Conduit Metaphor in Lithuanian

8/8/2019 Conduit Metaphor in Lithuanian

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ISSN 1392-0588

DARBAI ir DIENOS2000.24

Jrat VAIENONIEN

1. INTRODUCTION

Communication is one of the centralhuman activities, as it helps to keep so-cial contacts among people. The frequencyof the Lithuanian nouns odis (word)and kalba (language) reflects the sig-

nificance of this unique phenomenon ofcommunication. odis is the seventy-fourth and kalba is the seventy-fifth

word in the frequency list of all theLithuanian words (Grumadien and

ilinskien 1998, p. 1). Thus, naturally,such an important human intercourse

gives impetus to different disciplines toanalyse the perception of communica-tion and to define the concept itself. Themeans to accomplish these tasks in the

present article is the analysis of concep-tual metaphors that are retrieved fromthe Lithuanian and English computer

corpora. Hence the attempt of this ar-

ticle is to combine computer linguisticsand cognitive linguistics that emphasisesthe interrelation between language and

mental processes. The statistical dataderived from huge corpora allow us tomake a well-substantiated analysis. The

study of metaphors obtained from collo-cations and supported by statistical evi-dence becomes more reliable and lessintuition based. If the examples for analy-

sis are chosen accidentally, they can bejust occasionalisms that are not frequentlyused in language. Numerous computer

data allow a linguist to select the mosttypical cases and to observe the least

frequent ones. On the other hand, datafrom corpora become not merely statis-tics because cognitive linguistics allowsus to make broader generalisations aboutour thinking or our conceptual system.

Furthermore, the data from the corporaof two different languages make it pos-sible to compare and contrast the two

languages.

1.1. THE DEFINITIONOF METAPHOR

AND THE CONDUIT METAPHOR

Before the analysis of the computer data,

we should specify how metaphor is un-derstood in the present article. GeorgeLakoff and Mark Johnson in their bookMetaphors We Live Bypresent metaphors

as concepts structuring our thinking andthe way we act. Metaphors allow us tounderstand less concrete or abstract ideas

in terms of more concrete concepts. Whenwe use terms of one domain to speakabout another domain, we employ a

metaphor that highlights certain featureswhile suppressing others (Lakoff andJohnson 1980, p. 141) and is based onsimilarities as well as contrasts between

the two domains.One more aspect of metaphor that

Lakoff observes in his article Contempo-

The Conduit Metaphorin English and Lithuanian

A CORPUS-BASED APPROACH


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144 ODIO SEMANTIKA

rary theory of metaphoris that metaphori-cal systems can be either universal, wide-spread or culture specific (Lakoff 1993,p. 245). The present analysis, hence, is

expected to reveal that the so-called con-duit metaphor is at least widespread ifnot universal. The huge amounts of em-

pirical evidence available in the com-puter corpus make such a comparison oflanguages possible.Michael J. Reddy calls the framework

that English has for conceptualising com-munication the conduit metaphor. Thiscomplex understanding of communica-

tion consists of the following notions:1) ideas or meanings are objects;

2) words are containers for inserting the con-

tent (ideas or meanings);

3) communication is sending. (Reddy 1993,

p.164)

The structure is derived from numer-

ous English expressions that the authoranalyses. In this model of communica-

tion the role of the speaker is to encode

his or her meaning in words whereas theaddressees task is to decode it by un-

wrapping the package or words. Hencereified words and ideas travel from one

person to another through a channel. Their

transference seems to be independent of

any human effort. However, Reddy no-

tices that this is a misleading understand-

ing of communication because in realityit requires peoples competence and ef-

fort to make it successful.In addition to this major framework

of understanding communication, Reddy

distinguishes the minor frameworkwhich overlooks words as containers andallows ideas and feelings to flow, unfet-tered and completely disembodied, into

a kind of ambient space between humanheads (Reddy 1993, p. 170). Hence inthis framework ideas are still treated as

tangible objects although they are notinserted into words before sending themand do not have the material shape when

they are already in space. Also they existindependently of people and may or maynot get back into peoples heads. AlthoughReddy provides a detailed structure of

communication, his examples are singlecitations not from a computer corpus.Therefore, the framework needs verifi-

cation.

1.2. THE INTERRELATIONBETWEEN METAPHOR

AND COLLOCATION

For the analysis of metaphor it is impor-tant to distinguish between metaphor andcollocation and to define the terms asthey will be employed in this article. Col-

location and metaphor are the keywordsin computer corpus linguistics and cog-nitive linguistics. The definition of met-

aphor is provided above. Via metaphorsabstractions are perceived whereas col-location is their verbal expression. Col-

location is understood as a common com-bination of words used together. JohnSinclair notices that the word meaning isnever centred in the word itself but isshared among the words that it collo-

cates or keeps company with (Sinclair1996, p. 80). Hence these linguistic com-binations are a source of metaphorical

cases in language.Computer corpus-based analysis is

advantageous because it helps to avoidsubjectivity and limits the role of intu-

ition. When collocations are taken froma representative computer corpus, theyform an objective source of metaphors

that are most often used in language.Furthermore, the proportion of meta-phoric and non-metaphoric cases in thetotal number of collocations reveals how

much our language is metaphorised. The

main difficulty in such an analysis is thatthe distinction between collocation andmetaphor is rather obscure. In this pa-


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145Jrat Vaienonien THE CONDUIT METAPHOR IN ENGLISH AND LITHUANIAN

per the criterion to determine metaphoric

cases is the collocational range of the

words under investigation. A collocation

becomes metaphoric when a word collo-

cates with lexemes that have a restricted

collocational range. (Marcinkeviien

1999, p. 115) For example, the verb austi

is usually restricted to the words refer-

ring to cloth. Thus when it is used with

the noun idea, it metaphorises the latter

noun as woven material.

Both cognitive and corpus-based lin-

guistic analyses observe that in multiword

linguistic expressions the meaning is

shared between its components

(Schoenefeld 1999, p.157). The proce-

dure of combining different concepts is

called differently by different linguists,

i.e. delexicalization, constructional

meaning, blending or composition

(Schoenefeld 1999, p.153). In metaphor

the interaction between the primary and

secondary subjects is its basis and one of

the essential features. Corpus linguis-tics also admits that in a collocation the

meanings of words used together over-

lap to form complex expressions.

In addition to collocation, one more

specifying term used by John Sinclair

should be introduced and defined. He

suggests employing the concept of

colligation defined as the co-occurrence

of grammatical choices in corpus-based

analysis. Sinclair calls collocation physi-cal evidence whereas colligation is de-

fined as structural evidence (Sinclair

1996, p. 98). The grammatical categories

that are mainly important here are prepo-

sitions collocating with verbs and adjec-

tives in noun phrases. Some of the words

related to communication under analy-

sis show a great tendency to appear in

colligation with a possessive adjective

as it will be illustrated further in thearticle.

1.3. SOURCES OF DATA FOR

THE ANALYSIS OF METAPHORIC

LANGUAGE ABOUT LANGUAGE

For the analysis of the Lithuanian lan-

guage the corpus available on the Inter-

net has been used. It consists of 50 mil-

lion words. The examples have been col-

lected not from all its parts, but only

from newspapers in order to limit the

number of sample sentences, which be-

come unmanageable if taken all together.

The analysis of conduit metaphor in

English is based on the data taken from

Collins COBUILD English Collocations

on CD-ROM. It contains 10, 000 head-

words that are illustrated by 2, 600, 000

authentic examples. Up to 20 most fre-

quent collocates are provided for each

headword thus giving 140, 000 colloca-

tions all in all. All the data are taken

from the Bank of English, which is a cor-

pus that numbers 200 million words.

2. THE ANALYSIS OF THECONDUIT METAPHOR INENGLISH AND LITHUANIAN

2.1. IDEAS OR MEANINGS

ARE OBJECTS

This analysis is based on the examination

of two nouns, i.e. mintis in Lithuanianand idea in English. Of all the words

used to talk about what exists during the

mental processes idea is the most gener-

al term, applicable to almost any part or

aspect of mental activity (Hayakawa 1987,

p. 277). Therefore, this noun rather than

the noun thought has been chosen for

the analysis as the equivalent of mintis.

It also should be noted that all the exam-

ples provided in this practical study ofthe metaphor are authentic phrases or

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146 ODIO SEMANTIKA

sentences from the corpora. They appear

in the corpora more than once. Meta-

phors that occur only once are left out or

it is indicated that they are occasional-

isms. In order to limit the scope of anal-

ysis less typical cases are not dwelt upon

in detail. Besides, if there were no corre-

sponding English metaphors for the Lithua-

nian ones in the corpus, we relied on dic-

tionary information in order not to draw

too categorical conclusions about the dif-

ferences in the framework.

Before the detailed analysis of the con-ceptual metaphor IDEASAREOBJECTS, otherways of metaphorising ideas should be

presented. The study of the linguisticevidence in both languages has revealedthat the following major metaphoricmodels can be distinguished:

IDEASAREPLANTS

(1) this was the germ of the idea and when it

came to full fruitition Monet registered the

changes.

tai puikiausia dirva minties augimui; mintis

prigijo, minties brandumas.IDEASAREHUMANBEINGS

(2) revolutionary ideas; outrageous ideas; the

idea came from a few ground personnel; ideas

are destined to come at a certain time; many

rival ideas.

maitingos mintys; neperu minties; gim

mintis, aplankydavo mintys; kyruol mint-

is; piktos mintys.

