Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY
MASTER THESIS
Vladimir Figar
University of Ni
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY
English Department
MA Studies
Mentor
Student
Vladimir Figar, 39
Ni, 2013
Acknowledgment
I am grateful to my mentor, Mihailo Antovi, Ph.D. for his support, critical
comments, and suggestions. I would also like to thank Todd Oakley, Ph.D. for his
critical remarks pertaining to the first part of the present research. Additionally, I
would like to express my gratitude to all of my colleagues from the English
Department who participated in the second part of the research and made this study
possible. Finally, I thank my family and friends for their support and patience.
Table of Contents
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Abstract: The present paper explores the structure, function, and the potential of conceptual metaphors in
the political discourse of daily newspapers to provoke an emotional reaction with the electorate, i.e.
readers. The two groups of metaphors that are investigated include CONFLICT and SPORT metaphors.
Consequently, the corpus consists of metaphorical expressions corresponding to the two previously
mentioned conceptual keys, extracted from the on-line editions of The New York Times during December
2011. The paper resides on an integrated theoretical framework that encompasses the basic tenets of the
Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), the fully developed model of the Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT),
and the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion. Additionally, basic tenets of the Circumplex Model of Affect
and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) are also utilized. The present research is
conducted in two stages: 1) metaphorical expressions from the corpus are analyzed in terms of their
structure and function through the concomitant use of the CMT and CBT models; 2) building on the
Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion, Russells circumplex, and the PANAS model, the second stage of the
research uses appropriate questionnaires to test whether the metaphorical expressions extracted from the
corpus can provoke an actual tangible emotional reaction with the experimental subjects. The reaction is
measured in terms of affect, and in terms of specific emotion concepts. Such research design is meant to
reveal both the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the construction of metaphorical conceptual integration
networks, and the mechanisms that facilitate the development of an emotional response. Furthermore, the
results obtained from the two parts of the present research are compared and investigated for potential
points of intersection. Additionally, the results of the present study are also compared against the results
obtained from the previous research in the field, predominantly conducted within the CMT framework.
Finally, the paper also presents additional evidence in favor of the joint use of the CMT and the CBT
frameworks. Based on the analyses, it can be concluded that all metaphorical conceptual integration
networks from the present corpus appeared as single-scope networks. Additionally, a high degree of
systematicity of emergent structures was also recorded, which was accounted for by the highly entrenched
nature of the two conceptual keys, and links were established with the systematic nature of compression.
The two main cognitive mechanisms that facilitate the creation of an emotional reaction are backward
projections and coupled elaboration, which in turn enable metaphors to function as powerful persuasive
tools. The second part of the research revealed that metaphorical expressions from the corpus can
provoke a certain degree of an emotional response with the readers, i.e. experimental subjects. In addition,
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the recorded reactions also showed a certain degree of consistency. In conclusion, metaphor poses as a
powerful rhetorical tool that can influence individuals reasoning and behavior by influencing their
emotional and affective states. Future research should attempt to further reveal the nature of interaction
between the processes of meaning and emotion construction.
Key words: conceptual metaphor, conceptual blending, compression, emergent structure, network
optimization, human scale, political discourse of daily newspapers, emotional response, affect
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afektivno i emocionalno stanje. Dalja istraivanja trebala bi da otkriju vie detalja o prirodi interakcije
izmeu procesa konstrukcije znaenja i konstrukcije emocionalnog iskustva.
Kljune rei: konceptualna metafora, konceptualno stapanje, kompresija, emergentna struktura,
optimizacija mrea, politiki diskurs dnevnih novina, emocionalna reakcija, afekat
Introduction
1. Introduction
With the onset of cognitive linguistics, metaphor was transformed from a once anomalous
phenomenon, to an indispensable asset in the human cognitive arsenal. Additionally, cognitive linguists claim
language to be a function of our cognitive systems, rather than an inborn capacity waiting to unravel, rendering
it largely dependent on the bodily experience of the world around us (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a; 2003[1980b];
Lakoff, 1991; 2006[1993]; Saeed, 2003; Evans & Green, 2006; Gibbs & Colston, 2006[1995]; Mandler, 1992;
2012). In other words, cognitive semanticists take the view that we have no access to a reality independent of
human categorization (Saeed, 2003: 344), which means that our conceptual system ... plays a central role in
defining our realities (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]: 3). Bearing in mind that our ordinary conceptual
system ... is fundamentally metaphorical in nature (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]: 3), it is easy to
understand how important conceptual metaphor is in everyday communication.
The main aim of the present research will be to explore the structure and function of conceptual
metaphors in the political discourse of daily newspapers. Additionally, the paper will also investigate whether
these metaphors can in fact provoke an actual, tangible emotional response with the readers. In that sense,
the present research will be divided into two integral parts. The results obtained from these two stages of the
research will be then compared and investigated for potential points of intersection. The specifics pertaining to
the theoretical framework, corpus construction, and the methodologies used in the analyses are described in
more detail in sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 4.1, and 4.2. The paragraphs below provide a general overview of the
structure of the paper, as well as the information pertaining to the content of its main sections.
The paper will begin with the introduction of the theoretical framework (section 2) on which the present
research will be grounded. Section 2.1 will introduce the basic notions pertaining to the Conceptual Metaphor
Theory (CMT), and it will also address some attention to the notions of image schemas (subsection 2.1.5), and
frames and ICMs (subsection 2.1.7), which will be essential for further analyses. Furthermore, subsection 2.1.9
will introduce the basic elements of the Critical Metaphor Analysis as presented in Charteris-Black (2004),
while subsection 2.1.10 will be dealing more explicitly with the role of conceptual metaphors in political
discourse.
Section 2.2 will in turn introduce the theoretical framework of the Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT)
as presented in Fauconnier and Turner (2002; 2006[1998]). Namely, the section will open with the discussion
of the basic tenets of the Mental Space Theory (Fauconnier, 1994; 1997; 2007), after which it will proceed to
its logical sequel the CBT model. The discussion of the CBT model will include some important notions that
will later be utilized in the analyses of the examples from the corpus. Some of these theoretical concepts
encompass the notions of vital relations, compressions, systematic nature of compression, optimality principles,
and single- and double-scope networks. Subsection 2.2.8 will pay special attention to the relationship between
Introduction
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the CMT and the CBT model, and it will foreground the arguments in favor of the joint use of the two
theoretical frameworks. In summary, sections 2.1 and 2.2 will comprise an integrated theoretical framework
that will be used in the first part of the present research. In addition to the now canonical blending model of
Fauconnier and Turner (2002), subsection 2.2.9 will also present an outline of a more recent blending
framework, the Coded Meaning Model introduced by Coulson and Oakley (2005).
Section 2.3 will be dealing with the theoretical framework that will be used in the second part of the
present research. Namely, this section will introduce the basic elements of the Circumplex Model of Affect
(Russell, 1980), the PANAS model (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), and the Conceptual Act Theory of
Emotion (Barrett, 2006; Lindquist & Barrett, 2008). Additionally, the constructs of core affect (Russell, 2003)
and situated conceptualizations (Barsalou, 2009) will also be briefly discussed, owing to their intrinsic link to
the Conceptual Act Theory.
Following the introduction of the theoretical framework, section 3 will present some relevant results
from the previous research, which will be followed by section 4 that will introduce the present research and the
main research questions that this paper will attempt to answer. The present research will consist of two parts.
The first part, described in section 4.1, will be dealing with corpus analysis using the combined theoretical
model of the CMT and the CBT frameworks. Such an approach is expected to provide a thorough insight into
both the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the construction of metaphorical conceptual integration networks,
and the social functions that metaphors perform in the political discourse of daily newspapers and mechanisms
that facilitate those functions. Examples from the corpus will be organized around the two main conceptual
keys CONFLICT and SPORT.
Section 4.2 will introduce the second part of the present research which was designed to determine
whether conceptual metaphors from the political discourse of daily newspapers can provoke an actual tangible
emotional reaction with the experimental subjects. For that purpose two types of questionnaires were designed.
Type-one questionnaires were developed to measure the affective response in terms of valence and arousal,
while type-two questionnaires were developed to measure the emotional reaction in terms of more specific
emotion concepts presented in the form of a checklist with 4 positive and 4 negative emotion concepts.
In addition to the initial discussions of the obtained results, performed in sections 4.1 and 4.2, section
5 will provide a comprehensive overview of the results obtained in both parts of the present research. Namely,
this section begins with an elaborate discussion of the main research questions (subsections 5.1 and 5.2),
followed by an in-depth comparison of findings from the two parts of the present research (subsection 5.3).
Subsection 5.4 presents additional arguments in favor of the concomitant use of the CMT and the CBT models,
and once again highlights the points of intersection between the CBT model and the Conceptual Act Theory,
which license the construction of the fully developed human scale experience.
Finally, the paper closes with section 6 which provides a short overview of the most important findings
from the current research, along with their implications for future research.
Theoretical Framework
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2. Theoretical Framework
The current section will outline the structure of the theoretical framework that will be used in the paper.
Namely, this will encompass the CMT model, the CBT model, the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion, Russells
circumplex, and the PANAS model. Some additional theoretical constructs, such as core affect and situated
conceptualizations, essential for the understanding of the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion will also be
discussed.
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is coupled with a positive evaluation, whereas downward orientation is coupled with a negative one. This
suggests that target concepts in orientational metaphors are structured in a coherent and uniform manner
(Kvecses, 2010). Equivalent examples can be provided for center - periphery, left - right, front back, near
far, and other orientations.
Ontological metaphors involve the projection of entity or substance status on something that does
not have that status inherently (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a: 196). In other words, ontological metaphors enable
us to see more sharply delineated structure where there is very little or none (Kvecses, 2010: 39). This
means that ontological metaphors such as
OBJECT, THE MIND IS A CONTAINER, COUNTRY IS A CONTAINER, RACE IS A CONTAINER, THEORY IS A LIVING ENTITY, and
INFLATION IS A LIVING ENTITY
(Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]: 25-34), enable us to make sense of some more
abstract, intangible concepts, by relying on our experiences with physical objects. This is particularly
transparent in the case of the CONTAINER metaphor, which is largely based on the experience of our bodies as
containers.
2.1.2. Systematicity and Partial Nature of Metaphorical Mappings
The fact that a concept is structured by a metaphor means it is partially structured and that it can be
extended in some ways but not in others (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]: 13), and, in addition, such
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metaphorical structuring of a concept is necessarily partial (ibid.: 52). This, coupled with the fact that
concepts are metaphorically structured in a systematic way (ibid.: 52), means that expressions from the
source domain can be used to refer to concepts in the target domain. Additionally, due to its systematicity,
features of the source and target domain are joined so that the metaphor may be extended or have its internal
logic (Saeed, 2003: 348). Let us consider the metaphor
(2003[1980b]: 4-6). Namely, conceptualizing arguments in terms of war sanctions the use of vocabulary such
as attack, defense, victory, and defeat, to talk about arguments. The systematicity of this metaphor allows us
to talk about interlocutors as opponents who can win an argument, succumb to the attacks, or lose a battle.
Still, such systematicity is necessarily paired with the partial nature of metaphorical mappings, suggesting that
not everything is projected from the source to the target. In other words, the partial nature of metaphorical
mappings necessarily involves a certain degree of highlighting and hiding (Lakoff & Johnson (2003[1980b];
Kvecses, 2010).
2.1.3. Metaphorical Entailments
Another important element in the CMT framework includes metaphorical entailments, which refer to
rich additional knowledge structures about the source domain that are transferred to the target domain in the
process of cross-domain mapping (Evans & Green, 2006; Kvecses, 2010). In other words, since
metaphorical concepts are defined in terms of nonmetaphorical concepts, they show entailment relations
parallel to those for the corresponding nonmetaphorical concepts (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a: 197). Owing to
the fact that metaphoric mappings carry entailments or rich inferences (Evans & Green, 2006: 298), it is
possible to use additional knowledge about the source domain in order to make sense of some possible
features of the target domain (Kvecses, 2010). As suggested by Evans and Green (2006: 299), and
Kvecses (2010: 122), beside the conventional mappings for the metaphor
ARGUMENT IS A JOURNEY,
some
additional knowledge can also be inferred: travelers can stray from the path, be forced to take a break, get lost,
not reach their destination, etc. Consequently, interlocutors can stray from the subject, be forced to abandon
the discussion, be unable to make their point, or be unable to reach an agreement. This suggests that the
association that exists between the source and the target domain makes it possible for the events that
normally occur in the source to occur in the target as well.
2.1.4. Metaphor Systems and Metaphorical Coherence
An important aspect of metaphors is that they can interact with each other and yield elaborate
metaphor systems constructed out of individual conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]; Evans
& Green, 2006). Metaphor systems represent groups of conceptual metaphors that offer partial structurings of
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a concept, and they can be understood as instantiations of one general conceptual metaphor situated at the
highest point in the hierarchy, where metaphors higher up in the hierarchy tend to be more widespread than
those mappings at lower levels (Lakoff, 2006[1993]: 209-210). One of the metaphor systems discussed in
Kvecses (2010: 149-167) includes the Event Structure Metaphor which accounts for the metaphorical
understanding of events.
Namely, Lakoff (2006[1993]) found that different aspects of event structure are defined in metaphorical
terms, and consequently proposed the general mapping for the Event Structure Metaphor:
These individual submappings are understood to constitute the more general Event Structure Metaphor. In
addition, each submapping maintains its entailments. For example, Changes are Movements entails that lack
of control over change is viewed as lack of control over movement (Kvecses, 2010: 164), and that
accidental changes are conceptualized as accidental movements (ibid.: 164). Metaphors
and
ARGUMENT IS A JOURNEY
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
are also said to inherit their structure from the more general Event Structure
Metaphor (Evans & Green, 2006). In this sense, the existence of mappings lower in the hierarchy is
sanctioned by the general metaphor.
Various metaphors used to describe the concept of argument also emphasize different aspects of that
concept. The involvement of source domains of
the overlapping of purposes that underlie their use. Additionally, this overlapping of purposes also means that
these metaphors are coherent. For example, Lakoff and Johnson (2003[1980b]: 94) suggest that metaphorical
coherence between the conceptual metaphors
ARGUMENT IS A JOURNEY
and
ARGUMENT IS A CONTAINER
arises
from the overlap of entailments between them, which also leads to a partial satisfaction of their purposes
(ibid.: 95). Namely, the overlaps in purposes underlying the use of specific metaphors that correspond to the
overlaps in metaphors can be characterized in terms of shared metaphorical entailments (ibid.: 97).
Specifically, the overlap between these two metaphors resides in the fact that both journeys and containers
define surfaces. This represents the case of coherence between two aspects of a single concept.
When it comes to complex coherence across metaphors, Lakoff and Johnson (2003[1980b]: 97-105)
discussed the following metaphors:
BUILDING.
and
ARGUMENT IS A
The authors suggest that the coherence between these metaphors is again based on the fact that
all three have content-defining surfaces (ibid.: 102). However, content is defined differently by a surface in
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each of the cases. Namely, in JOURNEY metaphors, content is defined by the ground covered by an argument;
in
CONTAINER
BUILDING
metaphors the
content is not inside the building, but in its foundation and the outer shell. In all, these three metaphors are
part of whole metaphorical systems that together serve the complex purpose of characterizing the concept of
an argument in all of its aspects (ibid.: 105). Owing to the overlap in their entailments, they are also coherent.
2.1.5. Image Schemas and the Reality behind Them
In line with the notion of embodied cognition and the emphasis on the importance of categorization,
cognitive linguists have introduced the notion of image schemas, where an image schema is a condensed
redescription of perceptual experience for the purpose of mapping spatial structure onto conceptual structure
(Oakley, 2007: 215). In other words, image schemas represent preconceptual structures derived from
everyday patterns of bodily interaction that provide the scaffolding for the complex conceptual systems that
govern human cognition. Lakoff (1990) tackled the issue of the relationship between abstract reasoning and
image schemas, and suggested that a great many, if not all abstract inferences are actually metaphorical
versions of spatial inferences that are inherent in the topological structure of image schemas (ibid.: 54). In
addition, image schemas can be extended by a process of metaphorical extension into abstract domains
(Saeed, 2003: 355), such as politics.
Johnson (1987: 126, cited in Oakley, 2007: 217) offered the following list of basic image schemas:
CONTAINER, BALANCE, COMPULSION, BLOCKAGE, COUNTERFORCE, RESTRAINT REMOVAL, ENABLEMENT, ATTRACTION,
MASS-COUNT, PATH, LINK, CENTER-PERIPHERY, CYCLE, NEAR-FAR, SCALE, PART-WHOLE, MERGING, SPLITTING, FULLEMPTY, MATCHING, SUPERIMPOSITION, ITERATION, CONTACT, PROCESS, SURFACE, OBJECT, COLLECTION.
In addition,
image schemas can undergo transformations that are also very important, since human cognition is grounded
in the notion that allows us to map the perceptual experience licensed by image schemas onto more abstract
conceptual categories (Oakley, 2007; Gibbs & Colston, 2006[1995]). The primary transformations include
(ibid.):
Path focus to end-point focus (to understand this transformation, follow an imaginary path of an object, and
then focus on the point where the object comes to rest, or where it will come to rest).
Multiplex to mass (imagine a group of individual objects, and then start moving away from them. As you are
doing this, note how the group is slowly transformed into a homogenous mass. As you begin to move back
towards them, the mass is transformed into individual objects).
Trajectory (if we observe a moving object, we can mentally trace its path).
Superimposition (if we imagine a large sphere and a small cube, we can mentally enlarge the size of the
cube so that it can accommodate the sphere; we can then reduce the size of the cube so that it fits the inside
of the sphere).
The role of image schemas has also been emphasized in the developmental context (e.g. Mandler,
1992; 2012), where it is claimed that image schemas provide the earliest meaning available to the infant for
purposes of preverbal thought ... and form the basis on which natural language rests (Mandler, 1992: 592).
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This in turn prompted the author to label image schemas as conceptual primitives, where she defines them as
dynamic analog representations of spatial relations and movements in space (ibid.: 591), where these new
representations are the primitive meaning elements used to form accessible concepts (ibid.: 591). In addition,
Mandler (2012) gives an in-depth analysis of the reasons why the conceptual system is grounded in spatial
experience. Namely, the author presents the following evidence to support her claims: spatial movement is
very salient and can easily attract attention; it is easily understandable; a fully operational conceptual system
for making sense of objects and events can be formed based on spatial representations alone; spatial
representations have a clear structure that renders them memorable; spatial representations can be imaged,
which means that they can be recalled.
Gibbs and Colston (2006[1995]) presented evidence for the cognitive psychological reality of image
schemas and their transformations, based on the research results from the fields of psycholinguistics,
cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology. In the psycholinguistic context, the authors discussed
research conducted by Gibbs et al. (1994, cited in Gibbs & Colston, 2006[1995]: 243-246), where it was found
that people make sense of different uses of stand because of their tacit understanding of several image
schemas that arise partly from the ordinary bodily experience of standing (Gibbs & Colston, 2006[1995]: 245).
One of the most interesting findings in the domain of cognitive psychology pertains to the visual and auditory
representational momentum that is also explained in terms of image schemas and their transformations (see
Gibbs & Colston, 2006[1995]: 248-253 for details). One of the examples in the area of developmental
psychology includes a study conducted by Wagner et al. (1981, cited in Gibbs & Colston, 2006[1995]: 259),
where it was found that nine to 12-month-old infants spent more time looking at the dotted line than the solid
line when a pulsating tone was played, which suggested that the infants were able to construct a metaphorical
match. Also, when listening to a rising tone, the infants looked more at the arrow pointing upward, whereas
when listening to a descending tone they spent more time looking at the arrow pointing downward. All of these
findings suggest that image schemas are not fictional derivatives, but actual constructs that not only enable us
to make sense of the world, but are also monumental for our ability to establish connections between more
abstract domains of experience.
2.1.6. The Invariance Principle
An important aspect of the CMT includes restrictions that constrain certain cross-domain mappings,
while at the same time licensing others. For example, in the case of generic-level metaphors, Lakoff and
Johnson (1989, cited in Lakoff, 1990: 68-69) found that death was personified in a rather small number of
linguistic realizations. The investigation of such constraints first gave way to the Invariance Hypothesis (Lakoff,
1990) that later evolved into the Invariance Principle (Lakoff, 2006[1993]):
Metaphorical mappings preserve the cognitive topology (this is, the image-schema structure) of the
source domain, in a way consistent with the inherent structure of the target domain (ibid.: 199).
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Obviously, the Invariance Principle is largely grounded in the notion that stresses the importance of
image-schematic structures in human cognition. In plain terms, the metaphorical cross-domain mappings
make the source and the target domain structures consistent with each other, explaining why some pairs of
source-target domains are facilitated, while others are restricted. When viewed at the image-schematic level,
the Invariance Principle suggests that in the case of container schemas interiors will be mapped onto interiors,
exteriors onto exteriors, and boundaries onto boundaries (ibid.: 199). Similar conclusions can be derived for
other types of schemas.
In addition, the Invariance Principle also implies that a metaphor will allow the transfer of only those
metaphorical entailments that are compatible with the target domain. This is labeled as the target domain
override and it represents the process that prevents entailments from projecting to the target domain (Evans
& Green, 2006: 303), which is a consequence of the fact that inherent target domain structure automatically
limits what can be mapped (Lakoff, 2006[1993]: 200). In short, metaphorical mappings are constructed in
such a fashion that preserves the basic topology of the target domain, i.e. the image schematic structure of the
target domain is invariant.
2.1.7. Frames and ICMs
Charles Fillmore introduced the notion of frames, where a frame refers to any system of concepts
related in such a way that to understand any one of them you have to understand the whole structure in which
it fits (Fillmore, 2006[1982]: 373), or, in other words, a frame is a structured mental representation of a
conceptual category (Kvecses, 2006: 64). In this sense, the term frame is intimately related to word meaning,
and in Fillmores frame semantics words represent categorization of experience (Fillmore, 2006[1982]: 373).
This promotes the view according to which word meaning is largely conditioned by the perceptual experience
and is related to a set of prototypes. In addition to prototypicality effects, the frame against which a word
meaning is understood is also grounded in cultural experience (Kvecses, 2006).
For example, let us consider the COMMERCIAL EVENT frame as discussed in Fillmore (2006[1982]: 378).
Namely, this frame includes the following elements: the buyer, the seller, the goods, and the money.
Furthermore, this frame can be invoked through the use of various verbs, and specific verbs can even be used
to place focus on certain elements of the frame, while backgrounding others, which is reminiscent of Lakoff
and Johnsons (2003[1980b]) notion of highlighting and hiding. The verb buy, for example, places the focus on
the buyer and the goods, the verb sell places the focus on the seller and the goods, etc. This suggests that
understanding the meaning of these verbs requires the recruitment of the COMMERCIAL EVENT frame. In short, a
speaker applies a frame to a situation, and shows that he intends this frame to be applied by using words
recognized as grounded in such a frame (ibid.: 382).
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Based on the research conducted by Fillmore, Kvecses (2006: 67-69) presented some additional
characteristics of frames: 1) frames are evoked by particular meanings of words; 2) focus can be placed on
particular elements of a frame; 3) frames can be used to impose a perspective on a situation; 4) frames
provide a particular history; 5) some frames incorporate larger cultural frames; 6) frames are idealizations. In
turn, all of the mentioned characteristics contribute to the view that frames constitute a huge and complex
system of knowledge about the world (ibid.: 69).
Building on Eleanor Roschs Prototype Theory, George Lakoff (1987, cited in Evans & Green, 2006:
269-281) introduced the notion of Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs) to account for prototypicality effects. In
this sense, ICMs represent relatively stable knowledge structures that are built up on the basis of repeated
experience (Evans & Green, 2006: 279), and they are idealized because they abstract across a range of
experiences rather than representing specific instances of a given experience (ibid.: 270). In plain terms,
ICMs are recruited during online processing in order to help us make sense of the conversation. Owing to their
connection to typicality effects, ICMs stand as an essential tool for categorizing the world around us.
Additionally, ICMs are not innate, but rather emergent structures that arise from experience and everyday
interaction with the world and objects in it. Their connection to various levels of prototypicality renders them
idealized, in that they are connected to the most general and most abstract representations. In other words,
the models are idealized, in that they involve an abstraction, through perceptual and conceptual processes,
from the complexities of the physical world (Cienki, 2007: 176). In addition, the degree of prototypicality is
often connected to the level of conventionality, suggesting the existence of a cultural basis, similar to that of
frames.
In summary, what both frames and ICMs have in common is the fact that they all designate a
coherent organization of human experience (Kvecses, 2006: 64).
2.1.8. Conventional and Novel Metaphors
Charteris-Black (2004) emphasizes the distinction between conventional and novel (creative)
metaphors. Namely, conventional metaphors reflect a diachronic process whereby use that was originally
metaphorical becomes established as literal within a language (Charteris-Black, 2004: 17). In other words,
conventional metaphors are licensed by the entrenched conceptual associations. Additionally, a novel
metaphor can easily become conventionalized through an increased frequency of use, which serves as the
main marker of the degree of metaphor conventionality when analyzing language corpora. However, although
a conventional metaphor may not stand out in discourse in a way that a novel metaphor might, this in no way
undermines its value and potential. In fact, its ability to go on unnoticed renders it a potent tool for perception
management and manipulation, especially in political discourse.
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In terms of differences in interpretation between conventional and novel metaphors, Coulson and
Oakley (2005: 1524) argue that conventional, i.e. entrenched metaphors, involve an automatic process of
retrieval, whereas novel metaphors require additional computations and analogical reasoning. This means that
the emergent structure 1 in novel metaphors needs to be actively constructed, while in the case of entrenched
metaphors it is already available for recruitment.
Another important point that needs to be stressed concerns the distinction between a conceptual
metaphor and a metaphorical expression. Namely, the term metaphor is used to refer to the conceptual
mapping, and the term metaphorical expression to refer to an individual linguistic expression ... that is
sanctioned by a mapping (Lakoff, 2006[1993]: 192). In other words, metaphorical expressions are the
linguistic manifestation of underlying conceptual knowledge (Coulson, 2006b: 33), which reflects the idea that
metaphor is not just a matter of language, but of thought and reason (Lakoff, 1990: 49), where language is
seen as a reflection of the mapping (ibid.: 49). In this sense, a conventional metaphor can be understood as
an entrenched trigger that fires out individual metaphorical expressions.
2.1.9. Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA)
Given the ubiquitous nature of metaphors in everyday life, recognizing them and understanding the
factors that underlie their use in various types of discourse is essential. This necessity becomes even more
transparent when the potential for ideological manipulation typical of political discourse is taken into
consideration. Charteris-Black (2004: 243-253) outlines the basic tenets of Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA),
and stresses that an awareness of their [metaphors] motivation in socially influential domains of language
use improves our understanding of the ideological basis for metaphor choice (ibid.: 244). Bearing in mind that
the process of cross-domain metaphorical mappings goes on at an unconscious level, it is clear why CMA can
serve as a potent tool for unraveling the hidden persuasive functions sanctioned by metaphors.
Figure 1. A discourse model for metaphor (adopted from Charteris-Black, 2004: 248)
1
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In his approach, Charteris-Black (2004: 244) offers the following conceptual levels for metaphor
analysis that are hierarchically organized: conceptual keys, conceptual metaphors, and metaphors.
Conceptual keys are situated at the highest point in the hierarchy, followed by conceptual metaphors, and
metaphors that stand for metaphorical expressions. According to this author, the choice of metaphors in
discourse is governed by their persuasive function, which is obvious in his discourse model of metaphor
presented in Figure 1. As shown in the diagram, various factors conspire in order for the persuasive rhetorical
function of a metaphor to be achieved. Consequently, understanding more about metaphor is an essential
component in intellectual freedom (ibid.: 253).
