METALUDE
METAPHOR AT LINGNAN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
What is metalude?
It is an interactive database of conventional, lexicalised metaphors. Phase 1
comprises 9000+ metaphorical lexical items in English, with literal and
metaphorical meanings, grammatical information about word class, and examples
of use. The metaphors are grouped according to conceptual metaphors, or root
analogies—metaphorical patterns which, on the lexicographical evidence are
important to conceptualization and cognition of English speakers. Phase 2, which
should be complete by the end of 2003, gives Chinese translations of the literal
and metaphorical meanings. Phase three will comprise an independent database of
Chinese metaphors to match phase 1.
How is metalude distinctive?
There are already dictionaries of metaphors, some of which are organised by
metaphorical source or vehicle (Wilkinson, Deignan). There is also another
database of conceptual metaphors which, like metalude, attempts to organise
metaphors simultaneously by source/vehicle and topic/target—this is the Master
List of Metaphors at Berkeley.
Metalude is different from the Berkeley master list because it takes a
lexicographical rather than a purely cognitive and intuitive approach. The master
list invites speakers of English to submit examples of metaphors that, according to
their intuitions, they would use, and to group these together under conceptual
metaphor categories, and is less concerned whether these metaphors have become
conventionalised and lexicalised. Metalude has stricter lexicographical criteria for
the lexis it includes and the conceptual metaphors/root analogies it hypothesises.
For inclusion lexis has to be attested with that particular metaphorical meaning in
a dictionary of contemporary English. For a root analogy to be posited, the total
number of lexical items realising the root analogy should be at least six, and the
number of tokens of these lexical items occurring in the Cobuild Bank of
English/WordsOnline corpus should be at least 200.
Metalude has also attempted to subdivide the more lexically abundant root
analogies so that none of them contain more than 50 lexical items. This is partly to
facilitate the use of the database for teaching purposes—there is evidence that
teaching metaphorical items in groups linked to a particular source image schema
is effective for vocabulary acquisition in a second language.
A further difference from the master list is in the nature of the metaphorical target
or topic. Within the Lakoff tradition, from which the master list springs, the
emphasis has been upon concretising metaphors, i.e. metaphors whose target is
abstract and whose source is relatively concrete. The term “conceptual metaphor”
suggests that these are metaphors for abstract concepts. By contrast metalude also
includes root analogies whose topics/targets and vehicles/sources are at the same
level of abstraction, such as HUMAN IS ANIMAL.
How can I use this website?
The English database can be searched by lexical item, or by root analogy. If you
sort by lexical item you will find all the metaphorical meanings that the database
recognises for this lexical item, and the root analogies which they belong to, e.g.
X. If you search by root analogy you will find all the lexical items that the
database lists under that root analogy e.g. X.
One guide to the overall shape of the database is the Map of Root Analogies,
which has 6 columns representing the different categories of Topics and 4 columns
representing the different categories of Vehicles. The Topic categories are (1)
Values, Quantities and Qualities, (2) Emotions, Experiences and Relationships, (3)
Thinking and Speaking, (4) Activity and Movement, (5) Humans, Humans Senses
and Society and (6) Things and Substances. The Vehicle categories are (A) Things
and Substances (Objects, plants, Substances, Money, Liquid, Food), (B) Human
Body, Animals and Senses, (C) Activity and Movement and (D) Place and Space.
One can search for particular root analogies by finding the relevant co-ordinates
on the map, for example anything ACTIVITY IS PLACE and related root
analogies would have the co-ordinate 4D.
Related to this Map is a List of Root Analogies which can either be sorted by
Source or Target. It also gives a map co-ordinate reference for each root analogy.
Can I contribute to the metalude web-site?
Yes you can. To the making of dictionaries and words there is no end. The
metalude database does not claim to be anything like complete, whatever that
would mean in lexicographical terms. And successful lexicographical enterprises
like the OED are all a matter of teamwork. The database is, for example, probably
quite light on slang or colloquial metaphor from anywhere but the UK.
However, there is a procedure for submitting your suggestions, so that you must
provide a dictionary source for your lexis. You should also, of course, check
carefully against the existing database to see that the item with that meaning is not
already included. Please see the suggestions page. Suggestions for new root
analogies (or reinterpreting of existing data under different root analogies) is a
more complicated matter. You must find at least 6 lexical items, and these should
be checked against Collins WordsOnline (formerly the Bank of English) database
to give at least 200 tokens of their use—we may be able to do the latter for you.
How do I register for access to the metalude database?
While wish the data to be in the public domain, the information on this database is
copyright and should not be used unscrupulously without due acknowledgements,
or for commercial purposes without permission. We have provided a simple form
which you can download, which asks you to sign a copyright declaration and fax it
to the English Department of Lingnan University. You will then be issued a
password by e-mail.
Who made metalude?
This database has been compiled mainly by Andrew Goatly, beginning in 1992.
Since 1999, however, he obtained funding from the Research Grants Committee of
the Hong Kong SAR government for a project entitled ‘A Comparison of the
metaphorical structure of the English and Chinese lexicons (Grant no:
) of
which he was the principal investigator. During this project he had help from the
following: Alison Chong, Cynthia Mok, Liz Chow, Ming X, Diane Nicholls, Julia
Goatly, and his co-investigator Ersu Ding. The web-site was set up by Vesta Lee
and Crystal Yuen.
Where did the data come from?
