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Figurative Language: The Case of Evaluative Adjectives

Figurative Language: The Case of Evaluative Adjectives. Ioanna Karatsori MA in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics School of English Thessaloniki Cognitive Linguistics Reading Group. Focus and Aim of the Study.  composite structures consisting of evaluative adjectives and nouns

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Figurative Language: The Case of Evaluative Adjectives

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  1. Figurative Language: The Case of Evaluative Adjectives IoannaKaratsori MA in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics School of English Thessaloniki Cognitive Linguistics Reading Group

  2. Focus and Aim of the Study •  composite structures consisting of evaluative adjectives and nouns • Greek discourse, specifically headlines of Greek newspapers commenting on current political and financial affairs of Greece • Aim  give insight into the metaphoricity and metonymicity through the use of adjectives

  3. Focus and Aim of the Study • framework of Cognitive Grammar -> grammatical constructions are not ‘‘formal system[s] or level[s] of representation’’ operating in an autonomous way (Langacker, 2007: 444) • Hypothesis: dynamicity of composite structure is licensed by the figurative processes operating in the adjective

  4. Example (1) farmakerospolemos ‘venomous war’ ‘‘venomous war concerning medicine’’ (Η Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών, 27/11/2013) • both ‘war’ and ‘venomous’ activated in the mind of hearer/reader • ‘war’  metaphor => disorderly situation, without arming • ‘venomous’  metaphor with a metonymic basis  unfavourable emotions arise

  5. Example (1) farmakerospolemos ‘venomous war’ ‘‘venomous war concerning medicine’’ • Blending occurs  expectations created immediately about the type of war taking place • Not only a war that concerns medicine, but also connected with bitter experience, bears negative/detrimental consequences for the people involved too

  6. Example (1) farmakerospolemos ‘venomous war’ ‘‘venomous war concerning medicine’’ • ‘‘adjectives do not always assign a property to their head noun but may assign a property to a metonymically related entity’’ (Radden and Dirven, 2007: 148) • Thus: role of adjective ‘venomous’  not only to characterize what type of war this is, but also to make reference to people affected

  7. Example (1) farmakerospolemos ‘venomous war’ ‘‘venomous war concerning medicine’’ • Effect of another construction?? • farmakeftikospolemos • ‘‘pharmaceutical war’’ • polemostufarmaku • ‘‘the war of the medicine’’

  8. Example (2) aγoreoserotas ‘market love’ ‘‘prostitution’’(Το Χωνί, 13/04/2014) • Blending / two meanings activated: • 1) love/strong desire for entering the market competition (Greek spelling plays an important role here) • 2) prostitution (due to the meaning of that composite structure as a fixed phrase)

  9. Example (2) aγoreoserotas ‘market love’ ‘‘prostitution’’ • Second meaning activated due to the adjective  standpoint of the writer : corruption, immorality • Otherwise: another structure would have been selected (e.g. erotas/epiθimiaγiatis aγores, ‘‘love/desire to enter the market competition’’)

  10. Example (3) sok me mavropetreleo ‘shock with black oil’ ‘‘illegal oil purchase has brought about shock’’ (Δημοκρατία, 20/02/2014) • mavro/black  not a colour term, but an evaluative adjective • BLACK IS BAD/ILLEGAL metaphor: • domain of color/light  domain of political/financial activity • Figuratively used adjective black seems more striking than ‘illegal oil purchase’  metaphoricity, in this case, intensifies the evaluation

  11. Example (4) γalaziopartiekatomirion se MKO ‘light blue party million-GEN PL to NGO’ ‘‘millions of Euros gained through NGO by right political party’’(Ελευθεροτυπία, 27/02/2014) • γalazio/light blue: not a colour term, evaluation • it metonymically leads us to the party of the right political wing in Greece, which has been equated in the conceptualization of every Greek citizen with the blue colour

  12. Example (4) γalaziopartiekatomirion se MKO ‘light blue party million-GEN PL to NGO’ ‘‘millions of Euros gained through NGO by right political party’’ • Role of the adjective: really successfully, yet implicitly, put the blame on a certain political party for the situation described, personal evaluation on the part of the author, still more effective than explicit description (e.g. ‘‘amounts of money given to NGO taken by the right political party’’)

  13. Example (5) skotinapexniδiapanoapotiskalpes ‘dark games over the ballot-boxes’ ‘‘illegal/immoral arrangements about the elections’’ (Ελεύθερος Τύπος, 06/04/2014) • skotina/dark: metaphor: • domain of light  domain of morality • DARK IS ILLEGAL/IMMORAL metaphor • Any other construction?? • Anything else, even if pertaining to the metaphor, would not have the same effect (e.g. pexniδiatuskotus / ‘‘games of the dark’’)

  14. Example (6) δolofonikomnimonio ‘murderous memorandum’ ‘‘murderous memorandum’’ (Ο Λόγος, 22/05/2013) • δolofoniko / murderous : metaphor => cross-domain mapping from the domain of war/death to the domain of politics • POLITICS IS WAR metaphor • Figuratively used adjective expresses a certain viewpoint really strongly, arousing unfavourable emotions to the hearer/reader

  15. Example (7) sapiosistima ‘rotten system’ ‘‘corrupt system’’(Ελευθεροτυπία, 18/12/2013) • sapio/ rotten  usually employed in the domain of food or physical decomposition  to the domain of politics/political system • strong evaluative adjective that accomplishes through the blending of the different domains to make a value judgement that would not in any other way have the same effect • e.g. ‘corrupt system’ / ‘system that is being decomposed’

  16. Example (8) <<ageliki>> stiriksi,δiavolikilitotita ‘angelic support devilish austerity’ ‘‘support by Angela Merkel, which is supposed to be beneficial, versus actual austerity’’(Real News, 24/11/2013) • spelling: of vast importance – homophones  metonymically connected • two interpretations made available: angelic => beneficial, angelic => related to Angela Merkel  blending • Highly figurative evaluative adjective, reinforced by the contrast

  17. Concluding Remarks • Examples of composite structures with a high level of metaphoricity and metonymicity involved in the evaluative adjectives used • Figurative processes contribute considerably: dynamic expressions that accomplish in a remarkable manner to transmit their meaning clearly and effortlessly • Deeply entrenched cognitive processes, such as metaphor and metonymy • Their application to grammatical structures

  18. References • Langacker, Ronald W. (2007). An Introduction to Cognitive Grammar. In Vyvyan Evans, Benjamin Bergen and JörgZinken (Eds.) The Cognitive Linguistics Reader. 444-480. London, Oakville: Equinox. • Radden, Günter and René Dirven (2007). Cognitive English Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. • Greek newspapers: - Η Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών - Το Χωνί - Δημοκρατία - Ελευθεροτυπία - Ελεύθερος Τύπος - Ο Λόγος - Real News

  19. Thank you for your attention!

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