2.1.10. Metaphor and Politics
The very systematicity that allows us to comprehend one aspect of a concept in terms of another ...
will necessarily hide other aspects of the concept (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980]: 10), which means that a
metaphor can make us see only certain aspects of an issue, while rendering us blind to its other sides. Also,
owing to their ability to transform the abstract onto the concrete, metaphors represent one of the most
significant instruments of persuasion and propaganda in the language of political rhetoric 2 (Radi-Bojani &
Silaki, 2008: 141), suggesting that political metaphors can justify courses of action (Mio, 1997: 118), and
can be used to create political reality (ibid.: 121). In addition, conceptual metaphors can make the public feel
a part of the political process and supportive of decisions made by the political elite (ibid.: 118), rendering
their value systems more susceptible to manipulation. The choice of such metaphors is often not arbitrary, and
politicians use them consciously, since the fact that by using metaphors they choose which aspects of a
concept will be emphasized, creators of a text more or less consciously reveal their value judgments and
ideological stances. 3 (Silaki, urovi, & Radi-Bojani, 2009: 119).
According to Mio (1997), the three basic mechanisms that enable a conceptual metaphor to perform
its persuasive function in political discourse include: 1) simplification; 2) manipulation of underlying
symbolic representations; and 3) the emotional appeal. Firstly, if a political issue is too complex or abstract
for an average supporter to grasp, a metaphor can be used to simplify it. For example, the conceptual
metaphor
POLITICS IS SPORT
can transform the complexity of a political issue into a simple contest. Secondly,
after enough repetitions metaphorical connections can become so entrenched as to go on unnoticed. In other
words, what was initially understood to be metaphorical can become implicit and accepted as truth at an
unconscious level (ibid.: 122). In that sense, conventional, i.e. entrenched metaphors can serve as a better
conduit for political ideas compared to novel, i.e. creative metaphors, precisely due to the fact that the former
Zbog svoje sposobnosti prenoenja apstraktnog na konkretno, metafore predstavljaju jedan od najvanijih instrumenata
ubeivanja i propagande u jeziku politike retorike.
3 ,,Time to putem metafora biraju koje e aspekte nekog pojma istai, tvorci teksta manje ili vie svesno otkrivaju svoje vrednosne
sudove i ideoloke stavove.
2
21
can go on undetected (Burnes, 2011). Finally, the role of metaphors in stirring emotions is invaluable, since
when emotions are evoked, logic is circumvented (Mio, 1997: 123) and persuasion more easily achieved.
The persuasive aspect of metaphors in political discourse and their emotional appeal are also
addressed in Mio (1996). His experimental research provided empirical support for the Metaphor Extension
Hypothesis, according to which metaphors that extend someone elses metaphor are more effective
persuasive devices than those that do not (ibid.: 136). To arrive at such a conclusion, the author investigated
political debates where one of the participants constructed his arguments around the metaphor(s) introduced
by his opponent. Such an approach was rated as more persuasive compared to the cases where participants
introduced new metaphors. Additionally, research performed by Mio et al. (2005) showed that US presidents
who used more metaphors in their inaugural speeches were labeled as more charismatic than those who used
fever metaphors. Also, even those presidents who did not appear to be charismatic were still perceived to be
more inspiring when they used metaphors (ibid.: 292), which suggests that metaphor really is a powerful
rhetorical tool.
Charteris-Black (2004; 2009; 2011) also stressed the importance of emotional dimensions that
metaphors introduce into the architecture of political rhetoric. Namely, building on the Aristotelian notion of
rhetoric and aspects of contemporary rhetoric, Charteris-Black (2009; 2011) discusses the notions of ethos (a
morally worthy stance), logos (proofs that support an argument), and pathos (arousing emotions). Their
relationship is illustrated in Figure 2 below, where it is obvious that all of these rhetorical elements are
connected by their persuasive aspect.
Figure 2. Rhetorical means of persuasion in political communication (adopted from Charteris-Black, 2004: 14)
Charteris-Black (2009; 2011) proposes metaphor as one of the main tools in political persuasion, and
presents its ability to arouse emotions as one of the key mechanisms in persuasion. Namely, metaphors
change how we understand and think about politics by influencing our feelings and thoughts (Charteris-Black,
2011: 32), which suggests that increasing the emotional impact is a very vital role for metaphor (CharterisBlack, 2009: 104). In other words, the social role of metaphor in the construction of an ideology is motivated
by a rhetorical purpose of arousing the emotions in order to persuade (Charteris-Black, 2004: 251). In addition
to heightening the pathos, Charteris-Black (2011) also claims that politicians often resort to metaphors in order
22
to justify their arguments and present them as rational. In this sense, political metaphors are understood to
advocate only the desired stances affiliated to particular groups (Charteris-Black, 2009), which is reminiscent
of Lakoff and Johnsons (2003[1980b]) notion of highlighting and hiding. Additionally, metaphors are often
used by politicians either for self-representation, or to evaluate others and their actions.
Thompson (1996) emphasizes the fact that politics is grounded in the group-level phenomena,
suggesting that a major function of political metaphors is to link the individual and the political (ibid.: 186),
and that the existence of metaphors describing the links between individuals and larger groups is crucial to
making politics relevant (ibid.: 187). In addition, the author claims that metaphors facilitate communication
between the political elites and their supporters, which is sanctioned by the fact that metaphors combine
values, emotions, and ideology. Furthermore, metaphors have implications for action because of their ability
to frame issues (ibid.: 194), suggesting that apart from being grounded in our physical and social experience,
they also influence our experience and our actions (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]: 68).
Let us consider the following example:
When the Lord asked the prophet Isaiah, he said, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Isaiah said, Here
am I, send me, Mr. Perry said in Council Bluffs. This is your country. Taking her back is your calling. Join me
in this mission. (28 December 2011, The New York Times online edition)
The above example reveals the underlying conceptual metaphor POLITICS IS RELIGION. This metaphor presents
a political campaign in terms of a holy mission, rendering the politician a saint fighting for a holy cause. Naive
as it may appear at first, this simple metaphor has a very powerful emotional appeal with the public. Namely, it
strikes upon the very place where some of them are most sensitive - their religious beliefs. The frame of
RELIGION
also encompasses a whole set of values, and by appealing to those values, the politician is
practically blackmailing his supporters into following him, because not doing so would be a sin that would
interfere with their established value system. This is a transparent example of how politicians commonly
reframe the ideas expressed in relatively neutral language; that is, they place ideas in frames that were never
intended to be used in conceptualizing ideas (Kvecses, 2006: 92), which gives way to silent manipulation. In
other words, the manner in which one frames an issue can have practical implications for social policy and for
politics (Cienki, 2007: 174). Additionally, we conceptualize experience by means of frames we get from a
particular culture, and these frames are anything but neutral (Kvecses, 2006: 91), suggesting that the
(ab)use of metaphorical language in political discourse can give way to the creation and implementation of
new frames, and therefore entirely new sets of values. Now it is becoming even more evident why metaphors
are regarded as a powerful persuasive tool used for generating or exploiting some of the already existent 4
specific value judgments, thus constructing via discourse a certain point of view (Silaki & urovi, 2011: 229).
The lexical cue mission can also serve to introduce the
elaborate
EVENT STRUCTURE
My italics.
JOURNEY
metaphor. In this sense, the previous example can be said to introduce the
POLITICS IS RELIGION
RELIGION IS A JOURNEY
POLITICS IS A JOURNEY
(where
23
journey is understood in terms of event structure). Such a system can serve to obscure the persuasive aspects
of a metaphor even further, owing to its coherence and the shared entailments. Also, the JOURNEY metaphor is
derived from an even more fundamental image schema of
PATH,
abstract reason is based on image schemas (Lakoff, 1990). With all of this in mind, it is safe to state that
metaphor conceals an underlying persuasive function that is often not immediately transparent (CharterisBlack, 2004: 9), by manipulating the fundamental conceptual structure of the human cognitive system. This in
turn can be used to silently shape the collective consciousness of the public and pave the way for ideologies
that represent the building blocks of entire belief and value systems.
2.1.11. Section Summary
In brief, the current section introduced some of the basic tenets of the CMT that will be used in the
present research. Additionally, the notions of image schemas, frames, and ICMs have also been discussed in
some detail, owing to the fact that these constructs will be used in the analyses. Finally, the basic framework
of the Critical Metaphor Analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004) was introduced, which was followed by the discussion
of the role of conceptual metaphors in political discourse. Additionally, some of the basic mechanisms via
which metaphors achieve their persuasive function in political discourse have also been discussed, with the
ability to provoke an emotional appeal presenting itself as one of the more salient of these mechanisms.
24
25
Consequently, NPs with an indefinite interpretation are used to introduce novel elements, whereas NPs with
definite interpretation are said to function in the presuppositional mode, because they presuppose existing
knowledge (Evans & Green, 2006: 372), but they still need not necessarily have a unique referent.
Alternatively, new elements can also be introduced by nonlinguistic pragmatic conditions (e.g. objects which
are salient in the interaction that produces the discourse) (Fauconnier, 1997: 39).
Additionally, definite descriptions are primarily role functions and secondarily the values taken by
such roles (Fauconnier, 1994: 40). In that sense mental spaces ... belong to the domains of role functions
(ibid.: 42), which suggests that roles can adopt different values in different spaces. In broad terms, roles are
introduced by frames. For instance, the election frame introduces, among others, the role of the president, and
the competing political parties and their representatives. Once this frame has been recruited via the process of
schema induction, those roles are connected to their values, i.e. specific participants in the elections who vary
from country to country, or over longer time periods. In other words, the abstract role-scaffolding introduced by
the frame is completed by the context-bound values that can vary across spaces.
As discourse unfolds, new mental spaces are introduced, creating structures called lattices
(Fauconnier, 1994; 1997; 2007). An important aspect of these networks are various mappings that serve to
connect elements across spaces, with identity and analogy being the most common (Fauconnier, 2007). A
crucial theoretical construct that facilitates this process is the Access Principle 5 which states:
If two elements a and b are linked by a connector F (b = F(a)), then element b can be identified by
naming, describing, or pointing to its counterpart a. (Fauconnier, 1997: 41)
Element a is labeled as the trigger, while b is the target. This means that the description of the trigger in one
space can be used to access the target in another space. Additionally, owing to the Access Principle,
expressions referring to a particular counterpart can typically provide access to entities in mental spaces in
either direction (Evans & Green, 2006: 377), suggesting a bidirectional nature of the mappings, typical of
open connectors.
In order for interlocutors to be able to navigate through the discourse lattice, it is necessary for them to
keep track of the base, viewpoint, and focus (Fauconnier, 1997). The base space is the starting point for the
construction to which it is always possible to return (ibid.: 49); the viewpoint represents the space from which
discourse is currently being viewed and from which other spaces are currently being built (Evans & Green,
2006: 389); the focus space represents the space that is currently under construction. In light of the tenseaspect-mood system 6 in Mental Space Theory, another important space in the lattice is the event space, which
represents the time associated with the event being described (ibid.: 389). For instance, tense-marking which
is associated with the time in the event space can shift focus from one space to another.
The Access Principle was initially introduced as the Identification Principle (for details see Fauconnier, 1994: 3).
For a detailed account of the tense-aspect-mood system in Mental Space Theory see Fauconnier, 1997: 72-98; Fauconnier, 2007:
365- 371; Evans & Green, 2006: 386-396.
5
6
26
When a space builder introduces a new mental space in discourse, that new space will be included in
its parent space (Fauconnier, 1994), suggesting a hierarchy in the organization of mental spaces.
Consequently, there must be a connector capable of connecting triggers and targets in the parent and
daughter spaces (ibid.: 18). Additionally, structure from a parent space is transferred to a new space by
default ... the default transfer, called optimization, will apply to the extent that it does not contradict explicit
structure in the new space (Fauconnier, 2007: 355-356), which in turn constitutes the Optimization Principle.
With some of the basic tenets of the Mental Space Theory explained, the following sections will pursue
its logical sequel the Conceptual Blending Theory.
2.2.2. Conceptual Blending
Conceptual blending, alternatively discussed as the many space model (Turner & Fauconnier, 1995)
or the network model of conceptual integration (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]), was developed by Gilles
Fauconnier and Mark Turner as a theory of online meaning construction. In short, the paradigm is concerned
with on-line, dynamical cognitive work that people do to construct meaning for local purposes of thought and
action (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]: 312), while a fundamental motivating factor of blending is the
integration of several events into a single unit (ibid.: 332). As a ubiquitous phenomenon, blending is
understood to be the driving force not only behind human imagination, but also behind some basic cognitive
processes that constitute our everyday realities. In other words, blending is pervasive in all modes of thinking
and talking, and in fact it is not even inherently tied to language, but appears more generally in action and
phenomena of cognition (Fauconnier & Turner, 1994: 7).
The so-called minimal network (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]: 313; 2002: 47) in conceptual
blending consists of four spaces: the generic space, two input spaces, and the blended space or the blend
(Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]; 2002; Coulson & Oakley, 2000; Turner, 2007). Alternatively, the blending
network can include multiple input spaces, or even multiple blends. The generic space maps onto each of the
input spaces, and it contains what those inputs have in common at any moment in the development of the
conceptual integration network (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]: 308). In that sense, it contains highly
schematic information which serves as a basis for establishing cross-space mappings between the input
spaces (Evans & Green, 2006: 406). These cross-space mappings facilitated by the generic space serve to
identify counterparts in the inputs, which are then projected to the blend. Input spaces represent partial
structures that normally correspond to events that are to be integrated in the blended space. Inputs are
involved in selective projections which means that only the matched information, which is required for
purposes of local understanding (ibid.: 409) is projected to the blend. Such partial nature of the projections
can yield the production of different blends, even though the inputs remain the same. The blended space
appears as the result of conceptual integration, and its main element is the emergent structure not present in
27
either of the inputs (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]; 2002; Coulson & Oakley, 2000). The emergent
structure in the blend can cause backward projections 7 to the inputs (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]), which
can influence global insight at the human scale. 8 Such backward projections are licensed by the Access
Principle. 9
Emergent structure in the blend appears as the result of the following processes: composition,
completion, and elaboration. Composition includes attributing a relation from one mental space to an
element or elements from other input spaces (Coulson & Oakley, 2000: 180), and in addition, elements from
the inputs can be composed in such a way, as to create relations that are not present in either of the inputs
(Turner, 2007; Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]). As a result, emergent structure is a product of contextual
accommodation of a concept from one domain to apply to elements in a different domain (Coulson & Oakley,
2000: 180). The process of completion is based on the fact that a lot of background knowledge and
conceptual structure gets recruited into the blend (Turner, 2007; Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]; 2002),
which means that the above described composed structure is completed with other structure (Fauconnier &
Turner, 2006[1998]: 314). In other words, completion involves schema induction which refers to 10
unconscious and effortless recruitment of background frames (Evans & Green, 2006: 409). A transparent form
of completion is pattern completion, where, for example, an event can be completed by information based on
background knowledge or preexistent entrenched frames stored in long-term memory (Fauconnier & Turner,
2006[1998]; Coulson & Oakley, 2000; 2006). Elaboration or running of the blend (Fauconnier & Turner,
2002: 44), involves mental simulations according to principles and logic in the blend (Fauconnier & Turner,
2006[1998]: 315). In other words, elaboration represents the simulated mental performance of the event in the
blend, which may continue indefinitely (Grady, Oakley & Coulson, 2007[1999]: 425). Elaboration can appear
in two forms: coupled and decoupled (Coulson & Oakley, 2000). Decoupled elaboration involves little or no
physical realization (ibid.: 181), whereas coupled elaboration involves physical realization, i.e. actual
physical activity. Coulson and Oakley (2000) suggest that the latter type of elaboration can include action
blends, with patterns of activity from one domain applied to elements of another domain.
2.2.3. The Generic Space Problem
Based on the current research trends in the domain of the CBT, the role of the generic space and
even its psychological plausibility have been largely disputed (Brandt & Brandt, 2005; Oakley, 2011; Coulson
& Oakley, 2005). Namely, the structures present in the generic space are immanent in the input and blended
spaces themselves and are of little relevance to the network as a cognitive model of online meaning
Note that Coulson (2001: 178-196) refers to backward projections as retrospective projections.
For more details concerning the notion of human scale consult subsection 2.2.5.
9 See section 2.2.1 above.
10 My italics.
7
8
28
construction (Oakley, 2011: 4). One of the possible issues where a generic space could play an important role
is in modeling the socio-historical development of ideas over larger temporal spans (ibid.: 4), such as
complex numbers. In that sense, the present research will adopt the stance that the generic space is largely
an artifact of analysis, and shall treat it as such. However, it will be argued that the structure of this artifact
can be represented at the image schematic level. Namely, in order to avoid the generativist pitfall and its
stipulation that, owing to the fact that the generic space contains structure common to the entire network, the
generic space can be viewed as a generative mechanism largely similar to the Chomskian notion of the LAD,
the present research will instead argue that the generic space, although largely an artifact of analysis, can be
represented in the form of the image schematic structure that provides the scaffolding on top of which the
human ability for meaning construction is mounted.
Building on the notion of image schemas as conceptual primitives (Mandler, 1992), and the discussion
on the psychological reality of image schemas (Gibbs & Colston, 2006[1995]), as well as the argumentation
presented in Antovi (2013), the present research will stress the importance of the generic space constructed
at the level of the image schematic structure which serves as a conceptual primitive, and in that sense
underlies much of our everyday routine, including the construction and understanding of metaphorical
language. With this in mind, the underlying image schematic structure that makes up the generic space is
meant to reflect the fact that the notions of categorization and the active processes of on-line reasoning and
meaning construction are in fact grounded in the abstract preconceptual knowledge structures with a marked
experiential basis, which make up the bulk of our background image schematic knowledge. This suggests that
these background knowledge structures at the image schematic level are also available for recruitment, like
frames or cognitive models, which are ready to be activated. However, while the entrenched frames are often
products of previous conceptual integration, i.e. they are often pre-built compressions ready for recruitment (in
the sense of Fauconnier & Turner, 2008, and Fauconnier, 2008), the image schematic background knowledge
structures are actually uncompressed conceptual primitives built on experiential interaction during the prelinguistic phase of development, which can be further enriched via metaphorical projections.
In that sense, the image schematic structure of the generic space can help explain the alignment of
the topologies of the input spaces of conceptual integration networks and it serves to shed more light on the
process of conceptual integration itself. Therefore, although an artifact of analysis, i.e. a theoretical analytic
tool, the generic space can offer an additional insight into the process of conceptual integration. Additionally,
the image schematic structure of this artifact supplies it with some actual psychological plausibility.
Furthermore, in case of the analysis of conventional, i.e. entrenched conceptual metaphors and their
corresponding metaphorical expressions, which the present paper is concerned with, such generic space
structure can serve to both emphasize, and further explain the nature and structure of such entrenched
cognitive mechanisms.
29
My italics.
30
pronghorns from the modern epoch. In the blend, the vital relations of Identity and Intentionality between the
pronghorns from the two inputs are compressed into Uniqueness and inner-space Intentionality (Fauconnier &
Turner, 2002).
Time relates to memory, change, continuity, simultaneity and nonsimultaneity, as well as to our
understanding of causation (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 96). As seen in the Regatta (Fauconnier & Turner,
2006[1998]: 327-329; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 63-65) and the Debate with Kant (Fauconnier & Turner,
2006[1998]: 315-317; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 59-62) blends, different times from the input spaces are
projected into the same moment in time in the blend. These two examples can also be used to exemplify the
vital relation of Space, and its compression. Namely, different physical spaces from the inputs are brought
together as a single space in the blend.
Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 96) discuss the example of a fire in a fireplace, and argue that the
Cause-Effect vital relation requires that two mental spaces be set up. One space contains the burning logs,
and the other the cold ashes. In addition to the Cause-Effect, the inputs are also connected by Time, Space,
and Change.
The Part-Whole vital relation may be exemplified by the police trying to identify a murder victim based
on a set of fingerprints. One input contains the entire person, while the other input contains the persons
fingerprints, as the most salient characteristic. In the blend, the prints and the person are fused, solving the
problem of the persons identity. This way the outer-space vital relation of Part-Whole is compressed into
Uniqueness in the blend.
The vital relation of Representation is closely linked to the trigger-target relation of the mental space
theory. For example, one of the inputs can contain a photograph of a person, which can serve as a
representation, while the other input can contain the actual person being represented. In the blend, the two are
compressed into Uniqueness, allowing us to refer to the representation in the photograph as the actual person.
Role is a ubiquitous vital relation (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 98), and it can serve to connect roles
from one input with values from another input, like in the simplex network Paul is the father of Sally
(Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 120-122). Some other roles can include, for instance, president, pope, or emperor,
and they are filled by appropriate values depending on the context.
The vital relation of Analogy is established when through blending, the different blended spaces have
acquired frame structure in common (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 99). Additionally, the vital relation of
Analogy is conditioned by the previously discussed Role-Value compression. Analogy can also be compressed,
and these are usually compressions into Uniqueness and Change (ibid.). Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 99)
discuss the example: Stanford is a West Coast analogue to Harvard. Both networks have the frame of a
university and the role of a prestigious university. As the result of conceptual integration, one blend acquires
the role of Stanford from its other input, and the other blend that of Harvard. Consequently, the two blends are
linked via Analogy.
31
Disanalogy is both grounded on, and coupled with Analogy (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002). The values
from the inputs, which are disanalogous, can be introduced into the blend as separate when there is a need to
fill multiple slots that have the same role. For example, this is the case in the Regatta blend, when the
disanalogous boats are both brought into the blend.
The vital relation of Property is used to assign a certain property to an object. For example, a white
shirt has a property white, a convicted felon has a property guilty, etc. Additionally, blending often compresses
an outer-space vital relation ... into an inner-space vital relation of Property in the blend (Fauconnier & Turner,
2002: 100).
Similarity is an inner-space Vital Relation linking elements with shared properties (ibid.: 100). For
example, two pieces of fabric can be dubbed similar in terms of their color, or the cross-space relation of
Analogy can be compressed into Similarity in the blend.
Category is similar to Property. For example, in the case of a computer virus, the outer-space vital
relation of Analogy between a real virus and a computer program is compressed into Category in the blend
(Fauconnier & Turner, 2002).
Intentionality includes a group of vital relations linked with hope, desire, want, fear, belief, memory,
and other mental attitudes and dispositions directed at content (ibid.: 100). Intentionality is very important
because it enables us to frame an event as either intentional or unintentional. For example, in the Regatta
blend (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]: 327-329; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 63-65), the race frame
introduces the relation of Intentionality. Additionally, Intentionality can be introduced into the blend through
compression (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 100).
As may be transparent from the discussion in the previous paragraphs, the most notable characteristic
of the vital relation of Uniqueness is that many vital relations are compressed into it in the blend.
The above listed vital relations are prominent in various types of conceptual integration networks. The
present paper will address special attention to the vital relations occurring in metaphorical networks and to
their compressions.
2.2.4. Compression
Mental spaces and conceptual integration networks created as discourse and thought unfold are the
result of meaning construction, and the need to achieve understanding at a human scale 12 (Fauconnier &
Turner, 2002). One of the most valuable assets in this process is compression which represents a
phenomenon in conceptual integration that allows human beings to simultaneously control long diffuse chains
of logical reasoning and to grasp the global meanings of such chains (Fauconnier & Turner, 2000: 283). In
other words, compression is used to describe an entity in a blended space that has distinct counterparts in
12
For more details concerning the notion of human scale consult subsection 2.2.5.
32
multiple input spaces, and, moreover, those counterparts are related to one another via a vital relation
(Coulson & Oakley, 2005: 1532-1533).
The importance of compression as one of the central phenomena of blending was initially discussed in
Fauconnier and Turner (2000; 2002), and later further elaborated in Fauconnier (2008) and Fauconnier and
Turner (2008). As discussed in Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 312-322), compression can involve scaling or
syncopation of a single vital relation. This can include temporal compressions, scaling of cause and effect,
etc. Additionally, one of the most important traits of the process of compression is the compression of one vital
relation into another. For example, outer-space vital relations of Representation and Part-Whole can be
compressed into Uniqueness in the blend, which is evident when a photograph is used to represent a person.
Additionally, as a result of conceptual integration, an outer-space vital relation between the inputs can be
compressed either into an inner-space vital relation of the same kind, or of a different kind in the blend
(Fauconnier & Turner, 2000).
Compression can also be used to create new vital relations. Namely, conceptual integration can result
in new vital relations that did not hold in the inputs, but are present in the blend, and which are obviously
closely linked to the emergent structure. If we consider the Regatta blend (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]:
327-329; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 63-65), the two inputs contain the two boats on their journeys, while the
blend recruits an additional frame of race, thus introducing the vital relation of Intentionality (in this case the
intention to win the race), not present in either of the inputs. A very important form of compression pertains to
borrowed compressions, where one of the input spaces already has its own compression which is further
exploited in the new blend. This is especially interesting in conceptual metaphors, where, as argued in
Fauconnier and Turner (2008), and Fauconnier (2008), inputs in metaphorical networks are often results of
previous conceptual integration, i.e. inputs themselves can be instances of entrenched blends.
Compression in conceptual integration networks is generally achieved in two ways: 1) through
syncopation; and 2) through scaling. Syncopation means to leave out significant chunks in a vital relation
(Fauconnier & Turner, 2000: 298), and it can apply either to elements between different inputs, or to elements
of the same input (Fauconnier & Turner, 2000). As discussed in Fauconnier and Turner (2000: 298), if we try
to think of a good response to criticism that we had received a couple of years earlier, we are actually
syncopating over time, and focusing only on the time the criticism was received and the present moment,
leaving out everything that happened in between. Unlike syncopation, scaling preserves the topology of what
is compressed (Fauconnier & Turner, 2000: 298), and the interval that will be scaled can be either innerspace, or outer-space. For example, in the Babys Ascent example (Fauconnier and Turner, 2000: 294-297),
the entire lifetime is scaled down to the period required to climb the stairs, which occurs in one mental space.
In the Bypass blend (Fauconnier & Turner, 2000: 288-292; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 65-67), on the other
hand, the time interval is scaled down over the two input spaces. Despite their differences, scaling and
syncopation often work together (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 314). For instance, in the dino-blend, there is
33
the scaling of Change and Time, but there is also syncopation since only the key moments on the evolutionary
path are depicted (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002).
One of the main goals in conceptual integration networks is to achieve human scale, 13 which is
sanctioned by compression, and the fact that some vital relations are scalable, while those that are not
scalable can be compressed to scalable relations (ibid.). Another important trait of compression includes
highlights compression, which reflects the requirement that blends and generic spaces need to reflect the
structure and highlights of the overarching stories (ibid.: 320). Highlights compression can include
compression to Category, compression to Property, and syncopation over detail (ibid.: 325).
As argued in Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 324-325), and Turner (2007: 382), the above presented
features of compression can be summarized under the Governing Principles for Compression which include: 1)
borrowing for compression; 2) single-relation compression by scaling; 3) single-relation compression
through syncopation; 4) compression of one vital relation into another; 5) scalability; 6) creation by
compression (creating a new vital relation in the blend); and 7) highlights compressions.
2.2.5. Optimality Principles 14
Optimality principles characterize strategies for optimizing emergent structure (Fauconnier &
Turner, 2002: 311), and, paired with the constitutive principles, place strong constraints on the process of
conceptual integration. The constitutive principles, which refer to the structure and dynamics of conceptual
integration, include partial cross-space mappings, selective projection to the blend, and the development of
emergent structure in the blend (ibid.: 310). The main goal that both constitutive and optimality principles aim
to achieve is:
Achieve Human Scale,
Human scale refers to the level at which it is natural for us to have the impression that we have direct,
reliable, and comprehensive understanding (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 323), and it is such understanding
that creates the feeling of global insight. In brief, the entire process of conceptual integration is fueled by the
necessity of understanding the world at a level that is both tangible and intelligible. Additionally, compression
and human scale go hand in hand, since compression is a way to achieve human scale (ibid.: 323), and
achieving human scale requires compression. The process of conceptual integration will also lead to the
For more details concerning the notion of human scale consult the subsection 2.2.5.
