body, as an enemy to fight in pursuit of self-control and as a controlled animal – in
general terms, as an emotion that is (or needs to be) controlled and regulated – is
more closely associated with EP than with BP. Conversely, metaphors highlighting
the either unsuccessful or unattempted regulation of anger are much more prom-
inently represented in BP (47.50%) than in EP (28.06%). The metaphorical con-
ceptualization of anger as a fluid that comes out of the emoter’s body or causes
explosion, as illness and insanity, and as uncontrolled animal, that is, the meta-
phorically unrestrained manifestation of anger is, therefore, more closely associ-
ated with BP than with EP. The chi-square test, presented in Table 7, shows that
the relationship between successful/attempted versus unsuccessful/unattempted
regulation and the European versus Brazilian variety of Portuguese is statistically
significant (p = <.0001).

Table 7: Association between regulation of anger and national varieties of Portuguese.

EP BP
Regulation successful/attempted 89 (35.18%) 48 (20.00)
unsuccessful/unattempted 71 (28.06%) 114 (47.50)
χ2 = 21.2, df=1, p = <.0001, Cramer’s V = 0.2629
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 215

These results are in line with the collectivism/individualism differences be-

tween Portuguese and Brazilian cultures, as mentioned in Section 2. The relatively
more individualistic Brazilian culture is more favorable towards the unrestrained
and open manifestation of the intense emotional experience of anger as an affir-
mation of the self. In turn, the relatively more collectivistic Portuguese culture
tends to repress the overt manifestation of intense negative emotion of anger in
order to avoid or diminish interpersonal hostility and to ensure social order and
harmony.
Metaphors highlighting the perceptible (typically, visible, audible) manifes-
tation of anger are relatively more prominent in BP (38.75%) than in EP (34.78%)
and, conversely, metaphors profiling a more internalized expression of anger
are relatively more salient in EP (17.79%) than in BP (10%). This association is
stronger if we take only all metaphorical patterns profiling the body container
both in the metaphor anger is a pressurized fluid and in the metaphor the
body is a container for anger, which embrace the pole of overt manifestation,
i.e., out of the body (coming out, explosion) and the pole of covert (inside the
body) expression (contention, counterpressure, hot, pressure, rise): the
overt pole is strongly prominent in BP, whereas the covert pole is clearly salient in
EP (cf. Table 8, Expression 2). These two correlations are statistically significant,
as shown in Table 8.

Table 8: Association between expression of anger and national varieties of Portuguese.

EP BP
Expression 1 perceptible 88 (34.78%) 93 (38.75%)
internalized 45 (17.79%) 24 (10.00%)
Expression 2 out of the body 43 (17.00%) 66 (27.50%)
inside the body 78 (30.83%) 27 (11.25%)
Expression 1: χ = 4.88, df=1, p = 0.0272, Cramer’s V = 0.1487
2

Expression 2: χ2 = 25.01, df=1, p = <.0001, Cramer’s V = 0.3513

Again, these results are consistent with the collectivism/individualism cultural

differences between Portugal and Brazil. The relatively more collectivistic culture
of Portugal represses the open expression of anger, as we have seen above, and
coherently emphasizes anger as located inside the body container and the anger
expressions related to containment, whereas the more individualistic culture of
Brazil highlights the unrestrained and open manifestation of anger, especially
the release of emotional fluid of the body containment.
216 Augusto Soares da Silva

4.5 Cultural differences in the metaphorically construed

intensity and somatization of anger

Table 9 shows the distribution of the conceptual metaphors profiling the inten-
sity and the somatic component of anger across the two national varieties as well
as the frequencies of the two corresponding clusters of metaphors in our corpus.

Table 9: Distribution of conceptual metaphors profiling intensity and somatization of anger.

Semantic focus Conceptual metaphors EP BP

Intensity anger is . . .

aggressive animal, body-cry, fire, fluid- 62 (24.51) 92 (38.33)

explosion, fluid-hot, force of nature,
insanity
Somatization anger is . . . / . . . is a container for anger

a pressurized fluid, illness, insanity- 134 (52.96) 103 (42.92)

somatic; body is a container

The BP variety appears to be more akin to metaphorically construed high inten-

sity of anger (38.33%) than the EP variety (24.51%). This is consistent with the rel-
atively more individualistic culture of Brazil as well as with other individualistic
influences on anger emotional experience, such as the Brazilian preference for
the unrestrained and open manifestation of anger, as seen above.
As for the somatization of anger, i.e., the physiological (rather than psycho-
logical) manifestation of the emotion, EP seems closer to the metaphorically pro-
filing of the somatic component of anger (52.96%) than the BP variety (42.92%).
It is important to note that the somatization of anger is also profiled by the meta-
phor anger is insanity whenever it is expressed in somatic terms. Out of the 19
occurrences of the insanity metaphor found in the EP sub-corpus, 10 were used
with somatic expressions, whereas only 9 somatically expressed examples out
of 35 insanity metaphorical patterns were found in the BP sub-corpus. This EP
preference for the somatic, physiological conceptualization of anger is coherent
with the relatively more collectivistic culture of Portugal as well as with other
collectivistic influences on anger experience, such as the Portuguese particular
emphasis on the conscious control of the intense negative anger emotion and on
its less expressive/outward manifestation.
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 217

The results from the chi-square test, presented in Table 10, confirm statisti-
cally the associations between BP and anger intensity and between EP and anger
somatization.

Table 10: Association between intensity/somatization of anger and EP/BP varieties.

EP BP
Intensity profiled intensity 62 (24.51%) 92 (38.33%)
not profiled intensity 191 (75.49%) 148 (61.67%)
Somatization profiled somatization 134 (52.96%) 103 (42.92%)
not profiled somatization 119 (47.04%) 137 (57.08%)
Intensity χ2 = 10.33, df=1, p = 0.0013, Cramer’s V = 0.1491
Somatization χ2 = 4.59, df=1, p = 0.0322, Cramer’s V = 0.1005

Finally, the negativity (harm/damage) mentioned in Table 3 (see Section 4.2) as a

culturally marked semantic dimension of anger shows a similar distribution across
the two national varieties in our corpus, therefore, being not relevant to differenti-
ate EP and BP, as shown in Table 11 and statistically in Table 12. This means that the
expectation that metaphors emphasizing the negativity of anger would be more
saliently represented in the relatively more collectivistic culture of Portugal is not
confirmed.

Table 11: Distribution of conceptual metaphors profiling negativity of anger.

Semantic focus Conceptual metaphors EP BP

Negativity anger is . . .
(harm/damage)
to self aggressive animal, fire, force of nature,
fluid-pressure, illness, insanity, opponent 68 (26.88) 66 (27.50)
to others aggressive animal, danger/threat, devil,
force of nature, poison, weapon 28 (11.07) 26 (10.83)

Table 12: Association between negativity of anger and EP/BP varieties.

EP BP
Negativity N 96 (37.94%) 92 (38.33%)
(harm/damage) Ntotal -N 157 (62.06%) 148 (61.67%)
χ2 = 0, df=1, p = 1, Cramer’s V = 0.0045
218 Augusto Soares da Silva

5 Conclusions
The present article has developed a corpus-based and profile-based analysis of
the intralinguistic variation in the metaphorical conceptualization of anger in
the two main national varieties of Portuguese. Developing a meticulous qualita-
tive and quantitative analysis of 610 examples of anger emotion as lexicalized in
the nouns raiva “anger”, fúria “fury”, ira “anger/wrath”, cólera “anger/wrath”,
and irritação “irritation” from a corpus of personal-experiential blogs, the study
has established the conceptual and cultural metaphorical profiles or sets of alter-
native metaphorical patterns for anger in EP and BP national varieties. The
usage profiles emerged from clusters of specific imagery rich in entailments/
specifications and more generic source domains mapping the emotion of anger
and highlighting semantic dimensions of anger that are sensitive to cultural var-
iation. These clusters of conceptual metaphors are consistent with insights from
cross-cultural psychological research (e.g., Fontaine, Scherer, and Soriano 2013)
as well as with the findings of prior linguistic studies on the sociocultural nature
and on the cultural metaphorical conceptualization of the anger emotion (e.g.,
Geeraerts and Grondelaers 1995; Glynn 2014; and, particularly, Ogarkova and
Soriano 2014 and Ogarkova, Soriano, and Gladkova 2016, whose typology of con-
ceptual metaphors of anger was adopted here).
The qualitative and quantitative corpus-based analyses have shown both the
strong similarities as well as the subtle but relevant differences in the metaphori-
cal conceptualization of the emotion of anger in EP and BP. The two national vari-
eties have the same metaphorical conceptual structuring of the emotion of anger,
predominantly the same salient (frequent and productive) conceptual metaphors
of anger, and the same internal hierarchical metaphorical organization. However,
there are some conceptual differences, and these differences are influenced by
culture. The differences in metaphorically conceptualizing anger in EP and BP
varieties are intrinsically related to cultural collectivism versus individualism
differences between Portuguese and Brazilian societies, especially the relatively
more collectivistic and restrictive culture of Portugal and the relatively more indi-
vidualistic and indulgent culture of Brazil.
The EP variety appears to be more associated with the metaphorically con-
strued successful or at least attempted regulation of anger, particularly the meta-
phorical understanding of anger as a fluid that has to be kept inside the body, an
enemy to fight in pursuit of self-control, or a controlled animal, i.e., as an emotion
that has to be controlled and regulated. Furthermore, the EP variety appears to
be more associated with a metaphorically more internalized expression of anger.
These associations are in line with the more collectivistic and restrained culture
of Portugal, which tends to regulate the socially disruptive emotion of anger and
 Metaphor, emotion, and intralinguistic cultural variation 219

to repress the overt manifestation of this negative emotion in order to avoid or

diminish interpersonal hostility and to ensure social order and harmony. In con-
trast, the BP variety is more connected with the metaphorically unattempted or
failed regulation of anger, as a fluid that comes out of the body or causes explo-
sion, as illness and insanity, or as an uncontrolled animal. It is also more con-
nected with the externally perceptible, unrestrained, and open manifestation of
anger as an affirmation of the self. This correlation is in line with the more indi-
vidualistic, indulgent, and emotionally expressive culture of Brazil.
Accordingly, the BP variety appears to be more akin to the metaphorically
construed high intensity of anger, which is consistent with the relatively more
individualistic culture of Brazil. In turn, the somatization of anger is more fitting
in EP, which is coherent with the relatively more collectivistic culture of Portu-
gal as well as with other collectivistic influences on anger experience, such as
its regulation and inward expression. However, the expectation that metaphors
emphasizing the negativity of anger and its damage/disruption to the self and
others would be more saliently represented in the more collectivistic culture of
Portugal was not confirmed.
These results about the cultural variation in the metaphorical representation
of anger nouns (raiva, fúria, cólera, ira, and irritação) in the EP and BP varieties
provide empirical evidence about important theoretical principles and methodo-
logical orientations in the linguistic, psychological, and anthropological research of
emotions. Theoretically, this study confirms the hypothesis that emotions, despite
being grounded in bodily physiological experiences, are conditioned by culture,
i.e., emotions have a biological basis, but are socially and culturally constructed.
Most studies exploring the role of culture in the conceptualization of emotions have
emphasized the comparison between different languages. This study highlights the
role of culture in the conceptualization of emotions within the same language and
in its pluricentric internal variation, in which the differences in cultural concep-
tualization are more subtle. Importantly, emotion concepts are not universal or
physiologically grounded but are culturally specific, and this is true not only at a
cross-linguistic level but also at an intralinguistic level. Thus, the exploration of the
social and cultural nature of emotions must consider language-internal variation
and sociolinguistic diversity. A second theoretical conclusion from this study about
anger metaphors is the importance of understanding metaphor as not just a crea-
tive thought-structuring device, but also as socially and culturally situated, which
implies a fully contextualized and variational perspective. Methodologically, the
corpus-based and onomasiological profile-based approach to metaphor and emo-
tions offers more realistic and falsifiable hypotheses and results for identifying,
classifying, and interpreting conceptual metaphors and may adequately unravel
the complex conceptual-cultural structure of emotion concepts.
220 Augusto Soares da Silva

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Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco
Prototypical and metaphorical uses
for locative deixis in Brazilian Portuguese
and American English: a verbo-gestural
data analysis
Abstract: This paper aims at investigating how deictic expressions can be ana-
lyzed cross-culturally by taking two unrelated languages into account: Brazilian
Portuguese and American English. We focus on which prevalent manual ges-
tures can be associated to locative deictic referents in Brazilian Portuguese and
American English. We base our theoretical remarks on propositions made in
cognitive linguistics, articulating classic concepts, such as Idealized Cognitive
Models – ICM, and more recent formulations, such as the Metaphoricity Princi-
ple. In our methodological procedures, the parameters of the Linguistic Anno-
tation System for Gestures (LASG) are described, regarding both gestural forms
and functions. For the comparative analysis, 40 videos were selected, retrieved
from American and Brazilian TV news and late-night talk shows, stored at the
Distributed Little Red Hen Lab. More specifically, we describe how manual ges-
tures operate along with speech to point to referents both present in the immedi-
ate interactional scene and projected in a non-immediate scene narrated by the
speaker. Results showed that verbo-gestural deictic compounds can be organ-
ized as radial categories with prototypical central members, which include ref-
erential uses, and peripheral ones, which include pragmatic and discursive uses
directly correlated to the degree of metaphoricity activation of each member.
In sum, the comparison between Brazilian Portuguese and American English
datasets indicates cognitive resemblance between both languages, even though
some cultural differences on the performance of correlated gestural forms could
be identified.

Keywords: Deixis, idealized cognitive models, metaphoricity. gesture studies

Maíra Avelar, Vera Pacheco, Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia

Lilian Ferrari, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-009
224 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

1 Introduction
The influence that language and culture exert on each other is one of the main
areas of debate in linguistic studies. The idea of “linguistic universals” in the
Chomskyan tradition clearly treats these two dimensions as distinct categories.
On the other hand, functionalist paradigms have always taken cultural issues
into account, in one way or another. In particular, cognitive linguistics has wit-
nessed an increasing interest in the relationship between language and culture.
It acknowledges the assumption that language that has developed within a com-
munity is intimately related to that community’s culture (Janda 2007).
One important area that reflects the embedding of cultural concepts in lan-
guage is the use of deictic expressions. Traditionally, deictic elements have been
classified in terms of separated and seemingly unrelated categories, such as
person (e.g., I, you, etc.), time (e.g., today, now, etc.), place (e.g., here, there, etc.),
discourse (e.g., in the next paragraph, etc.), and social parameters such as the dis-
tinction between formal and informal terms of address (Levinson 1983: 68–94).
However, experiential and cognitive approaches to deixis have shown that some
generalizations are missed out if only reference to the speech event is taken into
account. As Marmaridou (2000) puts it, deictic categories are prototypical struc-
tures (Rosch 1973, 1978) that are organized by reference to culturally motivated
knowledge structures related to speech events (Lakoff 1987). For example, while
reference to the hearer is expressed by “you” in English, French speakers have
to choose between two forms – “tu” and “vous” – according to cultural values
related to social distance/proximity.
In line with experiential and cognitive approaches, this paper aims at inves-
tigating how deictic expressions can be analyzed cross-culturally by taking two
unrelated languages into account: Brazilian Portuguese and American English.
Our main research question focuses on which prevalent manual gestures can
be associated with locative deictic referents in Brazilian Portuguese and Amer-
ican English. More specifically, we describe how manual gestures operate along
with speech, to point out to referents both present in the immediate interactional
scene and projected in a non-immediate scene narrated by the speaker. We also
aim at investigating how locative deictic uses can be interrelated in terms of pro-
totypicality and metaphoricity in both languages by using verbo-gestural data.
We based our theoretical remarks and our methodological procedures on
propositions made in cognitive linguistics, articulating classic concepts, such as
Idealized Cognitive Model – ICM (Lakoff 1987), and more recent formulations,
such as the Metaphoricity Principle (Müller 2008).
The paper is organized as follows: in the second section, we present the
inter-relation between metaphoricity, prototypicality, and deixis from a cogni-
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 225

tive-linguistic view. In the third section, we describe the methodology, presenting

firstly our research question and hypotheses, as well as our data sample regarding
both languages. After that, the parameters of the Linguistic Annotation System
for Gestures (LASG) are described, regarding both gestural forms and functions.
For the comparative analysis of the verbo-gestural locative deictic compounds,
which is presented in section 4, we selected 40 videos retrieved from American
and Brazilian TV news and late-night talk shows, stored at the Distributed Little
Red Hen Lab, co-directed by Francis Steen and Mark Turner.
Results from our data-driven illustrations showed that verbo-gestural deictic
compounds can be organized as radial categories with prototypical central
members and peripheral ones, which include pragmatic and discursive uses
directly correlated to the degree of metaphoricity activation of each member. The
comparison between Brazilian Portuguese and American English datasets indi-
cates cognitive resemblance between both languages, even though the deictic
spatial relations are linguistically established in different ways.

2 On metaphoricity, prototypicality, and deixis:

some remarks from cognitive linguistics
Based on a systematic and discursive view of metaphors, Müller (2008) proposes
that metaphors should be analyzed when used. In that sense, metaphoricity
can be activated in online interactive processes, functioning as a powerful mul-
timodal resource to construct meaningful utterances, allowing the speakers to
establish mutual understanding through the process of creating, elaborating,
and establishing metaphoric meaning. According to Müller (2008), verbo-ges-
tural metaphors are in general outcomes of an underlying metaphoric concep-
tualization. The study of gesture in discursive and interactive sequences also
demonstrates the dynamic nature of metaphoricity, as gestures can work as a
foregrounding mechanism that directs the interlocutor’s attention to some por-
tions of the speech. At the same time, metaphoricity is, in principle, modality-in-
dependent, as it can be expressed not only through speech-gesture integration,
but also monomodally, i.e., exclusively by gesture or exclusively by verbal means.
Considering Müller’s (2008) proposition on metaphoricity as a general cog-
nitive principle, Cienki (2008) proposes three parameters when identifying and
analyzing conceptual metaphors and metaphorical expressions in use: (i) the
degree of conventionality of a conceptual metaphor in a given culture (from con-
ventional to novel); (ii) the degree of conventionality of a metaphorical expres-
sion in a given culture (from conventional to novel), and (iii) the degree to which
226 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

a metaphorical expression is highlighted in a given instance of use (making it

cognitively more salient). Considering that the parameters of identification and
analysis of conceptual metaphors and metaphorical expressions are gradient, the
potential for activation of metaphoricity is scalar. In that way, “the underlying
conceptual metaphors can be more or less frozen or defrosted, or more or less
asleep or awake (depending on the metaphor one wants to use for metaphoricity
itself)” (Cienki 2008: 10).1
Also considering a gradient level of categorization, and in line with philo-
sophical and psychological models of categorization based on family resem-
blances (Wittgeinstein 1958) and prototypes (Rosch 1973, 1978), Lakoff (1987)
proposes that gradience arises from the degree to which cognitive structures that
represent knowledge organization (ICMs) fit our assumptions about the world
(‘perfectly’, ‘very well’, ‘somewhat well’, ‘badly’, etc.). According to the author
(1987: 379), “the center, or prototype, of the category is predictable. And while
the noncentral members are not predictable from the central member, they are
‘motivated’ by it, in the sense that they bear family resemblances to it”. Based on
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (2007), the main properties of radial category struc-
tures in the sense of Lakoff can be summed up as follows: (i) subcategories can
be seen as bearing family resemblance to one another; (ii) the noncentral subcat-
egories are motivated by the central member, but the correlation among them is
neither predictable nor arbitrary; (iii) structuring principles (i.e., propositional,
metaphorical, metonymic, and image-schematic) need to be considered as links,
or even as cognitive motivations, between the central and noncentral category
members.
As for deictic structure, Marmaridou (2000) specifically proposes that the
ICM of Deixis involves the linguistic act of pointing to an entity, performed by an
authorized speaker (the deictic center), and directed to an unfocused addressee.
In multimodal contexts, deictic expressions are usually associated with pointing
gestures, since these are the ‘non-linguistic actions’ that build up a referential
inter-relation between the utterance and its spatial-temporal circumstances of
occurrence (Avelar and Ferrari 2017). Specifically regarding the act of pointing,
Kendon (2004: 200) states that “[p]ointing gestures are regarded as indicating
an object, a location or a direction, which is discovered by projecting a straight
line from the farthest point of the body part that has been extended outward, into
the space that extends beyond the speaker”. As remarked by Ferrari (2014), if a

1 Frozen or asleep are both terms used in literature to indicate a low potential for activation
of metaphoricity; inversely, the terms defrosted or asleep indicate a high level of activation of
metaphoricity.
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 227

particular linguistic item fits this ICM perfectly well, it is a prototypical member
of the deictic category. To illustrate prototypical deictic meanings, the author pro-
poses the following illustration (Ferrari 2014: 105):

Speaker
Hearer

Speech event
location
I
you
Speech event
time

ICM of Deixis here

now

Base space (Ground)

Figure 1: Prototypical deictic meanings.

Source: Ferrari (2004: 105)

As Figure 1 shows, the Idealized Cognitive Model of Deixis includes the main ele-
ments of the speech event: speaker, hearer, location, and time. These roles are
normally mapped onto prototypical uses of I, you, here, and now, respectively.
So, if someone arrives at someone else’s home and says “I am here now”, the
utterance aligns with the ICM of Deixis, since “I” refers to the current speaker,
“here” refers to the addressee’s home, and “now” refers to the moment in which
the utterance is produced. However, if the speaker is on a bank line and says to
someone next to her “You must have patience to wait in line”, the use of “you”
differs more from the ICM of Deixis, since it doesn’t only refer to the addressee,
but also includes the speaker and other people who are in line. Moreover, met-
aphorical uses conserve traces of the prototypical locative, related to space (the
source-domain), but are used to demarcate abstract ideas, objects, or entities,
and can also perform discursive and pragmatic functions. In this sense, meta-
phorical uses can be considered even more peripheral to the ICM of Deixis.
As mentioned above, cognitive processes are taken to reflect embodied cog-
nition, as argued by Lakoff (1987, 1990) and Johnson (1999, 2007). For instance, it
is thus the architecture of our visual system that determines our categorization of
colors as focal (e.g., red, blue, etc.) and non-focal (e.g., reddish, light blue, etc.).
It is also our bodily experience in space that allows us to conceptualize abstract
concepts, such as time, as movement in space, for example. Therefore, cogni-
tive processes such as prototypical categorization and metaphorical mappings
228 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

demonstrate the fact that our body not only experiences the world around us, but
also structures our cognition.
In the following section, we present our research question and hypotheses,
which address prototypicality, metaphoricity, and locative deictics, which proved
to be important in the analysis of Brazilian Portuguese and contrast Brazilian
Portuguese and American English multimodal data.

3 Methodology

3.1 Research question and hypotheses

For structuring spatial relations, Brazilian Portuguese has four basic deictic forms
acknowledged by speakers – “aqui” (nearer the speaker), “aí” (nearer the addressee),
“ali” (near both the speaker and the addressee), and “lá” (distal to both the speaker
and the addressee) –, whereas American English (as well as other varieties of the
English language) has a two-way distinction, linguistically expressed by “here”
(near the speaker) and “there” (either distal to both the speaker and the hearer or
distal to the speaker but near the addressee)2.
As previous studies based on Brazilian Portuguese data have shown (Avelar
and Pinheiro 2017; Avelar and Pinheiro, in press), spatial deictics have prototyp-
ical uses as locatives and less prototypical uses that function as metaphorical
extensions of the central meaning. Prototypical uses can be illustrated below:

Ele teve uma audiência aqui no

Fórum Criminal [He had a hearing
here at the Criminal Court]

Closed-hand Extended Thumb

(THUMB)

Figure 2: Prototypical deictic use.

Source: Jornal da Record

2 It should be noted that there is no direct correspondence between Brazilian Portuguese locative
deictics and English ones. In fact, while “aqui” is usually translatable by “here”, “aí”, “ali” and
“lá” are translatable by “there”, depending on the context.
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 229

As can be noticed in the example (Figure 2), the reporter points to a specific
place, the Criminal Court, right behind her, as can be visualized on the building’s
name sign, “Fórum Criminal” (Criminal Court). As stated by Kendon (2004: 208),
pointing with the thumb, called ‘thumb gesture’, is used when the speaker locates
an object behind him/her. In less prototypical uses, Brazilian Portuguese multi-
modal data shows that intermediate deictic uses, which lie between prototypical
locative uses and clearly metaphorical ones, may function as discursive markers
due to the conceptualization of discourse as a form of motion through space
(Avelar and Ferrari 2017). These intermediate uses can be illustrated in the follow-
ing example (Avelar and Ferrari 2017: 84):

É lá na família que o ser humano

aprende respeito. [It’s there in the
family that the human being learns
respect]

Palm-down Bended Index Finger

(Pointing down)

Figure 3: Pointing-down gesture performed with “there”.

Source: Retrieved from Avelar and Ferrari (2017: 84)

As discussed by the authors (2017), although this sample could be considered

contradictory at first glance, as the gesture spatially indicates “here” (index finger
pointing to the ground, near the speaker) and the speech explicitly uses “there”,
this contradiction is only apparent; the gesture performs a metaphoric discursive
function of emphasis. Given that discourse is conceptualized as motion through
space, the discourse topic (“family”) is metaphorically represented as the actual
location along this ongoing movement.
In order to investigate if these correlations between speech and gesture can
also be found in other samples of verbo-gestural locative deictic compounds, as
well as in cross-linguistic data analysis, our research question is:

Which prevalent manual gestures accompany locative deictic referents in both

Brazilian Portuguese and English?

Given the assumption that cognition is embodied (Johnson 1987) and that gesture
depictions can embody lexical and grammatical categories (Janda 2007), this
research question leads to the following hypotheses:
230 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

1. Pointing gestures are the most frequent gestures that go along with the uttered
locative deictic in both languages.
2. The referential function (in gestures) is the most common one.3
3. The nearer the verbo-gestural locative is to the deictic center, the less metapho-
ricity can be activated in the investigated online interactions, and vice versa.

