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 as they do. In this book, Zoltán Kövecses proposes a new theory of metaphor variation. First, he identifies the major dimension of metaphor variation, that is, those social and cultural boundaries that signal discontinuities in human experience. Second, he describes which components, or aspects of conceptual metaphor are involved in metaphor variation, and how they are involved. Third, he isolates the main causes of metaphor variation. Fourth Professor Kövecses addresses the issue to the degree of cultural coherence in the interplay among conceptual metaphors, embodiment, and causes of metaphor variation.

In Trauma, Culture, and Metaphor, John Wilson and Jacob Lindy explore the language of both individual and collective trauma in an era dominated by globalization and interconnectedness. Through lucid, careful discussion, this important book builds a bridge between the etymology of trauma-related terms commonly used in Western cultures and those of other cultures, such as the Burundi-Rwandan ihahamuka. It also provides the clinician with a framework for working with trauma survivors using a cross-cultural vocabulary—one often based in metaphor—to fully address the experienced trauma and to begin work on reconnection and self-reinvention.

This book analyses the emotional message of Hungarian folksongs from a Cultural Linguistic perspective, employing a wide range of empirical devices. It combines theoretical notions with analytical devices and has a multidisciplinary essence: it relies on the latest Cultural Linguistic findings, employing spatial semantics, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and ethnography. The book addresses key questions including: How is nature conceptualized by a folk cultural group? How are emotions and other mental states expressed via nature imagery with respect to metaphors and construal schemas? The author argues that folksongs reflect the Hungarian peasant communities’ specific treatment of emotions, captured in an underlying cultural schema ‘reservedness.’ This schema is grounded in principals of morality and tradition, and governs the various levels of representation. The main topics discussed are related to two core issues: cultural metaphors and cultural schemas of construal in folksongs. It provides a detailed example, based on over 1000 folksongs, of how a cultural group’s cognition can be analyzed and better understood through a representative corpus-based linguistic approach. The research is also pioneering in constructing a comprehensive analysis framework adapted to folk poetry, and offers an example of how cultural conceptualizations can be investigated in various discourse types. Last but not least, the book offers insights into the work of Hungarian linguists and folklorists concerning cultural conceptualizations, which have largely been unavailable in English.

This book advances and broadens the scope of research on conceptual metaphor at the nexus of language and culture by exploring metaphor and figurative language as a characteristic of the many Englishes that have developed in a wide range of geographic, socio-historical and cultural settings around the world. In line with the interdisciplinary breadth of this endeavour, the contributions are grounded in Cognitive (Socio)Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Cultural Linguistics. Drawing on different research methodologies, including corpus linguistics, elicitation techniques, and interviews, chapters analyse a variety of naturalistic data and text types, such as online language, narratives, political speeches and literary works. Examining both the cultural conceptualisations underlying the use of figurative language and the linguistic-cultural specificity of metaphor and its variation, the studies are presented in contexts of both language contact and second language usage. Adding to the debate on the interplay of universal and culture-specific grounding of conceptual metaphor, Metaphor in Language and Culture across World Englishes advances research in a previously neglected sphere of study in the field of World Englishes.

Using dominant metaphors in American English and the Chinese language, Metaphor, Culture, and Worldview explores how metaphor is a product that is simultaneously shaped by and is shaping the culture and the worldview of the people who use it, and how it showcases some unique features of communication of the speakers of the two languages.