Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation

by Zoltán Kövecses

To what extent and in what ways is metaphorical thought relevant to an understanding of culture and society? More can the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor simultaneously explain both universality and diversity in metaphorical thought? Cognitive linguists have done important work on universal aspects of metaphor, but they have paid much less attention to why metaphors vary both interculturally and intraculturally as extensively as they do. In this book, Zoltán Kövecses proposes a new theory of metaphor variation. First, he identifies the major dimension of metaphor variation, that is, those social and cultural boundaries that signal discontinuities in human experience. Second, he describes which components, or aspects of conceptual metaphor are involved in metaphor variation, and how they are involved. Third, he isolates the main causes of metaphor variation. Fourth Professor Kövecses addresses the issue to the degree of cultural coherence in the interplay among conceptual metaphors, embodiment, and causes of metaphor variation.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language, Cultural

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[Sean Stalley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book that explores the various aspects of metaphor variation throughout cultures. Though it is a little redundant, I find that this only cements the ideas presented. It appears to be based on several of his earlier journal articles and is simply a synthesis of the ideas he has presented before, though many of the more useful examples have been left out. (they are easily found by searching his papers for the last five years or so)