Conceptual metaphor : Bibliography

Kvecses, Zoltn. 2002. Metaphor: a practical introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Up-to-date, book-length overview of the field. Summarizes clearly and accessibly a large
proportion of the research done since 1980, including conceptual integration (blending). Excellent
resource!
Leezenberg, Michiel. 2001. Contexts of metaphor . Amsterdam: Elsevier.
A recent overview of theories of metaphor other than conceptual metaphor theory, including a
critique of the conceptual perspective.
Metaphor
Mark Johnson
Introduction
For nearly 2,500 years, since the time of Aristotle, scholars assumed that metaphor was simply a matter of
languagecases in which a word with a literal meaning could have a second meaning, which Aristotle claimed
was similar to the first. According to this comparison theory, any cognitive content a metaphor might have would
supposedly be reducible to a set of literal similarity statements. Consequently, while metaphors were seen as
powerful rhetorical and poetic devices of language, they were deemed nonessential for stating fundamental truth
claims, which could supposedly be reduced to literal concepts and propositions. During the last half of the 20th
century, however, this dominant Aristotelian perspective was shown to be wrong. A growing body of cognitive
science research on meaning, conceptualization, reasoning, knowledge, and language called for a radical
rethinking of the nature and operations of metaphor. This empirical research was the basis for what came to be
known as conceptual metaphor theory. It was discovered that metaphor is conceptual rather than linguistic in
nature, that we think by using metaphornot rarely or obscurelybut constantly, and that most metaphorical
thought is not based on perceived similarities in the world. Instead, conceptual metaphors are frame-to-frame
mappings, where frames are basic structures of everyday thought. Conceptual metaphors thus consist of source
domain frames that are mapped onto target domain frames, with most of the inference structure found in the
source domain carried over to the corresponding target-domain structure. This process gives rise to metaphorical
reasoning. Linguistic, psychological, and neuroscientific methods of inquiry and explanation continue to shed new
light on how metaphors are learned, how they structure conceptual systems, and how they shape our reasoning
in all aspects of our lives. Scholars are now investigating the working of metaphor in languages and cultural
systems across the world and throughout history. In addition to this cross-linguistic research, metaphor has been
explored in other modes of symbolic interaction besides language, such as art, music, architecture, dance,
theater, and ritual. In a few short decades, metaphor has moved from the margins to the center of the study of
mind, thought, and language. First regarded as a peripheral linguistic phenomenon to be studied only in literary
theory and aesthetics, metaphor is now recognized as a fundamental process of human conceptualization and
reasoning.
Anthologies
Since metaphor did not become a focal topic of research until the 1960s, all of the collections of work on
metaphor are recent. Shibles 1972 is an early collection of essays from multiple perspectives. Johnson
1981 provides most of the important philosophical writings on metaphor that defined the field at that time. Miall
1982 includes essays covering metaphor in both literary and scientific texts. Ortony 1993 and Gibbs 2008 are
cross-disciplinary, and Gibbs is especially useful to get a sense of current directions of research in the
field. Komendzinski 2002 offers recent essays by a number of prominent scholars, many of whom adopt a
conceptual metaphor theory orientation. Forceville and Urios-Aparisi 2009 is the only volume dealing with the
new topic of multimodal or cross-modal metaphor, in which the source and target domains come from two
different modalities (e.g., visual, verbal, tactile).
Forceville, Charles, and Eduardo Urios-Aparisi, eds. 2009. Multimodal metaphor. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110215366E-mail Citation
The only introduction to the new field of metaphors in which the source and target domains are from two different
experiential types, such as visual metaphors or metaphors combining the verbal and the visual modes.
Gibbs, Raymond. 2008. The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511816802E-mail Citation
A very impressive anthology of the most recent empirical research coming from cognitive science, neuroscience,
linguistics, psychology, philosophy, literary theory, and cultural theory. This is the best source from which to get a
sense of the most current directions of research.
Johnson, Mark. ed. 1981. Philosophical perspectives on metaphor. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota
Press.
E-mail Citation
The first and only anthology devoted exclusively to philosophical treatments. See the introductory essay for a
brief survey of metaphor theory from Plato to 1980. Annotated bibliography.
Komendzinski, Tomasz, ed. 2002. Metaphor: A multidisciplinary approach. Theoria et Historum
Scientiarum: An International J ournal for Interdisciplinary Studies 6, 1. Torun: Nicolas Coprnicus Univ.
Press, 2002.
E-mail Citation
An interesting diverse collection of essays by important contemporary researchers covering work from
psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, and computer science.
Miall, David, ed. 1982. Metaphor: Problems and perspectives. Brighton, UK: Harvester.
E-mail Citation
An early small anthology on metaphor in literature and science, with chapters by scholars who later gained some
prominence in the field.
Ortony, Andrew. 1993. Metaphor and thought. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139173865E-mail Citation
Contains some seminal essays that still define many of the competing points of view in the field. Together
with Gibbs 2008, this lays out the landscape, and both of these anthologies are excellent for a course at any
level.
Shibles, Warren. 1972. Essays on metaphor. Whitewater, WI: Language Press.
E-mail Citation
A short, eclectic selection of essays relating metaphor to philosophy, psychology, religion, art, and literature.