Metaphors for Learning: Cross-cultural Perspectives
Human Cognitive Processing (HCP) Human Cognitive Processing is a bookseries presenting interdisciplinary research on the cognitive structure and processing of language and its anchoring in the human cognitive or mental systems.
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Tel Aviv University
Raymond W. Jr. Gibbs
University of California at Santa Cruz
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François Recanati
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Volume 22 Metaphors for Learning. Cross-cultural Perspectives Edited by Erich A. Berendt
Jan Nuyts
University of Antwerp
Metaphors for Learning Cross-cultural Perspectives
Edited by
Erich A. Berendt Seisen University, Tokyo
John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Metaphors for learning : cross-cultural perspectives / edited by Erich A. Berendt. p. cm. (Human Cognitive Processing, issn 1387-6724 ; v. 22) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Metaphor. 2. Concepts. 3. Learning. 4. Teaching. 5. Language planning. I. Berendt, Erich. P301.5.M48M475 2008 415.01--dc22 isbn 978 90 272 2376 0 (Hb; alk. paper)
2007042369
© 2008 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents List of contributors
vii
Introduction Erich A. Berendt
1
Part 1 Historical Transformations in Metaphoric Conceptualization In the balance: Weighing up conceptual culture Joan Turner
13
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese Keiiti Yamanaka
29
Part 2 Socio-cultural Values and Metaphoric Conceptualization Tao of learning: Metaphors Japanese students live by Masako K. Hiraga Intersections and diverging paths: Conceptual patterns on learning in English and Japanese Erich A. Berendt
55
73
Cultural messages of metaphors Judit Hidasi
103
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay Imran Ho-Abdullah
123
The “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct Joanna Radwańska -Williams
139
Metaphors for Learning Cross-cultural Perspectives
Part 3 Metaphors and the Classroom Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment Lynne Cameron Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning Lixian Jin & Martin Cortazzi
159
177
Part 4 Metaphors in Educational Planning Metaphors of learning and knowledge in the Tunisian context: A case of re-categorization Zouhair Maalej
205
Metaphors of transformation: The new language of education in South Africa Rosalie Finlayson, Marné Pienaar and Sarah Slabbert
225
Index
245
List of contributors Erich A. Berendt, Ph.D. (editor) Professor, Seisen University 3–16–21 Higashi Gotanda Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Japan 141–8642
[email protected] Lynne J. Cameron, Ph.D. Professor of Applied Linguistics Centre for Language and Communication The Open University Milton Keyes MK7 6AA United Kingdom
[email protected] Martin Cortazzi, Ph.D. Visiting Professor Centre for English Language Teacher Education Warwick University, UK
[email protected] Rosalie Finlayson, Ph.D. Professor, Dept. of African Languages University of South Africa UNISA P.O. Box 392 Pretoria 0003, South Africa
[email protected] Metaphors for Learning Cross-cultural Perspectives
Judit Hidasi, Ph.D. Dean, Budapest Business School College of International Management and Business Studies 1165 Budapest Diosy Lajos utca 22–24 Hungary
[email protected] Masaka K. Hiraga, Ph.D. Professor, Graduate School of Intercultural Communication Rikkyo University 3–34–1 Nishi Ikebukuro Toshima-ku, Tokyo Japan 171–8501
[email protected] Ho-Abdullah Imran, Ph.D. Assoc. Professor, School of Language Studies and Linguistics Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor Malaysia
[email protected] Lixian Jin, Ph.D. Reader in Linguistics and Health Communication Speech and Language Therapy Faculty of Health and Life Sciences De Montfort University H0.19b Hawthorn Building Leicester LE1 9BH United Kingdom
[email protected] Zouhair Maalej Assoc. Professor, Department of European Languages & Translation College of Languages & Translation King Saud University P.O. Box 87907, Riyadh 11652, KSA
[email protected] List of contributors
Marné Pienaar Dept. of Linguistics & Literary Theory University of Johannesburg Aucklang Park Kingsway Campus P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park 2006 South Africa
[email protected] Joanna Radwanska-Williams, Ph.D. Professor, English Language Teaching & Research Committee 3/F Library, New Complex Macao Polytechnic Institute Macao SAR, China
[email protected] Sarah Slabbert, Ph.D. Hon. Research Associate University of the Witwatersrand 191 Anderson Street Northcliffe 2195, South Africa
[email protected] Joan Turner Senior Lecturer, Head of Language Studies Centre Goldsmiths, University of London London SE14 6NW United Kingdom
[email protected] Keiiti Yamanaka Professor, Faculty of Letters Toyo University Bunkyo-ku, Hakusan 5-28-20 Tokyo, Japan, 112-0001
[email protected] Introduction Erich A. Berendt
Seisen University, Tokyo
What this volume of papers proposes to do is to focus on an essential domain of human discourse, the domain of learning, and to do so from the multiple roles of metaphoric language, in particular in the various types of discourse which are used in and about learning which shape our understanding of how we learn. Education is a crucial aspect of societies and learning is an essential of human life. Without learning, the survival of humankind would be in jeopardy and the significant experiences which provide meaning to our selves and identities, our values and associations would atrophy, if not die away. Edward T. Hall (1959) and George L. Trager (1966) in their model of “culture as communication” argued for ten bio-basic message systems which form the basis of all human cultural activity. Learning is one of these, together with interaction, association, subsistence, bisexuality, territoriality, temporality, play, defense, and exploitation. What is useful for us here is that all of these primary message systems are interlinked in the permutations of our cultural experiences which are realized in the myriad compositions of various languages and cultures. They further analyze these domains of cultural experience from three attitudinal perspectives: informal, technical and formal awareness. An introduction to that processual analysis of culture can be found in E.T. Hall’s Silent Language. The papers in this volume represent a broad spectrum of these attitudes toward and types of learning. Issues of historical change in societies’ conceptualization, the challenges to traditional formal values, contemporary social values in regard to learning, expectations in technical learning and planning for future changes in education are included. All such aspects of learning are approached through the analysis of metaphoric conceptualization. Technical Learning is described by E.T. Hall as preceded by logical analysis and proceeds by system or structural knowledge where techniques can be applied to deal with observable data. Formal Learning depends on the transmission of tradition, of precepts and admonition and is largely received knowledge in a society. It looks to the past and assumes that as a given. Formal awareness is usually accompanied with
Erich A. Berendt
strong emotion about what constitutes proper behaviour. Informal Learning depends primarily on a model for imitation. Often the knowledge that is being learned and patterns or rules of behavior are out-of-awareness. Learning is more by observation. Systems of behavior made up of many details are passed from generation to generation which we only become cognizant of when rules are broken. The formal is a two-way process. The learner tries, makes a mistake, is corrected. …Formal learning tends to be suffused with emotion. Informal learning is largely a matter of the learner picking others as models. Sometimes this is done deliberately, but most commonly it occurs out-of-awareness. In most cases the model does not take part in this process except as an object of imitation. Technical learning moves in the other direction. The knowledge rests with the teacher. His skill is a function of his knowledge and his analytic ability. If his analysis is sufficiently clear and thorough, he doesn’t even have to be there. He can write it down or put it on record. In real life one finds a little of all three in almost any learning situation. One type, however, will always dominate. (E.T. Hall The Silent Language 1959 :72)
In the conceptual experience of culture, the West in its Greek roots developed a dichotomy between mythos and logos, the latter the rational discourse which claimed to represent an objective view of nature and the cosmos, and the former the discourse of imaginative and transcendental experiences, such as expressing religious and social values deemed to give insight to our lives, often in poetic forms and proverbs. Figurative and symbolic language occurs very early in human culture along with the contractual discourse of mundane social affairs. The Sumerians, as did the Greeks later, used language for descriptive and promissory discourse along side the poetic and symbolic discourse in their epics. The modern discourse of scientific rationalism is seen in the West to be superior to mythos, because it has enabled the astonishing developments in science and technology which we benefit from today. The effectiveness of logos discourse is that it is assumed to relate to facts and correspond to external realities which can be verified, that is, expressed in our technical awareness. The mythos of human experience was not supposed to be pragmatic but to give contexts of meaning to make our mundane lives worthwhile. The Greek analysis of the expression of nature and human realities and their relation to language developed into the comparative entities of metaphor and metonym. The Western World has pursued its comparative analytical discourse in this mode of communication to delineate various types of figurative language where the verbal and conceptual aspects of communicating come together: similes and varieties of metaphors and tropes of all kinds, allusions and innuendo, allegory and proverbs, irony, rhetorical devices, etc. These inevitably follow the actual praxis which peoples throughout
Introduction
their histories have made of their experiences of the mind, both intuitive and rational. The narratives of myths work well in the inner world of the psyche and are maintained by our formal learning modes but the Western world has evolved a rational discourse which has been applicable to the technical processes. The reliance on reason which predominated from the 17th century, however, was challenged by Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781). He claimed it was impossible for human beings to be certain of the order we think we see in nature as having any relation to external reality. The “order” we discerned was just the creation of our minds. The information from the physical world which we receive through our senses must be reorganized in terms of our internal structures of the mind. Kant had no doubt about the ability of human beings to create a rational vision but his critique was to show that there was no absolute truth. He in effect showed the limits of Cartesian rationalism. The contribution of George Lakoff et al. (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Lakoff 1987, Lakoff & Turner 1989) to the debate on the cultural values of “objectivism versus subjectivism” has focused our attention on the nature of how language and the conceptualization patterns underlying its use shape our understanding of our experiences of the mind. His work has subsumed the overtly figurative aspects of language with the power of conceptual schemata which permeate our daily communications. Raymond Gibbs (1994) has effectively argued that our basic metaphorical conceptualizations of experience constrain how we think and express our ideas in both our everyday, technical and literary discourses. He argues that metaphoricity characterizes our rational discourse “the belief that literal language is a veridical reflection of thought and the external world” (Gibbs 1994 :20) as much as the figurative and creative use of language. He concludes that “there is no independent stable account of literality for either concepts of language” (Gibbs 1994 :19–20). Gibbs’ review and evaluation of the conceptualization roles of figurative language in cognitive sciences, everyday speech and thinking, verbal metaphor, conventional metaphor and metonymy, irony, proverbs as well as research in the question of consciousness in the interpretation of such language informs the work of the papers in this volume on the metaphors of learning. In a collection of papers (Steen and Gibbs 1997) the interplay of linguistic metaphors and conceptual metaphors and how conventional metaphors reflect the pervasive conceptual metaphors in our discourses is further explored. “(O)rdinary speakers/listeners often make do with incomplete and partial representations of linguistically and culturally shared metaphorical concepts. As a result, there may be a social division of labour between ordinary speakers in a specific community: every speaker may possess a partial, yet still coherent,
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representation of what linguists have revealed to be a rich, complex conceptual metaphor. A complete conceptual metaphor may only emerge from examination of the communication between, or across, participants in some community.” (R.W. Gibbs & G.J. Steen (eds.), Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics, 1997 :3) I would further recommend the volume by Lynne Cameron and Graham Low (1999) Researching and Applying Metaphor as well as the several volumes referred to above by George Lakoff et al. on how metaphoricity shapes all our discourses. The conceptual metaphoric frameworks a la George Lakoff et al. in the domain of learning is the primary perspective of most of the papers in this volume, but the multiple roles of figurative language in education, the classroom, rhetorical studies and academic discourse as well as how it shapes socio-cultural values is represented. The languages represented include Arabic, Chinese, English, Hungarian, Japanese, Malay, Polish, and Russian plus the cultural area of South Africa. The papers in this volume have been divided into four groups, although there is overlap in both the aspects of the domain of learning dealt with as well as the type of roles of the metaphoric language in them. The first two papers examine the historical shift in academic metaphors, of the West by J. Turner and of Japan with its Chinese roots by K. Yamanaka, and how they have impacted academic discourse and teaching. These opening papers are a reminder that the rhetorical language we have become accustomed to is not a fast fixed entity but that the historical shifting can reorient the conceptualization in our discourses. Joan Turner details the transformation in the conventional and conceptual metaphors used in academic discourse from the late Renaissance through to the contemporary scientific discourse in English in the shift from metaphors of TOUCH to SIGHT and how this has impacted the rhetoric of rationality as well as implications for teaching academic discourse. Keiiti Yamanaka’s paper presents the Chinese tradition in figurative language analysis, how it developed in the Japanese culture and how the introduction of Western concepts of figurative language with the introduction of Western rhetorical education has affected academic discourse. It is significant that the Western tradition has not taken deep root in the contemporary academic rhetoric of Japanese academia, an issue heretofor largely unexplored in Japanese discourse. There has been a dearth of studies in the international context of alternative cultural traditions on the study of figurative language which this paper helps to rectify. Yamanaka notes the divergent aspects of the East and West in their classifications and concludes with a conceptual metaphoric analysis of the metaphors in Japanese classical poetry to illustrate the transformation and merger of these traditions in academic discourse in Japanese university education. These two papers illustrate how our conceptual patterns and their technical analysis as well as
Introduction
the formal roles in cultures can shift with significant impact in shaping our learning cultures. This background is also relevant to the difficulty of translating academic papers where the style of academic discourse is divergent and the resulting conceptualization patterns can become incongruous. The second group of papers focuses primarily on socio-cultural values which the conceptual metaphoric analyses elicit in a variety of languages, East and West. The first by Masako Hiraga is an analysis of the conceptual metaphoric patterns used in the discourse of learning in the Japanese language. She argues that three traditional conceptual patterns and one modern one characterize Japanese concepts of learning: LEARNING IS A JOURNEY, LEARNING IS IMITATING A MODEL, THE TEACHER IS A FATHER, and EDUCATION IS WAR. The significance of the visual/iconic nature of the semantics of the Chinese characters/kanji is an important feature of this paper and also is related to several others dealing with Chinese and Japanese data in this volume. The etymological implications illustrated in the kanji are discussed. The visual/iconic representation, that the characters have, plays a unifying role in the Japanese and Chinese semantics as there are often two or more readings for the same character. For example, the basic character for learning 学 can be read as mana(bu) but in various compounds becomes gaku as in 学習 gakushuu (学 study plus 習 learn). The latter character is read by itself as another verb for ‘learn’ nara(u). Each of these basic verbs, however, reflects a different conceptual pattern. Each of the characters not only has it own semantic focus with its etymological roots but has an added visual or iconic dimension to the recognition of its underlying meaning. Further there is a semantic syntax of the component parts of each character, which further adds complex semantic and visual associations to each ideographic character’s meaning. A detailed exploration of the written Chinese characters/kanji and the roles of such icons with metaphoric language is made in M. Hiraga’s book Metaphor and Iconicity: A Cognitive Approach to Analysing Texts 2005. This iconic aspect of the underlying meanings is largely absent from alphabetic writing. These are illustrated in Hiraga’s paper but are relevant also to other papers based on Japanese and Chinese data (Yamanaka, Berendt, Hidasi, Jin/Cortazzi and Radwanska-Williams). For these reasons the original scripts of the language data are included in each paper. The characters in their written evolution also reveal visual etymological origins derived from underlying conceptual metaphors similar to the etymologies in Western languages which often inform the contemporary usage. For example, the English verb educate < Latin educare (guiding/leading someone) is based on the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY, so that in modern standard written English the verb can only take an animate object “educate someone”. Whereas the verb learn related to lore has its root meaning of “get the knowledge of something”, that is, “learn something”, linking it to the conceptual metaphor of LEARNING IS AN
Erich A. Berendt
ENTITY. These etymologies are relevant to the contemporary syntax of the verbs and the underlying concept unconsciously shaping our discourse. See also Sweetser 1990 on this. Erich Berendt’s paper faces the challenges of doing a systematic cross-cultural comparison of the underlying conceptual metaphors in the domain of learning for English and Japanese. To do so, comparable blocks of data of representative genre related to the expression of learning were made. The data base in English and Japanese included the discourse types of technical writing, essays, and conversation. A complete analysis of every and all expressions related to learning into conceptual metaphoric patterns was carried out. Making such a complete and cross-cultural analysis posed critical issues of the placement of data, the selection of features which were to be highlighted into conceptual groups as well as conventional metaphoric types. This also affected the labelling of various sub-groups and their entailments. Goatly (1997 :2) commented “This highlighting and suppression of aspects of experience is obvious in the case of metaphor. But the ignoring of differences and highlighting of selected similarities is, in fact, absolutely necessary in any act of classification and conceptualization”. This is true within one language research but even more so in the comparison of two languages. Some conventional metaphors were readily linked to the more universal experiential typologies both within each language as well as across them (PATH/JOURNEY, ENTITY, CONTAINER). Others of a structural nature reflected divergent cultural experiences, as in aspects of nature (BIRDS, PLANTS) or WAR/HUNTING concepts. The alignment of patterns between English and Japanese particularly posed problems of the latter type. The greater the abstraction of the relationships the weaker the representation of the appropriate cultural values inherent in them becomes. E.T. Hall (1976 :49) has noted in another context that the greater the abstraction the less truth is expressed. Discussion of the analytical issues as well as the implications of the cultural values in the respective languages in regard to the discourse of learning is made in Berendt’s paper. The Hungarian language with its Asian roots as it was transformed in the European cultural matrix is contrasted with the Japanese socio-cultural values through a study of the proverbs of education in the respective languages in Judit Hidasi’s paper. She finds the similarities striking not so much on the levels of conventional metaphors or underlying conceptual patterns but in the socio-cultural values being inculcated regarding learning (acquiring knowledge) and teaching (transmitting knowledge). Her data is a study of relevant proverbs in learning in which the cultural specifics in the structural types of conventional metaphors predominate. Proverbs which reflect the traditional values of a society are representative vehicles for the formal attitudes in the domain of learning. Hiraga, Jin and Cortazzi, and Maalej also utilize proverbs, which reflect the formal attitudes in
Introduction
their respective cultures of learning, and the implications of the conceptual patterns they contain. From a contemporary newspaper-based corpus Imran Ho-Abdullah analyzes five key generic roots for ‘teaching and learning’ in the Malay language: latih, asuh, bombing, didik, ajar. These are examined in their contexts of use and lexical collocations. How these reflect socio-cultural values in the goals and types of learning are examined from their links to conceptual metaphoric typologies. The effects on language planning in Malaysia are also discussed. The impact of Islamic formal traditions in learning and the needs of modern technical education can be seen in the implications that the conceptual patterns found in Malay have. The topic of language planning and the roles of cognitive conceptual patterning are extensively focused on in the papers in part four (Maalej and Finlayson et al.). The potential conflict from contact between the formal, technical and informal modes of learning in cross-cultural contact and cultural transformations in contexts of time and place are seen in the conceptual metaphors utilized. An important issue in second/foreign language learning is the role of the socalled “native speaker” and the implications for criteria in regard to what constitutes the language competence for this role in teaching as well as implications for judging the levels of performance of learners. Joanna Radwanska-Williams argues through a cross-cultural contrast that “native speaker” is a metaphoric construct and does so by examining the vocabulary related to it as well as the assumptions inherent in it by contrasting Polish and Russian with English and Chinese. She argues that the distinctions among the assumptions made in regard to birth, identity and language acquisition play out in different configurations among these languages. The impact of such assumptions are reflected in the formal level of awareness we bring to our expectations in the language learning domain. Jin and Cortazzi in their paper also take up the issue of student and teacher images of their roles in learning. Of the two papers in part three on the roles of metaphor in the classroom, Lynne Cameron’s focuses on the discourse roles of conventional metaphors in the British primary school classroom. Her study is based on data (taped classroom interaction and observation notes) from a six-week period of English 9 to 11 year olds in class. Figurative language use (types and functions) and the systematic (conventional) metaphors in the classroom, such as JOURNEY, are analyzed with instructional and interactional implications for learning in the classroom. Cameron argues from her analysis that the use of metaphor has a significant influence on “access to lesson agendas, subject area content and language, learning from a teacher’s feedback on performance and recognizing appropriate behaviour and participation” in learning opportunities. In her earlier work Metaphor in Educational Discourse 2003 she has explored the use of metaphoric language in the
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prosaic educational discourse world to examine how conventional metaphor use represents the interplay in language and thought of creative instances of language use. The data for this latter study is also taken from primary school in the United Kingdom. This volume also includes a concise, useful historical overview of metaphor theory in the first chapter. The paper by Lixian Jin and Martin Cortazzi encompasses the styles of learning in classroom discourse as well as the impact of socio-cultural values in regard to the roles of teacher-student relations by focusing on the Chinese cultures of learning. This is done by examining the conventional metaphors used to express ideas about “knowledge”, “good teacher” and “good learning”. Learning stances in informal behaviour reveal quite divergent attitudes toward the images of “good student” and “good teacher”. A questionnaire to examine the perception of students about their cultures of learning was administered not only to Chinese but also to British and Malaysian students. A feature of these divergent cultural expectations in the classroom discourse is particularly noted in the roles and expectations of how questions are used in the classroom discourse. While the classroom is regarded usually as a social setting for technical learning and the transmission of formal received knowledge, the impact of the different cultures of learning that we bring to that setting is apparent in the informal perspective as well, a reminder of E.T. Hall’s triad of learning modes. Part four comprises two papers on language planning in education and the impact of the conceptual patterns in the conventional metaphors on that domain in shaping the discourse about the contemporary nature and goals of learning in Tunisia and South Africa. These papers bring us full circle from the first section on the significance of the historical transformation in conceptual patterns in the domain of learning from the past to future expectations. Zouhair Maalej examines the changes in the Tunisian educational guidelines of the “Program of Programs (2002)” in the roles of education in the Tunisian society, the learner and the teacher. Tunisia as an Arab nation has its roots in Islamic religious and social values. He examines the Koranic and Arabic traditional concepts of knowledge and knowing and how they are conceptually expressed in conventional metaphors. His paper focuses on how the guidelines have inverted or re-categorized the roles of teacher and student, how knowledge is acquired in the goals of establishing a globally oriented society and the technical acquisition of the necessary skills, revealing the use of new conventional metaphoric patterns or re-categorizing old. This can be seen as a movement from the traditional formal style of learning to that of contemporary new technical mode of learning. South Africa, too, is a country which has been undergoing great changes in its society with correspondent impact on its educational domain. As a result of the political transformation of South Africa from an apartheid to a democratic society,
Introduction
the goals in the national curriculum guidelines have also seen a transformation. Rosalie Finlayson, Marné Pienaar and Sarah Slabbert examine critically the dichotomies in their paper of NEW/OLD, GOOD/BAD, HEALING/GROWTH, etc. from the perspective of the conceptual metaphors and their related schemata used in the discourse on these goals. The transformation is seen as a JOURNEY and the discourse is interpreted in bodily terms which lend a personal, bodily, experiential dimension to the political process. In both papers it is argued that the change in conceptual metaphoric patterns significantly shift the focus of the discourse on education policy and planning. These multi-cultural, multi-lingual and comparative studies of the nature and roles of metaphoricity in the discourse of learning had their initial genesis back in 1995 for a symposium at the International Association of Intercultural Communication Studies Conference in Harbin China. I wish to thank particularly Joan Turner and Masako Hiraga for their support in making that symposium. The papers of that symposium were published as a special issue of the journal Intercultural Communication Studies VII:2 (1997–8) titled Learning: East and West by the International Association for Intercultural Communication, Trinity University, TX. The response to the initial project encouraged us to enlarge the scope of the domain of learning and provide opportunities to revise or prepare newly researched material with a broader variety of languages and cultural contexts. The result is the present volume. The papers in this volume not only develop issues in cognitive linguistics in the use of systematic or extensive data bases but in so far as they explore cross-cultural aspects of learning also have implications for language teaching, translation and cross–cultural communication specialists. References Cameron, L. (2003). Metaphor in Educational Discourse. London: Continuum. Cameron, L. & G. Low (Eds.) (1999). Researching and Applying Metaphor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gibbs, R. W. Jr. (1994). The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gibbs, R.W. Jr. & G.J. Steen (Eds.). (1997). Metaphors in Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Goatly, A. (1997). The Language of the Mind. London: Routledge. Hall, E.T. (1959). The Silent Language. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday. Hall, E.T. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday. Hiraga, M. K. (2005). Metaphor and Iconicity: A Cognitive Approach to Analyzing Texts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.