According to Kendon’s (2004) definition of gesture as “a movement of visible effort”,

it is commonly hand gestures which are focused in gestural analysis. In that sense,
our two hypotheses are linked to this type of gestures and, more specifically, to the
forms and functions of each gesture stroke, i.e., the obligatory phase of the gestural
excursion, in which it is possible to identify the gestural iconic expression.
To test our hypotheses, we collected 40 videos (ten examples of each deictic
gesture) from Brazilian Portuguese TV News as well as 20 videos (ten examples of
each deictic gesture) from American TV News. Both samples were collected from
The Distributed Little Red Hen Lab (Turner and Steen 2019), a multimodal library
composed of thousands of video-recorded TV News, talk shows and TV advertis-
ing data from all over the world. All our data was, therefore, recorded in non-con-
trolled environments, since we did not manipulate the recording environment,
and an a posteriori analysis was made, without the subject’s knowledge.
To perform the gestural form and function analysis, we followed the anno-
tation procedures proposed by the system: at first, in order not to be biased by
the speech content, the sound of the video was turned off and the gesture stroke
form was described; next, the sound was turned on, and, after the orthographic
transcription, gesture modes of representation were categorized. Finally, gestures
were analyzed along with the linguistic context they co-occurred with, and the
gestural functions were identified. In the next section, these procedures will be
presented.

3.2 The linguistic annotation system for gestures: gestural

forms and functions

Bressem and collaborators (2013) propose a Linguistic Annotation System for Ges-
tures (LASG) that allows the description and detection of a grammar of gestures,
since the system proposes to describe the relation between gesture forms and
functions. Furthermore, gestures can be analyzed from the perspective of multi-

3 Referential gestures depict concrete objects or abstract entities, ideas, relations, or actions.
They will be illustrated in section 3.2.
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 231

modal grammar, as the system also allows the simultaneous description of ges-
tures and speech. To narrow down the parameters of form, the authors base their
proposition on four form parameters established for describing sign languages:

(1) Handshape, such as: open or closed hand, extended or bent index finger:

1. “Fish” 2. “Flat hand” 3. “Single fingers” 4. “Combination of fingers”

Figure 4: Hand orientation general parameters.4

Source: Bressem et al. (2013: 1087)

(2) Palm-orientation, such as pronated, supinated, horizontal, vertical, or

diagonal;

PLdiAB PVAB PVdiTB PLdiTC PLTC PLdiAC

body of speaker
body of speaker

body of speaker

sagital axis
sagital axis
sagital axis

body of speaker body of speaker body of speaker

Figure 5: Palm-orientation general parameters.

PL: palm-lateral; di: diagonal; PV: palm-vertical; TC: towards the center AC: away from the
center; AB: away from the body; TB: towards the body
Source: Bressem et al. (2013: 1087)

4 The permission to use the images was granted by the editors.

232 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

(3) Movement, such as up, down, to the right, to the left, towards and away from
the body;

up

towards body
away body
left right

down

body of speaker

Figure 6: Movement general parameters

Source: Bressem et al. (2013: 1089–1090).

(4) Position in the space, such as self-gesture (away/towards the speaker’s own
body), proximal, medium, and distal.

EXTREME upper
PERIPHERY

upper right upper left

CENTER

right CENTER- left

CENTER

lower right lower left

lower

Figure 7: Position general parameters.

Source: Bressem et al. (2013: 1091)

According to Bressem and collaborators (2013), the system also allows for a descrip-
tion of the following gestures’ modes of representation:
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 233

(1) Enacting, in which the hands move in such a way that they represent engage-
ment in a functional act, often one involving the manipulation of something:

Figure 8: Speaker representing the act of writing.

Source: Müller (2014: 141).

(2) Embodying, in which the hand stands for the entity it represents by substi-
tuting it:

Figure 9: Speaker representing an object (a bow and arrow).

Source: Müller (2014: 141)
234 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

(3) Drawing, in which the hand or hands move, usually with the tip(s) of the
extended finger(s) being the ‘active zone’, so as to leave an imagined trace of
the form being depicted:

Figure 10: Speaker drawing an oval object.

Source: Müller (2014: 141)

(4) Holding/Molding, in which the hands shape a 3D object:

Figure 11: Speaker molding a 3D object.

Source: Müller (2014: 141)
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 235

(5) Pointing, in which the index finger or the open hand is used to point to some-
thing or somewhere, included in the repertoire of this particular study:

A B C

D
E

F G

Figure 12: Pointing gestures.

Source: Kendon (2004: 209)

Regarding parameters of function, the LASG system (Bressem et al. 2013) pro-
poses the following description:
236 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

(1) Referential gestures, which depict concrete objects or abstract entities, ideas,
relations, or actions:

O ser humano é como uma (1, 2)

esponja (1, 2) [The human being is
like a sponge (1, 2)]

(1) right open hand, (2) right

closed hand

Figure 13: Speaker depicting the referent “sponge”.

Source: Brazilian House of Representatives’ YouTube channel

(2) Pragmatic gestures, which enact a speech act or mark the speaker’s attitude:

Vou fazer uma declaração profética

[. . .] Todo tipo de lei que venha a
destruir a família aqui nesta casa
caia por terra. [I’m going to make
a prophetic declaration [. . .] All (1)
kinds (2) of laws (3) proposed (4)
to destroy (5) the family (6) in this
House will fall to the ground]
(1-6) Right index finger coming
back and forth

Figure 14: Speaker making an alert to the interlocutor.

Source: Brazilian House of Representatives’ YouTube channel
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 237

(3) Discursive gestures, which structure the accompanying verbal utterance, for
example, by marking emphasis (Bressem et al. 2013; Cienki 2017):

Espero que essa casa (1) aqui

(2), os senhores (3) aqui (4) [I
hope this house (1) here (2), the
gentlemen (3) here (4)]

Palm-down Index Finger (PDIF)

Figure 15: Speaker emphasizing a whole portion of his speech.

Source: Brazilian House of Representatives’ YouTube channel

In the next section, results will be presented and discussed.

4 Results and discussion

4.1 Gesture forms: pointing and other gesture modes
of representation

In this section, we will present results related to our first hypothesis, which states
that pointing gestures are the most frequent gestures that go along with the uttered
locative deictic in both languages. For the other gesture modes of representation,
we maintained the quaternary distinction proposed by Bressem and collaborators
(2013): Enacting, Embodying, Holding/Molding (3D), and Drawing (2D). Aiming
at describing the gesture forms with pointing gestures, the following categoriza-
tion with the index finger was used: Palm-down bent index finger (PDBIF); Palm-
down extended index finger (PDEIF); Palm-away index finger (PAIF); Palm-verti-
cal index finger (PVIF). Pointing gestures with the open hand were categorized in
the following way: Palm-up open hand (PUOH); Palm-down open hand (PDOH);
Palm-vertical open hand (PVOH). Gesture forms showed the following distribu-
tion in Brazilian Portuguese and American English:
238 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

PVIF
PAIF 9% Enacting
PDBIF 9%
6% 26%

PDEIF
11%
PUOH
PVOH Embodying
8% 11%
PDOH 6%
14%

Figure 16: Gesture forms (Brazilian Portuguese).

Embodying
PVIF Enacting 5%
PAIF 5% 11%
16%
PDBIF
5% PUOH
21%
PDEIF
16%
PDOH
21%

Figure 17: Gesture forms (American English).

As can be observed in Figures 16 and 17, Pointing gestures are, indeed, the
predominant gesture form, corresponding to 68% and 84% of the overall forms in
Brazilian Portuguese and in American English, respectively. As to the specific type
of Pointing, Brazilian Portuguese shows a slight predominance of Pointing with
the Index Finger, corresponding to 35% of the occurrences, followed by Pointing
with the Open Hand, with 34%. As for American English, there is an equal prom-
inence of 42% of the occurrences in both Pointing with the Open Hand (21%) and
Pointing with the Index Finger (21%). In both cases, the gestures were performed
with variable palm orientations.
It is worth mentioning that, from a multimodal perspective, Kendon (2004:208)
observed that the combinations with the Index Finger are usually associated with
deictic words – especially with spatial deictics –, while the combinations with the
Open Hand are less frequently associated with deictic words, as this handshape is
frequently indicating the conversational topic or something (usually the exemplary
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 239

of a category or the location of an activity) related to that topic and, for that reason,
should be regarded with attention.
As predicted by Kendon (2004: 207), Pointing with the Index Finger is used
when speakers are locating a specific entity or object in the immediate visible
scene, such as the physical location shown by the speakers in Figures 18a and
18b:

a) Aqui embaixo era um presidio.

[Down here, there was a prison]

Palm-down Bent Index Finger

(PDBIF)

Figure 18a: Pointing with the Index Finger to a location in the immediate scene.
Source: Domingo Espetacular

b) He looks amazing up there on

that billboard.

Palm-away Index Finger (PAIF)

Figure 18b: Pointing with the Index Finger to a billboard in the immediate scene.
Source: Entertainment Tonight

In both languages, Pointing with the Open Hand, as predicted by Kendon (2004:
207) as well, is used when speakers are presenting a specific entity or object. Nev-
ertheless, the primary topic is not the object or entity itself but something linked
to the topic. In Figure 19 below, the speaker metaphorically refers to the location
240 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

of health problems in Brazil. In Figure 20, the speaker refers to the metaphorical
location of some activity under discussion5. Both Figures are shown next:

Quando eles [os problemas de

saúde do Brasil] estão ali, é
porque todo o resto faltou.
When they [health problems in
Brazil] are there, that’s because all
the rest is missing

Palm-down open hand (PDOH)

Figure 19: Pointing with the Open Hand (Proned palm).

Source: Programa Altas Horas (Late Hours TV show)

There’s a compromise right there

[with the people involved.]

Palm-up open hand (PUOH)

Figure 20: Pointing with the Open Hand (Presenting Palms).

Source: Late Show with David Letterman

Considering this study’s first hypothesis, for both languages, pointing was shown
to be the predominant gesture form in utterances with locative deictic terms in
American English and Brazilian Portuguese. Regarding the datasets of both lan-
guages, our first hypothesis is completely supported by the Brazilian Portuguese
and the American English data analysis, since there is a predominance of point-
ing gestures with the uttered locatives. Nevertheless, there is a slight qualitative
difference regarding the type of pointing gestures that occur mostly in both lan-
guages: in Brazilian Portuguese, there is a slight predominance of Pointing with

5 As proposed by Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson 1980), the metaphoric map-
ping in those cases refers to a concrete source domain – e.g., physical locations prototypically
represented by locative deictics – that represents an abstract target domain – e.g., health prob-
lems and compromises.
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 241

the Index Finger, followed by Pointing with the Open Hand. In English, though,
the proportion is the same for both types of Pointing gestures. This slight differ-
ence shows that while both languages depart from the same cognitive basis for
relating pointing gestures to locative deictics, there may be cultural differences
motivating the specific choice of handshape for pointing.

4.2 Gesture functions

This study’s second hypothesis, in which we established that the predominant

gestural function would be referential, is supported by our findings. The referen-
tial function corresponds to 87% of Brazilian Portuguese and 90% of American
English data, shown in both graphs below:

Pragmatic
3%
Discursive
22%
Referential
abstract
44% Referential
concrete
31%

Figure 21: Gesture functions

(Brazilian Portuguese).

Pragmatic Discursive
16% 11%

Referential
abstract Referential
26% concrete
47%

Figure 22: Gesture functions

(American English).

Both graphs show that the referential gesture function is the predominant one,
corresponding to 75% and 73% of the overall functions in Brazilian Portuguese
and in American English, respectively. Nevertheless, when the referential func-
tion was divided into concrete and abstract, Brazilian Portuguese shows a pre-
242 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

dominance of abstract referential function (44%), whereas American English

shows a predominance of concrete referential function (47%). In order to illus-
trate the difference between what was considered concrete and what was consid-
ered abstract referents, and to illustrate pragmatic and discursive functions, the
following samples can be observed:

This lady right here

Palm-down Index Finger (PDIF)

Figure 23: Referential gestures (concrete referents).

Source: Ellen Show

The first type of referential gesture (Figure 23) illustrates cases structured by the
ICM of Deixis: the speaker is the deictic center, and points to a concrete object or
entity located in the immediate scene.

I haven’t been over there [at the

narrated place], but I have a friend
that actually has. In fact, she used
to work over there.

Palm-vertical index finger (PVIF)

Figure 24: Referential gesture (abstract referents).

Source: The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon

The second type (Figure 24) of referential gesture illustrates a case of abstract deixis
(McNeill, Cassell and Levy 1993), since the referent is not located in the immediate
scene.
Pragmatic gestures (Figure 25a, b, c below) can be illustrated by iterative ges-
tures (Bressem 2014):
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 243

a) E agora ele tá aí (1) se expondo

(2), fez rede social (3), Twitter (4)
[. . .]
And now he’s there (1) exposing
himself (2), logging into social
media (3), Twitter (4) [. . .]

Cyclic gesture (Enacting)

b) I actually heard (1)

Palm-vertical index finger (PVIF)

c) That you have drinks here (2)

Palm-down bended index finger

(PDBIF)

Figure 25: Pragmatic gestures.

Source a): Altas Horas (Late Night talk-show)
Source b) and c): The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

In the first case, Figure 25a, the repetition of cyclic gestures, marked in the
description with numbers that represent the same stroke performed over and
over, performs the pragmatic function of enumerating a list of actions carried out
244 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

by a specific character in the guest’s narrative6. In case 25b and c, repetition is

marked by iterative gestures or the same stroke performed many times along the
speech. This iteration can be linked to the speaker’s attitude (Sperber and Wilson
1995) towards the fact that the interlocutor is having drinks on set, a procedure
that normally would be forbidden and is highlighted as such by the speaker. In
the first case, iteration is related to enumeration, and, in the second case, it is
related to the disclosure of something by the speaker.
Discursive gestures can be related to the structure of the narrative itself, as
in Figure 26 (a, b)

a) E aí (1) aconteceu algo inédito na

madrugada [And then something
new happened at dawn.]

Left closed hand

(Embodying)

b) And here’s what she did.

Palm-away index finger (PAIF)

Figure 26: Discursive gestures.

Source a): Zero1
Source b): Entertainment Tonight

In Figure 26a, the speaker marks an additional narrative sequence, using the
deictic expression “e aí” (“and then”, that doesn’t have a locative expression in

6 As the gesture is not performing a prototypical referential function with the uttered deictic
“there”, this use is considered metaphoric, since it is related to the idea of Time (the target do-
main), represented as Space (the source-domain).
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 245

English).7 In Figure 26b, the speaker uses the deictic expression “and here’s [what
she did]”. Although both expressions conserve traces of the prototypical locative,
related to space (the source-domain), they are used to demarcate time (the tar-
get-domain) unfolding. In both cases, the expressions constitute a metaphorized
use of the locatives.
These results partially support the second hypothesis, which established that
the referential function performed by the gestures would be the most common
one, linked with referents located in the immediate scene. It is shown that the
referential gesture function is the predominant one both in Brazilian Portuguese
and in American English. Nevertheless, only American English shows a predomi-
nance of concrete referential function, as predicted. It may be the case, however,
that the predominance of the abstract referential function in the Brazilian Por-
tuguese corpus, which is mostly based on narratives made by talk-show hosts or
participants, demonstrates the occurrence of more abstract topics in this kind of
context, whereas American English data involve more locally situated references,
as the hosts are presenting people physically present in the actual scenes.

4.3 Correlation between prototypicality and metaphoricity

degree in spatial deictics

As explained by Ferrari (2014), radial categories do not objectively exist in outside

reality.8 Instead, together with the existence of polysemic chains, they provide
evidence for a theory of cognitive models. Ferrari (2014) also states that the most
prototypical member of a category is the one that perfectly fits the ICM. Based
on our findings regarding both gestural form and function related to the deictic
terms uttered in speech, we propose the following diagram for the verbo-gestural
locative compounds:

7 English and Brazilian Portuguese differ on this matter. While English conventionally uses the
temporal marker “then” to indicate consecutive events in narratives, Brazilian Portuguese met-
aphorically signals the unfolding of discourse in time as movement in space (time is space), by
using the locative deictic “aí”.
8 From a cognitive linguistics perspective, the so-called outside reality is a reference to our per-
ception of the world around us. But it is important to bear in mind that this perception is struc-
tured by our cognitive endowment.
246 Maíra Avelar, Lilian Ferrari, Vera Pacheco

- Metaphoricity activation +

Uttered locative + Uttered locative +

Uttered locative + Pointing/Enacting Pointing/Embodying
Pointing gesture + Referential gesture + gesture +
function Pragmatic function Discursive function

Figure 27: Prototypicality scale and metaphoricity gradience.

It can be observed that the radial categories proposed for the uses of verbo-
gestural locative deictic terms present scalar properties. The prototypical central
member can be related to concrete objects or entities present in the immediate
scene and thus performs a referential function in the American English data
samples. In the same way, even though the most conventionalized uses in the
Brazilian Portuguese data samples can be related to abstract referents, the cate-
gorical center is not only determined by frequency, but by its adequacy to the ICM
of Deixis. In cognitive terms, the gradience of metaphoricity activation depends
on the proximity of the verbo-gestural compound to the prototypical center.
The nearer the verbo-gestural locative is to the deictic center, the less met-
aphoricity can be activated in the investigated online interactions. On the other
hand, the farther the cognitive category is from the deictic center, the more meta-
phoricity can be activated in the investigated online interactions (cf. Figures 18a,
18b and 19 in section 4.1). In that sense, the peripheral cases are all metaphoric
extensions of the prototypical center: they can be related to abstract ideas, objects
or entities, and can also perform discursive and pragmatic functions through the
gestures that co-occur with the uttered locatives. In short, metaphoricity can be
low or highly activated in online interactive use and has proven to serve speakers’
different purposes: to draw the interlocutor’s attention to a person, to enumerate
narrated actions, and to emphasize the speaker’s attitude towards the hearer.

5 Concluding remarks
In this chapter, we investigated verbo-gestural data related to locative deictic ele-
ments in both Brazilian Portuguese and American English. Results showed that, for
both languages, Pointing is the predominant gestural form co-occurring with the
 Prototypical and metaphorical uses for locative deixis 247

uttered locative. Therefore, results from both language data samples support the
first research hypothesis, namely that, in both languages, the most frequent ges-
tures that go along with the verbally uttered deictic term was the pointing gesture.
It was also suggested, however, that there seem to be cultural differences in the
performance of Pointing Gestures: Brazilian Portuguese speakers prefer Pointing
with Index Finger and American English speakers mostly choose Pointing with
Open Hand. As previously remarked, gestures performed with the Index Finger
are usually associated with more prototypical deictic uses, which make reference
to the spatial relations set up by the locative use, whereas Pointing with the Open
Hand is more associated with abstract ideas related to the conversational topic.
Considering gesture functions, the second hypothesis is also supported, since
pointing gestures were found to be mostly referential in both data samples, either
locating entities or objects related to the immediate speech scene, but entities,
ideas, objects or processes related to a narrated scene. Nevertheless, these find-
ings point to differences related to context-specific locative uses: in the Brazilian
Portuguese samples, speakers make more references to narrative scenes being
reenacted, whereas in American English, the speakers make more reference to
the guests and other people or objects located in the immediate scene. These find-
ings point to the validity of the semi-institutional feature of the late-night talk
show genre, as the hosts follow the protocol of presenting the guest, and, at the
same time, guests feel free to tell stories and even make jokes with the host.
The results presented here reflect an initial multimodal analysis of locative
deictics, contrasting two unrelated languages. Although not fully generalizable,
these preliminary findings suggest new research paths, such as the need to inves-
tigate the relation between locative deictic uses and discourse genres, as well as
the role of cultural motivations in gesture differences.

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Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe
Of wars and vengeance goddesses:
metaphorical conceptualizations
of Sars-CoV-2
Abstract: This chapter examines the metaphorical conceptualizations of the coro-
navirus (Sars-CoV-2) by analyzing and comparing public discourse from the spring
of 2020 in two languages, English and German.
Firstly, the chapter discusses pragmalinguistic knowledge from health com-
munication research, which has demonstrated how metaphorical conceptualiza-
tions help patients make sense of illnesses. This illuminates how the appearance
of Covid-19 in 2020 demanded new ways of speaking about the impact of illness
on the individual but, in this case, also on a societal, even global scale. For a full
understanding of the metaphorical construals of Sars-CoV-2 as a target domain, it
proves helpful to recapitulate the history of infection and contagion as meta-
phoric source domains, mapped on various domains of practice in many cultural
and societal spheres. The empirical part of this chapter then presents the results
of a cognitive and pragmatic analysis of metaphors framing Sars-CoV-2 and its
ensuing illness, Covid-19. This shows how, during the ‘first wave’ of 2020, fairly
conventional metaphoric mappings of infection and contagion became the
basis for new, ad hoc conceptualizations in both journalistic and political dis-
course, blurring the boundaries between, and sometimes reversing, source and
target domains. Our analysis demonstrates how the meaning-making qualities of
metaphors have helped journalists, politicians, and other social actors to make
the ambiguous biological threat intelligible. Necessary social and political actions
and reactions to the pandemic were often communicated to the public through
metaphors, alluding to domains such as war, natural disasters, journeys, and
religion. On a final note, the chapter discusses how different metaphor choices
(by different actors, in different sociocultural contexts) may reveal different ide-
ological and philosophical perspectives on society, nature, and human agency.

Keywords: CMT, cognitive metaphors, Covid-19, virus metaphors, public health,

pandemics, media, corona, health communication

Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe, University of Hildesheim

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-010
252 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

1 Introduction
This chapter examines the metaphorical conceptualizations of the coronavirus
(Sars-CoV-2) by analyzing and comparing a news corpus from spring 2020 (i.e. the
so-called first wave of the pandemic) from three countries: the USA, the UK, and
Germany. With a combined perspective of a cognitive linguistic, metaphor-theo-
retical, and a pragmatic, discourse-oriented viewpoint, it first discusses the status
quo of sociolinguistic approaches to health communication (section 2). This
research has shown that, to fully understand the impact of illness on our lives, we
need to take into account the sociocultural context and discursive interpretations
of what it means to suffer from a disease; both for the person affected, and for their
social environment. Health discourse analyses have demonstrated how metaphor-
ical conceptualizations can help affected individuals make sense of illnesses,
which emerge in their lives as random and agentless events, and which demand
new interpretations of a patient’s identity and agency. We apply this knowledge to
the outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020, which produced discourse on health and
illness both on the micro-level of individual patients and on the macro-level in
terms of the societal reactions to a global problem.
Metaphorical conceptualizations are no ‘one-way street’. Lakoff’s ‘Invariance
Principle’ (1993) has been extended by Fauconnier & Turner’s Blending Theory
(2003), which argues that source and target domains of common metaphorical
mappings can blend into conventionalized tropes, exchanging and mixing char-
acteristics. In public discourse, this leads to a blurring of boundaries between,
and sometimes reversals of, source and target domains. This is true for discourse
about viruses as well: section 3 of this chapter discusses how commonly used
target domains of virus metaphors from before 2020 (for example in popular
culture) became the first choice for metaphorical conceptualizations when Sars-
CoV-2 threatened societies, i.e. when a literal virus became the target instead of
the source domain of metaphorical mappings. It shows how infection, virality,
and contagion have been common source domains for the cultural conceptual-
ization of many abstract target domains (e.g., in popular culture) for a long while,
before Sars-CoV-2 spread across the globe, and virality and contagion became
serious literal problems. We intend to show that the collective mindset of many
societies was communicatively prepared by cultural tropes and conventional
idioms revolving around contagion when Sars-CoV-2 became the most eminent
topic in public discourse.
Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), augmented by an appreciation of the
discourse-analytical perspective on the illocutionary forces of metaphors, pro-
vides helpful tools for understanding both the cognitive and the cultural dimen-
sions of such metaphoric meaning-making. The empirical part of this chapter
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 253

(section 4) therefore presents the results of a cognitive and pragmatic analysis

of metaphors framing Sars-CoV-2, its ensuing illness Covid-19, and governmental
and societal reactions to it in public discourse between March and June 2020. The
analytic strength of CMT is thus augmented by a socio-cultural, interpretive type
to discourse analysis, based on the Foucauldian approach to public discourse as
the sphere in which political power is not only exerted but also negotiated and
justified (Musolff & Zinken 2009, Charteris-Black 2004).
Our analysis will show that fairly conventional metaphoric mappings of infec-
tion and contagion became the basis for ad hoc conceptualizations by public
actors, and how the meaning-making qualities of metaphors have helped politi-
cians, medical professionals, and journalists to render the ambiguous biological
threat intelligible and meaningful to the public during the first months of the pan-
demic. Alluding to domains such as war and religion, these conceptualizations
may also have had counterproductive sociocultural, political, and health-related
consequences, as critical voices have discussed.
Metaphors are important carriers of socio-cultural ideologies, even philoso-
phies, so finally, this chapter shows how different choices of metaphorical con-
ceptualizations may arise from different communicative intents as well as ideo-
logical positions, and are thus, ultimately, cultural.

