Metaphor in Fiction - VU-DARE Home - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

395 Pages·2011·2.75 MB·English

Metaphor in Fiction

Language, Thought and Communication

Aletta Gesina Dorst
Printed by: Proefschriftmaken.nl || Printyourthesis.com
Published by: Uitgeverij BOXPress, Oisterwijk

ISBN 978-90-8891-273-3

Copyright © 2011: Aletta Gesina Dorst. All rights reserved.
Illustrations copyright © 2011: Pepijn Dros. All rights reserved.
Cover by Maren Siebert and Pepijn Dros.
VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT

Metaphor in Fiction
Language, Thought and Communication

ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT

ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan
de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
op gezag van de rector magnificus
prof.dr. L.M. Bouter,
in het openbaar te verdedigen
ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie
van de faculteit der Letteren
op woensdag 15 juni 2011 om 11.45 uur
in de aula van de universiteit,
De Boelelaan 1105

door

Aletta Gesina Dorst

geboren te Hilversum
promotor: prof.dr. G.J. Steen
copromotor: dr. A.J. Cienki
Acknowledgements

They say it’s all about the journey, not the destination. True as this may be, I
cannot even begin to describe how glad I am that after six years the journey of my
PhD has been completed and my destination has finally been reached. Though the
years have certainly flown by, the final phase was a struggle and at times a sheer
battle of wills. It is therefore time to name a few important people without whose
help, support and never-ending faith I may not have emerged victoriously.
First and foremost, I would of course like to thank my daily supervisor
Gerard Steen for providing me with the opportunity to work on this project and do
what I love doing most. I have greatly enjoyed working in our metaphor team, and
I am grateful for the many inspiring, engaging and at times crazy discussions we’ve
had, arguing for hours about whether or not some word was or was not
metaphorically used. You have always had absolute faith in me and I am thankful
for our honest and open-minded work climate. I rebelled occasionally, but I always
knew that you respected these rebellions and took them seriously. Thank you for
your critical and valuable feedback and for your contagious enthusiasm and
passion for metaphors.
Secondly, my sisters in arms, Anna Kaal and Tryntje Pasma. With you by
my side the journey was never lonely, never dull, never desperate. They say you’re
lucky if you can turn your hobby into your career, but I feel even luckier for having
had two of my closest friends as my colleagues. What fun we had, despite all the
hard work and constant stress. And how lucky we were that we could always help
each other through the rough times and share our thoughts, worries, hopes and
dreams over a cup of coffee or a drink in the café. I will miss our coffee breaks,
lunch breaks, drinks and dinners at the VU, our adventures at conferences abroad. I
am sad that our journey together has come to an end, but at the same time I look
forward to seeing where our new journeys will take us. You are both amazing
people and to quote our favourite dance movie: “I've had the time of my life, and I
owe it all to you!”
A big thank you also to the other VICI and STER promovendi – Berenike
Herrmann, Tina Krennmayr, and Kirsten Vis – and the members of “het klasje” –
Iris Burgers, Laura Crowley, Marco Last and Digna van der Woude. A special
thank you also to my co-promotor Alan Cienki, for reading and commenting on my
final draft at record-breaking speed but more importantly for being the wonderful
and inspiring person that he is. Alan, you never fail to bring a smile to my face.
Another special thank you to Onno Huber and Erik Akkerman, for their help with
the corpus and the database, and to Gerben Mulder, who patiently helped me find
the right statistical analyses to make some sense of my data. Gerben – I hope our
efforts have not been in vain and if I ever run an experiment again I promise to talk
to you first!
Furthermore, I would like to thank all my colleagues at the Vrije
Universiteit, both of English Language and Culture and CIW – I know I have been
hiding from you for a while, and I must have looked miserable every time you
asked me how I was getting along, but now that I’m done I promise to join you for
lunch again, or coffee, or both. One colleague who deserves a special thank you is
of course Mike Hannay, who has shown an interest in my academic career for
many years now and who never fails to think of me when an opportunity presents
itself.