Erich A. Berendt Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, George & Mark Turner (1989). More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Sweetser, E. E. (1990). From Etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Trager, G. L. (1966). A schematic outline for the processual analysis of culture. In: L.A. Gottschalk & A.H. Auerbach (Eds.), Methods of research in psychotherapy. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Part 1
Historical Transformations in Metaphoric Conceptualization
In the balance Weighing up conceptual culture Joan Turner
Goldsmiths, University of London. This chapter looks at the cognitive structuring of rationality as evidenced by conventional metaphors relating to balance and weight. The evaluative nature of these metaphors, positive in the rational domain, but negative in relation to the emotions and the imagination, is related to the privileged domain of rationality in the western cultural context, and elaborated within what is called a ‘rhetorical law of gravity.’ This dominant structuring is viewed both as helpful in the academic context of understanding the need for critical appraisal, and as ‘critical’ in relation to contemporary theorising, where conceptual frameworks being used are not so spatially regulated, and new value systems are emerging, which might in time, change our implicit understanding of what counts as rational.
Keywords: evaluative metaphor, academic context, cultural values, rationality. Introduction In this chapter, I look at the cognitive structuring of rationality in terms of balance and weight, and their inter-relationship in what I call a rhetorical law of gravity. This cognitive structuring is related also to the value of balance in intellectual cultural terms, at both the time of the ancient Greeks and the scientific revolution in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. A further aspect of the study is the evaluatively differing distribution of weight, as it were, between the three domains of rationality, the emotions, and the imagination. The role of conventional metaphorical networks in maintaining value structures is also highlighted, in the spirit of encouraging critique as well as a deeper understanding of the cognitive processes that students themselves work with in contemporary academic culture.
Joan Turner
Learning the metaphors of conceptual culture A focus on the metaphorical conceptual frameworks structuring knowledge and rationality, and how we operate with them is a good potential source for different kinds of learning. This is especially the case in the context of higher education where interacting with knowledge, making judgements, and developing arguments is key. These generic, higher-level, cognitive operations are the focus here, but the principle of understanding an underlying conceptual framework to get a better grasp of a pervasive problem or principle has been the focus of several studies. In the case of academic disciplines, this has been done for example by Taylor (1984) in relation to understanding key issues in education. He related the centrality of the metaphor of growth that he found in the discipline back to the influence of Darwin, and the dominance of biological metaphors that his work spawned. A number of studies from different disciplines can also be found in Ortony (1979). Once an underlying conceptual framework has been understood, the way is open for developing a greater understanding of the focus of study. This includes also the potential for developing a critique of an underlying conceptual metaphor because of its inadequacy or constraining effects, as well as the creative development of a root metaphor (e.g. Turner, 1987, Lakoff & Turner, 1989). I’d particularly like to highlight the practical relevance of using metaphorical networks in the L2 context of teaching English for Academic Purposes (or EAP as it is more conventionally known). Here, English is not only an additional language, but students are studying through the medium of English, and using English to gain a degree. This area of language teaching therefore combines the development of language acquisition with familiarisation of common pedagogical genres of higher education such as the essay, the laboratory report, the seminar, the lecture, as well as culturally relevant conceptualisations of how one should act in these contexts. Through the process of highlighting conceptual metaphorical networks, there is scope for drawing attention to both macro-level aspects of academic culture within a particular intellectual tradition, and micro-level learning opportunities, such as vocabulary acquisition. In the case of the broader intellectual tradition, it is useful for students to gain an insight into dominant epistemological models and how that might help them organise their own thinking and use of language. The traditionally dominant theory of knowledge, which philosophers call epistemological foundationalism (Rorty, 1979), is elaborated below in terms of how it co-relates with metaphorical structuring in what I have termed a rhetorical law of gravity. It is helpful also for students to gain a metacognitive awareness of the conceptual frameworks which structure many of the cognitive acts which are germane to academic thinking and academic rhetorical practices. So, for example, such acts as making claims and justifying them, making judgements, drawing conclusions and
In the balance
so on, are part of expected procedures in the academic context. While on the one hand, in as much as such acts are a function of the human brain, they are universal, on the other hand, how they are used and patterned together, as well as to what extent they are valued, may not be. For this reason, they are seen here as rhetorical preferences of the western intellectual tradition. This further implies that in any cross-cultural context, as EAP by definition is, if some students do not immediately appear to justify their claims, this need not be seen as the result of a deficiency in their cognitive powers, that is their powers of intellect, but possibly has its roots in an educational culture with differing rhetorical preferences. The perspective being promoted here is to see rhetorical preferences as rooted in different cultural and conceptual frameworks, whether these be frameworks about knowledge and knowledge production, or about teaching and learning (cf, Turner, 1998, Jin & Cortazzi, 1998, Turner & Hiraga, 2003). Being made aware of underlying conceptual frameworks structured in conventional metaphors can help both the process of conforming to the framework and the process of critiquing it. Conventional metaphor and second language acquisition At the micro-level of language work, a focus on grouping expressions relating to a particular cognitive act, such as making judgments, offers scope for vocabulary acquisition within a relevant context, but also for understanding how words interrelate in different more or less fixed expressions, and can therefore be remembered in chunks or with specific collocations (Bolinger, 1975, Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992). Grouping apparently disparate words and expressions within a consistent conceptual framework can also facilitate a deeper understanding of underlying evaluation. While assessments by a tutor such as solidly researched, or, a rather flimsy argument, may not in themselves help the student to make better arguments, nonetheless, being helped to see that they come from the same conceptual framework, and are linked to the dominant epistemology for academic work, can help to reinforce, or at least increase awareness of, the relevant mindset. As is the style of Lakoff & Johnson, I have grouped together linguistic expressions based on conventional metaphors, which link conceptually to point up various aspects of operating in the academic context. Once the conceptual frameworks have been understood, new lexical items and their most relevant syntactic constructions can be added. Grouping linguistic expressions within the metaphorical framework may also aid memory of them. Further distinctions can be made, such as whether the expressions are formal or informal, whether similar metaphorbased expressions exist in the students’ own languages, how they differ, how frequently they are used, and so on. Where different languages have expressions from
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the same conceptual structuring, finding out how these expressions translate into English can also be a valuable language learning experience. Whereas the sets of lexical expressions that Lakoff & Johnson use do not always lend themselves well to a pedagogic context of vocabulary learning because they are too diverse in terms of the contexts they might be used in or sometimes too idiomatic and localised to the Californian context, the expressions used in this paper are generally relevant to the context of studying English for Academic Purposes. The academic culture of being critical The use of the word ‘critical’ exerts enormous power and generates copious amounts of critique and counter-critique in contemporary higher education. I’d like to suggest that it has ‘honorific’ status. This is to borrow, and extrapolate from the grammatical term in languages, such as Japanese, where ‘vertical’ (Nakane, 1970) forms of communication are the norm. The honorific form is used when addressing a superior in a particular context. I’m borrowing that term here as a metaphor for the intellectual power that the word both yields and wields in a western academic institutional context. Within academic disciplines for example, the word ‘critical’ is itself the prized badge of academic prestige and the locus of ‘turf ’ wars on the academic terrain. This can be seen in research methodologies or interpretive approaches where fierce debates rage around the appropriation of the word ‘critical’ to preface an approach. One example is the debate around the use of critical as an approach to discourse analysis (e.g. Toolan, 1997; Fairclough, 1996; Widdowson, 1995, 1996). Here, issues of what is ‘merely’ descriptive as opposed to ‘critical’, or whether scientific objectivity is claimed without regard for the social context of the data and its effects, circulate. In the assessment context of higher education, students tend to be labelled ‘uncritical’ if they confine themselves to a descriptive approach in their writing. This is a rather vexed issue in the contemporary intercultural context of higher education, where many East Asian students are studying in ‘western’ institutions. Students with East Asian educational cultural backgrounds are not necessarily uncritical any more than a British student may or may not be ‘uncritical’. However, they are unfortunately frequently labelled as such, see for example, (English, 1999). The topic looms large in debates on intercultural pedagogy. For example, several issues of the journal TESOL Quarterly gave space to commentary and countercommentary on the issue of teaching critical thinking in English Language Teaching, (Atkinson, 1997, Gieve, 1998, Benesch, 1999). The discussion points included the question of whether critical thinking was a decontextualised higher order cognitive skill or a social practice, whether L2 students from cultural backgrounds
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where critical thinking was not the main focus of teaching and learning should be taught critical thinking at all, and whether it was a monologic or dialogic process in the Habermasian mode of communicative action (1984). Taking up a critical stance is not easy, particularly in terms of its rhetorical ordering in academic writing in English, but looking at some of the underlying conceptual frameworks of the processes involved may help students to understand what it is they have to try to do. One of the main processes involved is that of judging. In fact, the word criticism comes from the ancient Greek word for judge, namely krites (Onions, 1966). Much of the cognitive structuring of exercising critique or making critical judgments is revealed in metaphors relating to weight and weighing, as exemplified in the following section. Judging is weighing The conceptual ordering of JUDGING IS WEIGHING is particularly evident in the common expression, to weigh things up. This implies that we make judgments by considering ideas or arguments in terms of their weight. For example, in the context of essay writing, we often talk of the need to: weigh up the pros and cons of an argument. There is a cause and effect relationship between weight and judgment, whereby the amount of weight determines the judgment. This can be seen in the legal context where weight is used as a conventional metaphor to quantify evidence, as in the expression ‘the weight of evidence was against him’. The process of making judgments may be seen as analogous to putting objects onto a set of two-sided balance scales. Instead of physical objects, we weigh mental objects in our minds. The judgment or decision is made, based on which idea or argument weighs heaviest. The downward movement of the scales with the heavier object transfers metaphorically to the process of reaching a judgment as can be observed in the following expressions. JUDGMENT (LIKE WEIGHT) MOVES DOWNWARDS After several discussions, the balance tipped in favour of keeping the course going. He was tilting towards giving up his first choice and writing a completely different essay. In the end, she came down on the side of the first candidate. I am inclined to go with that idea. What it comes down to is making a decision and sticking to it.
Situations where judgment is awaited or postponed are also cognitively structured in terms of up-down movement. The judgment is up, as it were, waiting to come
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down. The expression hanging in the balance for example, conveys the tension before an important decision or judgment is made. By contrast, when there is no desire or need to make a judgment in the immediate context, the expression, suspending judgment, may be used. The etymological derivation of suspend, from the Latin, pendere to hang, also conveys the notion of ‘hanging in the balance’. In other words, the judgment is left hanging, as it were, until it is made (in terms of cognitive structuring, comes down) at a later date. The notion of things being up in the air also has the sense of awaiting decision or judgment. Having failed her exams, her place on the course next year was hanging in the balance. I’m going to suspend judgment until the project is finished. The whole project is up in the air.
There is a further cognitive structuring related to the process of weighing, which can be seen when the verb weigh is used as a conventional metaphor to mean careful consideration or thought. The following expressions are examples of this structuring. THINKING CAREFULLY IS WEIGHING We must weigh our words carefully. We need to weigh up both sides of the argument. The word ponder from the Latin word pondere meaning to weigh, is also used in the sense of think deeply about something. I need to ponder that one. Some things are just imponderable (too heavy to contemplate, i.e. beyond being weighed).
Striking a balance There can be a tension in the metaphorical structuring of weight and balance in the academic context between the effects of weight forcing a decision one way rather than another and the desirability of balance where both sides are equally weighted as it were. In the case of writing an essay, for example, what is valued is a ‘balanced’ argument. This means that both the pros and the cons have to be weighed up. This is usually the context for an academic essay with the word ‘discuss’ in the title. However, ultimately it is better for the conclusion to come down in favour of one side rather than the other. The balanced argument relates to the structuring process, where all relevant aspects of the topic, usually embodied in the title, are given ‘due weight’ as opposed to certain things being left out of account. The
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conclusion itself is more like the result of everything being put in the balance, that is on the scales, and the heaviest weight determines the outcome. Another balancing act relating to the structuring of an essay or an argument, is the process of justifying claims. This is also an important part of critical appraisal. It is not enough to simply make a judgment or a claim. It cannot stand on its own. It needs to be supported by evidence or reasoning. Without support, a claim will not be able to stand up. Here, it is the bodily posture of standing that provides the source for the cognitive structuring of evaluating claims. As Johnson (1987) also points out, standing is the prototype for balance (see also discussion on the rhetorical law of gravity, below). A balanced claim can also be conceptualised in terms of weighing however. If the claims are put on one side of the scales, as it were, the evidence (e.g. examples, or reasons) have to be put on the other side of the scales, to see if these claims hold up, i.e. whether the scales are brought into balance or alignment. The notion of justifying claims, with this sense of bringing them into balance, can also be related to the process of justifying text in a printing layout, another extension of the balance metaphor. Weighted values As has been seen, the heavier the weight of the idea or argument, the stronger it is. This evaluative dimension to weight in the intellectual or rational domain, whereby the heavier is better, is in stark contrast to the physical reality of weight for the individual having to carry a lot of weight. In the rational domain, the expression ‘to carry weight’ is evaluative. The argument which ‘carried more weight’ would be more important. The following examples, using the conventional metaphor of weight itself, show this evaluative conceptual ordering of HEAVY IS GOOD.
HEAVY IS GOOD Weighty ideas are more significant than lightweight ones. Her arguments carry a lot of weight. Professor X’s opinion is of greater weight than student Y’s. The success of the experiment lent weight to the initial hypothesis.
This evaluative dimension transfers with the image schema of weight to the social domain. Here, weight is implied in concepts such as importance, authority, influence, and responsibility, which act in the same way as weight. In accordance with weight moving downwards on the scales, and the corresponding arm of the balance moving upwards, so it is in the interrelationship between people in different social positions and in the conceptualization of duty as social or moral weight. The
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conventional metaphors in the following examples show this interaction in terms of an upward or downward movement. He brought his authority to bear on the situation. The weight of responsibility rests with her. She bore her responsibilities well. Whereas he had previously looked up to his professor, he found he could no longer treat him with respect. He brought a sense of gravitas to the proceedings. You mustn’t shrug off your responsibilities.
The evaluative distribution of weight When it comes to how the image schema of weight functions in the emotional domain, however, it is no longer positive. Here weight transfers to negative entities such as burdens, threats, blame, whose heaviness brings or comes down in a negative sense. The following are examples:
There was a threat hanging over us. He’s going to pin the blame on me. The burden of responsibility weighed heavily on her. He felt weighed down by his worries and anxieties.
By contrast, when such weighty entities no longer press down but are lifted, it is this upward movement that is positive in the emotional domain, as in the following examples. She was uplifted by the success of the project. Her heart soared with relief. That’s a load off my mind.
In the second example here, the word ‘relief ’ (from the French lever meaning to lift) further shows the conceptual consistency of the emotional lifting of weight being positive. The differing evaluation of weight in the domains of the rational and the emotional, is further demonstrated in conceptualisations of the imagination. Here, upward movement is not so much a case of the lifting of weight as taking off in flight, as illustrated in the following expression. She was always prone to flights of fancy as a child.
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The evaluative distribution of weight in the three domains of rationality , the emotions and the imagination, conforms to what I call a rhetorical law of gravity (see further, below), whereby rationality is firmly grounded, the emotions move up and down, while the realm of the imagination defies the law of gravity altogether, and takes off into the air. The cultural value of the rational While Lakoff & Johnson’s explanation of cognitive structuring emphasises the role of the imagination, elaborated further in Lakoff & Turner (1989), it is the role of rationality that has traditionally been culturally valued, as witnessed in the objectivist paradigm that Lakoff & Johnson take to task, (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Lakoff 1987, Johnson 1987). In general, the properties involved in the cognitive structuring of rationality extend metaphorically to convey positive evaluation. One key structuring property of rationality is balance, which links in also to the metaphorical distribution of weight discussed above. When used as an adjective, the concept of balance conveys positive evaluation in the rational domain, as in the notion of a ‘balanced judgment’ or a ‘balanced argument’. By contrast, when associated with the irrational or madness, ‘balance’ is used negatively, as in ‘losing the balance’ of one’s mind. The values embodied in the cognitive structuring of rationality are also embedded in intellectual cultural history. This can be seen particularly in relation to the role of balance, discussed in the following section. On balance and rationality in intellectual cultural history As Dascal (2004) points out, the balance metaphor has played a dominant role in conceptions of western rationality. Going back to ancient Greece, a sense of balance, or measure, was highly valued and permeated all aspects of life. Aesthetically, the sense of order and harmony, which we associate with classicism, is witnessed in the symmetry of classical architecture and the well-proportioned bodies of Greek sculpture. Health and wellbeing were associated with a measured or balanced approach to life. In Greek drama, suffering is seen as the result of inordinate, that is immoderate, passion, The sense of proportion was given a mathematical designation in the form of the ‘golden mean’, a ratio of approximately 1:1.6. The mathematical term ‘ratio’ derives in fact from the Latin word for reason, namely ratio, whose form remains extant in the word rationality. Moving forward in intellectual cultural history to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the age of the scientific revolution, the association of balance
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and rationality takes on a different dimension. This relates to the balance as an instrument for measuring weight. The following quote from Leibniz (quoted in Dascal, 2004 :1), illustrates the significance of the association. If we had a balance of reasons, where the arguments presented in favour and against the case were weighed precisely and the verdict could be pronounced in favour of the most inclined scale…[we would have] a more valuable art than that miraculous science of producing gold.
