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Conceptual Metaphor -- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to
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the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another.
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An example of this is the understanding of quantity in terms of directionality ("The price of peace is rising.")
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or the understanding of time in terms of money ("I spent time at work today").
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NOTE: There are many ways to organize conceptual metaphors into groups.
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Below are groupings which I feel are exceptionally useful for understanding phrasal verbs.
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These groups are, at present, found in the Macmillan Dictionary.
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They were originally created and used in an article by Dr. Rosamund Moon.
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I have also exceprted some paragraphs from that article.
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"The meanings of phrasal verbs are often difficult to remember, because they seem to have no connection
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with the words that they consist of (the verb and the particle). In fact many phrasal verbs are metaphorical,
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and if you understand the metaphors they use, it will be easier to understand and remember their meanings.
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This article looks at ways in which different phrasal verbs share similar metaphors."
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Sets of Metaphors
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Increasing and decreasing: down, out, up
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Excitement, interest, and happiness: down, up
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Completeness: up
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Ending: away, down, off, out
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Time – past and future: ahead, back, behind, forward
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Progress: ahead, along, behind, on, through
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Getting involved in an activity: away, in, into, out
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Problems: around, aside, off, over, round
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Power and weakness: down, over, under, up
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Relationships: apart, off, together, up
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Communication: across, between, forth, in, into, out, over, through
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Information and knowledge: into, out, up
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Examples
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1 Increasing and decreasing: down, out, up
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Up expresses ideas of increases in size, strength, or importance,
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while down expresses ideas of something becoming smaller, weaker, or less important:
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Fees have gone up again.
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She's doing some teaching in the evenings to bump up her income.
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The search operation has been scaled down.
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The government played down the threat to public health.
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Out expresses ideas of something becoming wider or fuller,
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covering a greater extent, or lasting for a longer time:
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Officers fanned out across the field.
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Her stories flesh out the world in which these historical characters lived.
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They had to string things out until the Duke arrived.
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2 Excitement, interest, and happiness: down, up
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Some phrasal verbs with up refer to things becoming more exciting, lively, or interesting,
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or to people becoming happier.
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Phrasal verbs with down refer to things becoming quieter or calmer, or to people becoming more unhappy.
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Things are looking up.
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Cheer up!
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Their opponents said that they sexed up the report.
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This place needs livening up.
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Calm down!
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You need to tone down your argument.
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The endless wet weather was getting me down.
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3 Completeness: up
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Up expresses an idea of completeness. For example, to burn up means to burn completely,
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and to wind something up means to bring it to a complete end.
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They gobbled up their dinner.
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Don't use up all the paper.
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The speaker had begun to sum up.
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All the shops had closed up for the night.
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4 Ending: away, down, off, out
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When something ends, we can think of it as gradually going farther away until it completely disappears.
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In phrasal verbs, away, down, off, and out all express ideas of something gradually ending:
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Her voice faded away.
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I suddenly felt sorry for him and my anger melted away.
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The wind died down during the night.
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The meeting wound down.
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The rain eased off.
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The effects of the drug wore off.
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The conversation soon petered out.
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The custom has almost died out.
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5 Time – past and future: ahead, back, behind, forward
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Metaphors relating to time are often based on the idea that time is like a line that goes
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from the past to the future, with the past behind us and the future in front of us.
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Phrasal verbs with ahead and forward express ideas of the future,
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while phrasal verbs with back and behind express ideas of the past.
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What lies ahead?
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Let's think ahead to next season.
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I'm looking forward to seeing them again.
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I've put my watch forward one hour.
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The house dates back to the 16th century.
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Never look back, never have regrets.
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She was trying to leave behind a difficult adolescence.
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Put the whole episode behind you.
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6 Progress: ahead, along, behind, on, through
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Making progress and achieving things is like being on a journey and moving towards your destination.
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Phrasal verbs with along describe the kind of progress that is being made,
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while phrasal verbs with ahead and behind express ideas of making good progress or poor progress.
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The building work was coming along nicely.
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They're content to just muddle along.