The English data came from the following dictionaries: Collins COBUILD English
Dictionary, Cambridge International Dictionary of English, and to a lesser extent
The Encarta Dictionary, and The Oxford English Dictionary. Other invaluable
reference books were Collins Cobuild English Guides vol.7: metaphor by Alice
Deignan, and A Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors by P.R. Wilkinson
(Routledge 2002). The BBC World Service and newspapers in general were other
important sources. Other data was culled from the literature on conceptual
metaphors, especially ideas for the important English conceptual metaphors:
Goatly, A. (1997) The Language of Metaphors London: Routledge, Johnson, M.
(1987) The Body in the Mind. London: University of Chicago Press, Lakoff, G.
(1987) Women, Fire and Dangerous Things Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
Lakoff, G, Johnson, M (1980) Metaphors We Live By Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, Lakoff, G, Johnson, M (1999) Philosophy in the Flesh New York:
Basic Books, Lakoff, G and Turner, M (1989) More than Cool Reason: A Field
Guide to Poetic Metaphor Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Sweetser, E.
(1990) From Etymology to Pragmatics: Metaphorical and Cultural Aspects of
Semantic Structure Cambridge: CUP.
The English Database
When searching the database you will find that the same lexical item with the
same metaphorical meaning may be listed more than once. This is because it
seems to belong to more than one root analogy. Take for example the word head
meaning ‘leader, someone in charge of an organisation or group’, which can be
seen as belonging to either HUMAN IS BODY-PART, ORGANISATION PART IS
BODY PART and IMPORTANCE/STATUS IS HIGH. This kind of ambiguity is
different from the ambiguity of lexical items with the same literal meaning but a
different metaphorical meaning which places them in a different root analogy. For
instance disgorge means literally ‘empty out the liquid contents’, and
metaphorically means both ‘empty out large numbers of people’ in the root
analogy CROWD/HUMANS IS LIQUID, and ‘provide money’ in the root
analogy MONEY IS LIQUID/BLOOD.
Understanding the data here is generally quite straightforward, but the
typographical conventions for literal meaning and part of speech need explanation.
Metaphors can be hidden or buried in lexis, by a number of word-formation
processes such as conversion (change of part of speech without change of form),
or compounding—containing the metaphorical item within larger structures such
as phrasal verbs or word-compounds or idioms. In cases of conversion and
compounding the literal lexical item entry with be in parentheses. In the case of
compounding usually only the relevant metaphorical part of the compound will be
given its literal meaning inside the parentheses, and the literal meanings for the
rest of the compound with be represented by ____. For example
ACHIEVEMENT/SUCCESS IS HIGH hang in there (be suspended__) idi(vi+adv+adv)
‘avoid failure despite difficulties’ when the marathon gets tough just hang in there
ACTIVITY IS BOAT TRAVEL anchorman (heavy, metal, cross-shaped object used to
stop ships moving__) n ‘presenter of a radio or television broadcast’ The early morning
news programme has a new anchorman
As the words in there and man are not considered part of the metaphorical schema,
only the hang and anchor are translated within the parenthesis.
In cases where all the words in the compound or idiom have metaphorical
meanings consistent with the same schema, but where the phrase is seldom or
never used literally, the literal meaning too may be put in parentheses, but this
time with no blanks e.g.
ACTIVITY IS BOAT TRAVEL stick/put your oar in (push or put your paddle into)
idi(vt+nphr+adv) ‘interrupt annoyingly’ he kept on putting his oar in until I lost my
temper
For conversions there should also be two entries under the part of speech,
separated by a bar, the one in parentheses corresponding to the part of speech
when used literally and the later one outside parentheses to the part of speech
when used metaphorically e.g..
ACTIVITY IS BOAT TRAVEL harbour (port for a ship) (n)|vt ‘protect by giving a
hiding place to’ the Taleban were accused of harbouring Osama Bin Laden
HUMAN IS BUILDING derelict in bad condition, partly ruined (adj)|n ‘homeless,
jobless person’ the derelicts on the streets need extra help
The part of Speech information for idioms and what might loosely be called
phrasal verbs is rather complex. Here are some examples to make the distinctions
clear:
1. go around
vi+adv
the rumour is going around that Lady Diana was pregnant
2. leap out at
vi+adv+pr
the hatred of Jews in Pound's poems leaps out at you
3. play with
vi+pr
he offered me the headship and then withdrew the offer-was he playing with me?
4. dip…into
vt+… +pr
she dipped a hand into the jar of sweets and pulled one out
5. string…along vt+…+adv
he strung me along for months about repaying that loan
6. knock together vt+adv
I could knock together a short article for you in a couple of
hours
The first three verb types are intransitive because none of them has a direct object.
However, 2 and 3 could be thought to have an indirect object since the preposition
at the end of them is followed by a noun. 4 has both a direct object and a kind of
indirect object following the preposition. 5 has a direct object but is followed by
an adverb (therefore has no indirect object). Type 6 differs from type 5 in that the
word order is optional—‘I could knock a short article together for you’ is just as
acceptable’ and in cases of a pronoun as object this latter word order is obligatory.
This is why it is classified as a transitive verb. Often there are subtle variations in
sub-categorisation of word-class from literal to metaphorical meanings.
Abbreviations for parts of speech:
adj
adjective
adv
adverb
advphr
adverbial phrase
art
article
cl
clause
excl
exclamation
idi
idiom
n
noun
nplur
plural noun
nphr
noun phrase
pr
pref
prphr
pt
v
verg
vi
virec
vref
vt
preposition
prefix
prepositional phrase
particle
verb
ergative verb
intransitive verb
reciprocal verb
reflexive verb
transitive verb