Here it can be seen that the balancing of the scales equates to the correctness of reasoning. This conceptualisation continues in the metaphors of weight and weighing, which have become conventionalised. As was seen in the examples discussed above, these metaphors continue to prevail where judgements or comparisons are made, and rational, or balanced, arguments developed. While weights and measures were extremely important for a major preoccupation at the time, namely weighing up metals and other materials in the alchemical project of creating gold, the concern with human reason, or as was the case at the time, men’s reason only, had also begun to loom large. Descartes’ famous dictum ‘I think therefore I am’ had become the basis for a sense of certainty. What is of interest here is that the understanding of certainty and rationality, which became dominant preoccupations in the Europe of the seventeenth century and developed throughout the period known as the European Enlightenment, remain conceptually structured in a number of conventional metaphorical networks. In conformity with another triumph of the age, namely Newton’s formulation of the law of gravity, I refer to these interlinked networks as a rhetorical law of gravity. The rhetorical law of gravity It is not without interest that Newton, one of Leibniz’s contemporaries, chose the concept of gravity to name his theory of motion. Gravity, derived from the Latin for ‘heavy’, is conceptually related to weight. This further exemplifies the concern for weight and weighing of the time. The rhetorical law of gravity is predominantly structured in conventional metaphors of weight, weighing, a firm base, and downward or upward movement. These metaphorical networks play a substantial part in conceptualizations of knowledge, reasoning, and judgment, and they also uphold what philosophers call epistemological foundationalism (Rorty, 1979). This means that conventional metaphors, used in routine, taken-for-granted expressions, perpetuate a traditional theory of knowledge which is itself no longer routinely accepted (see further discussion below).
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Just as the physical law of gravity keeps us grounded that is, standing firmly on the ground, so the rhetorical law of gravity predominates over our conceptual structuring of knowledge, rationality, and criticism. Standing upright and being ‘stable’ (etymologically cognate with ‘stand’) or balanced, are aspects of our threedimensional experience, aspects which provide us with a certain amount of security especially when we are aware as we are with the experience of astronauts in space that it might be different. We need the force of gravity but we are not aware that we need it. We take it for granted. A similar kind of security accrues to our mental structuring. Our reasoning is ‘good’ if it is grounded, i.e. on a firm base, solid, and stable. Our claims are ‘good’ (whether legal or critical) if they can ‘stand up’. As the conventional expression has it: It stands to reason.
The persuasive force of the phrase ‘it stands to reason’ is as natural as standing itself. It cannot be argued with. The ‘groundedness’ of our physical experience transfers to how we evaluate our claims and judgments. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) see the structuring of theories and arguments in terms of buildings, but buildings are a secondary extension of the basic experience of standing firmly on the ground. Here the physical experience of solidity beneath one’s feet, of standing literally on firm ground extends metaphorically to argument structure. It extends also to the theory of knowledge known as epistemological foundationalism, which the word ‘foundationalism’ itself exhibits. Within this conceptual system both being on a firm base and coming to land on a firm base co-relates with certainty, as in the following conventional metaphorical structures:
CERTAINTY IS DOWN / COMES DOWN Our conclusion is based on … Our success rests on … The reasons for x lie in … The matter was settled. What it comes down to is …
By contrast, when a firm base cannot be relied upon, corresponding metaphors of upward movement or being up in the air convey uncertainty. UNCERTAINTY IS UP / GOES UP We raise doubts or questions. We mount an investigation. A decision has not yet been reached, so everything’s still up in the air.
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A similar sense of not knowing is conveyed gesturally in the upward movement of shrugging one’s shoulders. On solid ground The everyday experience of standing on firm ground enlists a number of geological metaphors, which imply positive evaluation when the ground is firm and negative concepts or evaluation when this is not the case. The following are examples:
FIRM GROUND IS GOOD His argument was on shaky ground. He began to shift his ground. Your theory is ungrounded. He had the ground taken away from him. Her argument was undermined by … The whole theory was built on sand. Their trust was eroded. There was an obvious rift in their relationship.
The experience of firm ground extends metaphorically to related properties such as solidity, whose linked metaphorical networks also convey positive evaluation. The following examples illustrate such a SOLID IS GOOD evaluative structuring, pointed up also in the negative evaluation of its opposite properties, such as flakiness, flimsiness, and straw-like properties, which fail to enable a firm grasp or sound understanding of something. The cognitive structuring of GRASPING IS UNDERSTANDING and SOLID IS GOOD are interlinked. We must make sure the project is on solid foundations. The article was solidly researched. She has a solid grasp of all the issues. The substantive issue is …
The following examples relate to experiences where solidity is lacking:
He didn’t have a shred of evidence. She was clutching at straws. He gave a rather flimsy account. Her understanding of the project was a bit flaky.
The systematicity of conventional metaphors structuring the values of epistemological foundationalism works in the same way as the gravitational pull on our bodies. We remain grounded and secure in our footing. This suggests then that the
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experience of our bodies on the earth is the preconceptual source for the cognitive structuring of knowing and not knowing in the domain of rationality and for the evaluative structuring of the division of labour between the mind, the emotions, and the imagination. Metaphor and changing critical cultures We are unaware of the determining function of gravity in our lives. We feel that the earth is fixed and that we are in control of our own movements. The effects of gravity have a first order naturalness for us. We can operate very well from day to day without knowing precisely how the law of gravity functions. This sense of ‘natural’ is similar to that of ‘neutrality’ in rational discourse. We have a sense of there being a ‘neutral’ vocabulary, which we use to convey our arguments and judgments. However, this vocabulary is not neutral. The sense of neutrality is a rhetorical effect of the evaluations of weight, balance, stability and so on that are cognitively structured through numerous interlocking conventional metaphors. Pointing out the evaluative ordering of cognitive structuring induces a critical awareness of it and opens up the possibility of new evaluations. Lakoff & Johnson (1980) have also alluded to the possibility of changing dominant conceptual metaphors by suggesting, for example, thinking of argument as a dance instead of war. Critical discourse analysts also often use metaphor analysis as a source of their critique. Fairclough (1989 :120) for example critiques the use of the cancer metaphor in a newspaper commenting on the social context of riots spreading from England to Scotland. Chilton (1985) critiques the metaphors frequently used in the nuclear arms debate. The ethos of critical distance of standing back and weighing things up, is the prototypical position of the ‘objectivist’ paradigm which Lakoff & Johnson critique for its conceptualisation of semantics. However, while we may be able to critique the objectivist paradigm for its explanation of semantics, our bodily experience of three-dimensional space and the rhetorical law of gravity, which it structures, provide the dominant lexical resources of critique. We then have the paradoxical position of critiquing a paradigm with the semantic resources already structured within that paradigm. In other words, the epistemological assumptions of the paradigm are embedded in the lexical semantics. This is an example of what Schön (1979) and Reddy (1979) call ‘frame conflict’. We are compelled to use the semantic structuring embedded within the lexical resources of English, because we cannot with one fell swoop throw them out. As with Reddy’s (1979) analysis of the conduit metaphor for communication, whose dominance of our metalingual resources can lead to a diminished understanding of what communication entails, the multiple metaphorical networks of the ‘rhetorical law of gravity’ continue to purport an
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epistemological foundationalism and a conception of reason that contemporary critical theorising is taking issue with. From this perspective we can understand the postmodernist ploy of jouissance, revelling in playing with the language, finding puns, undercutting standard norms of exposition and critique. Critiques of ‘western’ reason and traditional epistemologies have been made in the work of several contemporary philosophers from their varying perspectives. For example, Lloyd (1984) sees the history of western reason as male dominated and masculinist, Nagel (1986) talks of its ‘view from nowhere’, Rorty (1979) refers to its belief in ‘mirroring nature’, and particularly in the case of scientific rationality, Code (1995) critiques its ‘colonising of rhetorical space’. To some extent, even at the level of their own critical vocabulary, these theories work within the same conceptual ordering. The critical methodology of ‘deconstruction’ is one example. However, a shift in source domains for the rhetorical structuring of critique may also be seen. One proliferating source domain, available in different critical discourses is that of language itself, specifically speech. For example, in his characterisation of the history of cultural change as a history of metaphor the philosopher Richard Rorty (1989) has characterised the cultural changes as changes in vocabulary, whether it be the change from speaking ‘Aristotelian’ to speaking ‘Galilean’, from writing poetry in the idiom of Blake to writing in the idiom of Yeats, or from ‘speaking Neanderthal to speaking postmodern’. The Bakhtinian concept of dialogism (Holquist, 1990, Bakhtin, 1981) for example and his notion of speech genres (Bakhtin, 1986) have gained widespread currency in a number of disciplines. The hermeneutic philosopher Gadamer espoused the virtues of the Socratic dialogue and this has been taken forward by Habermas (1984) in his notion of communicative rationality. Corradi-Fiumara (Corradi-Fiumara, 1990)wants to turn the logocentric western tradition around from a focus on speech to one of listening. At the level of everyday commentary in academic contexts, the domain of sound is affording metaphors which are becoming more common. For example, we often hear people talk of meaningfulness in terms of sound, as in: What resonates for me is … I hear what you’re saying. [when what is referred to is not the literal auditory
function]
It is possible that new sets of conventional metaphors will emerge around this auditory domain. It is interesting to note, that in the electronic world, which is not based on principles of Newtonian mechanics, we have moved from the land to the sea for our metaphors. We no longer stand on firm ground, but navigate or surf to our specific knowledge or web-sites. Traditionally, the sea has been a source for the cognitive structuring of the emotions rather than the search for knowledge. As its
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etymology attests, the emotions are associated with mobility, with movement, rather than with the fixity and certainty of knowledge. We talk of the ebb and flow of emotions, surges of excitement, ripples of laughter and waves of anger. These metaphors of language and sound, as well as those of liquid motion, emphasise the dynamic rather than the static, flux rather than fixity, change rather than permanence. These are also attributes of the contemporary experience of life, and it is perhaps not surprising that contemporary intellectual endeavour chooses its conceptual ordering from ‘fluid’ rather than ‘solid’ domains. The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (2000) for example has coined the term ‘liquid modernity’ to refer to the contemporary experience of life. An economist (Coyle, 1997) has put forward the notion of a ‘weightless’ economy as a positive working concept for understanding economic systems in late modernity. Even in cognitive semantics, the metaphor of ‘blending’, with its notion of crossing boundaries, subscribes to this contemporary conceptual culture. It seems that across academic disciplines, intellectual effort is focussed on movement, on change, on flows, on crossing boundaries. It remains to be seen whether semantic shifts on existing lexis follow changes in our conceptions of knowledge and learning and whether the predominance of weight for our structuring of judgement and of ‘standing on firm ground’ for our structuring of certainty remain. References Atkinson, D. (1997). A Critical Approach to Critical Thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 71–94. Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogical Imagination. In M. Holquist (Ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity. Bolinger, D. (1975). Aspects of Language. Second Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Benesch, S. (1999). Thinking Critically, Thinking Dialogically. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 573–580. Corradi-Fiumara, G. (1990). The Other Side of Language. A Philosophy of Listening. London: Routledge. Chilton, P. (Ed.) (1985). Language and the Nuclear Arms Debate: nukespeak today. London: Francis Pinter. Code, L. (1995). Rhetorical Spaces. London: Routledge. Coyle, D. (1997). The Weightless World. London: Capstone. Dascal, M. (2004). The balance of reason. In D. Vanderveken (Ed.), Logic, Thought, and Action (pp. 1–21). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press. English, F. (1999). What do students really say in their essays? Towards a descriptive framework for analysing student writing. In C. Jones, J. Turner & B. Street (Eds.), Students writing in the university. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Joan Turner Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. (1996). A reply to Henry Widdowson’s “Discourse analysis: a critical view. ” Language and Literature, 5(1), 49–56. Gieve, S. (1998). Comments on Dwight Atkinson’s “A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL.” A Reader Reacts... In The Forum. TESOL Quarterly, 32, 123–129. Habermas, J. (1984). Theory of Communicative Action. [translated by Thomas McCarthy]. Vol.1, Reason and the rationalization of society. Cambridge: Polity. Holquist, M. (1990). Dialogism. Bakhtin and his World. London: Routledge. Jin, L. & M. Cortazzi (1998). Expectations and questions in intercultural classrooms. In Berendt (Ed.), Learning East and West. A special issue of Intercultural Communication Studies. Vol. VII, 2: 37–62. Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. & M. Turner (1989). More than Cool Reason. A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York: Basic Books. Lloyd, G. (1984). The Man of Reason. London: Routledge. Nagel, T. (1986). A View From Nowhere. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nakane, C. (1970). Japanese Society. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Nattinger, J.R. & J.S. DeCarrico (1992). Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Onions, C.T. (Ed.) (1966). The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ortony, A. (Ed.) (1979). Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reddy, M.J. (1979). The Conduit Metaphor ‑ a Case of Conflict in our Language about Language. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (pp. 284–324). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rorty, R. (1979). Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Rorty, R. (1989). Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schön, D. (1979). Generative Metaphor: A Perspective on Problem Setting in Social Policy. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (pp. 254–283). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Taylor, W. (1984). Metaphors of Education. London: Heinemann. Toolan, M. (1997). What is critical discourse analysis and why are people saying such terrible things about it? Language and Literature, 6(2), 83–103. Turner, M. (1987). Death is the Mother of Beauty. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Turner, J. (1998). Turns of Phrase and Routes to Learning: The Journey Metaphor in Educational Culture. In Berendt (Ed.), Learning East and West. A special issue of Intercultural Communication Studies. Vol. VII, 2, 23–36. Turner, J. & M.K. Hiraga (2003). Misunderstanding Teaching and Learning. In: J. House, G. Kasper & S. Ross (Eds.), Misunderstanding in social life. Discourse approaches to problematic talk (pp. 151–169). Harlow, UK: Longman/Pearson Education. Widdowson, H. (1995). Discourse analysis: a critical view. Language and Literature, 4(3), 157–172. Widdowson, H. (1996). Reply to Fairclough: Discourse and interpretation: conjecture and refutations. Language and Literature, 5(1), 57–70.
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese Keiiti Yamanaka
Toyo University, Tokyo This paper is an historical sketch of how Japanese poetics came to possess a theory of tropes. Tropes as they are conceived of, however, were significantly compromised by traditional Japanese poetic practice. Metaphor was highly regarded but only in its superficial affinity with certain types of puns. Metonymy remained practically unknown despite the fact that it played a salient role in Japanese waka poetry and through this prestigious art pervaded other verbal and nonverbal sign systems. Western rhetoric, first introduced in the 1870s as a prerequisite for renovating Japan’s political climate, succeeded in rectifying the inadequacy, but the “logocentrism” it represented failed to take root in Japanese culture in which tacit communication is as articulate and effective as expressed words.
Keywords: Japanese poetics, tropes, metaphor, metonymy, puns Introduction Probably metaphor, together with its sister category simile, belongs among the basic set of metalinguistic vocabulary in any culture, but how it is conceptualized and how it is valorized seem to vary form one culture to another. European poetics, for example, drew heavily on metaphor as one of the most fundamental sources of creativity, whereas Japanese short poems waka preferred more obvious puns and other ornaments to metaphor, and haiku was even hostile to it. In view of such idiosyncracies, this paper traces the notion of figurative language in Japanese poetics, how poetic practice affected metalinguistic percepts and consequently how much the Japanese tropology as a whole, and especially how the notion of metaphor came to diverge in their emphasis from that in the model. It will also be revealed that, misled by more obvious figures and tropes, the native Japanese poetics failed to identify some such basic conceptualizing processes as metonymy, metalepsis and conceptual metaphor despite the fact that the last two, with a little garbled predilection, were principal devices that characterized the poetic exploitation
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of verbal and conceptual resources in the history of waka. Mention will be also made in the last section that, in an effort to provide a cogent and systematic material to educate the young, a concerted effort was made in Japan towards the turn of the nineteenth century to introduce and naturalize the Graeco-Roman theory of rhetoric both in its literary and declamatory aspects and that, though the movement was quite short-lived, this model eventually ousted the native discourse on poetic devices and, more importantly, transformed itself and shaped the framework for teaching writing in the intermediate level of education. Chinese model of tropology It is attested that the Greek word metaphorá first appeared in Isocrates’ Evagoras singly (Stanford 1972: 3), but its Chinese counterpart xīng 興, together with fù 賦 and bĭ 比 came in a complete triplet in Mao Heng’s commentary (c.150 B.C.) on Shijing (The Book of Songs). Fù is defined as “a straightforward expression”, while bĭ “compares one thing to another” and xīng “ascribes meaning to a thing”. These definitions look quite all right as far as they go, but next comes an unfortunate step that he relegated these three modes of meaning to the same category as poetic genres fēng 諷 ‘airs’, yā 雅 ‘odes’ and sòng 頌 ‘hymns’ under discussion. This circumstance, compounded by the equivocal naming of the superordinate category as lìuyì 六義 ‘six principles of poetry’, opened a long dispute over its interpretation: whether it referred to six genres or styles of poetry, or to six types of meaning, or, as my description has already presumed, whether it did not actually subsume two disparate subcategories of form and of meaning. Modern interpretations naturally gravitate towards the last one, but we have to further take into account that the notions of genres and modes of meaning were also slightly different in their defining features from what we presume. Genres, as in the case of the Virgilian wheel, are supposed to have correlated in ancient China with subject matters, poets’ social statuses, types of accompanying music as well as with poetic forms – a situation that would compromise modern interpretation. Taken as comprising an independent category, the three semantic types appear to parallel the distinctions familiar to us, but we cannot fail to notice that comparison or simile, which in most cases is structurally definable, looks out of place when set beside a literal/metaphorical dichotomy. In order to come to terms with this apparent inconsistency, we would have to surmise that the semantic transfer identified by xīng was most probably considered as resulting from coupling between poetic lines, traditionally regarded as the ultimate source of beauty in verse, rather than independently in linguistic expressions in general.
