„Just Vultures“. Lakoff and Pinker on Metaphor.

Abstract

In the wake of the Crash figurative language has been used extensively in Icelandic. In fact, the word crash itself about the economic depression is an example of a particular kind of figurative language known as metaphor. Metaphor is a characteristic of poetry but it is also very common in everyday speech. Many scholars think that metaphor is more important for the understanding of the nature of thought and language than often assumed. This article discusses theories on metaphor which play a crucial role in cognitive studies (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Lakoff 1987) and critical responses to them (Pinker 2007).

Keywords: metaphor, language, thought, cognitive studies, linguistics