Endangered Metaphors: (2 Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts)

When the last speaker of a language dies, s/he takes to oblivion the memories, associations and the rich imagery this language community has once lived by. The cultural heritage encoded in conventional linguistic metaphors, handed down through generations, will be lost forever. This volume consists of fifteen articles about metaphors in endangered languages, from Peru to Alaska, from India to Ghana. The empirical data demonstrate that the assumptions of contemporary cognitive linguistic theory about “universal” metaphors and the underlying cognitive processes are still far from plausible, since culture plays an important role in the formation of metaphors. Moreover, that theory has been based on knowledge of metaphors in some standard languages. Indigenous and other minority languages, especially mainly orally used ones, have been disregarded completely. Besides researchers and students in linguistics, especially in metaphor and figurative language theory, this compilation provides food for thought for scholars in large fields of cultural studies, ranging from anthropology and ethnology to folkloristics and philosophy.

Table of Contents:
1. Prologue (by Muhlhausler, Peter); 2. Endangered metaphors: Introduction (by Idstrom, Anna); 3. "Our language is very literal": Figurative expression in Dene Suline [Athapaskan] (by Rice, Sally); 4. "My heart falls out": Conceptualizations of body parts and emotion expressions in Beaver Athabascan (by Pasamonik, Carolina); 5. Walking like a porcupine, talking like a raven: Figurative language in Upper Tanana Athabascan (by Lovick, Olga); 6. Are Nahuatl riddles endangered conceptualizations? (by Vega, Mercedes Montes de Oca); 7. Bodily-based conceptual metaphors in Asheninka Perene myths and folk stories (by Mihas, Elena); 8. The use of a conceptual metaphor in the Siroi language of Papua New Guinea: Narrative is climbing a mountain (by Kleef, Sjaak van); 9. Kewa figures of speech: Understanding the code (by Franklin, Karl J.); 10. Metaphors in Dimasa and Rabha - A comparative study (by Longmailai, Monali); 11. Numbers that Chumburung people count on (by Hansford, Gillian F.); 12. The importance of unveiling conceptual metaphors in a minority language: The case of Basque (by Ibarretxe-Antunano, Iraide); 13. Antlers as a metaphor of pride: What idioms reveal about the relationship between human and animal in Inari Saami conceptual system (by Idstrom, Anna); 14. Metaphors of the Finnish Roma in Finnish and Romani (by Granqvist, Kimmo); 15. "Bhio' tu direach ga ithe, bha e cho math = You would just eat it, it was so good": Music, Metaphor and Food for Thought on Scottish Gaelic Aesthetics (by Falzett, Tiber F.M.); 16. Metaphors of an endangered Low Saxon basis dialect - exemplified by idioms of STUPIDITY and DEATH (by Piirainen, Elisabeth); 17. Index of conceptual metaphors/metonymies; 18. Name index; 19. Subject index

Review :
Perhaps the major issue facing linguists today is the phenomenon of language endangerment. [...] Metaphors are a particularly interesting area of language because of their interaction with both language and culture, providing an insight into the ways in which different cultures come to terms with their environments, an insight that will be lost if the metaphorical systems of different languages disappear without being documented. It is therefore with great pleasure that I recommend the present volume to a broad linguistic readership. The editors and contributors have succeeded in bringing together and systematizing a wide range of phenomena involving metaphors in endangered languages [...]. I join them in encouraging others to continue their work by documenting metaphors in endangered languages, always bearing in mind that metaphors may be one of the first parts of a language to disappear once it becomes endangered. [...] this volume represents a commendable empirical contribution to data both on minority languages and on metaphor. The comprehensive background provided in the prologue makes this work accessible reading for anyone interested in the study of underrepresented languages or metaphor, or in cognitive linguistics more generally. Endangered Metaphors offers a fascinating collection of articles looking at metaphoric language in languages that are slowly vanishing from the world's landscape. These chapters focus on many issues related to metaphor theory, including questions on the universality and cultural specificity of conceptual metaphors, and topics associated with globalization in human languages and culture. The range of linguistic data explored is incredibly impressive [...]. Endangered Metaphors is a wonderful addition to the new book series on Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts. The book breaks new ground in empirical and theoretical metaphor and idiom research, since it looks at the figurative lexicon of endangered minority languages that have never before been the topic of metaphor or idiom research. Therefore, the book is highly innovative and stimulating. The fifteen articles treat significant issues of figurative language and its cultural foundation in languages of five continents. […] No similar publication exists to date. “Endangered Metaphors” is a thought-provoking volume opening windows for future explorations. The focus of this compilation is not on the vulnerability of minority languages, but rather on the vulnerability of the metaphors used by their speakers as a consequence of the progressive change towards new figurative expressions through borrowing from majority languages. Consequently, the book is of great interest not only for linguists working in the field of endangered languages, for whom the focus on figurative language use may constitute a pleasant novelty, but also for readers interested in the intertwine between language and culture. The articles in this book are immensely inspiring and contribute effectively to our understanding of this relationship.