UNIT 12:

ABSTRACT LANGUAGE
ABSTRACT LANGUAGE

Introduction
1. Figurative Language
2. Metaphorical Language
3. Metaphor versus Metonymy
INTRODUCTION
Upon
 completion of this unit, you
should be able to:

define
 figurative language;
discuss metaphorical language;

distinguish between metaphor &

metonymy.
INTRODUCTION
When learning word meanings, children begin:
a. From concrete to abstract;
 with physical objects, (mama, dog, ball, table) and direct activities,
(run, jump, play) to relatives (on, up, down) and statives (is, sitting,
sleeping).

b. Followed by words involving mental experiences & relations

(hungry, hurt, happy, want), which give rise to utterances like Mary
hurt, Baby happy;

c. Later become complex abstract ideas i.e.: I, you, truth, lie, guess,
hope, thought.

This unit – deals with how complex & abstract words are
learned.
 Feelings & concepts are not present in child’s
physical environment, so not directly observable;
 Need more complex hypothesising to learn
words for feelings and concepts;
 Child must infer what people say on the basis of
what happens in the environment & in the mind.
 Such learning seems mysterious yet children do
learn such words (see Hypothesis testing - Unit 5).
 Use of metaphor will help children understand
abstract concepts.
 Main issue - how does one recognise a statement
as figurative rather than literal language, and
processes it accordingly?

E.G.: When we say, It rained cats and dogs - we

don’t really expect cats and dogs to fall from the
sky.
 Also, we use figurative language to describe
abstract ideas.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
 We identify figurative language lexically, because
we restrict the selection of meanings
words/phrases may have.
 Also, we process figurative language
semantically, = the word items used won’t directly
describe the real-world state of affairs.
For example: The normal lexical meaning of ‘rock’ is
not intended in: My father is my rock - it must have
a figurative meaning;
Father = human not a rock; rock does not conform
to the ‘real-world state’ of what a father is.
Teaching figurative language = a challenge on
different levels. For example:

• Small children find figurative language difficult –

they lack intellectual capacity to realize that words
can have more than one meaning.

• Many types of figurative language can be

challenging for those learning English as an L2
because of vocabulary limitations.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
The sentence: The letterbox disliked the postman
isn’t a factual statement, because;
 the verb like requires a human/animal subject or
 in the real-world letter-boxes do not have feelings.

However, this analysis does not explain:

 how to distinguish a literal comparison from a figurative
simile: (Copper is like tin) vs (Church sermons are
sleeping pills)
 Again - how to recognise metaphor intention when the
sentence is also literally true, i.e. No man is an island.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Three major solutions:
1. Incoherence Models
The listener/reader is assumed to:
understand literal interpretation of a sentence,
assess if that interpretation is likely, and
 opt
for a non-literal meaning if literal meaning seems
improbable.
 Studies: no difference shown in the time it takes to
process literal or figurative sentence interpretations, if the
context supporting the interpretation is sufficiently clear.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Research: Readers are unable to block out a figurative
interpretation, even when they are required simply to make
a truth value judgement. Example:

When the little boy was asked what had happened, he spilled
the beans.

 The reader will not block out the figurative meaning and
believe that the little boy had really/literally spilled some
beans.
 More likely to interpret the sentence figuratively and
understand that the little boy had told them what had
really happened.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

2. Comparison Models
 Reader/listener balances the attribution of the literal
and the figurative meanings.
 One way of distinguishing the sentences = The
literal sentence is reversible:
Copper is tin AND Tin is copper,

 Figurative one is not:

Church services are sleeping pills BUT
Sleeping pills are not church services.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

3. Interaction Models
 The vehicle of the figurative language illuminates
the topic, which then illuminates the vehicle.
 Man is a wolf - Wolf points out animal nature of
man, while man changes wolf to the nature of
man.
Read more on p. 215
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE

Metaphorical language opens up hidden meanings of

familiar words and phrases.

Background to the study of metaphor

 All languages contain deeply embedded
metaphorical structures which influence ‘meaning’.
 No use of language can be straightforward (free of
metaphor).
 Hawkes states, “Metaphor, in short, is the way
language works.”
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE
 Metaphors map one relatively stable ‘domain’ to
another.
 Maps concrete domain (the source) to a more
abstract domain (the target),
E.G.: Love is a journey – we can now understand
when somebody says Our relationship is going
nowhere or Our relationship has come to an end.

E.G.: We have inherited an ailing (sick) economy.

