Papers by Oana David
This paper describes an innovative formalization of conceptual metaphor theory and its implementa... more This paper describes an innovative formalization of conceptual metaphor theory and its implementation in a structured metaphor repository. Central to metaphor analysis is development of the internal structure of frames and relations between frames, as based on an Embodied Construction Grammar framework, which then informs the structure of metaphors and relationships between metaphors. The hierarchical nature of metaphors and frames is made explicit, such that inferential information originating in embodied conceptual primitives is inherited throughout the network. Analysis takes a data-driven approach, where lexical differences in linguistic expressions from naturally-occurring discourse lead to continued refinement and expansion of analyses.
Constructions and Frames, 2016
Public discourse on highly charged, complex social and political issues is extensive, with millio... more Public discourse on highly charged, complex social and political issues is extensive, with millions of sentences available for analysis. The discourse is rife with metaphors that manifest vast numbers of novel metaphorical expressions. More and more, to understand such issues, and to see who is saying what and why require statistically-based, big data analyses of such corpora. However, these methods of data processing alone cannot do all the work. The MetaNet (MN) project has developed an analysis method that formalizes existing insights about the conceptual metaphors underlying linguistic expressions of metaphor into a computationally tractable mechanism for automatically discovering new metaphoric expressions in texts. The ontology used for this computational method is organized in terms of metaphor cascades, i.e. pre-existing packages of hierarchically organized primary and general metaphors that occur together. The current paper describes the architecture of metaphor-to-metaphor relations built into this system. MN's methodology represents a proof of concept for a novel way of performing metaphor analysis, and does so by applying the method to one particular domain of social interest, namely the gun debate in American political discourse. Though such analysis cannot replace a thorough cognitive, sociological and political analysis, this paper offers examples that show how a cascade theory of metaphor and grammar helps automated data analysis in many ways.
In conceptual metaphor theory, mappings between source and target frames entail relations between... more In conceptual metaphor theory, mappings between source and target frames entail relations between roles within those frames. However, the contributing functions of metonymic relations between frame roles and type constraints on those roles ‒ e.g., whether the role is of type Entity or Process ‒ must also be established. These metonymic links and type constraints enable metaphoric conceptualization, as does the particular frame structure of the metaphor's target and source domains. In this paper we use computational implementations of ontological structures developed in Embodied Construction Grammar and our own constructed metaphor repository to explore these relationships. We demonstrate that both role-to-role metonymic relations and type constraints on the roles are important in generating the correct metaphoric interpretation. In this way, the formal treatment of frame-internal and frame-to-frame mappings is brought to the fore in metaphor analysis.
This work follows the progression of a grammatical construction that unifies the Romanian accusat... more This work follows the progression of a grammatical construction that unifies the Romanian accusative preposition pe with a coreferential pronominal clitic, together forming the CD-pe construction. On the basis of historical texts, it is argued that these two grammatical phenomena evolved into a clause-level construction with a dedicated semantics and pragmatics in the modern language. A corpus analysis illustrates how CD-pe won out against a competitor pe-only construction that persisted until as recently as the early 20th century, and which is still retained in some dialects and registers. The broader scope is to refocus the discussion of clitic doubling on pragmatic motivators in light of diachronic constructionalization processes, and to reflect on the nature of similar clitic doubling phenomena evident in other Romance languages in terms of the entrenchment of language-specific constructionalization processes.
In this work I investigate cultural, historical, and cognitive motivations for noun classificatio... more In this work I investigate cultural, historical, and cognitive motivations for noun classification in Sereer-Saloum, an Atlantic language of the Senegambian language family. I use a prototype theory approach to categorisation (following Lakoff 1987;, Rosch 1975, among others), emphasising semantic motivations for noun classes based on underlying conceptual category structures. In keeping with similar studies, the analysis assumes that linguistic categorisation is reflective of underlying conceptual patterns that are motivated rather than generated. In Sereer, these patterns are largely predictable from information about shape, function and force-dynamics; deviations from the prototype are explained via metonymic and metaphoric extensions, and specific cultural information. Sereer illustrates that even in the face of dialectal diffusion and diachronic attrition of overt morphological noun classes, cognitively salient best examples are maintained and members are reassigned to the remaining classes based on best-fit family resemblances due to the internal logic of the conceptual category system.
Thesis Chapters by Oana David
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Papers by Oana David
Thesis Chapters by Oana David