On Poetry and the Science(s) of Meaning

IF 2.2 3区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS Metaphor and Symbol Pub Date : 2023-03-16 DOI:10.1080/10926488.2023.2172821
A. Katz, Carina Rasse, Herbert L. Colston
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

The genesis for this special issue arose in a rethinking of the presence of poetry in the cognitive and language sciences that arose as a consequence of two seminal moments in the 1990s. Gibbs (1994) book, “The poetics of mind” presented a comprehensive review of metaphor and other tropes in which they argued, and presented empirical evidence, in support of the thesis that the human mind was profoundly poetic and figurative in nature. At about the same time, George Lakoff (1993) updated his earlier work with Mark Johnson (1980) in his chapter the “Contemporary Theory of Metaphor.” There he argues that metaphoric expression is conceptual (and not merely a matter of language) and that this conceptual structure underlies both literal and poetic language. In both of these seminal works, the focus was on understanding the structure and functions of the mind through the analysis of language, including poetic language. We decided to frame this special issue around the obverse question: In the 30 years since the initial writings of Gibbs and of Lakoff, what have we learned from the cognitive and language sciences about poetry? We have gone off and explored metaphor and other meaning-making processes in practically everything that is human, but what has gone on in the world of poetry, where many people used to believe metaphor originated? We were cognizant of the fact that poetry is a ubiquitous feature of human beings (Rasse, 2022), found in pre-literate societies and in the earliest examples of written literature. As such, we wanted to throw the net widely and put out a call for papers that said in part: “We are seeking works that go beyond the mere documentation of metaphor in poetry.” We wanted papers that spoke to general themes about poetry qua poetry. We wanted to have a set of papers that, taken together, looked at poetry in different linguistic, cultural, and historical contexts. We wanted some papers that were largely empirical. We wanted some papers that were largely theoretical. Knowing that there were scholars who, in addition to their academic work, were poets in their own right (as, in fact, is the case with the three editors of this special issue) we hoped that some of these scholars would submit papers that integrated ideas drawn from their academic work along with their embodied experiences in producing poems. We are delighted that the set of papers bound in this special issue met our hopes. There are papers that examine aspects of poetry in Arabic, English, Serbian, and Vietnamese. There are papers that compare poetry across different languages, or from a historical perspective, or that examine the role played by specific psychological characteristics. There are papers that emphasize metaphoric expression in poetry and others that consider conceptual metaphor and figurative construction types such as zeugma. And, there are papers written by scholars who have published books on poetry and bring to bear that experience in thinking more generally about the nature of poetry (e.g., Holyoak, 2019a; 2019b; Young, 2018). Conceptually, the papers can be very roughly grouped into four categories. Two bookends, and then two groups of papers within.
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论诗歌与意义科学
这一特刊的创刊源于对诗歌在认知和语言科学中存在的重新思考,这是20世纪90年代两个开创性时刻的结果。吉布斯(1994)的《心灵的诗学》一书对隐喻和他们所争论的其他比喻进行了全面的回顾,并提供了经验证据,以支持人类心灵本质上具有深刻的诗意和象征性。大约在同一时间,乔治·拉科夫(1993)在他的“当代隐喻理论”一章中更新了他与马克·约翰逊(1980)的早期作品。他认为隐喻表达是概念性的(而不仅仅是语言问题),这种概念结构是文字和诗歌语言的基础。在这两部开创性的作品中,重点都是通过对语言(包括诗歌语言)的分析来理解心灵的结构和功能。我们决定围绕正面问题来构建这个特刊:在吉布斯和拉科夫最初写作以来的30年里,我们从诗歌的认知和语言科学中学到了什么?我们已经开始探索隐喻和其他意义形成过程,实际上在人类的一切中,但在诗歌世界里发生了什么,许多人过去认为隐喻起源于诗歌世界?我们意识到,诗歌是人类普遍存在的特征(Rasse,2022),存在于识字前的社会和最早的书面文学中。因此,我们想广撒网,并呼吁撰写部分内容如下的论文:“我们正在寻找超越诗歌隐喻文献的作品。”我们想要的论文涉及诗歌的一般主题。我们希望有一套论文,把它们放在一起,研究不同语言、文化和历史背景下的诗歌。我们想要一些主要是实证的论文。我们想要一些理论性的论文。我们知道,除了学术工作之外,还有一些学者本身就是诗人(事实上,本期特刊的三位编辑就是这样),我们希望这些学者中的一些人能够提交论文,将他们学术工作中的思想与他们创作诗歌的具体经验相结合。我们感到高兴的是,这期特刊装订的一套文件满足了我们的希望。有些论文研究阿拉伯语、英语、塞尔维亚语和越南语诗歌的各个方面。有些论文比较了不同语言的诗歌,或者从历史的角度,或者研究了特定心理特征所起的作用。有一些论文强调诗歌中的隐喻表达,也有一些论文考虑概念隐喻和比喻结构类型,如zeugma。此外,还有一些学者撰写的论文,他们出版了关于诗歌的书籍,并在更普遍地思考诗歌的本质时带来了这种经验(例如,Holyoak,2019a;2019b;Young,2018)。从概念上讲,这些论文可以非常粗略地分为四类。两个书柜,然后里面放着两组文件。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.90
自引率
0.00%
发文量
23
期刊介绍: Metaphor and Symbol: A Quarterly Journal is an innovative, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the study of metaphor and other figurative devices in language (e.g., metonymy, irony) and other expressive forms (e.g., gesture and bodily actions, artworks, music, multimodal media). The journal is interested in original, empirical, and theoretical research that incorporates psychological experimental studies, linguistic and corpus linguistic studies, cross-cultural/linguistic comparisons, computational modeling, philosophical analyzes, and literary/artistic interpretations. A common theme connecting published work in the journal is the examination of the interface of figurative language and expression with cognitive, bodily, and cultural experience; hence, the journal''s international editorial board is composed of scholars and experts in the fields of psychology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, literature, and media studies.
期刊最新文献
Metaphor signalling constructions in discourse related to the experience of depersonalization/derealization “Living with HIV” – Changes in HIV and AIDS Metaphors in South African Educational Policy Is That a Genuine Smile? Emoji-Based Sarcasm Interpretation Across the Lifespan Metaphorical Mapping and Cultural Significance in Chinese Death-Related Idiomatic Expressions Slowing Metaphor Down: Elaborating Deliberate Metaphor Theory Slowing Metaphor Down: Elaborating Deliberate Metaphor Theory , by Gerard J., Steen Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2023, xv, 355 pp., $165 (hardbound), ISBN: 9789027213853, $165 (e-Book), ISBN: 9789027249777.
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