 Metaphor – is understood as a mapping from a
source domain (health/illness) to a target domain
(economy)
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE
 Metaphor = a basic process in the formation of words and
word meanings.
 Concepts and meanings are conceptualised – expressed
in words through metaphor.
 Many senses of multi-sense words are metaphors of
different kinds, e.g. Injection = is a source domain for a
variety of target domains. We can talk of:
 E.G.: The business which received an injection of money;
 A relationship that is ailing and needs an injection of
romance to save it, etc.
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE
 Metaphor is centred in thought and reason.
 It is a conventional way of conceptualising different
relationships.
 Conceptual mapping involves:
 noticing a shared system of relations that is the same
in both source and target domain;
 placing objects from the 2 domains into
correspondence based on common roles they share.
 Metaphor’s functions – explaining, clarifying,
describing, expressing, evaluating and entertaining.
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE

 It is often used in speech or writing because there is

no other word to refer to a particular object.
 People choose metaphor in order to communicate
what they think or feel about something.
 For unfamiliar metaphors (i.e. The economy is in a
stranglehold) mapping between the source and
target is necessary iot process the metaphor
further.
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE
Metaphor and L2
 Processing of metaphors and other non-literal usages:
 does not take any longer than the literal ones,
 Are not normally more difficult or problematic.
 Research findings indicate - listeners/readers = are
most prone to making idiomatic rather than literal
interpretations.
 Scholars found - the detail of metaphors and how they
are realised in vocabulary may be different between
different languages, even where the languages are
related.
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE

 Assume - where languages are far removed from

each other (i.e. English & African languages),
great differences may exist when L2 listeners &
readers draw inferences from metaphorical
expressions in the L1.
 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis strengthens the idea that
metaphorical expressions will be interpreted
differently by L1 and L2 speakers of a language.
2. METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states:

 The differences between languages enforce

differences in thought;
 Speakers of different languages are likely to view the
world and its phenomena very differently;
 There will not be enough shared ground between
speakers of those languages, so translation becomes
impossible.
Conventional & Novel Metaphors

 Conventional Metaphors = metaphorical usages

which are found again and again to refer to a
particular thing, for example to boost - Can refer
to any aspect that is being improved by some
outside means, such as our health, the economy,
our own ego, etc.

 Creative or novel Metaphors = metaphors that a

writer/speaker deliberately constructs to express
a particular idea or feeling in a particular context.
 Creative/Novel Metaphors are found largely in literature,
[i.e. poetry, drama].
 Reader/listener needs to ‘deconstruct’ or ‘unpack’ these
metaphors iot understand the meaning.
 Such metaphors are typically new, yet may be based on
pre-existing ideas or images. E.G: The economy is in a
stranglehold.
stranglehold - term from the sport, wrestling, (putting
your arm around the neck of the competitor to
disempower him).
 Knowing that, we can infer that the economy is losing
its power because of something that is preventing it from
progressing.
Metaphor & Socio-cultural Differences
between languages

 Groups of people/individuals receive experiences

specific to them through
• the environment,
• the social-cultural context and
• the communicative situation.
 Metaphors are also created by a certain history; either the
History of the context (environment, socio-cultural,
communicative situation) or the History of the individual.
 The history of contexts and individuals vary across time;
These variations will produce variations in metaphors.
 Kinds of metaphors used depend on different
concerns and interests that govern people’s
lives.
 These concerns and interests may be general
or “built into” culture, or personal lives.
 Both significantly influence the metaphors
people use to understand the world around
them.
 Many metaphors are “off-loaded” into the
cultural world to enable people to:
 solve problems,
 make decisions and
 perform skilled actions.
 Linguistic differences between their L1 & L2 can
be recognised by L2 speakers through:
 Awareness of metaphor use in L2, and
 Possible differences in source domain
interpretations.
3. Metaphor vs Metonymy
 Metonymy:
= A word used in the place of another with which it is
closely connected in everyday experience;
= A figure of speech in which a thing/concept is called
not by its own name but by the name of something
associated in meaning with that thing/concept
e.g.: He drank the whole bottle = he drank the entire
contents of the bottle, not the bottle itself.
 Also - the head of the company = person fulfilling the
managerial functions.
 Familiarity with metonymy enables understanding:
Buckingham Palace today confirmed … (London home and the
administrative center of the British royal family)
The White House has announced … Council has approved …
or Parliament /Cabinet decided ..., etc.
 Many examples = are highly conventionalized and easy to
interpret.
 Metonymy used to talk about, e.g.:
 filling up the car,
 answering the phone or the door,
 boiling a kettle,
 giving somebody a hand or
 needing some wheels
However, other examples of metonymy depend on
our ability to infer what the speaker has in mind;
Get your butt over here - understand if you are used
to the informal talk of the USA, (used for telling
someone rudely to go somewhere or do something)
The strings are too quiet - if you are familiar with
classical music - violins, etc. are called strings.

Making sense of such expressions depends on:

 context in which they are used,
own background knowledge or schemata,
the ability to draw appropriate inferences.
Thank You!