Creating Worldviews: Metaphor, Ideology and Language
James W. Underhill
Abstract
Encouraging readers to reflect upon language and the role metaphor plays in patterning ideas and thought, this book first offers a critical introduction to metaphor theory as it has emerged over the past thirty years in the States. The book then widens the scope of metaphor theory by investigating not only the worldview our language offers us, but also the worldviews that we adapt in our own ideological and personal interpretations of the world. The book explores new avenues in metaphor theory in the work of contemporary French, German, and Czech scholars. Detailed case studies marry metaphor ... More
Encouraging readers to reflect upon language and the role metaphor plays in patterning ideas and thought, this book first offers a critical introduction to metaphor theory as it has emerged over the past thirty years in the States. The book then widens the scope of metaphor theory by investigating not only the worldview our language offers us, but also the worldviews that we adapt in our own ideological and personal interpretations of the world. The book explores new avenues in metaphor theory in the work of contemporary French, German, and Czech scholars. Detailed case studies marry metaphor theory with discourse analysis in order to investigate the ways the Czech language was reshaped by communist discourse, and the way fascism emerged in the German language. The third case study turns metaphor theory on its head: instead of looking for metaphors in language, it describes the way language systems (French and English) are understood in terms of metaphorically framed concepts evolving over time.
Keywords:
metaphor theory,
language,
worldview,
discourse analysis,
communist discourse,
fascism,
language systems,
metaphorically framed concepts,
ideological interpretation,
personal interpretation
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748643158 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748643158.001.0001 |
