Metaphor and Lexical Semantics

Metaphor and Lexical Semantics

ABSTRACT: This paper shows that several sorts of expressions cannot be interpreted metaphorically, including determiners, tenses, etc. Generally, functional categories cannot be interpreted metaphorically, while lexical categories can. This reveals a semantic property of functional categories, and i...

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Main Author: Michael Glanzberg
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: New Prairie Press 2008-08-01
Series:The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/biyclc.v3i0.14
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spelling doaj-565500a38232427abfec97ffabac30352021-06-30T19:33:17ZengNew Prairie PressThe Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication1944-36762008-08-01310.4148/biyclc.v3i0.14Metaphor and Lexical SemanticsMichael GlanzbergABSTRACT: This paper shows that several sorts of expressions cannot be interpreted metaphorically, including determiners, tenses, etc. Generally, functional categories cannot be interpreted metaphorically, while lexical categories can. This reveals a semantic property of functional categories, and it shows that metaphor can be used as a probe for investigating them. It also reveals an important linguistic constraint on metaphor. The paper argues this constraint applies to the interface between the cognitive systems for language and metaphor. However, the constraint does not completely prevent structural elements of language from being available to the metaphor system. The paper shows that linguistic structure within the lexicon, specifically, aspectual structure, is available to the metaphor system. http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/biyclc.v3i0.14
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Michael Glanzberg
spellingShingle Michael Glanzberg
Metaphor and Lexical Semantics
The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication
author_facet Michael Glanzberg
author_sort Michael Glanzberg
title Metaphor and Lexical Semantics
title_short Metaphor and Lexical Semantics
title_full Metaphor and Lexical Semantics
title_fullStr Metaphor and Lexical Semantics
title_full_unstemmed Metaphor and Lexical Semantics
title_sort metaphor and lexical semantics
publisher New Prairie Press
series The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication
issn 1944-3676
publishDate 2008-08-01
description ABSTRACT: This paper shows that several sorts of expressions cannot be interpreted metaphorically, including determiners, tenses, etc. Generally, functional categories cannot be interpreted metaphorically, while lexical categories can. This reveals a semantic property of functional categories, and it shows that metaphor can be used as a probe for investigating them. It also reveals an important linguistic constraint on metaphor. The paper argues this constraint applies to the interface between the cognitive systems for language and metaphor. However, the constraint does not completely prevent structural elements of language from being available to the metaphor system. The paper shows that linguistic structure within the lexicon, specifically, aspectual structure, is available to the metaphor system.
url http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/biyclc.v3i0.14
work_keys_str_mv AT michaelglanzberg metaphorandlexicalsemantics
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