2 Health, illness, and (social) identity

Health and illness are sociocultural phenomena because on the one hand they
are subjective, intimate experiences, and on the other hand they are nonethe-
less interpreted through the lens of how cultures view the body, the mind, and
humans’ physical and mental capabilities. As an individual experience, illness
or ill-health are individual and elementary biological or psychological events. As
a personal state of being, it is often associated not only with physical discomfort
but also with feelings of fear, isolation, anxiety, and, potentially, shame (Semino
2008: 175f.). As such, serious illness inevitably changes the affected person’s life
and thus often translates into identity crises (Plunger 2013: 158) or even identity
loss (Senkbeil and Hoppe 2016: 13; Charmaz 1983; Bury 2001). Researchers across
the disciplines of medical sociology (Parsons 1970; Frank 2002, 2010, 2016), health
communication (e.g., Harvey and Adolphs 2014), and narrative medicine (Lucius-
Hoene 2008; Boothe 2011; Soff 2011) agree that illness can cause a breakdown of
meaning on several levels. People who fall seriously ill are suddenly faced with
new challenges that infringe upon every aspect of their daily lives. They have to
reevaluate the control they can still exert over their bodies in social interaction
254 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

(Frank 2010), find new ways to manage emotional responses and interpersonal
relationships (Plunger 2013), and renegotiate the meaning of their own physical-
ity, possibly even mortality (Papathomas, Smith and Lavallee 2015; Hydén 1997:
52). Thus, severe and chronic illness is “an experience that disrupts the patient’s
everyday life and the forms of knowledge underpinning it” (Pierret 2003: 7). In
order to visualize this, Kleinmann uses the metaphor of a sponge soaking up “per-
sonal and social significance from the world of the sick person” (1988: 31). Severe
illness, he continues, “absorbs and intensifies life meanings while creating cir-
cumstances for which new interpretations are needed” (Kleinmann 1988: 32).
Referring to Goffman’s (1959, 1963) thoughts on stigma and the presentation of
the self in everyday life, Frank (2010) summarizes that for both the individual and
the social environment, the state of illness means learning to live with the fact
that multiple sources of control within the realm of the ill person’s life have been
stripped from them (see also Sharf and Vanderford 2009: 19).
Note that Frank, Pierret, and the other health communication scholars quoted
here commented on cases of individual illnesses of single patients. Concerning
the topic of this chapter, we hold that their insights need to be transferred to the
macrosocial sphere, when communication about an illness took place not on the
individual, local level, but on the largest possible level of significance, during a
pandemic affecting each and every one.
To summarize the prior paragraph: illnesses create circumstances that limit
agency and autonomy and entail loss of control, at least temporarily, and they
provoke the necessity to communicate about these circumstances. At the same
time, ‘being in control’ is an ideological cornerstone of modern civilization; ‘losing
control’ is stigmatized – individually (concerning the individual patient), but also
politically. Facing Covid-19 in 2020, when there was no cure or vaccine yet, served
as one of the strongest reminders of a) the limits of our individual control over our
physical health, and b) the limited control of governments over truly momentous
problems in a globalized world.
Elias noted in the early 20th century that the history of civilization as we
know it is in fact the history of humanity’s ever-growing control over bodily
functions, including primitive drives and urges, which translated into steadily
growing standards of hygiene, hiding necessary body functions from the public
eye, and culminating in, for example, complicated dining etiquette (Elias 1978).
In that vein, the loss of our full control over our body (through illness) is a form
of temporary de-civilization of individuals, a taboo, which leads to all sorts of
stigmatizing attitudes towards different illnesses. In the sense of Althusser’s
([1969] 2020) theory of the state as carrier of social ideologies, a person suffering
from a severe acute or chronic physical or mental condition is subconsciously
categorized as a threat to the social system because affected individuals jeop-
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 255

ardize the system’s ability to reproduce itself. Ill people cannot participate in the
economy and contribute their share, might not be able to participate in social
life, to find a partner and be able to maintain interpersonal relationships, care
for their families, and so forth. The idea of illnesses – in practice: ill people – as
systemic threats was echoed during the corona crisis in particular; for example,
discussions about which public services should remain functional during the
lockdown led to different professions being sorted by their degree of ‘systemic
importance’, echoing the perception that the situation was not just a threat to a
growing number of individuals, but a threat to ‘the system’ itself.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the social uncertainty as outlined above,
combined with the threat of our bodies being affected by a potentially lethal
disease, gave rise to a number of complex, occasionally confusing and contradic-
tory emotional and conceptual responses. Due to their ability to reduce the com-
plexity of our lifeworld (Schmitt 2016: 11f.), metaphors turn out to be of immense
communicative power when it comes to translating complex, subjective, embod-
ied illness experiences into the realm of linguistic interpretations (Sontag 1979;
Semino 2008; Semino et al. 2018; to name only a few).

3 Infection, contagion, and metaphors

“Through metaphor, body and mind are inextricably intertwined,” Geary (2012: 93)
notes, echoing a core idea of CMT first introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1999),
emphasizing that many conceptual metaphors have their experiential basis in the
functioning of the human body. Later developments in CMT came to fundamen-
tally reject the classic Western mind-body dichotomy and the notion that cognition
is “purely internal, symbolic, computational, and disembodied” (Gibbs 2005: 9).
Today, CMT stresses the fundamentally embodied nature of reason, meaning,
and imagination, and, consequently, language that “provide[s] part of the funda-
mental grounding for language and thought” (Gibbs 2005: 9; see also Hampe and
Grady 2005; Frank, Ziemke & Zlatev 2008). As humans across cultures share a very
similar body, CMT further argues, metaphorical language that has bodily experi-
ences as a source domain facilitates sense-making and meaning construction, and
thus represents the perfect medium for sharing complicated experiences interper-
sonally, particularly abstract and/or emotional ones (compare Gibbs 2005; Lakoff
and Johnson 1999; Senkbeil and Hoppe 2016). As discussed above, illness experi-
ence is inherently embodied (see Gjelsvik, Lovric and Williams 2018): the gravity
of literal diseases and the immediate influence they have on our lives make them
universally salient (with salience being defined as a combination of frequency,
256 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

familiarity, and conventionality, see Giora 2003). Thus, they have long been potent
resources for metaphoric meaning-making.
Despite the fact that the perception of illness is an individual, partly embodied
process of interpretation, the metaphors used to conceptualize them can only be
fully understood against their sociocultural background (Plunger 2013: 159). Frank
(2002, 2010, 2016) emphasizes the distinction between the biological concept of
a disease and the sociocultural concept of an illness and points out that the way
members of a specific culture interpret and respond to a diseased body’s break-
down in discourse “is one of the most fundamental ways that we humans organize
ourselves as social” (Frank 2016: 9). The coronavirus pandemic made that pain-
fully clear: Sars-CoV-2 does not only threaten single individuals, but puts in doubt
“the collective myth of a taken-for-granted future as well as the personal belief in
sustained health” (Charmaz 1999: 366). In its early phases, the pandemic appeared
to threaten societies as a whole and thus did not only create the conceptual need
for individual illness metaphors, but also called for a conceptual re-evaluation of
how we perceive ourselves as currently healthy but potential future carriers of an
unknown disease in a larger social system.
The individual embodied experience of illness, on the one hand, and the soci-
ocultural dimension of illness as a social phenomenon, on the other hand, are
also linked to the two-faced character of embodied metaphor in general (Senkbeil
and Hoppe 2016: 6). The philosophy of the embodied mind proposes that human
cognition operates on embodied frameworks of thought that are highly generic
frames of reference shared by all human beings (Lakoff and Johnson 1999) – i.e.
the macro-level of embodiment theory. These generic frames provide the mate-
rials for the metaphorization of highly subjective and view-pointed embodied
experiences, i.e., the micro-level (see also Dancygier and Sweetser 2014). This is
not to say, though, that all embodied experience is always interpersonally shared
or shareable. This distinction is important when discussing illnesses and the met-
aphors for them: many illnesses – Covid-19 is one of them – are common topics
in communication (the macro-societal level), but still only a small percentage of
the population has actually suffered from them and may attempt to communicate
what it subjectively feels like (the micro-subjective level). This discrepancy needs
to be taken into account, when, for example, public figures conveyed during the
pandemic that the whole society (often indicated by an inclusive deictic ‘we’) had
‘fallen ill’ with the coronavirus, which is only metonymically true, but not scien-
tifically. With this perspective in mind, and based on the dual level of embodi-
ment theory, we will, in the following chapter, approach the history of metaphors
using infectious diseases and contagion as source domains, particularly in
cultural (including ideological and sociopolitical) contexts.
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 257

3.1 The contagion metaphor

The coronavirus pandemic did not come as a surprise. Both in science and in
public discourse, the fear of a lethal infectious disease spreading across the globe
had been topical for a while. Viruses, or rather mankind’s knowledge about how
they work, had become so common during the late 20th century that by 2019
virality was a common trope and conventional metaphor in many genres and
for many target domains, ranging from harmful computer software to trending
videos on social media. Academic disciplines have used contagion as a source
domain for theories that attempt to explain an unplanned and often unpredict-
able spread of ideas, views, or other abstract entities, e.g., “social contagion” in
psychology (Braha 2012), or “financial contagion” in macroeconomics (Peckham
2013). In popular culture – and thus more accessible to the majority of people than
academic theorizing – the pandemic apocalypse narrative became a popular sub-
genre of the science fiction / horror genre, often involving aliens, zombies, mad
scientists, and the like. While Sars-CoV-2 in real-life involves none of these poetic
ontological ingredients, it helps to shortly review the fictional take on infection
and contagion narratives. As will become apparent in the empirical part of this
chapter, commonly used target domains of virus metaphors from before 2020 (for
example in popular culture) became the first choice for metaphorical conceptual-
izations when an actual virus, Sars-CoV-2, threatened societies, i.e., when a literal
virus became the target instead of the source domain of metaphorical mappings.
An appreciation of the contagion metaphor should look beyond a descrip-
tive overview of which domains exactly have been its target: as mentioned, from
technology, via social movements, to economic theory, the contagion metaphor
has been multivalent. Mitchell (2012) documents this in a comprehensive his-
torical overview. Her key insight, however, is that the contagion metaphor has
been contagious itself: once the metaphorical mapping that an abstract entity
(an idea) spreads like a disease among people had been accepted as sensible
and an accurate description of societal processes, it spread into other academic
and popular discourses. When, for example, the fear that spies and saboteurs
would spread communist ideas among American citizens, this was closely related
to other theories of behavioral contagion in the mid-20th century (e.g., Wheeler
1966). The fear of communist contagion (and the counter-strategy: containment)
both within the U.S. and in Asia and Europe during the McCarthy era then con-
tributed to the Golden Age of science fiction literature with the mentioned results
in popular culture. This generated stable literary motifs, e.g., the alien impostor
who willingly infects its victims, in lieu with anxiety of self-propulsing artificial
intelligence, which, in turn, contributed to computer experts of the late 20th
century labeling harmful software ‘viruses’.
258 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

From a cognitive linguistic perspective, emphasizing that metaphorical map-

pings rely on universal skeletal conceptual structures, image schemas, based
on the spatial and force-dynamic embeddedness of our minds and bodies in the
world (cf. Cienki 1997; Hampe and Grady 2005), it is not surprising that all these
instances of the contagion metaphor are thus closely related. Image schemas can
combine into complex, but still cognitively grounded compound schemas (Kimmel
2008, 2009; Senkbeil 2017), which may be highly conventional, but “neither lin-
guistically signalled, nor tied to one specific [metaphorical] expression” (Kimmel
2009: 181). infection is, as has been argued in Senkbeil (2017), one of these com-
pounds. Specifically, it is a sub-case of the shuttle schema, which has been iden-
tified as central in how people (classically) conceptualize communication (see
for example Grady 1998, on the so-called conduit metaphor), and the transfer
of knowledge in general (cf. also Benczes 2006: 116). The shuttle schema can
be deconstructed into smaller, highly conventional metaphoric units: it consists
of two ontological entities A (‘the virus’) and B (‘the infected person’), the latter
having the characteristics of a container, and thus a clearly defined inside/outside
orientation. After the ontological element A has entered the container B in a place
X, B moves and transports A along a path P (a linear movement in either space, or
time, or both). During this phase, A reprograms B to some extent, which helps A
grow and/or multiply. The container reaches a different space Y, where it releases
A and its multitude of identical copies, enabling them to spread and have an effect
in a theretofore clean and healthy environment.
In other words, contagion is, both literally and metaphorically, a complex
process with multiple steps, several ontological entities of different types, causal
connections, and motion in terms of both space and time. The key to understand-
ing its cultural and psychological potential in metaphorical communication,
however, lies in the fact that all of these steps and elements rely on image schemas
in the CMT-sense. This observation will become relevant when we discuss the
(inter-)cultural dimensions of virus metaphors in section 4: for the mentioned
reasons, compound schemas are not tied to one specific language or culture (as
opposed to many other metaphors), and they thus represent potent resources for
intercultural communication, despite their complexity (Musolff and MacArthur
2014; Senkbeil 2017b).
So historically, the contagion metaphor has related to widely different target
domains, but strikingly, the question of whether contagion is a positive or a neg-
ative process would have to be answered differently in different metaphorical
scenarios: when, for example, sleeper cell terrorists allegedly spread their ‘sick’
ideas among an oblivious population, this is defined as a highly undesirable
process; but when social media content ‘goes viral’, usually both the creators and
the ‘infected’ rejoice. Ideologically, the contagion metaphor would seem to befit
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 259

traditionalist, conservative values better than a left-progressivist one, as the fear

of contagion presupposes a healthy, pure, untainted space to begin with, such as
a homoethnic and homosocial group (e.g., a nation). And indeed, labelling out-
siders as disease bringers is a strategy of conservative in- and out-grouping that
may be as old as mankind itself. Then again, today’s left-leaning thinkers use the
metaphor as well, as for example Niemann (2020), who accuses neoliberalism of
having spread like a virus into every sphere of our lives, and Huggins, who argues
that “racism is an aggressive virus, which has been handed down from genera-
tion to generation for centuries” (Huggins quoted in Iken 2020, para. 2).
The one characteristic these diverse instances of the same compound schema
have in common is, however, the centrality of the second ontological entity (apart
from the virus), the container, or shuttle, for the process of spreading. To counter-
act further contagion – which is usually the communicative goal of those using the
contagion metaphor as part of a warning – it is thus necessary to stop the shuttle
on its path (be it spatial or temporal), rather than neutralize the virus (idea, opinion)
itself. As viruses and ideas are too small or too abstract to be visible, the fight against
contagion usually addresses the shuttle, the carrier of the germ. Stopping and elimi-
nating the shuttle before it bursts and spreads its matured germs thus becomes the
most effective countermeasure. In popular culture, this usually leads to interesting
plot drivers in spy thrillers and science fiction movies, i.e., when the hunt for an
alien that pretends to be human, or a terrorist who pretends to be a good American,
results in exciting action scenes. And it may also work when, to protect ourselves
from a harmful email attachment, we delete the whole suspicious email. But when
the metaphorical mapping is reversed, and contagion metaphors are used in the
opposite direction than in conventional popular culture, fighting the shuttle rather
than the virus may have very undesirable side effects. In the case of Sars-CoV-2, the
infected person should, first and foremost, be considered a patient who needs help
and medical care, not blame, social shaming, or even hatred. The results of such
metaphorical reversal may not only lead to discrimination, nationalist and racist
sentiments, but even enable the further spread of the literal virus, as individuals
might push off seeing a doctor and be diagnosed to avoid social stigma. In fact,
those who contracted and unknowingly spread the coronavirus in its early phases
reported that the psychological burden of having spread the potentially deadly
virus in their community – a mixture of a feeling of guilt and real or perceived social
ostracizing – adds to the burden of being physically unwell (Fritsch 2020).
This may have deeper cultural effects in the long run: Sloterdijk (quoted in
Soboczinski 2020, para. 1) argues that “the symptomless virus carrier” will remain
an archetypal figure (i.e., a conventional metaphor) after the coronavirus pan-
demic, and in fact, this trope has been used in literature before, as we will discuss
in the following section.
260 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

3.2 Viruses as vengeance

During the Covid-19-induced lockdown in most societies, many turned to liter-

ature for interpretations of and possibly guidance through these times of crisis.
Camus’s The Plague of 1947 re-entered bestseller lists in many countries (see
Flood 2020), a novel in which the title-giving epidemic serves as an existentialist
metaphor (similar to the ones described in the prior section) rather than an actual
illness. We are of the opinion that Philip Roth’s Nemesis from 2010 represents an
even more insightful pandemic narrative. Roth’s novel is organized around the
idea that the worst situation during a deadly virus epidemic (specifically: polio
in New Jersey in the 1940s, which is a factual historical event) is not necessarily
to fall ill oneself, but to learn in hindsight that one has brought the germ to those
who one sought to protect. Roth’s novel microscopically depicts how fear and
hysteria among a homosocial community leads to overwrought hygiene meas-
ures first, then to social finger-pointing, and ultimately to cultural racism against
other ethnicities, while the actual source of the disease, the polio virus, remains
mysterious and obscure. Nemesis makes ample use of the infection-by-shuttle
compound schema as depicted above. In the tragic ending of the narrative, it
introduces what we have called the “inadvertent infector compound schema”
(Senkbeil 2017: 332), i.e., it negotiates the horror of ourselves being the shuttle in
a chain of infection that results in our friends’ and family members’ death. This
plot twist adds a second metaphor, which also explains the novel’s title. Roth’s
protagonist interprets his role as the inadvertent infector of theretofore healthy,
innocent children as god’s wrath for his selfishness: the polio virus becomes the
title-giving goddess of vengeance, Nemesis, i.e., god’s – or fate’s – way of pun-
ishing people for their carelessness. Here, Roth’s literary ambition moves beyond
the social dynamism of virus epidemics: his novel serves as a macro-metaphor for
the philosophical question of teleology in times of crisis. It examines how those
who believe that every event means something as the expression of the will of a
higher power are able to cope with the random cruelties that befall our lives and
communities from time to time, such as individual illness on a small scale, and
epidemics on a larger one. For Roth’s protagonist, the randomness and meaning-
lessness of polio, which kills and cripples blameless children, ultimately remains
unacceptable. Instead, he comes to the conclusion that god must exist, and that
he does not mean well (see Senkbeil 2017).
The philosophical and explanatory power of Roth’s work goes beyond the
purely poetic and literary, as we will show in the following empirical analysis.
Nemesis in 2010 anticipated an explanatory motif that took hold in public dis-
course in 2020 as well: the idea that the virus Sars-CoV-2 is a form of vengeance
for our (mankind’s) wrongdoings.
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 261

4 Metaphors for Sars-CoV-2

The fact that target and source domains can be interchangeable, and mix and
blend their characteristics, is a central idea of blending theory (Fauconnier and
Turner 2002). It comes as no surprise then that after decades of using viruses as
source domains for describing the target domain asymmetric warfare against
in some way hidden enemy forces (war against jungle-based guerilla, against
German or Japanese saboteurs in World War II, against communist agitators in the
Cold War, against sleeper cell terrorists in the War on Terror), the reverse metaphor
fighting the coronavirus is war quickly became the first choice for communi-
cating about the situation in March and April of 2020. An analysis of the usage of
the war metaphor in its communicative context will hence be the first step in the
following section, with sections 4.2 and 4.3 elaborating on alternative metaphori-
cal mappings.
For such an analysis of metaphors for Sars-CoV-2 and Covid-19 in context, we
compiled a news corpus of written texts with an eye on both representativeness
(newspapers and websites with larger reach outweigh small blogs, etc.) and balance
(roughly similar sizes for the three source cultures the UK, the USA, and Germany).
With a, broadly speaking, discourse-oriented perspective, we analyzed each met-
aphor regarding its underlying conceptualizations in a CMT sense, and secondly
examined the context for the communicative purpose behind its use. As will become
evident below, different metaphoric expressions concerning the coronavirus are
often founded in the same or very similar primary metaphors and image schemas –
which is not unusual in CMT – and at the same time, rather different (conceptual)
metaphors, used by different actors, can be applied for similar communicative
intents. Our triangulated methodology helps understand these cases at the intersec-
tion of cognitive linguistics and pragmatics.

4.1 The war metaphor during the coronavirus pandemic

National crises are a time for the executive branch of government. People expect
their heads of state to act quickly, take decisive measures, and communicate their
reasoning for these measures. In the particular case of an analysis of discourse
during the coronavirus crisis, it thus helps to take a top-down approach to meta-
phor usage, and pay attention to official statements by government officials first,
which, for obvious reasons, have then been ventilated (and questioned and nego-
tiated) by the press.
Two leading political figures, who are known to otherwise rarely agree, used
the same metaphor early on. The French president Emmanuel Macron set the tone
262 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

in his urgent address to the French people on March 16, 2020 (BBC.com 2020a),
when he told the nation “nous sommes en guerre [we are at war].”1 On the same
day, U.S. president Donald Trump labeled Sars-CoV-2 “an invisible enemy” (quoted
in Shafer 2020, para. 1), and later commented that he did indeed consider himself
a “wartime president” (quoted in Smith 2020, para. 1). The British prime minister
Boris Johnson followed suit and justified his actions by arguing that “we must act
like any wartime government” (BBC.com 2020b).
It may not be a complete coincidence that those three nations have had mostly
successful wars as central elements in their national collective memory, but also
that they have had particularly serious incidents with terrorism in the years before
the coronavirus crisis. The ‘war on terror’ in these countries can be considered
prime examples of the type of asymmetric warfare, which invites contagion,
containment, and virus metaphors (as discussed in chapter 3), for example, in
that they feature invisible enemies, and dangerous ideas that spread among appar-
ently harmless citizens without being noted by the authorities. In other words, the
French, British, and U.S. American public is certainly at least vaguely aware of
the perspective that the war on terror is comparable to fighting a virus, so that the
direct reversal, fighting the coronavirus is war, may appear all too logical and
produce little cognitive friction.
It soon became noticeable though that, forty years after Lakoff and Johnson’s
seminal work (1980) on the power of metaphors to shape our worldview, the key
insight of CMT is common knowledge not only among linguists, but also among
quality press journalists. One immediate response to these presidential state-
ments thus was a critique of the war metaphor on several levels and channels.
From renowned metaphor researchers, such as Semino and Koller, who turned to
Twitter and campaigned to #ReframeCovid (Semino et al. 2020), to international
journalists (e.g., Rucker and Parker 2020, Löhndorf 2020), many criticized that
the war metaphor was not an apt conceptualization for the current situation, as
it emphasized (and demanded) pugnacity and grit, while turning away attention
from important (but underfunded) healthcare logistics and from the much-needed
societal solidarity with the sick, the elderly, and potentially dying patients.
Why then have leaders of governments in particular used this metaphor?
Trump’s usage of this hyperbolic conceptualization (the corona pandemic is a
war) may be accounted for by his lack of rhetorical finesse to frame the situa-
tion differently, and/or his tendency for self-aggrandizement: labeling himself a

1 Obviously, Macron spoke French in his address to the French people, while we aim at analyz-
ing public discourse in German and English. Still, Macron’s speech belongs in this chapter: it
made headlines across Europe and the world, and is a precedent for later statements by (English-
and German-speaking) politicians and other actors, as the rest of this section discusses.
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 263

‘wartime president’ puts him on equal footing with Lincoln and Roosevelt. Then
again, Macron is not known for a careless use of rhetoric.
A pragmatic approach to metaphor usage helps clarify the communicative
intent of the utterance, and at that, the three mentioned heads of state certainly
followed similar agendas when choosing their metaphoric expressions: in times
of war, presidents and prime ministers act as commanders in chief and orches-
trate the power of not just the military, but the whole state. Historically, literal
wartime presidents have enjoyed unusual amounts of executive power (through
emergency legislation, for example) and simultaneously very high levels of popu-
larity among their citizens, so the war metaphor aims at a consolidation of power
of the politician using it.
On a second level, the war metaphor entails several illocutionary forces towards
the listeners, i.e., the people, who, in a democracy, can be forced to behave in a certain
manner only to a limited degree. War imagery demands discipline, the acceptance of
unpopular but necessary restrictions to the normal lifestyle of peacetime, and unwa-
vering support of those fighting on the front lines, in this case medical professionals
and care workers. The war metaphor transforms average people from passive, fearful
victims into courageous soldiers in a collective effort against a common enemy. The
loss of control over our bodies that illness entails and that makes illness a systemic
threat to civilization (see section 2) is mitigated by strengthening the feeling of agency
and empowerment in a group of likeminded fighters.
Even critics of this metaphor have agreed that the second strand of com-
municative entailments may have helped clarify the gravity of the situation and
emphasize the necessity of a whole society’s collective effort (e.g., Meretoja 2020,
Beschloss quoted in Rucker and Parker 2020), particularly during a period when
the key aspect to stopping the further spread of Sars-CoV-2 was everyone’s strict
obedience to social distancing rules, even though they were new and naturally
unpopular.
Conversely, the reasons why critical scholars and journalists problematized
the war metaphor are similar to those discussed in section 2 of this chapter: war
metaphors for illnesses may ultimately blame the victim, i.e., the deceased, for
not battling hard enough; they imply outdated strategies about how crises can
be overcome (such as grit and toughness) while backgrounding more human-
istic aspects, such as kindness and empathy with patients and their families.
They also belittle the horrors of real warfare (Hyde 2020). And in the particular
case of an infectious disease like Covid-19, the war discourse may in fact harm
those it apparently valorizes. As Meretoja (2020, para. 12) writes: “Wars inevita-
bly have casualties. Wars require sacrifice. The narrative of war heroes is used
to justify putting health workers at risk”. Furthermore, particularly U.S. Ameri-
can President Trump received criticism for not only his lackluster response to the
264 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

first wave in his country, but also the entailments of his metaphors. During the
climax of his war-based rhetoric in mid-March, he used the attribute ‘invisible’ to
describe the ‘enemy’ in his ‘war’ not once, but multiple times in different chan-
nels, which critics interpreted as an attempt to hide from responsibility. Shafer’s
interpretation for Politico.com may serve as an example: “By calling the virus
‘invisible,’ Trump implies that he can’t be responsible for its wreckage because
who can be expected to see an invisible thing coming? And once the unseeable
thing has arrived, there are limits to what one can be expected to do about it!”
(2020, para. 6).
The dominance of the war metaphor continued through March and April
of 2020. We refrain from quoting further examples from broadcast and social
media, though they are plentiful and occasionally involve colorful entailments
and extensions. One might argue that its career ended on April 11th 2020, when
another head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany in his Easter address
to the German people explicitly contradicted its validity and stated: “No, this pan-
demic is not a war. [. . .] It is a trial of our humanity” (quoted in ZEIT.de 2020; this
and all following translations from German by the authors of this chapter). There
are certainly (inter-)cultural dimensions at work here, e.g., that German politi-
cians per default shy away from war metaphors for obvious historical reasons. In
fact, neither chancellor Merkel, nor president Steinmeier, nor any German state
governor appropriated the war metaphor at any point (see section 4.3 for alterna-
tives from Germany, especially from the domain of sports). But also, Steinmeier
had the advantage of taking his time before addressing the people: his speech
was recorded approximately three weeks after the mentioned public speeches by
Macron, Trump, and Johnson, at a point in time when the immediate urgency of
telling people to stay at home had somewhat receded. Like this, it seems fair to
say that (like epidemics) metaphor usages come and recede in waves. The war
metaphor was challenged and, at least to some degree, substituted by other met-
aphors, which will be the focus in the following sections.

