Metaphor and Culture

To see and appreciate the relationship between and culture in its complexity, we have to deal with a number of basic issues. By in this paper, I will primarily mean metaphor that can have a number of linguistic manifestations (see Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Kovecses 2002/2010). A conceptual consists of a set of correspondences, or mappings, between a source and a target domain. The meaning of particular metaphorical linguistic expressions is based on such correspondences. The issues that form a part of the metaphor-culture interface are numerous. In this paper, I will discuss the following six. First, we need to ask if there are at all universal conceptual metaphors that are in a sense culture-independent. Second, if there are (which is the case), how can we account for their universality? Third, if we also find in our metaphors variation (which we do), what are the major cultural dimensions along which the metaphors vary? Fourth, we need to examine whether broad, general cultural dimensions are sufficient to account for all variation in metaphors (they are not), or whether variation also depends on more fine-grained contextual factors. Fifth, is a more fine-grained theory of variation helpful in understanding everyday talk, poetic language, or both? Sixth, and finally, what role does play in the creation and understanding of discourse?