Center for the Cognitive Science of Metaphor Online

Papers | Related sites of interest

last updated March 10, 2007

NOTE FOR MAC USERS: Some pdf files may require the use of Acrobat reader as a standalone program due to a pdf font substitution bug.

• About the Center for the Cognitive Science of metaphor
• The (1997) Annotated Bibliography of work on Metaphor related to the Lakoff-Johnson theory of conceptual metaphor
• The International Cognitive Linguistics Association's conference (ICLC) is one of the primary venues for new work in metaphor.
  
  Metaphor and Embodiment in Cognitive Science:
  
• The Cognitive Science of Metaphor from Philosophy to Neuropsychology by Tim Rohrer
• Meaning Generation in Music Listening by Halljerd Aksnes
• Pragmatism, Ideology and Embodiment: William James and the Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Linguistics by Tim Rohrer (PDF format). This is a more recent counterpart to the cognitive science of metaphor article above; it attempts to integrate the cognitive linguistics work on spatial frames of reference with that done by the other cognitive sciences (pdf format only).
• You may also be interested in several recent articles on the neuroimaging and neurobiology of conceptual metaphor, image schemata and similar phenomena, including links to fMRI imagery and some ERP brain movies (by Tim Rohrer and collaborators; large images, slow-loading; pdf articles only).
  
  Metaphor and Embodiment in Philosophy:
  
• When Metaphors Bewitch, Analogies Illustrate and Logic Fails by Tim Rohrer. PhD Dissertation on metaphor and embodiment in philosophical and scientific theorizing.
• Boundless Paradox: a discussion of Heraclitus, Anaximander and Gorgias by Tim Rohrer
• Embodied Perspective vs. Objective Measurement Rationality in Plato's Protagoras by Tim Rohrer
  
  Metaphor in Politics:
  
• George Lakoff's E-text on Politics and Metaphor during the Gulf War
  
• The Metaphorical Logic of (Political) Rape: George Bush and the New Wor(l)d Order by Tim Rohrer
• Metaphors We Ought Not Live By: Rush Limbaugh in the Age of Cognitive Science by Tim Adamson, Greg Johnson and Tim Rohrer

  Conceptual Blending: (see also the blending home page)
  

• Conceptual Integration and Formal Expression by Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier
• Blending and Metaphor by Seana Coulson, Joe Grady and Todd Oakley
• Mimesis, Artistic Inspiration and the Blends We Live By by Tim Rohrer (also get figures here) (pdf format only).
• Race-baiting, Cartooning and Ideology: A conceptual blending analysis of contemporary and WW II war cartoons by Tim Rohrer (pdf format only).
  
  Metaphor and Blending in Computing:
  
• Feelings Stuck in a GUI Web: metaphors, image-schemata and designing the human-computer interface by Tim Rohrer (also in pdf format)
• Conceptual Blending on the Information Highway: How Metaphorical Inferences Work by Tim Rohrer
• Even the Interface is for Sale: Metaphors, Visual Blends and the Hidden Ideology of the Internet by Tim Rohrer (pdf format only)

• You might want to look at the old metaphor site at the University of Oregon, which is a fine example of bit rot with many of its links no longer functioning. Sad, but this is what happens when a website's principal caretaker moves on. Incidentally, it is what remains of the old metaphor.uoregon.edu site.
• Mark Turner's home page details some recent books on metaphor and cognitive science. Check his excellent conceptual blending page for recent work on conceptual blending.
• The Neural Theory of Language Group at Berkeley has begun to do important work on developing computational models of embodied linguistic cognition. Check especially the research publications link, and be sure to hit David Bailey's Research Page and Srini Narayanan's ICSI page for some of the real highlights of the NTL group's work.

• Teenie Matlock is doing research on metaphors and image schemata within psychology. Her dissertation aimed at finding empirical evidence for fictive motion metapors. Click on the innocuous "More about me" link to find a trove of papers, including one on spatial metaphors and the web.
• Seana Coulson has placed a number of her blending papers onto the web.
• From UCSD cognitive science community comes COGLING, a discussion list for the cognitive linguistics community. Covers much more than mere metaphor: conceptual blending, cognitive grammar, cognitive phonology, etc.

• Highly recommended is the Journal of Metaphor and Symbolic Activity special issue on metaphor theory guest edited by Mark Johnson. This issue contains articles by Steven Winter, Michele Emanatian, Thomas Leddy, Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier.
• The Center for Semiotic Research in Denmark is one of the hotbeds of blending work in Denmark. See also the The Way We Think Conference in Odense, Denmark, August 2002.
• John Barnden has developed a metaphors of mind databank which contains real-discourse examples of metaphorical descriptions of mental states and processes. It also contains some examples of the use of metonymy in mental state descriptions. The databank also points to related research papers on metaphors of mind and on an implemented system for metaphor-based reasoning about beliefs.

• The Hypertext Crito is an interactive analysis of Plato's famous text which uses a touch of the Lakoff-Johnson theory of metaphor.
• Ray Paton's group at Liverpool has produced some interesting work on biological metaphors for computing. Also has a good list of related links if you dig around.
• The MIT Artificial Intelligence laboratory has been taking the Lakoff-Johnson claims about metaphor and the embodiment of human reason very seriously. Lynn Andrea Stein and Rodney Brooks head a robot project designed to explore the argument that human-like intelligence requires human-like embodiment. Here is a link to the Human Cognition Project at MIT's AI lab. Click on Cog. The nuts and bolts of the Stein and Brooks' proposal is found in Building Brains for Bodies.
• Rolf Pfeifer's Robotics group at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Zurich is another fine example of what it means to be taking embodiment and metaphor seriously. My particular favorite robot is Stampy, the dancing robot. See also the Passive Dynamic Walker at Cornell for a great example of the importance of morphological embodiment.

• Interested in law and metaphor? Bernie Hibbitt's has placed a brief version of his Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse online. I would also recommend that researchers on Law and metaphor also read work by Steven Winter (see annotated bibliography) if they are seeking work which is tightly connected to the Lakoff-Johnson theory of conceptual metaphor.
• The Digital Anatomist Project has a useful collection of pictures of the brain. Excellent illustrations.

This web page is maintained by Tim Rohrer.

Seen on a bumper sticker: metaphors be with you