ERIC Number: EJ1269322
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Sep
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2229-9327
EISSN: N/A
The English Verb "See" in Fiction Writing: A Cognitive Semantic Analysis
Arab World English Journal, v11 n3 p515-536 Sep 2020
The study aims at unraveling the conceptual metaphor underlying the English verb of visual perception "see" in fiction writing. It has two research questions: 1) What are the conceptual metaphors underlying the linguistic expressions of the English verb of visual perception "see" in fiction writing and 2) What are the theoretical implications of MIND-AS-BODY theory on the motivation of conceptual metaphors underlying the English verb of visual perception "see." This study adopts a qualitative approach and is situated within the field of cognitive semantics. A corpus of English fiction writing between the period of 2010 and 2017 was compiled from different sources comprising one million words. Specifically, a sample consisting of 1,000 examples of the English verb of visual perception "see" was randomly extracted from the corpus using the AntConc 3.5.0 concordancer. The Metaphor Identification Procedures (MIP) were used to identify the metaphorical linguistic expressions in the corpus, and Lakoff and Johnson's (2003) as well as Sweetser's (1990) analytical frameworks were adopted for data analysis. The data analysis revealed various conceptual metaphors underlying the English verb "see." These conceptual metaphors are related to the domains of knowledge, intellections, and understanding which support Sweetser's claim regarding the primacy of vision in motivating metaphors of cognition in human speech and thought. Thus, this study contributes to the literature on verbs of perception, particularly verbs of visual perception, as it is the first to address the conceptual metaphors underlying the verb "see" in English using a real authentic corpus of fiction writing.
Descriptors: Verbs, Fiction, Figurative Language, English, Semantics, English Literature, Language Usage, Knowledge Level, Comprehension, Perception
Arab World English Journal. 10602 Davlee Lane, Richmond, Texas, 77407. e-mail: editor@awej.org; e-mail: info@ASELS.org; Web site: https://awej.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A