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Frequently cited examples for xīng are parallel couplets as in “The Ospreys Cry” (Shijing 1) in which the first descriptive couplet stands as an iconic premise for analogical reasoning in the second;
Guānguān suēijiōu Zài hé zhi zhōu Yăotiăo shúnü Jünzi hăoqióu
“Fair, fair,” cry the ospreys On the island in the river. Lovely is this noble lady, Fair bride for our lord. (Tr. by A. Waley, The Book of Songs, 5)
Bĭ, on the other hand, was evidently understood at the time of Liu Xie as comparisons supplied with explicit verbal markers (Liu [1978: 492]). It will be clear that in this context, and in this context only, the three-modal approach can be construed as having a descriptive value: poetic lines are either figureless or figurative, and the latter type of constitution can be classified into couplings by analogy or those by conceptual affinity. But the fact remains that descriptive terms, once introduced into a metalanguage, continue to subsume later findings, newer interpretations and theoretical modifications. In the Han period, yù 喩 ‘figurative meaning’ was added in order to specifically refer to figuratively elicited meaning, cases of blending between comparison (bĭ) and metaphor (xīng) were known, and comparison itself was more precisely divided into several subtypes according to their target of comparison, viz. similes based on shapes, functions, sounds, conceptual affinity, etc. (Liu [1978: 493ff.]) In spite of these developments, however, the six style theory itself survived until meaning and genre were clearly demarcated in the Sung period and the tripartite metaphorics was superceded by a more precise and amplified ten types of tropes in Chen Gui’s Wenze (Rules of Writing). Chen’s typology is surprisingly similar to what we see in theory of figures, and likewise flawed by confusion of their underlying logic, surface variations and functional differences. He lists simile (zhīyù 直喩), metaphor (yĭnyù 隠喩), extended metaphor (lèiyù 類喩), rhetorical question (jíyù 詰喩), analogy followed by an explanation (dùiyù 対喩), multiple metaphors (bóyù 博喩), proverb (jiănyù 簡 喩), elaborated metaphor (xiángyù 詳喩), allusion (yĭnyù 引喩), and tacit metaphor (xūyù 虚喩)(Wang ed. 1968: 7–8; Simamura 1902: 297–8). Bóyù is defined as using several different metaphors to make a point, and tacit metaphor refers to the normal collocational metaphor in which the source domain is only implied as in “He drifted around aimlessly”. This classification is very detailed but it amounts, theoretically, to having identified six types of tropes and figures: simile, metaphor, rhetorical question, proverb, analogy, and allusion. Regrettably, their mutual relations are left unexplored and the rest are either subtypes or particular uses of metaphors. Another drawback is that he proceeds by enumeration without ever
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clarifying the principles of classification to make it a viable theory of tropes. Crude as it was, this list was a definite advance over lìuyì, evidently much more helpful in analyzing and describing literary texts. It does not seem, however, to have attained to the prestige lìuyì theory enjoyed, and as we will see later, it yielded so quickly to the Graeco-Roman rhetorical model in the nineteenth century and, as a matter of historical fact, Japanese poetics had already had an unfortunate beginning before this classification came onto the scene. Japanese attempts at assimilation When the Japanese language was in its preliterate infancy, China had already had a millenary history of high literature. Since the dawn of Japanese history, in consequence, Chinese was the language of prestige, and it was also the only means of recording for the Japanese until the beginning of the eighth century, when Chinese ideograms were turned to phonetic use in order to transcribe the vernacular. For nearly two centuries thereafter, during which far more simplified syllabaries were gradually in the making, writing and recording remained a privilege of the learned and the aristocracy, and predominantly a male affair. Four major manuscripts appeared in the first half of the eighth century in the forms of a transcript of mythology that for long had been orally transmitted (Koziki, 712), an official chronicle of Japan (Nihonsyoki, 720, in Chinese), an anthology of poems written by the Japanese in the Chinese language (Kaihūsō, 751), and a private anthology of native waka poems (Man’yōsyū, c. 764). The last-named collection of poems the Man’yōsyū (The Ten Thousand Leaves), comprising from very archaic rhymes composed probably in the beginning of the third century to much later pieces of incomparable perfection, seems to span a centuries-long process of canonizing Japanese verse, waka, during which ditches, work songs, ritual formulas and recitations came into contact with Chinese poetry, being practiced side by side, and strove to establish its own purist canons. All the while, and even until much later, poetry (siika) for the Japanese stood for two categories of poems composed either in Chinese (si) or those in the vernacular (-ka or uta). 1 This bit of literary history is necessary in order to understand that the introduction of Chinese poetics into Japan necessarily took two disparate forms: as a manual of versification in Chinese on the one hand, and as its adaptation to native 1. As late as the turn of the sixteenth century a Chinese loan word was first playfully allowed into link verse in the waka tradition. The earliest attested use was by a renga poet Sōgi (1421-1502) and by definition it marked the beginning of an entirely new genre haikai no renga ‘humorous link verse’ later to be known as haikai.
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poetry on the other. The best-known attempts of the first type are unquestionably Kūkai’s Bunkyō Hihuron (A Treasury of Precepts and Models of Versification, c. 818) and its compendium (820). His chapter on lìuyì is an eclectic overview adducing copiously from Han commentators (Kūkai [1986]:175ff.) and, as will be clear from the order of description fēng, fù, bĭ, xīng, yā and sòng in which odes (yā) and hymns (sòng) are deferred to the end, his position strongly reflects the six style interpretation of the period with no special focus on the modes of signification whatsoever. In addition, the method of definition favored at the time, which proceeded by rhymes rather than by higher order synonymy, obscures the whole point: fù, for example is defined as bù 敷 ‘array’ and sòng as zàn 讃 ‘praise’. The earliest theorizing on Japanese native poetry started with Huziwara no Hamanari’s Kakyō Hyōsiki (A Formulary for Verse, 772) compiled at the imperial order. This short treatise has been regarded as a total failure unworthy of any serious consideration, a hasty and uncritical attempt at applying Chinese theory of verse and prosody to an entirely different language and alien poetic practice (Yamada 1952: 74). It is true that the exposition is often enigmatic and his list of “maladies in versification” appears to be a futile attempt at finding Japanese analogues to Chinese precepts. He was evidently on the right track, however, when he sought to capture the distinctive property of waka poetry in its convoluted, embedding structure rather than just mimicking the Chinese insistence on the importance of parallelism as the source of verbal beauty. He takes up the following song for his discussion: (1)
あづさゆみ引津の辺なるなのりその花咲くまでに君に逢はぬかも Adusa-yumi As a catalpa bow is long, Fikitu no fe naru So must I longing live on Naoriso no Seeing you not again Fana saku made ni Till the gulfweed goes a-bloom2 Kimi ni afanu kamo. Along the shore of Hikitu? (The Man’yōsyū, x. 930)3
2. Nanoriso ‘sargassum’, translated here as gulfweed was a favorite word among poets because of its etymological meaning ‘tell me not your name.’ As it bears no flowers, fana saku ‘bloom’ in this poem has been taken to stand for the berrylike air sacks it grows. We moderns, however, are perverse enough to sense an emphatic negation in the passage. The last line is given in the form Afanu kimi kamo in the original Manyōsyū. 3. In the above and the following transcription of old Japanese in the poetic text, and in that case only, is used to cover the putative series of historical shift p>Ф>f>h and various positional variants.
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The initial phrase adusa-yumi (‘a catalpa bow’), a worn-out epithet known as a pillow word, has a semblance of a modifier but it can either modify like Greek epithets did or stand in an echoing apposition as here. Either way, its primary function, and crucial difference from the epithet, is to herald the following word or expression often at the expense of its semantic content and coherence. In the above example, adusa-yumi functions as a phonetic prelude to the following Fikitu no fe (‘along the shore of Fikitu’) by virtue of the frequent collocation yumi fiku ‘to draw a bow’. More precisely, this is not a pun, which involves double meanings, nor a paronomasia, which involves two or more similar sound patterns, but a sort of implicit pun that works on an implied shape of a word. Considering that such words or sound shapes as fiku ‘to draw’, faru ‘the spring; to pull taut’, oto ‘sound’, yoru ‘night; to bend’, tatu ‘to stand’, etc. were habitual companies of adusa-yumi, it is clear that association by syntactic contiguity makes the source of implication. Hamanari tries to capture the structural essence of the language of waka in this peculiar usage which sometimes extends over two or three lines out of a mere five by iterative embedding. His complex analytical apparatus consists of the following three sets of binary terms: Signifier (nōken4 能顕) = literal; new content Signified (syoken 所顕) = figurative; archaism
As long as a pillow word is understood as an archaism and a signifier, it is impossible to make sense of this formulation. It appears to be more reasonable to consider that the author is actually trying to distinguish by the pair of terms “signifier/ signified” two different modes of signification, integrative and crafted, instead of form and content5. This interpretation tallies with his division of the language of poetry into figurative and literal elements, and also with the fact that the crafted mode of signification as in (1), which he analyzes as arising from the interaction between a modifying archaism and its modification, is named figurative (yu 喩). No later theories have paid attention to this interplay of structure and meaning but concentrated on the phonetic and collocational aspects of poetic artifice rather than on meaning. Mention is first made of rikugi 六義 in the Chinese postscript by Ki no Yosimoti to the imperial anthology Kokin Wakasyū (A.D. 905). The text roughly parallels Ki no Turayuki’s famed preface in Japanese to the same collection, which is generally acclaimed as a succinct and mature formulation of Japanese poetic tenets 4. Also read yoku arawasu, and the following syoken as arawasu tokoro. Cf. Okimori, Sato et al. 1993: 186ff. 5. Huzii (1987: 150) points out that the opposition archaism/new content rather than real/figurative is central to Hamanari’s reasoning.
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and a balanced appraisal of waka poets before him. Turayuki’s wording, however, is so vague that it is quite difficult to tell if he is also referring to the rikugi theory or not. He appears to follow suit both in the order of description and definitions given: “In general, there are six styles in poetry. So it seems in Tang poetry. The first of the six kinds is iconic poems (soe-uta), the second is counting poems (kazoe-uta), the third is analogical poems (nazurae-uta), the fourth is allegorical poems (tatoe-uta), the fifth is poems of straightforward wording (tadagoto-uta), and the sixth is festive poems (iwai-uta).” The author deviates so much from the original formulation of lìuyì or from Yosimoti’s interpretation that some critics believe he is urging an entirely new theory on poetic genres. There are reasons, however, to suppose that he is only trying to transpose lìuyì into waka poetics in his own way.6 In so doing, he blindly follows the precedence that gave, quite misleadingly, the osprey poem as an example of fēng and settle on a similar allegorical piece that celebrates the reign of the Emperor Nintoku by addressing the cherry blossom, and as a result makes the distinction between soe-uta (fēng) and the fourth category tatoe-uta (xīng) nearly vacuous. Another problem is the second kazoe-uta which bears no resemblance to fù in the original nor to any other, and various attempts have since been made to comprehend this enigmatic category by straining the meaning of kazoeru, by referring back to the basic lexical meaning of fù in Chinese, and so on. The example Turayuki gave was the following. (2)
咲く花に思ひつくみのあぢきなさ 身にいたづきのいるも知らずて Saku fana ni How woeful is he Omofi tuku mi no Whose mind attaches to blossoms Adikinasa When unnoticed his body Mi ni itaduki no Ails from a hopeless illness. Iru mo sirazu te. (Siga no Kuronusi)
What in this poem deserves to be called kazoeru which normally means ‘to count’, ‘to list’, or very rarely ‘to recite’ is really mystifying. A clue to understanding this strange nomenclature probably lies in Saeki’s commentary that there is a hypogram tugumi ‘a thrush’ in the second line (this is possible because kana syllabary at the time did not use a diacritic to distinguish voiced consonants from their unvoiced counterparts) and a pun between itaduki ‘an illness’ and itatuki ‘a blunt arrowhead’ in the fourth line (Saeki ed. 1981: 12). Considering, however, that the latter is actually a case of ordinary lexical 6. Explicit mention of Tang poetry in the text is one, and the Chinese version of the preface, although by the hand of another poet, actually uses the word lìuyì in the corresponding passage and lists the styles in the order fēng, fù, bĭ, xīng, yā and sòng. More than anything, the six styles listed parallel lìuyì except in a few cases.
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homonymity (itaduki/itatuki ‘an illness/an arrowhead’), it seems much more reasonable to point out, together with the thrush anagram, the poetic diction tadu ‘a crane’ hidden in the same word and adi ‘a wild duck of the species anas formosa’ in the third line, and suppose that by his “counting” rhymes Turayuki was trying to refer to poems with aligned hypograms as collected in the tenth volume of the same anthology under the name mono no na ‘anagrams’. This interpretation is fully compatible with a normal use of the word kazoeru7 and it will probably explain why the author had to illustrate with such a clumsy poem. In sum, it appears that he was not simply applying lìuyì to waka poetry, but was trying, apparently under the influence of this model, to overcome the conventional classification of poetry based on its subject matter. It was a halfway attempt without paying due attention to such familiar genres as personal exchanges, allegorical poems and nonsense poems since the time of the Man’yōsyū, nor was this theoretical classification strictly followed in editing the Kokinsyū. He did equip posterity, however, with three technical terms soeru, nazuraeru and tatoeru. Indeed author after author refer to the rikugi theory in almost ritualistic regularity but little progress is to be seen either in deepening insight into the workings of tropes nor in acquiring more precise means of description. Only in the fourteenth century do we encounter a trace of independent thinking that “although fēng, bĭ and xīng all compare one thing to another, it is for fēng to compare content to content, bĭ form to form and xīng compares but at the same time distinguishes the two objects. This is an important point to make.” (Asayama, Tyōtansyō,1390) This distinction is in a way quite incisive but there is no doubt now that for some reason or other the interpretation of rikugi since Hamanari and Turayuki gradually shifted into a semantically biased theory of poetic genres in default of corresponding stylistic differentiations in waka poetry. The initial nudge into this direction might have occurred long before Hamanari in China, prompted most probably by the fact that the classical commentary gave a piece of fēng poetry to illustrate xīng, but it is impossible to track down when and by whom. At any rate, fēng eventually came to be construed as standing for allegory, a kind of metaphor that does not have any disjointed syntax discernible, bĭ and xīng narrowed down their meaning to what we are now accustomed to think of as simile and metaphor, and the series of shifts affected other terms fù and yā until they were interpreted in many arbitrary manners. In this way, rikugi theory in Japan led nowhere in its history of several hundred years; it apparently remained an heirloom in the classics, rather 7. This interpretation is supported by recent editions of the Kokinsyu and also by the annotation to the Syui Wakasyu (c. 1005) in which the poem is officially included. The annotator of the latter refers to the existence of the three hypogramatized bird names as well as the pun in itaduki ‘(to have) an ailment/a flat-headed arrow’ and the double meaning elicited by the collocation (=engo) between itaduki and iru ‘to have/to shoot’ (Komatiya ed. Syūi Wakasyū 1990: 115).
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than a theory that can be contested or modified, something that ought to be treated with deference. In practical areas, on the other hand, much freer and cumulative endeavors were made to conceptualize meaning-related artifices in poetry. The first trait of such a development can be observed in the anthology Man’yōshū itself. Along with personal exchanges, journey poems, laments and so forth classified according to their subject matters, there are such characteristic categories as allegorical poems (hiyu no uta8 譬喩の歌), sincere expression of sentiment (seizyutu sinsyo 正述心 緒), contemplation on an object (kibutu tinsi 寄物陳思) and nonsense poems (musin syozyaku 無心所着), the first three of which evidently hark back, notionally, to xīng, fù, and bĭ respectively. Ever since Turayuki formulated waka poetics in native Japanese, however, such foreignisms were discarded almost completely after him and authors of poetics and manuals for versification started to articulate their aesthetic in their own language. Only the word hiyu 譬喩, 比喩 remains today as a cover term for analogical figures in general. (As we will see later, yì 義 [J. gi] ‘meaning’, bĭ 比[J. hi] ‘comparison’, yù 喩[J. yu] ‘figurative meaning, trope’ were to be used extensively as formative elements in translating rhetorical terms of the West at the close of the nineteenth century.) Poetry hostile to metaphor? In this way waka, not only famously very short, places a special value on playful witticism, and makes the most of puns at the expense of more profound devices like metaphor and metonymy. We have already seen that the pillow word has a strong tinge of double meaning, but excessive partiality for puns, both lexical and syntactic, was carried to such an extent that the word for excellent poem (syūku) stood for pun at the same time. In consequence, punning (kakekotoba) and the employment of paradigmatically and syntagmatically associated words (en no kotoba, engo) as a nearly canonic constitutive device became the two staples of poetic composition. As we have already seen with the pillow word adusa-yumi (\fik-/), puns are a device based on homonymity so that two or more senses overlap in a context, while engo, variously called as en no zi, yose, kakeai, and kotoba no tayori, is a consistent use of associated words in every two adjacent lines “so as to
8. This term hiyu is a borrowing from pìyù in Chinese, which originally meant a parable or analogy, first used in Mao’s Preface to Shijing in defining fù: “all that does not use pìyù is fù.”
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make a poem sonorous and flow smoothly.”9 Tameie’s Eiga no Ittai [A Style of Poetic Composition], for instance, recommends use of tatu ‘to tailor’, kiru ‘to wear’, and ura ‘a lining’ in association with koromo ‘robes’. Since the two techniques can be employed each by itself or in combination, the resulting product can sometimes be very intricate; strands of overt and covert meanings, referential and ornamental phrases wrought all together. A typical example will be the following poem which appears both in the Kokinsyū and the Tales of Ise (given below together with a very ingenious translation by Bownas & Thwaite): (3)
唐衣きつつなれにしつましあれば はるばるきぬる旅をしぞ思ふ Kara-koromo In the capital is the one I love, like Kitutu narenisi Robes of stuff so precious, yet now threadbare. Tuma si areba I have come far on this journey, Farubaru kinuru Sad and tearful are my thoughts. Tabi wo si zo omofu. (The Kokinsyū, ix. 410)
This is an acrostic extemporized in response to the request that the poet make a travel poem, each line beginning with the syllables of kakitubata ‘an iris’. The initial kara-koromo ‘dressy robes’ (etymologically, ‘Chinese-style robes’) is an epithetic formula on a collocational basis that prepares for ki- ‘to wear’ in the following line, but the false lead continues on by virtue of collocates narenisi ‘worn old’, and tuma ‘the hemline’ until the third line: literally ‘as I have dressy robes worn out in the hemline’. However, the content of the remaining lines ‘with a longing for home do I marvel how far I have come on this journey’ does not cohere with this reading so that narenisi and tuma in the prelude have to be retrogressively recanted in their interpretation as meaning ‘so dear/worn out’ and ‘my wife/the hemline’ respectively. The association series of koromo further includes submorphemic faru- ‘to smooth out a wrinkle’ in farubaru ‘on a journey far’ and ki- ‘to wear’ in kinuru ‘have come’ on the fourth line. They may be functional as engo in intensifying the affinity of meaning across the employed diction, but nonfunctional as puns as they are interpreted progressively as ‘on a journey afar’ and ‘I have come’ only with a lingering sense of the other meanings. It may appear that such technical sophistication is adverse to poetic sensitivity and it actually testifies to a certain loss of expressive energy that used to characterize 9. We have already seen how engo activates a pillow word. This device has no analogues in English. The fact that both verbs and a noun are given as examples suggests that the term “schema” might be an equivalent of this category. Because such nominals are invariably partonyms of the source noun, however, it is reasonable to think that medieval poets considered them to be a case of words associated through the genitive like koromo no ura ‘the lining of a robe’. The closest English equivalent to engo that I can think of is “collocates” or “collocables”.
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese
earlier lyrical efforts. But praxis constrains metalanguage, and it was on this basis that later theorizing was attempted on tropes in general. Japanese tropology It is extremely difficult to give an overview of what medieval tropology in Japan was really like. Different terms are used in the same sense and one and the same term stands for disparate concepts. The reason can be attributed to linear transmission of art and knowledge characteristic of the time, but, summing up several works on poetics in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we can see that figures, together with conventional poetic topoi (uta-makura), constituted two major topics in the discourse on the language of poetry.10 Core concepts that can be derived from multiplex correspondences between concrete examples and terminology seem to be four: puns (kake[kotoba]), association of ideas (yose), analogy (tatoe, nazurae), collocationally associated words (engo) and metaphor (soe). Apart from the editorial rubric hiyu no uta ‘allegorical poems’ in the Man’yōsyū, only Waka Taikō (A Synopsis of the Art of Poetry, 1504), an anonymous booklet written in the sixteenth century, discusses allegory (kikisire) in its explicit and implicit significations (ufe-sita). The resulting conceptual map can be probably summarized as follows:
syūku (figures)
kake
Puns in their complete, incomplete and tacit varieties; constructional puns
engo
Word association by contiguity as in kawa ‘a river’ – nagaru ‘flows’; poetic combination as between siduhata ‘a rustic loom [weave]’ – hito ‘my loved one’
yose
Association of ideas as in “sky – moon”
tatoe
Analogy (naming metaphor and simile) as in tuyu ‘dews’ and tama ‘pearls’; amata ‘a great many’ and masago ‘the grains of sand’
soe
Collocational metaphor as in takitu kokoro ‘gushing love’, kuyuru kofi ‘smothering love’
kikisire
Allegory
10. They used to talk of conception and form in poetry and the latter was discussed from the angles of language (kotoba) and style (sugata). If we may resort to rhetorical terms, the former roughly subsumes figures and topoi and the latter modes (katai) and cohesion (tudukegara). The most outstanding feature of Japanese poetics (karon) is that, quite understandably from the development and popularity of link verse, the component of cohesion which subsumed association of words (engo, tukeaigo) and stanza connection (tukeai) swelled up and eventually developed into an independent body of discourse on linked verse (rengaron) and numerous lexicons of poetic association of words.
