Conceptual Conflicts in Metaphors and Figurative Language [Hardcover]

This innovative volume provides a comprehensive integrated account of the study of conceptual figures, demonstrating the ways in which figures and in particular, conflictual figures, encapsulate linguistic expression in the fullest sense and in turn, how insights gleaned from their study can contribute to the wider body of linguistic research. With a specific focus on metaphor and metonymy, the book offers a unified and systematic typology of linguistic figures, drawing on a number of different approaches, including both traditional and emerging frameworks within cognitive linguistics as well as syntactic theory, while also providing an exhaustive look at the unique features of a variety of conceptual figures, including metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, and synecdoche. In its aim of reconciling historically opposed theoretical approaches to the study of conflictual figures while also incorporating a thorough account of its distinctive varieties, this volume will be essential reading for researchers and scholars in cognitive linguistics, theoretical linguistics, philosophy of language, and literary studies.

Introduction

1. The Figures of the Plane of Expression

2. The Plane of Content: Figures and Conceptual Conflict

3. A Typology of Conflicts: Formal, Conceptual and Textual Conflicts

4. The Figure of Contradiction: Oxymoron

5. Figures of Conceptual Conflict: Metaphor, Metonymy and Synecdoche

6. Metaphor

7. Metaphor and Metonymy Between Conflict and Consistent Thought

8. Figures of Textual Conflict

9. Figures, Meanings and Messages

10. Functions, Instrumentality and Creativity: The Challenge of Figurative Speech to Functional Linguistic Description

Michele Prandi is Professor of General LinguistilãÊ