Contrastive lexicology 3. Studying metaphor with the british national corpus (BNC)

1. Contrastive Lexicology 3

CONTRASTIVE
LEXICOLOGY 3
STUDYING METAPHOR WITH THE BRITISH NATIONAL
CORPUS (BNC)

2. Corpus-based language studies

CORPUS-BASED LANGUAGE STUDIES
• Corpora studies present a new strategy which highlights the
evidence of natural, ‘real’ language. The term ‘corpus linguistics’
“refers not just to a new computer-based methodology, but, as
G. Leech (1992: 106) put it, a ‘new research enterprise’, a new
way of thinking about language, which is challenging some of
the deeply-rooted ideas. To cope with the vastness of a living
language the idea of corpora had been introduced to back up
and foster linguistic studies born out by evidence, i.e. a large
amount of facts of real language.
• The three-fold approach to language data within the framework
of corpus linguistics has been summarized as follows:
it is an empirical approach to the description of language use;
it operates within the framework of a contextual and functional
theory of meaning;
it makes use of new technologies.
(Tognini-Bonelli, 2001: 2)

3. Corpus linguistics and other paradigms

CORPUS LINGUISTICS AND OTHER
PARADIGMS
• The perspective of corpus linguistics differs from that of
generative grammarians who see language as an
innate mechanism which empowers native speakers to
produce an infinite set of ‘correct’ sentences.
• “If we want to find out what is common to all languages,
we should embrace Chomskyan linguistics. If we want to
find out if a French sentence is structured grammatically,
we should rely on standard linguistics. If we want to find
out what words, sentences and texts mean, we should
opt for corpus linguistics.”
(Teubert, 2005: 97)

4. Corpus Linguistics as part of the Functional-Communicative Paradigm

CORPUS LINGUISTICS AS PART OF THE
FUNCTIONAL-COMMUNICATIVE PARADIGM
• Language is a Social Phenomenon
• A Corpus Linguistic Description of Language
Prioritizes Lexis
• Meaning and Form are Associated
(Mahlberg, 2007: 3)

5. Meaning from “a bottom-up point-of-view”

MEANING FROM “A BOTTOMUP POINT-OF-VIEW”
Function
Meaning
Form
Genres (text categories) – “recurrent thematic, compositional,
and stylistic types of speech” (Бахтин, 1986: 432)
Genres – “an interface between the socio-cultural world and
textual form” (Kress and Threadgold, 1988: 216)

6. concordances – “lines of text on computer showing the word in its contexts”

CONCORDANCES – “LINES OF TEXT ON COMPUTER
SHOWING THE WORD IN ITS CONTEXTS”
• Concordances of ‘look forward to’ in business letters
• (The International Corpus of English – ICE-GB)

7. Collocate – a word habitually juxtaposed with another with a frequency greater than chance

COLLOCATE – A WORD HABITUALLY JUXTAPOSED
WITH ANOTHER WITH A FREQUENCY GREATER
THAN CHANCE
• Collocates for ‘mortgage’ include ‘lend’ and
‘property’
• Absolutely – collocates on the right (R) and left sides
Collocate on the right
(L) Collocate on the left
Absolutely
They are
Absolutely
amazing
It all looked
Absolutely
appalling
I’m
Absolutely
certain
You’re
Absolutely
right
I had
Absolutely
no idea

8. Searching for metaphor in the corpus

SEARCHING FOR METAPHOR IN THE
CORPUS
• Corpus-based analysis can facilitate research into
metaphor. First of all, a large, representative corpus
can provide ample data for constructing semantic
frames, which enable the researcher to identify
elements most prone to metaphoric use.
• The basic tools for such analyses are selecting the
search word (the core of the metaphor), sorted
concordance lines, and collocates statistics.
• (M. Fabiszak, P. Kaszubski “Studying metaphor with the BNC”, Volume
Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, Issue 41, 2006, pp. 111129)

9. Example: Declare war

EXAMPLE: DECLARE WAR
• When sorted by the right co-text in the BNC, the
concordance pointed to the preposition ‘on’
referring to:
state
The United States of America, Spain, Russia
nation
The people of Hong Kong
leader
Napoleon
Concrete
entity
Acid rain, rubbish, the golf course
Abstract Debt, drug trafficking, the outward
entity
corruption

10. Declare war: the semantic frame

DECLARE WAR: THE SEMANTIC FRAME
• The analysis of most significant collocates in the
corpus points to a strong co-occurrence pattern
between Declare war and names of states and
Adverbs of time (in 1939, in September 1939, on 1
August 1914).
• At the same time, at least 20 uses were found to be
metaphorical. References to concrete and abstract
entities occurred only in metaphorical contexts.
• While ‘declaring war on acid rain’ is quite possible,
‘fighting a war against acid rain’ is most unlikely.