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Even this simplified version, eliminated of many contradictions and overlaps in details, will make clear that the scheme noticeably differs from the Western viewpoint. There is not much difference in the facts of language, but they are categorized in a different way. One language-specific feature is analogy whose markers in the Japanese language have the aspectual opposition typically to be represented by to miyu ‘to look like’ and to miru ‘to see something as’. The latter, transitive use gradually detaches itself from a variety of similarity apperceptions and comes to represent a sort of feigned aestheticism, an analogy for the sake of analogy later to be named mitate ‘seeing as’, in which the source domain is mostly sought in shared knowledge on classic art and literature. But a much greater difference lies in its basic orientation. As we have already touched on, Japanese poetry is characterized by its extraordinary penchant for layered structure and multiple meanings since the Heian period. Pun in all its varieties is a good example but allegory and metaphor were also appreciated from the angle of structural homonymity rather than for their aptness. More often than not, linguistic contingencies motivated these sublimations of meaning than did factual and ontological isomorphism. A good example will be the following poem in the Man’yōsyū prefaced as a “poem by a maiden in response to one sent to her by Saeki Akamaro”: (4)
ちはやぶる神の社しなかりせば 春日の野辺に粟蒔かましを Tifayaburu If only the shrine Kami no yasiro si of the raging god Nakariseba were not there, Kasuga no nofe ni I would sow my millet Afa makamasi wo. On the field of Kasuga. (The Man’yōsyū ii. 404, Tr. by I.H. Levy)
This is a maiden’s riposte to advances made by an elderly nobleman, which is known for its witticism afa makamasi wo ‘I would sow my millet’ possible to be construed, by metanalysis, as afamakamasi wo ‘I wish I could see you, milord’. The pun affords the entire poem with two readings and the latter interpretation hinges on the referential metaphor in “the raging god” (more literally ‘the dignified shrine of god’) easily identifiable as referring to the noble’s wife. But the gist of the matter is that metaphor is subservient to syntactic pun both in production and in reception. It seems that this factor had an extensive consequence on the nature of theoretical language. Viewed from the point of double meaning, easy and transparent metaphors have a reason to be preferred to more abstruse ones. In this respect, imagistic, identity metaphors with the structure A IS B were more to the poets’ taste than were structural metaphors whose sources are hard to identify and, when identified,
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese
it often happens that they are only categorically given. Even allegories tended to center around such hackneyed topics as the glory of the ruler, feminine beauty and love. It will be appropriate here to adduce a seemingly contradictory practice in waka that general terms such as flower (fana), person (fito), bird (tori), etc. were recommended for use rather than basic level terms like cherry blossoms, my love, a snipe and so on. There are sources to prove that this mystification was intended for the reason that “it gives more pleasure not to instantly know what they are about” (See Yamanaka 2003: 184ff.). So it is not probably sufficient to point out that the tropology in waka poetics centered on double meaning. A better generalization will be to say that waka was a verbal art which aspired to create a shared linguistic space in which a modest refraction of meaning, a short detour to full revelation was the crux of all devices. Metonymy deserves special mention here for two reasons. Firstly, pervasiveness of the device, especially its subtype metalepsis which is based on a causal chain, apparently owes its popularity to its riddling effect. Such phrases as “my sleeves are wet,” “the moon looks glazed” look observational at first sight, but they are capable of giving the readers a flattering sense of discovery when they could detect that tears of unrequited love are the real cause. In addition, metalepsis requires not much literary gift or ingenuity because an effect, or in fact any event, is a sequence of several coding points on a causal chain and a simple act of reasoning would afford a clue to metaleptic circumlocution. The above list shows, on the other hand, that Japanese poetics had no concept of metonymy, or of syllepsis for that matter. To be sure, it is a typical case of discrepancy between theory and practice, but the reason for this interesting oversight is no doubt an outcome of manifold causes. Jakobson (1956) observes that “the preponderance of metaphor over metonymy in scholarship” arises from the fact that the former is easier to identify and possesses more homogeneous means to handle it, whereas metonymy, shifting on a single axis of contiguity, easily defies interpretation. He is apparently referring here to the role metonymy plays in thematic progression, but another aspect to be adduced is that in metonymy both terms, the source and the hypothetical target, can be referentially, and often cognitively true and makes it difficult to detect an artifice of any kind (cf. “I see a sail!” and “I see a ship!”). In order to explain the extraordinary preference for metonymy, or to be more exact metalepsis, however, we will be required to pose a more general form of question: Why did Japanese waka favor paragrams, paronomasias, double meaning, metalepses and simple identity metaphors, or in a word more obvious tropes, at the expense of recognizedly more powerful similes and profound metaphors?
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The notion “decoding time” as proposed by Goatly (1993 :146) would possibly explain the reason. He observes, Advertising copy is composed with a good deal of time and labour, but rapidly read, if read at all, so that the relation is asymmetric. Metaphors will, therefore, be carefully selected and combined, but, acknowledging the speed of decoding, will be designed to attract attention and to produce the kind of quick-fire poetic effect associated with puns. We are seldom invited to explore grounds and [...] allusions in ads are seldom ‘milked’ to the extent they are in poetry or literature. Poetry is the most time-consuming, both from the encoding and decoding standpoints. Much of the work of recognizing the metaphor and hypothesizing tenors and grounds will therefore be left to the decoder. The poet makes little allowance for a superficial reader and assumes the poem will be re-read and lived over a period of years, in a time span perhaps even longer than that of its slow composition.
From the outset, waka poetry was characterized by a dialogic, improvisational mode of production, as courting songs between young men and women, missives with various functions, and linked verse, in which several poets contributed a consecutive stanza in turns during “one sitting” as in a leisurely conversation. Poetic practice: A case study As we have noted above in the case of metonymy, theory lags far behind practice, and metaphor is no exception. Even more so as novel and live metaphors (be they expressive or explanatory) are more readily identifiable and have greater functional and cultural significance than conceptual ones. Nōin’s Uta-makura (A Manual for Versification [fragments], c. 1050) categorized expressions like “smoldering love” very interestingly as LOVE IS FIRE but he was content to list some typical uses of this formula in poetry and was less concerned about what their real nature and function were. In addition, what is more important than the conceptual basis in producing and appreciating poetry is the particular, basic level referent as implied by the source domain predicator. In the case of “smoldering love”, for example, the metaphor was commonly understood in terms of incense rather than nondescript burning substance. In general, more abstract, formal predicators like go, be white, etc. are prone to be supplied with illustrative analogies (i.e. similes and metaphors) while more particular, bound predicators like neigh, slender, etc. are not. Indeed the language of waka poetry, with its pithy form and bare artifices, offers an ideal basis for us to address a larger question, viz., to trace the entire life history of metaphors from its poeticization, exploitation, through to obsolescence.
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese
Let us sketch in the following section what sorts of metaphors were deployed to express the personal experience of the mind. Old Japanese as represented in the Man’yōsyū had the following “literal” collocations for kokoro ‘heart, mind’ (and also for de-verbal nouns kofi ‘longing’ and omofi ‘affection’ with stronger selection restrictions). It must be added in haste, of course, that a certain fictional character, a degree of hypostatization is already implied in verbs and postpositions that accrues from taking these nouns as their heads. “To show one’s heart” implies that heart is an entity and “from my heart” implies it is a kind of location, or at least the seat of psychic and mental activities. This is a level characterizable as THE BODY IS A CONTAINER OF EMOTIONS (Kővecses 1986: 83). Some of the adjectives, on the other hand, partake of slight metonymic tinge when they are predicated of kokoro rather than of individuals themselves. The verb ayoku ‘to tremble’ has only one recorded occurrence in this anthology or elsewhere and neither its declension nor its collocation is known for sure: (5) kokoro aru/nasi ‘to have/have no heart’, ~kara/yu/ni ‘from/out of/in one’s heart’; ~oku ‘to place’, ~misu ‘to show’, ~mamoru ‘to keep’, ~tatematuru ‘to give (honorific verb)’ ~togu ‘to fulfill’, ~itamu ‘to hurt’, ~tuku ‘to attach’; ~itasi ‘be painful’, ~utatesi ‘be sorrowful’, ~kanasi ‘be sad’, ~kurusi ‘be afflicted’, ~sabisi ‘be lonesome’;
Conceptual metaphors center on the following categories: (6) CONTAINER： kokoro firaku ‘to open one’s heart’; ~no uti ni ‘within’, ~ni (kimi wo)motu ‘to cherish (you) in’ CONTENT： ~tukusu ‘to pour out’, ~tutumeru ‘to enwrap in’ MOVING ENTITY: ~midaru ‘to stir’, ~sidumu ‘to sink’, ~uku ‘to float’, ~tayutafu ‘to drift over’, ~furufi-okosu ‘to summon [one’s courage]up’, ~yosu ‘to attach’, ~yoru ‘to draw near’, ~yaru ‘to dispatch’, ~yuku ‘to go’ SOLIDS: ~kudaku ‘to crack’, ~waru ‘to split’
Somewhat more precise collocations indicative of natural-kind objects are as follows: (7) CORD：kokoro nagasi ‘be long’; ~toku ‘to untie’, ~musubu ‘to tie’, ~yufu ‘to bind’, ~yurubu ‘to loosen’ WATER：~nagu ‘to calm down’, ~tagitu ‘to gush’, ~fukameru ‘to deepen’, ~yodomu ‘to stagnate’, ~seku ‘to dam up’, ~fukasi ‘be deep’, ~asasi ‘be shallow’, ~no soko ‘at the depth of ’ FIRE: ~yaku ‘to set to fire’, ~moyu ‘to burn’, ~kiye-useru ‘to quell’；~no uti ni
moyu ‘burn within’, ~ni moyete omofu ‘burningly yearn’
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OTHERS: ~ni simu ‘to dye upon’, ~uturofu ‘to fade’; ~togu ‘to whet’; ~ni noru ‘to ride, sit on’
It is not easy to strictly demarcate the first class of metaphorical expressions (5) from the second (6–7), but examples in the latter group normally combine with narrower classes of nouns so that in the case of kokoro nagu, for example, it is quite easy to tell (and visualize) that this is a case of MIND AS THE SURFACE OF WATER metaphor. Sidumu ‘to sink’ and uku ‘to float’ (i.e. to brighten up) seem to belong in the same group, but the implication evidently comes from their secondary selection class IN WATER for locative. The verb simu is ambiguous in two ways between ‘to seep into’ and ‘to dye [upon]’. This word, however, together with iro ni idu ‘to come out in color’ and uturofu ‘to fade out’, constituted among early poets a favorite imagery of natural dyes to verbalize fascination and dissipation of love, most probably associated with the sense of blushing. As it is already clear from the lists and examples given above, the most consistently and retentively used conceptual metaphors for the MIND since the beginning of Japanese poetry were WATER and FIRE. These two, actually, are taken up in relation with love by Kővecses (1986: 101f.) who gives a physiological reason why love goes together with heat, which applies to our LONGING IS FIRE metaphor, and further refers to EMOTIONS AS FLUIDS metaphor as a metonymic conceptualization of intensity. A slight difference in the Japanese case, however, is that the former in classical Japanese was reinforced phonologically by the pun between fi ‘fire’ and kofi ‘longing’, and omofi ‘love’. In the MIND AS WATER metaphor, at least three major causes seem to have been at work. One is verbal: one of the most frequent expressions about love in the anthology is sita ni omofu ‘to long underneath’, sita yu kofu ‘to love unbeknown’ which might well have elicited the image of seeping water, or the water of a fountain or marsh hidden from observing eyes but brimming underneath. Another motive was a superstitious belief that moist hair betokens that someone is thinking of you. The third is factual. In a matriarchal society in which a male visited his spouse at night and went back home in the twilight, hurrying on the bedewed road to one’s dear wife and parting in the twilight were especially romantic moments in their marriage and the inevitable chain of association love – morning dews – tears of parting was born. Chronologically, we can assume that poetic metaphor develops through three consecutive stages: (i) Turning daily expressions to an aesthetic use: cf. sita ‘beneath’, iro ‘color’, (ii) Intensive and intentional variations on such themes: imagery comes in at this stage cf. iro ni idu ‘to come out in color’, sita yuku midu ‘the hidden stream’, (iii) Explicit identification of the comparing and the compared categories.
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese
Taking the word sita or sita ni omofu for an example, the first association of the notion with water is implicit in the following seventh century poem “by princess Kagami in response to the Emperor”, where a hidden stream is mentioned (obliquely in the Japanese original) as the object of comparison: (8)
秋山の木の下隠り行く水の われこそ増さめ思ほすよりは Akiyama no Like the hidden stream Ko no sita kakuri trickling beneath the trees Yuku midu no down the autumn mountainside, Ware koso masame so does my love increase Omofosu yori fa. more than yours, my Lord. (The Man’yōsyū ii. 92, Tr. by I.H. Levy)
Expressions given in (7) as the WATER metaphor are all implicit, collocational variations on the same theme but eventually the time comes when poetic sensitivity awakens to the underlying cognitive mechanism and names it as “my heart is a turbulent stream”, or “a river dammed up”, and so on. Especially important in expanding the range of the WATER metaphor was the role of tears, in itself a metonymy, as a mediating term: if tears flow and so does a river, the law of transitivity works to produce the metaphorical “my tears are a river”, and likewise the following equations were effected: (tear/waterfall) drops ⇒ tears = waterfall (tear/torrent/waterfall) is effluent ⇒tears = torrent = waterfall wet with (tears/dews/rain) ⇒ tears = dew drops = rain
The expansion comes to an end when the mind is equated directly with water and the MIND IS WATER metaphor is finally brought on a conscious level. In the history of Japanese poetry the identification by apposition between the two concepts occurs in the Kokinsyū (xiii. 651). In a word, the life history of a metaphor series begins with syntactic borrowing, develops into iconic, basic level identity metaphors and ends in a superordinate conceptual metaphor. In the case of waka poetry, Buddhism added another variation on the MIND AS WATER metaphor, viz., that of a clear and transparent water, as exemplified by several poems in later anthologies (cf. The Kokinsyū, iii. 165; The Sin Kokinsyū, xx. 1947) to symbolize a clear conscience and a peaceful mind afforded by a pious life. This addition marked the beginning of contained water as opposed to the traditional flowing water and eventually crystallized into a pearly dew on the lotus leaf but it seems to have remained a minor series. When every aspect and possibility of a stock of conceptual metaphors has been explored, an entirely new theme comes in. The Kokinsyū experimented on cherry blossoms that scatter all too quickly in verbalizing the fickle
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and transitory nature of human mind or most characteristically of love (tiru ‘to scatter/change), often reinforced by a pun aki (‘autumn/dissipation’). In view of these stages in praxis and presumably in the users’ awareness of metaphors, it becomes clear why Japanese poetics failed to produce a full-fledged theory of metaphor. If collocation was mistaken for the sole basis of metaphor, it is not quite unnatural to have the normative system it had, and it is also understandable why it encouraged the deployment of engo almost as an obligatory device in poetry. As a reflection of the basic taxonomy of language, collocability presupposes a metaphorical transfer (if a⁀b & c⁀b, then a = b), but it fails to explain category mixture as in MIND IS WATER and to that extent engo falls short of the usefulness and effectiveness of the extended metaphor. The next important concept in representing kokoro was FIRE. Contrary to my hypothesis, however, this metaphor seems never to have reached the stage of explicit identification LOVE IS FIRE. This makes a striking contrast with English which not only made an exhaustive use of such associated words as fire, flames, sparks, ashes, consume, on fire, kindle, etc. (Kővecses 1986: 85), but also pursued delicate syntactic variations as in the love of fire and the fire of love. A plausible explanation for this will be that the pun between fi ‘fire’ and kofi, omofi preempted, so to speak, the identity metaphor LOVE IS FIRE in Japanese. Metonymy, on the other hand, was even more frequent than metaphor in traditional Japanese poetry and it shows a strong tendency towards metaleptic variety. Shedding tears are just one possible cause for your pillows or sleeves to get wet and in fact earlier poets sang “my pillow is wet through from weeping tears,” “with my sleeves I wipe my tears”, etc., but soon “wet sleeves”, “soaked pillows”, and yet more far-fetched locutions like “the moon reflected on my sleeves” began to stand metonymically for weeping or for sadness. The metaphoric and metonymic transferences in the three anthologies, respectively indicated with “=” and “|, /”, can be diagrammed as follows11:
(9) SMOKE ASHES VOLCANO | FIRE
＝ MIND
STREAM FALLS THE DEEP |
MOON | DROPS =
WATER |
＝
RIVER |
DEW |
= ＼／
WIND
SLEEVES
TEARS = RAIN |
11. For a detailed discussion, see Yamanaka 2003: 202–274.
PILLOWS
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese
Very interestingly, attempts were made at compromising the apparent contradiction of FIRE and WATER applying to the same target of projection. A notable conceit was kagaribi ‘a torch’ on the stern of a fishing boat, and the time-old theme of “color development” was also used for this purpose referring to the red color, especially on the chest, of one’s robe, the homonymity of oki ‘cinders/offshore’ was put to use, but eventually it was discovered that ama ‘fisherman’ can be a nearly almighty topos, a rich inventory of poetic resources,. (10) The Topos Fisherman WATER and related words: sea, rocky beach, waves; to surge (yoru), to soak (ones sleeves, skirt), etc. FIRE and related words: burning the seaweed (i.e. to extract salt), fisherman’s torch; to burn, to boil, to singe Images of floating objects: rowboat, float, fishing line, pole; to punt Associated topoi: traveler, moon, moonlight, fisherman’s shack, gems, pearls, lush seaweed, gulfweed, seaside greens, the star festival, the Weaver12, ferry, ferryman Puns: nami- ‘waves/tears’, ura ‘bay/lining’, ama- ‘fisherman/heaven/the Milky Way’, ukime ‘seaweed/mishaps’, mirume ‘seaweed/sights’, nanoriso ‘gulfweed/ tell-me-not-your-name’, ware-kara ‘barnacles/because of myself ’
Ultimately a stage was reached when poetic connotation eclipsed lexical meaning: dews on your sleeves, rain, flowing water, etc. were threatened by their poetic transferences and in order to be clear required such disambiguating modifiers as “the dews formed out of myself”, “the rain without”, “the water running without my heart” as testified by several poems in the Sin Kokinsyū (e.g. iv. 297, iv. 366, etc.). The tradition of waka poetry continued well into the nineteenth century but its role as a fount of poetic energy had come to an end probably centuries ago when its diction stopped to voice lyrical sensibility but started to echo only within itself. Epilogue It will be appropriate here to add what has become of the tropology that Japanese poetics developed. Actually, it was discarded entirely as waka poetry ceased to be a prestige form of verbal art. Part of its terminology has survived, viz., the body of 12. The milky way is called ama no kawa ‘the river in the sky” in Japanese and it is associated with a legendary love story between a maiden weaver (the Vega) and a cowherd (the Altair) living across the river. Their imaginary tryst once a year on the seventh of July is widely celebrated in Japan as tanabata.
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regulations and descriptive terms on stanza connection (tukeai) in renga and its later development renku, because this form of poetic production had no analogues and therefore no theoretical competitions. What brought about this reshuffle was not modernized waka nor modern poetry but politics. An acute interest centered on rhetoric and public speaking towards the end of the nineteenth century in the prospect of constitutional politics. The first publication on public speaking was authored by Ozaki Yukio (Kōkai Enzetuhō [A Manual for Public Speaking], 1878), who was to become a renowned politician and champion of the parliamentary system. Translations of Chamber Brothers’ Information for the People (translated by Kikuti Dairoku, 1879) and Quackenbos’ Composition and Rhetoric (translated by Kuroiwa Ruikō, 1881) followed (Sato 1978: 22–31). To a certain extent, these translations acquainted the Japanese reading public with the tradition of rhetoric in its oratorical and prescriptive versions, but a scholarly approach to its disciplinary aspects began a little later. Takada Sanae’s two-volume booklets Bizigaku (Rhetoric, 1889) is generally acknowledged as the first academic treatise on rhetoric in Japan. It is a concise but path-breaking introduction to the history, structure and basic concepts of rhetoric intended to outline a “systematic science which enables to write, speak and appreciate effective language”. The author goes through a tremendous task of creating a host of new words for rhetorical terms and supplies them with apt examples culled from Japanese and Chinese literatures. But very ironically, none of his coinages, viz. seventeen names of figures and tropes, eight classificatory terms and the word bizigaku itself (‘rhetoric’, apparently a loan translation of belles lettres), survive today13. More important were two subsequent publications, Simamura Takitarō’s Sin Bizigaku (New Rhetoric, 1902) and Igarasi Tikara’s Bunsyō Kōwa (Lectures on Prose, 1909) both of which appeared, very characteristically, during the short spell of constitutional governments. The three manuals are all heavily indebted to such writers as Bain, Quackenbos and Whately, but in terms of their general content, they are a graphic example of the process of assimilating a body of theory entirely new to a culture. Takada aspires for a cogent and systematized discipline to replace fragmentary observations and discourses on language that Japan has had and set on transplanting rhetoric into Japanese soil, redefining the functions of language, demarcating the domains of grammar and rhetoric and creating the entire terminology to provide a new subject for educating younger generations. Simamura tries to combine the discipline with traditional learning in Japan, returning whenever possible to Chen 13. Takada avows himself that it is a tentative translation for rhetoric but most probably borrowed it from Chinese philosophy (Simamura 1902: 2) and evidently closer in meaning to belles lettres.
