For March 11

Download the pdf file Metaphors We Live By and the Word file "Questions to Metaphors We Live By". Answer the questions (typed) on the basis of the reading and bring the worksheet to the next lesson.

For March 18

Read Chap 1 of Koevecses Metaphor: Practical Introduction and do the exercises at the end of the chapter. Download the file "Metaphor identification exercise". Label the words in at least half of the text. We can complete the procedure in pairs in class.

For March 25

Read Chap 2 of K's Metaphor and do the exercises. K's ex. no. 5 asks you to identify the common source and target domains you find in Malcom X's "Ballot or Bullet" speech. You should cover only the first two pages or so (see Resources folder) and try to analyze the text in some detail.

For April 1

a) Read Chap 3 of Metaphor and do the exercises on p. 47. Do not do exercise 4.

b) Download Evans A Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics (Resources folder). Read the entries on Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Metaphor and Metonymy. Determine whether the sentences below illustrate metaphor, metonymy or borderline cases (the first few are from last week’s assignment, the rest from later in the same speech).

1.       We’re going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet.

2.       Time has run out.

3.       All of us have suffered political oppression at the hands of the white man.

4.       These 22 million victims are waking up.

5.      So it's time in 1964 to wake up. And when you see them coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open.

6.      And when you expel him, you've removed one of the obstacles in the path of any real meaningful legislation in this country.

7.      And I love my Brother Lomax, the way he pointed out we're right back where we were in 1954.

8.       I don't usually deal with those big words [reciprocal] because I don't usually deal with big people. I deal with small people.

c) Choose one source domain from Chap 2 of Metaphor, e.g. plants, machines and tools, food. Go to WordNet and collect a small bank of three or four words you think might produce results, i.e. are likely to have figurative uses. Go to the BNC and decide on one or two that you think might be more productive than the others, carrying out different kinds of search. Make notes on your investigations and include them with the solutions to the exercises above.

For April 8

Students should begin consolidating what we have done so far. For those who have not already discovered it, there is a section in the book with Solutions to Exercises, pp. 331ff. There is also a Glossary, pp. 323ff. Check ‘Conventionality of metaphor’ and other expressions you think you need a better understanding of. I mentioned the short article by Bailey at the beginning of the lesson. You might want to take a look. In this connection you may find some interesting ideas in chapters 15 and 16 of the text book.

You should decide on a conceptual metaphor that you have not read about in detail. This may come from the Master Metaphor List, from the Metaphor and Metonymy Index in the book (pp.369ff.), or from another source. Be prepared to motivate your choice. Begin gathering a word bank for corpus searches. Remember to select mostly concrete vocabulary items. Bring in corpus data, at least some as print outs (not only on screen) so you can hand them in. Next week we will practice analysing the data, keeping in mind the Pragglejaz criteria on p. 5.