The present section will provide only a basic overview of Optimality Principles. For a more detailed account, see Fauconnier &
Turner, 2002: 327-333, and Turner, 2007: 382).
13
14
34
strengthening of vital relations either by making new ones, or by intensifying existing ones, or by converting
vital relations of one type into vital relations of another type (ibid.: 323). The blend can also provide a simple
story for the entire network, like in the Regatta 15 example where the blend supplies the simple story of a race
(Fauconnier & Turner, 2002). Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 287-288) also discuss the example of the Story of
Life, where the Story of Life serves as a preexisting overarching integration that guides some of the
compressions in the Birth Stork Network, 16 i.e. it serves to provide a story that facilitates the development of
the conceptual integration network. Consequently, each of the blends in the Birth Stork Network has a
structure that is aligned with the preexistent compression of the Story of Life. Namely, in each of the blended
spaces, states are locations, and there is a change from one ranked state/location to another (Fauconnier &
Turner, 2002: 289). Finally, as a direct result of compression, conceptual integration networks are expected to
go from many elements in the input spaces to a fewer number of elements in the final blend (Fauconnier &
Turner, 2002).
Optimality principles include the following:
The Topology Principle: Other things being equal, set up the blend and the inputs so that useful topology in the inputs and
their outer-space relations is reflected by inner-space relations in the blend. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 327; Turner, 2007: 382)
The Pattern Completion Principle: Other things being equal, complete elements in the blend by using existing integrated
patterns as additional inputs. Other things being equal, use a completing frame that has relations that can be the compressed
versions of the important outer-space vital relations between the inputs. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 328; Turner, 2007: 382)
The Integration Principle: Achieve an integrated blend. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 328; Turner, 2007: 382)
The Maximization of Vital Relations Principle: Other things being equal, maximize vital relations in the network. In particular,
maximize the vital relation in the blended space and reflect them in outer-space vital relations. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 330;
Turner, 2007: 382)
The Intensification of Vital Relations Principle: Other things being equal, intensify vital relations. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002:
330; Turner, 2007: 382)
The Web Principle: Other things being equal, manipulating the blend as a unit must maintain the web of appropriate
connections to the input spaces easily and without additional surveillance or computation. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 331;
Turner, 2007: 382)
The Unpacking Principle: Other things being equal, the blend all by itself should prompt for the reconstruction of the entire
network. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 332; Turner, 2007: 382)
The Relevance Principle: Other things being equal, an element in the blend should have relevance, including relevance for
establishing links to other spaces and for running the blend. Conversely, an outer-space relation between the inputs that is
important for the purposes of the network should have a corresponding compression in the blend. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002:
333; Turner, 2007: 382)
The Compression Principle: 17 Achieve compressed blended spaces. (Turner, 2007: 382)
Grady, Oakley, and Coulson (2007[1999]) discuss an additional principle of Metonymic Tightening,
according to which relationships between elements from the same input should become as close as possible
within the blend (ibid.: 426).
In sum, optimality principles have much to do with vital relations and their projections, and by offering
additional constraints to those of the constitutive principles, optimality principles are able to dictate the course
For details see Fauconnier and Turner, 1994; 2006[1998]; 2002.
For details see Fauconnier and Turner, 2002: 284-289.
17 The governing principles for compression have already been presented in section 2.2.3. above.
15
16
35
of the development of conceptual integration networks. Additionally, when it comes to various types of
networks, many of these principles interact and compete, so that the satisfaction of one of the principles may
imply a violation of other principles.
2.2.6. Basic Types of Conceptual Integration Networks 18
The four basic types of conceptual integration networks include: simplex, mirror, single-scope, and
double-scope networks 19 (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]; 2002). A notion closely related to the types of
integration networks that also serves as the main criterion for the above given classification is that of an
organizing frame. Namely, an organizing frame of a mental space is a frame that specifies the nature of the
relevant activity, events, and participants (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]: 341; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002:
104), or in other words, an organizing frame provides a topology for the space it organizes by providing 20 a
set of organizing relations among the elements in the space (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]: 341;
Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 123). Although the notion of frames has already been introduced in section 2.1.7,
it is worth noting at this point that in terms of the Mental Space Theory, frames are understood as entrenched
mental spaces that we can activate all at once (Fauconnier, 2007: 352; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 103).
Furthermore, even entire networks of spaces with their blends can become entrenched and available for
recruitment (Turner, 2007; Fauconnier & Turner, 2002).
2.2.6.3. Single-scope Networks
The main characteristic of single-scope networks is that inputs have different organizing frames, and
only one of those frames is projected as the organizing frame of the blend (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998];
2002; Coulson, 2001). As a result, the projection to the blend in a simple single-scope network is highly
asymmetric (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 127). Also, with their structure in mind, single-scope networks are
prototypically metaphorical since they give us the feeling that one thing is giving us insight into another thing
(ibid.: 129), which is reminiscent of Lakoff and Johnsons (2003[1980b]) definition of metaphor. Fauconnier
and Turner (2002: 127-129) propose two types of single-scope networks: 1) the inputs are not contained within
a larger history; and 2) the inputs are contained within a larger history. In the former type of single-scope
networks, there are no Identity connections between the inputs, nor are there vital relations of Time, Space,
Change, Cause-Effect, and Intentionality that license direct connections between the inputs. In short, there is
no obvious relevance of one input space for the other. In the latter type of single-scope networks, the inputs
This section will describe only single- and double-scope networks, since those are typical instances of metaphorical networks
with which the present research is concerned. For a detailed account of simplex and mirror networks see Fauconnier & Turner,
2002.
19 Note that Seana Coulson (2001: 120-122) uses different terminology to describe these same types of networks. Namely, she
discusses single framing networks, frame networks, one-sided networks, and two-sided networks, which correspond to
simplex, mirror, single-scope, and double-scope networks, respectively.
20 My italics.
18
36
are relevant to each other, and there are outer-space vital relations that connect them. The connections can
be established between the respective organizing frames, as well as between elements below the frame level.
Considering that inputs have different organizing frames, conceptual clashes in single-scope networks
are extremely transparent, and the blend normally inherits the organizing frame of the framing input, i.e. the
source input. In this type of networks the clash is resolved by projecting only one of the organizing frames to
the blend. Typically, the framing input has a prebuilt superb compression that is exploited to induce a
compression for the focus input (ibid.: 129), and the use of such preexistent compressions is in general a
salient property of single-scope networks. In other words, single-scope networks satisfy the principles of
borrowing for compression and scaling compression. However, the topologies of the two spaces are
preserved in the cross-space mapping (ibid.: 130), in spite of the clashes.
Figure 3. Boxing CEOs (adopted from Fauconnier and Turner, 2002: 128)
In terms of optimality principles, single-scope networks satisfy integration owing to the borrowed
compression from the source input, which in turn satisfies the topology principle. The topology principle is
further satisfied in projections from the target input because the topologies of the source and target inputs are
already prealinged by the presence of a conventional metaphor (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002). The
metaphorical nature of the mappings also satisfies web, while unpacking goes on in a similar fashion as in the
case of mirror networks. 21 Namely, unpacking is facilitated by the fact that the blend is not integrated to the
same extent at the more specific levels as it is at the more general level.
Let us consider the example of Boxing CEOs, presented in Fauconnier and Turner (2006[1998]: 344;
2002: 126-131). This metaphor of CEOs as boxers allows us to compress our understanding of business
21
For more details on mirror networks, consult Fauconnier and Turner, 2002.
37
competition. In that sense, cross-space connections can be established between the CEOs and boxers,
punches and business moves, and the boxing match and business competition. This is also an instance of a
network in which the inputs are not contained within a larger history, since there is no direct obvious link
between them. The conceptual clash is resolved by projecting the organizing frame from the source input 22
(boxing) to the blend, which in turn introduces the preexistent compression of boxing into the blend. This way,
structure from the target input (business) is projected into the already compressed inner-space relations ...
from the framing input (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 129). Additionally, cause-effect relations, agent-action
relations, and temporal ordering are aligned in the two spaces (ibid.: 130), owing to which the projection of
elements from the target input as values into the source organizing frame does not disrupt the structure of the
organizing frame. In short, the blend achieves the conceptual integration of the events from the target input
into a unit. Additionally, in terms of compressions, it is worth noting that the outer-space vital relation of
Analogy is compressed into an inner space vital relation of Uniqueness: in the blend, CEOs are fused with
boxers.
2.2.6.4. Double-scope Networks
Double-scope networks constitute fertile ground for conceptual clashes, owing to the fact that their
inputs have different organizing frames, and both of those frames contribute to the organizing frame of the
blend (Fauconnier & Turner, 2006[1998]; 2002; Coulson, 2001). As discussed in Fauconnier and Turner (2002:
340-345), since the blend has a specially developed organizing frame of its own, Compression, Topology,
Integration, and Web principle are not automatically satisfied in double-scope networks. This increases the
possibilities for competition between the optimality principles and it becomes more difficult to satisfy them. As a
result, the construction of a functional double-scope blend requires that some optimality principles be relaxed.
The fact that all the spaces in the network have different organizing frames facilitates the Unpacking Principle.
Namely, in order for the elements from the blend to be projected back to the inputs, first the organizing frame
of the blend needs to be unpacked into the organizing frames of the inputs.
Double-scope networks also include networks with high asymmetry and nonclashing double-scope
networks. 23 In the former type of networks, although the organizing frame of the blend adopts elements from
the organizing frames of both inputs, it is basically an extension of the organizing frame of only one of the
inputs. In the latter type of networks there is no clash between the organizing frames of the inputs, and the
blend contains both of them.
Among other examples of double-scope networks, Coulson (2001: 168-172) discusses the idiom
Digging Your Own Grave, also described in Fauconnier and Turner (2006[1998]: 321-323; 2002: 131-135).
The clash of topologies between the two inputs of this network is manifested on multiple levels, including
22
23
Note that similar to the CMT framework, inputs in metaphorical integration networks are also labeled source and target.
For a detailed account of these two special types of double-scope networks see Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 134-135.
38
causality, intentionality, participant roles, temporal sequence, identity, and internal event structure
(Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 132). The concrete structure of the blend is adopted from the grave input,
whereas the event structure, intentionality, and causality come from the failure input. The clash in this
network is presented in terms of the shift in the causal structure owing to which the existence of a grave
causes death, and the other way around. This causal structure is adopted from the failure input, while death
and dying come from the grave input. As a result, the amount of trouble maps onto the depth of grave, and
making bad decisions corresponds to digging the grave. Such framing also fuses the roles of agent and patient,
and the patient who is also the agent digs his own grave. The resulting emergent structure also has backward
projections to the failure input, where it creates real-life inferences.
I propose another real-life example of double-scope blending, based on my personal experience.
Namely, imagine a situation where a man is in a long-term relationship with a woman seven years younger
than he is. Now imagine that the woman has just graduated from the University and the couple is out
celebrating. At one point, the man turns to the woman and says: Now Im your Mrs. Robinson. To fully
appreciate this statement, one should be familiar with the movie The Graduate (1967), starring Dustin Hoffman
and Anne Bancroft.
The conceptual integration network that describes this example has two inputs, the movie space and
the reality space, while the generic space contains elements that are shared by the entire network (see Figure
4 for details). Elements Mrs. Robinson and the man, the graduate and the woman, and their age differences
are connected by the outer-space vital relations of Analogy. The extramarital affair and the long-term
39
relationship are on the other hand linked by the vital relation of Disanalogy. As the result of compression, the
blend develops its central emergent structure. Namely, the outer-space vital relations of Analogy between the
man and Mrs. Robinson, and the woman and the graduate are projected into Uniqueness in the blend.
However, the two compressed elements in the blend acquire their genders and specific values (i.e. their real
identities 24 ) from the reality space, whereas their roles are acquired from the movie space. In that sense, the
blend contains Mrs. Robinson, who is in fact a man, and the graduate, who is in fact a woman. Furthermore,
the age difference and the long-term relationship status are projected directly from the reality space.
Additionally, Time from the movie and Time from reality are also compressed through syncopation into the
same moment in time in the blend. In keeping with the partial nature of projections, the languages used in the
two respective input spaces are irrelevant, and not projected from either of the inputs (like in the Debate with
Kant example discussed in Fauconnier & Turner, 2002).
The arguments presented in the previous paragraph lend support to the conclusion that the resulting
topology of the organizing frame of the blended space is in fact a direct result of interaction between the
organizing frames of the two input spaces, thereby rendering the present network double-scope. Namely, while
the two compressed elements assume their roles from the movie space, their other characteristics are
acquired from the reality space. Furthermore, the age difference and the relationship status are also acquired
from the reality space, thereby licensing a novel, emergent structure that appears in the form of a long-term
relationship between Mrs. Robinson and the graduate. Prior to the process of conceptual integration, this
structure was not available in either of the two inputs.
2.2.7. CBT and Metaphor
In the domain of the CBT, metaphors normally appear as single- or double-scope networks. Unlike the
unidirectional source-target mappings stipulated by the CMT, the CBT introduces at least the minimal network
model, allowing projections in multiple directions, including backward projections from the blend to the inputs.
In their paper Rethinking Metaphor, Fauconnier and Turner (2008) argued for a revised approach to metaphor
analysis. The authors suggested that a full account of conceptual metaphors needs to include a greater
number of elements than a simple four-space-model. Namely, the inputs of metaphorical networks are rarely
simple constructs, and they usually represent previously constructed entrenched blends available for
recruitment (i.e. borrowed compressions). This means that a seemingly simple conceptual integration network
can in fact be rather complex and elaborate. In other words, analysis of metaphor requires analysis of
elaborate integration networks producing what can seem like straightforward mappings between two domains
taken as primitives (Fauconnier & Turner, 2008: 61).
24
Note that identity here is not being used to label the vital relation of Identity.
40
TIME IS SPACE
that time and time-space mapping appear as the emergent structure in the blend, rather than time being a
simple primitive input. Additionally, the topology of the domain for time is incompatible with the domain of
objects moving in space 25 (Fauconnier & Turner, 2008: 56), owing to which meaning construction in
metaphorical expressions that correspond to the above introduced conceptual metaphor is ultimately a result
of resolving the clashes that appear due to the inconsistencies in the topologies of the two inputs. Another
important notion that needs to be stressed includes the differences between the universal event and subjective
experience. Namely, the universal event assumes the same order of events for all participants, with time as an
invariant component. Depending on the specific context, however, different participants can construe the
duration of a single event as being different, which gives way to expressions such as: These three hours went
by slowly for me, but the same three hours went by quickly for him (Fauconnier & Turner, 2008: 61). Meaning
construction in cases like this one is a result of resolving a clash between subjective experience and shared
universal events (Fauconnier & Turner, 2008: 64).
In sum, Fauconnier and Turner (2008: 54) propose that the following notions be taken into
consideration during metaphor analysis:
Integration networks: Blends always involve multiple mappings.
Cobbling and sculpting: Integration networks always have parts that are entrenched (i.e. conventional),
and parts that involve novel mappings and compressions. As a result, integration networks that permeate
everyday life are usually a mix of these two components.
Compression: Integration networks achieve systematic compressions (Fauconnier & Turner, 2008: 54).
Although compression and the notion of borrowed compressions has already been addressed in their
previous work (e.g. Fauconnier & Turner, 2000; 2002), the authors here argue that the systematic nature
of compression has been overlooked in previous research. Such importance of compression is also
stressed in Fauconniers 2008 lecture How Compression Gives Rise to Metaphor and Metonymy. In short,
the systematic nature of compression is reflected in the fact that the ability to use standard techniques
and patterns of compression and decompression enables us to work at once over elaborate integration
networks (Fauconnier & Turner, 2008: 54).
Inference: When metaphors involve multiple inputs, the topologies of those inputs will often clash.
Consequently, some elements from those inputs will not be projected to the blend, which means that
inference transfer is not in itself the driving force behind metaphor (ibid.: 54).
Emergent structure: The authors argue that some of the previous approaches to metaphor analysis
neglected to recognize the fact that many of the most fundamental metaphorical projections (e.g. the
above discussed TIME IS SPACE), are in fact emergent.
25
For a detailed list of the points of incompatibility between the two inputs see Fauconnier and Turner, 2008: 56-57.
41
SHIP OF STATE
suggest that although this metaphor represents an instance of a conventional mapping, it is also related to
more fundamental conceptualizations, like ACTION IS SELF-PROPELLED MOTION, TIME IS MOTION, etc. This suggests
that simple metaphors can be joined to pave the way for more elaborate mappings. The authors also argue
that one blend may be the input for another (Grady, Oakley, & Coulson, 2007[1999]: 427), which reflects
Fauconnier and Turners notion of the systematic nature of compression. Additionally, Grady, Oakley, and
Coulson (2007[1999]) argue one of the basic characteristics of metaphorical networks to be fusion with
accommodation, which means that not all elements from the inputs are fused in the blend. Essentially, in the
case of metaphor, fusion corresponds to the compression of outer-space vital relations of Analogy into innerspace vital relations of Uniqueness in the blend. This way, a single element in the blend corresponds to an
element in each of the input spaces (Grady, Oakley, & Coulson, 2007[1999]: 431).
2.2.8. CMT vs. CBT: Towards a Unitary Framework
In view of the CMT, a conceptual metaphor consists of a (partial) mapping of the basic structure of
one conceptual domain (the source) onto another (the target) (Turner & Fauconnier, 1995: 184). CBT, on the
other hand, introduces a four-space model, in which projections are not restricted to unidirectional sourcetarget mappings advocated by the CMT. Instead, elements from both the source and target inputs are
projected to the blend, with an additional possibility of backward projections that can affect inferences in the
input spaces. Another important difference between the two frameworks is presented in the fact that the
domains of the CMT framework pose as stable, entrenched structures, while mental spaces from the CBT
framework appear as dynamic constructs, structured by frames, domains, and cognitive models. Additionally,
the CBT framework is usually aimed at investigating instances of novel conceptualizations, whereas the CMT
deals with entrenched structures (Grady Oakley, & Coulson, 2007[1999]; Coulson, 2006b).
Despite the obvious incoherencies between the two frameworks, there are also certain similarities.
Namely, metaphor is treated as a conceptual phenomenon in both frameworks; both frameworks deal with
systematic projections between conceptual domains; both frameworks introduce certain constraints; etc.
(Grady Oakley, & Coulson, 2007[1999]). As discussed in Fauconnier and Turner (1994: 4-5), and Turner and
Fauconnier (1995: 184), the two space model of the CMT is in fact only a border-line case of the more
elaborate many-space model of the CBT that explains a range of phenomena invisible or untreatable under
the two-domain model and reveals previously unrecognized aspects of even the most familiar basic
metaphors (Turner & Fauconnier, 1995: 184). Furthermore, Grady, Oakley, and Coulson (2007[1999]) in their
discussion on Blending and Metaphor also suggest that the two approaches should be treated as
complementary, and argue that the conventional conceptual pairings and one-way mappings studied within
CMT are inputs to and constraints on the kinds of dynamic conceptual networks posited within BT (Grady,
42
Oakley, & Coulson 2007[1999]: 436). Similar positions are adopted in Coulson (2006a; 2006b). Such
treatment of the CMT as a special case of the CBT, instead of being dubbed a separate theoretical framework,
allows the CMT to still serve as a useful aid in the research in conceptual metaphors.
Grady, Oakley, and Coulson (2007[1999]: 422-424) discuss the well-known example of the
IS A BUTCHER
SURGEON
metaphor (Figure 5), and the analysis of this metaphor reveals the advantages of the many-
space model of the CBT. Namely, the blend has the emergent structure of incompetence that is difficult to
explain relying merely on the CMT model. The problem lies in the fact that both surgeon and butcher are highly
competent professionals. Although butchery might be dubbed a less prestigious calling compared to surgery,
there are no obvious elements that could serve to discredit the competence of the former. Still, the above
presented metaphor is perfectly clear, and the inference of the surgeons incompetence is retrieved without
difficulties.
Figure 5. Surgeon is a butcher (adopted from Grady, Oakley, and Coulson, 2007[1999]: 423)
43
The CBT framework provides a plausible account of the emergent structure. Namely, the role of
butcher is projected from the source input, while elements like the identity of the patient and identity of the
surgeon are projected from the target input. The clash between the goals of a surgeon and means and manner
of a butcher results in the emergent structure in the blend that is not available in either of the inputs. In short,
the incongruity of the butchers means with the surgeons ends leads to the central inference that the butcher
is incompetent (Grady Oakley, & Coulson, 2007[1999]: 424). In that sense, while the CMT allows the
identification of the source and target inputs, and establishes connections between their elements, the CBT
expands that relationship by analyzing it in the four-space network of conceptual integration that also includes
the emergent structure not captured by the former framework. In sum, while the CMT model is focused on
investigating entrenched conceptualizations, the CBT model deals with dynamic on-line processes of meaning
construction.
With the arguments presented in the above paragraphs in mind, it can be concluded that the joint use
of the two frameworks can facilitate and unite the investigation of both conventionalized mappings available for
recruitment, and individual instances of active, on-line meaning construction.
2.2.9. Taking a Slightly Different Turn: The Coded Meaning Model
In addition to the approach to conceptual blending advocated by Fauconnier and Turner, the present
paper will discuss another alternative approach - The Coded Meaning Model, introduced by Coulson and
Oakley (2005). Namely, building on the previous work in conceptual blending performed by Fauconnier and
Turner (e.g. 2002), and Brandt and Brandt (2002), 26 Coulson and Oakley (2005) introduced the coded
meaning model. The predominant role of this approach was to attempt to foreground the importance of
contextual information and background cognition that play vital roles in the process of meaning construction.
Additionally, the authors argue that coded meaning plays an important role in the construction of conceptual
integration networks (Coulson & Oakley, 2005: 1511).
The coded meaning model includes a presentation space, a reference space, a blended space, and a
grounding box. The presentation space is similar to the source domain of a conceptual metaphor, while the
reference space represents the facet of a situation that is the present focus of attention of the discourse
participants (ibid.: 1516). The grounding box is used to include the role of implicit and explicit assumptions
in meaning construction (ibid.: 1517). In other words, following in the footsteps of the mental space theory, the
role of the grounding box is to account for the influence of the immediate context, as well as for the
background knowledge that might be recruited for the purposes of building a conceptual integration network.
Brandt and Brandt (2002) developed a model that consists of six spaces: a semiotic space, a presentation space, a reference
space, a relevance space, a virtual space, and a meaning space. Such approach was developed as a result of criticism of the
blending theory, specifically its inability to provide a clear account of the origin of the emergent structure (cited in Coulson & Oakley,
2005: 1515). Coulson and Oakley adopted the presentation and reference spaces form their model, while the blended space comes
from Fauconnier and Turners approach.
26
44
As such, the grounding box appears as a partial counterpart of the generic space. Namely, while the generic
space contains general relations at the conceptual level, which apply to the entire network, the grounding box
on the other hand is more concerned with the elements of the immediate context and background knowledge
structures that usually take a more tangible form.
Coulson and Oakley (2005: 1517) propose two possibilities for a grounding box: deictic and
displaced. The deictic grounding box includes specific conditions like time, place, status of discourse
participants, or the forum where the situation is taking place (e.g. an office). A displaced grounding box is set
up when the immediate context activates structured background knowledge that constitutes and constrains
the interpretive process (ibid.: 1517). This is reminiscent of frame-recruitment, where a particular frame
introduces not only roles, but also full sets of attitudes, available from long-term memory. As a result, the
construed meaning will depend on the background knowledge of the participants, as well as the extant mental
space configuration set up by the local context (ibid.: 1522).
Figure 6. On the one hand ... on the other hand (adopted from Coulson and Oakley, 2005: 1524)
The idiom on the one hand/on the other hand discussed in Coulson and Oakley (2005: 1523-1524)
can be used to exemplify an analysis in the above described theoretical model (see Figure 6). The authors
discuss a paragraph dealing with a relationship between the EU and Israel that appeared in a newspaper
article:
I noticed people saying, which they didnt use to say, but now they have been saying for the last year or so, perhaps Israel
should have never been invented, but then I hear them say that the only solution is for the Arabs to accept the existence of
Israel, and normalize with it, she says. So I see them on the one hand acknowledging that the Arabs have reason to resent
the Europeans for supporting something they find intrusive, but on the other hand demanding the Arabs to put up with it, now
45
that it has happened. And so it would be more consistent for the Europeans, and the British included, to say: Yes, we did want
Israel to exist, and it is not a mistake, but since Israel is more us than you, Israels future will be more with us than with you, the
Arabs. (Coulson & Oakley, 2005: 1523; originally appeared in Haaertz, January 26, 2004)
The idiom on the one hand/on the other hand prompts the construction of a blended space in which each
hand supports a certain position, and there is an emergent structure that suggests that the position held in one
hand should be dropped in favor of the position in the other hand. This way the blend is actually anchored in
the human body (in the sense of Hutchins, 2005), and the two hands provide spatial orientation for the two
opposing positions, which is licensed by the entrenched nature of the idiom. The presentation space contains
human hands and the bilateral symmetry of the human body, while the reference space contains two ideas: 1)
the creation of Israel was a mistake, and 2) Arabs must put up with Israel. Elements of the grounding box,
which include participants, forum, and circumstances, are presented in Figure 6.
2.2.10. Section Summary
The present section provided an overview of the basic tenets of the Mental Space Theory, and it also
presented the main elements of the Conceptual Blending framework, where blending is viewed as an
offspring of the theory of mental spaces (Harder, 2005: 1639). Special attention was paid to vital relations,
topology principles, and the notions of compression and the systematic nature of compression in the sense of
Fauconnier and Turner (2008), and Fauconnier (2008). Additionally, the basic characteristics of single- and
double-scope networks which will be of particular interest for the present research have also been presented.
The current section also pointed out the main similarities and differences between the CMT and CBT, and
presented arguments in favor of a joint use of the two frameworks. Finally, the section finished by presenting
the Coded Meaning Model as introduced by Coulson and Oakley (2005).
46
47
2008: 593), which reflects the connection between the Russells notion of an emotion script, and the notion of
frames from cognitive semantics.
2.3.2. Affect
Affect plays a central role in human experience (Gray & Watson, 2007: 171) and, in comparison to
emotions and moods, it stands as a more inclusive psychological construct that refers to mental states
involving evaluative feelings (ibid.: 171). Furthermore, affect is conceptualized as more global than emotions
and mood, and may consist of many different emotional and mood states (Barlett & Gentile, 2011: 60). In view
of its value in the construction of the fully developed human scale experience, it can be added that, perception
without an affective component lacks the first-person, subjective quality that is the hallmark of conscious
awareness of external sensory information (Duncan & Barrett, 2007: 1197).
In terms of its structure, the two dominant models of affect include the specific-affect theories, and
dimensional theories. The former group of theories was based on a discrete-affect model, where it was
considered that a number of well-defined content factors were required to fully explain the affective experience
(Gray & Watson, 2007). However, these specific-affect scales usually were found to be significantly
interrelated (ibid.: 172). The latter group of theories was designed to overcome the shortcomings of the former
group, and given the very broad non-specific nature of affective experience of affect, researchers began to
adopt models that bypassed these discrete affects and posited fewer underlying dimensions (ibid.: 172). Two
of the most dominant dimensional models include the Russells circumplex, and the PANAS model, both of
which are discussed in greater detail in subsections 2.3.2.1 and 2.3.2.2.
Another important fact to be stressed when dealing with the measurements of affect pertains to the
difference between state and trait affect. Namely, while state affect refers to short emotional episodes directly
related to the immediate context, i.e. a specific stimulus, trait affect reflects long-term, stable individual
differences that reflect a persons general tendency to experience a particular affective state (ibid.: 172). In
that sense, type-one questionnaires 27 used in the second part of the present research were designed to
measure state affect.
