Metaphorical meaning making: discourse, language, and culture

Abstract

Following Clifford Geertz, I will try to develop a view of the relationship between language and culture that is based on how we make sense of experience. Recent cognitive science and cognitive linguistics provide us with new ideas and methodological tools with which we can approach the issue of meaning-making in cultures. I propose that, with the help of our metaphorical meaning-making apparatus, we make a large portion of our discourses coherent. In addition, I will point out that some of the metaphors we use for this purpose are universal and some of them are culture-specific. Further, I will discuss the most important causes that make metaphors either universal or culture-specific. Finally, I will suggest that in metaphorical conceptualization we function under constant pressure to accommodate both the “force” of the body and that of context. Our metaphorical meaning making is the function of these two forces.