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese
Gui’s more familiar terminology and adding some such typical categories as siyu 詞喩 ‘lexical figures’, i.e. puns, and ziyu 字喩 ‘ideographic figures’. Out of thirty odd names of figures he used, twenty five are in current use, among which are such familiar terms as in’yu 隠喩 ‘metaphor’, kan’yu 換喩 ‘metonymy’, tyokuyu 直喩 ‘simile’, teiyu 提喩 ‘synecdoche’, and so on. Igarasi’s voluminous treatise, on the other hand, is an ambitious attempt at constructing a rhetorical theory of his own drawing on an oriental purview of language and on his formidable erudition. He identifies some twenty figures unknown or unnamed in traditional rhetoric and develops a new framework to provide for them. His terminology, however, is unfortunately so opaque and difficult for common use and practically nothing remains of his numerous coinages. The difference in the three authors’ approaches are also reflected in their generalizations on figures and tropes. Takada classifies them into five categories as those founded on similarity, on relations (kankei), on contrast, and on positions, and others. If we could regard the term kankei as his translation of “contiguity”, this categorization parallels Bain’s descriptive scheme to a considerable degree (cf. Bain 1877: 3–39). At least, it will be safe to say that the scheme is based on that of the British experientialist school as it is signally different from the standard, logical conception of four principles (i.e. addition, subtraction, transmutation and substitution) formulated by Quintilian. Simamura sets up four categories for what he calls positive ornaments: tropes, deviation, deployment and expressive devices which roughly correspond with tropes, figures of thought, arrangement and modes of expression respectively. Clearly, he is trying to define ornaments on a level higher than the four principles. Igarasi, in contrast with all his predecessors, endeavors to set up an entirely new classification, “in order to identify the sources of verbal beauty on the basis of our psychic workings” (Igarasi 1909: 210). His eight categories differ from any existing theories: unification, ambiguation, augmentation, implication, concatenation, transformation, precipitance, and spontaneity. A detailed examination of the classifiers and the classified and theoretical frameworks of the three manuals is not our present concern. What is interesting is that, despite such differences in conceptualizations and approaches, the notion of tropes was introduced into the discussion of linguistic artifices in Japan. All the three authors take up metaphor, metonymy, simile, synecdoche, allegory and onomatopoeia and two authors refer to irony and hyperbole. This list is not much different from the ones in nineteenth century European manuals, which used to give metaphor, metonymy, simile, synecdoche, irony, metalepsis, allegory and hyperbole as major types of tropes. At this juncture of time, Japanese poetics, its tropology in particular, merged with the Graeco-Roman model. Some concepts overlapped, but metonymy and synecdoche, with all their vagueness and confusions though, were entirely new to the discourse on language in the East.
Keiiti Yamanaka
Very ironically, however, the peak of Japanese interest in rhetoric coincided with the time when its role as one of the staples of humanities was close to an end in the West. That is why early translations were done mostly from manuals or textbooks published in America where the decline of rhetoric came somewhat later. It was not that it gained much popularity in Japan. Simamura himself complains in his book that public interest in this discipline is so low. It is probably because eloquence has traditionally been distrusted in this culture, and verbal beauty in addition has been regarded as something that ought to be appreciated rather than analyzed or explained away. Another plausible reason is given in a synoptic chapter on the reception of rhetoric in Japan that “the flower of rhetoric forced into bloom in this country died, in a matter of fifty years, to the very root, by our playing up to a newer trend to despise whatever is rhetorical.” (Sato 1978: 28) Rhetoricism during the short spell of the Taisyō democracy must have been a spent wave, but we must not forget that the above-mentioned authors, amongst a dozen contemporaries who published translations, introductions and monographs on rhetoric, were the core people who tried to espouse classical rhetoric w�������� ith aesthetics and create a new body of literary science, a movement not unlike that of Russian formalists in the post-revolutionary period. All the three authors were affiliated in some way or other with what is now the Faculty of Letters, Waseda University and the teaching of rhetoric used to be chief distinction of the faculty ever since it was opened in 1890. The course on rhetoric continued well into the 1960’s when it was renamed as stylistics and supplemented by a course on composition (Hara 1991). Considering that Tubouti Syōyō (1859–1935), a distinguished literary figure and founder of the faculty, was among the first to write a treatise on rhetoric (1893), it is evident that he saw in rhetoric a possibility to create a general science of letters capable of buttressing his numerous fronts: literary theory and production, innovation of the language of literature, developing a colloquial mode of writing fit for assimilating European science and technology, elocution, educating the young on a principled basis and so on. It will be rash and unfair, therefore, to prognose an early death to the Taisyō rhetoricism, especially to the Waseda school, or to evaluate the whole enterprise simply as an attempt to introduce the rhetorical theory of figures, or of the component elocutio in rhetoric to Japan. More precisely, it was part of an overall effort to modernize Japanese culture in its linguistic aspect. Dramas, novels and free verse were first attempted in colloquial Japanese mainly by those who gathered around Tubouti and Japanese literature and the written form of Japanese were to have a new model thanks to their pioneering efforts. The course on rhetoric at Waseda was officially closed in 1965 and reorganized into stylistics and academic writing as has been already mentioned. But what appears to be a slow decline in this discipline was actually counterbalanced by its
The tradition and transformation of metaphor in Japanese
seeping down into the intermediate level of education. Igarasi evidently was the key person who represented this shift of emphasis. We have seen that his opus magnum had already dropped the high-flown coinage bizigaku from its title and reverted to more traditional bunsyō ‘prose’, and his subsequent profuse publications intended mostly for general or high school learners used even more commonplace “writing” (sakubun) and “composition and wording” (syūzi) in intermixture. His prestige rose as an educator of the public in prose writing and it will not be a mistake to suppose that he concluded the movement of writing-as-wespeak on the public level, which Tubouti and his disciples started in various areas of high literature. Texts & references: Bain, A. (1877). English Composition and Rhetoric: A Manual. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Bownas, G. & A. Thwaite (1964). The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse. London: Penguin Books. Goatley, A. (1993). Species of Metaphor in Written and Spoken Varieties. In M. Ghadessy (Ed.), Register Analysis (pp. 110-48). London: Pinter. Hara, S. (1991). Waseda Bizigaku wo Megutte. Kokubungaku Kenkyū 102, 278- 288. Tokyo: Waseda University. Huzii, S. (1987). Monogatari Bungaku Seiritusi. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press. Igarasi, T. (1909). Sin Bunsyō Kōwa. Tokyo: Waseda University Press. Ito, H. (Ed.) (1985). Man’yosyū I, II. Tokyo: Kadokawa Press. Jakobson, R. (1956). Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbance. In R. Jakobson & M. Halle (Eds.), Fundamentals of Language (pp.54-82). The Hague:Mouton & Co. Komatiya, T. (1990). Syūi Wakasyū. An annotated edition. Tokyo: Iwanami Syoten. Kővecses, Z. (1986). Metaphors of Anger, Pride and Love. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kūkai (1986). Bunkyō Hihuron. [Translated with annotation by Kōzen Hirosi]. Tokyo: Tikuma Syobo. Liu Xie (1978). Wenxin Diaolong. [Translated with annotation by Toda Kōgyō]. Tokyo: Meizi Syoin. Levy, I. H. (1981). The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of the Man’yōsyū, Japan’s Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry. Volume One. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Okimori, T. et al. (1993). Kakyō Hyōsiki: Tyūsyaku to Kenkyū. Tokyo: Ohū. Saeki, U. (Ed.) (1981). Kokin Wakasyū. Tokyo: Iwanami. Sato, N. (1978). Rhetoric Kankaku: Kotoba wa Atarasii Siten wo Hiraku. Tokyo: Kodansya. Simamura, T. (1902). Sin Bizigaku. Tokyo: Tokyo Senmon Gakko Press. Stanford, W. B. (1972). Greek Metaphor: Studies in Theory and Practice. New York: Johnson Reprint. Takada, S. (1889). Bizigaku. Tokyo: Kinkodo. Waley, A. (1996). The Book of Songs. New York: Grove Press. Wang, Y. (Ed.) (1968). Wenze. Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu Printing. Yamada, Y. (1952). Nihon Kagaku no Genryū. Nihon Syoin. Yamanaka, K. (2003). Waka no Sigaku: The Poetics of Classical Japanese Verse. Tokyo: Taisyukan.
Part 2
Socio-cultural Values and Metaphoric Conceptualization
Tao of learning Metaphors Japanese students live by* Masako K. Hiraga
Graduate School of Intercultural Communication Rikkyo University, Tokyo This study attempts to clarify the conventionalized metaphorical structures of learning in Japanese culture. Based on metaphorical expressions, proverbs, and etymology of educational terminology, three major conceptual metaphors underlying the traditional model are analyzed: LEARNING IS A JOURNEY, in which the student follows the teacher along the path; LEARNING IS IMITATING THE MODEL, in which the student imitates or practices the model diligently and repeatedly; and TEACHER IS A FATHER, in which structural aspects of the familial systems are utilized. A modern addition to these traditional concepts is the metaphor, EXAMINATION IS A COMBAT IN WAR, in which the competitive aspect of institutionalized examination system is emphasized.
Keywords: conceptual metaphor, Japanese education, proverbs, etymology Introduction This essay tries to examine some of the basic metaphors underlying the conceptualizations of learning in Japanese culture.1 Data for analysis is mainly taken from conventionalized metaphorical expressions and proverbs. Etymological implications are also considered in the nomenclature of educational terminology.
This is a revised and enlarged version of my paper entitled “Japanese Metaphors for Learning” in Intercultural Communication Studies, Vol. VII, No. 2, 1997–8, pp. 7–22.
*
1. On the relationship between the metaphorical concepts and metaphorical expressions, see Lakoff and Johnson (1980), and Lakoff (1987).
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The traditional concepts about learning in Japan can be characterized by the basic metaphors, LEARNING IS A JOURNEY;2 LEARNING IS IMITATING THE MODEL; and TEACHER IS A FATHER. A modern addition to these traditional concepts is the metaphor, EXAMINATION IS COMBAT IN WAR, in which the competitive aspect of institutionalized examination system is emphasized. The study attempts to clarify the conventionalized metaphorical structures of learning in Japanese culture, which reflect the way we speak and think about education and learning, on the one hand, and on the other hand, which reflect the way we act and behave in the learning processes. Learning is a journey One of the dominant traditional metaphorical concepts is LEARNING as a JOURNEY.3 The concept of PATH and hence FOLLOWING the TEACHER along the PATH underlies the general way of thinking about learning and teaching in Japan. This conceptualization is prototypically shown in the following examples.
Example 1 学びの道 manabi-no miti learning-GEN road, ‘path of learning’ 4
学びの道 manabi-no miti, which literally means ‘study, learning, etc.,’ illustrates this conceptualization most overtly. Miti, also read as 道doo (‘way’, ‘tao’) in the Chinese character, provides a host of examples as it is suffixed to the names of classical disciplines, sports and philosophy, so indicated in example 2. a b c d e
Example 2 茶道 sadoo (茶tea, 道way, ‘tea ceremony’) 華道 kadoo (華flower, 道way, ‘flower arrangement’) 書道 syodoo (書writing, 道way, ‘calligraphy’) 柔道 zyuudoo (柔 flexible, 道way, ‘zyuudoo’) 剣道 kendoo (剣 sword, 道way, ‘Japanese fencing’)
2. Metaphorical concepts are indicated in capital letters. Metaphorical expressions are underlined. 3.
There is a metaphor, JOURNEY IS LEARNING, too.
4. Abbreviations for grammatical function words are: ACC(usative); COMP(limentizer); DAT(ive); GEN(itive); GER(undive); IMP(erative); NEG(ative); NOM(inative); PASS(ive); PAST; POL(ite); PL(ural); Q(uestion); TOP(ic). When a string of words in English corresponds to one word in Japanese, dots are used instead of spaces to show word boundaries.
Tao of learning
f 武士道 busidoo （武士 samurai, 道way, ‘philosophy of the samurai’）
The metaphorical concept, LEARNING IS FOLLOWING A PATH, is further elaborated by the image-schema of PATH with the teacher and the student. As the following proverb in example 3 eloquently describes, the PATH of the teacher is followed by the disciples, who diligently observe and imitate their teacher from a distance.
Example 3 七尺さって師の影を踏まず nanasyaku sat-te si no kage o huma-zu, Seven.feet leave-GER teacher of shadow ACC step.on-NEG ‘Follow your teacher seven feet behind so that you don’t step on his shadow.’ (Proverb)
What is particularly characteristic in this regard is a focus on the PATH and the interpersonal implication of FOLLOWING. The verbs involved in this JOURNEY of teacher/student interaction are 導くmitibiku (‘to lead’) and 従うsitagau (‘to follow’), both of which have an etymological trace in the JOURNEY metaphor as shown in example 4. a b
Example 4 導くmitibiku ‘to lead’ < ‘to let someone pass through by holding or pulling his/her hands’ 従う sitagau ‘to follow’ < ‘to follow after someone or to obey’
Clearly, there is a teacher who leads and a student who follows after the teacher along the PATH image-schema. The modern usage in example 5 also implies that learning involves an act of following the teacher, which is represented metaphorically as つくtuku (‘to attach’), namely, ‘going with the teacher.’ a b c
Example 5 先生につく sensei ni tuku teacher DAT attach ‘to take lessons from a teacher’ 先生についていく sensei ni tui-te-iku teacher DAT attach-GER-go ‘to follow and go with the teacher’ 先生についていけない sensei ni tui-te-ike-nai teacher DAT attach-GER-go-NEG ‘not be able to follow and go with the teacher’
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Japanese vocabulary commonly used to refer to teachers and students all shares the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor, as indicated in examples 6 and 7. Example 6 先生 sensei ‘teacher’
先 sen in 先生 sensei originally means that one’s feet going before others, or to make an advance before others. 生 sei means ‘to bud, to grow, and to live.’ Example 7 a 生徒 seito ‘pupil’ b 学徒 gakuto ‘student’
The Japanese word for a pupil, 生徒 seito, and for a student, 学徒 gakuto, both have the Chinese character, 徒 to, which etymologically means to step and walk along a path. Hence, both the teacher and the pupil/student are represented metaphorically as persons leading or walking along the path. The nouns for study and research in Japanese also contain the notion of a JOURNEY as shown in examples 8-9. Example 8 学問 gakumon ‘study’
問 mon in学問 gakumon etymologically means to study, to listen, to ask, and to visit, a b
Example 9 研究 kenkyuu ‘research’ 探究 tankyuu ‘pursuit’
究 kyuu in Example 9 means to reach the extreme end of the dwelling. 研究 ken kyuu (Example 9a, ‘research’) consists of 研 ken (‘to polish’) and to reach, while 探 究 tankyuu (Example 9b, ‘pursuit’) involves 探 tan (‘to search’) and to reach. Hence, both terms clearly show the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor.
Tao of learning
Interestingly, homework or assignments imply this JOURNEY metaphor. Example 10 宿題 syukudai ‘homework, assignment’
宿題 syukudai literally means problems/themes that stay. The same Chinese character 宿 syuku is used for travel inns in Japanese. One could take different means of travel in the metaphorical conceptualization of learning as a JOURNEY. For example, a b c d
Example 11 journey on foot 研究が行き詰まって困っている。 Kenkyuu ga ikizumat-te komat-te-iru research NOM go.stuck-GER worry-GER-be ‘I am worried that my research gets stuck.’ 彼はこの研究で着実な第一歩をしるした。 Kare wa kono kenkyuu de tyakuzituna daiippo-o sirusi-ta he TOP this research by steady first.step-ACC mark-PAST ‘He marked the steady first step by this research.’ 先生が学生たちの門出を祝った。 Sensei ga gakusei-tati no kadode o iwat-ta teacher NOM student-PL of gate.out ACC celebrate-PAST ‘The teacher celebrated on the departure(=graduation) of the students.’ 今日は師範代が指南にあたった。 Kyoo wa sihan-dai ga sinan ni atta-ta today TOP coach-sub NOM pointing.to.the.south(=directions)-DAT performPAST ‘Today, a sub-coach gave the lesson.’ e f
mountain climbing 学ぶものは山に登るが如し。 Manabu mono wa yama ni noboru ga gotosi studying people TOP mountain DAT climb NOM look.like ‘Studying is like climbing the mountains.’ (Proverb) 勉強は坂に車を押す如し。 Benkyoo wa saka ni kuruma o osu gotosi study TOP hill DAT car ACC push look.like ‘Studying is like pushing a wheel-barrow up on a hill.’ (Proverb)
Masako K. Hiraga
g 学問の険しさを知らなかった。 Gakumon no kewasisa o sira-nakat-ta study of steepness ACC know-NEG-PAST
h
‘I didn’t know the severity of study.’ この研究の頂上をきわめるには時間がかかる。 Kono kenkyuu no tyoozyoo o kiwameru ni-wa zikan ga kakaru this research GEN summit ACC reach to-TOP time NOM need ‘It takes time to reach the summit of this research.’
train journey i あの高校へ入学したのなら、一流大学への切符を手にしたのも 同 然だ。 Ano kookoo e nyuugakusi-ta no nara, itiryuu daigaku e no kippu o te ni sita nomo doozen-da that senior.highschool to enter-PAST COMP if, first.class university to GEN ticket ACC hand DAT do COMP same-be ‘It sounds like you’ve got a ticket to a first-class university, getting into that senior high school.’
The process of learning based on the FOLLOWING-THE-TEACHER metaphor is also emphasized in the proverbs, which have different metaphorical connotations than JOURNEY, as indicated in examples 12 and 13.
Example 12 師は針の如く、弟子は糸の如し。 Si wa hari no gotoku, desi wa ito no gotosi teacher TOP needle GEN look.like, disciples TOP thread GEN look.like ‘The teacher is a needle, and the disciples are a thread which goes with the needle.’ (Proverb)
Example 13 師には従え。 Si ni wa sitaga-e teacher DAT TOP follow-IMP ‘It is the teacher that you should follow.’ (Proverb)
In fact, a significant part of learning or entailment in this metaphorical conceptualization is to follow the teacher loyally and faithfully. The conceptual metaphor JOURNEY is an extension of SOURCE-PATHGOAL image schema (Lakoff, 1987, p. 275). As seen above, PATH, rather than SOURCE or GOAL, is generally emphasized in the Japanese conception of LEARNING as JOURNEY. The focus on PATH seems to correspond to an interpersonal
Tao of learning
aspect of the learning processes, in which the students follow their teacher rather than just search for some ideational goals. There is, however, a GOAL-oriented metaphor for learning in Japanese, such as LEARNING IS SEARCHING, instantiated in the following examples: Example 14 a 真理の探究 sinri no tankyuu truth-GEN search ‘search for truth’ b その考えを追求する sono kangae o tuikyuu suru that idea ACC seek do ‘to seek for the idea’
In both 探究tankyuu（探search, 究reach）in example 14a, and追求 tuikyuu (追 run after,求seek) in example 14b, it seems that the PATH is more dominant than GOAL in the Japanese conception of LEARNING as JOURNEY, due to the elements of ‘reaching’ and ‘running after.’ Learning is imitating the model The image-schema of the JOURNEY metaphor, i.e., the student’s following the teacher along the path, relates to how the Japanese language conceptualizes the act of learning itself. Etymological information about the verbs and the nouns for learning in modern Japanese provides basic attitudes embedded in the basic vocabulary of learning. Such attitudes are passive, repetitive, and imitative, as summarized in the following figure. Figure 1 illustrates four basic notions of learning represented by the Chinese characters: 学、習、倣、慣. Both 学ぶmanabu (‘to study’) and 習うnarau (‘to learn’), connote 倣るmaneru (‘to imitate’). The Chinese character of 学ぶmanabu originally represents an act of making a child learn or imitate hand gestures according to the norms of the society; hence, the character means to learn and to study. The Chinese character of 習うnarau, on the other hand, originally represents a bird practising flying by repeatedly flapping its wings; hence, it means to learn, to study, to imitate, to get accustomed, and to repeat. It becomes clear that the basic processes in learning apparent in the above Chinese characters are: imitation, practice, and repetition, which lead to慣れるnareru (‘to get accustomed’). Namely, these are the values implied in the etymology of the basic terms for learning.
