Metaphors as a Pragmatic Strategy in the Conversacional Acts

7/27/2019 Metaphors as a Pragmatic Strategy in the Conversacional Acts

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Our life is a constant communication. We communicate every day and use

language in each communicative situation. Language is present in every

detail of our life, and whatever we express, it makes through language. But

what is language?

Language is a cognitive activity that is done with symbols (symbols means a

format of knowledge) that characterizes to human-beings which means a

process through which the subject captures the aspects of reality through

sensory organs in order to understand reality in other words the world where

he/she lives. On the other hand, why is it important to take into account this

concept about the language? It shows and explains that our daily

communication is based on how we have captured the aspects of reality in

order to understand it. In fact , language cant be reduced to a tool for

communicating or express ideas, neither as a system of signs , but as a way

for understanding the world , and it does through linguistic codes that

translate reality make it real in speech.

Having a clearer definition about what language is , and not what its function

is or how it is represented(as a system of signs ) it is concluded that the

language is the abstraction of our reality that is express in words and these

words take part in a real communicative act that shows our communicative

competence.(Eugenio coseriu)

This is important for defining what the process of communication is, because

it is not only a transmission of information or a sequence of words without


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sense as it is thought, but messages structured according to grammatical

rules. This depends on that language spoken or used in a communication

process. The message also shows the intention of the speaker in order to

explain that the language is embedded in the social cognition of people. This

means that most of the time people use the language in a social context that

causes that language be a way for expressing how we experience the world

and not only words individually.

If the language is inserted in a the social cognition of people this means that

people use the language as a tool for communicating their ideas according

how they have captured reality (this includes cultural aspects )and process is

shown through the use of metaphors in our daily communication.

Metaphors have been defined as a the use of a word in order to designate

another reality that doesnt represent its conventional meaning (what a word

means )in other words is the use of a sign instead of another.

Other authors say that metaphors are rhetoric resources used in poetry as

simple comparisons. For example the expression Rose is like a rose or Juan

is like lion in part these examples show that there is a connection with the

conventional meaning (semantics) however this doesnt happen in all cases,

for example expressions as: esta chica tiene un gran potencial the word

potential doesnt means the power or strength that a person has or that exist

in an area or sector , neither means a quantity (vector or scalar), but in this

case this expression refers to that girl has a big ass. As it can notice most of

time metaphors arent rhetoric resources in poetry or have to have


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connection with its conventional meaning, but a way how people have

captured reality and how they experience and do things.

In fact, Metaphors cant be reduced to a simple comparison or rhetoric

resource, but as discursive resource in the conversational acts which goal is

to improve the communicative interchanges. Moreover, metaphors structure

our conceptual system which is fundamentally metaphorical and nature and

also define our reality.

The reason for which people use a metaphor in their quotidian

communication is because of metaphors are innate, they reflect how we

experience and define our reality. Other examples such as esa chica est en

algodon! esto es una bomba!, Show people use metaphors as a tool or

medium for bettering the communicative competence (how we use the

language in a real communicative act) and is in this way that 8-metaphors

work or act as a strategy pragmatic (pragmatics studies the language in use in

this case the figurative meaning, taking into account the cultural context and

its effects) in the conversational acts.

Notes:

Eugenio Coseriu (1991:72)

El lenguaje es una modalidad especifica del hombre de tomar contacto con

el mundo , o , sea , de conocer la realidad , su realidad , a la que el ser

humano traduce , esto es , clasifica y aclara , designa y expresa ,mediante

smbolos ; los smbolos son por lo tanto , formas cuyo contenido es un

conocimiento . Vale decir que el adjetivo simblico cae bajo un concepto ms

amplio que es el de cognoscitivo, o sea que el lenguaje es esencialmente


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actividad cognoscitiva que se realiza mediante smbolos (o signos simblicos).

Es forma de conocimiento

Luis Miranda (1990, curso de lingstica general universidad Mayor de San

Marcos)

Las varias frases definiciones que se dan acerca del lenguaje (el lenguaje es

un instrumento que sirve para la intercomunicacin, el lenguaje es un

sistema de signos, el lenguaje es una funcin social , ,el lenguaje es una

institucin social , el lenguaje es facultad simblica , el lenguaje es una

actividad del espritu , , el lenguaje es perpetua creacin , y que ms

definirlo en su integridad , se limitan a describirlo bajo este o aquel aspecto ,

a destacar uno u otro de sus atributos , no son en realidad antitticas , o

irreconocibles , como muchas veces se considera , sino complementarias e

interdependientes.

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980, Metaphors We live by)

Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the

rhetorical flourisha matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language.

Moreover, metaphor is typieully viewed as characteristic of language alone, a

matter of words rather than thought or action. ()We have found, on the

contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but

in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we

both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. ()

The concepts that govern our thought are not just matters of the intellect.

They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane


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details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the

world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays

a central role in defining our everyday realities. What we do every day is very

much a matter of metaphor. ()

Since communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in

thinking and acting, language is an important source of evidence for what

that system is like.

M.Victoria Escandell Vidal (1996, introduccin a la pragmtica)

Desde Aristteles la metfora suele definirse como la utilizacin de una

palabra para designar una realidad distinta a la que convencionalmente

representa; es decir se trata del uso de un signo por otro.

I will inlclude more bibliography, I am working on that.

Metaphors as a Pragmatic Strategy in the Conversacional Acts

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