Schemas d'extension metaphorique : a partir de l'analyse des contenus et des organisations conceptuels de certaines unites lexicales se referant a la lumiere

Abstract

The present work is situated within the paradigm of Cognitive Linguistics, whose major claim is that language constitutes an integral part of human cognition. This trend was created at the end of the 1970s and is represented by the work of Ronald Langacker, George Lakoff, Gilles Fauconnier, and Mark Turner. One of the areas of interest within this trend is the phenomenon of metaphor, which is also the subject of the present thesis. The first, theoretical part, begins with an account of the basic assumptions of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which played a significant role in the study of metaphor. This theory was introduced by Lakoff and Johnson in the book Metaphors We Live By. In it, the authors also put forward a claim about the central role of metaphor in language and cognition. This theory has been both further developed by such scholars as Zoltan Kövecses, Joseph Grady, Raymond Gibbs, or Mark Turner, and also modified under the influence of the Blending Theory by Fauconnier and Turner. The second chapter of the theoretical part is devoted to the main assumptions of Cognitive Grammar formulated by Langacker. Within this complex theory of language, metaphor is primarily viewed as a type of semantic extension entailing a change of domain. The most significant role in such extensions is played by the abstract, schematic structures emerging from them. A juxtaposition of these two theories in the third chapter allows the author to observe the superiority of Langacker’s theory. It permits an account of the phenomenon of metaphor in all complexity — from metaphorical extensions of single linguistic units to highly schematic structures called patterns of metaphorical extension. The aim of the second part of the book is an application of Cognitive Grammar tools to an analysis of metaphorical extensions of selected French lexemes. On this basis, the author arrives at the schematic structures emerging from these extensions. Taking into consideration one of the major claims of Cognitive Grammar — that all generalizations arise as schematizations of more specific structures — the research begins with an analysis of the conceptual content and organization of each of the selected items. The object of the analysis is the item lumière (light) and other selected lexemes referring to light. At the first stage, the object of the analysis is these lexemes’ conceptual content and the particular way of construing that content in the domain of visual perception, that is, the domain which constitutes the standard in the categorizing relationships described in further parts of the publication. Due to an application of Cognitive Grammar tools, it is possible to point to similarities and differences between the analyzed items at the level of their profile, base, and the immediate and maximal scope. The consequent analysis of the extensions of the above-mentioned items to other domains (auditory, intellectual, social, emotional, and moral) allows the author to arrive at a whole system of structures which are schematic in relation to these extensions. Among these, at the highest level of schematicity, the following patterns of metaphorical extension are enumerated: [WHAT CONCERNS LIGHT] ---> [WHAT CONCERNS AUDITORY SENSATIONS], [WHAT CONCERNS LIGHT] ---> [WHAT CONCERNS EXPERIENCES RELATED TO KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING] and [WHAT CONCERNS LIGHT] ---> [WHAT CONCERNS EXPERIENCES IN THE EMOTIONAL AND MORAL SPHERE]. Each of the above patterns is described along with the matrix of domains which can be activated by particular extensions as well as with the bodily and cultural knowledge constituting the background for these extensions. With the adoption of Langacker’s definition, according to which metaphorical extensions involve a change of domain, it is possible to call these schemas metaphorical patterns. However, the author notes important discrepancies concerning the relations between the standard and target of the above patterns. These discrepancies, which are sometimes classified in the literature as metonymical or metaphorical, are approached in the book by means of cognitive distance. The analysis also enables the author to make some observations concerning the axiological dimension which can be evoked by some of the patterns’ instantiations.