I would also like to thank the members of the Pragglejaz Group and the
RaAM Executive Committee. It is truly amazing how open-minded, friendly and
approachable you are. You are truly an inspiration to young researchers and I have
learnt so much from our meetings and discussions, not just about metaphors or
linguistics but also about the kind of researcher I want to be. A special thank you to
Graham Low, for his support and the many letters of recommendation, to Jeannette
Littlemore, for her enthusiasm and for telling me to submit that paper, and to Elena
Semino, for being a true inspiration and for her continued efforts in helping me
find funding for a postdoc project – I still hope we will succeed one day! I am also
particularly grateful to Dedre Gentner for providing me with a unique opportunity
to work in her lab in Evanston for three months.
Of course there’s so much more to life than work. Although I spent almost
every waking hour of the past few months working on my thesis, I realized more
than ever how lucky I am to have so many wonderful friends, too many to address
all of them individually in this short text. I am eternally grateful for your patience
and continued support.
Lisanne, if I had worked half as hard as you do, I would have finished ages
ago – I hope you know how much you mean to me and how much I admire you.
You are amazing in every single way. Gosia, Emmi, Annemieke – thank you for
being so patient and for remaining true friends when I had so little time for you and
probably always forgot to ask how you were doing. Your friendship provided the
necessary getaways from my thesis writing and seeing you always made me happy
and gave me new energy and confidence to keep going. I look forward to lots and
lots of dinners, movie nights and mahyong battles! Aafke, Femke, Maaike,
Marjolein, Tomas, though we do not see each other that often these days our
friendship is still going strong after 18 years and seeing you is always a blast, and
not just from the past. I say: cheese fondue?
A big thank you also to my family, who never failed to ask how I was
doing and always had some words of encouragement to spare. The same goes for
my in-laws from Texel, who are anything but a “koude kant”. Texel will always
have a special place in my heart thanks to all those evenings, weekends, even a
whole “holiday” with Anna and Bas spent working on my thesis, made bearable by
long walks on the beach, bike rides through the dunes, afternoons and evenings
filled with good food and good fun, and Skuumkoppen of course. Kris, I think it’s
high time for a movie marathon or a pool contest! Mum and dad, your home is my
haven. When I’m with you I feel the worries lifting from my shoulders and not just
because I get to take long, hot baths. You’ve always believed in me
unconditionally and supported me through the good times and the bad. Thank you
for being such amazing parents.
And last but certainly not least, my dearest Pepijn. Though you will
probably deny it, you’ve had to put up with a lot these past two years. Thank you
for drying my tears when I felt I would never make it, for soothing my tempers
when I felt that the world was against me, for knowing exactly when to push and
when to let go, for being patient and understanding, for having complete faith in
me, and for making my life easier in any way you could think of. But we’ve also
had so much fun together! From trips to Venice, Gent, Luxembourg and Paris, to
weekends on Texel, strolls through the Vondelpark, Dexter marathons, and late
nights at Gent aan de Schinkel. You always know exactly when I need a break and
you never stop surprising me. No metaphor in the world can do justice to how
much you mean to me. You are my everything.
As my thesis is concerned with metaphors in fiction it seems fitting that I
borrow one last metaphor to describe my journey and struggle from one of my all-
time favourite novels, The Lord of the Rings. My metaphor fellowship also lost
some good friends along the way but gained new friends and allies. And although
at times the vici hobbits despaired that the journey would never end and that we
would not be able to live up to the challenge, the fellowship stayed true. Sometimes
we needed the guidance of those wiser than us, or the strength of those stronger
than us, but our courage and determination cannot be overlooked. And what great
adventures we have had along the way! So it is by citing J.R.R. Tolkien that I wish
to conclude this PhD journey: “For the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am
glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things.” I hope I see you all on my
next adventure!