2.3.2.1. The Circumplex Model of Affect
Russell (1980) introduced the Circumplex Model of Affect, where he proposed that affective states
are, in fact, best represented as a circle in a two-dimensional bipolar space (Russell, 1980: 1161-1162). 28 In
that sense, this model represents one of the dimensional models of affect, where affect is represented in terms
of two main components: valence (pleasure displeasure), and arousal (activation - sleep). As a result, any
27
28
48
affect word could be defined as some combination of pleasure and arousal components (ibid.: 1163). In short,
the circumplex model of affect represents a coordinate system in a two-dimensional space, where the
horizontal axis corresponds to the pleasure-displeasure dimension of affect, while the vertical axis corresponds
to the arousal-sleep dimension. Consequently, all affect-related words can be defined as vectors that originate
from the center of the coordinate system, and are distributed in a circular fashion in relation to that center
(Russell, 1980). As a result, each vector defines a single point in the two-dimensional space of the circumplex.
This in turn supports Russells proposition that there are no clear-cut boundaries between emotion concepts,
and they cannot be accurately represented on a simple scale, but require a two-dimensional geometric model.
In other words, each word can thus be considered a label for a fuzzy set, defined as a class without sharp
boundaries, in which there is a gradual but specifiable transition from membership to nonmembership (Russell,
1980: 1165). Such reasoning is also aligned with some of the basic tenets of cognitive semantics, where
words are seen as prompts for vast repositories of meaning, rather than exclusive labels that correspond to
strictly defined entities (e.g. Saeed, 2003). Additionally, Posner, Russell, and Peterson (2005) provided a more
recent account of the application of the circumplex model in which they gave further validation for its use, and,
among other points, discussed the neural circuitries that support valence and arousal, as well as the
developmental correlates of the circumplex.
Building on the previously described circumplex model, Russell, Weiss, and Mendelsohn (1989)
introduced the Affect Grid that represents a scale designed as a quick means of assessing affect along the
dimensions of pleasure-displeasure and arousal-sleepiness (Russell, Weiss, & Mendelsohn, 1989: 493). The
Affect Grid is a single-point item scale represented in the form of a 9x9 matrix organized along the valence and
arousal dimensions of affect, like the Russells circumplex. Affect descriptors listed around the grid are
arranged from the northwest corner of the grid in a clockwise direction stress, high arousal, excitement,
49
pleasant feelings, relaxation, sleepiness, depression, and unpleasant feelings so that the two major
dimensions are represented as bipolar opposites 29 (Gray & Watson, 2007: 177). In experimental contexts, the
experimental subjects have the task to rate their response to the presented stimulus by marking an
appropriate field on the grid. For instance, the affect grid was used as one of the instruments in the study
conducted by Lindquist and Barrett (2006).
50
the PANAS model can be obtained directly from the circumplex by rotating the circumplexs valence-arousal
space by 450 counterclockwise (Russell, Weiss, & Mendelsohn, 1989; Gray & Watson, 2007; Niedenthal,
2008). This is made possible owing to the fact that from a circumplex point of view, any rotation of the axes is
possible because the structure of affect is determined by the circular ordering (Russell, Weiss, & Mendelsohn,
1989: 494). However, it needs to be stressed that these two dimensional models offer opposing views on the
polarity of the dimensions of affective space (Gray & Watson, 2007: 173). While Russells circumplex stresses
the bipolar nature of affect, PANAS focuses on two mostly unipolar dimensions. 32 Namely, whether or not PA
and NA are in fact orthogonal or correlated dimensions has been, and remains, a controversial
issue (Thompson, 2007: 229). 33 Additionally, both models have received numerous empirical validations
(Gray & Watson, 2007; Lang & Ewoldsen, 2011).
51
In order to aid the advancement of cross-cultural research on affect, building on the initial PANAS
model (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), Thompson (2007) developed an internationally reliable 10-item
version dubbed I-PANAS-SF (see Figure 11 for details). His research was specifically aimed at developing a
measure for trait affect (Thompson, 2007: 231). An additional motivation for such course of research resides
in the fact that covariances between some of the PANAS items suggested considerable redundancy of the
PANAS items closely related to each other in meaning (ibid.: 230), which gave way for item reduction without
compromising scale efficacy and validity.
2.3.2.3. The Core Affect Model
The Core Affect Model belongs to the group of psychological constructionist models that suggest that
an emotion is constructed out of more basic components (Russell, 2003; Barrett, 2006). Core affect can be
defined as a neurological state that is consciously accessible as a simple, nonreflective feeling that is an
integral blend of hedonic (pleasure-displeasure) and arousal (sleepy-activated) values (Russell, 2003: 147). In
other words, core affect is the ongoing, ever-changing state that is available to be categorized during emotion
conceptualization (Barrett, 2006: 31), which reflects the similarity between the development of emotion
concepts and other concepts discussed in the framework of cognitive semantics, and also suggests that
emotion construction is essentially related to the on-line process of meaning construction. Such categorization
of core affect will prove to be one of the cornerstones of the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion discussed in
subsection 2.3.3.
The notion of core in core affect has multiple implications (Barrett, 2006). First of all, core can refer
to some basic sort of core knowledge, and it is meant to distinguish core affect form the general notion of
affect. Secondly, this form of affective responding is core because it is influenced by a very simple form of
meaning analysis (Barrett, 2006: 31), regardless of the value assigned to the stimulus. Additionally, core
also means that the basic instrumental behaviors [...] are part of this form of affective responding (ibid.: 31).
Finally, it is suggested that core affect is universal to all humans [...] and forms the core of emotion
experience (Duncan & Barrett, 2007: 1186). Furthermore, the influences of various stimuli allow core affect to
always be represented verbally as feelings of valence, and it is often represented as arousal (Barrett, 2006:
31). This in turn suggests that the dominant perception of core affect appears in the form of valence (e.g.
positive or negative), while the degree of activation, i.e. arousal is often more difficult to capture through the
use of self-report measurements.
Russell (2003) also suggests that core affect can be attributed to a stimulus, but can also appear in a
free-floating form, unrelated to any particular stimulus (e.g. in moods). Another important fact pertains to the
difference between core affect that is related to an individual experiencing it, and the affective quality which is
situated in the stimulus. Namely, objects, events and places (real, imagined, or anticipated) enter
consciousness affectively interpreted (Russell, 2003: 149), and the perception of affective quality influences
52
individuals reactions to them. This in turn leads to the notion of emotional meta-experience that Russell (2003)
uses to describe an individuals experience of a particular emotion. This represents a categorization of ones
state (ibid.: 150), or in other words, categorizing affect puts a person into a state that corresponds with the
colloquial idea of having an emotion (Barrett, 2006: 21). Additionally, it is important to note that Russell
(2003) places special emphasis on prototypical conceptual representations.
2.3.2.3.1. Core Affect and Cognition
Building on the results from the corpus of contemporary research, Duncan and Barrett (2007) stress
the idea that affect and cognition are not two completely separable mental processes, as had been stipulated
in the traditional psychological frameworks, but are instead largely connected and tend to interact with each
other. Such line of reasoning lends support to the claim that affect is a form of cognition (Duncan & Barrett,
2007: 1185), which is further reinforced by the finding that the circuitry that instantiates a core affective state
is widely distributed throughout the brain, and includes so-called cognitive areas (ibid.: 1201), i.e. no brain
areas can be designated specifically as cognitive or affective (ibid.: 1187). Additionally, the authors
propose that, depending on the focus of attention, core affect can appear as either the central or a background
trait of consciousness. In the latter case, backgrounded core affect is experienced as a property of the
external world, rather than as the persons reaction to it (ibid.: 1202), whereas in the former case, when it is
foregrounded, core affect will be experienced directly as pleasant or unpleasant content with some degree of
arousal [...] and can serve as information for making explicit judgments and decisions (ibid.: 1203).
The multifaceted value of core affect is reflected in the fact that it makes external information from the
world personally relevant to people, providing them with a first-person experience of the world, a fluency with
language so that they can describe those experiences, and enhances how those experiences are encoded for
future use (ibid.: 1196-1197). In these terms, core affect can be argued to give color and more specific
shapes to the human conscious awareness of the world. Bearing in mind that all words have an affective
dimension of meaning (ibid.: 1198), it is clear why core affect has an invaluable role in language. Furthermore,
the affective dimension in language makes communication personal and easy to accomplish, and is an
important contributor to language fluency (Altariba & Mathis, 1997, cited in Duncan & Barrett, 2007: 1199). In
that sense, the abilities to both extract the affective meaning of words, and successfully communicate that
affective meaning, are the underlying requirements for language fluency.
Apart from linguistic messages, affective meaning is also present in the non-linguistic forms of
communication. In addition to its role in language, core affect can also be suggested to influence the formation
of background knowledge structures, in the sense that it helps determine which experiences of the world are
encoded in the brain for later use (Duncan & Barrett, 2007: 1200). This line of reasoning also reflects the
ideas of embodied cognition, where the human cognitive architecture is understood to be conditioned by the
53
various types of sensory experiences (e.g. Saeed, 2003; Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]; Gibbs & Colston,
2006[1995]) which in turn have an inescapable affective dimension.
In summary, affect cannot be divorced from cognition, since the specific neural circuitries that support
the two phenomena largely overlap (Duncan & Barrett, 2007). Consequently, the process of meaning
construction coincides with the process of emotion construction and core affect categorization, so that one
constantly influences the other. While core affect will necessarily influence the on-line computations of
meaning, these on-line computations, along with the context that is introduced, will also influence the
construction of a specific emotional experience that takes place within that same context. Such development
reflects the dynamics of the human mind, where there are no explicitly separated modules reserved for
individual processes. Instead, there is a constant interplay between different neural circuitries, parts of which
are often shared by different processes, all of which contributes to the active, on-line construction of human
experience in its fully developed form. In other words, the specific neural mechanisms, coupled with the realworld contextual elements and background knowledge, can be understood as the grounding that sanctions the
completely elaborated experience at the human scale.
2.3.3. The Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion
Like the previously discussed Core Affect Model, the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion also belongs
to a class of models known as psychological constructionist models, which view emotions as psychological
events that are composed of more basic psychological components (Lindquist & Barrett, 2008: 902). In other
words, emotions are not biologically given, but are constructed via the process of categorization (Barrett,
2006: 27), during which more abstract affective experiences, dubbed core affect, are conceptualized as more
specific emotional experiences. As a result, the experience of emotion does not issue from discrete bursts of
activity in putative emotion mechanisms, but rather from an act of conceptualization (ibid.: 38). This in turn
reflects the previously introduced idea that emotions are not entities with strictly defined boundaries, but rather
fuzzy sets without clear-cut distinctions (Russell, 1980; 2003; Niedenthal, 2008), i.e. emotion concepts do not
have conceptual cores but are represented by loose collections of situated conceptualizations 34 (WilsonMendenhall et al., 2011: 1107).
Namely, concepts are not typically processed in isolation but are typically situated in background
settings, events, and introspections (Barsalou, 2009: 1238), and in that sense, situated conceptualizations
refer to situated representations of categories. Bearing in mind the discussion presented in Barsalou (2009:
1283-1284), situated conceptualizations can be understood as highly specified partial frames tailored to fit
specific situations. Such conclusion stems from the fact that because a single general conceptualization
would be too vague to support relevant inferences in specific situations, representations that are more
34
For a detailed account of the notion of situated conceptualizations see Barsalou, 2009.
54
specialized are constructed instead (ibid.: 1283). Therefore, a concept is the skill or ability to produce a wide
variety of situated conceptualizations that support goal achievement in specific contexts (ibid.: 1283).
Consequently, the Conceptual Act Theory proposes that emotion concepts [...] refer to entire situations, and
thereby represent settings, agents, objects, actions, events, introspections, and mentalizing (WilsonMendenhall et al., 2011: 1107), which again suggests that emotion concepts include the recruitment of partial
frame structures, i.e. situated conceptualizations, and the entire process of emotion construction is similar to
the active construction of a mental space that takes place during the on-line semantic processing. With that in
mind, the two main ingredients of the Conceptual Act Theory are core affect, and the conceptual knowledge
about emotions.
Another important parameter foregrounded by the Conceptual Act Theory is the importance of
individuals previous experience, i.e. their background knowledge related to specific emotion concepts, which
serves to both constrain and direct the categorization of core affect. In addition to background knowledge, the
effects of the immediate context are not to be disregarded either, since each conceptualization of a particular
emotion is situated, in that it is a highly specialized package of conceptual knowledge that is tailored to the
needs of the person in a given context (Barrett, 2006: 33), i.e. knowledge about emotion is contextdependent [...] and driven by emotion language (ibid.: 38). Coupled with the fact that language plays a strong
causal role in conceptual development of emotion knowledge (ibid.: 34), the previous stipulations suggest that
the knowledge about emotions is acquired along the same guidelines as the knowledge about other concepts,
with language as a conduit. In other words, emotion concepts are abstract concepts that work in
fundamentally the same way as other kinds of abstract concepts (Wilson-Mendenhall et al., 2011: 1107), and
the Conceptual Act Theory suggests an intrinsic role for language in the emergence of emotional experience
(Barrett, 2006: 37).
An important outcome of the present model resides in the fact that the modulations of core affect
during the process of emotion construction can influence cognition and behavior (Barrett, 2006; Duncan &
Barrett, 2007), and in that sense, emotion categories can be thought as goal-directed categories that develop
to guide action (Barrett, 2006: 37). Additionally, conceptual knowledge about emotion constitutes expertise
about how to deal with your own internal state experienced as an emotion and the situation or event that
you believe caused that emotion in the first place (ibid.: 36). Consequently, this suggests that the
categorization of core affect also influences an individuals reasoning regarding future actions within the given
context. In other words, the frame associated to a certain emotion concept carries in it a backgroundknowledge-based formula that tells an individual how to express the on-line computed emotion depending on
the context. For example, if an individual experiences fear before a job interview, he should try to compose
himself by, for example, controlling his breathing. If, on the other hand, an individual experiences fear during
an encounter with a wolf while taking a walk in the forest, the right course of action would be to flee the scene,
or climb the nearest tree. In summary, the presented course of reasoning supports the initial claim that
55
emotional involvement can influence cognition and behavior, and it also reinforces the role of background
knowledge and immediate context in this process.
In addition to its purely theoretical appeal, the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion has also been
supported by empirical research. The first study that provided empirical support for the present theoretical
framework was conducted by Lindquist and Barrett (2008), where the two authors investigated the worldfocused experience of fear as a conceptual act. Their findings showed that the world-focused experience of
fear can be produced by the interplay of two more basic psychological ingredients: core affect and conceptual
knowledge of emotion (Lindquist & Barrett, 2008: 902). Wilson-Mendenhall, Barrett, Simmons, and Barsalou
(2011) conducted another empirical study, where the following two main hypotheses, derived from the
Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion, were tested: 1) emotion is constructed differently depending on the
situation (Wilson-Mendenhall et al., 2011: 1120), and 2) the composition of a situated conceptualization for
an emotion would draw on contributions from different sources of information in the distributed neural circuitry
that produces emotion in general (ibid.: 1111). The results of the experiment supported both of the two
hypotheses. 35
Finally, it is important to stress the major similarities and differences between the Core Affect Model,
and the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion, bearing in mind that the two frameworks are largely connected.
Namely, as discussed in Barrett (2006: 41), both models deal with continuous changes of core affect; both
models claim that the changes in the body need not correspond to specific templates for discrete emotions;
and the fact that core affect can undergo additional meaning analysis is also supported by both frameworks.
On the other hand, unlike the Core Affect Model, the Conceptual Act Theory proposes that categorization
plays a much broader role in emotion construction, in the sense that even nonprototypical conceptual
representations will be used to conceptualize core affect as emotional when the situation demands it (ibid.);
the Conceptual Act Theory places stronger emphasis on more contextual and socially situated emotion
concepts; and finally, in the Conceptual Act Theory framework, linking an object to core affect is viewed as a
consequence of categorization, whereas the Core Affect Model sees this as a purely attributional process.
2.3.4. Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion and Conceptual Blending Theory: Points of Intersection
With the previous subsections in mind, it is transparent that the presently discussed framework can be
directly linked to some of the ground-stone-ideas of cognitive semantics and cognitive linguistics in general.
First and foremost, the similarities between the two approaches include the emphasis on the processes of
categorization and conceptualization which provide the scaffolding for both meaning construction and emotion
construction. In that sense, the categorization of more abstract core affect along with the recruitment of
35 For a detailed account of the two experimental studies consult the respective references. Being beyond the scope of the present
research, this section lists only the most important conclusions from the two studies.
56
background knowledge associated to more specific emotion concepts can also be understood as analogous to
the process of meaning construction. Another valuable point of intersection is the importance attributed to
background knowledge and the immediate context, which impose a significant influence on both meaning
construction and emotion conceptualization. Furthermore, the previously stipulated link between language and
emotion knowledge renders the two phenomena directly connected, which in turn licenses the claim that the
process of meaning construction is in fact interwoven with the process of emotion construction. This idea is
further supported by the empirical findings from contemporary research presented in Duncan and Barrett
(2007).
When placed in the context of a linguistic stimulus-response environment, which will be discussed in
the second part of the present research, it can be hypothesized that the link between the processes of
meaning construction and emotion construction can be further elaborated as a cause-effect relation, where the
two processes take place parallel to each other, and can directly influence one another. In short, the computed
meaning, conditioned by background knowledge and the immediate context, and the specific emotional
reaction, interact to sculpt each others final shapes. Such sculpting will necessarily involve the process of core
affect categorization that shares the same context as the process of meaning construction, and may involve
the recruitment of additional background knowledge structures related to specific emotion concepts. The
interplay of background knowledge structures related to the frames involved in meaning construction, and
background knowledge from the frames related to particular emotion concepts, coupled with the influence of
the immediate context, will cause the experience of a specific emotion to vary, a proposal which is in line with
the general arguments presented in Barrett (2006), Wilson-Mendenhall et al. (2011), Russell (2003), and
Barsalou (2009).
In addition to the already stipulated link between situated conceptualizations and highly specified
partial frame structures, a connection can also be established between background knowledge structures
available for recruitment during the on-line cognitive work and entrenched situated conceptualizations.
Namely, over time, the situated conceptualization becomes so well established that it becomes active
automatically and immediately when the situation arises (Barsalou, 2009: 1284), just like familiar background
knowledge structures get recruited in the process of meaning construction. Furthermore, Barsalou (2009)
proposes that once situated conceptualizations become entrenched in memory, they support a pattern
completion inference process (1284). This is reminiscent of the process of completion involved in the
development of emergent structure in the context of the CBT, where the structure of the organizing frame of
the blend is completed by additional entrenched background knowledge structures related to the frame in
question. Viewed in the context of situated conceptualizations, when a partially viewed situation activates a
situated conceptualization, the conceptualization completes the pattern that the situation suggests (ibid.:
1284).
57
58
appeal in TV campaign ads, the importance of provoking an emotional appeal in press reports should not be
neglected either.
2.3.6. Section Summary
In brief, the present section gave an overview of some of the dominant models of affect and emotions
that provide the grounds for practical measurements of real-time responses to specific stimuli. Namely, this
section introduced the two dominant dimensional models of affect the Circumplex Model of Affect and the
PANAS model, which was followed by the discussion of the Core Affect model and the Conceptual Act Theory
of Emotion. Additionally, some results of contemporary research in political psychology, as well as the
relationship between affect, emotions, media, and politics have also been presented.
59
Previous Research
3. Previous Research
In addition to the previous research already discussed within the theoretical framework of the paper,
the current section will present a few additional research papers dealing with metaphors and conceptual
blending in political discourse.
WAR
and
SPORT
consideration that as source domains, sports and war both equate physical power with political power (ibid.:
2169), it is understandable why the two domains are so suitable for use in the political arena. Additionally,
such results suggest that Western society places a positive value on conflict, and conceptualizes politics
primarily in terms of conflict (ibid.: 2174).
Journey metaphors were especially prominent in reports of US elections, where Obama was portrayed
as an emissary sent by Martin Luther King to continue the journey to a better America (ibid.: 2171).
Furthermore, Obama used the journey metaphor in his victory speech in a way which echoed Martin Luther
King (ibid.: 2170). Such framing of political ideas is aimed at obtaining positive evaluations from the public
through the emphasis on equality and the pursuit of a better future. This gives another illustration of the
potential for highlighting and hiding that the conceptual metaphor offers.
Previous Research
60
For example, the above excerpt illustrates the stinky candidates blend which involves input spaces of
voting and holding ones nose while performing an action. The voting frame recruits a familiar script of going to
the ballot and casting a vote for one of the candidates, whereas the organizing frame of the other input
involves an unpleasant action. As the process of conceptual integration progresses, voting is framed as an
unpleasant but necessary chore (ibid.: 51), and the entrenched nature of the stinks metaphor allows
speakers to understand the text as acknowledging the limited political options available to progressive voters
(ibid.: 51). Consequently, in the blend the voter is performing an unpleasant task in a stench-ridden
environment, and that task is to choose the thing that stinks the least (ibid.: 52). Such integration network is
expected to prompt the reader to vote for the candidate that stinks less, i.e. for the Democrat.
In the discussion of the public conversation blend, the authors suggest that it has desirable rhetorical
characteristics from both a cognitive and an affective standpoint (ibid.: 53). This suggests that the blend
simplifies the course of events, and if the reader fully integrates knowledge about the political process with
her own personal experience with losing arguments, it can evoke the sorts of emotions that accompany the
latter (ibid.: 53). In turn, such line of reasoning supports the general idea that conceptual blending can serve
to modulate affective states, which will be pursued in sections 4.1 and 4.2 of the present paper.
Coulson and Oakley (2008) analyzed the CONNECT THE DOTS metaphor from a radio interview with the
former White House Special Advisor on Counterterrorism, Richard A. Clarke. One of the authors goals was to
attempt to integrate the CBT framework and the Mental Space Theory with Chafes (1994) theory of discourse
based on conscious experience (Coulson & Oakley, 2008: 28). Additionally, the authors argued that the
understanding of the excerpts from the above mentioned interview relies upon three interrelated kinds of
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Previous Research
knowledge that we call elements of understanding (ibid.: 28). These elements include linguistic knowledge,
cultural knowledge and situational knowledge.
The situational knowledge that Coulson and Oakley discuss includes the necessary information about
the setting, participants, and the immediate circumstances that underlie the given event. In this particular
example, the participants are Richard Clarke, Dave Davies, the journalist, and Richard Posner, a virtual
participant (ibid.). The setting is constrained by the radio interview, while the rhetorical context of the
exchange is the differing assessment of Clarke (the actual guest) and Posner (the virtual participant) of the
Congressional report by the 9/11 Commission (ibid.: 32).
The cultural knowledge assumes the awareness that the
metaphor is largely
related to the events from 9/11, i.e. the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. In that sense, failure to
connect the dots refers to the failure by US intelligence agents to understand the relationship between different
facts about individuals with links to terrorist groups (ibid.: 35). In other words, the important information that
was unknown to the agencies corresponds to the unrecognized pattern in the game.
In addition to the familiarity with the socio-cultural context, Coulson and Oakley (2008) also suggest
that the success of this metaphor is largely licensed by the linguistic knowledge of the meaning of the concept
connect. With that in mind, they suggest a link between the CONNECT THE DOTS metaphor and the entrenched
metaphor knowing is seeing. Consequently, Colson and Oakley (2008: 36) propose that the connect the dots
blend co-opts the KNOWING IS SEEING metaphor and applies it to the game of connect the dots by adding a few
new mappings. Additionally, such line of reasoning supports the authors idea that creative metaphoric
blends rely heavily on conventional linguistic knowledge (ibid.: 46).
The conceptual integration network that the authors propose in the first part of their analysis (ibid.: 3137) consists of a presentation space with the connect the dots game, the reference space, with national
security agencies and the information related to them, and the blend, where it is possible for the intelligence
officer to see terrorist activities represented in the dots (ibid.: 36-37). An important factor to be taken into
account is that not all dots in the blend have the same relevance for solving the puzzle, and that the agencies
failing to connect the dots might not be caused by the failure to share information, but by the lack of time to go
over the potentially relevant links within the available information (ibid.: 41). Coulson and Oakley also stress
the fact that the interpretation of the metaphor
linguistic and cultural knowledge, as well as by the immediate context and the level of involvement that the
individual invests into (de)constructing the blend.
Additionally, the authors also discuss the
SCREAMING DOTS
conventional CONNECT THE DOTS mapping, and also introduces new elements of fictive interaction. Furthermore,
the authors claim that in the case of the
SCREAMING DOTS
intersection of cultural, linguistic, and situational knowledge in the service of the interconnected demands of
discourse coherence and argumentative goals (ibid.: 47). Namely, because Clark disagrees with the
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the term connect (ibid.: 47), and employs another conventional blend available for recruitment that of fictive
interaction. For a full account of this part of the analysis, consult Coulson and Oakley, 2008: 41-47.
Harder (2005) discusses the notion of full-blown blending, where this process is distinguished by the
way it enables the conceptualizer to superimpose two pictures that could not occur together in the reality
space without cheating, i.e. in a way that preserves the contradictions while suspending them for the
purposes of creating the blended space (ibid.: 1650). In laymans terms, full-blown blending enables an
individual to construct a blended space that contains elements in direct opposition to some elements from the
reality spaces, which is done for purposes of persuasion, or even self-preservation. Still, the individual does
not do away with those contradictions, but keeps them active. In that sense, Harder (2005) argues that, when
blends are viewed in their functional context, a distinction becomes necessary between the purely conceptual
anatomy of a blend and the status of a blend as a successful response to a particularly difficult challenge
(ibid.: 1640). In relation to that line of reasoning, another important variable that Harder (2005) places into the
equation is the role of the social grounding, i.e. the immediate socio-political setting, which further stresses the
functional perspective of the cognitive processes by showing how they are shaped by and contribute to the
pattern of interaction of which they constitute one aspect (ibid.: 1637). Additionally, Harder (2005) also
proposes that apart from the processes of integration, attention should also be paid to the processes of
disintegration, since, under certain circumstances, conceptual integration networks can become unstable and
disintegrate.
This author also introduces the notion of polarization which he illustrates in relation to post-9/11
conceptualizations of American policies directed at the Muslim world reported in the news and commentaries.
Namely, polarization takes place when two parties interact in such a way that each act in a sequence brings
about a greater sense of threat in the other party (ibid.: 1643). In other words, framing the opposition as a
threat serves to both fuel and justify the negative campaign against them. This was particularly evident in the
post-9/11 period, when the U.S. framed almost the entire Muslim world as the enemy, and presented its
foreign policy as war on terror.
Interviewer: Is there not a risk of alienating the Muslim world and thus sowing the seeds of future terrorist activities?
U.S. official: You are playing on Bin Ladens turf. I think you should stop playing on his turf. (ibid.: 1646)
Although from a purely objective point of view the constructed mental space in the above example may seem
inadequate, from the policymaking point of view it may be purely legitimate. Namely, the U.S. official imposes
a direct constraint on the entire line of reasoning by enforcing a favorable point of view, i.e. a point of view that
justifies the U.S. military intervention in Iraq, and at the same time secures the safety of the U.S. Such course
of action reflects the cognitive, emotional, and functional mechanisms of conceptual (dis)integration that
Harder (2005) discusses in his paper. Additionally, Harder (2005) pays particular attention to the emotional
dimension of the process of conceptual integration, in the sense that getting an integrated picture of objects,
where fragmentary experiences with different emotional colorings are brought together, is an emotional
Previous Research
63
achievement as well as a cognitive achievement (ibid.: 1642). The remainder of Harders (2005) paper
engages in an in-depth analysis of full-blown blending and disintegration that took place when George W.