IDEASAREMOVINGOBJECTS

(3) ideas flow to you.

Mintys sukasi; vingiuojanti mintis; mintiesjudjimo.

IDEASARELIVINGCREATURES

(4) we are always on the hunt for new ideas;

sparnuota mintis; minties geluonis; spieius

mini .

IDEASAREAFORCE

(5) The idea struck like a lightning;

mintys kamuoja/kankina

In addition to the above groups of meta-

phors, in Lithuanian there are a number of

cases of the metaphor IDEAISAMEANSOFTRAV-

ELLINGINVIRTUALREALITY:

(6) mintimis grti (kur nors)

iekoti (ko) mintimis

mintimis nusikelti/nuskristi (kur)

Thus the perception of our mental ac-tivities is very complex and its exhaus-tive analysis could be the aim of a sepa-rate study. However, here these differ-

ent metaphors are provided above justto give a more general picture of the wayideas are metaphorised, but they are not

the aim of a more detailed analysis. Theconceptual metaphor that is directly re-lated to the study of the conduit meta-phor is the metaphor IDEASAREOBJECTS.

Only when ideas are understood in thisway, they can be packed in words andsent to the addressee. It also should be

noted that it covers the greatest numberof metaphors in the sources of both lan-guages.As George Lakoff observes, people

understand abstract notions in terms ofconcrete objects and substances. Hegroups a great variety of metaphors based

on representing abstract experiences assubstances under the title of ontologicalmetaphors (Lakoff and Johnson 1980,

p.25). When abstract things are meta-phorically materialised, it is possible tomeasure them, define their boundariesand to perceive them with the help ofour five senses, i.e. smell, taste, touch-

ing, hearing and seeing. Communica-tion is one of the abstract phenomena inour life that needs to be categorised and

referred to in some terms. Thus ideasexpressed in communication and mean-

ings of words are viewed as objects andmade tangible. The data from the cor-

pora give enough evidence that ideas aresystematically reified both in Lithuanianand English.

2.1.1. IDEAS ARE TANGIBLE

Reification of ideas is reflected even in

the dictionary definition of the Englishword idea where it is defined as aproduct of mental activity (CCD, p. 641).

Similarly,Collins COBUILD Students Dic-


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tionaryin the definition of the verb de-liver defines one metaphor via anothermetaphor:

If you deliver a lecture or speech, you give

it. (COBUILD, p. 434)

The fact that lexicographers are not able

to avoid such circular definitions ofmetaphoric cases via metaphors supportsthe fact that the conduit metaphor is verydeeply rooted in our perception of com-

munication.Hence these dictionary definitions and

other data that have been collected for

the analysis show that in English thoughts

are often metaphorically perceived asproducts as it can be seen in the follow-ing examples from the corpus:(7) colonial period itselfproducednew ideas

hot bathproduces good ideas

Gucci is constantly generatingnew ideas.

a sparky design to turn good ideas into mar-

ketable products.

No matter how many policy ideas Mr. Clin-

tonproduces

Similarly, mintis is perceived as aproduct in Lithuanian:

(8) galvoje pradedame gaminti mintis.

perdirba kakieno kito mintis.

formuojama viena pagrindin mintis

Retrospektyva tarsi generuoja mintis

Thus mintis is produced, shaped, re-cycled or generated. It is interesting tonotice that in the first example in (8) theverb is put in inverted commas which

shows that the speaker is aware of themetaphor.The fact that ideas are treated as ob-

jects is evident in the common modifierconcrete collocating with the word ideain English,(9) He didnt have any concrete ideas yet.

with no new concrete ideas to discuss

These examples can be paralleled tothe following sentence in Lithuanian:

(10) prezidentas konkretina dar pirma-jame numeryje pradtas mintis

In the metaphorical model under analy-sis reified ideas just like any physical

objects can be moved from one place toanother. These cases should be distin-guished from the conceptual metaphorIDEASAREMOVINGOBJECTS, which is pre-

sented above. The latter conceptual meta-phor covers expressions where ideas movethemselves, independently of human in-

terference. Here we are going to look ata number of metaphors that representideas as objects, which are moved bysomeone. The following examples show

that in English ideas are treated as por-table or movable objects:(11) It seemed as if he was bringingme a new

idea every other weekthe first Americans who brought his ideas

back to New York.

The members of the group throw in ideas

Danford hadnt brought any ideas with him

Parents bringwith them many different ideas

on discipline

now its time to bring out the ideas.

The defence agency droppedthe idea

Similarly, in Lithuanian there are a

variety of metaphorical cases where ideasare handled as physical objects as theitalicised verbs show:

(12) dliojomintis vienaip ir kitaip

lengviau ilaikytisavo mintis

neasisavo irdyje kilnias mintis

moksleivi mintys bus perkeltos artimiau-

si pedagog tarybos posd.

I konkurso moksleiviaiparsive mint

Tada griebtasi kitos minties

Minties iuo keliu pasiekti stovykl neme-

tameparsive daug mini apie naujoves

In contrast to these examples when ideas

are perceived as movable objects, thereare a number of cases when ideas areviewed as stable and immobile entities.

In such cases ideas are situated some-where and people can find or discoverthem as in the following Lithuanian ex-amples:

(13) ... grdama prie savo mintiesi ms kritin apvalga atveda prie tos vie-

nos svarbios minties

Ir vl grtu prie tos paios minties


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148 ODIO SEMANTIKA

galima grti prie anksiau isakytos min-

ties

reikt stengtis kaip nors nenukrypti nuo

minties

In English ideas are also representedas stable objects:

(14)Women have so many fixed ideas about

what they can and cannot wear.

One of my fathers fixed ideas was that other

people had some strange desire

Hence such an abstract notion as ideais turned into a very stable and concrete

thing. Furthermore, this abstraction ismaterialised via verbal expression. When

it is put into a certain linguistic form, itbecomes fixed and possible to return to.When ideas are viewed as tangible

entities, they can be not only moved, butalso made of a certain material as all

physical objects. The analysis of theLithuanian corpus has revealed that ideasare perceived as being woven. There are

a number of sentences where mintis oridea is represented as a thread. A phrase

that appears very often in the corpus ismintis nutrauk. In addition to that,

the following examples illustrate the sameconcept:

(15)Dl to minties gija tarpais lyg ir nutrks-

ta

sunkiai suregzta mintis

Mint audme jau seniai

Ir vr tok sil-mint

nesugeba riliai dstyti mini

virininkas M. Stabingis rezga mint

seniai audia dar profesoriaus K. Pakto

aust mint

mintys pynsi

tavo mini audin

Among the examples on CD-ROM nosimilar cases in English have been found

but this does not allow us to generalisethat the associations of ideas with threadsand weaving do not exist in this lan-

guage. Therefore, dictionaries as a supple-mentary source of linguistic informationwere used to carry out a more thoroughanalysis. For that purpose three words

were checked, i.e. weave as the equiva-lent of austi and regzti in Lithuanian,thread as the equivalent of gija andtangle as the equivalent of raizginys.

In the entry of the verb weave the fol-lowing example is provided:(16) He wove a fascinating story from a few

forgotten incidents. (LDCE, p.1139)

This sentence clearly demonstrates thatin English the same conceptual model of

thinking exists although it sometimes usesdifferent lexical means to express it.Furthermore, this point can be supported

by the way the same dictionary distin-

guishes the third meaning of the lexemethread that is subdivided into:a line of reasoning connecting the parts of an

argument or story: Im afraid Ive lost the

thread of your argument.

b a repeated pattern or idea: There is a consis-

tent thread running through all these policies.

(LDCE, p.1105)

In addition to this detailed definition,the example in the entry of the head-

word tangle should be quoted:(17) He got into an awful tangle with hishomework and had to ask me to help. (LDCE,

p.1081)

Hence the person is in a complicated

situation because he is confused in hismind. The vague and intangible confu-sion of the mind is compared to a con-

fused mass of fibres that is a very con-crete and very expressive visual image.The perception of putting ideas together

as in the process of weaving is expressed

by the adjective coherent that is so com-monly used to speak about speech or apiece of writing to say that it is logically

orderly. The first meaning of the verbcohere, from which the adjective is de-rived, is to hold or stick firmly together(CCD, p.257). Not only the core mean-

ing of the verb reveals the treatment ofideas as physical objects, but also its Latinorigin, i.e.co-means together andherre

means to cling (CCD, p.257). Similarly,in Lithuanian the adjective rilus is used


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to describe a logical text. The adjectivecould be translated into English as tiedup if we want it to contain its literarymeaning.

The dictionary examples and defini-tions above show that the mechanism ofthinking is paralleled to weaving and

thread in both languages under analysis.This way of perceiving thinking revealsthe importance of connection betweenideas and their order. When ideas are

disorderly, they become tangled likethreads and are understood with diffi-culty. Therefore, it is important to com-

bine them properly the way weavers in-terlace yarn to make a fabric.However, in Lithuanian ideas are not

just made of fibres, but are also pro-

duced of gold as in the following phrases:(18)auksins mintys; ov galvon auksin

mintis; prisimeni kit auksin mint .