Masako K. Hiraga
倣
慣
maneru ‘to imitate’
nareru ‘to get accustomed’
manabu ‘to study’
narau ‘to learn’
学
習
Figure 1. Notions of LEARNING represented by Chinese characters
In modern Japanese, the verbs for learning are 学ぶmanabu (‘to study’) and 習う narau (‘to learn’), whose etymology implies a passive and receptive attitude of learning supported by diligent repetition of practice as indicated above. The compound nouns, 学習gakushuu (学study, 習learn,= ‘learning’), 学問gakumon (学 study, 問ask,= ‘study’), and 研究kenkyuu (研polish, 究reach,= ‘research’) also connote receptive attitudes. Note that a very common word for school work, 勉強 benkyoo (勉continuation, 強strong, = ‘school work’), etymologically means ‘forced continuation,’ focusing on the great effort needed to learn something. Combined with the metaphor of FOLLOWING THE TEACHER, this metaphor of IMITATING THE MODEL actually means that students imitate what the teacher offers as the MODEL (i.e., 型kata (‘pattern,’ ‘model’) or 手本 tehon (‘model,’ ‘example’)). 授けるsazukeru (手hand, 受receive,= ‘to offer’) is what the teachers do in the process of education. Whatever it is to be offered by the teacher, whether it is a model, a skill, wisdom or knowledge, it is regarded metaphorically as a COMMODITY. Copying the model has been a common practice in the Japanese traditional arts (cf. Ikuta, 1987). For example, even in the present day, there are no written textbooks for advanced learners in tea ceremony. The students just observe very carefully how the master (or the instructor assigned by the master) serves tea, and imitate it, repeat it, practice it, until the master says that they have passed the test
Tao of learning
to become a junior master. The students (junior masters) are then allowed to transform or manipulate the model they have acquired and internalized, in order to become a senior master, who can now leave the world of the former master to create one's own style and model. This course of development is called 守syu, 破ha, 離 ri (‘keep, break, and leave’) in traditional Japanese arts (Maruno, 1993, p. 70), and described in the saying as in example 15.
Example 15 型から入って、型を出る。 kata kara hait-te, kata o deru model from enter-GER, model ACC exit ‘To enter by imitating the model, and exit out of the model.’
Many proverbs also support the conceptualization, LEARNING IS REPEATED PRACTICE; and PRACTICE IS IMITATING THE MODEL, indicated in examples 16 and 17.
Example 16 習うより慣れよ。 narau yori nareyo learn more than get.accustomed ‘It is better to get accustomed (to something) than to study (it).’ (Proverb)
Example 17 門前の小僧習わぬ経を読む。 monzen no kozoo narawa-nu kyoo o yomu before.gate GEN boy learn-NEG sutra ACC recite ‘A boy working before the gate of the temple can recite a sutra [even though he had no chance of learning it formally].’ (Proverb)
Both examples above describe the importance of ‘getting accustomed to something,’ while example 18 emphasizes the value of concentration and repetition.
Example 18 読書百遍義自からわかる。 Dokusyo hyappen gi onozukara wakaru reading.book one.hundred.times meaning by.itself understand ‘Reading the same book one hundred times would make you understand its meaning by itself.’ (Proverb)
In Kadensho, Zeami (14th-century Noh master) wrote: “Don’t try to teach your successor when he is young. Wait until he naturally starts imitating. Don’t judge good or bad when he starts imitating. Just watch him and see in which direction
Masako K. Hiraga
he is developing (translated by the author)” (Zeami, 1972). Also the beginning passage of the Analects of Confucius, which is a well-known saying in Japan, 子 曰、学而時習之、不亦説乎Si no notamawaku, manabi-te toki ni kore o narau, mata yorokobasi karazuya, (Kanaya, 1963, p. 17) “the Master said, to learn and at due times to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure?” (Waley, 1989, p. 83), and is interpreted in Japan as evaluating the pleasure of learning in the repetitive part of 習うnarau (‘learning’) along with 学ぶmanabu (‘studying’). Learning without clear instructions, or learning by environmental stimulus and habituation is characteristic of Japanese learning, particularly before the Meiji Restoration (1868). This attitude of learning is termed the ‘osmosis model’ (as opposed to the ‘instruction model’) in educational psychology; and it is still observed, for example, in the ways in which Japanese mothers discipline their children (cf. Azuma et. al., 1981). Also in primary education in Japan, ‘modelling’ is one of the important methods of teaching. Instead of giving instructions in words, the teachers show the exemplary model, and try to create an attractive environment in which the pupils are encouraged to imitate (Miyake, 1995, p. 85). 見習う mi-narau (see.learn) is a verb which means ‘to watch and learn’ or ‘to observe and imitate.’ This verb is commonly used in the passages in which a child or a student should learn after someone senior or superior, as in example 19. a b
Example 19 お兄さんを見習いなさい onii-san o minarai-nasai elder.brother-HON ACC watch.learn-IMP ‘learn by observing your elder brother’ 先輩を見習って君も一所懸命勉強しなさい senpai-tati o minarat-te kimi mo issyookenmei benkyoo si-nasai senior.student-PL ACC watch.learn-GER you too hard study do-IMP ‘you should study hard, too, by observing your seniors’
The noun, 見習いminarai, which is derived from the verb, 見習うminarau, means ‘apprenticeship’ or ‘an apprentice.’ Another effect of the emphasis on practice and repetition in learning appears in the interpretation of effort or commitment (or the spirit of 頑張りgambari) in the process of learning. There is a strong tendency in Japanese education to evaluate the effort or the commitment paid in the process, apart from whatever result the process may lead to (Azuma, 1994). Expressions in Example 20 indicate the sentiment that doing one’s best effort diligently and patiently without complaints [even under unbearable circumstances] is a virtue.
Tao of learning
a b
Example 20 努力に報いる doryoku ni mukuiru effort DAT reward ‘to reward one’s effort’ 努力点をあげる doryoku ten o ageru effort point ACC give ‘to give extra points due to one’s effort’
Now, it has been claimed that the Japanese metaphors for learning show a receptive attitude to learning, either by FOLLOWING the teacher along the JOURNEY or by IMITATING (PRACTICING) the model diligently and repeatedly. In the following section, we will consider the conceptual metaphors in the teacher-student relationship. Teacher is a father Hierarchical and familial structures play a role in the teacher-student relationship. 先 生sensei (‘teacher’) simply means someone who was born before, and who is a foregoer as pointed out earlier. Pupils and students are, therefore, FOLLOWERS of the teacher as a ‘foregoer;’ but, they are also his CHILDREN as examples 21-23 show.
Example 21 教え子osie-go teaching.child ‘student’
Example 22 弟子desi younger brother.child ‘disciple’
Example 23 師弟関係sitei kankei teacher.younger brother.relationship ‘teacher-student relationship’
The word for the younger brother, 弟tei, is characteristically used in educational terms such as ‘disciple’ and ‘teacher-student relationship.’ The Chinese character弟 (‘younger brother’) etymologically means ‘ordering or marking a sequence.’ Then
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the character was used to refer to the younger members of male siblings, because a sequential order among them was felt needed when there were many brothers. Hence, 弟tei acquired a meaning of ‘younger brothers’ as well as ‘to follow or to obey the elder brother.’ The bond of the teacher and the student is thought of as even stronger than that of the parents and the children as illustrated in the following proverb:
Example 24 師は三世の契り、親は一世の睦び。 Si wa sanze no tigiri, oya wa isse no mutubi teacher TOP three worlds GEN bond, parent TOP one world GEN care ‘The bond between the teacher and the student lasts from the former world to another world through this world; but, the caring between the parent and the child lasts only in this world.’ (Proverb)
There is a vertical hierarchy among the students who are the followers of the teacher. This verticality is conceptualized by seniority, which involves sibling relationship, too, as in examples 25-28.
Example 25 兄弟子ani-desi elder brother-disciple ‘a senior disciple’
Example 26 孫弟子mago-desi grandchild-disciple ‘a disciple of a disciple of a teacher’
Example 27 先輩senpai arriving before fellow ‘senior fellow’
Example 28 後輩koohai arriving after fellow ‘junior fellow’
The hierarchy usually depends on the order of entry to the ‘gate’ (another metaphor to be discussed later) of the house of the teacher. Hence, the first comer to the teacher’s gate (門 mon) is 兄弟子ani-desi (兄elder.brother, 弟子disciple,= ‘senior disciple’) and 先輩senpai (先before, 輩fellow,= ‘senior fellow’), compared to the later arrivers.
Tao of learning
Naturally the order corresponds to seniority, so 兄弟子ani-desi and 先輩senpai usually mean the students who are older in age and superior in advancement. Seniority means wisdom, as seen in the Confucian influence on the Japanese view of learning. Things old are important to study, as the proverb from the Analects of the Confucius goes, 子曰、温故而知新、可以為師 Si no notamawaku, huruki o atatame-te atarasiki o siru, motte si to naru besi (Kanaya, 1963, p. 32), (“The Master said, He who by reanimating the Old can gain knowledge of the New is fit to be a teacher”) (Waley, 1989, p. 90). It seems that vertical and familial structures as metaphorically expressed in the teacher-student relationship are fossilized in the institutional structure of the universities. Prestigious universities tend to hire their faculty members from their graduates (純血zyunketu, ‘pure bloods’) as if they were keeping the family blood-line. Not only human relationship but also place of learning is conceptualized in terms of FAMILY. Particularly, gates, garden, windows, and houses are used to characterize a place for learning as FAMILY HOME. Firstly, the ‘gate,’ 門 mon, is a metonymy and a metaphor for a ‘school’ as a group of scholars, in example 29. a b c d e
Example 29 門に入る mon ni hairu ‘to enter the gate’ (=to enter a school) 門をたたく mon o tataku ‘to knock at the gate’ (=to apply for a school) 門人 monzin gate-people ‘members of the school’ 門弟 montei gate-younger brother ‘disciples of the same school’ 同門 doomon same-gate ‘members of the same school’
Secondly, the ‘garden’ 庭 niwa or 園（苑）sono, or the ‘window’ 窓 mado of the house of the teacher is also a metaphor (and at the same time, a metonymy) for the ‘school,’ as indicated in example 30.
Masako K. Hiraga
a b c d
Example 30 教えの庭 osie no niwa ‘garden of teaching’ 学びの園（苑） manabi no sono ‘garden of learning’ 学びの窓 manabi no mado learning GEN window ‘place of learning’ 学園 gakuen 学study, 園（苑）garden ‘school, academy, institute, etc.’
Thirdly, the concept of HOUSE is used to conceptualize authority, as in example 31. a b
Example 31 大家 taika big.house ‘authority, grand teacher’ 家元 iemoto house.base ‘founder of the house’
Thus, what is highlighted in an overall metaphorical image of teacher-student relationship as PARENT-CHILD in the HOUSE is the importance of seniority and authority rather than the love and affection of the family relationship. Structural aspects of the familial systems are utilized in the metaphorical conceptualization of human relationships in Japanese learning. Examination is combat in war Modernization of the educational system (which started in the latter half of Meiji Era) has given rise to the metaphorical concept, EXAMINATION IS COMBAT IN WAR. Having a good educational background became a key to success on the
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social ladder. The competition gradually increased according to the growth of the student population in senior high schools and universities until 1960. Between 1960 to 1975 when Japan enjoyed its rapid economic growth, there was a sharp increase of student population; and yet, the nation’s economy supported the increase of the number of institutions of secondary and higher education to accommodate more students. However, since 1975 when the Japanese economy began to slow down and the government started to decrease its financial support to the educational institutions, both the number of institutions and the number of the students have largely stabilized. It was then that the severest competition started because of the polarization between good schools and bad schools into rigid hierarchies. That is, the enrolment for good schools is insufficient to accommodate the students wanting to enter in order to obtain their tickets to success. There are competitions everywhere – among students, parents, schools, preparatory schools, cram schools, districts, prefectures, and nationally. This competition generally starts when the pupils finish their compulsory education at junior high schools at the age of 16; but, in the urban areas, it even starts when the child is born. Pupils and students compete to pass entrance examinations to good kindergartens, good primary schools, good high schools, and good universities in 受 験戦争zyuken sensoo (‘exam war’) in which 必勝 hissyoo (‘sure victory’) is a common slogan. Subjects such as English and mathematics are受験の武器 zyuken no buki (‘weapons of the exam’) to fight this battle with. Extracurricular activities, sports, arts, hobbies, etc. could be受験の敵 zyuken no teki (‘enemies of the exam’), which distract the students from studying. 受験作戦 zyuken sakusen (‘strategies of the exam’) against the enemies and 的をしぼるmato o siboru (‘to focus the target’) are also important to determine 勝者 syoosya (‘winner’) and 敗者 haisya (‘loser’) of the 受験戦争 zyuken sensoo (‘exam war’). In many families, having their children win the entrance exam war is the most important agenda. Many fathers live separately from the family because they have children who are involved in the entrance exam war – either when they are fighting to enter a good school or have passed and got enrolled in a good school. They say it is a time of ‘emergency’ (非常時 hizyoo-zi) so that they have to bear inconveniences. There is a broad classification of secondary schools and cram schools into two kinds – 受験校 zyuken koo (‘schools for exams’) and 補習校 hosyuu koo (‘schools for study review’). In受験校zyuken koo, school curricula are designed to provide benefits in the exam war. Some cram schools even call their intensive courses, 特 訓tokkun (‘special training’), a name associated with military exercises. It might be an unhappy coincidence that school uniforms for boys in most secondary schools are designed after military uniforms, which started in the Meiji Era. Also in school sports, particularly in athletic meets, the way students march
Masako K. Hiraga
and compete generally brings a strong association with military parades and exercises. There is the case of a similar metaphor, SPORTS ARE WAR. Probably in people’s minds, the WAR metaphors – EXAMINATION IS WAR, and SPORTS ARE WAR, in particular, and LIFE IS WAR, in general – have unconsciously nested to foster such behavior patterns. It is interesting to note, in this regard, that the word for the teacher, 教師kyoosi, etymologically means a commander, a person who gives instructions with a whip (or rod) with another military connotation. Conclusions To conclude, it is worth considering the connection between the traditional metaphorical conceptualizations of LEARNING as JOURNEY, IMITATION, and FAMILY and the modern conceptualization of EXAMINATION as WAR. One of the questions to be addressed in this regard is what are the images of human beings, particularly how students are conceptualized metaphorically in the educational process as outlined above? In the traditional view, they are the children and the followers, who obey the teacher as they do their fathers and imitate the model given by the elder teacher. In the modern view, they are the fighters in the war of life; but, at the same time, they are the victims of that war. It seems that the metaphorical images of human beings in learning in Japan’s educational system, both traditional and modern, have rather negative connotations, lacking in original and creative inspiration, positive involvement, or active interaction. This is in spite of the merits of such learning as diligence, devotion, hard-work, and commitment. We could detect in the metaphorical conceptualization of learning a tendency to cast the students into a uniform frame, which seems to reflect an undercurrent of the demand of the Japanese society as a whole. The pitfalls of Japanese education may in part be derived from this type of molding of the collectivistic cultural background. Conceptualization of learning and education relate deeply to the conceptualization of understanding and knowing. For example, 解るor 分るwakaru (‘to understand’) and 諭るsatoru (‘to be enlightened’) are the two verbs corresponding to the two stages of understanding – factual understanding and spiritual understanding. 解る or 分るwakaru concerns the mental state of ‘cutting and dividing’; whereas, 諭るsatoru the state of being awakened, having a clearer vision, or coming back from going astray. It is interesting to note that both verbs use metaphorical conceptualizations. In 解る or 分るwakaru, the metaphor of SWORD as an instrument of cutting and dividing is apparent. Obviously, one of the first analyti-
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cal steps to understand physical objects is to dissect them.5 諭るsatoru, on the other hand, presents a more universal holistic metaphor – that of VISION for understanding (cf. Sweetser, 1990). Metaphors of LIGHT (BRIGHTNESS vs DARKNESS), CLARITY, etc. are exploited in the metaphors for understanding in Japanese, too. a
Example 32 vision お話の先がよく見えません。 O-hanasi no saki ga yoku mie-masen HON-talk GEN front ACC well see-NEG ‘I cannot see the consequences of your talk.’
b
light 彼は現代の音楽に明るい。 Kare wa gendai ongaku ni akarui he TOP contemporary music DAT bright ‘He knows contemporary music well.’
c
clarity あなたの意見はこの点がはっきりしません。 Anata no iken wa kono ten ga hakkiri simas-en you GEN opinion TOP this point NOM clear do-NEG ‘Your opinion is not clear at this point.’
Note also that 諭るsatoru involves a JOURNEY metaphor in that it means ‘coming back from going astray.’ The verb, 諭るsatoru, has the same etymology and the Chinese character as 喩るtatoeru (to metaphorize). In fact, the use of metaphors and analogies are the means of becoming enlightened. The Chinese characters for satoru and tatoeru, 諭るand 喩る, consist of ‘word, 言’ or ‘mouth, 口’ and ‘transfer,’ being strikingly similar to the etymology of an Indo-European counterpart, ‘meta-phore’ (< carry-over). Not only to discuss metaphors for learning in a broader context of related conceptual metaphors but also to apply cognitive models instantiated in metaphorical expressions in the analysis of actual learning situations would be one of the significant issues of further research. Turner and Hiraga (2003) is a preliminary attempt to draw on cognitive models of learning in metaphorical conceptualizations as a source of explanation for socio-pragmatic misunderstanding in the interaction between British tutors and Japanese students. It has been suggested 5. In this regard, manipulation of objects, particularly, grasping them, also gives rise to the metaphor, i.e., UNDERSTANDING IS GRASPING. つかむtukamu (‘to grasp’) and 把握する haakusuru (‘to handle and grasp’) are the verbs utilizing this metaphorical conceptualization.
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that a comparative and contrastive examination of the metaphorical conceptualizations would be a useful method when we look at behavioral differences manifested in the cross-cultural interaction. It is hoped that the above analysis opens the ground for cross-cultural comparison of the cognitive and linguistic terms as well as sociological and ideological terms and perspectives. References Azuma, H. et. al. (1981). Hahaoya no taido, koodoo to kodomo no titeki hattatu [Attitudes and behaviors of mothers and cognitive development of children]. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Azuma, H. (1994). Nihonzin no situke to kyooiku [Disciplines and education of the Japanese]. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Ikuta, K. (1987). Wazakara siru [Knowing from skills]. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Kanaya, O. (Trans.). (1963). Rongo [The Analects]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Maruno, S. (1993). Gakusyuu-kyoozyu katei [Process of learning and teaching]. In K. Haraoka (Ed.), Kyooiku sinrigaku [Educational psychology] (pp. 66-76). Tokyo: The University of the Air Press. Miyake, K. (1995). Kodomo no hattatu to syakai bunka [Child development, society and culture]. Tokyo: The University of the Air Press. Sweetser, E. (1990). From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Turner, J. M. & M.K. Hiraga. (2003). Misunderstanding teaching and learning. In J. House G. Kasper & S. Ross (Eds.), Misunderstanding in social life, (pp. 154-172). London: LongmanPearson Education. Waley, A. (Trans.). (1989). The Analects of Confucius. New York: Vintage Books. Zeami. (1972). Kadensyo. K. Kawase (Trans.). Tokyo: Koodansha.
Sources Kaizuka, S. et. al. (Eds.). (1959). Kanwa tyuu ziten [Chinese characters dictionary in Japanese]. Kadokawa Shoten. Shibata, T. et. al. (Eds.). (1995). Sekai kotowaza daiziten. [Dictionary of the proverbs of the world]. Tokyo: Taishuukan. Shoogaku tosho henshuu. (1982). Kozi, zokusin, kotowaza daiziten [Dictionary of proverbs and sayings]. Tokyo: Shoogakkan.
Intersections and diverging paths Conceptual patterns on learning in English and Japanese Erich A. Berendt
Seisen University, Tokyo, Japan This paper makes a comparative, data-based study of the conceptual metaphoric patterns in the English and Japanese contemporary discourse on learning, utilizing the Lakoff, et al. approach in contemporary metaphor theory. Data blocks represent four genre types: word reference lists, technical writing, essays, and conversations. In analyzing all relevant expressions in the learning discourse, five analytical issues are examined: complete analysis of all data, abstractness of patterns, use of iconic writing and etymologies, complex conceptual juxtapositioning, and compound metaphoric expressions. Finally, the implications of the socio-cultural values for learning are discussed.
