Pdf metaphor, culture and translation rahman veisi. Through this method of equation, metaphors can help explain concepts and ideas by colorfully linking the unknown to the known. Second, he describes which components, or aspects of conceptual metaphor are involved in metaphor variation, and how they are involved. Metaphor analysis, as part of the interview process, is one device that elicits individual perceptions, thereby providing a more appropriate perspective for the study of the dimensions of culture smircich, 1983. This article demonstrates the practical applications of metaphors in diagnosing problems and developing new theories in organizational development.
In this book, zoltan kovecses proposes a new theory of metaphor variation. While this isnt really a metaphor, i think it can be used alongside geert hofstedes software of the mind concept. In the prayer, the basic conceptual metaphor is the one in which the shepherd is jesus, the lost sheep are the people who no longer follow gods teachings, the fold of the sheep is peoples home with god, and for the shepherd to bring the sheep back to the fold is for jesus to save the people. Culture in this metaphor is the map of a groups shared meanings and connections. If you think of a human body, weve figured out how to give someone a new heart or a new kidney but the essence of what makes a person remains. Halls cultural iceberg model in 1976, hall developed the iceberg analogy of culture. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The american irish have the gift of the gab, befitting a cultural heritage that has a strong oral tradition, and they are disproportionately. Pdf metaphor interpretation and cultural linguistics. To what extent and in what ways is metaphorical thought relevant to an understanding of culture and society. Since the everyday metaphor system is central to the understanding of poetic metaphor, we will begin with.
Each of the eight metaphors that morgan presents in his book incorporates a group or cluster of organizational theories, as described below. Metaphor is a multifaceted literary device that assists in illustrating complexity and in expressing clarity. The concepts inherent in the metaphor are offset by the substitution for the loan and the transposition of meanings. Proverbs, rules of turntaking in conversations, pronouns of power and solidarity, background knowledge to the understanding of conversations, politeness, linguistic relativity, the principle of cooperation, metaphor, metonymy, context, semantic change, discourse, ideology, print culture, oral culture, literacy. Metaphor and metonym is defined here as the predication of a signimage upon any of the set of inchoate pronounsthe essential social subjects. By metaphor in this paper, i will primarily mean conceptual metaphor that can have a number of linguistic manifestations see lakoff and johnson 1980. Metaphor, working mechanism, language learning and teaching 1.
A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. A metaphor for organizational culture evergreen leadership. Cultural metaphors after the fall of the berlin wall a common political and economic consensus emerged, not only in the west but to a considerable extent around the world. A conceptual metaphor consists of a set of correspondences, or. Sometimes a subgroup tries to identify the religion involved, and frequently buddhism or islam is cited.
To see and appreciate the relationship between metaphor and culture in its complexity, we have to deal with a number of basic issues. Metaphor research that does not involve or result in insights into the use of metaphor. Notice the metaphor and what it unintentionally communicates. Since i am more familiar with the maharashtrian food culture, i, for the sake of convenience, will use bhakari millet bread, which has been used by some of the prominent personalities belonging to a different universe of imagination.
Over the past few years, my favorite definition for culture became this. The reappearance of the metaphor concept in ethnologic inquiry suggests the need for a clearer tropeology than we now possess. First, he identifies the major dimension of metaphor variation, that is, those social and cultural boundaries that signal discontinuities in human experience. Cognitively oriented metaphor analyses that are interested in cultural relativity have so far concentrated mainly on. Hall is also well integrated and supports your analysis. An individual user may print out a pdf of a single chapter of a monograph in oso for personal use. Metaphor and culture 215 in the prayer, the basic conceptual metaphor is the one in which the shepherd is jesus, the lost sheep are the people who no longer follow gods teachings, the fold. In political organisations interests, conflict and power issues predominate.
Organizational metaphors provide information about the value system of a company and about employers attitudes toward their customers and employees. This exploration leads to an enhanced view of culture, as well as context, where a distinction can be made between two ways of conceiving of culture and context. Culture and language are connected in a myriad ways. Metaphors are defined as imagery tools that provide insight. Lily iwen su national taiwan university recent studies on metaphor have proved it to be an important language device that reflects the cognitive source of human thinking. While cultures may be characterized by certain central metaphors, systematic studies of such metaphors and their lowerlevel versions can help us gain insights into the worldview of a culture and, in that respect, commonalities and differences across cultures. Culture is too deep, too embedded, too much in your organizational dna. The machine metaphor encompasses such theories as taylors scientific management, webers bureaucracy and views of organizations that emphasize closed systems, efficiency and mechanical features of organizations. Proverbs, rules of turntaking in conversations, pronouns of power and solidarity, background knowledge to the understanding of conversations, politeness, linguistic relativity, the principle of cooperation, metaphor, metonymy, context, semantic change, discourse.
Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Artefacts are the visible structures and processes of an organisation and include language. Metaphor use is characterised by conceptual variation that can be explained with reference to culturespecific discourse traditions. The rules that make up the cultural metaphor are either written or unwritten rules that people of a particular culture follow. Markets and democracy, working hand in hand, would transform the world into a community of modernized, peaceloving nations. Ideologies are certain beliefs or values that are accepted and practiced by a particular culture. Sage books culture as a metaphor and metaphors for culture. Organisations as cultures based on values, norms, beliefs, rituals and so on. Claude ltvistrauss, the savage mind the relevance to inquiry of the metaphor concept has. A study of metaphor and its application in language. Using dominant metaphors in american english and the chinese language, metaphor, culture, and worldview explores how metaphor is a product that is simultaneously shaped by and is shaping the culture and the worldview of the people who use it, and how it showcases some unique features of communication of the speakers of the two languages. The responses to this rfi will be used to help in the planning of a one to twoday workshop on the use of metaphor, the result of which may justify a competitive program.
A field guide to poetic metaphor, by lakoff and turner 1989 and reading minds. An organizational metaphor is a figurative comparison that is, a metaphor, simile, or analogy used to define the key aspects of an organization andor explain its methods of operation. Assessment criteria develop cultural metaphor explanationanalysis the explanation is complex and shows that you build knowledge on placement culture and integrated it in the design of your cultural metaphor. Metaphor helps to compare the value of variables and to expose creativity. For instance, rules that govern american football may differ from its european counterpart. The use of metaphors in the processes of teaching and. Alvesson, m 2002, culture as a metaphor and metaphors for culture, in understanding organizational culture, sage publications ltd, london, pp. Third, he isolates the main causes of metaphor variation. Language, culture, and body in human feeling studies. In general, studies of the metaphorical use of language have looked at metaphor from two basic angles. More specifically, can the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor simultaneously explain both universality and diversity in metaphorical thought.
This subtly implies that multiculturalism is decorative, fun, but special, not for ordinary real days. In proposing a version of the comparison theory, i hope to offer an account that has a place for the valuable insights that are. Their use in management practice as a method for understanding cultures abstract this paper argues that the dimensional perspective on culture, arguably the most important development in crosscultural understanding in 50 years, needs to be supplemented by indepth treatments of national cultures. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading metaphor and emotion. Now in the world of multiculturalism, in the global world, we probably would use some other metaphors of culture. And, although almost all subgroups feel that females are in a subordinate role, a few believe that females have high status, clearly. A study on the metaphor of red in chinese culture huang qiang school of foreign languages sichuan university of science and engineering 180, xueyuan street, huixing road, zigong sichuan province, 643000, p. The metaphor has as its first axis, a figurative essence. Searles solution is to appeal to a wider range of relations than just similarity. Introduction a study of metaphor is an infant branch of linguistic study and has held tremendous allure to scholars ever since the ancient times. If the culture of a society was the iceberg, hall reasoned, than there are some aspects visible, above the water, but there is a larger. Metaphor in language and culture part iv the cambridge. Metaphor can be viewed as the ornamental use of language, and a lot about metaphor and culture arises from what we have heard or learned in school about it, such as for instance creative writers or poets who use metaphors. The study of english in the age of cognitive science, by turner 1991.
A metaphor is a literary device that imaginatively draws a comparison between two unlike things. China abstract many people may see chinese people are so fond of hong sered color under many circumstances, and the red. Organisations as information processors that can learn brain metaphor. Since literature is a significant part of our culture, metaphor can be regarded as intimately linked to our sociocultural. And these metaphors of glass domes and islands, they really reflect the academic paradigm of cultural anthropology and the neighboring disciplines in the mid20th century. That is, metaphor employs a term in place of another, as a diversion or a replacement. Exploring organizational culture through metaphor analysis. Both constitute the basis for any act of conceptualization. These experientialists claimed that metaphors in our languages mirror our ordinary conceptual system. The study of metaphor is the study of the way these subjects take objects unto themselves or are assigned. Try to imagine a culture where arguments are not viewed in terms of war, where no one wins or loses, where there is no sense of attacking or defending, gaining or losing. You might shift parts of your culture, or shape it, though.