Windows to the Mind: Metaphor, Metonymy and Conceptual Blending

With the cognitive turn in linguistics, there has been a growing interest in the ways that linguistic use of metaphor and metonymy (i.e., referring to some thing as some other closely associated thing--the Central Intelligence Agency as "Langley," for example) may hold the methodological key for investigating the ways that linguistic structures and use are connected to the language-user's cognition, since these figurative expressions function both as a central determinant and a mirror image of how the language-user's mind works. Closely connected to this work is the question of how humans handle novel or previously unfamiliar ways of conceptualizing these forms of multi-layered expression and one response has been the introduction of conceptual blending theory, in which linguistic input leads to the formation of temporary mental representations in which previously separate linguistic domains can be "blended." Originating from the October 2006 Second International Conference of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, with some additional, solicited articles within the same overall focus, this volume contains 12 papers exploring topics associated with these developments in the linguistic theory of metaphor and metonymy and the theory of conceptual blending. Annotation 穢2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)