4.2 The virus as a message

Let us remain with Steinmeier’s reframing of the pandemic for a moment and
remark on the fact that, while rebuking the war metaphor, he still appropriates
figurative language for a counter-narrative. In the German original statement,
“eine Prüfung unserer Menschlichkeit”, the noun “Prüfung” translates to “trial”,
but also to “examination” / “exam” (such as in school or university). In this
metaphoric scenario, the examinees are rather clear, as indicated by the deictic
“unserer” (”our”). But who might be the examiner in such an exam?
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 265

Steinmeier is known to be an active member of a protestant Christian church,

so clearly, we are entering the realm of religion here, a particularly metaphor-rich
sphere, one may add. Pope Francis – in a way a head of state as well – is known
to be an outspoken ecologist, independently of the corona crisis. So it came as no
surprise that he connected Sars-CoV-2 with ecological topics: he cited the corona
pandemic in line with the wildfires in Australia and the melting arctic ice as exam-
ples of nature suffering from human mistakes, to then add “I don’t know if these
[crises] are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly nature’s responses” (Pope
Francis, cited in Gallagher 2020, para. 4). Responses are more vague and less
threatening than revenge, but from a CMT perspective, the wording of both indi-
cates that nature is perceived as an agent in the form of a classic personification
metaphor (see, e.g., Dorst 2011). Personification, as the most obvious of ontolog-
ical metaphors, is a cognitive mechanism used to ascribe human characteristics
to seemingly agentless abstractions that allows us to perceive inexplicable, acci-
dental, or otherwise disruptive events as “produced by an active, willful agent”
(Kövecses 2010: 56). Viewing something as abstract and threatening as the coro-
navirus in human terms creates communicative and explanatory power (Lakoff
and Johnson 1980: 43). It construes the virus as a message, a communicative act
that must, in some way, make sense. Such a metaphoric framing of the virus as a
message may lead to a psychological sigh of relief for people who have been utterly
confused by the magnitude, on the one hand, and the meaninglessness, on the
other hand, of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. Claiming that Sars-CoV-2
is a message by a higher power also implies that we can ourselves respond to it,
and that our future actions may appease the (currently angry and vengeful) agent.
While Steinmeier’s examiner was left blank, Francis cites nature (note: not
god himself) as the personified power behind the coronavirus. The catholic
church has in common with most other major religions that it is based on an
intrinsically teleological philosophy: god has a plan, and while human beings are
generally free to counteract god’s will, the genesis of a virus (or its sudden leap
from bats to humans) would fall into the responsibility of the omnipotent. The
idea that huge catastrophes are god’s way of telling humans that they went wrong
is as old as religion itself.
At the same time, these two permutations of the metaphor sars-cov-2 is a
message from an angry higher power remain vague when it comes to who is
the actual personified source of this anger. The influential German priest Pirmin
Spiegel said in an interview that he too believed that there was a connection
between the greed of global capitalism, ecological issues, and the coronavirus:
“Earth is bleeding, and it is bleeding out. Multinational corporations have cut
open the veins of our Mother Earth” (Spiegel and Berninger 2020, para. 6) – a
remarkable mixed metaphor evoking the frame of severe injury induced by inten-
266 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

tional violence, combined with motherhood as a larger frame of reference,

which certainly evokes not just religious, but also Freudian interpretations; note
also the deictic “our” (“unsere Mutter Erde”). In a less drastic section of the same
interview, Spiegel explains the logic behind his hybrid anti-capitalistic and Chris-
tian-ecological perspective: “Because rainforests are decimated, the space for
fauna is decimated as well. Contacts between humans and wild animals increase,
which also increases the risk of diseases and pandemics” (Spiegel and Berninger
2020, para. 2). All metaphoricity and teleology aside, he has a point with the latter
statement: scientists without religious backgrounds have also argued that there
is a causal connection between the destruction of natural ecosystems and a rising
risk of zoonotic viruses in human communities (Vidal 2020).
We hold that the two metaphors discussed so far (the war metaphor and the
message metaphor) have been the prime contenders in terms of the question which
metaphoric framing for the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic dominates public discourse. In
fact, there is a structural reason for these metaphors to be alternative, or rather
mutually exclusive, options. To develop this argument, let us quote a slightly
longer example from a text from The Guardian (Clarke 2020) written by a British
doctor recapitulating her experiences with patients with severe cases of Covid-19.
She is aware and critical of the dominance of the war metaphor, particularly since
prime minister Johnson needed to receive treatment at hospital in April 2020.

The language of war has been rife during the pandemic [. . .]. Cabinet members assured us
Boris Johnson would beat the disease because he’s a fighter, as though survival is somehow
a test of character, a matter primarily of valour. The reality, of course, is more banal. People
do not die from this illness – or from any other – because they lack grit. Nor do they live by
sheer pugnaciousness. I look down at the bedsheets, stained with sweat [. . .] It could not be
plainer to anyone here that Winston [a 83 year-old, severely ill patient] is no participant in a
battle. He is, instead, merely the battlefield. [. . .] Character has precisely nothing to do with
it. It never does in the real world of the hospital where the good, the bad, the brave and the
timid all kneel alike before cancers and microbes. (Clarke 2020, para. 12–13)

Dr Clarke’s literary ambitions are clear (she is an author and journalist, besides
being a MD), and she uses the metaphoric repertoire with argumentative clarity.
She develops the standard war metaphor into a related one with a different
focus: an ill body is a battlefield (of virus vs. immune system), which rejects
the implication of soldierly valor or character as part of illness and recovery. This
metaphoric shift detaches the person from their ill body (which is not unusual in
health communication, see Frank 2002: 12). She then introduces an alternative
metaphor by claiming that “all kneel alike” before the immediate threat of an
illness such as Covid-19. Kneeling is a classic religious act, and in this metaphoric
conceptualization, both “cancers and microbes” acquire the status of gods, or at
least their worldly representation (e.g., an altar).
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 267

In the larger picture, Clarke’s narrative negotiates the psychological burden

of dealing with the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness when faced with a
lethal infectious disease against which there is no medicine (yet) among all who
are involved: patients, relatives, and medical staff. So her article echoes many of
the observations outlined in section 2 about crises of agency and anxieties about
losing control as sociocultural reactions to illness. The psychosocial and commu-
nicative-linguistic results of the coronavirus pandemic on health communication
in hospitals, by and among healthcare professionals will be a highly relevant
topic for further research, which cannot be addressed in more detail here. We
have chosen to discuss this example in a bit more detail because, in terms of
metaphors, Clarke’s choice to deconstruct the aptitude of the war metaphor, to
then end on a version of the message from god metaphor may lead the way to
understanding the central philosophical difference underlying the two.
The war metaphor, as discussed, attempts to emphasize human agency as a
countermeasure to the suffering the pandemic has brought. The subtext of this
empowerment may be problematic, as discussed above, but it reveals the firm
belief that problems, even dramatic global ones, are solvable by human action
(e.g., collective efforts, governmental decisions, soldierly discipline, etc.). The
revenge metaphor derives from the philosophically opposite direction: fatalism.
Those who generally believe in the limits of humanity may have found it easy
to picture the Sars-CoV-2 as – yet another – sign for the fact that the universe is
beyond human control.
Whether the revenge theme is emphasized or not (in Clarke’s narrative, for
example, revenge plays little or no role) is a secondary question to the key idea:
humility. Mankind is humbled by the power of, in this case, a virus. The religious/
spiritual perspective emphasizes mankind’s faults and a higher power’s logical
reaction to punish the sinners (e.g., Francis’s and Spiegel’s statements) or at least
test their morals (e.g. Steinmeier’s statement). A purely scientific perspective of
course rejects the teleological view that this virus has a purpose, and that it is
sending a message. Still, even doctors and scientists have used metaphors to frame
the virus and what it vividly shows, mortality, in whose face “we all kneel alike”,
which is an ultimately fatalistic perspective as well (e.g., Clarke’s statement).

4.3 Diversity and similarities

Our observation in the prior section, that the war metaphor and the message
metaphor have represented the main contenders to conceptualize Sars-CoV-2
metaphorically in the early phase of the pandemic, was made on the grounds that
they are philosophically diametrically opposed. It should not stay unmentioned
268 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

though that a plethora of other metaphorical conceptualizations have been pub-

lished and certainly have influenced public discourse and perception. Collecting,
mapping, describing, and potentially quantifying these metaphor usages, their
common source domains, and the inner differentiations of the target domain is
a task that will deserve central attention among CMT scholars in the near future.
Metaphor researchers have used social media to lay the foundation for a con-
certed effort of scholars from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds (see
Semino’s and Koller’s research and social media project #ReframeCovid).
Many results in Semino et al.’s collection intersect with our own research and
corpus. As a preliminary conclusion, we found that the coronavirus crisis shows
many family resemblances with other crises and large-scale problems when it comes
to which semantic domains serve as metaphorical sources. The Sars-CoV-2 pan-
demic has, unsurprisingly, been described as a natural disaster (wildfire, tsunami,
etc.), occasionally a “natural disaster in slow-motion” (Friebe 2020, para. 6); and it
has been personified in more than one way, i.e., not just as an enemy soldier, but
also as an “uninvited guest” (Stringer et al. 2020), or as a criminal (Shariatmadari
2020). A highly conventional domain for describing collective, strategic, goal-ori-
ented effort – in this case: by governments and societies – is the domain of sports.
Unsurprisingly, the enduring efforts to cope with the crisis have been framed as a
“marathon” (German chancellor Angela Merkel quoted in Welt.de 2020, para. 10),
other forms of races (e.g., “a world-wide race for a vaccine”, DW 2020), or com-
petitive ball sports (football matches, e.g., the Bavarian prime minister Söder, see
Lanz 2020). Many of these metaphoric scenarios are combinations of primary met-
aphors that, again, are neither unconventional nor unusual in this particular crisis
as compared to other crises. For example, the journey metaphor intersects with
the natural disaster frame in the statement “we are not in the same boat, we are
in the same storm” (Henry quoted in Porter 2020, para. 15). Then, also, a marathon
is both a sports competition and a long journey; a widely different context, but still
closely related to the journey metaphor.
We are of the opinion that the discourse analytic approach to CMT greatly
expands the perspective beyond the descriptive towards a communicative-analyt-
ical perspective in the face of such metaphorical diversity. In other words, while
the various and diverse forms of metaphorical conceptualizations may be inter-
esting in and of themselves, to get to the bottom of the sociocultural values and
ideologies in which they are embedded and which they purport, one must ask for
the communicative intent of those using them in a concrete context. To name a
simple example: a highly recurrent metaphoric motif in the spring of 2020 was the
concept that nurses are superheroes, most famously in Banksy’s artwork in a
British hospital (cited in Morris 2020), but also in many other media texts, such
as editorial cartoons etc. It indirectly also metaphorically personifies the virus,
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 269

sars-cov-2 is a supervillain, but that seems to be besides the communicative

point. Valorizing healthcare professionals in times of a medical crisis, in which
their professional knowledge and dedication is essential, is more than a symbol
of society’s thankfulness (as which it was commonly interpreted). It also commu-
nicated to said healthcare workers that they ought to keep going, despite the fact
that they were often overworked and underpaid, that hospitals were understaffed
due to healthcare privatization, that security measures to protect their own health
were occasionally sketchy – because that is what is expected of superheroes. They
sacrifice, put themselves at risk, and, in common comic book logic, their existence
is necessary because governments and their representatives fail to protect their
people. In that manner, the superhero metaphor may have been eerily adequate
in the British and American context. A closer analysis of its communicative context
gives much less reason for optimism than a simple reading of the metaphoric con-
ceptualization at face value would imply.
In a further step, mapping and comparing metaphoric blends on the abstract
level – their “event structure” in Dancygier and Sweetser’s sense (2014) – is nec-
essary for a full understanding of family resemblances in metaphoric mappings
in order to understand their ideological undercurrents. sports metaphors, for
example, are close relatives of the war metaphor on several levels, though here
also, many have criticized and deconstructed the conventional metaphor of sport
is war (Senkbeil 2011, Butterworth 2012). Still, since it also emphasizes agency,
the combination of willpower and strategy, as well as the possibility to ultimately
win, the idea that the coronavirus crisis as a long distance race is related to
the war metaphor concerning its basic event structure.
The natural disaster metaphor, conversely, emphasizes the lack of control
and limited power of humans in the face of nature’s force, as mentioned earlier.
It generally functions without personification and without pointing the blame at
god or Mother Nature, but still is related to what has been discussed in chapter 4.2,
in that the only logical reaction to a natural disaster that encompasses the whole
world is humility. Human agency plays a much smaller role, so this second family
of metaphors is generally less optimistic and less future-oriented than the sports
or war metaphor: simply put, one cannot win (against) a tsunami or a storm.

5 Conclusion
Viewing metaphors for Sars-CoV-2 and Covid-19 through the lens of CMT has
proven useful in showing that viruses and epidemics are particularly prone for
metaphoric construals that make them appear less alien and less mysterious.
270 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

Even though the coronavirus itself, as a biological entity, is concrete and onto-
logical, it must be considered a highly abstract target domain in early 2020, not
only because it is invisible to the human eye, but also because it was steeped in
intellectual and emotional uncertainty, e.g., regarding how it spreads, whom it
was going to befall, how it affected the human body and the social system. Our
analysis has shown that two underlying event structures dominated the diverse
metaphoric landscape in the public discourse of the three countries under exam-
ination here. Firstly, personification of the virus as an opponent founded in a
rather generic events are actions frame helped people make sense of the appar-
ent randomness of the disruptive events brought forth by an unknown illness of
an unprecedented magnitude (at least for those living today). The coronavirus
pandemic is a war and, logically, Sars-CoV-2 is an enemy dominated the polit-
ical discourse in the UK and the USA in the spring of 2020. sports metaphors –
such as those used by German government officials – tone down some of the
entailments, but they generally relate to the same event structure.
The second recurrent metaphoric construal we found claims Sars-CoV-2 is a
message, which, interestingly, also uses events are actions as well as personi-
fication, but moves the personified entity one step further away from us (societies
suffering from the virus). If Sars-CoV-2 is a message, then the sender of this message
is its personified origin, and here, many different interpretations are possible: god,
nature, death, and a teacher (testing us) were the ones we found in our corpus.
We have argued that the two main trends of giving the pandemic an event
structure follow two general ideologically and philosophically opposed perspec-
tives: fatalism versus an agency-based philosophy akin to liberal modernism. It
also appears relevant to emphasize that these two trends in metaphorical con-
struals of and around the coronavirus pandemic are decidedly not congruent with
traditional political camps in other spheres of life. That is to say: not only con-
servative, right-leaning voices have framed the pandemic as a war effort, in which
closed borders, a strong nation state, and punishment of socially deviant behavior
was necessary. Even the most left-liberal governments closed their borders during
the pandemic. Vice versa, not only left-liberal ecologists with standpoints critical
of global capitalism and unimpeded exploitation of natural resources used the
framing that Sars-CoV-2 is a message (to learn humility and change our ways).
That is not to say that the metaphors we have analyzed are apolitical. In fact,
our discourse analytical lens has shown how creative metaphors crafted from the
skeletal structures we mentioned above help politicians to push agendas (e.g.,
preventing serious opposition against their executive orders) and to motivate
the public to comply with restrictions protecting the population from contagion,
while infringing on basic rights to freedom, which must logically lead to polit-
ical uproar in pluralistic societies (such as the ones under examination in this
Of wars and vengeance goddesses: metaphorical conceptualizations of Sars-CoV-2 271

chapter). Other metaphorical choices appear to have a long-term perspective as

their underlying motivation: framing the coronavirus as a response to mankind’s
exploitation of nature aims at political change in the long run. When the acute
coronavirus crisis will have been overcome, the ecological crises that surround us
will still be in place, so even though there is good reason to criticize the teleologi-
cal approach as to why the virus hit in 2020 (scientifically, viruses are not tools of
Mother Nature’s vengeance), its communicative intent is not without merit – and
in some ways more humanistic than the war metaphor.
An international and bilingual data set such as ours also renders visible cul-
tural differences regarding metaphoric constructions that are at work beneath the
linguistic surface: all Western government officials that we quoted here framed
Sars-CoV-2 as an opponent in discourse in one way or another, but the basic per-
sonification is furnished with different characteristics regarding the opponent’s
level of vindictiveness, visibility, and violent intents in different cultural contexts.
To name just one example of the (inter-)cultural elements we found: the meta-
phors used by German politicians such as a race or an exam (even if the examiner
might be a deity) imply that we (mankind) can ‘win’ or ‘pass’, and that things
will be fine in the end, which conveys a different kind of threat level than being
a soldier in a war against an ‘invisible enemy’ (Trump) lurking in the shadows.
We have outlined in section 2 and 3 of this paper that embodiment is a central
theoretical approach with which to understand illness communication and met-
aphors, including the ones mentioned above. The dual character of embodied
knowledge in communication finds striking parallels in how the virus and the
pandemic have been framed: as the literal virus enters literal bodies and makes
them ill, this has led to metaphorical conceptualizations such as an ill body
is a battlefield. Macroscopically, as the virus entered nation after nation and
affected whole societies (though technically only few people had fallen ill yet),
similar metaphors and compound schemas (such as the infection-by-shuttle
schema) were constructed from similar embodied set pieces. Public discourse
about Covid-19 thus framed individual body and societal body in a metonymic
relationship, just as embodiment theory predicts.
Naturally, we are aware that our data collection represents only a very small
fraction of the extensive global coronavirus discourse, that our data is grounded in
decidedly Western cultural perspectives, and that our analysis is probably biased
by the choice of national contexts and languages. For a more comprehensive
approach, metaphoric Covid-19 conceptualizations in non-Western discourses and
in other languages should be included in the analysis, which might ultimately also
help to understand how different cultures have responded communicatively to the
breakdown of the body induced by the coronavirus, and the perceived temporary
breakdown of society it induced as well.
272 Karsten Senkbeil, Nicola Hoppe

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Section IV: Intercultural metaphorical
conceptualizations
Adriana Fernandes Barbosa
Conceptual fluency and meaning
negotiation in the German as a Foreign
Language classroom: a multimodal analysis
of teacher-student interactions
Abstract: This chapter aims at debating the relevance of conceptual fluency for
the research on German as a Foreign Language. In order to do so, it demonstrates
how cognitive structures such as image schemas as well as conceptual metaphors
are displayed in gestures produced by native teachers of German and their Bra-
zilian learners while discussing the meanings of particle and prefixed verbs. The
lessons were videotaped, transcribed, and annotated according to the Linguistic
Annotation System for Gestures (LASG). The multimodal analysis of teacher-stu-
dent interactions provides empirical evidence of embodied conceptual thinking,
since the gestures found in these interactions portray image schemas and meta-
phorical mappings underneath the meanings of particle and prefixed verbs. Such
mappings indicate that these structures are cognitively activated for interlocu-
tors during the conversation. Moreover, the analysis of gestures sheds some light
on the importance of a comprehensive inclusion of cognitive linguistics in the
second language learning and teaching agenda. The results show that language
and embodiment can be explored in the classroom and help students develop
their conceptual fluency in the target language.

Keywords: German as a Foreign Language, particle and prefixed verbs, concep-

tual fluency, metaphorical competence, gestures in classroom interaction

Note: This work is part of my doctoral research, which was partly funded by CAPES - Coordination
for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal
de Nível Superior). It is also part of the project “(Inter)cultural key concepts at the interface
between interaction, cognition and variation”, which was developed within the research group
Intercultural Communication in Multimodal Interactions - ICMI with the support of the Alexander
von Humboldt Foundation and the Minas Gerais State Research Foundation - FAPEMIG.
I would like to thank Ulrike Schröder for reviewing my speech transcriptions.

Adriana Fernandes Barbosa, State University of Southwestern Bahia

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-011
280 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

1 Introduction
Second language acquisition theories have made considerable advances concern-
ing the issue of how we learn other languages. Consequently, different methods
and approaches, especially regarding foreign language learning and teaching,
have been put forward so far. The oldest but most predominant one is Vygotskian
sociocultural theory. Moeller and Catalano (2015: 238) explain that, according to
sociocultural theory, “participation in culturally organized activities is essential
for learning to occur. Active engagement in social dialogue is important. Learning
is regarded as intentional, goal-directed, and meaningful and is not a passive or
incidental process but is always conscious and intentional.” It is in the light of
Vygotskian sociocultural theory and mostly based on cognitive linguistics that
Danesi (2017) proposes his conceptual fluency theory, which has been developed
since the mid-1980s upon the concepts of conceptual fluency and metaphorical
competence. The author claims that being fluent in a language involves more
than just developing linguistic or communicative competences. In order to be
fully fluent in a language, learners must develop metaphorical competence.
Concerning the field of German as a Foreign Language [Deutsch als Fremd-
sprache, henceforth DaF], some researchers like Bellavia (2007, 2014) and Strietz
and Kopchuk (2009) investigated the teaching of conceptual metaphors to DaF-
learners and showed that it is possible to teach the motivation of linguistic meta-
phors by explaining their image source as well as by comparing the conceptualiza-
tions of L1 and L2. Likewise, Roche and Scheller (2004), Scheller (2008), and Grass
(2013) developed experiments based on cognitive principles to explain grammat-
ical structures, such as Wechselpräpositionen,1 to advanced DaF-learners. They
demonstrated how this cognitive approach not only facilitated but also improved
the learning of these structures. Similarly, Barbosa (2015) observed how teachers
explained the preposition über during DaF-lessons at a Brazilian university. She
pointed out that the use of image schemas motivated teachers to perform gestures
and draw pictures that illustrated the different meanings of this preposition.
As gesture studies have shown, cognitive processes such as metonymical
and metaphorical mapping can be empirically observed through the gestures
produced by the participants during face-to-face interaction (e.g., Müller 2008;
Müller and Cienki 2009; Cienki 2010, 2013). Also, gestures may reflect the develop-
ment of L2-learners’ skills and competences (e.g., Stam 2006, 2014, 2017; Gullberg
2009). Nevertheless, the bulk of studies on the relationship between gestures and

1 A group of nine prepositions, namely an, auf, hinter, in, neben, unter, über, vor, and zwischen,
may take either the dative or the accusative case, depending on the context.
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 281

L2 acquisition have focused on the production of gestures by L2-learners/speak-

ers during pre-designed experiments, and only few studies have paid attention
to the analysis of gesture production by teachers within classroom interaction,
which may help to shed some light on the role of gestures in L2 teaching.
Therefore, this chapter intends to explore how conceptual knowledge regard-
ing the meaning of particle and prefixed verbs in German can be revealed through
the gestures produced by teachers and learners during DaF-lessons. Additionally,
it will be observed how much conceptual and metaphorical competence varies
between native and non-native speakers. Firstly, I will present the conceptual
fluency theory as defined by Danesi (1995, 2017). Secondly, I will explain, from a
cognitive-semantic perspective, the use and meaning of unter in particles as well
as in prefixed verbs. Then, I will discuss how gestures reveal conceptualizations
and help in foregrounding metaphorical thinking during interactions. Next, I will
explain the methodology I used to analyze the gestures performed by teachers
and students while discussing the meanings of the particle and prefixed forms
of the verb unterstellen. Finally, I will present the analysis and discuss how the
gestures revealed the conceptual fluency of the native speaker teacher and the
different levels of metaphorical competence of two Brazilian learners of German.

2 Conceptual fluency theory

Although many linguists have been discussing the interface between cognitive
and applied linguistics, Marcel Danesi was the first to mention the term concep-
tual fluency in 1986. Since then, his work has generated much research that val-
idates conceptual fluency as a viable theoretical pedagogical framework for L2
teaching and learning. The basic premise of conceptual fluency theory (hence-
forth CFT) is that “knowledge of conceptual systems plays a much larger role in
guiding the formulation and use of speech acts than pure pragmatic knowledge
and, as corollary, that the achievement of L2 proficiency requires knowledge of
these systems” (Danesi 2017: 24). In other words, to be conceptually fluent in L2,
learners must build up their conceptual competence so that they can accurately
associate language structure and conceptual knowledge, or vice versa.
Before defining conceptual competence, I will review some crucial points
related to the concepts of linguistic and communicative competences. Building
upon the Saussurian concepts of langue and parole, Chomsky first brought up the
notion of linguistic competence in 1965, which he described as the tacit, implicit
knowledge a native speaker has of the grammar and lexicon of their language.
Fernández and Cairns (2010: 60) explain that this tacit knowledge “means that
282 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

people do not have conscious access to the principles and rules that govern the
combination of sounds, words, and sentences; however, they do recognize when
those rules and principles have been violated”. They also state that understand-
ing language as a distinct system is an important premise for Chomskyan linguists
since our linguistic system functions independently from other related activities
such as speech, thought, and communication (Fernández and Cairns 2010: 3). The
notion of communicative competence, in turn, was first put forth by Dell Hymes,
who advocated that linguistic competence could not work without language use.
Therefore, a communicatively competent speaker knows how to use the language
for specific purposes of communication “based on a specific system of implicit
rules of usage and locutionary adaptation that it entails” (Danesi 2017: 16-17).
Although the research on linguistic and communicative competence has result-
ed in a variety of pedagogical methods and approaches, Danesi (1995) noted that
autonomous student discourse still might lack the conceptual richness that charac-
terizes native speaker discourse. For the author, it is the notion of conceptual meta-
phor that could give us “a probable explanation as to why student discourse is often
so unnatural, no matter what methodological orientation is used to impart knowl-
edge of the L2” (Danesi 1995: 4). In other words, what students lack is conceptual
fluency based on the development of metaphorical competence.
Based on the cognitive principle of classification, CFT acknowledges con-
ceptual knowledge as the basis for organizing and storing mental lexicon and
even grammatical rules. This idea was first suggested by Franz Boas (1940 cited
in Danesi 2017: 21) in his linguistic-anthropological work with American indige-
nous languages. Boas observed that some languages provided speakers with spe-
cific verbal structures that are related to their environmental and social realities.
The work of Boas inspired linguists as Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf
to develop similar research culminating in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which
claims that “language categories predispose speakers to attend certain concepts
as being necessary. They do so because they are used to classify the world in spe-
cific (specialized) ways” (Danesi 2017: 23). The Whorfian hypothesis is pivotal to
CFT since the conceptual system, which is manifested in specific language struc-
tures, emerges from culturally-based classificatory needs. Consequently, concep-
tual knowledge is crucial for both language usage and use.
CFT thus defines conceptual fluency as the ability to accurately formulate
structures in order to convey appropriate literal and figurative meaning in the
L2. Conceptual fluency depends on the development of conceptual competence,
which, according to Danesi (2017: 39), includes linguistic, communicative, and
metaphorical competences working together to produce appropriate and compre-
hensible speech acts, ranging from information exchanges (literal meaning) to
highly interpretative ones (figurative meaning). That is the most relevant contri-
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 283

bution of conceptual fluency theory: introducing conceptual and metaphorical

competence as new paradigms in SLA. Danesi (2017: 74) defines metaphorical
competence as the learners’ ability to appropriately comprehend and produce
conceptual metaphors and conceptual metonymies in the L2.
Furthermore, lack of conceptual fluency might lead to conceptual calquing,
that is, leaners speak with the formal structures of the L2, but they think in terms
of their native conceptual system (C1). In other words, they use L2 words and
structures as carriers of their own L1 concepts. For this reason, CFT advocates
that learners must have systematic and progressive access (explicit instruction)
to the L2 conceptual system in order to develop conceptual fluency. It is important
to remember that a conceptual system also includes grammar since language, as
an integral part of our cognitive system, is based on the speaker’s conceptualiza-
tions of the world. In the next section, I will explain how particle and prefixed
verbs in German are an example of how spatial conceptualization impacts the
grammar as well as motivates metaphorical meanings.

