Are metaphorical paths and roads ever paved? : corpus analysis of real and imagined journeys

• This paper provides a corpus linguistic analysis of verbs included in English path-, road- and way-sentences. My claim is that many of the differences between metaphorical and non-metaphorical patterns including these terms are related to a qualitative difference between real and imagined journeys. Both non-metaphorical and metaphorical instances go back to our experiences with real-world paths, roads and ways. Path and road-sentences are connected with motion along the specific artifacts that these terms refer to. Way-sentences refer to motion through space. Differences between prototypical and un-prototypical paths, roads and ways, however, and a close connection between prototypical instances and metaphorical meaning, result in differences between non-metaphorical and metaphorical patterns. The findings explain why the source domain verbs in metaphorical path- and road-sentences are more restricted than the verbs in the non-metaphorical sentences. They show why metaphorical ways, but hardly ever metaphorical paths and roads, are paved.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

affordances

embodiment

lexical patterns

metaphor

simulation

HUMANITIES and RELIGION

HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP

Linguistics

lingvistik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)