Cognitive Study of the Processing of Idioms

Abstract

This chapter attempts to establish the role of two cognitive linguistic theories, metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory, in the processing of both conventional and modified phraseological units. It investigates the range of applications and interpretations of the existing cognitive models, furnishing them with attested phraseological material to test their efficiency and applicability as processing templates. It is argued that the two theories can be viewed as complementary: whereas the theory of metaphor is productive in accounting for the processing of a wide range of conventional phraseological units, the theory of conceptual integration can be applied to the analysis of modified phraseological units. Keywords—idioms; metaphor theory; conceptual integration