11. The Scalar nature of metaphor

THE SCALAR NATURE OF METAPHOR
• Corpus evidence can produce examples unexpected
for the researcher. Although prototypically fighting a war
involves two or more warring parties, fighting a war on
drugs may require not military actions, but may consist in
running campaigns or developing therapy centers (a
metaphorical use).
• A case of zeugma: “The Civil war, which was fought with
texts and pamphlets as much as with weapons”.
The verb phrase (VP) ‘fight war’ is used with a coordinated
noun phrase (NP) where each of the phrases texts and
pamphlets, on the one hand, and weapons, on the other,
appeal to a different, literal or metaphorical use of the VP.

12. Metaphoricity as a matter of degree

METAPHORICITY AS A MATTER OF
DEGREE
• Zeugma and other rhetorical devices are a play on
words utilizing the ambiguity between the literal and
metaphorical interpretation of the phrase.
• “There are more wars to be fought than those with
guns” makes use of this kind of ambiguity through
an implication that non-military conflicts can be as
fierce as wars.
• A prototype is the central (focal) meaning or
stereotype as the best general representative of a
category.

13. A Scale of metaphoricity

A SCALE OF METAPHORICITY
• The scale has two opposing focal points: the literal
and the metaphorical. Between the two extremes
extends a ground for more fuzzy examples ranging
from non-prototypical literal to seriously ambiguous.
• Focal literal meaning
non-prototypical literal
ambiguous
focal metaphorical
(Fabiszak, Kaszubski, op.cit, p. 126-127)

14. Example: the search word Battlefield

EXAMPLE: THE SEARCH WORD
BATTLEFIELD
• The left-sorted concordance indicated that battlefield
tended to appear in NPs of the structure: N of a
battlefield:
• Area
• Guided tours
• Chaos
of a battlefield
• Sombre imagery
• The first premodifying noun (area) captures the spatial
nature of the word. Guided tours point to the cultural
development of the concept covered by the word
battlefield, i.e. its development into a sightseeing place.
Chaos and sombre imagery, both highly negative, stress
the aspect of human suffering.

15. Example: battlefield

EXAMPLE: BATTLEFIELD
• Despite undergoing a meaning
extension to the tourist domain,
battlefield is essentially nonmetaphorical in nature: the
metaphorical uses of this noun
(ideological, political, parliamentary
battlefield, a tour of the battlefield)
are rather rare (12,9 % of all the
tokens).

16. Example: battleground

EXAMPLE: BATTLEGROUND
• The left-sorted concordance showed a large
number of metaphorical uses: ‘became a
battleground in the government’s fight to promote
a change’, ‘turning this former urban battleground
into a holiday destination’, ‘classroom, competitive,
electoral, ideological, moral, political
battleground’, ‘a battleground of the sexes’.
• The right-sorted concordance revealed the most
common prepositional phrases, also mostly
metaphorical: ‘the battleground for the competing
ideologies of the academic community and of the
state’, etc.

17. Battleground vs. battlefield

BATTLEGROUND VS. BATTLEFIELD
• The semantic frame of battlefield:
BATTLEFIELD
A place where a battle is
fought (focal meaning).
The prototypical center
of literal uses is the spatial
meaning.
Prepositions from, to,
over, across, Adverbs of
Place, death, wounds,
tactics
Related concepts. A
place of historical,
touristic interest (nonprototypical)
A guided tour of the
battlefield

18. Battleground vs. battlefield

BATTLEGROUND VS. BATTLEFIELD
• The corpus data demonstrate that the noun
battleground is primarily metaphorical, while the
noun battlefield is not, in spite of its extension to the
tourist domain (‘guided tours of the battlefield’ – 2
uses).
• The semantic frame of battleground:
BATTLEGROUND
A place for conflict,
mostly metaphorical
(political battleground).
Literal uses with the
spatial meaning are
scarce.
Verbs of change of state
(become, to be turned
into), postmodification by
prepositions for, of