Metaphorical extension approaches

Of the three of approaches to grammaticalisation addressed here, the metaphorical extension approach is probably the most widely adopted and is therefore associated with a considerable number of researchers. We have chosen to illustrate this approach by focusing on a representative study by Heine, Claudi and Hünnemeyer (1991). The further reading section lists a number of other studies that can be broadly grouped under the heading of metaphorical extension.

The evolution of grammatical concepts

 In their 1991 book, Heine, Claudi and Hünnemeyer argue that grammaticalisation is one of a number of strategies that speakers rely upon in developing new expressions for concepts, together with other strategies such as coining new words, borrowing words from other languages and so on. Of course, the emergence of new grammatical forms is more gradual than the emergence of new lexical forms. Grammaticalisation results in the development of expressions for grammatical concepts. According to Heine et al. (1991: 28), grammatical concepts share a number of properties: they are relatively abstract in nature, lack semantic autonomy, contribute to the structure rather than content of the cognitive representation encoded in language, belong to closed classes and tend to lack morphological autonomy. In these respects, Heine et al.’s characterisation of grammatical concepts is reminiscent of the cognitive view of grammatical concepts, which has been a recurring theme throughout Part III of this book.

Metaphorical extension

According to Heine et al., grammaticalisation essentially arises from human creativity or problem-solving. In developing a new expression for a grammatical concept, speakers ‘conceptualize abstract domains of cognition in terms of concrete domains’ (Heine et al. 1991: 31). In particular, these researchers adopt the view that this process involves metaphorical extension emerging from the mapping of image schematic concepts from source to target domain (Heine et al. 1991: 46). Given the gradual nature of grammaticalisation, Heine et al.’s approach involves the reconstruction of dead or frozen metaphors, in the sense that the synchronic grammatical forms are often no longer transparently recognisable as metaphors but are argued to have originated from the same cognitive metaphorical mapping processes as ‘living’ metaphors.

 Heine et al. argue that basic source concepts have a strong tendency to be concrete objects, processes or locations, and to involve frequently used expressions such as body part terms, verbs expressing physical states or processes such as sit, lie or go, and verbs expressing core human activities such as make, do, have or say (Heine et al. 1991: 32–5). They therefore suggest that egocentricity (or embodiment) is a central feature uniting source concepts. In these respects, they argue that grammaticalisation emerges from human construal, and thus they take an explicitly experientialist stance. Heine et al. (1991: 48) propose a metaphorical source domain hierarchy, which is represented in (7). According to this hierarchy of basic concepts, any (less abstract) concept on the hierarchy can be used to metaphorically structure any other (more abstract) conceptual domain to its right. In this way, the hierarchy captures the unidirectionality that is characteristic of grammaticalisation.

As Heine et al. observe, some basic source concepts are difficult to place in this hierarchy. For example, they argue that POSSESSION might be located some where to the right of SPACE. An alternative representation of this hierarchy is shown in Figure 21.2.

The grammaticalisation continuum

 In accounting for the transition from source concept to target concept in gram maticalisation, Heine et al. observe that the continuum between less and more grammatical meaning might be considered a potential problem for their metaphor extension account. In other words, because Heine et al.’s account assumes that the underlying motivation for grammaticalisation is metaphoric extension from a more concrete source domain to a more abstract target domain, then examples that fall somewhere between source and target domains might be seen as counterevidence for the metaphorical extension account. For example, the conceptual metaphor TIME IS SPACE motivates the grammaticalisation of the (be) going to construction, which evolves from its ALLATIVE meaning towards its more abstract and hence more grammaticalised FUTURE meaning. Consider the examples in (8) (adapted from Heine et al., 1991: 70).

As Heine et al. observe, while be going to in (8a) has an ALLATIVE meaning and be going to in (8d) reflects a purely FUTURE meaning, the examples in (8b) and (8c) are intermediate between these two senses. For example, Lily’s use of be going to in (8b) encodes what Heine et al. call an INTENTION meaning, with a secondary sense of PREDICTION; they also suggest that there is a ‘relic’ of the spatial (ALLATIVE) meaning in examples like this. This contrasts with (8c) which encodes INTENTION and PREDICTION, but no spatial (ALLATIVE) sense is apparent in this example. Examples like (8b) and (8c) are potentially problematic for a metaphor account because they illustrate that grammaticalisation involves a continuum of meanings rather than a clear-cut semantic shift from one domain (SPACE) to another (TIME).

