Zoltán Kövecses
Biographic Data
| ID | 763206 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zoltán Kövecses |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zoltán |
| FAMILY NAME | Kövecses |
| SIGNATURE | KÖVECSES Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Eötvös Loránd University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9642-4662 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 252 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 53 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Universality versus variation in the conceptualization of anger: A question of methodology
Cognitive linguistic investigations into the metaphorical conceptualization of anger suggest that languages are remarkably similar on a schematic level, with intensity and control as two, possibly universal dimensions underlying the metaphorical conceptualization of anger. These dimensions, however, can manifest themselves in language-specific metaphors. Yet arriving at a definitive answer to the question of universality versus variation is hinde…
Testesültség (embodiment) a nyelvben és gondolkodásban – kognitív nyelvészeti megközelítés
A tanulmány arra a kérdésre igyekszik választ adni, hogyan tesszük világunkat és a nyelvet a magunk számára értelmezhetővé. A kérdést a kognitív nyelvészet szemszögéből válaszoljuk meg, amely szerint a világ és a nyelv értelmezésében és értelmezhetővé tételében a képi sémáknak elsődleges szerepük van. A képi sémák szerepét elsősorban a metaforákon vizsgáljuk meg, és azt kérdezzük, hogy a képi sémákra épülő metaforák univerzálisak-e vagy sem. Enne…
Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory
The phenomenon known as metaphor is an extremely complex mental event - we cannot capture its complexity if we tie ourselves to existing standard views on metaphor. This book offers fresh insight into metaphor, updating an established theory, conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), in the context of current cognitive linguistic theory, and clarifying many of the issues that researchers in the study of metaphor have raised against conceptual metaphor th…
The power (and problem) of money
In the paper, I examine what English idioms related to money reveal about the conceptualization of money. Most money-related idioms in English are based on metaphor. Working with conceptual metaphor theory, I suggest that money idioms in English rely especially on two conceptual metaphors: MONEY IS A MOVING SUBSTANCE / OBJECT / LIQUID and MONEY IS A FORCE. It is well-known that both in everyday talk and expert communication money is conceived of …
Metaphor universals in literature
In the paper, I address the issue of metaphor universals in poetry only – leaving aside the genre of the novel. This decision is the result of practical considerations, rather than any theoretical reasons. Within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory, a lot more work has been done on poetry than on the novel, probably mostly because a pioneering study on metaphor by Lakoff and Turner (1989) also focused on poetry. Conceptual metaphor consis…
Levels of metaphor
What is the appropriate conceptual structure involved in conceptual metaphors? Various authors offer a large number of terms to discuss the issue. While domain is the most common term, many others are also used, including frame, image schema, cognitive model, idealized cognitive model, scene, schema, scenario, etc. The problem is compounded by the fact that the terms mean different things to different researchers. The main goal of the paper is to…
Where Metaphors Come From: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor
In Where Metaphors Come From, Zoltán Kövecses proposes a metaphorical grounding that augments and refines conceptual metaphor theory according to which conceptual metaphors are based on our bodily experience. While this is certainly true in many cases of metaphor, the role of the body in metaphor creation can and should be reinterpreted, and, consequently, the body can be seen as just one of the several contexts from which metaphors can emerge (i…
The Metaphor-Metonymy Relationship: Correlation Metaphors Are Based on Metonymy
Do metonymies play any role in the emergence of metaphors? There is a debate between scholars who suggest that many metaphors are based on, or derive from, metonymies, versus those who do not see such connection between the two. "Resemblance metaphors" do not seem to have anything to do with metonymy. However, in the case of "correlation metaphors" (see, e.g., Grady, 1997a Grady, J. 1997a. Foundations of meaning: Primary metaphors and primary sce…
Culture and Language
I propose that both culture and language are about how human beings make meaning in the world. I briefly introduce various cognitive mechanisms that human being use in making sense of their experiences. Given such mechanisms as categorization, framing, and metaphor, and so on, I discuss three examples of meaning making
A new look at metaphorical creativity in cognitive linguistics
Where do we recruit novel and unconventional conceptual materials from when we speak, think and act metaphorically, and why? This question has been partially answered in the cognitive linguistic literature but, in my view, a crucial aspect of it has been left out of consideration or not dealt with in the depth it deserves: it is the effect of various kinds of context on metaphorical conceptualization. Of these, I examine the following: (1) the im…
Metaphor, creativity, and discourse
