Metaphor across Languages
Please look at some examples of PERSON is ANIMAL metaphors for your language before next week. You can work in pairs (or triples).
The data is here
- First choose one of the languages (or copy is you want to do a language)
- For each metaphor in English see if it can be used in your
language, with an appropriate translation
- If it can, write the translation and mark it with Y
I have given some possible translations, for those
languages I have lexicons for
E.g., for Japanese 狐 'fox' can also mean a a shifty deceptive person so 'Y'
- If not, mark it with N
E.g., for Japanese 狐 'fox' can not mean attractive person so 'N'
- If there is another metaphor with the same animal, please add it in a new row, with a definition of its meaning.
E.g., for Japanese 犬 'dog' can mean 'snitch; informer; informant; spy' so add this and mark it 'Y'
- If there are other animal metaphors you know about, feel
free to add them at the end. For example, in Korean, 청개구리 cheong-gaeguri "green tree frog/disobedient person" (Explanation here)
In this case add definitions for the literal meaning and the metaphorical meaning.
- We will then discuss the similarities and differences in class.
Readings and Resources
Slides: Idioms and Metaphors (slides from the class Detecting Meaning with Sherlock Holmes.
Please read Saeed (2016, in Moodle), Sections 11.4 Metaphor and 11.5 Metonoymy
Previous years' data: 2024