Assignment 3

Distributed: February 11, 2002

Due: February 18, 2002

INSTRUCTIONS:

The goal of this assignment is to allow you to demonstrate understanding of course material and to practice finding, documenting, and analyzing metaphors. In working on this assignment, please feel free to consult your classmates, or anyone else for that matter. But write up your notes and answers independently. Please double-space all work and use a font size that is kind to the eyes of your reader. Please consult with me if you have any questions about the assignment.

Your task is to find and document examples of metaphorical language in the wild. Start by perusing any source of text. It could be a newspaper, web page, magazine, textbook, legal document, anything. Study the language used in the document, paying close attention to metaphorical expressions. Find in a document a group of metaphorical expressions (at least three) that seem to rely on a common conceptual metaphor. Preferably, this metaphor will also be crucial to some aspect of the argument or point of the text. Perform a metaphor analysis of the conceptual metaphor responsible for these metaphorical expressions, whether or not it is one discussed in class or in the readings. (If itís a metaphor for which weíve done an extensive analysis, pick another metaphor.) Then write up the following:

List the metaphorical expressions (in the sentences they occur in) that are examples of the metaphor.
Name the metaphor.
Provide the mapping of the metaphor (the systematic correspondence of elements in the source domain to elements of the target domain.) [hint: if there is no consistent mapping, then you might have to rethink the metaphor]
Give two more conventional examples of this metaphor. [hint: if you have a lot of trouble coming up with other examples, then you might have to rethink the metaphor]
Give two novel expressions based on the same metaphor that might reasonably be understood.
Discuss the potential grounding for the metaphor. Is this potentially a primary metaphor? How do you know? If so, what is the experiential motivation for it? Is it a compound metaphor? If so, what might be the primary metaphors it is based on?
What is the role of this metaphor in the document? Is the metaphor entirely irrelevant to the content of the document? Could the same point not be made without the metaphor? Be specific.