Bush, president of the U.S. called Ariel Sharon a man of piece. 36
For a detailed overview of this part of the research consult Harder, 2005: 1646-1650.
Previous Research
64
emotional appeal with the electorate. The current section provided a brief overview of some results from
contemporary research conducted in the domain of the CMT, CBT, and political psychology.
Present Research
65
4. Present Research
The present research will be conducted in two stages. Namely, the first stage of the present research
will involve the theoretical analysis of the corpus, following the methodology presented in section 4.1. The
second stage of this research will be focused on investigating whether metaphorical expressions commonly
used in the political discourse of daily newspapers can in fact provoke a tangible emotional reaction with the
readers. Specific methodological procedures employed in this part of the research are elaborated in section
4.2. With such an outline of the course of analysis in mind, the present research will attempt to answer the
following Research Questions:
[1] What are the basic functions of conceptual metaphors in the political discourse of daily
newspapers?
[2] How are these functions achieved, i.e. which mechanisms are they licensed by (for example, are
there mechanisms like emotional appeal, highlighting and hiding, simplification, etc.)?
[3] Which groups of metaphors (based on their conceptual keys) are dominant, and are the findings
consistent with the results from previous research?
[4] What type of networks is dominant: single-scope, or double-scope?
[5] Which vital relations are dominant in metaphorical networks, and what happens to them during
compression?
[6] Is there any similarity between the forms of emergent structures that appear in the present corpus?
[7] Can conceptual metaphors from the political discourse of daily newspapers provoke an actual,
tangible emotional response with the audience, i.e. readers?
[8] How was that emotional response depicted in terms of affect and more specific emotion concepts?
In particular, the first six research questions will be addressed in the first part of the research, while the final
two research questions will be the subject of inquiry of the second part of the present research. Additionally,
research questions 1 through 3 fall in the domain of the CMT, research questions 4 through 6 will be dealt with
in the framework of the CBT, while research questions 7 and 8 will be addressed within the theoretical
framework dealing with affect and emotions.
66
67
Once the corpus was formed, the analysis entered the domain of the CBT. Namely, individual
examples from the corpus were analyzed through the steps presented in Table 1. Such an approach was
expected to provide a detailed insight into the structure of metaphorical conceptual integration networks, by
addressing some of the key tenets of the CBT framework. Additionally, the algorithm for the analysis given in
Table 1 should yield systematic results that are expected to produce statistically relevant data based on the
present corpus. This part of the analysis also tackled the problem of functions that metaphors play in political
discourse, as well as some of the mechanisms through which these functions are achieved, with the potential
to provoke an emotional appeal as one of the most salient of these mechanisms. With this in mind, the CMT
framework was also included in the analyses.
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Identify the organizing frame(s), and the type of the integration network (simplex, mirror,
single-scope, or double-scope).
Step 4:
Identify the emergent structure in the blend, and the processes of composition, completion,
and elaboration (coupled or decoupled).
Step 5:
Step 6:
Identify Vital Relations and their compressions (i.e. compressions of outer-space vital
relations into inner-space vital relations).
Step 7:
Identify the Governing Principles for Compression that have been satisfied.
Step 8:
Discuss the systematic nature of compression (in the sense of Fauconnier & Turner, 2008).
Step 9:
37 This step of the analysis will be addressed separately in section 4.1.3, where the issue of network optimization based on the
results obtained from CONFLICT and SPORT metaphors is thoroughly investigated.
68
CONFLICT Metaphors
CONFLICT
POLITICS IS CONFLICT.
This will
include conceptual metaphors with their corresponding metaphorical expressions, organized around the
following metaphor keywords: battle, war, fight, showdown, standoff, attack, defense, strategy, maneuvering,
victory, defeat, alliance, and (war) front. The distribution of these metaphor keywords in this part of the corpus
is presented in the bar graph in Figure 12. Percentage-wise,
CONFLICT
corpus, and there is a total of 143 metaphorical expressions that can be attributed to the above mentioned
conceptual key. Such a dominant role of
CONFLICT
The battles within the movement have played out in public. (The New York Times, 3/12/2011)
This metaphorical expression corresponds to the conceptual metaphor POLITICAL ARGUMENT IS A BATTLE,
which further corresponds to the conceptual key
The generic space contains schematic structure that corresponds to both inputs, and it is related to the event
structure metaphor. Namely, it contains the following elements: participants, setting, means, and goal. The
source input is that of a
BATTLE,
network, while the target input is that of POLITICAL ARGUMENT. The elements of the two inputs are presented in
Figure 13. Elements: battlefield - public arena, soldiers politicians and party reps belonging to the same
69
CONFLICT Metaphors
political group, officers leading figures from the same political group, casualties - the defeated fraction within
the same political group, and weapons - arguments are connected via an outer-space vital relation of Analogy
that is compressed into Uniqueness in the blend, i.e. they constitute counterpart connections between the
input spaces, which reflects the process of matching.
Additionally, the blend inherits the organizing frame of the source input, which renders this network
single-scope. This allows for the structure from the target input to be projected into the pre-compressed innerspace relations of the source input (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002). The blend also contains emergent structure
not present in either of the input spaces: arguments can cause harm, and political defeat equals political death.
The emergent structure is a result of the following processes:
1. composition: the network establishes connections between the elements in the inputs and projects them to
the blend;
2. completion: the elements from the target are projected into the organizing frame of the source. Additionally,
the recruitment of background knowledge related to the frame of a BATTLE also aides the process of completion;
3. elaboration: since it can affect actual political outcome and reasoning, this is an instance of coupled
elaboration.
CONFLICT Metaphors
70
means for achieving victory in the two input spaces. An important contextual variable that needs to be stressed
is the fact that the conflict described by the present network is taking place between the members of the same
political group. This can in turn serve to additionally explain the form of the emergent structure, according to
which arguments can harm all of the participants.
Apart from the above mentioned compression of Analogy into Uniqueness, it is useful to address the
vital relations of Cause-Effect and Intentionality. Namely, the preexistent conventional compression aligns the
Cause-Effect relationships in the two inputs and projects them to the blend. For example, the causal
relationship between waging a battle and winning or losing it, and the causal relationship between engaging in
a political argument and winning or losing it are compressed into Uniqueness in the blend. The Intentionality
that underlies the previously discussed causal chains is also compressed into Uniqueness (i.e. into the
intention of winning). In terms of the Governing Principles for Compression borrowing for compression is
satisfied, since the mappings introduced by the conceptual metaphor automatically recruit pre-built
compressions. Compressions of one vital relation into another have already been discussed, while
scalability is also satisfied, and human scale is achieved.
In order for the analysis of compression to be complete, guidelines from Fauconnier and Turner (2008)
should also be addressed. Namely, in line with their argument, and bearing in mind that the notion of borrowed
compression from the source input has already been mentioned, it is obvious that the source input does not
represent a fundamental concept. This means that the integration network needs to be expanded beyond the
minimal four-space model in order to account for the recruited compressions, i.e. for both cobbling and
sculpting (in the sense of Fauconnier & Turner, 2008). The same can be argued for the target input, since
ARGUMENT
can also be represented as a compression. In that sense, such an elaborate network of conceptual
integration reflects the notion of systematical compressions that enable the human mind to operate over
numerous compressions and decompressions, i.e. perform blending and unpacking as necessary.
The shape of this network is captured by the diagram presented in Figure 14. As can be concluded,
the systematicity of compression does not end with the battle and argument inputs. On the contrary, it can be
elaborated even further. Note also that both battle and argument blends have competition as one of their input
spaces. Such relatedness between the source and target input of the final network can be used to account for
the prealignment of their topologies before they are projected to the final blend of the fully elaborated network.
The elaborate network from Figure 14 resembles a complex molecule from the domain of organic
chemistry. This molecule-model is plausible on at least two levels. Firstly, it reflects the notion of the
dynamic structure of conceptual integration networks, where they can change depending on the context, just
as a molecule can mutate under foreign influences. Secondly, the molecule-model stresses the fact that
the CBT is not confined to the domain of static structural analysis grounded on rigid mathematical
approximations. On the contrary, the CBT deals with live, dynamic phenomena that the human thought is
made out of, which undergo constant changes and mutations owing to both immediate contextual influences,
CONFLICT Metaphors
71
72
CONFLICT Metaphors
and rhetoric and pragmatic strategies that interlocutors have at their disposal. In that sense, the moleculemodel captures the very essence of human reasoning and cognition, and renders the role of compression in
this process more transparent. Additionally, the notion of pre-built compressions available for recruitment
foregrounds the role of the immediate social network that provides the grounding for human reasoning. In
other words, these entrenched compressions are not instances of compressed anomalies available to a small
number of individuals. Instead, they make up the vast domain of background knowledge characterized by a
marked cultural influence.
(2)
His [Mitt Romneys] aides are vigorously organizing in Florida, where absentee voting begins right after the New
Year, and in states far down the line, to build a backup plan when the nominating battle becomes a delegate
fight. (The New York Times, 15/12/2011)
This example illustrates the interaction between two conflict metaphors: ELECTIONS ARE A BATTLE, and
ELECTIONS ARE A FIGHT.
CONFLICT.
These two conceptual metaphors are organized under the conceptual key
POLITICS IS
Based on Figure 15, it can be concluded that both initial conceptual integration networks actually
share the same generic space which is structured by the event structure metaphor, and contains the following
elements: participants, setting, means, and goal. The source input of the first metaphor is structured by the
organizing frame of a
BATTLE
FIGHT
ELECTIONS.
which also represents a prebuilt compression available for recruitment, and the
ELECTIONS.
corresponding source inputs, making each of the networks single-scope. In addition to being linked by the
change of focus in the discourse lattice, the two blends are connected by the vital relation of Change, forged
by the immediate discourse context.
Each of the blends develops emergent structure, as the central product of compression:
Blend 1: winning the nomination harms the opponent;
Blend 2: good campaign harms the opponent;
which is achieved through the following processes:
1. composition: during this process, connections between the inputs are established and elements are
projected to the blend. Counterpart connections are established between the inputs of the two initial networks,
and their elements are projected to blends 1 and 2.
2. completion: elements from the target inputs of the two initial networks are projected to the organizing
frames of the blends 1 and 2, respectively. Completion also involves the recruitment of background knowledge
related to the organizing frames of the two blends, which facilitates the entire process.
3. elaboration: as in all cases of conceptual metaphors in the political discourse, this is again an instance of
coupled elaboration, since it can affect inferences and reasoning in real time.
CONFLICT Metaphors
73
74
CONFLICT Metaphors
The emergent structure is the result of the Disanalogy between the means for achieving the goal
between the input spaces in the two initial networks, respectively, i.e. the Disanalogy between physical
violence that can lead to casualties, and a political campaign. Such emergent structure can yield backward
projections from the blends back to the inputs, which can provoke an emotional response, thereby amplifying
the rhetorical power of the conceptual metaphor. Another important aspect of this network that needs to be
addressed is the fact that the conflict is taking place during the primary elections in the Republican Party, i.e.
all of the participants belong to the same political group. This contextual variable can also account for the form
of the emergent structures in the two blends, where all participants can be harmed in the political process.
The most dominant compression is the compression of the outer-space vital relation of Analogy into
the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness, evident in the two initial networks. Namely, the causal relations
between the inputs of the two initial networks are related by the vital relation of Analogy, which is compressed
into Uniqueness in the blend. The inner-space vital relations of Intentionality in the inputs of the two initial
networks are also analogous, and are compressed into Uniqueness in the blends 1 and 2. Again, the
compression of Disanalogy leads to the creation of emergent structure, unique for the blend. In sum, the
satisfied Governing Principles of Compression include compressions of one vital relation into another.
Additionally, scalability and borrowing for compression are also satisfied, owing to the fact that both the human
scale is achieved, and pre-built compressions are activated.
All of the inputs from the two initial networks represent compressions available for recruitment, rather
than basic concepts, which reflects the systematic nature of compression. As argued in Fauconnier and Turner
(2008), every conceptual integration network has parts that are entrenched, and available for recruitment
(cobbling), and parts that are constructed on-line (sculpting). Like in example 1 discussed above, Figure 15
captures only the on-line active process of sculpting, whereas the entrenched part, i.e. cobbling, can be
represented in an elaborated molecule-model network similar in structure to the one in Figure 14.
(3)
Late Saturday, former Senator Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican nominee, endorsed Mitt Romney, whose
campaign is now anticipating a long and hard-fought nominating battle against Mr. Gingrich. (The New York
Times, 19/12/2011)
The metaphorical expression in the previous example corresponds to the conceptual metaphor
ELECTIONS ARE A BATTLE,
POLITICS IS CONFLICT.
source and target inputs of the corresponding conceptual integration network are structured by the organizing
frames of BATTLE and ELECTIONS, respectively. The process of matching, i.e. counterpart connections between
the two input spaces is presented by the horizontal lines in Figure 16. The generic space is structured by the
event structure metaphor and contains the following elements: setting, participants, goal, and means. Since
the blend acquires its organizing frame from the source input, this is another example of a single-scope
network.
75
CONFLICT Metaphors
The blend develops emergent structure, which is a direct product of compression of the outer-space
vital relation of Disanalogy between the means for achieving the goal in the two inputs. This structure is
introduced through the following processes:
1. composition: elements of the two inputs are linked by counterpart connections, and projected to the blend;
2. completion: elements from the target input are projected into the organizing frame of the source input.
Through the recruitment of additional background knowledge pertaining to the organizing frame of the source
input, the blend is completed;
3. elaboration: finally, mental simulation of the blend licenses on-line real-world inferences, which suggests
that this is a case of coupled elaboration.
Such emergent structure can give way to backward projections to the inputs, which can further amplify the
rhetorical power of a conceptual metaphor.
Figure 16. Nominating battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich
As in other metaphorical conceptual integration networks, the most dominant compression is that of
the outer-space vital relation of Analogy into the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness. Namely, cause-effect
relations structuring the topologies of the two input spaces are related by the outer-space vital relation of
Analogy, which is compressed into the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness in the blend. Intentionality
underlying these cause-effect topologies is also compressed into Uniqueness in the blend. Additionally, there
is also the compression of Disanalogy into Uniqueness, already mentioned above. Therefore, it is obvious that
76
CONFLICT Metaphors
the satisfied Governing Principles of Compression include the compression of one vital relation into another.
Additionally, scalability, and borrowing for compression are also satisfied.
In terms of the systematic nature of compression, the analysis of the present example also sanctions
the conclusion that neither input is a basic concept, but rather a pre-built compression available for recruitment.
In that sense, the conceptual integration network depicted in Figure 16 represents the sculpting part of the
more elaborate network, i.e. the part that is constructed on-line. The remainder of the fully-fledged network
could be represented in the form of a molecule-model network, similar to the one in Figure 14.
(4)
Facing a tough re-election fight in five months, Mr. Sarkozy is presenting himself as a man of experience,
capable of strong leadership in a crisis. (The New York Times, 2/12/2011)
The above metaphorical expression corresponds to the conceptual metaphor RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN IS
A FIGHT,
which is further contained within the conceptual key POLITICS IS CONFLICT. The organizing frame of the
FIGHT,
RE-ELECTION
Counterpart connections between the elements from the source and target input are presented by
the horizontal lines in Figure 17. The generic space contains the following elements: setting, participants, goal,
and means, and it is structured by the event structure metaphor. The blend inherits the organizing frame of the
source input, suggesting that this is a single-scope network. In this case, the conflict is taking place between
representatives of different political parties.
77
CONFLICT Metaphors
two inputs that leads to the emergent structure in the blend. Additionally, emergent structure is constructed
through the following processes:
1. composition:
counterpart connections between elements from the two inputs are established and
FIGHT
As the perceived front-runner, he [Mr. Paul] is drawing a barrage of attacks from his rivals. (The New York
Times, 18/12/2011)
The above example represents an interaction between two conceptual metaphors: ELECTION CAMPAIGN
IS A RACE,
and
POLITICS IS SPORT,
and the latter to the conceptual key POLITICS IS CONFLICT. The first integration network has a
combined generic space 38 which includes elements of the event structure metaphor, and the basic
preconceptual image schematic structure of the
SOURCE-PATH-GOAL
primitive (in the sense of Mandler, 1992), the proposed image schema underlies not only the human ability to
understand the world in terms of spatial relations, but also the ability to forge metaphorical connections
between a concept such as movement and other concepts. Therefore, combined with the elements adopted
from the event structure metaphor which also has an underlying image schematic structure, the notion of the
38
The notion of the combined generic space will be further elaborated in the section dealing with SPORT metaphors.
CONFLICT Metaphors
78
79
CONFLICT Metaphors
combined generic space is aimed at foregrounding the importance of the preconceptual image-schematic
structures in the construction of metaphorical conceptual integration networks grounded in entrenched
conceptualizations, i.e. conventional conceptual keys. Still, as discussed in the theoretical framework, such
notion of the generic space will be understood as a theoretical construct and an artifact of analysis.
Blend 1 adopts the organizing frame of its corresponding source input, i.e. that of a RACE, while Blend
2 adopts the organizing frame of the source input from the second network, i.e. that of an
ATTACK.
In that
sense, both conceptual integration networks from Figure 18 are single-scope. It is also worth stressing that
both the race and the conflict are taking place within the Republican Party during the primary elections. The
two blended spaces also develop the central emergent structure as a direct product of compression in each of
the two networks. More specifically, the two emergent structures are products of compression of the vital
relations of Disanalogy that exist between the means for achieving the goal between the source and target
inputs in each of the two networks, respectively. The emergent structure is constructed through the following
processes:
1. composition: counterpart connections are established in each network and elements are projected to the
blends 1 and 2. This process involves the compression of outer-space vital relations onto inner-space vital
relations.
2. completion: each blend activates entrenched knowledge structures related to its organizing frame, which
serves to complete the blend.
3. elaboration: both blends can be dubbed instances of coupled elaboration since they can affect real-time
inferences and lead to actions.
Such emergent structures can sanction backward projections to the corresponding inputs, which can in turn
increase the rhetorical power of the two metaphors. Namely, both presenting elections as a race and as a
conflict can provoke an emotional response with the readers. Furthermore, the interaction of the two
metaphorical networks in the discourse lattice can render them resonators to each other, which can amplify
their persuasive power even further.
Additionally, apart from being the two coinciding focus spaces in the final discourse lattice, the two
blends are connected by the outer-space vital relation of Cause-Effect. Namely, the fact that Mr. Paul is the
perceived front-runner invites the attacks against him. However, the two blends remain connected only via the
discourse lattice, and the change of focus, and there is no final compression between them. In that sense, it
could be argued that the Cause-Effect vital relation between the two blends is actually forged by the discourse
structure, i.e. the immediate context. Such a conclusion could further serve to reinforce the already established
invaluable role of context in the process of meaning construction argued by the cognitive semanticists (e.g.
Saeed, 2003; Evans & Green, 2006; etc.).
Both networks are dominated by the compressions of the outer-space vital relation of Analogy into
the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness. Namely, both networks show the vital relation of Analogy between
80
CONFLICT Metaphors
the causal structures of their source target input pairs, which is compressed into Uniqueness in the blend.
The same can be said about Intentionality. In that sense, in addition to borrowing for compression, and
scalability, the present two networks also satisfy the principle of compression of one vital relation into another.
Additionally, as mentioned above, the outer-space vital relation of Cause-Effect between blends 1 and 2
remains uncompressed.
In view of Fauconnier and Turners (2008) argument on the systematicity of compression, diagrams in
Figure 18 depict only the active on-line aspect of meaning construction. Capturing the activation of the
massive entrenched knowledge structures and frames would require the construction of an elaborate
molecule-model network (see Figure 14 for details).
(6)
As Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney tangled with each other over their backgrounds, their world view and their
leadership styles, the rest of the Republican field took aim at both of the men, reflecting how the race is
narrowing as voters draw closer to weighing in. (The New York Times, 11/12/2011)
The fully developed discourse lattice (see Figure 19) required to capture the conceptual nature of the
above example consists of three conceptual integration networks which constitute a metaphor system that
incorporates two metaphors of conflict, and one sport metaphor: POLITICAL ARGUMENT IS A FIGHT, ELECTIONS ARE
A STANDOFF,
and
The first two integration networks have a shared generic space, i.e.
their generic spaces are structured by the event structure metaphor, so that they consist of the following
elements: setting, participants, means, and goal. The third network has a combined generic space 39 that
incorporates the previously mentioned elements of the event structure metaphor, and the
SOURCE-PATH-GOAL
image schematic structure. This image schematic structure is introduced by the activated entrenched
compression of the
GOAL
RACE frame
JOURNEY
SOURCE-PATH-
image schematic structure. In that sense, the image-schematic-based generic space is contained within
the event-structure-metaphor-based generic space, thus explaining the notion of the combined generic space.
Each of the blended spaces inherits its organizing frame from the corresponding source input,
rendering all three networks single-scope, with
FIGHT, STANDOFF,
and
RACE
blends 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Additionally, in the discourse lattice, the attention shifts from Blend 1, to Blend
2, and finally to Blend 3, which means that the three blends are taking turns playing the role of the focus
space. 40
Each blend develops emergent structure as a direct product of compression in the network. Namely,
the emergent structure is the result of Disanalogy between the means for achieving the goal in each of the
pairs of inputs in the three networks, which is compressed into Uniqueness in each of the respective blends.
Furthermore, emergent structures are constructed through the following stages in each of the networks:
39
40
The notion of the combined generic space will be further elaborated in the section dealing with SPORT metaphors.
See section 2.2.1 above for details.
CONFLICT Metaphors
81
82
CONFLICT Metaphors
1. composition: in all three networks counterpart connections are established between the elements from the
inputs, and these are then projected to the blend.
2. completion: in all of the networks structure from the target input is projected into the already precompressed topology of the corresponding source input (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002), and background
knowledge structures related to the organizing frame of the source input are activated in order to facilitate this
process.
3. elaboration: mental simulation of all three blends can be interpreted as coupled elaboration.
In general, the emergent structures in all three blended spaces can cause backward projections to the
inputs and therefore increase the rhetorical force of each metaphorical expression. In the above presented
discourse lattice structure of the discussed metaphor system (Figure 19), such backward projections can
conspire to create an even greater amplification of the rhetorical effect. This means that the metaphor system
licenses the interaction not only at the level of entrenched conceptualizations, but also in the process of active
on-line meaning construction. This also opens up possibilities for the interaction of backward projections that
need not remain confined to their original network, but may be transferred further through the discourse lattice.
This can especially be the case for the first two networks, which are linked by the same conceptual key of
CONFLICT. It may be the case that metaphorical integration networks linked by the
mechanism, i.e. the same overarching conceptual key, can manifest stronger interaction, and even serve as
resonators to each others rhetorical force.
In that sense, interaction between the networks can actually forge the vital relation of Time between
the three blends, which is introduced owing to the temporal and chronological organization imposed by the
discourse structure, i.e. the immediate context of the above example. In that sense, the change of focus
between the blends follows the discourse chronology, and the vital relation of Time actually facilitates this
process and enables the readers to navigate their way through the discourse structure, and perform both
compression and decompression as needed. Again, it is worth noting that all of the events presented in Figure
19 are taking place within the Republican Party during the preliminary elections that involve various
interactions between the members of that party. In other words, both the conflicts and the race involve
members of the same political group.
The Governing Principles of Compression that have been satisfied in all three networks are the same
as in other metaphorical networks discussed so far, and they include the following: compression of one vital
relation into another, borrowing for compression, and scalability. There is an additional vital relation of Time
that is not compressed, but serves to provide a chronological link between the three blends. The systematic
nature of compression can also be explored relying on the molecule-model. which would be extremely
elaborate in this case, since there is an interaction between three conceptual integration networks.
83
CONFLICT Metaphors
(7)
Senate Democrats introduced legislation Monday to extend and expand an expiring payroll tax cut, setting the
stage for a showdown with Republicans who are almost certain to reject the Democrats proposal for paying for
the cut. (The New York Times, 29/11/2011)
The metaphorical expression from the previous example illustrates the conceptual metaphor POLITICAL
NEGOTIATIONS ARE A SHOWDOWN,
and the conceptual key POLITICS IS CONFLICT. The generic space is structured
by the event structure metaphor as can be seen in Figure 20, while the blend adopts the organizing frame of
the source input, making this another instantiation of a single-scope network. Furthermore, the blend develops
emergent structure through the following processes:
1. composition: counterpart connections between the elements from the two inputs are established, and
elements are projected to the blend.
2. completion: this process involves the recruitment of certain entrenched background knowledge structures
related to the organizing frame of the blend, which aides in the completion of the structure of the blended
space.
3. elaboration: bearing in mind that the elaboration of the present blend can affect real-time inferences and
actions, this is another example of coupled elaboration.
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CONFLICT Metaphors
structure can also cause backward projections to the inputs, thereby increasing the rhetorical strength of the
metaphor.
The most dominant vital relation is the outer-space vital relation of Analogy that is compressed into the
inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness in the blended space. In other words, the vital relation of Analogy that
connects the causal structures of the two input spaces is also compressed into Uniqueness in the blend, as is
the vital relation of Intentionality. In terms of the Governing Principles of Compression, the present network
satisfies the following: compression of one vital relation into another, borrowing for compression, and
scalability.
Closely related to the notion of borrowed compression is the systematic nature of compression (in the
sense of Fauconnier & Turner, 2008). Namely, the diagram in Figure 20 captures the on-line aspect of the
process of meaning construction. However, beside such sculpting, the network also includes the elements of
cobbling, i.e. the entrenched sections that are recruited, and which actually fuel the on-line process of meaning
construction. This can be illustrated by a molecule-model diagram which can be developed for the fullyfledged model of the present conceptual integration network.
(8)
I would like Monti to be a bit more courageous on this front, about the labor market, said Sergio Romano, a
columnist for Corriere della Sera and a former ambassador. (The New York Times, 16/12/2011)
POLITICAL
The generic space contains elements organized by the event structure metaphor, and
they include: setting, participants, means, and goal. The clash between the organizing frames of the two input
spaces is resolved by the projection of the organizing frame of the source input to the blend, rendering the
present network single-scope.
Owing to the compression of Disanalogy between the means for achieving the goals in the two input
spaces, the blended space develops emergent structure presented in Figure 21. This also involves the
following processes:
1. composition: counterpart connections between the elements from the two inputs are established, and
elements are projected to the blend.
2. completion: entrenched background knowledge structures are activated in order to facilitate the completion
of the blend.
3. elaboration: mental simulation of the blend can lead to actual action caused by the real-time inferences,
which makes it another instance of coupled elaboration.
Such emergent structure can facilitate backward projections to the input spaces, thereby augmenting the
rhetorical power of the metaphor (e.g. by provoking a stronger emotional response).
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CONFLICT Metaphors
WAR FRONT,
and
POLITICAL NEGOTIATIONS
compressions available for recruitment. In that sense, the diagram from Figure 21 represents only the on-line
aspect of the process of meaning construction, i.e. the construction of the present conceptual integration
network. For the remainder of the fully-fledged network to be included in the diagram would require the
construction of the more elaborate molecule-model (see figure 14 for details).
4.1.2.1.2. Systematicity of Emergent Structure in CONFLICT Metaphors
Similar analyses to those performed in the examples above were conducted over the entire corpus.
Such further in-depth analyses of the entire corpus of
CONFLICT
Namely, 88.11% of cases (i.e. 126 metaphorical expressions) showed a consistent form of emergent structure
that can be abstracted in the formula A harms B. The remaining 11.89% of cases showed different forms of
emergent structure. More specifically, 10.49% (i.e. 15 cases) also showed consistency in the form - A
prevents B from being harmed, while the remaining 1.4% of cases showed two different additional forms.
The distribution of emergent structures is presented in Table 2.