The English data on CD-ROM provideno cases of metaphors where ideas wererepresented as objects made of gold.

Nevertheless, English speakers treat ideasas precious things as the dictionary ex-ample brilliant idea (LDCE, p.120) sug-gests. Thus, although ideas are made of

different materials in the two languages,their perception again follows the samemetaphoric structure. Ideas are prod-

ucts made of precious and shiny mate-rial.Ideas as tangible objects that are made

of some material can be perceived withthe help of one of our five senses, i.e.seeing. This way of conceiving them

seems to be essential as the notion ofideas as visual objects is hidden in thevery word idea. It originates from the

Greek word idein, which means to see.Therefore, ideas can be transparent ornot transparent. A very common collo-cate of the noun idea is the adjective

clear. The word does not appear in thelist of twenty most frequent collocatesbut it is recurrent in the example sen-

tences on CD-ROM. As the opposite ofit the attribute foggy is used althoughit does not appear very often,

(19) I had a prettyclearidea.

People representing me havent the foggiest

idea what

These cases can be easily compared tosimilar Lithuanian metaphors:

(20)mintis aiki ir be odi

adinantisneaikiasmintis

bandydamas atsigauti irpraskaidrinti mintis

paaikina jo minties vaisk skaidrum

These few examples reveal certain dif-

ferences between the two languages.

Although the idea of transparency isobserved in both English and Lithuanian,

word by word translation of the phrases

from one language into another does not

sound very natural. The equivalent of

clear is aikus but its opposite is

neaikus or miglotas. The latter word

is the equivalent of foggy but it is mainly

used to talk not about ideas but under-

standing (e.g. miglotas suvokimas/

supratimas). Nevertheless, these are mi-

nor differences and collocational pecu-

liarities that do not affect the general

metaphorical model of communication.The fact that ideas are visually per-

ceived is obvious in the metaphoric cases

where ideas have colour. The followingLithuanian examples can illustrate thistendency:

(21) Visi ie odiai turi atskir minties

atspalv

be jokios tamsios minties

kar su pilkomis kalbanij mintimis pats

laikas pradti

dalijasi su panekovais tokiomis juodomis

mintimis

Kiekviena mintis turi savo spalv

galv lenda juodos mintys

Actually, the adjectives tamsus andjuodas are rather recurrent collocates

of the noun mintys in the Lithuaniancorpus. Among the example sentencesof the nouns idea, thought and


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150 ODIO SEMANTIKA

thoughts on CD-ROM no similar meta-phors have been found. Therefore, itcould be tentatively stated that in En-glish thoughts or ideas have no colour.

Nevertheless, this is just one aspect thatdoes not coincide with Lithuanian, but itdoes not overthrow the whole metaphoric

structuring of ideas as tangible and vis-ible objects.One more sense, with the help of which

we are able to recognise ideas, is hear-

ing. In Lithuanian there are a number ofmetaphors which suggest that ideas canbe heard:

(22)niekas nepakartojo kapinse girdtos

minties

igirdusi tokias mintis sal su

mintys skambjo

girdti daug mini

Again such data are found only in the

Lithuanian corpus. No English examples

of similar metaphors have been foundeither on CD-ROM or in the dictionaries.

This leads to a tentative conclusion that

the metaphor of ideas as audible objectsis not as much recurrent in English as in

Lithuanian.

As it has been proved that ideas are

tangible, it means that they are perceived

with the help of touching. Therefore, they

can have certain qualities such as rough-

ness, sharpness and the like. The follow-

ing phrases illustrate this tendency in

Lithuanian:

(23) atrios io rainio mintys

minties atrum

smeigte prismeig j mintimis

Similarly, the idea of recognising ideas

by touching is expressed in such idioms

as get/have a rough idea about some-

thing, give someone a rough idea about

something (AID, p.410). In addition, re-

ified ideas have a feature of being solid,

(24) Susan Taylor had some tough ideas about

how we can reduce the number of teenage

pregnancies.

We have some strong/ very firm ideas

In Lithuanian the notion of solid ideas isexpressed in such phrases as mint stipri-no (strengthened the idea), trapiasmintis (fragile ideas).

Moreover, in the Lithuanian corpusthere are a few examples of metaphors,which suggest that ideas have a smell

and taste. Although these metaphors arenot very recurrent, they cannot be de-spised.

(25)atsiduoda karioms mintims

uplstas kari mini apie vienintel

pasak daug kari mini

saldi ir gundanti mintis

jo mini aromatas

Thus ideas, at least in Lithuanian, have a

certain taste and can even smell. There-fore, we can conclude that ideas as ob-jects are perceived with the help of allthe five senses that people have.

2.1.2. IDEAS CAN BE MEASURED

Ideas, when they are given a materialshape, can be quantified or measured.The width, length, volume and tension

of abstract notions can be measured. Theway their width can be determined canbe illustrated by some examples in En-glish (in the broadestsense of the word,

some sort ofbroadidea or an interest-ing new extension of his ideas on the eco-nomics of imperialism) and Lithuanian

(ias mintis jisipleiasavo straipsniuo-se).For measuring ideas a number of other

dimensions can be used. First of all, the

length of ideas can be measured as in thefollowing sentence containing a meta-phoric phrase:

(26) The purpose of my presence today is to

give you a brief idea of my company.

In Lithuanian we can observe the same

tendency in a very common phrasepratsti mint (to continue the idea).The volume and tension are expressed


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in the English phrases in the full/ fullest

sense of the word and in the loosest sense ofthe word. In Lithuanian the depth ofideas is very often mentioned as a very

frequent phrase gili mintis (deep idea)shows.It also should be noted that word mean-

ing is measured in the lexicographic tra-dition by numbering different senses ofa word in dictionaries. Moreover, evenfrom the grammatical point of view ideaand mintis are treated as objects as thetwo words are countable nouns in bothEnglish and Lithuanian. Lakoff also points

out that the metaphor system plays amajor role in both the grammar and lexi-con of a language (Lakoff 1993, p.245).Thus ideas according to the prevailingmetaphorical model can be counted astangible items. A great variety of quan-tity words used with the nouns underanalysis in both languages prove this.Among twenty most frequent collocatesof the word idea there are even four

quantifiers that are listed here in the orderof their frequency:(27)Some

They will be putting some ideas to me soon.

Many

Manyof her ideas are mad.

More

More new ideas are coming soon.

Few

He has relatively fewideas.

Some quantifiers are not included in thelist but they still can be found in exam-ple sentences:(28) There should beplentyof good ideas

from Dean Witter.

What the three different ideas were?

Examples from the Lithuanian corpusshow that mintis is an object that canbe counted, e.g. vienut vienintel mintis,

pirma/pirmoji mintis, sukosi viena min-

tis, visas mintis.Furthermore, an idea can be seen as a

unit that can be divided into parts as oneof the most frequent collocates whole

suggests. Lakoff observes that we tendto use metaphors based on our bodilyexperience and the PART-WHOLE schema isone of such groups of metaphors (Lakoff

1987, p.273). He notices that we natu-rally perceive ourselves as whole beingswith parts. Therefore, we apply this ana-

tomical perception of ourselves to thesurrounding world and abstract notions(Lakoff 1987, p. 273). Thus ideas areunderstood according to the same schema

as the following examples in Lithuanianshow:(29) minties dalys augte suaugusios

kompleksins minties elementai

minties struktra

noriau panagrinti mint

In English we find similar examples,e.g. more complex ideas and the numer-ous set of phrases like the whole idea of

something (a paper, protocol, manufac-turing, etc.). Hence ideas are measur-able units that can be whole and haveparts just like human bodies.

2.1.3. IDEAS ARE POSSESSIONS

In the chapter about ideas as tangible

objects it was mentioned that ideas are

made of valuable material such as gold

or brilliants. If they are perceived as

precious entities, naturally they are pos-

sessed and cherished by people. One of

the very common verbs that collocatewith the noun idea is have or have

got,

(30)Ive got no idea.

We have no idea who sent it to us.

The verbs that are among twenty mostcommon collocates of the noun are got,give and get. It should be noted that

in a big number of cases when ideacollocates with got the latter verb is apart of the construction have got. Never-

theless, all these cases of the verb gotand the other two collocates show that


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152 ODIO SEMANTIKA

ideas can be owned and passed over toother people as properties. Moreover,we find such examples as borrowingother peoples ideas or I can get rid of

my ideas that support this notion ofpossessing ideas. Similarly, in the Lithua-nian corpus there are a variety of ex-

pressions, which prove that ideas arepossessions:(31) prarads mint ir od

savo mini eimininkas

nenorjo rankioti svetim mini

neturk net tokios minties

atsikratome minties

ias mintis autorius neabejotinai pasiskolinsi A. Maceinos

The examples reveal that the same met-

aphorical model exists in English andLithuanian because some expressionscoincide and can be translated from onelanguage into another word by word,

i.e.pasiskolinti mint to borrow an idea,

atsikratyti minties to get rid of an idea.

