Semantic transfers in the domain of FOODSTUFFS
Aleksandra Zofia Kowalczyk
John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8477-2678
Abstract
In recent literature scholars have worked out a number of new categories of meaning development such as zoosemy, plantosemy and foodsemy. This paper focuses on the mechanism of foodsemy, a new category of metaphorical extension proposed by Kleparski (2008), and in particular on the cases of metaphorical extension that are targeted at human beings and their various qualities. Most frequently, the process discussed here involves the projection of attributive features and values, sometimes positive, yet most frequently negative ones, associated with members of the macrocategory foodstuffs onto the macrocategory human being. The purpose here is to outline a limited number of metaphorical transfers involved in the conceptual macrocategory foodstuffs targeted at such subcategories of the microcatergory female human being as attractive female human being, immoral female human being and female breasts. For some language users it may sound somewhat unnatural, and hence unacceptable, to name a female person mutton with the intended metaphorical sense ‘a prostitute’, tomato applied in the transferred sense ‘attractive, but not a very wise female’ or peach, which denotes an ‘attractive female, especially in American English’. However, cases of foodsemy are nothing else, but instances of metaphorical conceptualizations, which are considered to be pervasive, unconscious and automatic. They are also universal, though different lexical items in different languages may acquire different metaphorical senses.
Keywords:
food metaphor, foodsemy, anthropomorphization, female namesReferences
Cutierrez-Rivas C. 2011. Women as food in Hispanic cultural metaphors. An Online Feminist Journal 3: 6–20, www.academist.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/030302Gutierrez-Rivas_WomenasFood.pdf
Cymbalista, P. 2009. Do you know what you eat? The phenomenon of foodsemy. In G. A. Kleparski, R. Kiełtyka, P. Cymbalista, and K. Pytel (eds.), In Medias Res. Studia Resoviensia in Lingua et Litteris, 9–29. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Promar.
Cymbalista, P., and G. A. Kleparski. 2013. From Michael Breal to Dirk Geeraerts. Towards the main issues in diachronic lexical semantics. Jarosław: Wydawnictwo Państwowej Wyższej Szkoły Techniczno-Ekonomicznej im. Ks. Bronisława Markiewicza w Jarosławiu.
Geeraerts, D. 2010. Theories of lexical semantics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Grygiel, M. 2008. From semantic change to conceptual blending: English historical near-synonyms of MAN/MALE HUMAN BEING. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo UR.
Kiełtyka, R. 2009. Zoosemy as a ubiquitous cognitive mechanism. In G. A. Kleparski, R. Kiełtyka, P. Cymbalista, K. Pytel (eds.), In Medias Res. Studia Resoviensia in Lingua et Litteris, 41–56. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Promar.
Kiełtyka R., and G. A. Kleparski. 2013. The rudiments of the history of English. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego.
Kleparski G. A.1990. Semantic change in English. A study of evaluative developments in the domain of humans. Lublin: Redakcja Wydawnictw KUL.
Kleparski G. A. 1997. Theory and practice of historical semantics: the case of Middle English and Early Modern English synonyms of GIRL/YOUNG WOMAN. Lublin: Redakcja Wydawnictw KUL.
Kleparski, G. A. 2008. Dolce torta, dolce Angelina: Romance foodsemy with Italian accent. In G. A. Kleparski, and A. Uberman (eds.), Galicia Studies in Language, Literature and Culture. With Special Reference to English and Diachronic Semantics, 33–39. Chełm: Wydawnictwo TAWA.
Kleparski, G. A. 2012. The dark side of foodsemy: On extralinguistically conditioned wammel syndrome. In B. Kopecka, M. Pikor-Niedziałek, and A. Uberman (eds.), Galicia Studies in Language. Historical Semantics Brought to the Fore, 43–62. Chełm: Wydawnictwo TAWA.
Kowalczyk, A. Z. 2015a. The scope of foodsemic developments affecting conceptual category HUMAN BEING: the case of ATTRACTIVE/IMMORAL FEMALE HUMAN BEING. In G. A. Kleparski, J. Wesół, and A. Włodarczyk-Stachurska (eds.), Galicia Studies in Language. With Historical Semantics Foregrounded, 66–75. Chełm: Wydawnictwo TAWA.
Kowalczyk, A. Z. 2015b. On the projection of FOODSTUFFS on the macrocategory BODY PARTS. TOKEN. A Journal of English Linguistics 4: 129–143.
Kövecses, Z. 2000. Metaphor and emotion: language, culture, and body in human feeling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krzeszowski, T. 1991. Metaphor-metaphorization-cognition. Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Językoznawczego XLIII-XLV: 83–95.
Krzeszowski, T. 2003. Jeszcze słów kilka o wartościach, schematach i metaforach. In J. Bartmiński (ed.), Język w kręgu wartości, 35–41. Lublin: UMCS.
Lakoff, G. 1987. Women, fire and dangerous things. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. 1993. A contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and thought, 151–202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff G., and M. Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., and M. Turner. 1989. More than cool reason: a field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lagacker, R. 1987. Foundations of cognitive grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Langacker, R. 2000. Grammar and conceptualization. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mańczak-Wohlfeld, E. 1992. Analiza zapożyczeń angielskich w języku polskim. Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. 1997. Metaphor, metonymy and conceptual interaction. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28049874_Metaphor_metonymy_and_conceptual_interaction
Szwedek, A. 2000. The ontology of metaphors: the sense of touch in language formation. Scripta Periodica 4: 193–199.
Szwedek, A. 2004. Objectification in metaphorical processes – Some philosophical issues. Lingua Posnanensis 46: 121–129.
John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8477-2678
