CONTRASTIVE LEXICOLOGY 3 STUDYING METAPHOR WITH THE BRITISH

CONTRASTIVE LEXICOLOGY 3 STUDYING METAPHOR WITH THE BRITISH NATIONAL CORPUS (BNC)

CORPUS-BASED LANGUAGE STUDIES • Corpora studies present a new strategy which highlights the evidence of natural, ‘real’ language. The term ‘corpus linguistics’ “refers not just to a new computer-based methodology, but, as G. Leech (1992: 106) put it, a ‘new research enterprise’, a new way of thinking about language, which is challenging some of the deeply-rooted ideas. To cope with the vastness of a living language the idea of corpora had been introduced to back up and foster linguistic studies born out by evidence, i. e. a large amount of facts of real language. • The three-fold approach to language data within the framework of corpus linguistics has been summarized as follows: v it is an empirical approach to the description of language use; v it operates within the framework of a contextual and functional theory of meaning; v it makes use of new technologies. (Tognini-Bonelli, 2001: 2)

CORPUS LINGUISTICS AND OTHER PARADIGMS • The perspective of corpus linguistics differs from that of generative grammarians who see language as an innate mechanism which empowers native speakers to produce an infinite set of ‘correct’ sentences. • “If we want to find out what is common to all languages, we should embrace Chomskyan linguistics. If we want to find out if a French sentence is structured grammatically, we should rely on standard linguistics. If we want to find out what words, sentences and texts mean, we should opt for corpus linguistics. ” (Teubert, 2005: 97)

CORPUS LINGUISTICS AS PART OF THE FUNCTIONAL-COMMUNICATIVE PARADIGM • Language is a Social Phenomenon • A Corpus Linguistic Description of Language Prioritizes Lexis • Meaning and Form are Associated (Mahlberg, 2007: 3)

MEANING FROM “A BOTTOMUP POINT-OF-VIEW” Function Meaning Form Genres (text categories) – “recurrent thematic, compositional, and stylistic types of speech” (Бахтин, 1986: 432) Genres – “an interface between the socio-cultural world and textual form” (Kress and Threadgold, 1988: 216)

CONCORDANCES – “LINES OF TEXT ON COMPUTER SHOWING THE WORD IN ITS CONTEXTS” • Concordances of ‘look forward to’ in business letters • (The International Corpus of English – ICE-GB)

COLLOCATE – A WORD HABITUALLY JUXTAPOSED WITH ANOTHER WITH A FREQUENCY GREATER THAN CHANCE • Collocates for ‘mortgage’ include ‘lend’ and ‘property’ • Absolutely – collocates on the right (R) and left sides Collocate on the right (L) Collocate on the left Absolutely They are Absolutely amazing It all looked Absolutely appalling I’m Absolutely certain You’re Absolutely right I had Absolutely no idea

SEARCHING FOR METAPHOR IN THE CORPUS • Corpus-based analysis can facilitate research into metaphor. First of all, a large, representative corpus can provide ample data for constructing semantic frames, which enable the researcher to identify elements most prone to metaphoric use. • The basic tools for such analyses are selecting the search word (the core of the metaphor), sorted concordance lines, and collocates statistics. • (M. Fabiszak, P. Kaszubski “Studying metaphor with the BNC”, Volume Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, Issue 41, 2006, pp. 111129)

EXAMPLE: DECLARE WAR • When sorted by the right co-text in the BNC, the concordance pointed to the preposition ‘on’ referring to: state The United States of America, Spain, Russia nation The people of Hong Kong leader Napoleon Concrete entity Acid rain, rubbish, the golf course Abstract Debt, drug trafficking, the outward entity corruption

DECLARE WAR: THE SEMANTIC FRAME • The analysis of most significant collocates in the corpus points to a strong co-occurrence pattern between Declare war and names of states and Adverbs of time (in 1939, in September 1939, on 1 August 1914). • At the same time, at least 20 uses were found to be metaphorical. References to concrete and abstract entities occurred only in metaphorical contexts. • While ‘declaring war on acid rain’ is quite possible, ‘fighting a war against acid rain’ is most unlikely.

THE SCALAR NATURE OF METAPHOR • Corpus evidence can produce examples unexpected for the researcher. Although prototypically fighting a war involves two or more warring parties, fighting a war on drugs may require not military actions, but may consist in running campaigns or developing therapy centers (a metaphorical use). • A case of zeugma: “The Civil war, which was fought with texts and pamphlets as much as with weapons”. The verb phrase (VP) ‘fight war’ is used with a coordinated noun phrase (NP) where each of the phrases texts and pamphlets, on the one hand, and weapons, on the other, appeal to a different, literal or metaphorical use of the VP.

METAPHORICITY AS A MATTER OF DEGREE • Zeugma and other rhetorical devices are a play on words utilizing the ambiguity between the literal and metaphorical interpretation of the phrase. • “There are more wars to be fought than those with guns” makes use of this kind of ambiguity through an implication that non-military conflicts can be as fierce as wars. • A prototype is the central (focal) meaning or stereotype as the best general representative of a category.

A SCALE OF METAPHORICITY • The scale has two opposing focal points: the literal and the metaphorical. Between the two extremes extends a ground for more fuzzy examples ranging from non-prototypical literal to seriously ambiguous. • Focal literal meaning non-prototypical literal ambiguous focal metaphorical (Fabiszak, Kaszubski, op. cit, p. 126 -127)

EXAMPLE: THE SEARCH WORD BATTLEFIELD • The left-sorted concordance indicated that battlefield tended to appear in NPs of the structure: N of a battlefield: • Area • Guided tours • Chaos of a battlefield • Sombre imagery • The first premodifying noun (area) captures the spatial nature of the word. Guided tours point to the cultural development of the concept covered by the word battlefield, i. e. its development into a sightseeing place. Chaos and sombre imagery, both highly negative, stress the aspect of human suffering.

EXAMPLE: BATTLEFIELD • Despite undergoing a meaning extension to the tourist domain, battlefield is essentially nonmetaphorical in nature: the metaphorical uses of this noun (ideological, political, parliamentary battlefield, a tour of the battlefield) are rather rare (12, 9 % of all the tokens).

EXAMPLE: BATTLEGROUND • The left-sorted concordance showed a large number of metaphorical uses: ‘became a battleground in the government’s fight to promote a change’, ‘turning this former urban battleground into a holiday destination’, ‘classroom, competitive, electoral, ideological, moral, political battleground’, ‘a battleground of the sexes’. • The right-sorted concordance revealed the most common prepositional phrases, also mostly metaphorical: ‘the battleground for the competing ideologies of the academic community and of the state’, etc.

BATTLEGROUND VS. BATTLEFIELD • The semantic frame of battlefield: BATTLEFIELD A place where a battle is fought (focal meaning). The prototypical center of literal uses is the spatial meaning. Prepositions from, to, over, across, Adverbs of Place, death, wounds, tactics Related concepts. A place of historical, touristic interest (nonprototypical) A guided tour of the battlefield

BATTLEGROUND VS. BATTLEFIELD • The corpus data demonstrate that the noun battleground is primarily metaphorical, while the noun battlefield is not, in spite of its extension to the tourist domain (‘guided tours of the battlefield’ – 2 uses). • The semantic frame of battleground: BATTLEGROUND A place for conflict, mostly metaphorical (political battleground). Literal uses with the spatial meaning are scarce. Verbs of change of state (become, to be turned into), postmodification by prepositions for, of