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Preface

The ninth issue of metaphorik.de focuses – again – on the linguistic, cognitive and philosophical aspects of metaphor. All papers published in this issue address applied as well as theoretical questions of metaphor in use. We are convinced that this reflects to a recent trend in research on metaphor in which theoretical and applied studies of metaphor are brought together and enhance each other. The editorial staff of metaphorik.de is delighted to foster this development with the current issue, as it neatly fits into the original scope of our journal. metaphorik.de was intended to encourage text based studies of metaphor that rely on data taken from the ‘real world’ and offer empirical insights into the mechanisms and theories of metaphor. Thus, the investigation of texts mainly provides insight into the ways in which metaphor functions in everyday language as well as in technical language while theories can be corroborated by demonstrating their capacity to detect and explain empirical phenomena.

Monika Bednarek analyses the role that conceptual metaphors play in the event construal in news stories. The second paper, written by Juliana Goschler, scrutinizes the notion of embodiment used in Cognitive Linguistics since Johnson (1987) by analyzing metaphors framing the body and body parts. Her investigation of the body and its physicalness as a source and a target domain makes a pledge for a careful use of the notion of embodiment. Ralph Müller’s contribution combines theoretical and applied aspects of research on metaphor: His analysis of the use of metaphor in Swiss policy speeches contributes to theories of creativity and metaphor. Müller actually fills a gap in current metaphor research by emphasizing the relevance of stylistics for the study of metaphor, a topic that was explored by classical rhetoric but has – somehow – been neglected right from the beginning by so-called ‘modern’ theories of metaphor and their advocates. Felicity Rash’s research on Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is a comprehensive study of metaphorical models that frame racist NS-ideologies. Her article is a fundamental contribution that reveals manipulative and inhuman schemata inherent in NS rhetoric which relies on well-known or easily accessible models of thought. Hanna Skorczynska Sznajder and Jordi Piqué-Angordans provide insight into the use of meta-metaphorical markers in specialised texts on commercialese and the news coverage on economic issues. Their research shows that the explicit appeal of meta-metaphorical markers is constitutive for pervasive metaphor use in different types of texts. The final paper, written by Jutta Muschard and Rainer Schulze, questions whether the interest in metaphor is a constitutive aspect of certain eras. Do metaphors accidentally attract interest in times of mental and economic change or is there a more systematic driving force at stake? The essay provides a valuable stimulus for debate.

We are glad about the continuing support for metaphorik.de and we would like to thank our readership, friends and critical companions for their valuable feedback. We wish you a merry Christmas and happy new year 2006!

Bonn, December 2005

Hildegard Clarenz-Löhnert

Martin Döring

Klaus Gabriel

Katrin Mutz

Dietmar Osthus

Claudia Polzin-Haumann

Nikola Roßbach

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ISSN 1618-2006