3 Particle and prefixed verbs in German

Multi-word verbs in German are divided into particle verbs and prefixed verbs.
They are also known in language course books and grammars as separable (par-
ticle) and inseparable (prefixed) verbs (trennbare und untrennbare Verben). In
many cases, the particles as well as prefixes derive from prepositions. I will show
in this section how the meaning of these verbs is cognitively motivated by per-
spectival modes and image schemas. Knowledge of such cognitive processes and
structures is not only essential for developing conceptual competence in German
as a Foreign Language (DaF) but also helps analysts to observe these phenomena
in gestures produced by DaF-teachers and learners.
According to Dewell (1996: 109), the most common prepositions that consti-
tute verbal particles and prefixes are durch (‘through’), über (‘over’ / ‘above’), unter
(‘under’), and um (‘around’)2, building verbs that can be separable and insepara-
ble at the same time. The (in)separability of the particles and prefixes impacts
not only the syntactic but also the prosodic structure of the verb. In separable
verb constructions, the particle must be detached from its base verb, for instance,
when we conjugate the verb in the present tense or when we form its past parti-
ciple. In this case, the word stress falls on the particle. By contrast, inseparable

2 These translations are based on the spatial meaning of these prepositions. Their translations
may vary in different contexts of use.
284 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

prefixes are never detached from their base verbs and the word stress is placed on
the base verb, usually on the first syllable.
Language course books and grammars usually focus only on these structural
differences when teaching separable and inseparable verbs. At the most advanced
levels, however, some semantic differences between particle and prefixed verbs
may be discussed in some textbooks. They usually highlight the tendency for sepa-
rable verbs to have concrete (spatial) meanings while their correlative inseparable
forms assume abstract (nonspatial) meanings. In this process, named by Talmy
(2000) as fictive motion, the image schema3 that structures the spatial meaning is
partially transferred to the nonspatial meaning, which maintains the schema but
does not imply a physical movement.
Nevertheless, as Dewell (2011: 9-10) explains, there are many occurrences of
prefixed verbs with concrete meanings as well as particle verbs with abstract mean-
ings. For the author, the (in)separability of verbal prefixes are not necessarily moti-
vated by its metaphoricity but rather by other cognitive aspects such as synoptical
and sequential perspectival modes (Talmy 2000):

Particle verb constructions consistently prompt us to concentrate our focal attention on

particular parts of a path, most typically on a moving figure or a salient part of a moving
figure, and they thus portray the path as a temporal sequence of particular locations (such
as the beginning and end). They call for an interpretation in sequential perspectival mode.
Prefixed verb constructions consistently prompt us to distribute focal attention more evenly
over the whole scene and the whole path. They call for an interpretation in synoptic per-
spectival mode. (Dewell 2011: 16-17)

Consequently, Dewell (2011) first establishes the prototypical image schema that
underlies the prepositions durch, über, um, and unter, and then describes how
these schemas remain as the core meaning in different particle and prefixed verbs
composed by these prepositions.

3 Johnson (1987: xiv, xvi) first defined image schema as “a recurring dynamic pattern of our
perceptual interactions and motor programs that gives coherence and structure to our experi-
ence.” Lakoff (1987: 458) also explains that paths are examples of imagistic-schematic reasoning
because “[i]f a trajector is at a given point on a path, it follows that it has been on all previous
points on the path.” Langacker (2008: 70-71), in his turn, highlights the profiling aspect of the
relationship between a trajector and a landmark: “When a relationship is profiled, varying de-
grees of prominence are conferred on its participants. The most prominent participant, called
the trajector (TR), is the entity construed as being located, evaluated, or described. Impressionis-
tically, it can be characterized as the primary focus within the profiled relationship. Often some
other participant is made prominent as a secondary focus. If so, this is called a landmark (LM).
Expressions can have the same content, and profile the same relationship, but differ in meaning
because they make different choices of trajector and landmark.”
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 285

Considering that the upcoming analyses will focus on the particle verb UNTER-
stellen as well as on the prefixed verb unterstellen,4 I present a prototypical image
schema for unter ‘under’ in Figure 1, where the trajector (TR) path is represented by
an arrow while the rectangle is the landmark (LM).

Figure 1: Prototypical route-path schema for unter

‘under’ as verbal particle/prefix.
Source: Adapted from Dewell (2011: 25)

This route-path schema5 can be described as the movement of a TR6 that passes
through a point below a LM, or at least on its bottom surface, so that the path
undergone by TR is profiled in relation to the position of the LM.
Nevertheless, Dewell (2011: 23) shows that, although route-path schemas proto-
typically represent verbal particles and prefixes in German, unter has only a periph-
eral meaning when compared to other particles and prefixes.

The preposition unter usually describes a location rather than a route, and the route-path
meaning is often avoided because of potential confusion with a goal path. That is, a phrase
such as unter die Brücke would probably describe a path that ends at a destination under-
neath the bridge, and speakers usually prefer constructions such as unter der Brücke durch
to make it clear that the path in question is a route path that passes through that location
and continues on. (Dewell 2011: 25)

In other words, when unter is employed to denote direction, it tends to describe

goal paths as in Marion geht unter die Brücke (Marion goes under the-ACC7
bridge), as Figure 2 illustrates. Conversely, to make it clear that the TR goes all the
way through the LM, as in Figure 1 (route-path schema), speakers tend to use the
adverb durch ‘through’ as in Marion fährt unter der Brücke durch (Marion drives
under the-DAT bridge through*).

4 Following Dewell (2011), I will use capital letters to emphasize the separability of the particle,
as in UNTERstellen, in which UNTER ‘under’ is the separable particle and stellen ‘to place’ is the
base verb. Similarly, I will use small letters to refer to the inseparable verbs, as in unterstellen.
5 According to Dewell (2011: 24), a route path “is defined in relation to a location that is inter-
mediate between the start of the path [. . .] and the end of the path.” He contrasts route-path
schemas to goal-path schemas, following the taxonomy of paths proposed in Jackendoff (1983).
6 Dewell (2011) uses Leonard Talmy’s nomenclature, which names the prominent entity figure
(FG) instead of trajectory (TR).
7 Like all the dual case prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen), unter must be used with the accu-
sative case when it denotes direction. Conversely, when it denotes location, it must be used with
the dative case.
286 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

Figure 2: Goal-path schema for unter.

Source: Elaborated based on Dewell (2011:25)

This characteristic can be observed in the verbs UNTERstellen and unterstel-

len. The particle verb UNTERstellen means sich zum Schutz vor Regen oder Unwet-
ter unter ein schützendes Dach stellen (to go stand under a protective roof in order
to protect oneself against rain or bad weather) but also etwas zur Aufbewahrung
vorläufig unterbringen (to keep something temporarily for safekeeping) or simply
etwas unter etwas stellen (to place something under something else).8 Therefore,
the separable particle UNTER plus the base verb stellen ‘to place’ can be illustrated
by the goal-path schema in Figure 2, which describes a TR that is placed under a
LM. The question is not how the TR is moving (sequential mode), but where it is
moving (synoptical mode) or even why it is moving (that is, to find shelter under
the LM).
On the other hand, the inseparable verb unterstellen usually describes either
a subordinating action, such as er wurde dem Direktor direkt unterstellt (he was
directly subordinate to the director), or the act of maliciously attributing words
or deeds to someone through unfair allegations or insinuations. There is also
another less frequent meaning, which is the act of “hypothetically presuming
something for the sake of discussion” (Dewell 2011: 223). I will concentrate here
only on the context of unfair allegation, since it is the case that will be analyzed
later. This use of unterstellen suggests a more abstract TR “such as a motive or an
opinion that does not so clearly exist independent of the person it is being attrib-
uted to, and so is not so clearly being transferred in a sequential change from one
particular focal location to another” (Dewell 2011: 75). As Dewell describes, unter
in this case means that the act is deceptive or underhanded. To some extent, this
meaning can be related to the local preposition unter, ‘under’, which can also be
the destination of the goal-path schema, as described above. In the next session,
I will discuss how cognitive structures, such as image schemas and metaphors,
can be observed in gesture production and how verbo-gestural metaphor theories
are helpful for demonstrating conceptual competence and fluency in native and
non-native speakers of German.

8 “unterstellen”, In: DWDS - Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. https://www.dwds.

de/wb/unterstellen (accessed on 08 Mar. 2020).
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 287

4 Detecting conceptual fluency and competence

through gestures
Gesture studies have shown that cognitive processes can be observed empirically
through the gestures produced by participants in face-to-face interaction. Based
on Lakoff and Johnson’s (2003, [1980]) concept of embodied mind, we know that
our mind is anchored in our body in that our knowledge as well as our language
are structured via cognitive processes associated with our motor and perceptual
systems. The cognitive view of gesture was first put forth by David McNeill (1992),
who claimed that the analysis of involuntary gestures would be a way for us to
access the speaker’s mind as well as their conceptualizations of the world. More-
over, McNeill’s theory maintains that gesture and speech are part of the same
system. He points out that “gestures are an integral part of language as much
as are words, phrases, and sentences – gesture and language are one system”
(McNeill 1992: 2).
Mittelberg (2018) claims that gestures, as a true phenomenon of human commu-
nicative behavior, may be more or less consciously produced at different moments
of the interaction. According to the author, it is precisely the less conscious aspects
of gestures that make them a valuable source of insights into the functioning of
cognition and language, enabling us “to empirically study the origins and nature
of the deeply embodied aspects of the human mind to which image schemas (and
metaphor) clearly belong” (Mittelberg 2018: 2). Cienki (2005: 436), for instance,
explains that path image schemas “can be indicated with one’s forearm and
hand outstretched, or by moving one’s hand in a line and tracing a path”. Wil-
liams (2008) also demonstrates how the PATH schema is revealed by the circular
manual gestures performed by a teacher around the face of a clock while teaching
students how to tell the time. In addition, Mittelberg (2018) shows how an Ameri-
can English speaker conceptualized the metaphor time is space when describing
for how long she has been watching a sitcom. While uttering the segment “from
the point of where I was till like the end of the season”, the speaker “designates the
point of departure with her left, almost vertically held, open hand and the end
point with her open right hand, which is likewise held vertically, thus reinforcing
the idea of a bounded space” (Mittelberg 2018: 4). Thus, her gesture and speech
simultaneously profiles the three parts of the path schema (which is the imagistic
source of the metaphor time is space): the SOURCE, by saying “from where I was”,
the PATH through time, by saying “till like”, and the GOAL, by saying “the end of
the season”.
Müller and Tag (2010: 94) points out that gestures may activate the metaphor-
icity of a given verbal expression by foregrounding some semantic elements of the
288 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

metaphor’s source domain, such as image schemas. To put it differently, gestures

can be an empirical evidence of the metaphorical mapping (Cienki and Müller
2008: 493). This is one of the tenets within Cornelia Müller’s (2008) dynamic view
of metaphor. Among other modalities, the author considers gesture as an indica-
tor of activated metaphoricity in discourse (Müller 2008: 198). While the linguis-
tic theory of metaphor proposes a static division into novel and dead (conven-
tionalized) metaphors – as the semantic source domain becomes inaccessible to
speakers through the process of conventionalization –, Müller (2008) maintains
that the accessibility to the source domain is not a matter of conventionalization
but rather of opacity and transparency within conventionalized metaphors. On
the one hand, there are the conventionalized metaphors that are opaque (dead)
to contemporary speakers; that is, the origin of the metaphor remains further
back in language history and can only be accessed through an etymological
analysis of the lexical item. On the other hand, there are the entrenched met-
aphors which are conventionalized but still transparent to speakers since their
source domain can be retrieved when needed. An example of an entrenched met-
aphor is the idiom to fall in love. Although this idiom is highly conventionalized
in English, speakers still have access to the concrete meaning of the verb fall.
Therefore, they can perceive Anna fell in love with Richard as metaphorical when
comparing this sentence with Anna fell off the stairs. This differentiation between
opaque and transparent metaphors is essential to the dynamic view of metaphor
because only transparent metaphors can vary in their degree of metaphoricity;
that is, they can be minimally or highly active for speakers during interaction
(Müller 2008: 200).
Regarding the gestural production in face-to-face interactions, when meta-
phoric concepts are expressed in only one mode, either speech or gesture, they
are considered monomodal or sleeping metaphors for they are minimally active
for speakers during interaction. Nevertheless, when a metaphor is simultane-
ously expressed by two different modalities, like verbal-gestural metaphors, they
become highly active for participants during interaction. These active metaphors
are the waking metaphors. Therefore, different elements help to activate meta-
phoricity of multimodal metaphors, such as semantic correspondence of gesture
form and lexical item (such as correspondence between gesture form and image
schemas), the co-occurrence of gesture stroke and focal accent, speaker’s gaze at
their own gesture (focus of attention), realization of the gesture in the center of
the gesture space, among others.
Giving that image schemas motivate the meanings of some separable and
inseparable verbs in German, and that these verbs may vary in their degree of
metaphoricity, I utilized the dynamic view of metaphor and its cognitive perspec-
tive on gestures to analyze the gestural production of both teachers and learners
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 289

of German within classroom interaction while they discussed the possible mean-
ings of the verbs UNTERstellen and unterstellen (as discussed in section 3). Their
gestural production was used then to assess their levels of conceptual fluency
and/or metaphorical competence regarding the use of these verbs. Next, I will
present the methodological approach for annotating and analyzing speech and
gesture.

5 Methodology for gesture analysis

The analyses presented in this chapter are part of my doctoral dissertation (Barbosa
2020), whose data basis comprises over 9 hours of videotaped DaF-lessons.9 The
two examples analyzed in the next section were taken from two different lessons.
The first lesson was filmed in 2014 and was part of the course German 4 (level
B1) offered within the German Undergraduate Program at a Brazilian university.
The participants are five Brazilian undergraduates and a native-speaker professor
who is also fluent in Brazilian Portuguese. The second lesson was filmed in 2018
at a private language school in Brazil. The participants are two advanced learn-
ers of German and their instructor, a German-Portuguese balanced bilingual. The
participants consented to the use of their images for research purposes.
For the annotation and analysis of gestures, I use the Linguistic Annotation
System for Gestures (LASG) since its analytical steps allow the identification of
different levels of conceptual (metaphorical) competence in teachers and stu-
dents during classroom interaction. This annotation system encompasses the
first three blocks of MGA,10 namely: “1) form, 2) sequential structure of gestures
in relation to speech and other gestures, 3) local context of use, i.e. gestures’ rela-
tion to syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of speech” (Bressen, Ladewig,
and Müller 2013: 1100). The foundation of the LASG is the notion that through
gestures “we see and experience the embodied basis of verbal meaning while
speaking” (Bressem, Ladewig, and Müller 2013: 1104). Therefore, a crucial step
of this annotation system is to identify the gesture’s meaning by comparing the
form and movement of the hands to motor patterns, image schemas, or action
schemas whilst considering the four modes of gestural representation proposed

9 The data basis is part of the ICMI corpus which is available on <http://www.letras.ufmg.br/icmi/>
10 This acronym stands for ‘Methods of Gesture Analysis’ and describes a set of methods divided
into four blocks of analysis that systematically reconstructs the meaning of a gesture.
290 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

by Müller (2010): shaping, drawing, representing, or acting as if. LASG is thus a

bottom up approach to gesture analysis that starts by describing the gesture’s
form and structure and then determining its semantic, syntactic, and/or prag-
matic functions.
Following LASG, I began the analysis by establishing the limits of the gesture
unit and then dividing it into distinct phases. The annotation of a gesture unit
begins by indicating the initial position, or resting position, of the speaker’s
hands. Next comes the preparation phase, when hands and arms position them-
selves to perform the gesture that will follow. After the preparation phase, the
speaker produces the stroke of the gesture, which is the nucleus of the gesture
unit and, therefore, carries the meaning of the gesture. The stroke is followed by
the retraction phase, when the hands return to the initial resting position, ending
the gesture unit or they reconfigure themselves to perform another stroke, initi-
ating another gesture unit. A hold phase may happen right after the stroke, when
the speaker retains the gesture’s configuration for a while. The hold phase may
evolve to another stroke, initiating a new gesture unit, or move straight to a retrac-
tion phase (Bressem, Ladewig, and Müller 2013: 1102). After defining the gesture
unit, I annotated the shape of the hands, the palm orientation, and the position
of the gesture in relation to the speaker’s body (gesture space). The description of
gesture form follows some parameters proposed by Bressem (2013), namely hand
shape, palm orientation, and types of movement. Table 1 shows the acronyms I
used during gesture annotation:

Table 1: Hand shape and palm orientation.

Description Short form

Left hand LH
Right hand RH
Both hands BH
Palm down PD
Palm up PU
Palm towards body PTB
Palm away from body PAB
Source: Adapted from Bressem (2013)

Moving on to the second block of analysis in LASG, I annotated the temporal rela-
tion between gesture and speech, that is, I determined whether the gesture stroke
co-occurred with a co-expressive speech segment, which in this case are the sep-
arable and inseparable verbs discussed during the lesson. After that, in the third
and final block of analysis, it was possible to determine the gesture’s semantic
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 291

functions based on three types of semantic relations: redundant, when the ges-
ture’s form matches the image schema underneath the verbal prefix, emphasizing
its meaning; complementary or supplementary relation, when the gesture’s form
does not match the image schema but still contributes to the meaning of the verb
in general; and replacing, when the gesture occurred in the absence of speech,
substituting the verb or verb phrase11 (Bressem, Ladewig, and Müller 2013: 1111).
LASG recommends the use of GAT 212 conventions (Couper-Kuhlen and Barth-
Weingarten 2011) to annotate the speech. These conventions allow the analyst to
divide the speech into turns or intonation units as well as to annotate prosodic
elements, such as final pitch movements and focal accents. The transcriptions pre-
sented in this chapter are divided into intonation units, since the data is part of the
ICMI Corpus,13 whose transcription standards follow this pattern.
The gestures were annotated using the software ELAN and the text outputs
were exported to an Excel spreadsheet so I could better edit the annotation tables.
I also transcribed the speech using EXMARaLDA since this software automati-
cally generates a more reader-friendly output14 for speech transcriptions follow-
ing GAT 2 conventions. This output will be presented separately from the anno-
tation tables for it facilitates the analysis of the interactional aspects in gesture’s
production.

11 LASG also considers the contrary semantic relation, which occurs when gesture and speech
have contrary semantic features; however, this relation was not found in the data.
12 GAT 2 (GesprächsAnalytisches Transkriptionssystem) is the second version of a unified tran-
scription system developed “for notating, first and foremost, the wording and prosody of natural
everyday talk-in-interaction” (Couper-Kuhlen and Barth-Weingarten 2011: 2). It has three annota-
tion levels: minimal, basic, and fine. The minimum level notates only few verbal aspects such as
intonation phrases and pauses and is considered, therefore, only as a working tool that precedes
more detailed linguistic analysis. The basic and fine levels allow us to insert prosodic and visual
elements for more detailed linguistic analysis. LASG recommend the basic level, which I also use
here, since it is important to notate final pitch movements and focal accents within intonation
units in order to determine some gestural functions.
13 The ICMI corpus (former: NUCOI corpus) is currently comprised of about 2,496 minutes of
videotaped interactions and their transcriptions with a total of 56,164 intonation units. The re-
cordings are based on elicited, institutional, and natural interactions among participants from
different cultures, as well as among participants with the same linguistic and cultural back-
ground. The corpus can be accessed at: http://www.letras.ufmg.br/icmi/
14 The running transcript is subdivided into segments that correspond to each intonation unit.
Each segment is numbered, and each number is followed by the speaker ID. Under each segment
line, I inserted the translation in English.
292 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

6 Data analysis
This section looks at two excerpts of classroom interaction where teachers and
learners are discussing the meanings of the separable verb UNTERstellen and the
inseparable form unterstellen. The first excerpt is an example of how conceptual
fluency can be detected through the gestures of a native speaker of German. In the
second excerpt, I demonstrate how gestures may reveal different levels of concep-
tual (metaphorical) competence in DaF-learners. For each example, I first show
an extended transcription of the speech in order to provide a broader context
for the gesture production. Then I present the annotation tables for the gestures,
followed by a detailed description of the gesture form, temporal, and semantic
relation as well as semantic function. The discussion concerning the relevance of
the gestures regarding conceptual fluency as well as possible pedagogical reper-
cussions will be presented in a separate section.

6.1 Example 1

This first excerpt was taken from a German language course taught to undergrad-
uate students. In the transcript below the native speaker professor is comparing
the separable verb UNTERstellen with the inseparable unterstellen. He gives an
example with a spatial context to explain the separable form, whereas the insep-
arable verb is explained through a highly metaphorical example, as shown in (1)
and (2):

(1) Es regne-t und wir müss-en uns unter ein Dach

It rain-3.SG and we must-2.PL ourselves under a-ACC.N roof
unter-stell-en.
unter-PAR-place-INF
‘It’s raining and we have to shelter under a roof.’

(2) Das ist eine Unter-stellung

That is an-NOM.F unter-PAR-placement
‘That’s an unfair allegation’

His full explanation follows in the transcript below:

 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 293

2014BHAula01-parte03 ((17:46-19:33))
001 P: ah:m rapidamente um OUtro exEmplo,
quickly another example
002 ah:m (-) que eu jÁ dei uma OUtra vez,
that I’ve already given before
003 ah:m UNterstellen,
to shelter
004 (1.7) ja zum BEIspiel,
yeah for example
005 es (---) REgnet,
it’s raining
006 (1.8) und wir mÜssen uns (---)<<highlighting the tonic
accent on the board> ↑UNterstellen,>
and we have to shelter
007 <<pointing to the board> quer dizEr também num sentido
conCREto (-) né;>
I mean in a concrete sense right
008 wir mÜssen uns (-) UNterstellen,
we have to shelter
009 unter ei::n unter ein DACH (.) ne,
under a under a roof right
010 (---) und das PERfekt ist <<pointing to the whiteboard> Also,>
and the participle form will be then
011 wir HAben uns,
we have
012 (3.2)
013 S2: UNtergestEllt;
sheltered
014 P: UNtergestEllt (-) ne;
sheltered right.
015 ((writes on the whiteboard for approx. 3.3))
<<writing the verb on the board> gE (1.9) STELLT (1.4) ne;>
016 (--) und (-) na wenn es UNterstellen gibt,
and if there is UNTERstellen
017 <<writing on the board> dann (.) gibts natürlich AUCH
unter↑stEllen;>
then there’s also unterstellen
018 ((writes the verb on the board for approx. 6.3)) unterSTELlen;
019 (1.8) es ist (-) auch was dass es absTRAKT ist;
it’s also something that is abstract
294 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

020 das-
this
021 (1.8) hhh° (1.3) <<acc> etwas (xxx) man> das ist zum BEIspiel,
something one this is for example
022 eine diffaMIErung,
a defamation
023 (--) äh: (-) jemand (-) SAGT,
someone says
024 <<pointing to S5> S5 (.) du hAst> <<pointing to the comput-
er in the room> äh:::> einen comPUter (-) gestOhlen;
S5 you stole the computer
025 S5: [((laughs))]
026 P: [((laughs))] você rouBOU (--) o computAdor;
you stole the computer
027 (1.3) ne,
right
028 (-) das heißt es ist eine beHAUPtung,
I mean that’s a statement
029 uma afirmação SEM (.) fundamEnto,
an unfounded claim
030 sem PROva,
with no evidence
031 das ist eine unter↑STELlung
it is an (unfair) allegation
032 (---) não sei qual seria o TERmo-
I don’t know what the word would be
033 (2.8) mais adeQUAdo,
the most appropriate one
034 mas a idEia é DE (.) ser uma:-
but the idea is that it is
035 uma uma caLÚnia,
a a slander
036 uma difamaÇÃO,
a defamation
037 (1.3) alguma cOiIsa nesse (-) senTIdo;
something in this regard

From lines 004 to 015, the professor explains the separable verb UNTERstellen. First,
in line 005, he gives the context of the action by saying it’s raining. Next, in line 006,
he introduces the verb in the sentence und wir mÜssen uns ↑UNterstellen
(and we have to shelter) and emphasizes the separable particle with a small pitch
upstep to make clear that the separable verbs have their stress syllable always on
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 295

the particle: ↑UNterstellen. At the same time, he writes the accent mark on
the first syllable of the verb on the board. In the next segment, he draws students’
attention to the fact that the separable form is being used with a concrete meaning.
Then he repeats his example in lines 008 and adds the prepositional phrase unter
ei::n unter ein DACH (under a roof) in line 009, while performing a gesture,
as shown in Annotation Table 01.
The professor repeatedly moves the open right hand, with the palm facing
down, back and forth over his head. This gesture form suggests that the teacher is
molding a flat surface over his head that can be used as protection from the rain.
The stroke phase begins at the end of the intonation unit in line 008 and lasts until
the beginning of the next unit, co-occurring with the speech segment UNters-
tellen, unter ei::n, which also has a primary focal accent. It is interesting
to note that he prolongs the pronunciation of the indefinite article ein by about
0.7 seconds while repeating the stroke, and then retracts the gesture while saying
unter ein DACH;. Based on the gesture-speech temporal correlation, I claim
that his gesture is a metonymical representation of the goal-path schema under-
lying UNTERstellen, as shown in Figure 03, rather than only an iconic representa-
tion of a place where people can hide from the rain.

