PRISTUPI POJMOVNOJ METAFORI

Abstract

This paper presents a set of possible contemporary approaches to the study of metaphor. Although undoubtedly most propulsive, Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual (or cognitive) metaphor theory is only one of several metaphor models. Conceptual metaphor theory postulates that metaphor is a phenomenon of thought which is manifest in language. According to this approach, metaphor is understanding abstract conceptual domains (where domain is any coherent organization of human experience) in terms of more concrete source domains. In Fauconnier and Turner’s blending theory meaning is constructed through building of a number of mental spaces and establishment of mappings between them. Contrary to these two approaches, in Glucksberg’s class-inclusion model of metaphor, properties of the source category are attributed to the target category not by means of mappings but through class inclusion. Bowdle and Gentner’s ‘career of metaphor’ theory highlights the importance of metaphor conventionality. In Cameron’s ‘discourse dynamics’ approach metaphor is explored through analysis of discourse. It is perceived and used as a tool which helps uncover attitudes and values. Relevance theorists, on the other end of the spectrum, see metaphor as ‘loose talk’ understood via pragmatic inferential processes. Critical metaphor analysis explores how metaphors shape not only human thought and language, but also our beliefs, values and actions. The range of available approaches to metaphor suggests that no single approach can exhaustively capture this multifaceted phenomenon.