Gateshead Revisited: Perceptual Simulators and Fields of Meaning in the Analysis of Metaphors

In an extension and partial reformulation of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980 Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. 1980. Metaphors we live by, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Ritchie (2003 Ritchie, L. D. 2003. “ARGUMENT IS WAR”—Or is it a game of chess? Multiple meanings in the analysis of implicit metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol, 18: 125–146. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2004 Ritchie, L. D. 2004. Metaphors in conversational context: Toward a connectivity theory of metaphor interpretation. Metaphor and Symbol, 19: 265–287. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2006 Ritchie, L. D. 2006. Context and Connection in Metaphor, Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) proposed that the linguistic expressions cited as evidence of complex conceptual metaphors can be parsimoniously interpreted in terms of perceptual simulators (Barsalou, 1999 Barsalou, L. 1999. Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22: 577–609. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), often within extended fields of meaning, which may be but are not necessarily anchored in underlying conceptual metaphors. Cameron (2003 Cameron, L. J. 2003. Metaphor in educational discourse, London: Continuum. [Google Scholar], 2007 Cameron, L. J. 2007. Patterns of metaphor use in reconciliation talk. Discourse and Society, 18: 197–222. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) added substance and precision to the focal concept of communicative context, and showed how metaphors can be analyzed both as part of an overall pattern of figurative language in a communicative event. In this essay a series of metaphors in Tony Blair's speech to the 2005 Blair, T. 2005. “A speech to Labour's Spring Conference”. In A fight we have to win, Gateshead, England: Sage Centre. politics.guardian.co.uk/speeches/story/0,,1412459,00.html [Google Scholar] Gateshead Conference of the Labour Party is analyzed to illustrate how perceptual simulators and fields of meaning can be used to identify nuances of thought and feeling potentially activated by metaphors in a particular communicative context and how the patterns of perceptual simulators and fields of meaning can contribute to our understanding of a particular communicative event.