Annotation Table 01: Gesture for UNTERstellen.

T-Speech: wir mÜssen uns| (-) |UNterstellen, unter ei::n| unter ein DACH
T-translation: and we must | . . . |shelter under a | under a roof right
T-phase: |prep.| stroke | retraction
T-Gesture: Open LH-PD moves repeatedly forwards and backwards over the head in a
straight-line path.
296 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

Figure 3: Image schema for sich unter ein Dach

unterstellen (to shelter under a roof).

As the transcript shows, the teacher added a pleonastic directional preposi-

tional phrase (pleonastic PP)15 unter ein Dach after saying the main verb unters-
tellen.16 According to Dewell (2011: 42), “pleonastic PPs typically specify a par-
ticular LM in the spatial context” that is usually implicit in constructions with
particle verbs. Therefore, the teacher not only models the shape of the LM, but
also uses his own body (his head) to represent the destination of the TR under the
LM, that is, the whole configuration of hands and body foregrounds the goal-path
schema of UNTERstellen.
Continuing his explanation in line 017, the professor introduces the insepa-
rable verb unterstellen with small pitch upstep before the secondary focus accent
unter↑stEllen; once again to make clear that the word stress in prefixed
verbs is on the base verb. He then states that this verb has an abstract meaning
and compares it to the word Diffamierung, ‘defamation’, perhaps because of its
phonological approximation to the Portuguese word difamação. Then, in line
024, he gives a more specific example by saying that someone could accuse a
student of stealing a computer: he points to a student and then to the computer in
the classroom and says du hast den Computer gestohlen (you stole the computer).
He repeats the example sentence in Portuguese and then explains in lines 029
and 030 that such accusation is “an unfounded claim, with no evidence”.
In the next segment, he finally mentions the nominalized form of the verb
unterstellen, performing a gesture simultaneously, as Annotation Table 02 shows:

15 According to Olsen (1996: 311-312), the pleonastiche Direktionale are PPs whose preposition
has the same form as in the particle verb. She argues that particle verbs in German do not inherit
the original P-Relatum, that is, the object of the original PP is suppressed in particle-verb con-
structions. Thus, in order to restore the original P-Relatum, the speaker has two strategies: the
addition of a dative object or a pleonastic directional PP.
16 In sentences with modal verbs in German, the canonical position of the main verb is at the
end of the sentence.
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 297

Annotation Table 02: Gesture for Unterstellung.

T-Speech: das ist | eine unter↑STELlung; |

T-translation: it is | an [unfair] allegation |
T-phase: preparation | stroke | retraction
T-Gesture: Curved RH-PTB moves diagonally downwards until the palm is
completely opened

The teacher moves his right hand diagonally downwards, with the palm
towards his body. The stroke occurs simultaneously to the speech segment eine
unter↑STELlung; ‘an [unfair] allegation’, which also carries the primary
accent within the intonation unit. At the beginning of the stroke phase, the palm
is bent, but the teacher opens his hand slowly during the movement, finishing the
gesture with a flat palm. Since the downward movement matches the prototypical
image schema of unter (Dewell 2011: 40), I consider that the teacher performed a
verbal-gestural metaphor. The lexicalized meaning of unterstellen in this context
expresses an unfair and false allegation that can be associated with the idea of
a deceptive or underhanded act (Dewell 2011: 223). To put it in other words, one
can argue that the unter-schema, which represents the action of putting (hiding)
something under something, motivates the metaphorical meaning of unterstellen,
since a false allegation is not only unfair but also hides the really guilty person. In
the following segment, the teacher confirms this interpretation:
298 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

032 (---) não sei qual seria o TERmo-

I don’t know what the word would be
033 (2.8) mais adeQUAdo,
the most appropriate one
034 mas a idEia é DE (.) ser uma:-
but the idea is that it is
035 uma uma caLÚnia,
a a slander
036 uma difamaÇÃO,
a defamation
037 (1.3) alguma cOisa nesse (-) senTIdo;
something in this regard

In lines 032 to 036 he says he is not sure what the best translation for unterstellen
in Portuguese would be, but he suggests it can be related to the idea of calúnia
‘slander’ or difamação ‘defamation’. Therefore, the teacher’s gesture, alongside
the use of verbal elaborations of the metaphor such as the different translations
into Portuguese, activates the metaphoricity (Müller 2008) of Unterstellung, the
nominalized form of the verb unterstellen.

6.2 Example 2

The second example was extracted from a DaF-lesson in a private language

school. The learners were doing a grammatical exercise in which they should
write sentences using the correct form of separable and inseparable verbs in the
present perfect tense (Perfekt). The excerpt transcribed below shows teacher and
students discussing the meaning of the participle form of UNTERstellen in the
following sentence:

(3) Während der Reise hat er sein-e Pflanz-en bei

During the-GEN.F trip AUX.3.SG he his-ACC.F plants-PL with
ein-em Freund unter-gestellt
a-DAT.M friend under-PAR-place-PTCP
‘While he was away on a trip, he left his plants with a friend’.

As we observe in lines 009 and 010 of the transcript below, student S2 did not
understand the meaning of the verb. Then her classmate S1 suggests in line 011
that it means “to water plants.”
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 299

2018BHAula02-parte02 ((19:33 – 20:19))

[. . .]
009 S2: (1.8) ah was ist dies unter UNterges;=
what does unterges(tellt) mean
010 =was eh verSTEhe ich nicht;
what I don’t understand
011 S1: é joGAR água assim;
it’s to throw water like this
012 T: ↑UNtergestellt?
013 (---) so also so so tipo (.) abriGAR;
so (it’s) like sheltering
014 S2: ah:m UNterges-
015 [UNter (-) stEllen;]
under place
016 T: [ ((nods)) ][<<nodding> jA;>]
yes
017 S2: [<<pp> ah BOM;> ]
ah ok
018 S1: imaginei que era joGAR água;
I thought it was like to throw water
019 S2: [aHAM; ]
020 S1: [fui pelo conCREto;]
I went for the concrete (meaning)
021 S2: (1.2) ah::;
022 [((laughs))]
023 S1: [((laughs))]

S1’s suggestion in line 011 is accompanied by a gesture that is described in Annota-

tion Table 03 below. While saying é joGAR água assim (it’s to throw water like
this), the student produces a gesture whose hand shape and movement simulates
the action of watering a plant: she makes a fist with her left hand and slightly
bends the wrist as if she were holding a thin object, such as the handle of a water-
ing can. Then she moves the hand in a spiral path to the left, emulating the action
of watering plants with a can. Since the stroke of the gesture co-occurs with the
speech segment joGAR água assim; one could argue that the gesture-speech
relation is redundant in that the gesture’s form matches the action schema of
throwing water. Nevertheless, such action could be performed in several ways,
like using a glass, a kettle, a bucket, etc. Thus, even if S1 never explicitly uttered
the Portuguese expression aguar plantas, ‘to water plants’, I claim that her gesture
corresponds to the action schema of this verb. Since she uses the demonstrative
300 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

assim, ´like this’, she is clearly making a reference to her own gesture and, conse-
quently, specifying how and why someone is throwing the water. In other words,
by complementing her speech with her own gesture, S1 is also modifying the
semantic content of this speech segment.

Annotation Table 03: Gesture for jogar água assim (to throw water like this).

S1-speech: | é | joGAR água assim; |

S1-translation | it’s | to throw water like this |
S1-phase: | preparation | stroke |
S1-Gesture: Closed LH in fist with bending wrist moves to the right in a spiral path
movement as if holding an object

T-speech: |↑UNtergestellt?|(---) so also so so tipo (.) abriGAR; |

T-translation | so [it’s] like sheltering |
S2-speech: | aha:m
S1-phase: stroke | hold |
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 301

Annotation Table 03 (continued)

S1-Gesture: S1 holds the gesture position while looking at S2 and until the teacher
finishes her explanation

Another interesting aspect of this gesture is the length of the hold phase, which
lasts for approximately 3.4 seconds and overlaps with the teacher’s speech segment
in 013. It is during this segment that the teacher provides her interpretation of the
verb UNTERstellen by saying so also so so tipo (.) AbriGAR;17 (it’s like
sheltering). Moreover, we also notice that during the hold phase student S2 looks
and frowns at S1 as if considering her classmate’s explanation very strange. S1
retracts her gesture only after the teacher’s explanation. This phase overlaps with
S2’s speech segment ah:m in line 014, which indicates she understood the teacher.
In the next segment, in line 015, S2 performs two gestures that corroborate
her understanding of the separable verb UNTERstellen, as shown in Annotation
Table 04. In the first gesture, she moves both open hands with palms down in a
straight path downwards. The stroke co-occurs with the particle unter, which also
carries the focal accent within the intonation unit. The gesture’s downward-move-
ment partially matches the goal-path schema of unter, which indicates that the
schema is active for S2 during the interaction.
Following the first stroke, S2 retracts her hands and then initiates a second
stroke that co-occurs with the verb base stellen ‘to place’. This gesture has a
shorter extension: she moves both curved hands, palms towards center, in a
straight path downwards, as if she were placing an object in front of her. Both the
shape and the movement of the hands are consistent with the semantic features
of the verb stellen. Moreover, S2 performs both gestures by looking at the teacher,
who nods her head in agreement. During the retraction phase, S2 also expresses
understanding by nodding and saying ah BOM; (ah, ok!).

17 The German-Portuguese balanced bilingual teacher often code-switches during the lesson.
Nonetheless, this aspect is not considered in this analysis since the code-switches are not direct-
ed related to the student’s gesture.
302 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

Annotation Table 04: Student’s gesture for UNTERstellen.

S2-speech: (-) | UNter | (-)

S2-translation: | under |
S2-phase: preparation| stroke | retraction
S2-Gesture: Open curved BH-PD move downwards in a straight path

S2-speech: |stEllen;| <<pp> ah B|OM;>

S2-translation: | place |
S2-phase: | stroke | retraction
S2-Gesture: Open curved BH-PTC move downwards as if placing an object in front of her

In the next section, I will discuss how this gesture and the others reveal the
levels of conceptual fluency as well as metaphorical competence of both teachers
and students.
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 303

7 Discussion
Both gestures performed by the native-speaker teacher in example 1 are empir-
ical evidence of his conceptual fluency in German, for these gestures represent
the image schemas that motivate the conceptualizations of the particle verb
UNTERstellen as well as the prefixed verb unterstellen. I demonstrated how the
teacher was capable to explain not only the structural but also the conceptual
differences between the separable (particle) and inseparable (prefixed) forms. By
using a strictly spatial context, the professor performed a gesture that made the
meaning of the particle verb more visual for students. As Hotze (2018: 313) points
out, the visual aids provided by gestures facilitate the understanding of lexical
items and relieves the cognitive burden on learners. Nevertheless, I explained
how the teacher applied different metaphoricity indicators while explaining the
inseparable verb unterstellen. He not only executes a gesture that foregrounds
the image schema of unter, but also elaborates the metaphor verbally by giving
a contextualized example of the verb as well as by repeating different synonyms
for Unterstellung in German and in Portuguese. Both gestural and verbal elabo-
rations of the metaphor helped to activate the metaphoricity of this lexical item.
In Example 2, I showed how gestures may reveal different levels of conceptual
(metaphorical) competence in non-native speakers. Although the example sen-
tence (3) Während der Reise hat er seine Pflanzen bei einem Freund untergestellt
implies that the plants were actually moved from one place to another (spatial
meaning), it still holds some degree of metaphoricity since the original meaning
of protection conveyed by UNTERstellen was extended to the idea of ‘taking care
of’. To interpret this metaphorical extension, one needs firstly to understand
the metonymical mapping underneath the collocation etwas bei einem Freund
UNTERstellen, that is, “to place something under the roof of a friend’s place”
means ‘to store something at a friend’s place’. As a result, a conceptually fluent
speaker of German can easily conclude that er hat seine Pflanzen bei einem Freund
untergestellt means metonymically and metaphorically that he left his plants in
his friend’s care. Thus, S2’s gestures, which represent the movement of “placing
something under” (Annotation Table 04), reveal that she somehow understood
the underlying conceptualization of the verb UNTERstellen. In other words, the
student demonstrated an appropriate level of metaphorical competence in that
she was able to figure out the degree of metaphoricity the sentence has (which
is not very high). Moreover, the use of gestures helps the student to memorize a
new lexical item. Hupp und Gingras (2016 cited in Hotze 2018: 313) have shown
how iconic gestures promotes the learning of vocabulary. Consequently, the
use of multimodal utterances is not only necessary for the teacher, but also for
304 Adriana Fernandes Barbosa

the learner, since the regular use of gestures semantically identical to speech
increases learning and retention of vocabulary.
Furthermore, Gullberg (2006) explains that gestures, in the form in which they
are produced in an L2, can provide valuable information about language acquisi-
tion processes, such as the influence of the L1 on the L2 and other interlanguage
phenomena, as well as reveal the behavior of learners with regard to difficulties
in expressing and understanding the L2. Therefore, the difficulties that both stu-
dents had in understanding the meaning of UNTERstellen may be associated with
the degree of abstraction necessary to interpret this verb in that specific context of
use. As we discussed above, student S1 understood the verb as ‘watering plants’,
which her gestures visually demonstrated (Annotation Table 03). This is not an
erroneous assumption to make, since the use of the temporal adverbial phrase
während der Reise, “during the trip”, as well as the words Pflanzen, “plants” and
Freund, “friend”, draws the association to a typical Brazilian habit of asking a
friend to water one’s plants while one is away on a trip (instead of bringing the
plants over to a friend’s place). In other words, the sentence evokes a cultural
frame that allows S1 to make such a statement (see Kövecses, this volume). What
she probably missed was the metaphorical competence to construe the whole sen-
tence scenario. Therefore, the low level of metaphorical competence in German
made S1 transfer her L1 conceptual system to L2, leading her to such an inaccurate
interpretation. The student justifies her interpretation some turns later by saying
“I thought it was to throw water” and “I went for the concrete [meaning]”, which
confirms that she knew the verb was used with a concrete meaning, however she
did not understand it properly.

8 Concluding remarks
The analyses presented in this chapter compared the gestures performed by
native and non-native speakers of German, showing that conceptual fluency as
well as metaphorical competence can be accessed through gestures. The results
corroborate the dynamic view of metaphor, as teachers and students multimo-
dally co-construct the meanings of particles and prefixed verbs based on the local
context of use. Moreover, the multimodal analyses of teacher-student interactions
gave us empirical evidence of embodied conceptual thinking since the gestures
foregrounded image schemas as well as metonymical/metaphorical mappings,
indicating that these cognitive structures were active for the participants during
interaction. Therefore, I claim that gestures can be an important didactic resource
in classroom interaction, working not only as a visual aid for meaning clarifica-
 Conceptual fluency and meaning negotiation in the German 305

tion but also as an essential linguistic input for L2-learning since gesture is an
integral part of speech (McNeill 1992). Nevertheless, I point out the need for more
studies that investigate the relationship between gesture and speech production
in L2 from a cognitive-linguistic perspective so that we can better understand how
the conceptual systems can influence language learning/acquisition.
In addition, the results made evident the need for a more comprehensive
inclusion of cognitive linguistics in the design of L2 coursebooks and gram-
mars as well as teacher-training curricula. Based on conceptual fluency theory, I
maintain that the development of metaphorical competence must go beyond the
teaching of idioms or any other figurative expressions that might sooner or later
appear during L2 lessons. As I demonstrated above, the appropriate understand-
ing of particle and prefixed verbs in German depends on identifying their differ-
ent degrees of metaphoricity as well as knowing how to use these verbs based on
rules and patterns that are motivated by the German conceptual system. Finally,
this work has shed light on how the development of metaphorical competence
goes far beyond understanding figurative expressions. As Danesi (2017) points
out, being conceptually fluent means understanding how language relates form
and meaning on a conceptual level since metaphorical thinking is what charac-
terizes proficient speakers of both L1 and L2.

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Ulrike Schröder
How interculture is built on the common
ground of alterity experience: a cognitive-
multimodal approach to talk-in-interaction
Abstract: Despite the meanwhile widespread concept of ‘interculture’ (Koole and
Thije 2001; Kecskes 2014), there is still little research regarding the conceptual
level of intercultural encounters. Schröder (2017, 2018) has shown that metacom-
munication might be a point of access for focusing on this issue since ‘standing
between the cultures’ frequently favors a meta-reflexive attitude through ques-
tioning and objectifying both ‘worldviews’ from a more distant angle. Koole and
Thije (2001) propose the concept of ‘discursive interculture’ that may emerge in
interaction as an intermediate space sharing both properties of home and host
culture, additionally comprising those discourse elements and structures that
result from culture contact (Koole and Thije 2001). Kecskes (2014) also points
to meaning in intercultural encounters as co-constructed ad hoc and in situ;
however, he admits that those emergent and co-constructed phenomena concur-
rently rely on cultural norms and models, and proposes, therefore, a dialectical
relationship in his socio-cognitive approach to intercultural pragmatics.
Based on three sequences that stem from the corpus of the research group
(Inter)Cultural Communication in Interaction, I take these frameworks as a start-
ing point to show how verbal, corporal-gestural, and prosodic means contribute
to co-constructing intercultures in talk-in-interaction. We will see how the expe-
rience of ‘being a stranger’ and the metaphorical conceptualization of culture
as container (Lakoff and Johnson 1999; Marschak 2005; Schröder 2015), as well
as the oscillation between Character and Observer Viewpoints (McNeill 1992),
serve to build an intercultural space and to reflect on it. Additionally, I will reveal
how strategies such as ‘perspectivizing’ (Thije 2005) and ‘multiple viewpoint con-

Acknowledgement: First of all, I would like to thank the sponsorship for the institutional part-
nership between the UFMG and the University of Potsdam by the Research Group Linkage Pro-
gramme, due to the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, Germany. Additionally, I would also
like to thank CAPES, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Co-
ordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), for their fellowship Capes-PrInt
programme which enabled my postdoctoral research year at the University of Texas at Austin,
USA, and the University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Ulrike Schröder, Federal University of Minas Gerais

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-012
310 Ulrike Schröder

struction’ (Mittelberg 2017) are used to build incrementally personal common

ground between the co-participants, and how emotional involvement and affil-
iation tokens are displayed by ironic as well as emotional viewpoints (Sweetser
2013) and exaggerated speech styles (Selting 1994).

Keywords: interculture; gesture; metaphor; viewpoint

1 Introduction
Intercultural communication has been discussed in innumerable conceivable man-
ners by multidisciplinary approaches over many decades and in strong dependence
on the particular spirit of the current dominating academic discourse. After having
focused on differences for over more than two decades from a more macro-analytic
approach adopted especially in anthropological and psychological intercultural
communication studies, the elaboration of dichotomous categories – and even
the concept of ‘culture’ as such – has fallen into disrepute primarily in the field of
the subsequently following cultural studies. Here, research has increasingly been
dealing with the dissolution of cultural and social boundaries, and the essentialist
view of culture has been replaced by a post-structuralist hybrid concept of trans-
culturalism (Schröder 2015). From a more micro-analytic view, in linguistics, ten
Thije (2006), Rehbein (2006), as well as Ehlich and ten Thije (2010), have suggested
abandoning the mere problem-oriented approach to intercultural communication
by pointing to the specific strategies that are applied in successful intercultural
encounters despite different cultural backgrounds, which perhaps do not play such
an important role as supposed before.
Proposing a socio-cognitive approach that overcomes the gap between a mere
cultural and a mere functional or, to put it differently, a mere semantic and a mere
pragmatic perspective, Kecskes (2014) focuses on the creative and dynamic aspect
of ‘interculture’ – without ignoring the stock of knowledge that individuals bring
into a discourse situation from their cultural background – by defining ‘intercul-
tures’ as “situationally emergent and co-constructed phenomena that rely both on
relatively definable cultural norms and models as well as situationally evolving fea-
tures. Intercultures are usually ad hoc creations” (Kecskes 2014: 15). Starting from
concrete sequences of interactions, Kecskes illustrates how such intercultures
are created ad hoc and in situ by analyzing short sequences in which lexemes
and their meanings in English as a lingua franca are created which do not exist
in native English but work perfectly to co-coordinate the communicative behav-
ior of the interlocutors involved in the intercultural encounter. Another instruc-
tive empirical study is conducted by Senkbeil (2017), who shows the impact of
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 311

metaphorical thinking and speaking when researchers with different cultural and
linguistic backgrounds talk about a common project. They do not just smoothly
co-construct the project in terms of entrenched conceptual metaphors, but also
seem to be able to create and elaborate innovative metaphors, so that one may
conclude that the use of metaphors could be seen as an essential means for suc-
cessful intercultural communication.
Beside the abovementioned studies, as far as I am aware, there are almost no
studies about the interplay of intercultural communication and cultural concep-
tualizations. So, it would be interesting to know (a) in which way an intercultural
experience itself could not only activate but also modify entrenched cultural con-
ceptualizations regarding culture and viewpoints; and (b) to what extent those
highlighted and modified or created (inter)cultural conceptualizations could them-
selves serve as an ‘intercultural space’ with respect to their function as ‘common
ground builder’ for interactants with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Below, at first, I will describe how ‘intercultural communication’ should be
understood for our purposes and delineate the concept of ‘interculture’ from an
‘intercultural pragmatics’ perspective. Then, I will show how such intercultures
and cultural conceptualizations involved can be analyzed from a cognitive and
interactional perspective by focusing on the multimodal resources participants
use. This includes a fine-grained analysis of vocal, corporal-visual, and prosodic
means by which interlocutors co-construct meanings in situ. Afterwards, I will
present three sequences from the ICMI corpus recorded by the research group
Intercultural Communication in Multimodal Interaction1 and show how intercul-
ture is built in an interaction between two German and two Brazilian students
with and based on their intercultural experiences as a common ground builder.

2 Theoretical and methodological framework

2.1 Intercultural communication and the concept
of ‘interculture’

How can we delineate intercultural communication as opposed to other forms

of interpersonal communication? In order to answer that question, it would be
interesting to take a look at the communication theory as proposed by Gerold

1 ICMI = Intercultural Communication in Multimodal Interactions; access in Portuguese and Eng-

lish at the following website: www.letras.ufmg.br/icmi
312 Ulrike Schröder

Ungeheuer (1987a). For Ungeheuer, the non-decomposable unit of speaker and

hearer represents the starting point for the establishment of the communication
process as an objective of analysis in its own right. The pivotal question lies in the
structure of interaction as social action dominated by the persuasive force of lan-
guage for reciprocal coordination (Loenhoff and Schmitz 2012).2 However, Unge-
heuer ([1983] 2010: 9) emphasizes that people realize internal actions, which are
exclusively experienced by the acting individual him- or herself, alongside exter-
nal actions, which are also accessible to other individuals through perception.
Starting from this postulate, he endorses that the linguistic signs displayed by the
speaker are conceived as mere instructions for the hearer to realize certain inter-
nal experiential acts but cannot be seen as ‘messages’. Additionally, we have to
consider that, due to the social, cultural, historical, and personal conditions and
presuppositions, every interlocutor has his or her own “individual world theory”
(individuelle Welttheorie). On the one hand, this individual world theory represents
one’s stock of systematized experiences and explanations, and, on the other hand,
it channels and guides all further presuppositions and experiences. As a conse-
quence, understanding always occurs within the scope of construction processes
which the particular individual realizes in line with his or her world theory. Due to
the context meanings’ dependency, it always remains approximate, fallible, and
fragile (Ungeheuer 1987b: 58). Nevertheless, this does not unavoidably mean that
we are condemned to solipsistic existences, since the individual’s world theory
also has an intersubjective character for sharing a certain stock of knowledge with
the others, with whom he or she starts to build life experiences from a common
linguistic and cultural location. However, against this reasoning, we can easily
imagine that, if successful communication is already a fragile matter in intracul-
tural communication, its improbability increases even more in case of intercul-
tural encounter caused by the contingencies arising significantly (Loenhoff 1992:
190–192): the interlocutors have to deal with disparate patterns of interpretation,
disparate systems of relevance and background structures, different communica-
tion styles and inferential process habits, as well as varying face work strategies.
Concurrently, due to the lack of linguistic competence, the metacommunicative
space is limited. As a consequence, the possibilities of success control are fre-
quently directed to the prosodic and corporal levels of communication, in order
to compensate the shortcomings on the verbal plane. To sum up, the differences
we listed clearly point to a discrepancy between interpersonal and intercultural
communication as a matter of degree rather than a question of essence.