The role of discourse context

 Heine et al. argue that the metaphorical extension approach can account for this continuum between more and less grammaticalised meanings by taking into account the role of discourse context. While conceptual metaphors like TIME IS SPACE structure the directionality associated with grammaticalisation, the process of grammaticalisation itself is effected by discourse-related processes including context-induced re-interpretations which arise as a result of metonymy. Heine et al. use the term ‘metonymy’ in a similar way to Barcelona (e.g. 2003c), whose account we presented in Chapter 9 in this book. Some cognitive linguists refer to the context-induced metonymy that gives rise to language change in terms of experiential correlation (see Tyler and Evans 2001a, 2003). For example, in an exchange in which George meets Lily by chance and asks her where she’s going, Lily might reply ‘I’m going to town’ In this utterance, Lily refers to the act of moving in the direction of town. At the same time, this act is due to her intention to move in the direction of town. This example illustrates a close correlation between the experience of moving towards a particular goal and the intention to reach that goal. Experiential correlations of this kind can be described as metonymic in the sense that the motion event described as be going to ‘stands for’ the closely related intention. From this perspective, the semantic shift from an ALLATIVE interpretation to an INTENTION interpretation is metonymic, induced by a context-based interpretation. Further shifts of this kind may eventually result in a FUTURE interpretation, because intentions are future-oriented.

The microstructure and macrostructure of grammaticalisation

According to Heine et al., more local-level discourse context processes (referred to as the microstructure of grammaticalisation) manage the process of semantic change resulting in grammaticalisation. However, the microstructure is guided by the conceptual metaphor, which is part of the macro structure. This account of context-induced reinterpretation and metonymy emphasises the usage-based nature of this model: it is discourse that effects the grammaticalisation process, because forms take on new meanings as a result of speakers’ communicative goals. In emphasising the relationship between pragmatic and cognitive factors in grammaticalisation, Heine et al. present a perspective that is in many ways consonant with the model of grammaticalisation developed by Elizabeth Closs Traugott and her collaborators (section 21.3). For example, Heine et al., invoke Traugott’s notion of pragmatic strengthening, the conventionalisation of situated inference or implicatures that results in new meanings. Consider the examples in (9), which are from Heine et al. (1991: 77).

According to Traugott and König (1991), the preference sense of sooner evolves from the temporal sense as a result of conversational implicature that is driven by pragmatic strengthening. Over time, the new preference sense becomes con ventionalised, and may coexist alongside the original sense so that the form sooner becomes polysemous. In adopting the view that grammaticalisation is discourse-driven in this way, Heine et al. also point out that their model is compatible with Hopper’s (1987) idea of emergent grammar. According to Hopper, the grammar of a language is not most insightfully conceived as a fixed or stable system that precedes discourse, but as a system that is in a constant state of flux, and ‘comes out of discourse and is shaped by discourse as much as it shapes discourse in an ongoing process’ (Hopper 1987: 142). Once more, this emphasises the usage-based nature of this group of grammaticalisation theories.

In sum, Heine et al., argue that metaphor and context-induced reinterpretation involving metonymy are inextricably linked in the process of grammaticalisation. However, they suggest that the two are ‘complementary’ in the sense that one is likely to figure more prominently in any given case of gram maticalisation than the other:

The more prominent the role of context-induced reinterpretation, the less relevant the effect of metaphor . . . the more remote the sense along any of the channels of conceptualization described . . ., the more plausible an analysis in terms of metaphor is. (Heine et al. 1991: 96)

Table 21.2 summarises the macrostructure and the microstructure of gram maticalisation according to Heine et al. While the macrostructure relates to cognitive domains (conceptual structure) and involves linking processes between domains that emerge from conceptual similarities, the microstructure relates to the pragmatic domain (discourse context).

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المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

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عرض شائع في الفم قد يكون مرتبطا بخطر الإصابة بأمراض خطيرة

نصائح عامة لاستخدام سماعات الرأس بأمان

تأثير اللياقة البدنية على الدماغ

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

ديدان الأرض تكشف تلوث التربة بالمعادن الثقيلة

خبير أرصاد جوية: ظاهرة النينيو القادمة قد تكون الأقوى خلال 10 سنوات

"ناسا" تكشف موعد إعادة إطلاق رحلتها المأهولة إلى القمر

علماء الجيولوجيا يفكون لغز الصدع العملاق تحت الماء في المحيط الأطلسي

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Case study: SPACE-TO-POSSESSION

Case Study: OBJECT-TO-SPACE

Meaning change

Form change

The nature of grammaticalization

Grammaticalisation

Comparing constructional approaches to grammar

The interrogative channel

The demonstrative channel

Analysis and simulation

Emphasis on language processing

Embodied Construction Grammar