Lettie Dorst
Amsterdam, April 2011
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. 5
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Metaphor in fiction: a preliminary example ................................................................................... 14
Aim and research questions ............................................................................................................ 17
Outline of the thesis........................................................................................................................ 22
Chapter 1 Contemporary Metaphor Theory ................................................................................... 25
1.1 From metaphor in language to metaphor in thought ................................................................. 26
1.2 Conceptual Metaphor Theory ................................................................................................... 31
1.3 Critiques from psychology: conceptual metaphor, metaphoric representation and metaphor
processing....................................................................................................................................... 35
1.3.1 Conceptual metaphor and metaphoric representation ....................................................... 35
1.3.2 Conceptual metaphor and metaphor processing ............................................................... 39
1.4 Critiques from linguistics: from metaphor in thought back to metaphor in language ............... 47
1.4.1 CMT and authentic language ........................................................................................... 49
1.4.2 Metaphor and domains of discourse ................................................................................. 54
1.4.3 CMT and linguistic metaphor identification .................................................................... 58
1.4.4 From linguistic to conceptual metaphor ........................................................................... 63
1.5 A three-dimensional model of metaphor .................................................................................. 67
1.6 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 70
Chapter 2 Metaphor in fiction .......................................................................................................... 73
2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 74
2.2 A multi-dimensional definition of ‘fiction’ .............................................................................. 74
2.3 Approaches to analysing metaphor in literary discourse .......................................................... 77
2.4 Forms and functions of metaphor in literature .......................................................................... 82
2.5 Characteristics of literary and non-literary language ................................................................ 86
2.6 Linguistic approaches to the study of literature ........................................................................ 90
2.7 Corpus-based studies of the language of fiction ....................................................................... 93
2.8 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 98
Chapter 3 MIPVU: A manual for identifying metaphor-related words ..................................... 101
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 102
3.2 The basic procedure ............................................................................................................... 103
3.3 Deciding about words: lexical units ....................................................................................... 104
3.3.1 General guideline ........................................................................................................... 105
3.3.2 Exceptions ...................................................................................................................... 105
3.4 Indirect use potentially explained by cross-domain mapping ................................................. 110
3.4.1 Identifying contextual meanings .................................................................................... 111
3.4.2 Deciding about more basic meanings ............................................................................. 113
3.4.3 Deciding about sufficient distinctness ............................................................................ 115
3.4.4 Deciding about the role of similarity .............................................................................. 115
3.5 Direct use potentially explained by cross-domain mapping ................................................... 117
3.6 Implicit meaning potentially explained by cross-domain mapping ........................................ 117
3.7 Signals of potential cross-domain mappings .......................................................................... 119
3.8 New-formations and parts that may be potentially explained by cross-domain mapping ....... 119
3.9 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 120
Chapter 4 The application of MIPVU to fiction ............................................................................ 123
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 124
4.2 Additions and specifications in MIPVU ................................................................................. 124
4.2.1 Character descriptions and the boundary between concrete and abstract ....................... 124
4.2.2 Similes and the issue of linguistic metaphor based on direct meaning ........................... 130
4.2.3 Personification and the interaction between metaphor and metonymy .......................... 134
4.2.4 The analysis of proper names in fiction ......................................................................... 136
4.2.5 The analysis of cultural references in fiction .................................................................. 139
4.2.6 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 141
4.3 A demonstration of the application of MIPVU ...................................................................... 141
4.3.1 The excerpt..................................................................................................................... 142
4.3.2 The application of MIPVU ............................................................................................. 143
4.3.3 Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 153
4.4 Reliability testing ................................................................................................................... 156
4.4.1 Reliability in fiction ....................................................................................................... 157
4.4.2 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 160
4.5 General discussion and conclusion ......................................................................................... 161
Chapter 5 The linguistic forms of metaphor in fiction: a quantitative cross-register comparison
163
5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 164
5.2 Method ................................................................................................................................... 167
5.2.1 Materials ........................................................................................................................ 167
5.2.2 Preparation of the data ................................................................................................... 168
5.3 Analysis 1: The interaction between register, word class and metaphor ................................ 170
5.3.1 The interaction between register and word class ............................................................ 171
5.3.2 The interaction between register, word class and metaphor ........................................... 174
5.3.3 Discussion of the interaction between register, word class and metaphor ...................... 184
5.3.4 Dominant patterns of metaphor and metaphor variation in fiction ................................. 186
5.3.5 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 202
5.4 Analysis 2: Borderline cases and metaphor signals in fiction................................................. 203
5.4.1 Register and relation to metaphor .................................................................................. 204
5.4.2 Further analysis and discussion ...................................................................................... 206
5.4.3 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 213
5.5 Analysis 3: Direct and implicit metaphor in fiction ................................................................ 214
5.5.1 Register and metaphor type ............................................................................................ 215
5.5.2 Further analysis and discussion ...................................................................................... 216
5.5.3 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 221
5.6 General discussion of the linguistic forms of metaphor in fiction .......................................... 222
Chapter 6 The linguistic forms of metaphor in fiction: narrative and dialogue compared ....... 227
6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 228
6.2 Method ................................................................................................................................... 234
6.3 Analysis 1: The interaction between sub-register, word class and metaphor.......................... 235
6.3.1 The interaction between sub-register and word class ..................................................... 235
6.3.2 The interaction between sub-register, word class and metaphor .................................... 241
6.3.3 Discussion of the interaction between word class, sub-register and metaphor ............... 248
6.3.4 Dominant patterns of metaphor and metaphor variation in narrative and dialogue ........ 250
6.3.5 Discussion of the dominant patterns of metaphor and metaphor variation in narrative and
dialogue ................................................................................................................................... 267
6.4 Analysis 2: Borderline cases and metaphor signals in narrative and dialogue........................ 268
6.4.1 Relations to metaphor in narrative and dialogue ............................................................ 269
6.4.2 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 270
6.5 Analysis 3: Direct and implicit MRWs in narrative and dialogue .......................................... 271
6.5.1 Metaphor types in narrative and dialogue ...................................................................... 271
6.5.2 Forms and functions of direct metaphor in narrative and dialogue ................................ 273
6.6 General discussion of the linguistic forms of metaphor in narrative and dialogue in fiction .. 281
Chapter 7 Personification in fiction: Linguistic forms, conceptual structures and
communicative functions ................................................................................................................ 287
7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 288
7.2 Theoretical background: defining personification .................................................................. 290
7.3 Linguistic realizations of personification ............................................................................... 293
7.4 The role of conventionality .................................................................................................... 297
7.5 Deliberateness and elaboration ............................................................................................... 303
7.6 Body-part personifications ..................................................................................................... 306
7.7 Proposal for a categorization of personification types ............................................................ 310
7.8 General discussion and conclusions ....................................................................................... 313
Chapter 8 Recognition of personifications in fiction by non-expert readers .............................. 315