On the "standard" view of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Kövecses 2002), metaphorical creativity arises from the cognitive processes of extending, elaboration, questioning, and combining conceptual content in the source domain (Lakoff and Turner 1989). I will propose that such cases constitute only a part of metaphorical creativity. An equally important and common set of cases is comprised by what I call "context-induced" metaphor…
Metaphor, language, and culture
Culture and language are connected in a myriad ways. Proverbs, rules of turn-taking in conversations, pronouns of power and solidarity, background knowledge to the understanding of conversations, politeness, linguistic relativity, the principle of cooperation, metaphor, metonymy, context, semantic change, discourse, ideology, print culture, oral culture, literacy, sociolinguistics, speech acts, and so forth, are just some of the concepts in which…
On Metaphors for Emotion: A Reply to Ayako Omori (2008)
Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation
To what extent and in what ways is metaphorical thought relevant to an understanding of culture and society? More specifically: 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 …
A broad view of cognitive linguistics
Cognitive linguistics can offer an account not only of linguistic structure but also of a wide variety of social and cultural phenomena. The comprehensive account presented in this paper is crucially based and dependent on cognitive capacities that human understanders and producers of language possess quite independently of their ability to use language. By discussing the cognitive processes and the various linguistic, social and cultural issues …
Language, Figurative Thought, and Cross-Cultural Comparison
Commentary is provided on essays in a special issue of Metaphor and Symbol titled Cross-Cultural Differences in Conceptual Metaphor: Applied Linguistics Perspectives. The 10 components of metaphor envisioned in conceptual metaphor theory are explicated, & two issues raised by authors are highlighted. (1) The complexity of the relation between conceptual metaphors & metaphoric expressions is schematized cross-linguistically in terms of different w…
Metaphorical Entailments
So far we have seen that conceptual metaphors consist of a set of mappings between a source and a target. Certain aspects of the source and those of the target are brought into correspondence with each other in such a way that constituent elements of the source correspond to constituent elements of the target.
Common Source and Target Domains
It was shown in the previous chapter that conceptual metaphors consist of a source domain and a target domain, as well as a set of mappings between them. It was also noted that the source domains are typically more concrete or physical and more clearly delineated concepts than the targets, which tend to be fairly abstract and less delineated ones. What, then, are the most commonly used source and target domains? In other words, which clearly deli…
Metaphor Systems
In the preceding chapters, we have seen overwhelming evidence for the view that metaphorical linguistic expressions cluster together to form systems that we called conceptual metaphors. What remains to be seen now is whether the conceptual metaphors themselves form even larger systems. In other words, in this chapter I will ask whether the conceptual metaphors are isolated from each other, or whether they fit together to make up larger systematic…
Metaphor in Literature
What is the relationship between the metaphors used in ordinary language and those used in literature, including poetry? Do literary metaphors constitute a distinct and independent category from ordinary metaphors? There is a widespread notion among lay people and scholars alike that the “real” source of metaphor is in literature and the arts. It is believed that it is the creative genius of the poet and the artist that creates the most authentic…
Another Figure: Metonymy
Metaphor is not the only “figure of speech” that plays an important role in our cognitive activities. In this chapter, I will discuss an equally significant other “trope”: metonymy. In addition to characterizing metonymy, I will also show that metaphor and metonymy, although clearly distinct, are related in several interesting ways.
Nonlinguistic Realizations of Conceptual Metaphors
As has been emphasized so far, metaphors are conceptual in nature. It was shown, furthermore, that conceptual metaphors have linguistic manifestations. We have called these manifestations metaphorical linguistic expressions. But if metaphors are primarily conceptual, then they must manifest themselves in other than linguistic ways. That is, if the conceptual system that governs how we experience the world, how we think, and how we act is partly m…
Metaphor, Metonymy, and Idioms
Of the many potential applications of the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor and metonymy to the study of language, we single out one in this chapter: the treatment of idioms. We have chosen idioms because this is a notoriously difficult area of foreign language learning and teaching. If the cognitive linguistic view can significantly contribute to this area, it would clearly show the practical and applied linguistic potential of the theory of…
Cultural Variation in Metaphor and Metonymy
It is to be expected that, in addition to universality, there will also be cultural variation in metaphor and metonymy. How does this happen precisely and why? Given a particular abstract target domain, what kind of variation can we expect in the metaphorical conceptualization of that domain?