86
CONFLICT Metaphors
Percentage
A harms B
126
88.11%
15
10.49%
Other
1.40%
suggesting that the relationship between the formula A harms B, and the
corresponding emergent structures is the same as the relationship between a conceptual metaphor, and its
corresponding metaphorical expressions. Such reasoning sanctions the conclusion that conventional, i.e.
entrenched, conceptual metaphors and conceptual keys can also be treated as recursive cognitive
87
CONFLICT Metaphors
Metaphorical expression
Emergent structure
Form of emergent
structure
(9)
A harms B
(10)
In the battle over how to save the euro, Germany has plenty of
leverage but not many friends. 9/12/2011
A harms B
(11)
A harms B
(12)
Negative
Gingrich
harms
A harms B
(13)
A harms B
(14)
A harms B
(15)
A harms B
(16)
Mrs. Merkel was fighting for the future of Europe, and we stand
behind her, Mr. Brderle said Friday. (3/12/2011)
A harms B
(17)
A harms B
(18)
A prevents B from
being harmed
(19)
A prevents B from
being harmed
(20)
But as Mr. Gingrich tours the state by bus in the final days of an
increasingly bitter campaign, he is wielding Nice Newt or
trying to as a kind of last defense against a shelling of
attack ads, ridicule from opponents and a drip-drip-drip of tough
news coverage that has clearly blunted his surge to near-frontrunner status. (29/12/2011)
A prevents B from
being harmed
campaign
88
CONFLICT Metaphors
mechanisms. This property can serve to further account for the diagnosed systematicity in the form of
emergent structure in the present corpus.
Additionally, Coulson and Oakley (2005) suggested that with novel metaphors emergent structures are
completely computed on-line, whereas in conventional metaphors, emergent structures are recruited. In that
sense, and using the terminology of Fauconnier and Turner (2008), it can be said that the previously described
semantic-conceptual recursive mechanisms (e.g. A harms B) constitute the entrenched part of conventional
metaphors which actually represent a pre-built, i.e. pre-compressed, conceptual mechanisms available for
recruitment. These pre-built compressions then acquire their elements and specific structure based on the
context imposed by the organizing frame of the blend, and the compressions of elements from input spaces. In
other words, the conceptual recursive pattern (e.g. A harms B) is completed via the process of pattern
completion, which, in addition to compressions of vital relations, constitutes a central process in the formation
of emergent structures in conventional metaphors.
Some additional examples of metaphorical expressions from the corpus along with their emergent
structures are presented in Table 3.
4.1.2.1.3. Function and Emotional Appeal of CONFLICT Metaphors
Political discourse in general is highly marked by its persuasive dimension. One of the salient
rhetorical tools used to facilitate the process of persuasion is the use of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff, 1991;
Mio, 1996; 1997; 2005; Thompson, 1996; Charteris-Black, 2004; 2009; 2011; Burnes, 2011; Bougher, 2012).
As argued in section 2.1.10, the main reason for this resides in the fact that metaphors can be used to
highlight or hide only the desired aspects of an issue (in the sense of Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980b]).
Additionally, metaphors can be used to simplify complex issues and render them understandable to a wider
population, or they can provoke an emotional reaction, which makes the public more susceptible to
manipulation (e.g. Mio, 1997; Charteris-Black, 2009; 2011; Bougher, 2012).
In the case of
CONFLICT
function is the ability to provoke an emotional response. Namely, the war metaphor is ubiquitous, connected
to strong emotions and social values and it is widely used in politics of mass appeal (Steinert, 2003: 268),
where emotion is a crucial feature to be taken into consideration as well with regard to the strategic use of
metaphor (Ferrari, 2007: 611). Furthermore, population and politicians share common value orientations
such as (patriarchal) family/community and warrior/masculinity (Steinert, 2003: 267), which is why
politicians often aim to exploit those values for personal benefit.
By placing the political process in the frame of
CONFLICT,
negotiations as fights, attacks, battles, standoffs, showdowns, defense, or (war) fronts (examples 9 20
above). Such framing of political issues creates pressure for unity, solidarity, mobilization of people and
resources for the common good (against the foe) (Steinert, 2003: 268). In other words, the
CONFLICT
89
CONFLICT Metaphors
metaphor has the power to bring people together in a collective effort of self-preservation. Additionally, bearing
in mind that war forges the bond of community and acceptance of (political) leadership like nothing else
(Steinert, 2003: 266), metaphors of CONFLICT can create a framework in which the public can be manipulated
as a collective mass. Furthermore, these metaphors can also make the public empathize with their political
favorites, which is evident in examples 12 and 14, where Mr. Gingrich is presented as the victim of attacks.
In the context of the CBT, the ability of metaphors to provoke an emotional reaction can be attributed
to backward projections from the blend back to the inputs. Furthermore, the coupled elaboration of the
emergent structure can produce real-time inferences that can further affect behavior and reasoning in relation
to certain issues. For instance, example 10 presents the efforts made by Germany to protect the EU, in terms
of a battle, which can result in the actual emotional involvement of the readers, since the notion of battle
stresses the seriousness of the crisis, and simplifies the complex political and economical mechanisms that
caused it in the first place by representing them in terms of an enemy. In turn, this process reflects Harders
(2005) notion of polarization. 41 In that sense, such emotional involvement can actually amplify the rhetorical
power of the metaphor.
4.1.2.1.4. Metaphor Systems and Metaphor Interaction
As discussed above, apart from instances of individual metaphors, there are also metaphor systems
(in the sense of Lakoff, 1991; 1993; Lakoff & Johnson, 2003[1980]; Evans & Green, 2006; Kvecses, 2010).
Percentage-wise, 29.37% of
CONFLICT
systems. Apart from reflecting the notions of metaphorical coherence 42 from the CMT framework, individual
metaphors that comprise the metaphor systems can serve as resonators to each others rhetorical force, which
results in an amplified rhetorical effect. In addition to backward projections, section 4.1.2.1.1 has shown that
immediate discourse context can actually serve to forge vital relations between the blended spaces of the
metaphorical conceptual integration networks comprising the system. That way, apart from serving as focus
spaces in the discourse lattice, these metaphorical blends seem to procure a deeper link. Additionally, such
connections between the metaphorical blends can be argued to facilitate the process of achieving human
scale at the discourse level.
(21)
But they are hoping to help stretch the Republican nominating contest into a longer and bloodier battle
meaning they are eager to define Mr. Gingrich for voters in unflattering terms without necessarily wounding him
fatally and assisting Mr. Romney, whom they still view as a formidable general election opponent. (The New York
Times, 8/12/2011)
(22)
Mindful of some Republicans goal of privatizing Social Security, the Democrats suggested that tinkering with the
payroll tax may be used as the first step in a larger battle to fundamentally dismantle Social Security. (The
New York Times, 16/12/2011)
41
42
90
CONFLICT Metaphors
(23)
Mr. Compagnone is one soldier in a battle - often uphill - to persuade Italy's famously tax-evading citizens to
pay up. (The New York Times, 25/12/2011)
(24)
It is unclear what concrete changes will flow from the decision. A top Communist Party official, Ivan Melnikov, told
the newspaper Vzglyad that Mr. Volodins selection signaled a shift in the direction of a more harsh model for
the coming political battle. (The New York Times, 28/12/2011)
(25)
They have controlled the spending conversation from the first battle, when new members demanded that
Republicans hold out for billions more in cuts than those sought by House appropriators. It continued through the
debt ceiling showdown, in which a plan to cut $2.1 trillion over 10 years was formed, as well as during the
intense focus on changes in entitlement programs. (The New York Times, 4/12/2011)
(26)
London is the center of financial services in Europe, Mr. Cameron said in October. Its under constant attack
through Brussels directives. Its an area of concern; its a key national interest that we need to defend. (The New
York Times, 10/12/2011)
(27)
But European officials believe that a significant move toward treaty changes to create more economic
governance in the euro zone with tighter, more enforceable limits on debt and centralized oversight of
national budgets will give the European Central Bank the political cover to act more aggressively to defend
Italy and Spain and drive down currently unsustainable interest rates on their bonds. (The New York Times,
2/12/2011)
(28)
Its shifting alliances, reflecting different currents within the movement, helped keep Islah ahead of its
opposition rivals in Yemen. (The New York Times, 3/12/2011)
(29)
And while even other Republicans were predicting that the House Republicans would have to blink, or risk further
political damage, the ugliness of the fight reminded Americans yet again of the seeming futility of Mr. Obamas
2008 campaign promise to make Washington work as the year of his re-election race is upon him. (The New
York Times, 22/12/2011)
(30)
But in an acknowledgement that he might not be able to reverse Mr. Gingrichs momentum quickly, Mr.
Romney and his team are bracing for a far rougher slog through the early Republican nominating contests
than they had envisioned even a few weeks ago and preparing for months of a state-by-state, delegate-bydelegate fight. (The New York Times, 15/12/2011)
Previous examples illustrate the interaction between various conceptual metaphors, some of which
belong to different conceptual keys. For instance, examples 21, 25, and 26 represent interactions between
different
CONFLICT
JOURNEY
metaphors; example 29 represents interaction between CONFLICT and SPORT metaphors; example 30
JOURNEY, SPORT,
and
CONFLICT
CONFLICT
and
91
SPORT Metaphors
POLITICS IS SPORT,
40.42% of the corpus, with 97 metaphorical expressions. This conceptual key will include conceptual
metaphors and their corresponding metaphorical expressions organized around the following metaphor
keywords: race, team, jab, players, sparring, playing field, game, etc. A complete overview of metaphor
keywords corresponding to the conceptual key POLITICS IS SPORT and their distribution in the present corpus are
presented in the bar graph in Figure 22. The most dominant metaphor keyword under the conceptual key of
SPORT
was race, which reflects the highly competitive nature of primary elections that were under way in the
US in December 2011. Additionally, the recorded frequent use of SPORT metaphors in the present corpus is in
line with the results from previous research in the field (e.g. Howe, 1988; Semino & Masci, 1996; Silaki &
Radi-Bojani, 2010; Radi-Bojani & Silaki, 2008).
SPORT
specific examples from the corpus, in accordance with the general guidelines for the analysis described in
section 4.1.1.
92
SPORT Metaphors
(31)
By virtually all accounts, the 2012 presidential race was to hinge on a restless electorates overriding worry, the
troubled American economy. (The New York Times, 30/12/2011)
POLITICS IS SPORT.
presented in Figure 23 has a combined generic space, where the generic space contains elements that
include setting, participants, goal, and means, which originate from the event structure metaphor, as well as
the
SOURCE-PATH-GOAL
image schematic structure that reflects the image schematic nature of the
RACE
metaphor. In line with the discussion presented in section 2.2.3, such generic space organization is aimed at
foregrounding the role of conceptual primitives (in the sense of Mandler, 1992), i.e. the role of image schemas
in the construction of the human cognitive architecture that supports the previously introduced entrenched
conceptual pattern PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ARE A RACE.
It is worth noting that the presidential candidates in this case belong to two opposing
political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. The blend inherits the organizing frame of the source
input, rendering the present network single-scope, which means that the elements from the target input are
projected into the frame of the source input. The blend also develops its central emergent structure through
the following processes:
1. composition: the network establishes counterpart connections between the elements from the two inputs,
and these are projected into the blend;
93
SPORT Metaphors
2. completion: the blend recruits background knowledge structures related to the organizing frame of the
source input, i.e. the organizing frame of the blend, which completes its topology;
3. elaboration: again, this is the case of coupled elaboration, since it affects real-time inferences, reasoning,
and behavior.
The developed emergent structure can give way to backward projections to the inputs, which can
serve to amplify the initial rhetorical force of the metaphor. In terms of compressions, the emergent structure
can be understood as the direct product of compression of the outer-space vital relation of Disanalogy
between the means for achieving the goals in the two respective inputs, into the inner-space vital relation of
Uniqueness in the blend. Additionally, the causal and intentional structures, as well as the elements from the
two inputs are connected by the vital relation of Analogy that is compressed into Uniqueness in the blend.
When it comes to the Governing Principles for Compression, the following are satisfied: compression of one
vital relation into another, borrowing for compression, and scalability.
In terms of the systematic nature of compression (in the sense of Fauconnier and Turner, 2008), both
inputs can be understood as prebuilt compressions, i.e. as results of previous conceptual integration work,
available for recruitment. In that sense, the network presented in Figure 23 reflects only the sculpting process,
whereas a fully developed molecule-model similar to the one in Figure 14 would be required to also capture
the cobbling aspect of the present network.
(32)
Only as the first voting draws closer is the pace of traditional campaigning picking up, with candidates trying
to make up for lost time. (The New York Times, 1/12/2011)
which further belongs to the conceptual key POLITICS IS SPORT. The combined generic space is structured like
in the previous example, and such generic space structure is typical of all
RACE
RACE
94
SPORT Metaphors
metaphor reduces the complexity of a political debate to a simple contest, which in turn involves supporters on
an emotional level.
The holiday brinkmanship over the issue recalled the December budget showdown 16 years ago between
another first-term Democratic president, Bill Clinton, and a new Republican Congressional majority a fight that
capped their year of confrontation over the nations fiscal priorities by reviving Mr. Clinton politically as he began
his re-election race. (The New York Times, 22/12/2011)
The present example shows interaction between three conceptual metaphors: POLITICAL ARGUMENT IS A
SHOWDOWN, POLITICAL ARGUMENT IS A FIGHT,
and
metaphors can be attributed to the conceptual key POLITICS IS CONFLICT, whereas the third one can be viewed
SPORT Metaphors
95
96
SPORT Metaphors
POLITICS IS SPORT.
instances of generic spaces found in CONFLICT and RACE metaphors, respectively, both of which have already
been discussed in the previous analyses. Additionally, all three networks from Figure 25 are instances of
single-scope networks, suggesting that the organizing frames of their respective blends are adopted from the
corresponding source inputs, so that the elements from the target inputs are projected into the precompressed topologies of the organizing frames of their corresponding source inputs. Additionally, each blend
develops its emergent structure through the processes of composition, completion, and elaboration, in
accordance with the general principles discussed in the previous examples. Each of the emergent structures
provides a possibility for backward projections to its respective inputs, which can in turn serve to augment the
rhetorical power of the given metaphor. Furthermore, the immediate discourse context forges an additional
bond between the three metaphors that comprise the present system, thereby allowing them to serve as
resonators to each others rhetorical force. In other words, the backward projections need not be restrained to
their mother network, but can also work across networks.
The three blends in the network presented in Figure 25 make up the fully developed discourse lattice,
and are connected by the change of focus, where the discourse moves from Blend 1, to Blend 2, and finally
to Blend 3. These changes of focus can be argued to provide an additional topological link in the entire
network, and thus serve to further enhance the rhetorical force of the present metaphor system. Owing to the
high degree of relatedness between the frames of showdown and fight, which serve as the organizing frames
of blends 1 and 2, respectively, it can be argued that in addition to the simple change of focus, the immediate
discourse context also forges a vital relation of Analogy between the first two blends. Namely, the frames of
showdown and fight belong to the same conceptual key of
CONFLICT,
structures that they introduce into the blends are analogous. Furthermore, as a result of these analogies, the
emergent structures of blends 1 and 2 are identical, suggesting that the immediate discourse context also
leads to the creation of the vital relation of Identity between the emergent structures of the first two blends.
Such network structure also increases metaphor coherence, i.e. the coherence between the individual
networks comprising the system.
Emergent structures in the three networks can be understood as direct products of compression, more
precisely the compression of Disanalogy into Uniqueness, as was the case in all previous analyses. Principles
of compression of one vital relation into another, scalability, and borrowing for compression have all been
satisfied. The systematic nature of compression for the present metaphor system can be represented by a fully
developed molecule-model that would capture both the on-line process of meaning construction depicted in
Figure 25, and the process of background knowledge recruitment in the form of pre-built compressions.
97
SPORT Metaphors
(34)
In the meantime, Mr. Pauls rivals continued their last-minute sprints across Iowa in the hopes of rallying
support among an electorate that appears to remain open to persuasion. (The New York Times, 31/12/2011)
POLITICS IS SPORT.
The combined generic space of the present network has all the
characteristics already discussed in examples 31 and 32 above. The blend adopts the organizing frame of the
source input, which makes the present network single-scope, with all the typical traits of single-scope networks
discussed so far. Emergent structure is developed through the familiar processes of composition,
completion, and elaboration, and this is another case of coupled elaboration. The emergent structure also
licenses backward projections to the inputs, which can result in an amplified rhetorical force of the metaphor,
since such backward projections can provoke an emotional appeal with the audience.
98
SPORT Metaphors
(35)
Former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, seeking to break out of the Republican pack, appeared to jar the
audience when, in talking about the lack of trusting government, he declared: We have been kicked around as a
people. We are getting screwed as Americans. (The New York Times, 16/12/2011)
This is another instance of a conceptual metaphor PRIMARY ELECTIONS ARE A RACE that belongs to the
conceptual key POLITICS IS SPORT. The present network also has a combined generic space already discussed
above. The blend adopts the organizing frame of the source input, rendering the present network single-scope.
This suggests that elements from the
PRIMARY ELECTIONS
topological structure of the RACE frame. The central emergent structure of the blend, which presents itself as a
direct product of compression, is developed through the processes of composition, completion, and
elaboration. As with other instances of conceptual metaphors in political discourse, this is again the case of
coupled elaboration. Such emergent structure facilitates backward projections from the blend to the inputs,
which can increase the rhetorical power of the metaphor by, for example, provoking an emotional response.
99
SPORT Metaphors
the massive work on conceptual integration that looms in the background can be presented by a more
elaborate molecule-model, similar to the one in Figure 14.
(36)
''When a principled conservative took the lead, they outspent Newt Gingrich 20 to 1, attacking him with
falsehoods.'' (The New York Times, 28/12/2011)
The above example shows an interaction between two conceptual metaphors: PRIMARY ELECTIONS ARE
A RACE,
and
POLITICS IS SPORT,
and the latter to the conceptual key POLITICS IS CONFLICT. The first network has a combined
RACE
metaphors, whereas the second network has the generic space based on the
CONFLICT
organizing frames of the two blends are adopted from their respective source input spaces. Each of the blends
develops its own emergent structure through processes of composition, completion, and elaboration.
Additionally, both blends are instances of coupled elaboration, where the developed emergent structure can
influence real-time reasoning and behavior. The emergent structures can also give way to backward
projections that can serve to amplify the rhetorical forces of the respective metaphors. Furthermore, bearing in
mind that this is another instance of a metaphor system, the two blends can serve as resonators to each other,
thus increasing each others rhetorical power, which is licensed by both the immediate discourse context, and
the coherence of the two metaphors.
The emergent structure in both blends can be presented as a direct consequence of compression of
the outer-space vital relation of Disanalogy between the means for achieving the goals in the two networks,
respectively, into the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness in the two corresponding blends. Again, both
networks are dominated by the compression of the outer-space vital relation of Analogy that exists between
the causal and intentional structures of the inputs, and the counterpart elements of the inputs, into the innerspace vital relation of Uniqueness in the two respective blends. Additionally, both networks satisfy the
following principles of compression: compression of one vital relation into another, scalability, and borrowing
for compression. Furthermore, the systematic nature of compression could also be depicted by an elaborate
molecule-model which would include both the on-line sculpting of the network and the background cobbling
that facilitates the process of conceptual integration.
In addition to the change of focus between the two blends in the discourse lattice, an additional vital
relation of Cause-Effect is also formed between them as the direct result of the immediate discourse context.
Namely, the attacks on Gingrich result directly from his perceived superior position, which consequently leads
to a more profound link between the two blends. It can be argued that the additional vital relation between the
two blends amplifies not only their rhetorical force and coherence, but increases the discourse coherence as
well, and facilitates the process of meaning construction.
SPORT Metaphors
100
101
SPORT Metaphors
(37)
Mrs. Merkel, a central player in efforts to rescue Europes single currency, was addressing the German
Parliament before a meeting next week in Brussels, when Europes leaders will try again to find a politically
palatable solution to the crisis. (The New York Times, 3/12/2011)
SPORT
metaphor and a
CONFLICT
metaphor. Both networks are instances of single-scope networks, where the organizing frames of the two
blends are acquired from their respective source inputs. Additionally, blends 1 and 2 share the same generic
space based on the event structure metaphor, which consists of the following elements: setting, participants,
goal, and means.
Both blends develop their emergent structures through the processes of composition, completion,
and elaboration. Additionally, the two blends show traits of coupled elaboration, where the elaboration of the
blend influences reasoning and behavior in real-time. These emergent structures can also facilitate backward
projections from the blends to their respective inputs. More specifically, blends 1 and 2 develop their emergent
structures owing to the outer space vital relation of Disanalogy between the means for achieving the
respective goals, which is compressed into Uniqueness in each of the two blends. The most dominant
compression in the two networks is that of Analogy into Uniqueness, as was the case in all other metaphorical
networks discussed so far.
Apart from being connected by the change of focus in the discourse lattice, the immediate discourse
context seems to forge a more profound link between the two blended spaces. Namely, bearing in mind their
topologies, and the causal and intentional structures that govern those topologies are governed by, it can be
argued that the immediate discourse context forges an additional outer space vital relation of Analogy that
exists between blends 1 and 2. Consequently, their emergent structures are also analogous to each other.
Owing to this additional outer space vital relation of Analogy, backward projections need not be restrained to
their original networks. Instead, the two blends can serve as resonators to each others rhetorical power,
which can, for instance, serve to amplify the audiences emotional reaction, or to fuel other mechanisms of
persuasion.
As was the case with all examples of metaphorical conceptual integration networks discussed so far,
both networks in the present metaphor system are dominated by the outer space vital relations of Analogy,
and their compressions into the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness in each of the blends, respectively.
Additionally, the two networks also satisfy the principles of compression of one vital relation into another,
scalability, and borrowing for compression. Bearing in mind the systematic nature of compression (in the sense
of Fauconnier and Turner, 2008), the present network from Figure 29 could be elaborated even further, in
order to account for both the on-line process of meaning construction, and for the recruitment of the preexistent compressions in the form of background knowledge structures. Such an approach would yield a
diagram similar to that in Figure 14.
SPORT Metaphors
102
103
SPORT Metaphors
(38)
In their sparring Monday, Mr. Romney threw the first jab, sending an e-mail to supporters in which he called
his rival an unreliable leader, who had supported action on climate change. (The New York Times, 13/12/2011)
The above metaphorical expression corresponds to the conceptual metaphor PRIMARY ELECTIONS ARE A
BOXING MATCH,
POLITICS IS SPORT.
Although notions of
sparring and jab are essentially related to the frame of conflict, a distinction is to be made between the
notion of conflict within the
BOXING
CONFLICT
involves a controlled confrontation that takes place in accordance with a strict set of rules. In this particular
case, it is important to stress the fact that the match is taking place between two members of the same political
party.
CONFLICT
metaphors. The organizing frame of the blend is adopted from the source input,
suggesting that this is another instance of a single-scope network, where the elements from the target input
are projected to the pre-compressed topology of the source input. The emergent structure of the blend is
developed through processes of composition, completion, and elaboration, and this is another instance of
coupled elaboration. Such emergent structure also offers the possibility of backward projections that can serve
to amplify the rhetorical force of the metaphor.
There is a vital relation of Analogy that exists between the counterpart elements from the two inputs,
which is compressed into Uniqueness in the final blend. Additionally, analogy can also be established between
104
SPORT Metaphors
the causal and intentional structures of the two input spaces. Compression of the vital relation of Disanalogy
that exists between the means for achieving the goals in the two respective inputs into Uniqueness gives way
to the development of emergent structure. It is also worth noting that the emergent structure from the present
network is the same as the emergent structures developed in the majority of CONFLICT metaphors, i.e. it can be
abstracted in the form A harms B. This can be explained by the already mentioned link between the frames of
CONFLICT and BOXING.
The present network satisfies the following Governing Principles for Compression: compression of one
vital relation into another, scalability, and borrowing for compression. Directly related to the notion of borrowing
for compression is the systematic nature of compression, where a molecule-model could be used to account
for both the on-line process of meaning construction, and for the recruitment of pre-built compressions.
(39)
In the end, the prime minister [Mariano Rajoy] opted for a team containing several party veterans, including
some, like Mr. de Guindos, who already formed part of the government of Jos Mara Aznar, Spains last
conservative prime minister. (The New York Times, 22/12/2011)
GOVERNMENT IS A TEAM,
which further
corresponds to the conceptual key POLITICS IS SPORT. The generic space is organized in a similar fashion to the
generic spaces in CONFLICT metaphors discussed above, i.e. by the event structure metaphor. The organizing
frame of the blend is that of TEAM, suggesting that this is an instance of a single-scope network. The emergent
structure of the blend is developed through the processes of composition, completion, and elaboration, and
the present network is another example of coupled elaboration.
105
SPORT Metaphors
In terms of compression, the present network develops its emergent structure owing to the
compression of the vital relation of Disanalogy between the means for achieving the goals in the two inputs,
into Uniqueness in the final blend. Causal and intentional structures, and the counterpart elements from the
input spaces are connected by Analogy, and the most dominant compression in the present network, as was
the case in all other metaphorical networks discussed so far, is the compression of the outer-space vital
relation of Analogy into the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness.
The Governing Principles for Compression satisfied by this network include compression of one vital
relation into another, scalability, and borrowing for compression. In light of the systematic nature of
compression discussed in Fauconnier and Turner (2008), the diagram in Figure 32 shows only the sculpting
aspect, i.e. the live, on-line process of meaning construction. In order for the entire process to be captured, a
molecule-model would need to be developed, which would encompass both the on-line aspects of
processing, and the introduction of pre-built compressions via the process of schema induction (in the sense of
Evans and Green, 2006).
4.1.2.2.2. Systematicity of Emergent Structure in SPORT Metaphors
A detailed analysis of the remaining
SPORT
CONFLICT
SPORT
structured by different frames, which in turn led to a greater diversity in the form of emergent structures, and
these results are presented in Table 4.
Form of emergent structure
Percentage
67
69.07%
A harms B
11
11.34%
9.28%
Other
10
10.31%
RACE
metaphors, but was also developed in the context of some other metaphor keywords
(see examples 37, 44, 45, 46, and 47). Such emergent structure is highly marked by its spatial topology, owing
to its transparent links to the
SOURCE-PATH-GOAL
discussed combined generic spaces. This connection is licensed by the borrowed compressions from the RACE
frame which also has a marked spatial topology, inherently linked to the spatial image schematic structures.
Consequently, this evidence supports the earlier claims of image schemas being an integral part of the human
106
SPORT Metaphors
Metaphorical expression
Emergent structure
Form of emergent
structure
(40)
A improves the
position of B
(41)
A improves the
position of B
(42)
Mr. Gingrich is rated more favorably than any of the other six
remaining candidates in the race among voters who say they
are likely to attend the Republican caucuses in Iowa.7/12
A improves the
position of B
(43)
Therein lies the quandary: With the caucuses right around the
corner, do you want to let up on the gas pedal? said Tim
Albrecht, a spokesman for Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa, a
Republican. (23/12/2011)
Good
campaign
improves
candidates positions in the
primary elections
A improves the
position of B
(44)
The biggest player by far in the state has been Restore Our
Future, a super PAC supporting Mr. Romney. (20/12/2011)
A improves the
position of B
(45)
A improves the
position of B
A improves the
position of B
A improves the
position of B
A harms B
(49)
Mr. Orban and Mr. Simor have sparred over bank decisions
repeatedly, as Mr. Orban has pressed for policies that would
spur faster economic growth. (16/12/2011)
A harms B
(50)
President Obama and his policy team have said that there is no
greater threat to the fragile American recovery than a contracting
and destabilized Europe. (29/11/2011)
(51)
(46)
(47)
(48)
107
SPORT Metaphors
cognitive architecture that facilitates the processes of meaning construction. Furthermore, the form of the
present emergent structure also stresses the role of spatial experience in human reasoning. 43
Emergent structures in the form A harms B appeared in
BOXING
emergent structure has the same form as the most frequent emergent structure in CONFLICT metaphors. Such
findings are perfectly plausible due to the fact that the
CONFLICT.