2 Note that Ungeheuer particularly resorts to the cognitive, pragmatic, and functional approach-
es to language as suggested by Bühler ([1934] 1982) as well as by Wegener ([1885] 1991).
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 313

Starting from this understanding of ‘intercultural communication’, the idea

of ‘interculture’ should rather be conceived in terms of a dynamic concept that
emerges in the communication process between interlocutors from different cul-
tures, and in which this aspect plays a crucial role in the creation of the manner
a given sequence is co-constructed and can be labeled as ‘intercultural’. I am
leaning on previous attempts as proposed by Koole and ten Thije (1994, 2001),
Rehbein (2006), as well as Kecskes (2014).
Koole and ten Thije (2001) choose a strict situational approach to intercul-
tural communication and assume an ‘intercultural discourse’ to be an interac-
tion in which participants from different cultures enact and construct practices
as a here-and-now accomplishment by which a ‘discursive interculture’ might
emerge. It refers to an intermediate culture sharing both properties of home as
well as host culture. But, additionally and more importantly, the authors include
in their concept also “those discourse elements and structures that result from
the culture contact, but which cannot be traced back to one of the cultures in
contact.” (Koole and ten Thije 2001: 575). It is this emergence of something new
that is crucial for the analysis which follows.
Rehbein (2006) describes how such an interculture could emerge in conver-
sational terms. People normally tend to interpret their conversational routines
according to their particular cultural patterns. Now, by activating a ‘cultural
apparatus’, those standardized forms of acting and speaking are reconstructed
and entangle the interactants in aporetic ways of communication. Thereby they
construct means of understanding, such as making recourse to a higher level
of mediation, generating productive and receptive new forms on the part of the
interlocutors and giving rise to innovative forms of communication that might
bring them to a synthesis (Rehbein 2006: 44). For ten Thije (2006) and Koole and
ten Thije (1994), ‘perspectivizing’ is seen as a crucial tool activated by the cultural
apparatus, and described as the “indication of the linguistic means that make
the hearers interpret the report from a certain point of view” (Koole and ten Thije
1994: 105), such as co-referential nouns, verbs, and adjectives. By applying the
‘cultural apparatus’, interlocutors start to go beyond their routines and improve
their hermeneutic abilities in everyday situations (Ehlich and ten Thije 2010: 266).
As briefly pointed out in the introduction, Kecskes (2014, 2015) tries to over-
come the dualism between macro and micro approaches through his proposal of
a socio-cognitive approach. ‘Interculture’ is indeed seen as co-constructed in the
actual situational context, but communication “may contain elements from the
participants’ existing cultural background and ad hoc created elements as well”
(Kecskes 2014: 5). One key element for Kecskes in the building of ad hoc intercul-
ture is common ground. As we have seen, it is a core trait of intercultural com-
munication that common ground appears to be missing or to be limited and has
314 Ulrike Schröder

to be co-constructed by shifting from the communal to the individual. However,

Kecskes likewise warns against overgeneralizations at this point: common ground
certainly exists to a smaller degree in intercultural communication, although
people bring in their existing cultural models and norms. His recommendation
is that a careful inductive analysis of interaction be conducted that allows for the
identification of preexisting images and conceptions.
In a similar vein, building on a synthesis of cognitive and anthropological
linguistics, current studies in cultural linguistics advocate a dynamic view of
cultural models. Sharifian (2015: 474–476) develops a theoretical framework for
his key notion of ‘cultural conceptualizations’ (i) by building on the notion of
meaning from the perspective of ‘distributed knowledge and cognition’, which
states that not all members of a cultural group share the same concepts, such as
metaphor, metonymies, prototypes, schemas, models, etc., and (ii) by emphasiz-
ing that cultural cognition embraces the cultural knowledge that emerges from
the interactions between members of a cultural group across time and space.
Therefore it has to be seen as constantly being negotiated and renegotiated. By
adding this dynamic aspect to previously mere static concepts, Sharifian high-
lights a crucial point: conceptualizations may be those that underlie our first lan-
guage, but there also may be others that we have had access to as a result of living
in a particular cultural environment, or even could have emerged or developed
from interacting with people from other cultures. As we will see, there can even
be an intercultural space that favors the creation or elaboration of specific con-
ceptualizations related to the intercultural experience of being located ‘between
the cultures’.

2.2 Cognition in interaction

Over the last ten years, one has been able to observe increasing overlaps between
different linguistic research areas that had previously been more or less strictly
separated from each other. This is valid especially for approximations of cog-
nitive linguistics, on the one hand, and interactional linguistics, on the other.
If one takes a look at cognitive linguistics, a growing tendency in turning away
from mere introspective matters is observable. Empirical studies have arisen over
the last decades; firstly, those that are oriented towards corpus linguistics,3 and

3 For an overview, see Semino (2017), and for a critical discussion regarding corpus linguistics,
cognitive linguistics and their applicability to cultural conceptualizations, see Polzenhagen (this
volume).
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 315

secondly, those that are directed towards multimodality as well as contextually

and culturally anchored interaction. Zima and Brône (2015) point to the fact that
cognitive linguistics has indeed always represented a ‘usage-based’ approach,
however, over a long period of time it has not taken into account the most basic
form of human communication, that is, face-to-face interaction. This scenario is
currently changing. Apart from ‘interactional construction grammar’ (Zima and
Brône 2015: 486), it is especially in the field of metaphor and cognition where
one can find a growing number of studies that are dedicated to the multimodal
aspects of metaphor use in real interaction.
One crucial contribution comes from the area of gesture studies4 and is directed
toward the processuality of metaphor based on interactions that are recorded and
transcribed. These studies show in detail how gestures, whose metaphoricity is
not any longer perceived on the verbal level, are reactivated. The reactivation is
evidenced in that the speaker, for instance, executes a hand movement that corre-
sponds to the lexical item, directs his gaze on it and marks it prosodically (Cienki
and Müller 2008). Gestures highlight certain elements and aspects of a linguis-
tic expression, contextualize them, and contribute therefore to the figure-ground
organization. By doing so, gestures are used as information management in face-
to-face interaction and guide the attention of the interlocutors: “activation of meta-
phoricity critically depends upon the dynamic flow of the speaker’s focal attention”
(Müller 2008: 219). Müller and Cienki (2009) distinguish between monomodal and
multimodal metaphors, the former being those that only occur in one mode (verbal
or nonverbal) and the latter those that occur co-expressively in both modes. Müller
(2013) does not only stress the conceptual function of metaphor but also shows
how the expressive, appealing, performative, and pragmatic functions become
visible in gestural metaphors, which can be seen as a further approach of cognitive
semantics towards pragmatic topics. Müller (2008: 224; Bressem and Müller 2014)
and Streeck (2008a, 2008b) show how interlocutors mark certain arguments as
obvious by an open hand, or as less plausible by signaling the throwing or brush-
ing away of an object, or how interlocutors mark allocation of turns.
McNeill (1992: 118–119) was one of the first to attend to viewpoint in gesture.
In his psychological-cognitive approach to gesture, he distinguishes between
two ways of how gestures could convey viewpoints of actions that are being
described: either by the ‘character’s viewpoint’ (C-VPT), by which the narrator
in discourse adopts the perspective from the inside of the story and, e.g., moves
his arms up and down, as if climbing a ladder. In opposition to that, he could
also make the hand form the character as a whole and cause it to rise upward,

4 Cf. for an overview Müller et al. (2013, 2014).

316 Ulrike Schröder

not being part of the scene and incorporating an ‘observer viewpoint’ (O-VPT),
keeping distance from the story itself. That is, an O-VPT gesture excludes the
speaker’s body from the gesture space, while the C-VPT is participative. Narrators
occasionally combine O-VPT and C-VPT gestures simultaneously, creating ‘dual
viewpoint’ gestures (McNeill 1992; Parrill 2012).
Applying viewpoint to gesture in discourse in order to advocate an embod-
ied and multimodal understanding of language, cognition, and interaction,
is a current tendency in research gaining more and more attention. Mittelberg
(2017) follows McNeill’s and Parrill’s insights on dual viewpoint and illustrates
how multiple viewpoint construction is realized in experiential immersion when
people describe spacial experiences, e.g., regarding their childhood memories
about their living space. The author shows how an architecture student describes
how she went down the staircases every day to get to kindergarten, from a ‘mixed
viewpoint’: the speaker’s body, head, and eye gaze show someone observing a
scene from above, but, at the same time, her index finger portrays her own action
from the observer’s viewpoint while she is verbally describing it in detail using
the first-person singular.
Beside metaphor, metonymy plays a crucial role in real interaction: accord-
ing to Mittelberg and Waugh (2014), gestures are per se inherently metonymic. In
interaction with concurrent speech, evanescent hand shapes and movements tend
to abstract salient characteristics from or allude to persons, objects, events, sce-
narios, actions and contexts, by foregrounding specific aspects of them. Thereby,
gestures trigger an ensuing associative chain of a larger semantic network and
evoke frames through picking out certain aspects of basic scenes of experience
that structure complex frames (Mittelberg 2019). Mittelberg and Waugh (2009)
also illustrate how the transition from literal to metaphorical understanding pro-
ceeds in the case of the hand gesture ‘drawing a frame’, though the frame is never
drawn as a whole, i.e., mostly only the edges. Thus, the traces in the air have to
be interpreted as meaning a frame of some sort. This is the first metonymic step
of meaning construction. Then, in a second metaphoric step, this frame might be
interpreted, e.g., as the frame of a story instead of the frame of a picture (Mittel-
berg and Waugh 2009: 337).
As we have seen so far, studies on metaphor and metonymy in interaction
mainly focus on the speaker’s perspective rather than on the interaction from a
more holistic angle that includes the dyad of speaker and hearer as a unit. A more
dynamic and reciprocal view is elaborated in phenomenological, conversational,
and ethnographic approaches even though, to date, studies are still limited to
particular research questions. Thus, it is especially in the realm of facial gestures,
pragmatic gestures, and turn taking activities that the interlocutor has come to
the fore. Kendon (1967) first directed his attention to conversational interaction
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 317

as a unit in its own right when he analyzed the variations in the amount of gaze of
speakers towards their hearers and vice versa, its duration, its role in turn-taking
and mutual gaze. Among other things he found out that speakers frequently redi-
rected their gaze at the listener as they approach the end of their utterance. They
also held their gaze on the listener after ending their utterance. Additionally, he
could show that mutual monitoring and display of attention are naturally accom-
plished by mutual gaze. Building on these findings, Streeck (2014: 48) shows that
mutual gaze can frequently be understood as a form of meta-communication: it
expresses mutual commitment to the conversational course of action in progress.
However, apart from work on gaze and nodding as a token of affiliation rather
than a sign of alignment (Stivers 2008), there is almost no work on the co-con-
struction of manual gestures. An exception is Kendon’s (2004) work on so-called
‘speech handling’ gestures which are also composed of both speaker and hearer
gestures. When shrugging, e.g., our bodies withdraw and retract from possible
engagements and display distancing and disengagement. Likewise, the VP (ver-
tical palm) gesture can be performed as both action or reaction. Here, the palm
is facing away from the performer and can be projected onto many discourse
domains generally conveying rejection, repulsion, stopping, refusal, objection,
and negation, carrying the core idea that the current line of action should be
halted.
In contrast to the extensive work in the field of gestural metaphor, there is still
little work in the field of prosody and cognition. Perlman and Gibbs (2013: 524)
map the dynamic and scalar model of gestural metaphors that might be “more
or less frozen or defrosted, more or less awake or asleep” (Cienki 2008: 10) onto
the iconic relation of the semantic and phonological poles: “When active, these
iconic relations become accentuated and take form as vocal gesture” (Perlman
and Gibbs 2013: 524). They illustrate this by means of the elongated pronunciation
of the word slooowly. Müller and Cienki (2009: 299) call this phenomenon ‘oral/
aural modality’, in correspondence to ‘spatial/visual modality’. For instance,
when intonation rises and falls afterwards, subjects in an experiment interpret
this procedure schematically as a circle, whereas a rising intonation is interpreted
as a path (Müller and Cienki 2009: 299). However, there is almost no work in the
field of real interaction.
This is where interactional linguistics makes an indispensible complemen-
tary contribution. Especially the detailed work on prosody in interaction (Couper-
Kuhlen and Selting 2018; Selting and Couper-Kuhlen 2001; Couper-Kuhlen and
Selting 1996) takes up Gumperz’ (1982) insight that we have to conceive prosodic
cues as contextual signs of specific communicative situations. Günthner (1999)
shows how past dialogues are reenacted in activities of accusations and how
polyphonic stylization is used to mark these as morally correct or reprehensible.
318 Ulrike Schröder

Such evaluations are frequently carried out by means of prosodic, lexical, and
rhetoric arrangement of the reported speech. Selting (1994) also touches cogni-
tive matters when she highlights as a special case of rhythmic and intonational
stylization the emphatic speech style marked by extensive prosody and large
pitch jumps that emerge in narratives, and focuses on so called “peaks of involve-
ment” (Selting 1994: 404). In a similar vein, Goodwin (2015) relies on Goffman’s
(1981) deconstructions of the narrator in ‘sounding box’, as well as ‘animator’,
and the protagonist in ‘author’, ‘principal’, as well as ‘figure’. Thereby he shows
in what complex ways the narrative has to be understood as a “field of action
built collaboratively by structurally different actors using a variety of semiotic
resources within face-to-face interaction” (Goodwin 2015: 204). Shifts of footing –
that is, shifts regarding this participation framework – go along with shifts of
stances, which frequently co-occur with prosodic cuing, interjections, and dis-
course, as well as deictic markers. Self-quotations are also often used and the
speaker’s body becomes that of the figure being enacted; that is, speakers can
report private, internal thoughts that need not to have been externalized at all.
For example, a quotative construction such as “I thought” can be introduced as a
direct report through the use of “well”, which functions as a turn-initial discourse
marker signaling the beginning of silent speech as a report of one’s thoughts
(Couper-Kuhlen and Selting 2018: Online-Chapter C: 58). Despite these develop-
ments, a deeper theoretical-methodological discussion around the elaboration of
cognition in talk is still missing, as Deppermann (2012) states. He underpins that
it is especially in conversation analysis where semantic matters are still aban-
doned as a research issue in its own right.

3 The ICMI corpus and the selected sequences

The empirical data shown in this chapter originates from the ICMI corpus of the
research group Intercultural Communication in Multimodal Interactions. This group
initiated its activities at the University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil in 2012.5
Primarily, the project aims to videotape interactions between participants with dif-
ferent nationalities as well as between participants from the same cultural back-
ground, for comparative purposes. Every member of the research group develops
his or her own research questions, but the corpus is created (filmed and transcribed)
in teamwork. Until today, we have primarily filmed arranged elicited conversations
between exchange students with conversation tasks (Kasper 2008: 287–288; Senft

5 The project’s website can be visited at <http://www.letras.ufmg.br/icmi>

 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 319

1995: 579–580), as well as institutional settings, such as foreign language class-

room teaching. Lately, the group has been working on the collection of so-called
natural conversations as the third communicative genre of the ICMI corpus. In the
case of the elicited conversations, in order to gain insights into culture- and lan-
guage-related reflexive processes displayed by the participants in situ and to make
these visible on the (meta)communicative level, cultural and intercultural topics
serve as stimuli for eliciting discussions. The studies conducted so far by the group
take a theoretical framework as a starting point which seeks to integrate three
principal areas of research: (a) conversation analysis and interactional linguistics;
(b) cognitive and cultural linguistics; and (c) intercultural pragmatics. After the
recording, the videotapes are transcribed in the software program EXMARaLDA
(Schmidt and Wörner 2009)6 following the conventions of GAT 2 (Selting et al.
2011).7 At the present moment, the corpus is comprised of about 2,496 minutes of
videotaped interactions with a total of 56,164 intonation units.
The following two sequences are from an elicited conversation between two
Brazilian students and two German exchange students in Brazil who are discuss-
ing the topic of ‘homeland’ (Heimat).8 They are all students of the Humanities
and speak Portuguese or German as a foreign language. In Table 1, information is
given on the participants in the interaction.

Table 1: Participants in the interaction (Silva 2015).

Initials Age Stay in Brazil/ Course/Profession

Germany
Brazilians B1 28 1 year Bachelor: Literature and Linguistics/Teacher
B2 29 2 years Master: International Relations/Teacher
Germans G1 23 6 months Master: Anthropology
G2 28 10 months Master: European Studies/Teacher

Since the two Brazilians had studied German and spent one and, respectively, two
years in Germany, while the two Germans had arrived in Brazil more recently, the
conversation was mostly conducted in German. The recorded interaction lasted

6 <www.exmaralda.org>, last accessed on March 26, 2019.

7 The transcription conventions can be found in the appendix.
8 This main objective of the conversation is not related to the present article but was the aim of
the master’s thesis of Diogo Henrique Alves da Silva (2015) entitled “A construção do conceito
Heimat (Alemanha) / Pátria (Brasil) no âmbito intercultural” (The construction of the concept
Heimat (Germany) / Pátria (Brazil) in intercultural interaction).
320 Ulrike Schröder

70 minutes, of which 52 were transcribed. Cue cards asked about the key concept
Heimat and served to initiate and maintain the discussion between the interact-
ants about this special topic. What is relevant for our concerns here is the common
ground of intercultural experience all co-participants share since they all have
already lived abroad for a longer period of time, which has improved their ability
to reflect upon their experience on alterity. The video footage described below
aimed at revealing how the participants co-construct and negotiate these topics:

Table Camera

B1
Cards
G2

B2 G1
D
O
O
R
G=German
B=Brazilian

Figure 1: Film shooting of the interaction Heimat; modified version from Silva (2015).

Consequently, the interaction type we find here, which also applies to most of the
interactions within the NUCOI corpus, is an elicited conversation that can be clas-
sified as (1) non-public, (2) discursive and non-practical, (3) naturally arranged,
(4) face-to-face interaction (5) in a small group (6) with unprepared participants
mostly unknown to one another (7) who are in a symmetrical relationship (Henne
and Rehbock 2001: 26–27).
After the recording, the videotapes were transcribed in the software program
EXMARaLDA9 (Schmidt and Wörner 2009) following the conventions of GAT 2
(Selting et al. 2011).10 The decision for EXMARaLDA and GAT 2 was based on the
fact that both tools permit the integration of prosodic as well as corporal-gestural
means of communication to a high degree of precision.11

9 www.exmaralda.org
10 In the present case, the video was transcribed by Diogo Henrique Alves and revised by the
author of this article.
11 The conventions used here can be found in section 6.
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 321

4 Analysis
4.1 I’m like the German foreigner

In the first sequence, G2 is talking about the experience of being labeled as a ‘for-
eigner’ by natives once one lives in a foreign country:

Sequence 2015BHAlBrHe01 ((18:59-19:16))12

01 G2: =oder ich bin ganz schnell im ´AUSland?

or I’m quite quickly abroad
02 is man schnell der <<len> ˋ!AUS!länder.>
you’re immediately the foreigner
03 [oder der (.) oder DIE-]
or the or the
04 B2: [ja toTAL. ]
yeah totally
05 G2: [<<all> hier halt die> DEUTsche;=ne,>]
here rather the German right
06 B1: [((laughs)) ]
07 G2: <<moves left hand on to her chest> also ist ja egAl ob_ich
ri↑CARda bin;>
well it doesn’t matter if I’m ricarda
08 oder ob ich hier <<laughing, all> was ich hier ↑MACHe;>=
or if I’m here what I’m doing here
09 =so NE,=
so right
10 =ich bin SO;
I’m like
11 B1: ((smiles and nods))
12 G2: [<<smiling and moving the left hand to the left with open
palm facing downwards> ah JA;]
ah yeah
13 B2: [ja. ]
yes
14 G2: die ˋ!DEUT!sche.>
the German

12 The video can be accessed at the following link: https://youtu.be/rSxP1Gu51jo

322 Ulrike Schröder

15 [<<turning the left hand palm up> ah ja die AUS>]

ah the for
16 B1: [((laughs)) ]
17 B2: [((smiles)) ]
18 G1: [((smiles)) ]
G2: <<laughing> länderin;=ne,>
eigner right
19 [oder (-) in INdien ] ganz [stark halt auch die ]
or in india also absolutely the
20 B2: [<<smiling> ↑!JA!ja:: toTA:L.>]
yeah yeah totally
21 B1: [die GRINga. ]
the gringa
G2: WEI[ße;]
white
22 B2: [ja.]
yeah
23 G2: [<<looking at B1 with wide open eyes> die GRINga.>]
the gringa
24 B1: [((laughs loudly)) ]

Figure 2a: <<moves Figure 2b: <<smiling and pointing left

left hand on to her hand index to the left with open
chest> also ist ja palm facing downwards> ah JA; die
egAl ob_ich ri↑CARda ˋ!DEUT!sche.> (L12-14)
bin;> (L07) ah yeah the German
well it doesn’t matter
if I’m ricarda

Figure 2: C-VPT and O-VPT by conceptualizing the self-positioning as a foreigner.

 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 323

The issue broached in this sequence is the ‘in-between-perspective’, typical

for the metareflexive angle of someone who, as the pioneer of intercultural studies
Alfred Schütz (1944: 507) describes it, “remains a ‘marginal man,’ a cultural hybrid
on the verge of two different patterns of group life, not knowing to which of them
he belongs”. This topic is strongly reflected in the linguistic-gestural display of G2
and ratified by the co-participants.
First, G2 gives special emphasis to the key term ˋ!AUS!länder (foreigner)
in L02 through an extra strong accent, falling pitch movement and slow tempo,
while shortly afterwards (L07) moving her left hand on to her chest. This repre-
sents a deictic gesture from a ‘character viewpoint’ (C-VPT, McNeill 1992; Parrill
2012) because it shows her experiencing the observation of the other directed
towards her as ‘the foreigner’ (Figure 2a). Interestingly, immediately after this
turn, she continues to talk about herself, but now from a distant angle, since she
is pointing the left hand index to the left as if she were next to herself, which indi-
cates an O-VPT (McNeill 1992; Parrill 2012), and using third-person singular: die
ˋ!DEUT!sche (the German, L12). At the same time, this pointing gesture incorpo-
rates the pragmatic gesture of “moving something aside” (Streeck 2008a: 259) or
“throwing something away” (Bressem and Müller 2014: 1581), which marks a neg-
ative stance inherent to the labelling of the foreigner as ‘the German’ (Figure 2b).13
The narrated event represents an experience shared by the co-participants,
which is reflected by the response tokens given by them, since they do not only
express alignment but high affiliation (Stivers 2008, 2013), such as the repeti-
tive reactive expressions14 ja toTAL (yes totally, L04), ↑!JA!ja:: toTA:L
(yes yes totally, L20) given by B2, additionally highlighted by extra strong accent,
pitch jump upstep, and lengthening. On a corporal level, there are smiles and
nods as affiliative back-channel responses (Duncan and Fiske 1985: 58–59) given
by all co-participants (L06, 11, 16, 17, 18, 20, 24). In L19-21, we can observe what
Duncan and Fiske (1985: 58–59) call ‘sentence completion’, meaning that the
co-participant completes the speaker’s sentence:

19 G2: [oder (-) in Indien ] ganz [stark halt auch die]

or in India also absolutely the
20 B2: [<<smiling> ↑!JA!ja:: toTA:L.>]
yeah yeah totally

13 All interactants who are recorded receive and sign a consent form declaring that they agree
with the scientific use of the data for analysis, as well as the disclosure of the videos and tran-
scriptions for academic purposes. This also includes the use of images in academic articles.
14 These lexical items were classified as non-floor-taking positive assessments by Clancy et al.
(1996, apud Xudong 2009: 114).
324 Ulrike Schröder

21 B1: [die GRINga. ]

the gringa
G2: WEI[ße;]
white

The participants allude to common ground partly shared by a common stock

of knowledge at hand and partly co-constructed incrementally by the key term
gringa, which can be seen as a syncretically blended, more or less fully entrenched
concept,15 since it originates in Spanish.16 The term is used frequently to pejora-
tively refer to a white foreigner to whom exaggerate characteristics are frequently
attributed, such as squeamishness, over correctness, brutality, sobriety, etc.17
The sequence continues thirteen seconds later when G2 again returns to the
topic of being seen as a foreigner:

2015BHAlBrHe01 ((19:29-19:41))18

01 G2: =(aber) es gibt so situationen wo man <<all, drawing a

semicircle with palms vertical away from body> SCHNELL so;>
but there are situations where you quickly like
02 <<calibrating with palms vertical away from body> (-) ja
so die AUßensEiterin;
yeah like the outsider
03 <<all, h, drawing a semicircle with palms towards body> oder
die die nicht daZUgehörige;>=
or that of not belonging to them
04 =<<all, putting her hands together drawing a circle with
palms lateral towards body> naja also es sind dann
brasi↑LIAner,>=
well then these are Brazilians
05 =<<all, repeating the movement> oder die die ↑INder,>=
or the Indians

15 See Schmid et al. (2008) for a description of such blended concepts that are stored in long-term
memory, as opposed to the blended concepts as constructed on the fly, according to blending theory.
16 According to the etymological dictionary Diccionario Etimológico de la Lengua Castellana by
Joan Coromines, the origin of gringo comes from the Spanish griego and is related to the idea of
an incomprehensible language (“It’s all Greek to me”). Starting from the eighteenth century, the
lexeme was used to refer to speakers of foreign languages, especially to English speakers who didn’t
speak Spanish before it was expanded to refer to white people in general. There are also folk-ety-
mological sources stating that the term was used in the war between Mexico and the United States
(1846–1848) by the Mexicans, to designate the US soldiers’ green uniform and results either from the
phrase “Green, go!” or “green coat”. However, there is no secure source regarding this hypothesis.
17 See for example the discourse analysis of language school advertising using the term gringo
by Marques (2014).
18 The video can be accessed at the following link: https://youtu.be/IF4gkKuPnx4
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 325

06 =<<all> oder die keine Ahnung wo_auch ˋIMmer;>

or i don’t know the wherever
07 und (.) man ist so (-) jemand ANderes so:.
and you’re someone else somehow
08 nich:t <<f> zu der gruppe> <<dim> zugehÖrig.>
not belonging to the group

Figure 3a: =(aber) es gibt so Figure 3b: <<all, h, drawing a

situationen wo man <<all, drawing a semicircle with palms towards
semicircle with palms vertical away body> oder die die nicht
from body> SCHNELL so;> <<calibrating daZUgehörige;>=
with palms vertical away from body> or that of not belonging to them (L03)
(-) ja so die AUßensEiterin;
but there are situations where you quickly like
yeah like the outsider (L01-02)

Figure 3c: =<<all, putting her hands Figure 3d: =<<all, repeating
together drawing a circle with the movement> oder die die
palms lateral towards body> naja ↑INder,>=
also es sind dann brasi↑LIAner,>= or the Indians (L05)
well then these are Brazilians (L05)

Figure 3: Mixed viewpoint by expressing the culture is a container metaphor.

