Metaphor variation of spatial conceptualizations in Irish English

Author: Lucek Stephen  

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

E-ISSN: 2213-8730|4|1|36-62

ISSN: 2213-8722

Source: Cognitive Linguistic Studies, Vol.4, Iss.1, 2017-01, pp. : 36-62

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Abstract

The current paper offers a novel methodological approach to gathering rich spatial data from Irish English speakers, showing variation in the cognition of physical and conceptual space. A mixed method study was conducted to gather conceptual and sociolinguistic data. This includes the first part of the data gathering: a structured interview, focusing on geographic aspects of the town and two wayfinding exercises. I then describe the second part of the study: twenty cloze procedure questions relating to a written example, followed by questions relating to seventeen hand-drawn images. I take as a baseline the instruments used by, inter alia, Levinson and Wilkins (2006a) and apply them to a within-culture study. I conclude this paper by discussing replicability and future studies. While Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) offers researchers a model to connect physical and conceptual elements of space, we have not seen a large-scale study of how CMT affects the language of space in varieties of English.