Very often the noun under analysis is

used in both languages with some lin-guistic expression that refers to the owner

of the idea. Such expressions are pos-

sessive pronouns (mano/savo/js mintis;

my/your ideas) and the possessive case of

a noun that refers to the owner (Prezidento

/ Garry Jacksono / amerikiei moksilink

mintis / mintys; Chomskys key ideas, the

sexperts ideas). Besides, the list of the

collocates of the plural form ideas con-

tains the possessive pronoun own thatis the fifth most frequent collocate of the

word. The importance of this kind of

property, i.e. ideas, can be summarised

by the following example from the

Lithuanian corpus:

(32) Pavogti svetimas mintis danai didesnis

nusikaltimas negu pavogti pinigus.

Michel Foucault in his short overview ofthe concept of discourse The Order of

Discourse, which was first published in1971, emphasises the function of the au-thor or owner of ideas and texts. He

notices that in the Middle Ages discoursewas ascribed to someone because theauthor of a statement gave it its value.In the later centuries the authors of the

anonymous works that circulated freelyamong people had to be traced downand determined because the owner of

ideas and texts carries the responsibilityfor it and acts as its unifying force (Fou-cault 1998, p.19). Thus the notion ofpossessing ideas and texts has been im-

portant throughout centuries and hasbecome especially strong nowadays whenplagiarism is treated as a major intellec-

tual crime that involves punishment.To sum up, we can make the following

schema of the way ideas are metaphorisedin Lithuanian and English:

IDEASAREOBJECTS

IDEASARETANGIBLE

IDEASAREMOVABLE

IDEASAREIMMOBILEENTITIES

IDEASAR EPRODUCEDOF

AVALUABLEMATERIAL

IDEASAR ETHREADSIDEASARESEEN

IDEASAREHEARD

IDEASCANBESMELLED(in Lithuanian)

IDEASCANBETASTED (in Lithuanian)

IDEASCANBEMEASURED

Ideas have width

Ideas have length

Ideas are counted

Ideas can be divided into parts

IDEASAREPOSSESSIONS

Thus ideas are systematically reified andtherefore can be packed as physical ob-jects in containers or words.

2.2. WORDS ARE OBJECTSOR CONTAINERS

The previous part of the article was mainlyconcentrated on how pervasive is the

tendency to talk about abstractions interms of concrete objects. This part notonly deals with this tendency, but also


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focuses on container metaphors that arejust as natural as ontological metaphorsin our understanding. Lakoff points outthat container metaphors are motivated

by human everyday physical experience:We are physical beings, bounded andset off from the rest of the world by the

surface of our skins, and we experiencethe rest of the world as outside us. Eachof us is a container, with a boundingsurface and an in-out orientation (La-

koff and Johnson 1980, p. 29). The anal-ysis of the Lithuanian noun odis andthe English noun word has proved the

tendency to use container metaphors, asthe corpus examples in the followingchapters will show.

2.2.1. WORDS ARE OBJECTS

Words are not as abstract as ideas be-cause they have been given a materialshape since writing was invented. Besides,

they have the sound form. However, inthe metaphorical language they are givencertain physical qualities that literallycould not be ascribed either to a printedor an uttered word. One of such features

is that words are produced like ideas, butin a specific way, i.e. they are made ofmetal. In Lithuanian they are forged,

(33)io odio kalviu laikysime Jablonsk.

veria skolintis dirbtinai nukalt od

existere

In the translation of the second examplea problem arises how to translate the

word nukalt. In English words arecoined and the metaphor not only im-plies that words are made of metal but

also suggests that they are valuable ascoins. The latter aspect is not empha-sised in Lithuanian. Therefore, the liter-ary translation should be forge but the

collocational information of the lexemeunder analysis allows us to use only theword coin. Actually, the noun phrase

is among ten most frequent collocates ofthe lexeme coin. Thus the conceptualmetaphor coincides in both languagesbut the two languages use different lex-

ical means to express it and emphasisedifferent aspects. In addition, in Lithua-nian the phrase auksiniai/aukso odiai

(golden words) is very common. Inboth languages this material is associat-ed with something that is precious andexcellent. Therefore, exclusively good

ideas and words are equalled to someprecious material. However, in Englishideas and words are brilliant as in theyre

justbrilliant words.Material things are tangible and so are

words in both languages. This aspect ofwords is evident from the verbs that show

what can be done with words,(34)laikytis savo odio

odio kienje neieko

prisilietimas prie seno odio

atsiimti savo od

rasti od

iekoti odio

There are similar examples in English aswell,

(35)seeking the right word

found no words

no time for trimming words

One more very frequent verb that collo-

cates with odis or word is vartotior use. It is interesting to notice that inLithuanian we differentiate between two

equivalents of the verb use, i.e. varto-ti and naudoti. The first one is used totalk about linguistic expressions, where-as the second one is employed to talk

about material objects. This shows thatalthough people unconsciously use a greatvariety of metaphors where words areperceived as objects, they are still aware

that they are abstract notions. Some oth-er physical features of words as objects

are revealed by the adjectives collocat-ing with the noun, e.g. atrus / gru-bus/ velnus odis or a rather frequent


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154 ODIO SEMANTIKA

phrase in English harsh words. Be-sides, such tangible and reified wordshave shape, e.g. tiesusodis,ikreipti/ikraipytiodius. The feature of straight-

ness is expressed in the following sam-ple sentence:the words in such a languageare not always straightforward. The verb

distort has even a separate meaning givea false account of; twist out of the truth(OALD, p.251) that is illustrated by thefollowing examples:

(36)Newspaper accounts of international af-

fairs are sometimes distorted.

You have distorted my motives. (OALD,

p.251)Her words were distorted by the strangers

hand (CD-ROM)

Furthermore, materialised words can be

weighed, e.g. in Lithuanian svarus odis,pasverti odius and in English hisevery word was valued and weighed.The measurement of weight is especially

emphasised in Lithuanian. There are anumber of cases in the corpus where it is

suggested to weigh every word beforespeaking,

(37)kiekvienas odis turi bti pasvertas

sverkite kiekvien od

kalbtasi ramiai, pasveriant odius

Thus when a word is materialised, it gainsshape, becomes tangible and has weight.As it has been mentioned in the analy-

sis of the noun idea, abstractionsmetaphorised as physical objects are

perceived with the help of our five senses.Similarly, words can be touched, seen,

heard and tasted. The sense of touchinghas been illustrated by the examplesabove, which present words as objects

with such features as harshness or soft-ness. As words can be perceived withthe help of sight, they have a certaincolour or are visible in some other ways,(38)odio spalvingumas

pajusti odio sodrumodio spalv

kasdienybs nupilkinti odiai

bluko j vardij odiai

kiek atspalvi gali turti jo odiai

skaidrs odiai

In English the determining words such

as colourful and colourless are used

to talk about style if it is expressive orlacks vividness as in colourful style ofwritingandcolourless style(OALD, p.164).The noun language is among ten mostfrequent collocates of the adjective co-lourful which indicates that such lan-

guage is expressive and emotive as theseparallel structures show: colourful andexpressive language, colourful and

emotive language. Besides, language in

English can befloridorflowerywhen it isfull of complicated words or expressions.In addition to the sense of touching and

sight, words can be heard. Naturallyspoken language is heard, but sometimeswords produce sounds that are meta-

phorical. In Lithuanian words can ring,(39)pernelyg danai skamba odis laisv

iandien odis sekta turi kit skambes

skambus odis esm

There are a couple of corpus exampleswhere a word has a sound in English:some more ominous-sounding words, the last

three words exploded. Finally, words can

be tasted and thus can be sweet or bitter,e.g. saldus odis laisv, kartus odislaisv, jausti odio skon. In English

this tendency can be illustrated by thefollowing example: such sweet wordsmay have been comforting.

