Marcus L Endicott BSc MCI is available for consultation on this topic at patreon.com/mendicott

Master Metaphor List

What is the Master Metaphor List and Why is it Indispensable?

Metaphors permeate everyday speech, shaping thoughts and actions in imperceptible yet profound ways. The realization that metaphors are vital strands in the fabric of human cognition set the stage for a groundbreaking scholarly resource – The Master Metaphor List.

This expansive repository originated in the field of cognitive linguistics, which examines metaphors as conceptual constructs underlying modes of reasoning. The watershed “Metaphors We Live By” study by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980 revealed the ubiquity of metaphors in mundane expression. For instance, the common metaphor “time is money” manifests in phrases like “investing time” or “wasting time.” Appreciating this pervasive, subtle infusion of figurative language into communication accentuated the need for a comprehensive compilation of metaphors – The Master Metaphor List.

The Master Metaphor List took shape under the stewardship of Lakoff and scholars Espensen and Goldberg in 1991 at the University of California, Berkeley’s Cognitive Linguistics Group. Pooling metaphors from literature, student research, and academic forums, the list evolved into an extensive inventory with over 791 meticulously curated conceptual mappings. This academic pedigree and the meticulous triangulation of sources cemented the list’s reputation as an authoritative research tool.

The online availability of the Master Metaphor List further catapulted its popularity given linguists worldwide could leverage this resource. It has been integral for research into automated computational analysis of metaphors. For instance, Shutova and Titov (2013) utilized the list’s microcategorization of metaphors to train machine learning algorithms to identify figurative expressions. The list has also been seminal for constructing metaphor processing models like Metaphor ADaptation (MAD). Authors of the MAD model computationally synthesized novel metaphors based on the list’s schema of common adaptations between source and target metaphorical domains. Such computational research attests to the indispensability of Master Metaphor List in metaphor identification.

Beyond academia, the prevalence of metaphors in spheres like healthcare, politics, and education accentuates this list’s far-reaching utility. For example, analyzing Mexican healthcare professionals’ messaging, Lopez-Facal et al. (2022) decoded metaphors using the Master Metaphor List to uncover implicit cultural assumptions about patients. Such diverse applications underscore the list’s role in unraveling the societal emphasis and entailments encoded in metaphorical ideation across contexts.

In conclusion, the expansive, academically rigorous Master Metaphor List informs computational, literary, cultural and metaphor theory research by encapsulating the intricate ways individuals employ concrete, palpable source concepts to reason about intangible abstract phenomena. This ever-evolving compilation concentrates insights from cognitive analysis of ordinary language, underscoring metaphors’ continuity across thought, language and social coordination.

Resources:

Wikipedia:

References:

See also:

ATT-Meta Project | Computational Metaphorics | CorMet (Metaphor Extraction System) | Hamburg Metaphor Database | MetaBank | Metalude

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