BOXING
However, it needs to be stressed that boxing involves a controlled confrontation that takes place in
accordance with a strict set of rules, suggesting that the participants ultimate goal is to simply win the game.
TEAM
metaphors yielded a separate form of emergent structure: A and B are united by a common
goal. This reflects the idea that team members are joined together by a common goal that is mutually
beneficial for everyone, which is introduced into the blend via the borrowed compression from the TEAM frame.
In the context of political discourse, it can be argued that by mirroring the collective cause of the political team
onto its supporters, the supporters themselves are joined into a unique virtual team, which can be used to
bridge any differences and forge bonds between them (Silaki & Radi-Bojani, 2010). In addition, such
framing of political topics also presents an opportunity for provoking an emotional appeal with the supporters,
since cheering for ones team necessarily carries a certain degree of emotional involvement.
Additionally, it needs to be stressed that the above presented systematic forms of emergent structures
can be linked to the highly entrenched nature of the conceptual key they represent. The same line of
reasoning followed in the subsection dealing with the systematicity of emergent structures in
CONFLICT
metaphors applies here as well, along with all of the main conclusions presented in that section (see
subsection 4.1.2.1.2 for details). Additional examples of the main forms of emergent structures in
SPORT
108
SPORT Metaphors
Additionally, similarly to
CONFLICT
metaphors,
SPORT
power, and they both share entailments portraying politics as a straightforward contest with an outright winner
and clear rules of engagement (Burnes, 2011: 2169).
For instance, talking about the presidential and primary elections as a race (examples 40-43),
politicians and political groups as players (examples 44 and 45), political process as a game (examples 46 and
47), arguments between politicians as jabs or sparring (examples 48 and 49), and the political group as a team
(examples 50 and 51), takes the focus of the discussion away from the actual essence and complexity of the
political debate, and shifts it onto a far simpler concept of sport. This in turn conceals the persuasive aspect of
the overarching entrenched conceptual key
POLITICS IS SPORT,
manipulation. Additionally, the repetition of such metaphors results in dulling of the critical faculties rather than
awakening them (Edelman, 1964, cited in Mio, 1997: 119), which gives way for the installation of massive
perception management mechanisms.
In short, it can be concluded that the presented examples of SPORT metaphors conform to the general
mechanisms of persuasion proposed in Mio (1997), which include simplification, manipulation of underlying
symbolic representations, and the potential to provoke an emotional appeal. As argued in section 2.1.10, the
fact that the present corpus consists of entrenched metaphors actually facilitates the persuasive aspect of
metaphorical language in the political discourse of daily newspapers, since these entrenched structures
operate mostly at an unconscious level.
4.1.2.2.4. Metaphor Systems and Metaphor Interaction
SPORT
SPORT
discussed in the case of CONFLICT metaphors, metaphor interaction in metaphor systems can serve to amplify
the rhetorical potential of individual metaphors, where individual metaphors serve as resonators to each other.
The same line of reasoning and the conclusions pertaining to the function and structure of metaphor systems
that were presented in the section dealing with CONFLICT metaphors also apply here.
(52)
The delayed start to the advertising war which by this point in the last two presidential election cycles was
already in full swing has been one of the more unforeseen aspects of a campaign season that has had all the
other trappings of a highly competitive race: wild poll fluctuations, a fight over coveted endorsements and
spirited back-and-forth among the candidates. (The New York Times, 6/12/2011)
(53)
Mr. Romney said he would keep on battling if he fell short in the first contests in Iowa, where he has
stepped up his efforts in recent weeks, and New Hampshire, which had always seemed to be a secure launching
pad for him but now seems to be in play. (The New York Times, 15/12/2011)
(54)
Some quickly endorsed Gov. Rick Perry when he jumped into the race in August. (4/12/2011)
(55)
What his team did not expect was that they would be so cash-poor at this stage of the race. (4/12/2011)
(56)
The pointed comments suggested a new dynamic in the presidential primary race, with Mr. Paul as a new and
enticing target. (The New York Times, 24/12/2011)
109
SPORT Metaphors
(57)
Mr. Obamas aides acknowledge that a general election campaign against Mr. Gingrich would be a different
race, one that would present a less predictable, more energetic and personally harder-hitting opponent than
Mr. Romney would. (The New York Times, 8/12/2011)
Some additional examples of metaphor systems from the present corpus are listed above, and they
show interaction between different conceptual metaphors. Example 52 shows interaction between two
CONFLICT
metaphors and a
CONFLICT
metaphors, one SPORT metaphor, and an additional CAUSED MOTION metaphor; example 54 shows an
SPORT
interaction between a structural SPORT metaphor and an ontological CONTAINMENT metaphor, where the race is
viewed as a container; example 55 shows a system that contains two sport metaphors; examples 56 and 57
show interaction between a SPORT and a CONFLICT metaphor.
Network Optimization
110
Network Optimization
111
The Integration principle can also compete with Topology, since achieving an integrated blend carries
an inherent necessity for compression. Still, in line with the previous discussion, the level of Integration needs
to be aligned with the degree of optimization of the frame-level Topology. Without that, the network simply
wont work, i.e. the developed blend will be unstable. In that sense, a successful network needs to work out an
acceptable level of satisfaction of these two principles in order for an equilibrium between them to be achieved.
It is worth noting that the network optimization for these two principles is facilitated by the fact that these are
instances of single-scope networks, without serious frame-level clashes between the inputs.
The Pattern Completion principle seems to work in concert with the Integration principle. Namely, the
blend of a single-scope network inherits its organizing frame from the source input, and the blends topology is
completed by additional background knowledge structures related to that organizing frame. In addition to
strengthening the existing vital relations in the blend, these background knowledge structures also serve to
reinforce the already integrated compressions. With that in mind, it can be argued that the Pattern Completion
Principle and the Integration principle actually conspire to make the network function better. Namely, the
process of Integration seems to be made both more coherent and cohesive by the process of Pattern
Completion. This, however, may not be the case in a double-scope network, where the two principles might
clash, owing to the fact that background knowledge structures related to the organizing frames of the inputs,
which can be recruited in the blend, could in fact clash with some aspects of the topological organization of the
novel organizing frame of the blended space in a double-scope network.
The main role of the Web principle is to make the network a coherent whole. In other words, the
network needs to satisfy the Web principle in order for it to be optimized as a unit, which renders the process
of meaning construction, i.e. compression and decompression of the blend, possible. In some cases, the Web
principle combines with Integration to force novel integrations in the blend (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 332),
which can facilitate some of the governing principles for compression, like creation by compression.
Additionally, the fact that compressions in the blend have their counterparts in each of the inputs facilitates the
optimization of the Web principle.
However, the Web principle can also compete with other principles, like Topology. Namely, the
Topology principle restrains Web in the sense that we must not project from the blend emergent topology that
is inappropriate for the inputs (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 331). As a result, optimization of the Web principle
is directly governed by Topology. In the case of single-scope metaphorical networks this process is actually
facilitated by the prealinged topological structures of the inputs, and the organizing frame of the blend that is
adopted from the source input. In that sense, although Topology restrains the Web principle, the main idea
behind the Web principle which suggests that we should not disconnect valuable web connections to the
inputs (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 332) remains preserved.
Additionally, the Web principle could also be linked to the molecule-model discussed above (see
Figure 15 for details). Namely, just as the Web principle accommodates the entire web of connections between
Network Optimization
112
the blend and other mental spaces in the network, the on-line aspect of the molecule-model directly
implicates the entire network of background compressions.
As discussed in Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 339), Unpacking in single-scope networks works
similarly as in mirror networks. Namely, while the blend is well integrated at the frame-level, integration at
lower levels is weaker. Additionally, the Unpacking process is conditioned by the immediate discourse context,
i.e. the Unpacking Principle is not purely one of structure within the network but, more broadly, one of
communication, since the unpacking possibilities offered by the blended space will depend on what is already
active in the context of communication (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002: 333). In other words, successful
Unpacking requires the construction of the fully developed discourse lattice.
Another important cue for Unpacking in the case of metaphorical single-scope networks are the links
that exist between the compressed elements in the blend, and their counterparts in the input spaces. These
connections that are directly influenced by Integration, Topology, and Web, present themselves as invaluable
prompts for blend deconstruction, i.e. Unpacking. In light of these arguments, it can be concluded that
Unpacking is directly constrained by Integration, Topology, and Web. This suggests that for the network to be
optimized for Unpacking, it must first be optimized at least for the other three principles, which in turn reflects
the notion that optimality principles need to be considered as a dynamic set of patterns that interact with each
other as discourse unfolds. An additional prompt for Unpacking the blend can be found in compressions of one
vital relation into another, i.e. in the compression of outer-space vital relation into inner-space vital relations,
which provides a direct link between the compressions in the blend and their corresponding counterparts in the
input spaces.
The Relevance principle is constrained by a set of other principles. Firstly, the interaction between
Integration and Topology constrains the list of elements that will be relevant in the blend, most of all in the
sense that the list will be the result of important outer-space compressions between the inputs. Secondly, Web
also serves as an important constraint to this list. However, Web interacts with both Integration and Topology,
while Integration interacts with Pattern Completion, and all of these interactions also constrain the possibilities
of network optimization for Relevance. Thirdly, an additional factor in this interplay is the Pattern Completion
principle which can serve to amplify the principle of the Intensification of Vital Relations in the blend via
background knowledge recruitment, and therefore possibly render some elements more relevant than others.
Finally, perhaps the most transparent limitation to Relevance is that imposed by the Unpacking principle,
where the relevance of an element in the blend is determined by its role in Unpacking the blend. All these facts
sanction a conclusion that the optimization of a given network for Relevance is actually constrained by its
optimization for all other principles.
In summary, the previous discussion reflects the dynamic interplay of optimality principles that takes
place in the process of meaning construction in single-scope metaphorical networks. Regardless of whether
some of the principles stand in direct opposition, or support each other, it is important to foreground the nature
Network Optimization
113
of their interaction and the fact that the optimization of the final network requires that an equilibrium be
established between these principles, thereby satisfying each of them to a certain extent. Furthermore, the role
of the immediate discourse context must not be neglected, since the fully developed discourse lattice can also
serve as an important constraint.
114
POLITICS IS SPORT.
methodology used in Nei et al. (2009) and Nei et al. (2010), the participants were presented with a 10point Likert scale, ranging from 0 to 9, on which they were instructed to record their affective responses to the
target stimuli. 47 Type-one questionnaire contained eight sentences extracted from the corpus, and in each
sentence there was an expression (i.e. a metaphorical expression) that was bolded and underlined.
Additionally, before being included in the questionnaire, each sentence containing a metaphorical expression
(i.e. a target stimulus) was filtered for potentially biased information. Namely, all of the personal names, names
of political fractions, and similar information were excluded and replaced with appropriate pronouns, or other
neutral phrases. The experimental subjects were instructed to read each sentence carefully, and then decide
on how pleasant (in the sense of valence), and how exciting (in the sense of arousal) the emphasized
expression was for them, and rate their answers on the previously described Likert scale. The subjects were
not primed, i.e. they were not told that the emphasized expressions represented metaphorical expressions
corresponding to CONFLICT and SPORT metaphors.
The main aim of type-one questionnaires was to determine whether there was an actual affective
response in terms of valence and arousal to the target stimuli, i.e. the selected metaphorical expressions
included in the questionnaire. Judging by the scale construction, with 0 corresponding to the most unpleasant
See Appendix A and Appendix C for the full content of Questionnaires 1 and 3, respectively.
In terms of valence: 0 = the least pleasant, 9 = the most pleasant; in terms of arousal: 0 = the least arousing, 9 = the most
arousing.
46
47
115
reaction (in terms of valence), or to the least arousing reaction (in terms of arousal), and 9 to the most
pleasant reaction (in terms of valence), or the most aroused reaction (in terms of arousal), it is obvious that the
arithmetic middle of the scale that corresponds to the value of 4.5, would describe an ideally neutral reaction.
In order to make sure that the reactions of experimental subjects were different from neutral, mean values of
valences and arousals for each individual stimulus respectively were compared against the calculated mean
neutral value of 4.5. The aim of such a procedure was to establish whether the mean values of valences and
arousals showed statistically significant differences (p<.05) from the value that would describe an ideally
neutral stimulus. This was achieved through the use of One-Sample T-Tests. 48
Type-two questionnaires (Questionnaires 2 and 4) 49 were based on an emotion concepts checklist,
similar to the ones described in Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988), and Thompson (2007). The present
checklist contained four positive adjectives (happy, proud, motivated, and supportive), and four negative
adjectives (sad, angry, disappointed, and alarmed), which stood for the emotion concepts commonly used to
describe political discourse. Such a closed adjective checklist was meant to create a controlled response
environment. In other words, the participants had to decide between the adjectives that were offered, and were
not allowed to provide additional descriptions of their own. The main motivation for such an approach was the
desire to obtain systematic results on a clearly defined closed scale. Questionnaire 2 was designed to
measure the response to metaphorical expressions corresponding to the conceptual key POLITICS IS CONFLICT,
while Questionnaire 4 was designed to measure the reaction to metaphorical expressions corresponding to the
conceptual key POLITICS IS SPORT.
Type-two questionnaires contained the same stimuli that were used in their corresponding type-one
questionnaires. Namely, since Questionnaires 1 and 3 were both designed to measure the subjects
reactions to metaphorical expressions corresponding to the conceptual key
POLITICS IS CONFLICT,
these two
questionnaires contained the same stimuli. On the other hand, Questionnaires 2 and 4 were designed to
measure the subjects responses to metaphorical expressions corresponding to the conceptual key POLITICS IS
SPORT, and these two questionnaires also contained the same stimuli.
After each sentence with a metaphorical expression, participants were presented with a list of eight
previously mentioned emotion concepts, i.e. adjectives, and were instructed to describe their emotional
reaction to a given stimulus in terms of the presented adjective checklist. Each adjective was followed by a 10point Likert scale (0-9), on which the participants rated the degree to which an adjective described their
emotional response to the given stimulus. 50 All questionnaires were distributed to the participants on the same
occasion.
The statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software, version 20 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).
See Appendix B and Appendix D for the full content of Questionnaires 2 and 4, respectively.
50 0 = the given adjective does not describe the emotional reaction at all; 9 = the given adjective describes the emotional reaction
completely.
48
49
Questionnaires 1 and 2
116
Based on the results obtained from the type-two questionnaires, mean values for each of the
adjectives describing each metaphorical expression respectively were calculated. Comparison of mean values
was used to determine which of the adjectives had the maximum mean value, i.e. which adjective proved to be
the best choice for describing the given target stimulus. In the next step, the maximum mean value was
compared to the means of the remaining seven adjectives to determine whether there was a statistically
significant difference between them. If the measured p value was lower than .05, then there was a statistically
significant difference, and the adjective with the highest mean value was a better choice for describing the
reaction to a given stimulus. If p was greater than .05, then there was no statistically significant difference
between the two mean values, and both adjectives were dubbed equally good for describing the reaction to
the given stimulus. This part of the analysis was performed using the One-Sample T-Test. 51
4.2.1. Questionnaire 1: Results and Discussion
Questionnaire 1 was a type-one questionnaire, and it contained metaphorical expressions, i.e. the
target stimuli corresponding to the conceptual key POLITICS IS CONFLICT.
4.2.1.1. Scale Reliability
The reliability of the scale used in the first questionnaire was determined based on Cronbachs Alpha,
and it was calculated to be .882. Twelve participants (i.e. 11.9%) were excluded from the calculation on
account that the outliers were eliminated from the database in the previous step. Cronbachs Alpha value
calculated prior to the deletion of the outliers was calculated to be .894, which suggests that owing to the
elimination of the outliers, Cronbachs Alpha value was reduced by 1.34%, which does not significantly affect
the scale reliability.
Inspection of the Inter-Item Correlation Matrix showed consistent positive values of inter-item
correlation throughout the matrix, which suggests that all items are measuring the same underlying
characteristic (Pallant, 2011: 100). Additionally, values of the Corrected Item-Total Correlation were
consistently higher than the marginal value of .3 (ibid.: 100), and ranged from .383 to .672. Values of
Cronbachs Alpha if Item Deleted ranged from .871 to .882, which suggests that excluding any of the
variables would either not affect, or would reduce the reliability of the scale.
51
The statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software, version 20 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).
Questionnaires 1 and 2
117
118
Questionnaires 1 and 2
Based on the above presented data, it can be concluded that all of the assumptions required for the
parametric tests to be performed were satisfied.
4.2.1.3. Means and One-Sample T-Test
Based on the results obtained from the statistical analysis, the following conclusions were reached:
1) The mean values of valences for all tested metaphorical expressions show a statistically significant
difference from the calculated critical mean value of 4.5 that would correspond to a neutral stimulus.
Additionally, the mean values of all valences are gravitating towards lower values, suggesting that the
stimuli were assessed as mostly unpleasant, with the exception of metaphors 5 and 8 which were
categorized as somewhere in between moderately unpleasant, and neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
2) The mean values of arousals showed a tendency ranging from neutral to not so exciting. Namely, arousals
for metaphors 3, 4, 6, and 8 did not show any statistically significant differences compared to the neutral
stimulus. Therefore, the four previously mentioned stimuli were rated as neither arousing, nor nonarousing. The mean values of metaphors 1, 2, 5, and 7, on the other hand, showed a statistically
significant difference compared to a neutral stimulus. The mean values of arousals of these metaphors
also showed a very consistent distribution. Namely, all of their values are situated within a narrow range
between 3.65 and 3.92, which suggests that the stimuli were rated as moderately non-arousing.
Stimulus
Mean
Valence
One-Sample T-Test
Test Value = 4.5
.000
Mean
3.74
Arousal
One-Sample T-Test
Test Value = 4.5
.002
1) nominating battle
3.32
2) re-election fight
3.03
.000
3.88
.016
3) barrage of attacks
2.41
.000
4.07
.091
4) the showdown
3.88
.009
4.65
.525
5) to defend
4.04
.043
3.92
.008
3.04
.000
4.08
.070
7) taking aim at
3.22
.000
3.80
.002
8) (war) front
3.99
.026
4.08
.065
Questionnaires 1 and 2
119
Still, the present findings obtained from the one-sample t-test sanction the previously stated claim that
the majority of target stimuli did provoke an actual affective response with the participants in the study, which
in turn lends reasonable support to the theoretically derived conclusions from the first part of the present
research that dealt with the theoretical corpus analysis. Additionally, it is also worth noting that the dominant
role in the construction of the affective experience was played by the valence component of affect. Such
findings are in line with the arguments presented in Barrett (2006) and Russell (2003), where it was suggested
that in using self-report measurements of affect, the dominant response is recorded on the scale between
pleasant-unpleasant (i.e. in terms of valence), whereas the arousal component is more difficult to record
through the use of self-reports.
4.2.2. Questionnaire 2: Results and Discussion
Questionnaire 2 was a type-two questionnaire, and it contained the same metaphorical expressions,
i.e. the same target stimuli as Questionnaire 1.
4.2.2.1. Scale Reliability
The scale reliability was assessed primarily based on the value of Cronbachs Alpha. Inter-Item
Correlation Matrix, values of Cronbachs Alpha if Item Deleted, and Corrected Item-Total Correlation values
were also analyzed to substantiate the initial findings obtained from Cronbachs Alpha.
The calculated value of Cronbachs Alpha was .972. However, due to the elimination of the outliers
performed in the previous step, 26 participants, i.e. 25.7% of participants were excluded from the calculation.
The value of Cronbachs Alpha prior to the elimination of the extreme values was .968, suggesting that the
scale reliability improved by 0.41% after the outliers were removed. This information suggests that Cronbachs
Alpha value remained very high, well above .95 in both cases, so that the scale reliability was not significantly
affected due to the elimination of the outliers.
Inspection of the Inter-Item Correlation Matrix revealed only 35 instances of negative values, i.e. only
0.85% of cases, suggesting a very high degree of inter-item correlation. Values of Cronbachs Alpha if Item
Deleted ranged from .971 to .972. This means that the deletion of an item would either leave Cronbachs
Alpha unchanged, or it would reduce it by 0.103%. Additionally, the Corrected Item-Total Correlation values
ranged from .390 to .735, with 62 out of 64 variables, i.e. 96.875% of variables achieved values either above,
or well above .4. This was higher than the marginal value of .3 suggested in Pallant (2011: 100). The only
exception was the variable metaphor 5 disappointed, which achieved the value of .291.
In sum, based on the discussion in the previous paragraphs, the scale used in the second
questionnaire showed a high degree of reliability and consistency.
120
Questionnaires 1 and 2
2) re-election fight
3) barrage of
attacks
4) the showdown
5) to defend
6) who could
defeat
7) taking aim at
8) (war) front
happy
motivated
proud
supportive
sad
angry
disappointed
alarmed
Means
1.53
3.03
2.33
3.00
1.28
2.05
1.51
2.52
SD
1.787
2.575
2.600
2.665
1.865
2.632
2.145
2.678
One-sample T-test
(test value: 3.03)
.000
.008
.910
.000
.000
.000
.061
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
supportive
sad
angry
Means
1.44
2.81
2.08
2.57
1.34
1.87
1.35
2.15
SD
1.945
2.568
2.309
2.535
1.888
2.481
1.864
2.531
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.81)
.000
.002
.352
.000
.000
.000
.010
Adjectives
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Means
1.25
2.14
1.47
1.84
1.56
2.61
1.82
3.04
SD
2.042
2.577
2.160
2.293
2.203
2.909
2.434
2.908
One-sample T-test
(test value: 3.04)
.000
.001
.000
.000
.000
.144
.000
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
proud
supportive
supportive
sad
sad
angry
angry
Means
2.22
3.07
2.33
2.79
.89
1.55
1.13
2.37
SD
2.444
2.909
2.627
2.776
1.215
2.139
1.664
2.533
One-sample T-test
(test value: 3.07)
.001
.005
.317
.000
.000
.000
.006
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
support.
sad
angry
Means
2.30
2.95
2.69
3.19
1.43
1.83
1.83
2.89
SD
2.663
2.951
2.863
3.058
1.861
2.213
2.413
2.922
One-sample T-test
(test value: 3.19)
.001
.417
.084
.000
.000
.000
.306
Adjectives
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Means
1.85
2.65
2.13
2.39
1.46
1.58
1.76
2.33
SD
2.628
2.917
2.784
2.807
2.096
2.256
2.627
2.635
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.65)
.003
.063
.347
.000
.000
.001
.220
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
proud
supportive
supportive
sad
sad
angry
angry
Means
1.31
1.93
1.40
1.74
.94
2.04
1.58
2.56
SD
1.944
2.357
1.933
2.170
1.367
2.449
2.085
2.666
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.56)
.000
.009
.000
.000
.000
.035
.000
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
support.
sad
angry
Means
1.59
2.41
2.14
3.06
1.23
2.11
2.04
2.49
SD
1.968
2.357
2.490
2.615
1.686
2.679
2.596
2.678
One-sample T-test
(test value: 3.06)
.000
.007
.000
.000
.001
.000
.033
121
Questionnaires 1 and 2
4) the emotional response to the fourth stimulus can be best described by the adjectives motivated and
supportive, as was the case with the second stimulus. This similarity can be further accounted for by the
relatedness between the FIGHT and SHOWDOWN frames;
5) the reaction to the fifth stimulus can be described by the adjectives motivated, proud, supportive, and
alarmed;
6) the response to the sixth stimulus can de described by the same group of adjectives as was the case with
the fifth stimulus, i.e. motivated, proud, supportive, and alarmed;
7) the response to the seventh stimulus is best described by the adjective alarmed;
8) the reaction to the eighth stimulus can be described by the adjective supportive.
It can be concluded that all experimental subjects were consistent in qualitatively describing their
emotional responses to the presented stimuli, since their descriptions showed a consistent dominance of three
adjectives from the list, motivated, supportive, and alarmed, while the adjective proud appeared only two times,
and the adjective angry appeared only on one occasion (see Tables 7 and 8 for details). Additionally, it should
also be noted that only the three most dominant adjectives, i.e. motivated, supportive, and alarmed appeared
with the maximum mean values, while the adjectives angry and proud never presented themselves as the best
choice for describing any of the stimuli (see Table 7 for details).
Stimulus
1) nominating battle
2) re-election fight
3) barrage of attacks
4) the showdown
Adjectives
motivated, supportive, alarmed
motivated, supportive
angry, alarmed
motivated, supportive
5) to defend
7) taking aim at
8) (war) front
alarmed
supportive
Questionnaires 1 and 2
122
experimental subjects licenses a valid conclusion that there in fact was an actual emotional response to the
target stimuli.
Additionally, for purposes of further research, a revised adjective checklist could yield even more
convincing results. Methodologically-wise, the scale used in the second questionnaire could benefit from a
factor-analytic approach, where an initial list containing a larger number of adjectives would be reduced to a
lower number, which can be achieved following the methodological procedures described in Pallant (2007:
185-201). Consequently, this would also require a greater number of experimental subjects.
4.2.3. Questionnaires 1 and 2: Comparison of Findings
In general terms, the mean values of valences corresponding to mostly unpleasant reactions, coupled
with the mean values of arousals corresponding to neutral-to-mostly-non-arousing activation and not so
arousing activation, provoked the feelings of motivation, pride, support, anger, and alarm (see Table 9 for
details).
Categorization of affective reactions through the feeling of alarm and anger can be directly linked to
the negative valences and neutral-to-negative arousals. Categorization of affective reactions in terms of
motivation, pride, and support can be explained as being caused by the desire to overcome the tension
introduced by the various frames of conflict presented by the stimuli. In other words, the fact that the
participants categorized their affective reactions with negative valences and neutral-to-negative arousals
through the feelings of motivation, pride, and support suggests that their emotional reaction was aligned with
the intentional and causal structures of the blended spaces from the corresponding metaphorical integration
networks. For instance, in stimulus 2, the participants experienced motivation and support which arise from the
fight frame; the same reaction was recorded in stimulus 4, where these emotional responses arise from the
showdown frame, etc.
In short, the emotional experience described in qualitative terms in the second questionnaire can be
linked to the affective reaction described in terms of valence and arousal in the first questionnaire. Additionally,
cognitive mechanisms such as the recruitment of background knowledge seem to both aid, and facilitate the
process of affect categorization, which is in line with the arguments presented in Barrett (2006), Lindquist and
Barrett (2008), and Wilson-Mendenhall et al. (2011). In that sense, the conclusions pertaining to the potential
of conceptual metaphors to provoke an emotional response in the context of political discourse, reached
based on the analyses in the CBT framework, seem to be substantiated by the findings from the first two
questionnaires. Furthermore, apart from mere theoretical predictions, CBT also appears to be a viable tool that
can serve to shed more light on the process of affect categorization into specific emotions, owing to the points
of intersection between the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion and the CBT model, discussed in section 2.3.4.
123
Questionnaires 1 and 2
Stimulus
Questionnaire 1
Questionnaire 2
1) nominating
battle
2) re-election
fight
motivated, supportive
3) barrage of
attacks
angry, alarmed
4) the
showdown
motivated, supportive
5) to defend
6) who could
defeat
7) taking aim
at
8) (war) front
alarmed
supportive
Questionnaires 3 and 4
124
Consequently, just as when it comes to meaning construction, emotions are also not to be understood
as closed, strictly defined sets, but rather as products of the process of emotion construction which involves
the categorization of more abstract affective states and the activation of the conceptual knowledge about
emotions, which is also influenced by the background knowledge structures. Additionally, the fact that most of
the stimuli, i.e. metaphorical expressions, provoked reactions described in terms of multiple adjectives further
reinforces the claim that emotions are fuzzy sets, and that the boundaries between them are not clear-cut (e.g.