The Basis of Metaphor
Our conceptual system contains thousands of concrete and thousands of abstract concepts. We noted, furthermore, that in the cognitive linguistic view metaphors are sets of mappings between a more concrete or physical source domain and a more abstract target domain. This situation raises the issue whether any concrete concept can serve as a source domain for any target concept. In other words, can we make use of any concrete concept in the process…
Metaphor: A Practical Introduction
This clear and lucid primer fills an important need by providing a comprehensive account of the many new developments in the study of metaphor over the last twenty years and their impact on our understanding of language, culture, and the mind. Beginning with Lakoff and Johnson's seminal work in Metaphors We Live By, Kövecses outlines the development of "the cognitive linguistic theory of metaphor" by explaining key ideas on metaphor. He also expl…
Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view
Metaphors of anger, pride and love. A lexical approach to the structure of concepts
Levels of metaphor
What is the appropriate conceptual structure involved in conceptual metaphors? Various authors offer a large number of terms to discuss the issue. While domain is the most common term, many others are also used, including frame, image schema, cognitive model, idealized cognitive model, scene, schema, scenario, etc. The problem is compounded by the fact that the terms mean different things to different researchers. The main goal of the paper is to…
A new look at metaphorical creativity in cognitive linguistics
Where do we recruit novel and unconventional conceptual materials from when we speak, think and act metaphorically, and why? This question has been partially answered in the cognitive linguistic literature but, in my view, a crucial aspect of it has been left out of consideration or not dealt with in the depth it deserves: it is the effect of various kinds of context on metaphorical conceptualization. Of these, I examine the following: (1) the im…
The Metaphor-Metonymy Relationship: Correlation Metaphors Are Based on Metonymy
Do metonymies play any role in the emergence of metaphors? There is a debate between scholars who suggest that many metaphors are based on, or derive from, metonymies, versus those who do not see such connection between the two. "Resemblance metaphors" do not seem to have anything to do with metonymy. However, in the case of "correlation metaphors" (see, e.g., Grady, 1997a Grady, J. 1997a. Foundations of meaning: Primary metaphors and primary sce…
A Linguist's Quest for Love
So far, love has not been studied from an explicitly linguistic point of view. The paper attempts to provide a systematic linguistic examination of romantic love. The approach is based on Kövecses's (1986, 1990) view of emotion concepts, which maintains that emotion concepts in general, and the concept of love in particular, can be seen as comprising four parts: a system of metaphors, a system of metonymies, a set of related concepts and a set of…
Hungarian Piros and Vörös: Color from points of view
Les As. proposent une etude des deux termes utilises en hongrois pour designer la couleur rouge : piros et voros. Afin de determiner si ce sont des termes de couleur basique ou non, ils ont interroge 9 sujets a Budapest en utilisant la procedure tripartite de Munsell pour l'eclatement des couleurs. Bien que les donnees suggerent que piros soit basique et que voros ne soit pas basique, la relation entre ces termes demande de specifier comment defi…
American friendship and the scope of metaphor
Metaphor, language, and culture
Culture and language are connected in a myriad ways. Proverbs, rules of turn-taking in conversations, pronouns of power and solidarity, background knowledge to the understanding of conversations, politeness, linguistic relativity, the principle of cooperation, metaphor, metonymy, context, semantic change, discourse, ideology, print culture, oral culture, literacy, sociolinguistics, speech acts, and so forth, are just some of the concepts in which…
Toward the Semantics of Sport
Toward the Semantics of Sport
Metaphors of Anger, Pride and Love: A lexical approach to the structure of concepts
This study is an attempt to uncover the structure of three emotion concepts: anger, pride and love. The results indicate that the conceptual structure associated with these emotions consists of four parts: (1) a system of metaphors, (2) a system of metonymies, (3) a system of related concepts, and (4) a category of cognitive models, with a prototypical model in the center. This goes against an influential view of the structure of concepts in ling…
The cognitive model of anger inherent in American English
Emotions are often considered to be feelings alone, and as such they are viewed as being devoid of conceptual content. As a result, the study of emotions is usually not taken seriously by students of semantics and conceptual structure. A topic such as The Logic of Emotions would seem on this view to be a contradiction in terms, since emotions, being devoid of conceptual content, would give rise to no inferences at all, or at least none of any int…
Metaphors of Anger, Pride and Love: A Lexical Approach to the Structure of Concepts
Metaphors of anger, pride and love. A lexical approach to the structure of concepts
Emotion Concepts
Happiness: A Definitional Effort
The general purpose of this article is twofold: first, to characterize the concept of happiness, and second, to show what is involved in doing so. To accomplish these goals, a large part of this article is concerned with identifying the conceptual metaphors of happiness in the spirit of Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Lakoff and Kövecses (1983) considerably improved on this analysis by showing how, in addition to the metaphors, metonymies also play a …
Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and Their Challenge to Western Theory (Book)
(1991). Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and Their Challenge to Western Theory (Book) Metaphor and Symbolic Activity: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 223-225
A Linguist's Quest for Love
So far, love has not been studied from an explicitly linguistic point of view. The paper attempts to provide a systematic linguistic examination of romantic love. The approach is based on Kövecses's (1986, 1990) view of emotion concepts, which maintains that emotion concepts in general, and the concept of love in particular, can be seen as comprising four parts: a system of metaphors, a system of metonymies, a set of related concepts and a set of…
Tocqueville's Passionate "Beast": A Linguistic Analysis of The Concept of American Democracy
In this article I argue that Tocqueville's view of democracy in Democracy in America (1835/1987) is in large measure given content and structure by the metaphor theme "DEMOCRACY IS A (PASSIONATE) PERSON." The analysis of Tocqueville's metaphors reveals that he saw American democracy as a highly defective system in which a dangerous social force needs to be controlled by other social forces. This result goes against the commonly held view that Toc…
American friendship and the scope of metaphor
Idioms: A View from Cognitive Semantics
According to the most common definition, idioms are linguistic expressions whose overall meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent parts Although we agree with the traditional view that there is no complete predictability, we suggest that there is a great deal of systematic conceptual motivation for the meaning of most idioms Since most idioms are based on conceptual metaphors and metonymies, systematic motivation arises fr…
Hungarian Piros and Vörös: Color from points of view
Les As. proposent une etude des deux termes utilises en hongrois pour designer la couleur rouge : piros et voros. Afin de determiner si ce sont des termes de couleur basique ou non, ils ont interroge 9 sujets a Budapest en utilisant la procedure tripartite de Munsell pour l'eclatement des couleurs. Bien que les donnees suggerent que piros soit basique et que voros ne soit pas basique, la relation entre ces termes demande de specifier comment defi…
Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view
Towards a Theory of Metonymy
Metaphorical Entailments
So far we have seen that conceptual metaphors consist of a set of mappings between a source and a target. Certain aspects of the source and those of the target are brought into correspondence with each other in such a way that constituent elements of the source correspond to constituent elements of the target.