326 Ulrike Schröder

G2 is now deepening her description of not belonging to the target community

and how it was to be seen as a foreigner during her stay abroad, an experience
shared by the others and now already built as a common ground in the first part of
the sequence, as we have seen. In doing so, she incorporates the capacity of switch-
ing the reflexive perspective, which is shown by the gestural switch in L01-02.
While saying: (aber) es gibt so situationen wo man SCHNELL so;
(-) ja so die AUßensEiterin; (but there are situations where you quickly
like yeah like the outsider), she is drawing a semicircle with her palms vertical away
from her body as if she were observing the situation with herself being outside
the container, the container being the target culture (Figure 3a). In this sense, the
gesture represents a monomodal metaphoric gesture (McNeill 1992; Cienki and
Müller 2008), meaning that it occurs only on the gestural level, and the viewpoint
can be described as “dual or “mixed” (McNeill 1992; Mittelberg 2017), that is, as
O-VPT and C-VPT at the same time, according to the reflexivity of G2: she is looking
into the container while concurrently reporting what it is like being in the container
but not feeling as though you in fact belonged to it. Then she switches the view-
point to the eyes of the natives, which is indicated by the gestural switch in L03-05.
She continues to explain this situation by now drawing a semicircle with her palms
towards her body and simultaneously stating oder die die nicht daZUge-
hörige (or that of not belonging to them), which also expresses this change in
perspective with regard to the chosen pronoun (Figure 3b). Again, it is not clear
whether her outsider position belongs to the described scenario (C-VPT) or whether
she describes the scenario from an O-VPT. This can be seen as a consequence of the
in-between perspective, since the intercultural point of view naturally corresponds
to an observative standpoint.
Subsequently, she explicitly refers to cultural groups as units being labeled as
such when she puts her hands together and again draws a circle with her palms
lateral towards her body, saying naja also es sind dann brasi↑LIAner,
(well then these are Brazilians; Figure 3c). Immediately afterwards, she repeats
this movement now referring to the Indians (L05; Figure 3d). The whole sequence
reflects the classical conceptual metaphor culture is a container (Marschak
2005: 321; Schröder 2015; Schröder and Carneiro Mendes 2015), which can be traced
back to the image schema or primary metaphor of container (Lakoff and Johnson
([1980] 2003, 1999; Johnson 1987) but is explicitly elaborated and deepened
here as problematic. Thus, she refers to herself as being labeled as ‘the German’
instead of being referred to by her name. And by her verbo-gestural depiction of
the container as reflecting a particular nation-based cultural group, she points to
the problematic homogeneity of ‘Indians’ or ‘Brazilians’ that puts herself in the
position of an ‘outsider’. Since all co-participants have lived in another country
for a longer period and are therefore familiar with this kind of experience, we can
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 327

observe an active realization and elaboration of a cultural conceptualization in an

intercultural space, a schema shared by all co-participants.

4.2 Here in Brazil everyone hugs everyone

The second sequence shows how presuppositions and cross-cultural background

knowledge in conjunction with multimodal affiliation and reciprocal empathy
tokens co-built interculture as a space for sharing personal intercultural experi-
ence. In cognitive terms, the centre of the sequence is where cultural conceptu-
alization (Sharifian 2011, 2015) of cold and warm people related to the German
and Brazilian culture unfolds and is intertwined with the concept of Brazilian
cordiality. These two cultural dimensions can frequently be found in the ICMI
corpus (Schröder 2017; forthcoming). The topic of discussion is how homeland
coins people’s worldview and behavior:

2015BHAlBrHe01 ((35:06-36:05))

01 G1: es geht_auch durch die (-) durch die HEImat;=

it also has to do with one’s homeland
02 =halt auch irgendwie gePRÄGT;=
it also somehow has shaped you
03 =und zum BEIspiel mit;
and for example with
04 (--) hier in brasilien <<stretching her left arm with
curved open hand> umˋARmen sich alle wAahnsinnig viel;>
here in Brazil everybody hugs everyone incredibly much
05 <<touching B1’s arm with her right hand> und das ist
wAhnsinnig VIEL;>
and that’s quite a lot
06 [<<stroking the air with her right hand> da fassen sich alle AN;>]
everybody touches everyone
07 B1: [((laughs)) ]
08 G2: [((laughs)) ]
09 G1: <<laughing, looking at B1, h> ja das ist bei uns halt einfach
ERST> also;
yeah there that’s just at first well
10 <<looking at B1> das war wahrscheinlich für Euch auch am
Anfang> <<looking at B2> [total] ↑SCHWIErig;
probably for you that was quite difficult at first
11 B1: [ja. ]
yes
12 G1: dass sich irgendwie LEUte vielleicht nich so:;
that somehow people perhaps don’t somehow
328 Ulrike Schröder

13 B2: hm_HM.
14 [ja (-) SCHWIErig; ]
yeah difficult
15 G1: <<moving torso, shoulder, arm and open right hand palm up
forward> einfach nicht so HERZ>] ja.
just not so hearty yes
16 G2: ((laughs))
17 B2: <<pointing to the cards on the table> und sagen wir die
schwIerigkeit von diese:r (.) ersten FRAge;>
and let’s say the problem with this first question
18 <<pointing with the forefinger to her head> dann habe ich mich
grade (-) erINnert,
then I just remembered
19 (--) vo:n dieser situaTION;>=
this situation
20 =weil (.) meine gastMUTter (-) ist eine ´deutsche (-) ˋfrau.=
cause my host mother is a German woman
21 G1: ja.
yes
22 B2: =ne,
right
23 G1: ((laughs))
24 B2: U:ND_äh;
and ah
25 Also eine deutsche FRAU,
well a German woman
26 sie: (---) ((clicks her tongue)) ALso;
she well
27 [sie war <<h> ein BISschen ahm:;>]
she was a little bit ahm
28 G1: [((laughs)) ]
29 B2: °°h
30 G2: MERKwürdig.
weird
31 G1: ((laughs))
32 G1: [((laughs))]
33 B2: [ja. ]
yeah
34 G1: ((laughs))
35 [((laughs)) ]
36 B2: [<<smiling> und sie sie und>]
and she she and
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 329

37 <<smiling> ich DACHte sie (-) mochte mich !NICHT!;>

I thought she didn’t like me
38 G1: [ˋhm::.]
39 G2: [oh::, ]
40 B2: WEIL sie w_w-
cause she c_c
41 <<opening her arms and hands sideward to the torso> ich
!DACH!te sie war so kalt;>
I thought she was so cold
42 G1: <<strong nodding, h> hm::_>[HM::;>]
43 [ALso:;]
well
44 G2: [hm_HM.]
45 B2: (--) aber <<h> dAnn habe ich geMERKT;>
but then I noticed
46 ↑nein das ist ´NUR;
no it’s only
47 G1: ja.
yes
48 B2: <<h> wie sie IST;>
the way she is
49 [und DANN ich bin]
and then I am
50 [((laughs)) ] (.) jetzt auch ein bissche:n [ahm ]
now I’m also a little bit ahm
51 G2: [kalt.]
cold
52 B2: [kalt. ]
cold
53 G2: [((laughs))]
54 B2: [oder ]
or
55 G1: [((laughs))]
56 G2: [((laughs))]
57 B2: [SO;= ]
like that
58 B1: [((laughs))]
59 G2: [((laughs))]
60 B2: =(kalt) JA:.
cold yes
330 Ulrike Schröder

Figure 4a: (--) hier Figure 4b: <<touching B1’s arm with
in brasilien her right hand> und das ist
<<stretching her left wAhnsinnig VIEL;>
arm with curved open and that’s quite a lot (L05)
hand> umˋARmen sich
alle wAahnsinnig
viel;>
here in Brazil everybody hugs
everyone incredibly much (L04)

Figure 4c: <<stroking the Figure 4d: <<moving torso, shoulder, arm and
air with her right open right hand palm up forward> einfach
hand> da fassen sich nicht so HERZ> ja.
alle AN;> just not so heartfelt yes (L15)
everybody touches everyone (L06)

Figure 4: Frame metonymy and cultural metaphor related to Brazilian cordiality.

G1 initiates her turn by introducing a comment about how the homeland

shapes one’s character, and gives as an example the Brazilian way of interact-
ing with one another, concurrently incorporating the German perspective by
highlighting this difference in an exaggerated manner: hier in brasilien
umˋARmen sich alle wAahnsinnig viel; und das ist wAhnsin-
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 331

nig VIEL; da fassen sich alle AN; (here in Brazil everybody hugs
everyone incredibly much and that’s quite a lot everybody touches everyone, L04-
06). The exaggeration is displayed through the use of ‘extreme case formulations’
(Pomerantz 1986) such as the indefinite pronoun everybody and corporal means
such as touching B1. At the same time, the complex frame of the cultural con-
ceptualization of Brazilian cordiality is unfolded metonymically by basic scenes
of action frames constituting the complex cultural frame (Mittelberg 2019): (a)
(--) hier in brasilien umˋARmen sich alle wAahnsinnig viel;
(here in Brazil everybody hugs everyone incredibly much, L04) is uttered while G2
concurrently stretches her left arm with a curved opened hand, alluding on the
gestural level metonymically to the act of embracing someone (Figure 4a); (b)
G1 continues her turn by saying und das ist wAhnsinnig VIEL;> (and
that’s quite a lot, L05), while touching B1’s arm with her right hand repeatedly,
thus illustrating how Brazilians touch each other (Figure 4b); and (c) by then
asserting da fassen sich alle AN; (everybody touches everyone, L06), she
strokes the air with her right hand as if she were was touching someone in front
of her (Figure 4c). She gains laughter from B1 (L07), responds to it with her own
laughter (L09), and continues by now referring to the viewpoint of the Brazilians
experiencing the German way of interacting: <<looking at B1> das war
wahrscheinlich für Euch auch am Anfang> <<looking at B2>
[total] ↑SCHWIErig; dass sich irgendwie LEUte vielleicht
nich so:; (probably for you that was quite difficult at first that somehow people
perhaps don’t somehow; L10-12).
We can apply Koole and Ten Thije’s (1994; ten Thije 2006) concept of ‘per-
spectivizing’ here, which is considered as an outcome of the communicative
apparatus in the above delineated sense from Rehbein (2006): discourse pro-
cedures are applied by participants who anticipate cultural differences or show
high intercultural competence in order to ensure intercultural understanding.
By doing so, ‘perspectivizing’ represents a strategy of the cultural apparatus by
which the propositional content in the actual communicative situation is located
in such a manner that the cultural standards of the co-participants are taken into
account, and, subsequently, attain an appropriate interpretation of the discourse
going on. How exactly is this achieved here?
G1 builds incrementally on a change of perspective and creates an atmosphere
of reciprocal empathy: after her turn has being ratified by the others through ver-
balized back-channel responses (Duncan and Fiske 1985: 58–59), such as those
given by B1 in L11 ja. (yes) and B2 in L13-14 hm_HM. ja (-) SCHWIErig;
(yeah difficult), she adds that Germans are simply less affectionate towards each
other: einfach nicht so HERZ ja. (just not so hearty yes; L15), concur-
rently moving torso, shoulder, arm and her open right hand palm up forward. That
332 Ulrike Schröder

represents, on the one hand, an assertive gesture that traces back to the conduit
metaphor, whereby she offers her interlocutor the information through the ‘Palm
Up Open Hand’ gesture (Müller 2008: 224). With the introduction of the conduit
metaphor, Reddy ([1979] 1993) reveals the transport model of communication. In
this model, speaker and hearer are conceptualized as containers for objectified
thoughts and emotions, whereby linguistic expressions are symbolized by contain-
ers for objects of meaning that are sent by a speaker to a hearer. Müller (2008: 224)
and Streeck (2008a: 259) show how pragmatic gestures reflect this metaphor by vis-
ualizing certain arguments as obvious – through an open hand – or as less plausi-
ble – through brushing aside – as well as through ‘handing over’ the conversation.
At the same time, on the other hand, this gesture metaphorically incorporates the
idea of handing something over to someone and gives emphasis to G1’s implicit
statement about Brazilian cordiality (Figure 4d).
By doing so, G1 creates a common ground of reciprocal intercultural experi-
ence of alterity, which is reinforced by a considerable use of modal particles such
as irgendwie (somehow, L02, 12), halt (just, L09) and einfach (simply, L09), whose
function it is “to connect the current utterance to a pragmatic pretext, to a prop-
osition ‘at hand’, which is part of the non-verbal argumentative context” (Fischer
2007: 51). This context is formed by a ‘personal common ground’19 being the stock
of knowledge each participant has regarding the customs and values of the other
culture presupposed by the intercultural experience they have. Thus, the modal
particles displayed in our sequence serve as “evidential markers” (Schoonjans
2018: 45).
In fact, against this pre-established common ground, B2 now initiates a ‘small
story’ (König 2010) or anecdote about her host mother, whom she at first perceived
to be a cold person: ich !DACH!te sie war so kalt;> (I thought she was
so cold; L41). On the semantic level, we can already observe the same as before; there
is reference to a deeper entrenched metaphor understood and known by all partic-
ipants since the description of ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ people points to the ‘primary met-
aphor’ (Lakoff and Johnson 1999), ‘attribution metaphor’ (Baldauf 1997) or ‘gener-
ic-level metaphor’ intensity of emotion is heat (Kövecses 2003: 41). It is frequently
related to cultural groups, more specifically also to the difference between Brazil-
ians and Germans (Schröder 2017) and refers back to the already introduced cor-
diality concept. The whole story is narrated in an exaggerated manner, marked by
strong emotional effects, which come to the fore as “peaks of involvement” (Selting
1994: 404) that are visible especially on the prosodic level when B2 gives extra

19 In opposition to a “communal common ground” Clark 1996: 100–112) which would include
the shared knowledge of a whole social or cultural group.
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 333

strong accent on lexical items such as !NICHT! (not, L37), !DACH!te (thought,
L41) as well as emphasis on items that are not accentuated in German, such as
the conjunctions U:ND (L24), ALso (well, L26), WEIL (because, L40) and DANN
(then, L48). Although it may be seen as a typical marker of someone who speaks
German as a foreign language to stress these lexemes, the density and intensity in
this context allude to a high emphatic speech style (Selting 1994). Another hint is
the number of pauses longer than 0.5 seconds inserted into her story (L19, 26, 27,
41) as well as the use of a higher pitch register that sounds mannered (L27, 45, 48).
The co-participants ratify the small story by positioning themselves unequivocally
and totally in line with each other, which is indicated through “emotional stance
markers” (Deppermann 2015: 380) such as laughter (L23, 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, 46,
49, 51, 52, 54, 55), sentence completion (L30), and strong nodding (L38). Notably,
G1 underpins her affiliation by two mannered and quite exaggerated verbalized
back-channel responses (Duncan and Fiske 1985: 58–59), which are markedly
lengthened, displaying a very strong form of emotional stance, which resembles
mother-child talk: ˋhm::. (L38) and oh::,(L39).

5 Concluding remarks
The two sequences under analysis brought to light how intercultures are co-con-
structed in talk-in-interaction between two Brazilian and two German students
who chose German as the medium of conversation. We have seen that the intercul-
tural experience of alterity itself, as well as the experience of being perceived as a
stranger, can set up an interculture which serves as a common ground for the cre-
ation of a discourse space. The first sequence showed that the co-participants rely
on conceptualizations that are part of their cultural stock of knowledge at hand
and also pertain to a collection of entrenched conceptual metaphors and schemas
shared by both groups as an occidental “community of shared images” (Bildge-
meinschaft), as Harald Weinrich (1976: 287) put it. This refers especially to the con-
ceptual metaphor culture is a container. However, in the intercultural space,
and based on the common ground of intercultural experience, this entrenched,
conventional metaphor is reactivated, elaborated, expanded, observed, and scru-
tinized because it is part of the (self)reflexive experience itself. This was revealed
especially through another metaphor, active only implicitly but also part of our
entrenched schemas: the viewpoint represented here on gestural levels and
incorporating the location of the foreigner as not belonging to the container but
as being an individual located ‘in-between’.
334 Ulrike Schröder

Based on this fundamental experience, the second sequence cast some

light on the way in which interculture is built incrementally based on personal
common ground and by means of strategies which imply ‘perspectivizing’. We
have seen that knowing behavior patterns of the other culture and adopting the
perspective of the other to contrast it with own patterns of behavior can promote
common ground for intercultural discourse. Moreover, this common ground may
also lead to emotional involvement and reciprocal empathy since the co-partici-
pants can grasp the idea that the individual ‘from the other culture who lives as a
foreigner in my own culture of origin’ passes through similar intercultural expe-
riences. Finally, here, again, the emotional involvement was supported on the
cognitive-semantic level by the entrenched metaphor of cold and warm people
related to the stereotype of Germans and Brazilians, although introduced here
from a reflexive and ironic viewpoint, expressed by the mannered and exagger-
ated speech style.

6 Appendix: Transcription conventions GAT 2

Short, adapted version of GAT 2 according to Selting et al. (2011).
[ ] overlap and simultaneous talk
[ ]
= fast, immediate continuation with a new turn or
segment (latching)
and_uh cliticizations within units
hm_hm bi-syllabic tokens
(.) micro pause, up to 0.2 sec.
(-) short pause of 0.2-0.5 sec.
(--) intermediary pause of 0.5-0.8 sec.
(2.0) measured pause of 2.0 sec.
:, ::, ::: lengthening (0.2-0.5 sec.; 0.5-0.8 sec.; 0.8-1.0 sec.)
((laughs)) non-verbal vocal actions and events
<<laughing> > para-verbal and non-verbal action as accompanying
speech with indication of scope
<<acc> accelerando
(may i) assumed wording
(i say/let’s say) possible alternatives
ºhh hhº in- and outbreaths
(xxx) one unintelligible syllable
acCENT focus accent
accEnt secondary accent
ac!CENT! extra strong accent
 How interculture is built on the common ground of alterity experience 335

? rising to high final pitch movement of intonation unit

, rising to mid final pitch movement of intonation unit
- level final pitch movement of intonation unit; falling
to mid final pitch movement of intonation unit
. falling to low final pitch movement of intonation
unit
ˆSO rising-falling accent pitch movement
ˇSO falling-rising accent pitch movement
´SO rising accent pitch movement
`SO falling accent pitch movement
↑ pitch upstep
↓ pitch downstep

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Index
Aguaruna 12, 95–98, 102–106, 108–109, 114, conceptualization of community 41, 62
116–120 conceptualization of nation 33
Amazonian language 12, 78–79, 84, 92, contextual factor 30–35, 37
95–96, 102, 111, 119 contextual view of conceptual metaphor 23
American English 31, 41, 43, 50, 128, 143, coronavirus 14, 251–252, 255–257, 259,
149, 160, 245–247, 287 261–262, 265, 267–268, 270–271
American English. 14 corpus linguistics 12, 70, 125, 314
anger 1, 14, 27, 31, 45, 162, 189–193, corpus-based approach 11
195–201, 203–209, 211–219, 265 Covid-19 14, 253–254, 256, 260–261, 263,
Awetý 12, 77–79, 81–92 266, 269, 271
cultural conceptualization 7–8, 13, 125–129,
Brazilian Portuguese 14, 189, 191, 200, 209, 133–134, 139, 149, 151–152, 159–162,
229–230, 245–247, 289 164, 166, 219, 252
cultural keyword chain 125, 134, 143
Caribbean English 13, 126–127 cultural linguistics 6, 9, 11, 13, 125–128,
CMT 27–28, 128, 252–253, 255, 258, 133–134, 149, 152, 160–161, 163
261–262, 265, 268–269 cultural metaphor 125, 152, 330
cognition 1, 5, 7–8, 10–11, 15, 23–24, 37, 78, culture 1–8, 10–12, 14–15, 23, 29, 31, 35–36,
92, 125, 127, 129–130, 132, 139, 143, 151, 77–78, 80–81, 83–84, 87, 89–92, 125,
161, 229, 255–256, 314–318 128, 132, 134–135, 139–141, 149–150,
cognition-culture interface 8 152, 160–162, 170–171, 173, 189–195,
cognitive sociolinguistics 125–127, 132–134, 215–219, 252–253, 255–259, 261, 271
149, 152 cycle 80–81, 83
collectivism 192–193, 215, 218
community 163 domain-level metaphor 29–30
conceptual fluency 15, 279–283, 289, 292,
303–305 embodiment 1, 9, 15, 23, 34, 90, 256, 271, 279
conceptual metaphor 1–4, 6–9, 11, emotion 1, 3, 7, 10, 14, 36, 189–192,
23–24, 26–27, 30, 32–34, 37, 90, 99, 194–196, 199, 201–203, 205–209,
125–126, 128, 132–134, 137, 145, 148, 211–216, 218–219, 332
151, 161–163, 166, 171, 190–192, 197, ethnobiology 96
199–201, 206–207, 209, 211–212, 214, event-based 77–80, 83, 85–87, 89, 91–92
216–219, 252, 255, 279–280, 282–283, extended CMT 11, 24
311, 326, 333
conceptualization 3–5, 7–8, 10–15, 25, family metaphor 9
27–28, 31, 34–37, 41–43, 47, 57–58, fauna 103–104
61–63, 65–67, 78, 85, 95, 99, 115, 121, fixed expression 42, 61, 68
125–129, 132, 134–135, 137–143, 145, flora 103
147, 149, 152, 159–164, 166, 168–169, frame-level metaphor 28–30, 37
171, 176, 183, 189–192, 194, 200,
202–203, 205, 207–208, 211–212, 214, German as a foreign language 15, 279–280,
216, 218–219, 251–253, 257, 261–262, 283, 319, 333
266, 268–269, 271, 280–281, 283, 287, gesture 4, 8–11, 14–15, 229–230, 232, 235,
303, 309, 311, 314, 327, 331, 333 247, 315–317, 323, 326, 332

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110688306-013
342 Index

gesture studies 248 211–216, 218–219, 251–271, 286–288,

GloWbE 41–43, 51–56, 68–71 298, 303, 311, 314–317, 325–326, 330,
Guyana 13, 125–126, 130–131, 135–137, 139, 332–334
141, 143–145, 148, 150 metaphorical competence 279–283, 289,
Guyanese English 125, 127 303–305
metaphorical profile 189, 196–197, 218
happening 12, 77, 80, 84, 86, 88–89, 91–92 metaphoricity 127, 144, 230, 246, 266, 284,
health communication 251–253, 266 287–288, 298, 303, 305, 315
human 5–8, 27–28, 34, 44, 62, 69, 77–78, metonymy 4, 6, 11–12, 98, 101–102, 107, 111,
81–83, 99, 110, 118–119, 144, 190, 199, 113, 115–116, 118, 120, 147, 200, 314,
210, 251, 253, 255–256, 259, 265, 267, 316, 330
269, 287, 315 motivation 13, 96, 98, 100, 105, 115,
Huni Kui 77–79, 81–92 119–120, 247, 271, 280
multilevel view of conceptual
idealized cognitive model 224 metaphor 23–24
image schema 9, 15, 24–29, 37, 258, 261, multimodal metaphor 288
279–280, 283–286, 288–289, 291, multimodality 9, 15, 315
296–297, 303, 305, 326
image schema-level metaphor 30 pandemics 266
inaugural speech 58–59, 62 perspectival mode 283–284
indexicalization 78, 84–85, 88 political discourse 14, 143, 251, 270
individualism 192–193, 215, 218 Portuguese 8, 13–14, 189, 191, 193–195,
in-group schema 176 197–198, 200–202, 209, 211–212,
interactional linguistics 160–161, 163, 314, 214–216, 218, 229–230, 245–247, 289,
317, 319 296, 298–299, 303, 319
intercultural pragmatics 15, 160, 164, 309, pragmatics 7–8, 11, 15, 261, 309,
311, 319 311, 319
intralinguistic cultural variation 218 profile-based approach 196, 219
prosody 148, 163, 317–318
Kamaiurá 12, 77–79, 81–92 prototypicality 246
public health 251
L2 teaching and learning 281
Late Night talk-show 243 rapport management 164, 184
level of schematicity 23–24, 29, 37
lifespan 84 schema 2–3, 6, 9–10, 13, 15, 127–129,
locative deixis 14 161, 163, 166–167, 169–173, 176, 183,
258–261, 271, 279–280, 283–289,
mental space-level metaphor 29–30, 37 291, 295–297, 299, 301, 303, 305, 314,
metaphor 1–12, 15–16, 23–24, 26–35, 326–327, 333
37, 41–42, 44–46, 49, 58, 61–64, semantic domain analysis 125, 127, 134,
70, 78–79, 83, 85, 89–90, 95–96, 149, 151
98–102, 105–107, 109–111, 113–115, speech style 13, 159–161, 164, 171, 176–178,
119–120, 125–128, 132–134, 136–137, 182–184, 194, 310, 318, 333–334
140, 143, 145, 148, 151–152, 162–163,
166, 171–172, 180, 182, 190–192, 194, time 2–3, 5, 7–8, 10, 12, 23, 28, 37, 42,
196–197, 199–201, 203, 206–209, 44, 62, 69, 77–81, 83, 85–92, 129,
 Index 343

138–139, 144–145, 148, 162, 165, 168, viewpoint 97, 165, 252, 309, 311, 315–316,
170, 177, 179, 182–183, 202, 245, 247, 323, 325, 331, 333–334
254, 258, 260–261, 263–265, 269, virus metaphor 252, 257–258, 262
283, 287, 295, 314–316, 320, 323, 326,
331–332 West-African English 12, 41–42, 50