| Lerninhalte |
Explore how metaphor shapes the way we think, speak, and make sense of the world. Metaphor in Mind and Language examines metaphor not merely as a stylistic device, but as a fundamental
cognitive mechanism that structures human understanding. In this seminar, you will investigate how abstract concepts—such as time, emotion, morality, or knowledge—are grounded in concrete bodily experience through metaphorical mappings.
Drawing on contemporary approaches in cognitive linguistics, we will analyze how conceptual metaphors emerge, how they are mentally represented, and how they influence reasoning and
behavior. You will engage with key theoretical frameworks, including Conceptual Metaphor Theory, embodied cognition, image schemas, and blending theory, to understand how metaphor operates at the interface of mind, language, and culture.
Our focus will be on English, but always with a cross-linguistic perspective. We will explore how different languages conceptualize emotions, spatial relations, social hierarchies, and abstract domains through distinct metaphorical patterns.
Questions such as How do English speakers metaphorically structure anger, love, or time? and How do these patterns compare to German, French, or other languages? will guide our analyses.
These inquiries will be just one example among many theoretical issues we will address as we examine how metaphor shapes cognition across linguistic communities.
Beyond theory, we will investigate how metaphor functions in discourse: how it frames political debates, shapes scientific explanation, influences media narratives, and structures everyday communication. You will analyze authentic data from diverse genres
—public speeches, news articles, advertisements, academic texts, and digital communication—to uncover how metaphor guides interpretation and persuasion.
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LSF
– Lehre - Studium - Forschung