Common Source and Target Domains
It was shown in the previous chapter that conceptual metaphors consist of a source domain and a target domain, as well as a set of mappings between them. It was also noted that the source domains are typically more concrete or physical and more clearly delineated concepts than the targets, which tend to be fairly abstract and less delineated ones. What, then, are the most commonly used source and target domains? In other words, which clearly deli…
Metaphor Systems
In the preceding chapters, we have seen overwhelming evidence for the view that metaphorical linguistic expressions cluster together to form systems that we called conceptual metaphors. What remains to be seen now is whether the conceptual metaphors themselves form even larger systems. In other words, in this chapter I will ask whether the conceptual metaphors are isolated from each other, or whether they fit together to make up larger systematic…
Metaphor in Literature
What is the relationship between the metaphors used in ordinary language and those used in literature, including poetry? Do literary metaphors constitute a distinct and independent category from ordinary metaphors? There is a widespread notion among lay people and scholars alike that the “real” source of metaphor is in literature and the arts. It is believed that it is the creative genius of the poet and the artist that creates the most authentic…
Another Figure: Metonymy
Metaphor is not the only “figure of speech” that plays an important role in our cognitive activities. In this chapter, I will discuss an equally significant other “trope”: metonymy. In addition to characterizing metonymy, I will also show that metaphor and metonymy, although clearly distinct, are related in several interesting ways.
Nonlinguistic Realizations of Conceptual Metaphors
As has been emphasized so far, metaphors are conceptual in nature. It was shown, furthermore, that conceptual metaphors have linguistic manifestations. We have called these manifestations metaphorical linguistic expressions. But if metaphors are primarily conceptual, then they must manifest themselves in other than linguistic ways. That is, if the conceptual system that governs how we experience the world, how we think, and how we act is partly m…
Metaphor, Metonymy, and Idioms
Of the many potential applications of the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor and metonymy to the study of language, we single out one in this chapter: the treatment of idioms. We have chosen idioms because this is a notoriously difficult area of foreign language learning and teaching. If the cognitive linguistic view can significantly contribute to this area, it would clearly show the practical and applied linguistic potential of the theory of…
Cultural Variation in Metaphor and Metonymy
It is to be expected that, in addition to universality, there will also be cultural variation in metaphor and metonymy. How does this happen precisely and why? Given a particular abstract target domain, what kind of variation can we expect in the metaphorical conceptualization of that domain?
The Basis of Metaphor
Our conceptual system contains thousands of concrete and thousands of abstract concepts. We noted, furthermore, that in the cognitive linguistic view metaphors are sets of mappings between a more concrete or physical source domain and a more abstract target domain. This situation raises the issue whether any concrete concept can serve as a source domain for any target concept. In other words, can we make use of any concrete concept in the process…
The Universality of Conceptual Metaphors
Are there any conceptual metaphors that can be found in all languages and cultures? This is an extremely difficult question to answer, considering that there are more than 4,000 languages spoken currently around the world. Our best bet to begin to understand this issue is to look at some conceptual metaphors that one can find in some language and then check whether the same metaphors exist in typologically very different languages. If they do occ…
Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (44 works) · Philosophy (43 works) · Linguistics (40 works) · Psychology (37 works) · Metaphor (32 works) · Computer Science (26 works) · Epistemology (23 works) · Cognitive science (22 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Conceptual metaphor (19 works)