The Metaphorical Motivation for  Idiomatic Meaning Cover Image

The Metaphorical Motivation for Idiomatic Meaning
The Metaphorical Motivation for Idiomatic Meaning

Author(s): Adel Antoinette Szabo
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Universitatea »1 Decembrie 1918« Alba Iulia
Keywords: idioms; conventional images; conceptual metaphors; the speaker’s knowledge

Summary/Abstract: People should have strong conventional images for many idioms. Those images are constructed on the basis of the conceptual metaphors motivating the figurative meaning of idioms. Thus, idioms are not “dead” metaphors with their meanings being arbitrarily determined, in many cases their meanings being motivated by the speaker’s tacit knowledge of the conceptual metaphors underlying the meanings of these figurative phrases.

  • Issue Year: 8/2007
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 301-305
  • Page Count: 4
  • Language: English