The analysis of the way the word ideais metaphorised has shown that ideasare perceived as valuable possessions. Ifideas are put into words, logically words

become valuable possessions as wellbecause of their contents. The sense ofownership is deeply rooted in humannature and even intellectual possessions

such as ideas, words or texts are alsoseen as someones property. The corpus

samples in both languages give enoughevidence to ground this tendency. Thefirst and most striking thing in the


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Lithuanian corpus is that the noun wordreiterates in combination with the pos-sessive case of a noun and most often ofa proper noun,

(40) Martyno Mavydo / Brazausko / moks-

lininko / pezidento / veterinaro /Redakci-

jos / tv odiai

Similar phrases are especially frequent-ly used to introduce citations of some-one elses ideas, e.g.(kieno nors) odiais(tariant). Besides, the possessive pro-noun own is among the twenty mostfrequent collocates of the plural nounform words. The pronoun appears in

the construction in ones own words.Similarly, the Lithuanian phrase papasa-koti (k nors) savais odiais reveals

the importance of using ones own words,whereas if someone elses words are used,it must be indicated. The same notion ofownership is inherent in the linguistic

terms used to name the words that aretaken from a foreign language and adopt-ed, i.e.skolinys borrowing. The concept

of borrowing in English is recurrent inthe examples provided for the noun lan-guage on CD-ROM,(41) All her spoken language was borrowed,

even references

likes to borrow words from other lan-

guages, and most of its vocabulary

In addition, there is one more metaphorrecurrent in the Lithuanian corpus taupytiodius (save words), which implies

that words are valuables or money. Thevalue of words is also suggested by thefollowing English examples,(42)There is no point in wasting words on ill

health

never a word wasted

The value of words is expressed by thepreviously discussed metaphor wordsof gold or brilliant words and in thefollowing group of metaphors inLithuanian:(43) brangus odis Lietuva

(44) bus atlyginta meiliu odiu

(45) odis Ai turi vert

(46) nupigintas odis vaigd

(47) visikai atpigo odis

(48) devalvavosi odiai tauta, tvyn

Examples 46 48 indicate that words

have lost their value because they areoverused. The value of a word can bedetermined in English as well, e.g. hisevery word was valued. Moreover, the

fifth most frequent collocate of the ad-jective valuable is the noun informa-tion. However, the notion of such prop-erty is best illustrated by the term pla-

giarism, whose Latin origin again is veryinformative, i.e. it comes fromplagium

meaning kidnapping (CCD, p.1020).Thus the conceptual metaphors from

the corpora present words as tangibleobjects of a certain shape that can beperceived with our physical senses. They

are of a certain value and are possessedby someone. The available corpus datashow that the same metaphorical frame-work exists both in English and

Lithuanian.

2.2.2. WORDS ARE CONTAINERS

In this section we finally come to a very

important part of the conceptual meta-

phor that treats language as a channel tosend the speakers meaning through to

an addressee. Hence by examining the

two nouns idea and word in English

and Lithuanian we shall look at how thismechanism of packaging information into

words works.The information in the corpora shows

that words are not simply objects, but

they are containers to be filled with some

contents. The verb put is one of twenty

most frequent collocates of the noun

word. The examples below show whata variety of contents can be inserted into

words:(49)Put that storyinto words.

put her observations into words.


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156 ODIO SEMANTIKA

signs, groans, and moans put into words.

The collapse of the economyis being repack-

aged in an insidious new language.

that gives new meaningto the word

language itself is held to be a repository ofsexist attitudes.

objective realityin the word we use

such words have the very kernel of truth

Similarly, in Lithuanian we can find a

great number of abstract notions that canbe packed in words,

(50) (kieno)

odiuose (yra)

diaugsmas

pavydas ir neapykanta

tiesiogin prasm

susirpinimas, nerimas, noras iekoti

agresyvumo

tiesos

atpaintum savo praeit

Besides, words can be filled to a differ-

ent degree. It is possible to use manywords with little contents or to use veryfew condensed words, e.g. jos vienasodis atstodavo kelis puslapius, jos vie-

nas odis man buvo visa knyga. Some-times words or other linguistic units canbe overfilled, e.g. perkrauti odiais

dialogai. Similarly, in English words canhave too much contents, e.g. so manywords are superfluous. Although a greatvariety of abstract notions can be mate-

rialised and packed in a word, wordsand other linguistic expressions can stillbe empty, e.g. tai tebuvo tuti odiai,

mano sakinys ess per lengvas, netursminties. In English it can be illustratedby the following example: The words ofpolitics will remain empty forever. Thus if a

speaker does not put any contents intothese metaphorical containers, they seemto have no inherent meaning of their own.

Ideas and other abstractions can be put

not only into words but also into the

following linguistic containers that are

in italics,

(51)mintys, randamos minto romano puslapiuose

spaudoje pasirodiusioms mintims

turi poveikio rainyje dstomoms mintims

i keli knyg paimti mintis

idstyti savo mintis ant popieriaus

mintis dstperiodinje spaudoje

reikti savo mintis ilgais ir sudtiniaissakin-iais

knygoje dstomos mintys

In English ideas are packed in a similar

way,(52) Get your ideas down onpaper.

Hed brought a letter which contained

some new ideas

The report lays out in more detail ideas that

have already been put forward

This newspaper is a bundle of ideas

We discussed storyideas

In addition, a conversation is seen as acontainer as one of the most frequentphrases provided on CD-ROM deep inconversation suggests. Besides, in both

languages the idea of properly arrang-ing ideas in some container is impliedby the phrase(i)dstyti mintis.

No matter how much content is inher-ent in words, they still have certain limitsas the above examples of overburdenedlinguistic units suggest. The fact that words

have their boundaries set is implied bythe terms we use to refer to the act ofstating precisely their meaning, i.e.apibrtiod define a word. Thus words are given

certain fixed boundaries that can containcertain notions. However, there are anumber of abstractions that cannot be

inserted into any words. The cases whenwords become powerless and too limitedcan be illustrated by the following samples:

(53) in Lithuanian:

odiais neapsakomas / nenusakomas /

neireiktas diaugsmas / vaizdas / geru-

mas sunkiai odiais nusakomas graudulys/

jausmas / mintys

(54) in English:

found no words to answer it

there were things that couldnt be explained

with words

more relieved than words can describe

so many emotions have no words

It pains me beyond words


15/26


Thus many abstractions are too immenseto be packed in words and even ideas inthe Lithuanian example cannot be putinto words although they are materia-

lised and suited for inserting into themetaphoric linguistic packages.Finally, the conceptual metaphor WORDS

ARECONTAINERS is inherent in the lexicalmeans that we use to refer to translat-ing, i.e. versti i vienos kalbos kit to translate from one language into

another. The prepositions indicate thattwo languages are containers and theircontents can be moved from one into

another. Furthermore, the Lithuanianverb versti refers also to the physicalaction of turning something over. Even-tually it implies that in the act of trans-

lating one language is turned over as acontainer and its contents is poured intothe other language also seen as a con-

tainer. Similarly, the word derive,whose literal meaning is to draw fromsome source, suggests that language is

a container, e.g. crisis is derived fromthe Greek word krisis. Hence, wordsand language itself are metaphoricallyperceived as containers that can embracedifferent abstractions although they have

certain limits.

2.3. COMMUNICATIONIS SENDING

The conduit metaphor suggests that theact of communication is the act of send-

ing or handing in words with their con-tents to the hearer. Messages then travelfrom a source (speaker) in some direc-tion to the goal (hearer). Lakoff refers to

this pattern as the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL sche-ma. He motivates its pervasiveness byour bodily experience: Every time we

move anywhere there is a place we startfrom, a place we wind up at, a sequenceof contiguous locations connecting thestarting and ending points, and a direc-

tion (Lakoff 1987, p. 275). Informationsent by a speaker moves similarly. Thusthis section is an overview of how wordsand ideas are sent from a source when

communication is appropriate and inap-propriate. It will also look at how wordsand ideas are received and decoded or

unpacked by the hearer when the mes-sages reach their destination.Some metaphors contain words directly

related to sending by post such as ad-

dressing, sending and delivering asthe following Lithuanian and Englishexamples show:

(55) Kitiems adresuotas jausmas, mintis

Jis [Dievas] atsiunia jums mint

Viltis, kad odis, kur siunti i scenos, bus

igirstas

Bloga linkintys odiai,pasisti artimj

adresu

(56) He addresseshis first words to me

Samaranch deliveredthe immortal word

The examples show that the model ofsending letters by post is applied to speak

about utterances produced orally. Nomatter how paradoxically it may seem,but even God obeys the same mecha-nism. Thus again people take somethingfrom their common physical experienceand use it to speak about more abstractphenomena. This metaphor of sending isso pervasive that the verb to post hasgained a separate meaning to informthe latest news (CCD, p.1044). Besides,the noun message most frequently col-locates with different forms of the verbto send. The full list of collocates isprovided in the Appendix and here wecan see the frequency of the verb to send:

Table 1.

The frequency of the verb to sendcollocating with the noun message

Message 16 259 messages 3 706

(2) sent 597 (1) sent 160

(4) send 462 (2) send 120(11) sending 195 (3) sending 117

(19) sends 157

Total: 1 411 Total: 397


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158 ODIO SEMANTIKA

The numbers in front of the collocat-ing verb forms show their place in thefull list. The frequency number of thenoun and the frequency number of the

verb show that the verb takes approxi-mately one tenth of all its collocates.Furthermore, if we take into account other

verbs referring to the sphere of post, themetaphor of sending becomes even moreevident as it is displayed in the tablebelow.

If we count the total frequency numberof the collocates that are related to the

domain of post, we get rather revealingnumbers. In 2 997 out of 16 259 cases thesingular form message keeps companywith words directly related to post, whichmakes 18%. 595 examples of the plural

form are also related to the same do-main, which is 16%. If we count not thefrequency number, but the number of

collocates, nine out of twenty collocatesof the singular form and six out of twen-

ty collocates of the plural form are wordsthat directly refer to post.

However, the act of sending is not al-ways so openly stated in the metaphorsof sending. Transmission of utterancescan be referred to in other words signi-fying moving or directing an entity to aperson. These are mainly verbs signify-ing handing something in to someone asin the two sets of English and Lithuanian

examples below:(57) Savo mintis ir pasilymus galitepateikti

Kauno inovacij diegimo centrui

Mintiesperteikimas

Pasidalinti / dalintismintimis

Kol sugalvotas odispasiekia skaitytojus,

prabga ne vienas mnuo

(58) share your ideas with people up there

Clum sets offmany interesting ideas.put forwardideas

the best way toput your ideas across

Tips can bepassed on by word of mouth

I must give you another word from my lips

Most of these examples imply direction,movement or the change of position of aword or idea. Thus utterances are mov-able objects or containers.

