Metaphor in Discourse

Aim and approaches

Global aim: offer an introduction to the study of metaphor in usage, or discourse

Approaches:

• The program takes its theoretical inspiration from the cognitive-linguistic view of metaphor as a cross-domain mapping in thought, presumably explaining systematic and conventionalized manifestations of metaphor in language. For example, the temporal use of prepositions such as “on Monday” (TIME IS SPACE), the use of ‘war’ words to talk about argumentation (defend, attack, position, etc., ARGUMENT IS WAR), and so on.
• The program will also include other approaches to metaphor, such as those of stylistics, discourse analysis, applied linguistics and semiotics.
• The notion of metaphor in usage will be framed by a core course on genre analysis in which all language use is related to the specific properties and functions of distinct genres such as the novel, advertisements, news reports, news broadcasts, conversations, e-mail, and so on.

In combining these approaches, you will acquire a solid and broad grasp of the various questions and answers concerning metaphor as used in English. 

Click here for an overview of your program.

Program set-up:

• one departmental core course on genre analysis (12 European Credit Transfer System [ECTS] credits) 
• five taught courses (each worth 6 ECTS)
• a Master’s thesis (18 ECTS)

Three of the taught courses are focused on metaphor and are compulsory. The other two courses can be chosen from the wide range of topics offered in the Department of Language and Communication and other departments in the Faculty of Arts.

You will then complete a Master’s thesis of approximately 25,000 words.

Courses

Semester 1

• Genre Analysis I and II
  Instructors:  Prof. Gerard Steen, Prof. W. Spooren, Dr Hennie van der Vliet.

This course presents a prototype approach to genre as an appropriate means to study effective language use in communication. Genre is taken as a basic-level category of discourse events, which includes genres like email messages, chat, conversations, speeches, meetings, classes, textbooks, novels, films, reality shows, talk shows, news reports, advertisements, fundraising letters, websites of various kinds, and so on. The overall idea of this approach is that language variation between genres can be studied as a reflection of variation between these genres, which can be explained by a range of discourse factors including text type and content, participant identities, relations, and goals, and so on. All language users have a genre repertoire which organizes their knowledge about this variation and regulates their production and reception behavior.

• Introduction to Metaphor: Theory and Research
  Instructor:Prof. Gerard Steen 

This course will examine theories of metaphor in cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, and discourse analysis. It will define metaphor as a way of thinking by non-literal comparison (or cross-domain mapping) which is more wide-spread than many people think. It will discuss how metaphor in language and communication can be seen as a reflection of metaphor in thought. It will look at the question how the analysis of linguistic and multimodal metaphor can lead to the identification and description of conceptual metaphors, such as time is space, life is a journey, or argument is war. And it will consider what psycholinguistic evidence there is for the idea that metaphor understanding involves the online construction or retrieval of cross-domain mappings in thought. The answers to these questions are essential for evaluating the role of metaphor in cognitive processes of discourse production and reception.

• Metaphor in language: Register, Style, and Rhetoric
  Instructor:Dr Tina Krennmayr

This course focuses on the identification, description and explanation of various types of metaphor in all kinds of language use. It addresses a range of basic questions, including how metaphor is defined, when and how it is used by which language users and for which purposes, and how it can be identified and analyzed in linguistics. It pays attention to variation in metaphor between registers (e.g., journalese, language of fiction, language of science, language of conversation), within one register to variation in metaphor by style (e.g., formal versus informal), and within one style, to variation by rhetoric (deliberate exploitation of metaphor for purposes of persuasion, instruction, and so on).

• Elective course

Semester 2

• Metaphor in communication: Media and Settings
  Instructor:Dr Alan Cienki

Metaphor is used in various modalities (sound, imagery, and embodied movement) as well as via different means of communication and in different media (such as written texts, pictures, spoken language, gesture, and video). What does it mean to consider metaphor as not solely a matter of words, but as a fact of how we communicate more generally? Specific domains of metaphor use to be examined include advertising, business/economics, politics, health care, and the arts. 

• Elective course

MA thesis
The approach of the various courses that will prepare you for your Master’s thesis is very analytical. Your Master’s thesis can be designed according to your own liking, i.e. you can set it up from an analytical approach, set up a more applied research, or even write your own fictional text using a specific type of metaphor.