Are you sure that metaphors don't explain anything about the tense-aspect system? How about the grammaticalization of "be going to", from a spatial meaning to a temporal one; time understood in terms of space? Marie France > Sometimes Craig makes assertions that need more support than he provides > in his posts. > >>>> Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]> 06/09/09 11:03 AM >>> > Susan, > You should read "Metaphors We Live By" (there are other follow up > books)if you haven't already. They are a core aspect of language and > cognition, well documented, well researched. > If you find my views pointless, it might be better not to respond. > > ***** > I have no idea how "core" metaphors are in language. They don't seem to > explain anything about the formal aspects of the tense-aspect system, the > basic structure of phrases and clauses, the pronominal system, etc. > > However, let's consider the following sentence on the bottom of page 1 in > Metaphors We Live By. > > Since communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in > thinking and acting, language is an important source of evidence for what > that system is like. > > *** > Pinker, in the Language Instinct, does a good job of suggesting that > thinking and the language we use to express those thoughts are necessarily > different systems. Consider the problem of syntactic ambiguity: the basis > of this famous joke by Groucho Marx. > > Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How it got there, I have no > idea. > > If we take the statement by Lakoff and Johnson seriously, then whenever a > person thinks about what they were wearing when they shoot an animal is > necessarily confusable with where the animal was. Really? A person can't > keep those two ideas separate. > > Of course, if we have to translate our thoughts to a formal system, the > ambiguity that is the basis of Marx's joke makes sense. > > Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface > at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/