The above examples are cases of send-

ing information or ideas in one directionfrom a speaker to a hearer, but the data

from corpora show that sending can alsobe bidirectional:(59) Pasikeisti mintimis su kolegomis

Pasitaiko ir blogesniais odiais apsikeiia

A few more words exchangedwith Harry

swappingideas

Give each other ideas.

This metaphor of bidirectional sending

implies that words are things that can betransferred for an equivalent piece ofinformation. Thus again we can see thatthe value of the interchanged words can

be fixed. Therefore, the exchange of ideascan be paralleled to financial transac-tions or trading when sums of money or

goods of equivalent value are inter-changed.

Directionality of communication is

probably the most important notion inthe metaphor of communication as send-

ing. This aspect is reflected not only by

the metaphors of sending, but also by

other metaphors where words are per-

ceived as moving objects. In Lithuanian

such metaphors can be grouped into twomain sets WORDSAREWATER and WORDS

TRAVEL:

(60) kad uliet skaitomi odiai

odiai liejasiodiai plauk i irdies

odi jra

pilasi srautai odi

Table 2

Collocates of the noun message

related to post.Message messages

(1) get 634 (4) get 84

(6) got 388 (5) received 61

(10) getting 204 (12) receive 53

(13) delivered 185

(15) received 175

Total: 1 586 Total: 198


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(61) odio kelias

kartu su juo keliauja odiai ir jausmai

Similarly, in English metaphors words

are metaphorised using water imagery:(62) words tumbled out like a waterfall

We instinctively knew that too many words

would drown out the oceans music.

In addition, smooth and easy communi-

cation is described by the verb to flowin English as it can be seen in the defini-tion and example provided in the CO-

BUILD dictionary:If someones words flow, they are spoken

smoothly and continuously without hesita-

tion. His words flowed more readily. (CO-BUILD, p.649)

The perception that messages travel isalso reflected in the entry of the head-

word travel in the same dictionary. Thereis a separate meaning of the verb distin-guished as a result of this metaphor:

When news becomes known by people in

different places, you can say that it travels

to them. News of his work traveled all the way

to Asia Seems like news travels pretty fast

around here. (COBUILD, p.1783)

Thus successful communication needs tohave direction and steady movement.

These two aspects are reflected in themetaphors of sending as well as in othermetaphors implying movement of lin-guistic expressions and their direction.

When inappropriate communication orcommunication without much effort isreferred to, it is no longer perceived as

sending. In such cases words are stillmetaphorically moved, but in a differentway. In Lithuanian careless communica-tion is expressed mainly by verbs signi-

fying the act of throwing or falling:

(63) mestelti od kit

mestelti bjaur od

iandien iuo odiu svaidomasi kur reikia

ir nereikia

odiai biro ant jo kaip krua

Thus here the direction of words is notas precise as in the metaphors of send-ing where it is horizontal. The last met-

aphor of strewing or pouring words inthe set of the examples above shows thatwhen communication is not proper, themovement of words can be vertical. It

also should be noted that in Lithuanianthe act of strewing words as peas is par-alleled to easy and quick speech, which

does not require much effort, e.g.Moter-

is kalbjo sklandiai, odius tiesiog berte

br. In the act of throwing some object,in this case a word, the object moves

horizontally, but this metaphor suggeststhat a lot of force is used for sending amessage. It also implies carelessness be-

cause precious and important objects areusually handled in a gentle way and arenot thrown. Similarly, the idea of brutal-ity is inherent in the metaphors below:

(64) atkerta odiais

iria karios tiesos odius

atrdavo odiais

Violence of improper communicationbecomes especially evident in the wordby word translation into English. No sim-

ilar metaphors of striking or cutting withwords have been found in the Englishsource. Therefore, dictionaries were againused as a supplementary source to search

for the metaphors describing inappro-priate communication. A verb that is usedto refer to rude communication is tosnap:

If someone snaps at you, they speak to you

in a sharp, unfriendly way. Of course I dont

know her, Roger snapped. (COBUILD, p.1577)

The notion of violence is reflected evenin the dictionary definition, which de-scribes the effects of such speaking assharpness. Besides, the association of

communication with the sudden act ofsnapping or cracking implies impulsive-ness and carelessness. However, nega-

tive effects of words will be expandedupon separately in the part about the

sovereignty of language, whereas thepresent chapter mainly deals with com-

munication as sending. The act of send-


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160 ODIO SEMANTIKA

ing does not function if communicationis inappropriate or effortless. Neverthe-less, it does not mean that communica-tion itself does not function then, only it

has negative effects on the receiver.

2.3.1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LINEARITY

IN COMMUNICATION

Lakoff distinguishes six most important

dimensions of conversation structure andone of them is linear sequence (Lakoffand Johnson 1980, p. 78). He points out

that participants of a conversation taketurns in a linear sequence although someoverlappings and lapses may occur (La-koff and Johnson 1980, p. 78). Further-

more, he draws our attention to such anatural phenomenon that in general wespeak in linear order; in a sentence, we

say some words earlier and others later.Since speaking is correlated with timeand time is metaphorically conceptual-

ized in terms of space, it is natural for usto conceptualize language metaphoricallyin terms of space. Our writing systemreinforces this conceptualization (Lakoffand Johnson 1980, p. 126). Peter Carle-

ton in his list of perceptual contrasts alsodistinguishescycles vs. linearityas one ofthe numerous contrastive metaphoric

pairs that is based on such natural ev-eryday experience as movements back

and forth (Carleton http://www.metaself.org/model/glossart.html, p. 7). Thus we

send words to an addressee in a partic-ular order if we want positive effects.Therefore, the metaphor of throwing

words represents those facts when se-quence in communication is despised.The data from the Lithuanian and En-

glish sources support the tendency of

linear order in communication. The sig-

nificance of sequence and linking of wordsis expressed by the following Englishexamples:

(65)She spoke again, slowly, one word built

on another.

spoken words strung together

In the first example words are perceived

as building blocks that are put togetherto form a solid structure. In both sam-ples, however, the main idea is that words

as objects are added to each other, one ata time in a certain sequence to form anentity. Similarly, the notion of linear order

is reflected in the following examples inLithuanian:(66)Krjas ypsosi, ltai deda od prie

odio

Klausms bijodami praleisti odmintis i minties plaukia

neka yra linijinis reikinys joje odiai

rikiuojasi vienas paskui kit.

The importance of linearity is best

summed up by the last example in theset of corpus samples above. It is also

expressed by the fear to miss a word as

it could ruin the wholeness of the mes-

sage. Besides, the idea of putting words

in a proper order reiterates in the firstand the third examples. Furthermore, thelast metaphor belongs to the set of met-

aphors defined as WORDSAREWATER that

has already been discussed. Metaphors

that present words as running water

emphasise the dimension of continuity,

integrity and sequence in communica-

tion.

The dimension of linear order is even

ritualised in our cognition of communi-cation. The corpus data show that the

first and the last words are given a spe-

cial significance. Especially frequent col-

locates of the noun odiai are adjec-

tives pirmi or paskutiniai as in:

(67) suteiktas paskutinis odis

We can also find such phrases as bai-giamasis/ pabaigos odis, anginis/

vadinis odis. The adjective last is the

third most frequent collocate of the nounword and the collocates first and lastare also in the list of the most frequent


19/26


collocates of the plural form of the nounwords. It should be noted that here thenoun has a figurative meaning. How-ever, in the cases of polysemy it is not

significant what meaning a word hasbecause the focus of the article is themetaphorisation of the word. Thus such

common word combinations as last/first

word can be illustrated by the followingsamples from the English corpus:

(68)The last word goes to Geoffrey Stern

The right to the last word

His first quietly-spoken words were: Can

somebody get me a strong drink

The importance of the first words isalso reflected in such a sentence as TOHEAR your babys first words is almostas the day of his birth. The latter sample

sentence partly explains the reason whythe first and the last words are signifi-cant in human perception. Just as the

first words of a child are an event forparents, so are the last words uttered bya person before death. The last words

before death used to be like a testamentto the person whom they were told. Thefunction of the last word is so muchemphasised that the COBUILD dictio-

nary distinguishes a separate meaningon basis of this reiterating collocation:If someone has the last word or the

final word in a discussion, argument, or

disagreement, they are the one who winsit or makes the final decision. She does

like to have the last word in a discussion(COBUILD, p.1930)The order of conversation is also pre-

sented as an important factor by ChitraFernando. The author notices that people

use a lot of expressions to move from onetopic to another so that the discourse wereknit (Fernando 1996, p. 183). Amongsuch expressions there are expressions

marking openings (greetings), topic and

topic changes, and closures (farewells)(Fernando 1996, p. 183). These phrases

sometimes make discourse very formulaic,

but they perform a very important func-tion of relating and organising separatelinguistic units. Such text organisers as notonlybut, moreover, furthermore and

a great variety of other idiomatic connec-tors work globally to make the semanticunity of a discourse explicit (Fernando