Russell, 1980; Niedenthal, 2008).
125
Questionnaires 3 and 4
and 8, on the other hand, did not show such differences, and the recorded reaction to these stimuli can be
dubbed neutral in terms of arousal.
Valence
One-Sample T-Test
Test Value = 4.5
.000
Arousal
One-Sample T-Test
Test Value = 4.5
.498
Stimulus
Mean
3.09
2) last-minute sprints
3.37
.000
4.56
.828
3) presidential race
2.94
.000
3.67
.005
4.54
.869
4.77
.342
5) political players
3.03
.000
3.21
.000
3.52
.000
3.77
.005
7) sparring
3.09
.000
4.14
.190
8) team
5.36
.002
4.56
.810
Mean
4.67
CONFLICT
non-arousing; reactions to stimuli 1, 2, and 7 were described as unpleasant in terms of valence, and neutral in
terms of arousal; reaction to stimulus 8 was rated as pleasant in terms of valence, and neutral in terms of
arousal; stimulus 4 (took the lead) did not show any activation in terms of valence and arousal, and therefore,
the affective response to this stimulus was described as completely neutral. Based on such results, it can be
concluded that, with the exception of stimulus 4 (took the lead), all other metaphorical expressions provoked a
certain degree of an affective response with the participants, which was achieved predominantly in terms of
valence.
4.2.5. Questionnaire 4: Results and Discussion
Questionnaire 4 was a type-two questionnaire, and it contained the same metaphorical expressions,
i.e. the same target stimuli as Questionnaire 3.
4.2.5.1. Scale Reliability
Scale reliability was primarily assessed based on the values of Cronbachs Alpha. The Inter-Item
Correlation Matrix, values of Cronbachs Alpha if Item Deleted, and the Corrected Item-Total Correlation
values were also analyzed to substantiate the initial findings obtained from Cronbachs Alpha.
Cronbachs Alpha value was calculated to be .974. However, owing to the elimination of the outliers in
the previous step, 51 participants were excluded from the calculation based on the listwise deletion. The value
of Cronbachs Alpha prior to the deletion of the outliers was calculated to be .967, which suggests that the
126
Questionnaires 3 and 4
scale reliability was increased by .719% (<1%). This suggests that Cronbachs Alpha remained very high in
both cases, i.e. the deletion of the outliers did not significantly affect the reliability of the scale.
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix showed only 26 negative values, i.e. only .635% of cases (<1%), which
suggests a high degree of inter-item correlation. Corrected Item-Total Correlation values ranged from .324
to .820, which was consistently above the marginal value of .3 suggested in Pallant (2007: 100). Values of
Cronbachs Alpha if Item Deleted ranged from .973 to .974, which suggests that the deletion of any of the
items would either not affect the scale reliability, or would reduce it by mere .103%.
POLITICS IS SPORT
the above-described adjective checklist. Additionally, as already noted in the section dealing with
Questionnaire 2, the present adjective checklist serves as a controlled response environment, and the present
questionnaire could also benefit from a revised adjective checklist developed through a factor-analytic
approach.
127
Questionnaires 3 and 4
Stimulus
5) political players
7) sparring
8) team
motivated
proud
supportive
sad
angry
disappointed
alarmed
2.39
2.82
2.39
2.63
1.00
1.45
1.54
2.51
SD
2.713
2.779
2.749
2.795
1.466
1.977
1.970
2.795
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.82)
.111
.116
.504
.000
.000
.000
.275
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Means
2.26
2.96
2.36
2.79
.54
.82
.66
1.69
SD
2.637
2.898
2.866
2.974
1.007
1.336
1.024
20221
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.96)
.009
.037
.572
.000
.000
.000
.000
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
3) presidential
race
happy
Means
Adjectives
2) last-minute
sprints
6) late in the
game
Adjectives
proud
proud
supportive
supportive
sad
sad
angry
angry
Means
1.28
1.64
1.29
1.59
.83
1.35
1.37
2.26
SD
1.874
2.005
1.867
2.003
1.427
1.895
1.895
2.693
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.26)
.000
.003
.000
.002
.000
.000
.000
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
supportive
sad
angry
Means
3.36
3.59
3.14
3.26
.45
.88
.65
2.03
SD
2.955
3.163
3.052
3.004
.841
1.431
1.036
2.497
One-sample T-test
(test value: 3.59)
.429
.144
.275
.000
.000
.000
.000
Adjectives
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Means
1.35
1.40
.89
1.50
.92
2.05
2.05
2.18
SD
2.086
1.943
1.463
2.067
1.397
2.651
2.670
2.700
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.18)
.000
.000
.000
.001
.000
.622
.624
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
proud
supportive
supportive
sad
sad
angry
angry
Means
2.01
2.24
1.47
1.96
.92
1.59
1.72
2.24
SD
2.528
2.497
2.012
2.429
1.284
2.177
2.181
2.637
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.24)
.362
.000
.250
.000
.004
.021
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Adjectives
proud
supportive
sad
angry
Means
1.47
1.89
1.70
2.00
1.01
1.66
1.42
2.49
SD
1.991
2.252
2.312
2.573
1.483
2.153
1.999
2.637
One-sample T-test
(test value: 2.49)
.000
.009
.001
.058
.000
.000
.000
Adjectives
happy
motivated
disappointed
alarmed
Means
4.00
4.16
proud
3.83
support.
4.36
sad
.52
angry
.36
.27
.76
SD
2.929
2.962
3.033
3.012
.962
.735
.634
1.259
One-sample T-test
(test value: 4.36)
.220
.496
.083
.000
.000
.000
.000
128
Questionnaires 3 and 4
Stimulus
Adjectives
2) last-minute sprints
motivated, supportive
3) presidential race
4) took the lead
alarmed
happy, motivated, proud, supportive
5) political players
7) sparring
8) team
supportive, alarmed
happy, motivated, proud, supportive
129
Questionnaires 3 and 4
Stimulus
Questionnaire 3
Questionnaire 4
1) break out
of the pack
2) last-minute
sprints
motivated, supportive
3) presidential
race
4) took
lead
the
alarmed
5) political
players
6) late in the
game
7) sparring
8) team
supportive, alarmed
CONFLICT,
environment.
Questionnaires 3 and 4
130
Stimulus 4 (took the lead) which, quite surprisingly, did not show any activation in terms of affect, and
was rated as neutral both in terms of valence and arousal, was still described by the adjectives happy,
motivated, proud, and supportive. This again reflects the importance of background knowledge structures in
the process of emotion-construction.
In sum, the joint results from Questionnaires 3 and 4 suggest that all of the stimuli, i.e. metaphorical
expressions corresponding to the conceptual key POLITICS IS SPORT managed to provoke a certain degree of an
emotional response with the experimental subjects. This in turn supports the theoretical predictions that
conceptual metaphors in the context of political discourse can provoke an emotional response with the
audience, i.e. readers, which further serves as a potent mechanism of persuasion.
131
General Discussion
5. General Discussion
Following the introduction of the main tenets of the theoretical framework used in the present paper,
the two main parts of the present research along with the main results and implications of these results were
presented. The current section will give a comprehensive overview of the main aims of the present research,
and the obtained results. Additionally, the potential for interaction between the three main models that
constitute the theoretical framework (see section 2 for details), and the implications for future research will also
be addressed. Furthermore, the forthcoming paragraphs will also provide a thorough elaboration of the main
research questions introduced in section 4.
SPORT
simplification, owing to the fact that they reduce the complexity of the political process to a sport event, which
in turn causes the emotional involvement of the audience. A good example of highlighting and hiding can be
found in CONFLICT metaphors, where, for example, depicting the political process as a battle foregrounds the
immediate threat, and places emphasis on the construed foe, while it completely backgrounds more specific
132
General Discussion
elements of the political process. This also reflects the idea of polarization, as discussed in Harder (2005).
Still, it needs to be stressed that both
CONFLICT
and
SPORT
complex issues, and to place emphasis on only certain aspects of an ongoing issue. When it comes to the
potential for provoking an emotional response, the corpus analysis has shown that both CONFLICT and SPORT
metaphors exploit this mechanism. In addition to background knowledge recruitment, emotional reactions can
also be provoked by the backward projections, and the coupled elaboration of the blend. With the presented
results in mind, it is obvious that the current paper managed to corroborate the findings from previous
research (e.g. Mio, 1997; Charteris-Black, 2009; 2011; Ferrari, 2007).
[3] Which groups of metaphors (based on their conceptual keys) are dominant, and are the findings
consistent with the results from previous research?
A descriptive statistical overview of the corpus revealed the dominance of CONFLICT metaphors, which
took up 59.58% of the corpus, while
SPORT
these two conceptual keys reflects the competitive nature on which the mainstream Western culture is
grounded. In other words, the dominance of
CONFLICT
conflict is entrenched not only in political news reporting, but in the dominant social and political paradigms of
Western society (Burnes, 2011: 2165). Additionally, the immediate context of primary elections for the
presidential nomination that were under way in the Republican Party in December 2011 can also be used to
justify such frequency of the two conceptual keys. The obtained results are in line with some reports from the
previous research in the field (e.g. Burnes, 2011; Semino & Masci, 1996; Howe, 1988). Note, however, that
Koller and Semino (2009: 28) observed a relatively low frequency of war and sport metaphors in the context
of German elections, as did Wei (2003: 126) in the case of Taiwan (cited in Burnes, 2011: 2167). Additionally,
Radi-Bojani and Silaki (2008) suggest that it is necessary to point to the obvious absence of sport
metaphors in post-election periods (151), meaning that both the cultural component and the immediate sociopolitical context will play an essential role in determining the use and frequency of specific conceptual keys.
[4] What type of networks is dominant: single-scope, or double-scope?
Based on the results of corpus analysis which was concerned with the investigation of conceptual
metaphors of CONFLICT and SPORT used in the political discourse of daily newspapers, it can be concluded that
single-scope networks showed absolute dominance, since no instances of double-scope networks have been
recorded. This can be explained by the highly entrenched nature of the two conceptual keys. Namely, these
entrenched mechanisms serve as strong constraints for the choice of input spaces, as well as for their
topological prealignment. Furthermore, as shown in section 4.1, the organizing frames of the inputs usually
constitute pre-built compressions available for recruitment. With that in mind, it is obvious why the conceptual
integration networks from the present corpus are not expected to show any serious conceptual clashes at the
General Discussion
133
level of the organizing frames of the respective input spaces. The existing conceptual frame-level clashes are
resolved in a relatively simple manner, by projecting the organizing frame of the source input as the organizing
frame of the blend. Additionally, it has been suggested in previous research that conventional metaphors are
more suitable for use in the political discourse owing precisely to their highly entrenched nature (e.g. Mio,
1997). As a result, they can go on undetected, and perform their persuasive function undisturbed. A novel
metaphor would be more likely to appear in the form of a double-scope network, owing to a more elaborate
conceptual clash at the frame level. This could in turn cause it to draw more attention, thereby constraining its
persuasive potential. In summary, the obtained results pertaining to network structure are plausible, and seem
to facilitate the persuasive function of conceptual metaphors in the political discourse of daily newspapers.
[5] Which vital relations are dominant in metaphorical networks, and what happens to them during
compression?
The most dominant outer space vital relation recorded in the present corpus was the vital relation of
Analogy that existed between the inputs in metaphorical conceptual integration networks. Such findings
suggest that the present corpus consists of single-scope networks in which inputs are not contained within a
larger history, i.e. there is no obvious relevance of one input space for the other (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002).
In addition to the vital relation of Analogy, there was also the outer space vital relation of Disanalogy that
usually appeared between the means for achieving the goals in the respective inputs. Both Analogy and
Disanalogy were compressed into inner-space vital relations of Uniqueness in the blend. Furthermore, the
compression of the outer-space vital relation of Disanalogy into the inner-space vital relation of Uniqueness in
the blend led to the development of the central emergent structure in each network, respectively (see section
4.1 for details).
[6] Is there any similarity between the forms of emergent structures that appear in the present corpus?
A detailed corpus analysis showed a high degree of systematicity in the forms of emergent structures
in both CONFLICT and SPORT metaphors, and an overview of these structures is presented in Table 14. Such
systematicity is explained by the highly entrenched nature of the two conceptual keys. Additionally, it seems
that the systematic nature of compression (in the sense of Fauconnier & Turner, 2008) leads to the
systematicity of emergent structures. For more information, consult subsection 4.1.2.1.2 where this issue has
already been discussed in great detail.
134
General Discussion
CONFLICT metaphors
Percentage
A harms B
126
88.11%
15
10.49%
Other
1.40%
SPORT metaphors
Percentage
67
69.07%
A harms B
11
11.34%
9.28%
Other
10
10.31%
135
General Discussion
Type-two questionnaires also showed consistency in results. The dominant emotion concepts for
describing the stimuli corresponding to the conceptual key of
CONFLICT
alarmed. On the other hand, the dominant emotion concepts for describing the stimuli corresponding to the
conceptual key of
SPORT
were happy, motivated, supportive, and alarmed. Such findings show a high
degree of similarity in the descriptions of emotional reactions based on specific emotion concepts.
As discussed in subsections 4.2.3 and 4.2.6, responses described, for example, by the feelings of
alarm can be directly linked to the negative valence. Responses like motivation and support, on the other
hand, do not appear to arise directly from the negative affect, but are rather the products of background
knowledge structures activated during the processes of meaning and emotion construction. Such findings
are in line with the basic tenets of the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion, according to which the two main
components of emotional experience are the categorization of core affect, and the conceptual knowledge
about emotions (Barrett, 2006; Lindquist & Barrett, 2008). This in turn stresses the importance of context
both in the process of meaning construction, and emotion construction.
Additionally, it is worth stressing that the only stimulus rated with positive valence was the team
metaphor, from the group of
SPORT
metaphors. This stimulus was also rated by neutral arousal, and the
response in terms of specific emotion concepts was described by adjectives happy, motivated, proud, and
supportive. Apart from being directly related to positive valence, the choice of these adjectives can also be
reinforced by the recruited background knowledge structures related to the organizing frame of
TEAM.
Furthermore, such reaction can also be justified by the generalized form of the emergent structure, A and
B are united by a common goal, typical of TEAM metaphors, which can, via background projections and
the coupled elaboration of the blend, serve to further constrain or even amplify the recorded emotional
reaction. In brief, it is completely plausible that describing a political group as a team provoked feelings of
happiness, motivation, pride, and support, where these can be understood as joint products of positive
valence, and the recruited background knowledge structures from the TEAM frame.
136
General Discussion
the theoretical prediction of the first part of the research. Based on the results presented so far, it can be
concluded that the theoretical prediction pertaining to the metaphors potential to resonate with the
audience at the emotional level derived from the first part of the research was successfully confirmed in the
second stage.
In addition to this obvious point of intersection, further connections between the two parts of the
present research can be established. Namely, the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion stipulates that the two
main elements in the process of emotion construction are core affect, and the conceptual knowledge about
emotions (e.g. Barrett, 2006; Lindquist and Barrett, 2008). Furthermore, the present research has shown
that an important factor in the process of emotion construction is also imposed by the meaning construction
network, more precisely the background knowledge structures associated to the organizing frames of the
input spaces, and the organizing frame of the blend. Additionally, once the blend is constructed, it can
further direct and constrain the process of emotion construction via backward projections, and coupled
elaboration. Bearing in mind that backward projections, recruitment of additional background knowledge
structures used to complete the emergent structure, and the coupled elaboration of the blend are directly
linked to the development of emergent structure in the network, further connections can be established
between the developed emergent structures, and the recorded emotional reactions.
For instance, the stimulus barrage of attacks 54 developed the emergent structure in the generalized
form A harms B. In turn, this stimulus was rated by negative valence (2.41; p=.000), and neutral arousal (4.07;
p=.091), and by the adjectives angry and alarmed. Such affect categorization can be attributed to the quality of
the stimulus, and the background knowledge structures associated to the
ATTACK
negative valence can be caused by the ELECTION frame that serves as the organizing frame of the target input.
Namely, the context of politics alone can induce the feeling of unpleasantness. The feelings of anger and
alarm can be linked directly to the negative valence, but can also be interpreted in terms of the background
knowledge structures introduced by the organizing frames of the two inputs. Additionally, the developed
emergent structure can yield backward projections to the input spaces, and along with the coupled elaboration
of the blend, serve to influence both the initial affective state, and the recruitment of specific emotion concepts.
An additional factor that must not be neglected is the influence of the immediate discourse context.
The stimulus showdown 55 also developed the generalized emergent structure in the form of A harms
B, and it was rated by negative valence (3.88; p=.009), neutral arousal (4.65; p=.525), and the adjectives
motivated and supportive. Both the negative valence, and the positive feelings of motivation and support
constitute plausible results. However, while the negative valence depicts the initial unpleasant reactions to the
concept showdown introduced by the organizing frame of the source input, feelings of motivation and support
The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 1 and 2: As the perceived frontrunner, he is drawing a barrage of attacks from his
rivals.
55 The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 1 and 2: The political party began the preparations for the showdown with its
opponents.
54
137
General Discussion
can be accounted for by the immediate discourse context, where it can be argued that the reader feels support
for the political party preparing for a showdown, and is motivated by this idea. In that sense, in addition to the
immediate context, an important variable is also the background knowledge activated during the construction
of the blend, as well as the possible backward projections and coupled elaboration, both of which stem directly
from the blend. Note that the stimulus re-election fight 56 was also described in the same terms as the stimulus
showdown, the only difference being that the arousal in this case was negative instead of neutral. Such
similarity in reactions to the two stimuli can be accounted for by the same form of emergent structure, as well
as by the high level of relatedness between the frames of
SHOWDOWN
and
FIGHT that
SPORT
CONFLICT
frame. This fact explains that the results obtained from Questionnaires 3 and 4 are similar to those obtained
from the stimuli belonging to the group of
CONFLICT
valence (3.09; p=.000), neutral arousal (4.14; p=.190), and the adjectives supportive and alarmed. This
stimulus developed the emergent structure in the generalized form A harms B, as was the case with the
majority of
CONFLICT
metaphors. The recorded negative valence can be accounted for by the quality of the
ELECTIONS
frame of the target input. The feeling of alarm can be linked both to the negative valence, and to the recruited
background knowledge structures, while the feeling of support is inherently linked to the
BOXING
frame,
whereby the reader feels support for his fighter. Again, backward projections and the coupled elaboration of
the blend can further influence the process of emotion construction, where, for example, the coupled
elaboration of the blend can increase either the feeling of support or alarm.
The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 1 and 2: Facing a tough re-election fight in five months, the president is presenting
himself as a man of experience.
57
The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 1 and 2: I would like the president to be a bit more courageous on this front, about
the labor market.
58 The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 3 and 4: The day began with the two candidates sparring with each other.
56
138
General Discussion
The stimulus break out of the pack 59 developed the emergent structure in the form A improves the
position of B. It was described by negative valence (3.09; p=.000), neutral arousal (4.67; p=.498), and the
adjectives happy, motivated, proud, supportive, and alarmed. The negative valence can be accounted for by
the immediate context of political discourse, as well as by the PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS frame that organizes the
target input. The feelings of happiness, motivation, pride, and support can be linked to the RACE frame, where
the reader experiences these feelings when one of the runners takes the lead. The feeling of alarm is directly
linked to the negative valence, and can also be accounted for by the context of politics imposed by the
discourse, and the organizing frame of the target input, i.e. the
In that sense,
the reader could also be alarmed because an unwanted candidate is taking the lead. Additionally, both
backward projections and coupled elaboration can serve to influence the shape and amplitude of the
emotional response.
The stimulus last minute sprints 60 was described by negative valence (3.37; p=.000), neutral arousal
(4.56; p=.828), and the adjectives motivated and supportive. The present stimulus developed the emergent
structure in the form A improves the position of B. Again, like in the previous case, the negative valence
results from the immediate context of elections, while the feelings of motivation and support stem from the
background knowledge structures associated with the
RACE
structure, as well as possible backward projections can serve to amplify the recorded feelings.
The stimulus took the lead 61 developed the emergent structure in the form A improves the position
of B, and the emotional response to it was recorded by neutral valence (4.54; p=.869), neutral arousal (4.77;
p=.342), and the adjectives happy, motivated, proud, and supportive. The neutral affect can be accounted for
by the highly entrenched nature of the stimulus, in the sense that it is a worn-off expression likely to be taken
for granted. The recorded feelings of happiness, motivation, pride, and support do not seem to go hand in
hand with the recorded affect. However, in this case the process of emotion construction appears to be
dominated by the conceptual knowledge about emotions, and the background knowledge structures
introduced by the
RACE
frame, while the categorized affect remains neutral. With that in mind, the coupled
elaboration of the emergent structure along with the possible backward projections can play an important part
in amplifying the experienced emotions.
Quite surprisingly, the stimulus presidential race 62 did not provoke any positive feelings that are
expected to appear in relation to the RACE frame. Based on the other results obtained from Questionnaires 3
and 4, it can be concluded that the dominant role in provoking the emotional reaction with this particular
stimulus was played by the immediate context of presidential elections, also introduced by the organizing
frame of the target input. Although the given stimulus developed the emergent structure in the form A
The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 3 and 4: One of the presidential candidates attempted to break out of the pack.
The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 3 and 4: The two candidates continued their last-minute sprints before the
elections.
61
The entire sentence used in Questionnaires 3 and 4: One of the presidential candidates took the lead.
62 The presidential race still remains remarkably unsettled.
59
60
139
General Discussion
improves the position of B, the reaction in terms of emotion concepts was recorded by the adjective alarmed,
while both valence (2.94; p=.000) and arousal (3.67; p=.005) showed negative values. In that sense, the
feeling of alarm can be directly linked to the negative affect. Therefore, unlike the previous case in which affect
categorization did not contribute much to the process of emotion construction, and where that process was
governed mostly by the background knowledge structures, here, affect categorization appears to place a very
strong influence on this process. Additionally, the feeling of alarm can also be linked to the background
knowledge associated to the organizing frame of the target input, i.e. the
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
frame.
Consequently, the emotional response can be further influenced by backward projections to the target input
space.
Note that similar analyses to those presented in the previous paragraphs can be applied to the rest of
the stimuli from the questionnaires used in the second part of the present research. In summary, it can be
concluded that the results obtained from the two parts of the present research are not only comparable, but
also provide a valuable joint account that sheds light on the links between the processes of emotion
construction and meaning construction, in terms of how the two interact to produce a fully developed human
scale experience. Namely, the background knowledge structures introduced by the organizing frames of the
input spaces influence both the process of meaning and emotion construction. Furthermore, the developed
emergent structure can serve as an additional constraint that works via backward projections and coupled
elaboration. Bearing in mind that most words have an inherent affective quality (Duncan & Barrett, 2007), the
influence of affect and emotion construction on the process of meaning construction should not be neglected
either. Once again, such interaction is licensed by the fact that the specific brain circuitries that support affect
are largely shared by the circuitries that support cognitive processes (ibid.)
General Discussion
140
the CMT framework, remains almost completely unutilized in the previous research in the field. Namely, few
authors have bothered to include it in their analyses. Furthermore, the CMT model gives a much more detailed
account pertaining to the sociological function of metaphors in political discourse, emphasizing the notions of
highlighting and hiding, and directing attention. However, while these processes are intuitively plausible and
obvious, the exact cognitive mechanisms that underlie them remain unrevealed by this theoretical model, in
the sense that the CMT neglects the potential interaction between the organizing frames of the source and
target domains, as well as more serious clashes between them. Furthermore, the notions of compression and
emergent structure are also omitted, and the model seems to satisfy itself at the level of metaphorical
entailments. An additional point that the CMT model neglects is the need for the blended space, because the
cross-domain transfer, although essential, does not finalize the process of meaning construction. Analogies
and similarities established in cross-domain mappings simply need to be projected somewhere so that they
can be viewed as a single element. Leaving a conceptual metaphor as a mere two-domain structure would
require that two elements (one element from each domain) occupy the same functional slot during the
cognitive process, which would in turn cause too much cognitive tension and render the system unstable. In
short, for a conceptual metaphor to work, the system that supports it needs to be fully optimized, and in the
state of an equilibrium. Otherwise it will disintegrate.
However, despite its obvious shortcomings, the CMT can still be considered a borderline case of the
CBT framework (Fauconnier & Turner, 1994; 1995; Grady, Oakley, & Coulson, 2007[1999]). In addition to the
similarities between the two theoretical models outlined in section 2.2.8, which serve to reinforce the
discussion in favor of their joint use, the present research will present another argument in order to further
substantiate such an approach. Namely, while the CBT model offers obvious advantages for practical analyses,
the CMT framework remains indispensable for the purposes of corpus construction. The use of the CBT model
in this process would be too time-consuming and impractical, since corpus construction requires the
identification of specific conceptualizations, and the conceptual keys that they belong to. This is achieved by
identifying metaphor keywords or key expressions, which are then grouped according to the conceptual
metaphors and keys they instantiate. Therefore, the CMT framework alone satisfies the needs of corpus
construction. Issues like, for instance, the form of emergent structure, are not necessary at this point, and, as
already suggested, would in fact halt the entire process. In brief, the value of the CMT framework in corpus
construction further reinforces the idea of its concomitant use with the CBT model. Such an approach will
facilitate both the process of corpus construction, and yield more elaborate and systematic results when it
comes to metaphor analysis. Additionally, apart from the nature of cognitive processes that underlie metaphor
as a phenomenon, CMT can serve to provide a further account of its sociocultural dimension.
General Discussion
141
Conclusion
142
143
Conclusion
second group would be primed for negative affect by listening to a stressful song, while the third group could
be primed for positive affect by listening to a relaxing song. Such priming would constitute a part of the
immediate context, and further statistical analyses of the obtained results could serve to determine to what
extent the priming procedure influenced the participants reactions. This would in turn reveal the importance of
the immediate context in the construction of emotional experience.
Additionally, further research could also benefit from a more aggressive, and a more hi-tech
interdisciplinary approach that would include the measurements of the N400 evoked potentials during
exposure to metaphors extracted from the political discourse. Such measurements, coupled with well though
out EEG or fMRI studies could serve to further explore the specific neural circuitries in charge of metaphorical
language processing. In the context of emotional reaction measurements, in addition to the self-report
measurements conducted via appropriate questionnaires, the research could also include a set of neurophysiological measurements, following the methodological guidelines presented in Nei et al. (2009; 2010).
This way, the results obtained from self-reports could be cross-referenced against a set of more objective
recordings of somatosensory reactions.
Future research in the domain of the CBT should also attempt to move in the direction of a firmer
empirical grounding. Namely, although there are circumstantial evidence that, for example, support the notion
of highly specified frames in the form of situated conceptualizations (Barsalou, 2009), the greater part of the
theoretical framework still continues to hover over the phenomena that it describes, and the concepts that it
utilizes. Apart from the more exotic laboratory approaches described in the previous paragraph, perhaps a lowtech alternative in the form of simple questionnaires might also do the trick.
*
In conclusion, the CBT framework poses as a very powerful tool that can shed more light onto the
mysterious processes that take place in the human mind during meaning and emotion construction in the
context of conceptual metaphors. The results presented in this research reveal an intrinsic link between the
emotional and semantic meaning, thereby suggesting that both dimensions are required in order for the
complete human scale experience to be built. Further research in the field, as well as future interdisciplinary
endeavors should provide additional insights into these processes. In the meantime, the blending paradigm
continues its evolutionary path.
References
144
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Appendix A
Appendix A Questionnaire 1
150
Appendix A
151
Appendix B
Appendix B Questionnaire 2
152
Appendix B
153
Appendix C
Appendix C Questionnaire 3
154
Appendix C
155
Appendix D
Appendix D - Questionnaire 4
156
Appendix D
157