1996, p.189). Chitra Fernando also pointsout that epigraphs at the beginning of sepa-rate chapters knit portions of a discoursetogether (Fernando 1996, p. 189). Thus

different kinds of connectors are abundantlyused, especially in writing, to integrate adiscourse. The first and the last words

function as a unifying frame of the wholediscourse in this way delineating its con-tinuous abstraction.Coherence and sequence in communi-

cation are best expressed by the concep-tual metaphor TEXTISAFABRIC. The meta-phor of weaving is analysed in Chapter

2.1.1, which presents how ideas are reified.The analysis has revealed that ideas aremetaphorically perceived as threads and

the process of thinking or expressing ideasis paralleled to weaving or knitting. Textsand books were associated with weav-ing already in the antique times becauseof the way threads are arranged in the

process of weaving. The way threads arecombined reminds of the principle ofwriting. The metaphor is very sugges-

tive and very much prevailing nowadaysas the following set of corpus examples

in English show:(69) You put a spinner of words into an inac-

cessible place

the themes get tangled

another thread running through the entire book

the thread that ran through Mr. Bushs speech

Names thread through the narrative

He enjoyed making things up, weaving these

things into a story

weaving words around gospel music

well-crafted words weaving togetherromance

and cynicism

your storymay be vague, weaving together

scattered bits and pieces.

11


20/26

162 ODIO SEMANTIKA

A gift for weaving together the strandsofBois

story

The mechanism of weaving is often ap-plied to speak about language in Lithua-

nian as well. The notions of knitting, tan-gling and making fibre can be illustratedby the following metaphoric cases:(70) nesugebjau normaliai odio suregzti

personao spalvingumas, iaustas i odio

su tarptautiniais keksmais pynsi lietuviki

odiai

i tarptautini odi suraizgytas frazes

odi pyn

Egl veldavo odius

The metaphor under analysis is inherentin the noun tekstas or text whose ety-mology is very informative, i.e. textcomes from the Latin verb texere, which

means to weave. Hence a proper dis-course is expected to be a continuousand unified artefact, produced in a par-ticular sequence.

Finally, we should cover the cases whenthe mechanism of sending does not work

although communication is expected. Insuch cases the participant of a conversa-tion who acts as a receiver does not getany message from the silent participantwho should act as a sender. Therefore,

the receiver forces the sender to producean utterance or the sender himself makesgreat efforts to produce it. The factor of

force and effort in a conversation thatdoes not flow naturally is emphasised in

the following metaphors:(71) in Lithuanian:

itraukti tokius odius i jo buvo taip sunku

liudininkas odius trauk sunkiai

spauste ispaudia iuos odius

odiai koiami pro dantis

(72) in English:

she couldnt make her voice say the words

Claire coaxed few words out of her father

screwing a few words out of her

The examples show that the difficulty ofmaking communication work is paral-leled to such physical actions as screw-ing, drawing, pressing and coaxing, which

is a more gentle way of getting informa-tion. In such cases communication re-quires more effort, strength and skillsthan in the metaphoric cases of sending

messages because words do not travel orflow themselves, but have to be forcedout.

2.3.2. RECEIVING AND DECODING

MESSAGES

If words or ideas are properly sent, theyreach their destination, i.e. a hearer, who

has to unpack the container in order tofind the meaning or sometimes can sim-ply remain passive and the meaning willreach him or her anyway. However, the

examples which reveal the activity of lin-guistic units and participants passivityare much more numerous than those in

which hearers take an active part in de-coding the messages. If hearers are ac-tive, they can prevent words form enter-

ing their ears or minds as it will be seenin this chapter.First of all, let us analyse the meta-

phors where words are active and reachhearers without any special effort of the

latter. As the Lithuanian source is biggerand more informative, naturally it pro-vides a greater number of such examples

than in English. The examples below il-lustrate the tendency that hearers do not

need to be very active to receive infor-mation:

(73) Skaitykime ltai, kartkartmis susto-

dami, kad odiai ir frazs eit mus.

Jos odiai pasiek Aus

dain odiai skverbiasi vis irdis

tavo odiai tekjo mano ausis

jo odi reikm prasismelk Roderio

smon

Thus words flow, penetrate and enter

hearers as these Lithuanian metaphorsdisplay. In English we can also find someexamples referring to the act of passive-

ly receiving information:


21/26


(74) they get most of their ideas from televi-

sion

In addition, Table 2 presents two verbsget and receive that frequently collo-

cate with the noun message. Sentenceexamples of these word combinationssuggest no effort of the receiver:(75) people who suddenly receive unwanted

information.

He received whatever messages the politi-

cians were anxious to convey to the greater

public.

In the English examples the subjects are

people in contrast to the Lithuanian ex-

amples, where words are subjects. Nev-ertheless, the subjects in the English sam-ples show no effort to receive the mes-

sages.Not all the messages, which are re-

ceived, are transparent and therefore they

have to be unpacked and decoded. Thelatter act needs a special hearers effort.In this case words are objects and re-main passive, whereas hearers are ac-

tive subjects as in the following sen-tence:(76) Benedict had lifted some of his ideas

from the girls thesis.

The thesis here is a container where ideasare packed. When it is unpacked, the

receiver is able to take them. People fol-low exactly the same pattern when theyreceive a parcel by post. In Lithuanian

we find some examples which represent

words as coded messaged:(77) iifruoti odio, raids prasm

The act of decoding is important because,as some Lithuanian metaphors suggest,words hide something in them:

(78) reali padt geriausia paslpti po odi

apvalkalu

mintis neretai udengiama odiu

iaurumas neretai udangstomas graiais

odiais

In contrast to the cases when hearers areeager to unpack the received informa-tion containers, some Lithuanian exam-ples suggest that hearers can avoid re-

ceiving reified messages.(79)ugaulius odius praleisdavo pro ausis

tie odiai praslysta pro ausis

In the examples above the words reachtheir destination, but they are not ac-

cepted by the hearer. Therefore, withoutreversibility communication is broken andhas no continuity. The process of weav-ing a discourse is stopped.

Thus the process of communication isperceived as sending, which implies suchadditional notions as direction, receiv-

ing and unpacking. One more importantfeature of communication is its linearity.

Because of the linear order of spokenand especially written language it is as-

sociated with the craft of weaving. Thelatter metaphor implies that appropriatecommunication and texts are continu-

ous and sequential combinations of lin-guistic units reminding of texture.

2.4. MINOR MODEL

OF COMMUNICATION

At the beginning of the article the minor

metaphoric model of communication has

been presented. It is less complex than

the major model discussed above parts

because it has fewer stages. This model

consists of a single act of ejecting ideas

or words into space without directing

them to a particular addressee. The ejected

ideas and words may remain in that space

as shapeless or reified entities. This is a

minor model not only because it is less

complex, but also because there are con-

siderably fewer examples belonging to

it. Nevertheless, such a model exists in

English and Lithuanian and should be

briefly dwelt upon.

Words as objects are released into space

where they do not have any specific des-

tination or people are not aware of them.

This tendency is inherent in the follow-

ing metaphors:


22/26

164 ODIO SEMANTIKA

(80) in Lithuanian:

odiai, beriami erdvn (words poured into

space)

odiai, nusviesti erdv (words thrown into

space)istenjo odius, kabojusius ore (stammered

out words hanging in the air)

odiai krinta tutum (words fall into

emptiness)

nuo lp nukris tavo paties odiai (your

own words will fall from your lips)

odiai liejasi (words are pouring)

(81) in English:

The word Messiah is often bandied around

floated some fairly detailed ideas

We can now move good advertising ideasaround the world

Our main goal is to spread the ideas of Islam

Recent ideas put forward by a senior Soviet

officer

The most intriguing and valuable ideas put

forth in Gay Soul

Such words never left the other candidates

lips

Reddy classifies even such phrases asput down all the words (on paper) un-

der the label of minor framework (Red-dy 1993, p.195) although in this case thespace is very clearly defined and wordshave a very tangible shape.

2.5. SOVEREIGNTY AND POWEROF WORDS

The analysis of the numerous corpus data

has revealed one more interesting ten-dency that is not directly related to theconduit metaphor, but is pervasive espe-cially in Lithuanian. A numerous set ofmetaphors presents words as independentpowerful entities that sometimes gain evensupernatural power and are feared. Thenlinguistic units are very often animatedand are independent of people:

(82)odis isprdo netyia

gavs laisv odis tampa palaidasnebepratarm n odio dingo jie visi

kakur

galinjausi su odiu

ie odiai gyvena savo gyvenim

vos prasiiojus, odiai patys slysta nuo

lieuvio

nuo lieuvio nusprsta odiai

odis sueidia skaudiau nei durklaskompensuoja griaunamj, asmenikai ei-

diani odio gali

ird veriantys odiai

skausmingi odiai

ugauls odiai

lyg peiliu duria odiai

kaip perknas trenk mane jo odiai

mes save pribaigsim odiais

In addition to the negative effects, wordsare ascribed magic or supernatural power.A very frequent determiner of the noun

word in Lithuanian is ventas as inMotinos odis buvo ventas. One morefrequent word combination is odio

galia. The notion of power is reflectedby a paradigm of other words referringto word potency:

(83) magikas / iganingas / stebuklingas/

bendruomen gaivinantis / lemiamas /

lemtingas ir nesugrinamas

pranaiki odiaikuriamoji arba energetin odio galia

odio taiga

odio mistika

In English such examples are fewer, butthey are enough to prove that the con-

ceptual metaphor WORDSAREPOWER existsin this language.(84) immortal word

fateful words

fatal wordsA word can change the whole meaning

a word which works wonders

the word power is highly charged for women

a powerful word

haunting words

Thus words are not mere linguistic ex-

pressions in our cognitive model, butthere is uncontrolled power inherent inthem. This particular aspect becomes

clearly noticeable only when an immensenumber of corpus examples are analy-sed and can remain undetected if thelanguages are observed only intuitively.


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3. CONCLUSIONS

The first and the most important general-isation that follows from the comparative

analysis of the way two nouns idea andword are metaphorised in Lithuanianand English is that the conduit metaphoris pervasive in both languages when com-munication is referred to. This conclu-sion is strongly supported by the numer-ous data from the computer corpora. Theexistence of this particular conceptualmetaphor in both languages allows us tothink that possibly it is a universal meta-

phoric model. An analysis of differentcorpora of different languages could proveit or invalidate.Although this comparative study has

revealed that the metaphoric structuringof communication in both languages isvery similar, some minor differences havebeen observed. Ideas and words do nothave some aspects in English, but theyhave them in Lithuanian. However, this

does not allow us to claim that the lan-guages do not have the same coherentsystem of metaphoric expressions becausethe differences do not affect the whole

model. The two languages use differentlexical means to talk about the same con-cepts, e.g. the notion of precious ideasand words is expressed by golden ideas /

words in Lithuanian, whereas in Englishit is expressed by the phrase brilliantideas/ words. Such minor differences becomeespecially evident in the literary transla-tions of Lithuanian examples. Thus suchcorpus-based analyses could serve to com-pile metaphoric equivalents in two lan-guages because clearly not autonomouswords are translated but the whole multi-word units instead.

There are two distinctive sets of meta-phors that are not directly related to theconduit metaphor and are not discussedby the authors who analysed this meta-phor. The study has revealed that in thesystem of metaphorising communicationthere are two prevailing metaphors LAN-GUAGEORCOMMUNICATIONISWEAVING andWORDSAREASOVEREIGNPOWER. The lattermetaphor ritualises communication and

gives it magic power. All the data can bea starting point for further generalisationsabout the concept of communication fromthe point of view of cognitive linguistics.

IDEA

no

good

any

like

some

get

very

got

give

new

people

whole

might

think

great

suchcame

going

bad

much

42 577

3 599

3 322

1 161

1 047

942

935

680

672

639

636

621

586

568

428

415

412409

388

370

364

IDEAS

new

some

other

any

own

good

many

more

such

people

get

come

put

different

got

verypolitical

great

few

work

17 883

1 356

962

505

467

459

369

366

342

304

302

246

237

236

235

215

203164

146

141

134

APPENDICES (ACCORDING TO COLLINS COBUILD ENGLISHCOLLOCATIONS ON CD-ROM).

1. Frequency list of the collocates of the noun idea


24/26

166 ODIO SEMANTIKA

W O R D

no

use

lastevery

used

said

say

without

like

just

another

mouth

meaning

never

sense

only

processor

any

right

good

29 077

1 042

975

770744

709

691

640

509

466

407

378

374

368

366

356

349

323

306

305

295

W O R D S

other

few

likeno

more

some

use

own

just

last

first

used

say

war

such

many

put

between

too

spoken

33 153

5 113

936

835714

654

625

587

552

517

469

453

430

415

369

367356

344

286

260

254

MESSAGE

get

sent

clear

send

acrossgot

leave

through

same

getting

16 259

634

597

522

462

394388

274

249

241

204

MESSAGES

sent

send

sending

get

otherthrough

radio

such

received

mixed

3 706

160

120

117

84

7977

65

63

61

59

2. Frequency list of the collocations of the noun word

3. Frequency list of the collocations of the noun message

REFERENCES

Carleton P. 1995.Glossary of perceptual contrasts

(image schemas). http://www.metaself.org/model/glossary.html

Fernando Chitra. 1996. Idioms and idiomaticity.

Oxford University Press.

Foucault Michel. 1998. Diskurso tvarka. Trans.

Dakus M. Vilnius: Baltos lankos.

Hayakawa S. I., ed. 1971. The Penguin modern

guide to synonyms and related words. Penguin

Books.

Grumadien L. and ilinskien V. 1998. Da-

ninis dabartins raomosios lietuvi kalbos o-

dynas. Vilnius: Mokslo aidai.

Lakoff G. and Johnson M. 1980. Metaphors we

live by. Chicago and London: The University

of Chicago Press.

Lakoff G. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous

things. Chicago and London: The University

of Chicago Press.Lakoff G. 1993. The contemporary theory of

metaphor. Metaphor and thought. Ed. A. Or-

tony. Cambridge University Press. P.202251.

Marcinkeviien R. 1999. Atminties labirin-

tuose. Kognityvins ir tekstyn lingvistikos

sveika. Darbai ir Dienos. Nr.10(19). P.109

124.

Reddy J. Michael.1993. The conduit metaphor:

a case of frame conflict in our language about

language. Metaphor and thought. Ed. A. Or-

tony. Cambridge University Press. P.164201.

Schoenefeld D. 1999. Corpus linguistics and

cognitivism. International journal of corpus

linguistics. Vol. 4(1). John Benjamins Publish-

ing Co. P.137171.


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Metafor analiz yra vienas i bd isiaikinti,

kaip yra suvokiami tokie abstraktai kaip bendravi-

mas. Metaforizacija yra kognityvins lingvistikos,

kuri pabria kalbos ir mstymo sveik, sritis.Tuo tarpu kompiuteriniai tekstyniai yra patikimiau-

sias empirini duomen altinis analizuojant to-

kius abstraktus. Tad straipsnyje pristatoma vadi-

namoji kanalo metafora lietuvi ir angl kalbose.

Pagal i metafor, kuri vardija G. Lakoffas ir

M. Johnsonas, o plaiau nagrinja Michaelis Red-dy, angl kalboje vyrauja tokia bendravimo suvo-

kimo schema, kur mintys ar reikms yra daiktai,

odiai yra indai, kur talpinamas ar pakuojamas

turinys, o pats bendravimas yra odi, kuriuose

pakuota mintis, siuntimas panekovui. Be pagrin-dinio modelio, dar iskiriamas ir kitas, paprastes-

nis bendravimo modelis, pagal kur mintys tiesiog

patenka erdv ir tampa nepriklausomos.

I kolokacij gaunam metafor gausa rodo, pir-

miausia, kad kanalo metafora yra pagrindin prie-

Sinclair John. 1996. The search for units of

meaning. Textus IX. P.75106.

Sinclair John. 1996. The empty lexicon.Internatio-

nal journal of corpus linguistics.1(1). P.99119.

DICTIONARIES

AID: American Idioms Dictionary. 1991. Illinois:

National Textbook Company.

Jrat VAIENONIEN

KANALO METAFORA: KOMPIUTERINIAIS TEKSTYNAIS

PAREMTA ANALIZ

S a n t r a u k a

mon abiejose kalbose kalbant apie tok svarb mo-ni visuomens reikin kaip bendravimas. Teksty-

n dka dvi kalbos gali bti lyginamos kaip lygia-

verts ne intuityviai iekant kalbini metafor abie-

jose kalbose, bet remiantis gausiais tikros kalbos

pavyzdiais. Be to, remiantis kit kalb tekstynais,

bt galima nustatyti tokios metaforos universalu-m. Konceptualiosios metaforos analiz gali tapti ir

praktikai pritaikomu darbu, leidianiu sugreti-

nus dvi kalbas iekoti vertimo atitikmen ne pavie-niams odiams, o j metaforiniams junginiams,

kuri daniausiai paodiui negalima iversti. Ga-

liausiai tokiu tyrimu galima ne tik patvirtinti tamtikr hipotez, bet ir ufiksuoti kitus metaforinius

modelius, kurie intuicija paremtoje analizje gali

likti nepastebti. Pavyzdiui, tiriant kognityvin

model, irykja grup toki metaforini atvej,

kur pabriamas odi suverenumas, t.y. odiaiatstoja mones, taip perimdami i j atsakomyb, ir

tampa nuo j nepriklausomi.

COBUILD: Collins COBUILD English Dictionary.

1995. London: Harper Collins Publishers.

CCD: Collins Concise Dictionary. 1995. London:

Harper Collins Publishers.

LDCE: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary En-glish. 1987. London: Longman.

OALD: Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of

Current English.1974. Oxford University Press.

Gauta 2000 11 22

Parengta 2000 11 29


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168 ODIO SEMANTIKA

Documents

Conduit Metaphor in Lithuanian