Keywords: learning, conceptual metaphors, English and Japanese, data-based, socio-cultural values. Introduction The goal of intercultural awareness, while necessary in our modern world of multiple contacts, is also most probably illusive in many ways. Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781) argued at the time of the dominance of scientific rationalism that it was impossible to be certain what the order we think we discern in nature bore to reality. This “order” was simply the creation of our own minds. Even the scientific laws of Newton would probably tell us more about human psychology than about the cosmos. When the mind receives information about the physical world outside itself through the senses, it has to reorganize this data according to its own internal structures in order to make any sense of it. As we create orders of understanding in more allusive aspects of our experiences the nature of our cognitive patterning becomes a key to our own cultural awareness and its contrast to others.
Erich A. Berendt
George Lakoff in Women, Fire and Dangerous Things (1987) as well as in his earlier work (Lakoff and Johnson 1980) has examined the vocabulary used in expressing various aspects of cognitive patterns in English in their argument against the cultural values of “objectivism” in western thought by analyzing such expressions into underlying conceptual patterns. While, their primary purpose was to argue for an “experientialist” view of how reality is created in human expression and thus to critique the assumptions inherent in the “objectivist vs. subjectivist” approaches in modern western society, they have also suggested in the context of arguing for a cognitive semantics that an approach to human discourse seen through such underlying conceptual schema patterns could be significant in understanding in cross-cultural communication. While their data/examples have been primarily from the English language, they have noted the issues of varying degrees of potential cognitive patterning differences among languages in their research. Berendt (1991) in a systematic comparative study of English and Japanese expressions related to the concept IDEAS found eleven underlying conceptual patterns in the English and Japanese data. What was most significant, however, was not just the types of conceptual patterns themselves, but the variations in the uses within the patterns. All underlying patterns found in the data occurred in each language. Only one pattern out of the eleven, however, showed a high degree of unanimity in shared use (95%) in English and Japanese; one with marginal unanimity (76%); the others varied from a low of 8% to 60% with many conflicting judgements in the entailments and connotations of use. To establish the degree of unanimity in the semantic sense between English and Japanese in the conceptual representation of IDEAS the question of whether the underlying conceptual patterns which were found not only occurred in both languages but also whether they were used with similar connotations of intent was the purpose of that paper. In the analysis, four cross-cultural relationships were made in categorizing the use of the underlying conceptual patterns. (A) Similar in form and meaning between English and Japanese (unanimity); (B) similar in form but different in meaning; (C) different in form but similar in meaning; and (D) miscellaneous items different in form and meaning. For further discussion on the above results see Berendt (1991).1
1.
E.Berendt, 1991, p.183-201
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Table 1. Conceptual patterns used in English & Japanese for ideas Relational Categories
A
B
C
D
52% 42% 35% 8% 29% 49% 39% 95% 76%
4% 4% 0 0 0 0 18% 0 6%
12% 32% 18% 36% 28% 32% 14% 0 9%
32% 22% 47% 56% 43% 19% 29% 5% 9%
53% 60%
37% 12%
0 0
10% 28%
Conceptual Patterns 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
IDEAS are FOOD IDEAS are LIQUID ARGUMENT is HUNTING ARGUMENT is FIGHTING IDEAS are ORGANISMS THEORIES are BUILDINGS THEORIES are PATHS/JOURNEYS IDEAS are PICTURES IDEAS are A LIGHT SOURCE (Understanding is Seeing) IDEAS are ENTITIES IDEAS are COMMODITIES
The purpose of the present study is to make a comparative study of the conceptualization patterns in English and Japanese discourse in the domain of LEARNING, again utilizing the Lakoff-Johnson approach: not only to examine the language specific cultural semantics in terms of the cognitive patterns which are used and shared between English and Japanese conceptualizations of LEARNING, but also to examine how the patterns vary in various genre related to the domain of LEARNING. Data and analytical Issues Expressions related to the target domain of LEARNING were first collated from various reference works, such as thesauruses, synonym dictionaries, topic referenced collections and Chinese-character dictionaries of Japanese. Related key words such as educate, teach, instruct, and study in English, and narau, 習う manabu, 学ぶ benkyo(suru) 勉強 (する) and osieru 教える in Japanese were focused on in collating the lists of expressions. In addition to such lists of expressions from reference works representing potential vocabulary, several genre-related sources related to the domain of learning were decided upon to facilitate a degree of comparability in the English and Japanese data. Besides the reference lists of potential vocabulary sources (group A), the genre selected were (B) technical and academic writing on the psychology of learning plus “how to” popular books on learning, (C) essay style writing on topics related to learning, and (D) conversational
Erich A. Berendt
discourse centering on learning themes and school life from several films. A total of about six hours of filming for each language was maintained for group D. A list of all data sources is given after the bibliography of reference works. The delineation of the data sources into genre types had a two-fold purpose: (a) to examine the actual conceptual patterns utilized in various discourse situations on learning to see whether there would be any significant variation in use related to genre style, and (b) whether there might be divergences between English and Japanese in genre types. After selecting the genre based data to maintain a balance between the language sources, establishing the underlying patterns and analyzing all expressions in the data related to learning was not without its difficulties. Determining underlying patterns within one language set is often difficult in the choice of both the degree of abstraction as well as labelling, but doing so across language specific placement into frames has varying degrees of ambiguity. Some underlying conceptual patterns are, however, readily recognized and easily compared across language types. The PATH conceptual pattern with its attendant schema of direction-starting point-goal related to JOURNEY and the ENTITY/COMMODITY with related entailments in its schema of value, quantity, acquisition, etc. are found in both languages and in most cases easily recognized in the conceptual pattern placement of the specific expressions. LEARNING IS AN ENTITY/COMMODITY – to learn things – to grasp what the teacher said – bunsyo no taii o tukamu（文章の大意を掴む）>to grasp the summary – tisiki o kariru （知識を借りる）>to borrow knowledge LEARNING IS A PATH – new paths to learning – there is no royal road to learning – osie mitibiku （教え導く）>guided teaching – ippo humikonda benkyo （一歩踏み込んだ勉強）>one step to learning In the process of establishing generalized conceptual patterns the comparison of lexical expressions into intuitively derived groupings which have a sense of realistic acceptability has faced at least five problematic issues in doing an exhaustive analysis of all the data related to LEARNING. First is the challenge of completeness. In this paper an attempt to provide an extensive data base of all expressions used in conceptualizing the domain of LEARNING through the selection of appropriate genre has required us to deal with all potential items into underlying conceptual patterns. Other studies in this area, notably the Lakoff groups of studies
Intersections and diverging paths
(Lakoff 1987, Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Lakoff and Turner 1989), have based their analysis on selected expressions. Of the 14 underlying conceptual patterns most data in this study fall readily into certain clear patterns (See Table 2). Marginal and low frequency items, however, can pose a challenge in their conceptual pattern placement. The ad hoc selection of representative examples in the studies mentioned above allow a neatness which an analysis of all data may result in a proliferation of minor patterns. Table 2. Total shared conceptual patterns in English and Japanese
Total shared conceptual patterns in English and Japanese 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Entity Path Activity Light Source Container Area Ingesting
J. 25.7% J. 10.5% J. 13.9% J. 1.05% J. 7.2% J. 6.5% J. 5.3%
E. 24% E. 14.3% E. 14.1% E. 13.3% E. 6.9% E. 3.4% E. 1.1%
8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Act of Com. Depth Process Conduit Levels Power Fire
J. 3.2% J. 3% J. 2.3% J. 1.9% J.1.5% J. 0.2% J. 0.2%
E. 2.4% E. 1.1% E. 1.7% E. 1.7% E. 1.3% E. 0.6% E. 0.2%
The second issue is the degree of abstraction in grouping underlying patterns. Lakoff (1987), Johnson (1987) and Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argue for skeletal image schemata as crucial elements for categorization. In our English data, LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE includes three sub-patterns: LEARNING IS DISCOVERY, LEARNING IS A WAY OF SEEING, and LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE. The subsequent number of token items is quite large (62), fourth in the ranking of
Erich A. Berendt
English conceptual patterns. Japanese, on the other hand, has a very low ranking because the limited number of tokens are related only to illumination. Similarly, the underlying conceptual pattern LEARNING IS A PROCESS focuses on different aspects of the abstract frame. The English items have been grouped under PROCESS because they intuitively seem to be related to chemical/industrial “process” which change materials into something else, such as into a finished product. – learning through a process The Japanese tokens include expressions related to the making of Japanese sake and liquid process. – zibun no nakade hakko si （自分の中で発酵し）>to ferment in oneself – kyoiku ga nizimideru （教育が滲み出る）>education oozes out While the two languages’ patterns can be argued on an abstract level to be dealing with changes in learning in terms of processes, the culturally specific nature of the tokens may well be obscured by increasing abstraction. Edward T. Hall has argued that “the more abstract the symbol, the greater the likelihood of a sizable individual component”2 will be lost. The question then is whether to make an inclusive analysis of vocabulary items because of some shared features, a judgement of what is dominant, or to make separate, contrastive patterns even though there are similarities in the semantics of the vocabulary. This issue particularly comes to the fore in what Lakoff has called “structural metaphors.” LEARNING IS AN ACTIVITY is an illustration of the first choice. In the Japanese data the sub-groups LEARNING IS CARVING, LEARNING IS POLISHING and LEARNING IS IMITATING reflect Japanese cultural traditions and values. POLISHING is not only a frame for the act of polishing but also it has a traditional sacred denotation in the art of sword making. More relevant to current educational practices in Japanese is that of IMITATING. The traditional schema of learning in Japan includes the stages of observing a model, imitating through practice and then breaking with the model to create a new understanding or representation. This is reminiscent of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In his dialectic (Phenomenology of the Mind 1807) every state of being inevitably brings forth its opposite. As these opposites clash (antithesis), an integration can be realized into a new synthesis. The result of this creativity to achieve a new understanding is compatible with the Japanese sense of mastering an art/ skill (first immersion then antithesis) but its dialectical process depending on initial antithetical conflict is in contrast to the role of observation and mastery of a model of an art before creating a new model. The vocabulary centering on manabu 2. E.T. Hall, 1976, p.212
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学ぶ reflects the second stage. Etymologically manabu is derived from “a mother guiding a child through gestures”3 requiring repeated practice and imitation. A related pattern to “imitating” can be seen in LEARNING IS RAISING BIRDS, in which the vocabulary center on narau 習うand other bird related metaphors (eg. habataku 羽ばたく= to flap the wings). The image icon and denotation is that of young birds practicing to learn to fly through repeated practice. The Chinese characters/kanji play a significant role in the iconic representation of the words’ meanings. Hiraga describes “the interplay of metaphor and iconicity in the creation and interpretation of spoken and written discourse” that the characters have in Japanese in contrast to English. (Hiraga 2005 :3) The reverse choice of making contrastive patterns can be seen in comparing the Japanese LEARNING IS WAR and the English LEARNING IS HUNTING. The Japanese vocabulary (e.g. ensyuu 演習 and zissen 実戦 tyosen 挑戦) clearly is related to the schema of war: training in manoeuvres or exercises, battles, challenge to fight, etc. The English vocabulary centers on “target” and “shooting”. Even though “shooting” is relevant to the patterns in each language, the larger cluster of vocabulary items suggests the contrastive patterns. Neither conceptual pattern (WAR in Japanese; HUNTING in English) have a high frequency in the data. Both the Japanese and the English ranked fifteenth in frequency of use. The third issue is to what degree to depend upon etymological meaning as a criterion for analyzing the vocabulary into underlying patterns. Clearly the etymologies of the Chinese characters with their semantic focus are useful, as are the etymologies of English key words. The contemporary use of the vocabulary, however, has been given priority in this study. The Japanese verb osieru 教える “to teach” is a case in point. This verb and its iconic representation has an etymology in which parents’ teach a child by using a strap. More relevant, however, would be the current sentence frames in which “something” as the object of the transitive verb is taught or given, leading to placement in the LEARNING IS A ENTITY conceptual pattern. The English verb teach (something) to (someone) is similarly analyzed into that pattern. The etymologies of the English verbs learn and educate are useful in interpreting the related expressions in their contemporary grammatical metaphors. The verb educate is derived from educere, meaning “to lead someone” in Latin. The contemporary English usage still reflects its etymology in that educate can only take an animate object. “to educate someone,” relating it to LEARNING IS A PATH/JOURNEY. The verb learn derived from the telling of lore in Old English takes only an inanimate object in modern standard written English, leading to its
3.
Miyamoto Y., 1988, p. 580
Erich A. Berendt
analysis as LEARNING IS A ENTITY. For further explication on the role of etymologies of words and metaphoric connections, see Sweetser 1990. Sentence frames expressing LEARNING create a potentially complex juxtaposition of several conceptual patterns and require a choice of focus on certain elements over others in analyzing all the data. This is the fourth issue. – Educational solution leads to insight. In the above sentence frame underlying the conceptual patterns of PATH (leads to), LIGHT SOURCE (insight), and ENTITY (solution) are present. However, the verb lead was selected as the focus for analysis, so that the dominant frame is LEARNING is a PATH. Sentence frames allow for complex associations indicating powerful resources for metaphoric conceptualisation but also make the analytical task complex. The above example shows the interdependence of levels of metaphoric expression, the issue of what constitutes a metaphor and the complexity of determining the primary underlying conceptual pattern. The classic view of metaphor as an expression of the concrete with something else to express an abstract or more ephemeral concept is made complex first by utilizing the inanimate subject “solution” with an animate verb “lead”; second, the subject “solution” is also derived metaphorically (LIQUID) and lexicalized in its use in current English to social and psychological issues, such as in “problem resolution”. The goal of the PATH is a light, ILLUMINATION metaphor for understanding, as in UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING. It can be argued that the whole is given coherence by the PATH as the underlying conceptual metaphor which acts as an underlying conceptual frame. The fifth analytical issue is related to interpreting compound words. Compounds may also juxtapose differing conceptual patterns just as in sentence frames above. A focus for analytical priority is needed in the larger complexity of expression. In Japanese there is a frequency of such compounds. The example of tukuridasu 作り出す allows two foci: first, tukuru 作る “to make” and dasu 出す “to push out.” The compound meaning is “to produce.” The patterns of ACTIVITY(making) and ENTITY (something being pushed out) as well as perhaps PROCESS are relevant. There is an extensive number of compounds with the verb manabu 学ぶ, and its compound reading of gaku. Examples are yugaku 遊学 meaning to study for pleasure, dokugaku 独学 meaning to study by oneself, kugaku 苦学 meaning to endure difficult study, syogaku 初学 referring to elementary or beginning study, dogaku 同学 meaning to study simultaneously with someone or something, kyogaku 共学 meaning to study cooperatively. While manabu / gaku 学ぶ / 学 is clearly the focus of these compounds, the compounds allow expression of various values about learning, such as the need for cooperation, enduring
Intersections and diverging paths
difficult learning is good, pleasure in learning has low value, etc. The English data is remarkable for the absence of the use of such compounds. While these analytical issues suggest the problematic nature of intuitive classifications, the complexity of creating and using conceptualisation patterns also points to the power of such diversity. Results The diversity of the underlying conceptualisation patterns in the English and Japanese data indicate the complexity and flexible power of conceptionalization in the two languages. Of the total of twenty-one patterns plus sub-groups, fourteen were found in both languages. See Table 2. The languages shared many patterns, particularly in the high frequency patterns such as LEARNING IS AN ENTITY, LEARNING IS A PATH, LEARNING IS AN AREA, and LEARNING IS A CONTAINER, all of which had high intuitive validity. Among the fourteen shared patterns there were some significant differences in the sub-group patterns. LEARNING IS A THING included six related patterns such as LEARNING IS AN ENTITY, LEARNING IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY, LEARNING IS ACQUIRING THINGS, LEARNING IS AN INSTRUMENT, MORE IS BETTER and LEARNING HAS A PATTERN / DESIGN. In addition, Japanese had a fairly large number of expressions related to LEARNING IS WEARING (mi ni tukeru 身に着ける). Table 3. Productive shared patterns in English & Japanese PATTERNS AND TOKENS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
LEARNING IS AN ENTITY LEARNING IS A PATH LEARNING IS AN ACTIVITY LEARNING IS A CONTAINER LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE LEARNING IS AN AREA LEARNING IS A PROCESS GOOD LEARNING IS DEEP LEARNING IS AN ACT OF COMMUNICATING LEARNING IS A CONDUIT LEARNING HAS LEVELS
E (70) E (51) E (54) E (18) E (26) E (12) E (8) E (13) E (11) E (6) E (2)
J (63) J (29) J (25) J (22) J (13) J (15) J (7) J (5) J (1) J (5) J (5)
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The highest ranked conceptual pattern of a structural type was LEARNING IS AN ACTIVITY with such shared sub-group patterns as DOING, WORK, CONSTRUCTION, and PERFORMANCE. The Japanese data also had three culturally specific patterns: CARVING, IMITATING, and POLISHING. In English there were the additional patterns of MAKING THINGS and ASSISTING. See appendices A and B. Table 4. English only productive patterns PATTERNS AND TOKENS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
LEARNING IS PHYSICAL CONTROL LEARNING IS A LIVING THING LEARNING IS CONCIOUSNESS LEARNING IS CULTIVATION LEARNING HAS POWER LEARNING IS A LIQUID
17 12 7 2 2 1
Table 5. Japanese only productive patterns PATTERNS AND TOKENS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
LEARNING IS INGESTING LEARNING IS GROWING A PLANT LEARNING IS BEING ALIVE LEARNING IS GIVING BIRTH LEARNING IS WAR LEARNING IS RAISING BIRDS LEARNING IS A CHANGE OF STATE USING THE HANDS IS A MEDIUM FOR LEARNING LEARNING IS FIRE
13 11 7 6 6 4 2 1 1
The two conceptual patterns LEARNING IS A PATH and LEARNING IS A CONTAINER showed a high degree of unanimity between English and Japanese. However, LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE was quite divergent. In English it ranked a high fourth in frequency whereas in the Japanese data it was very low at nineteen. The sub-patterns were also divergent. Half of the English vocabulary had to do with DISCOVERY or bringing to light a hidden thing. The Japanese data focused on ILLUMINATION. Other English sub-patterns were LEARNING IS A WAY OF SEEING and LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE. Nonetheless, the shared experiences of casting light on something (ILLUMINATING) allows us to see things; things
Intersections and diverging paths
which were in darkness or hidden can be seen. This act of physical seeing is metaphorically extended to the experiences of perception/understanding. The pattern of LEARNING IS AN AREA was much more utilized in Japanese than English. The Japanese had a significant cultural sub-group: LEARNING HAS A GATE. The gate is a metonymic symbol of not only entering an area but coming under the tutelage of the teacher or sensei 先生 (someone who is a mentor on the path of life). An examination of the productive patterns, that is, the underlying conceptual patterns actually used in writing/talking about LEARNING as in genre groups B, C, and D, as opposed to the potential patterns found in reference lists (group A), showed eleven shared patterns in Japanese and English out of the total (including the reference lists) of fourteen. Table 2 gives all the shared conceptual patterns in English and Japanese and Table 3 gives only those shared patterns which are productively used. Tables 6, 7 and 8 give a detailed breakdown for each of the three genres in the data (academic, essay and conversation). The productive patterns in Japanese which were not utilized in English included (the top five of nine patterns) LEARNING IS INGESTING, LEARNING IS A GROWING PLANT, LEARNING IS BEING ALIVE, LEARNING IS GIVING BIRTH and LEARNING IS WAR. The top three in English were LEARNING IS PHYSICAL CONTROL, LEARNING IS A LIVING THING, and LEARNING IS CONSCIOUSNESS. See Tables 3, 4 and 5. These divergent patterns between English and Japanese reflect predominantly structural conceptualisation patterns in which culturally specific frames can be seen. On a very abstract level some similarity can be seen between the patterns across the cultures. The English LEARNING IS A LIVING THING, LEARNING IS CULTIVATION and LEARNING IS CONSCIOUSNESS are paralleled by the Japanese LEARNING IS A GROWING PLANT, LEARNING IS GIVING BIRTH, LEARNING IS BEING ALIVE, and LEARNING IS LIKE RAISING BIRDS. The conventional metaphoric focus in each set of vocabulary necessitated the separate patterns. The English LEARNING IS PHYSICAL CONTROL is outstanding in its relative high frequency of use and having no Japanese equivalent. The differences across the sets of genre-based data types are also remarkable. The academic writing found in genre group B utilized a great variety of patterns. See Table 6. Including sub-patterns there were 29 in English and 26 in Japanese. In contrast there were only 9 patterns in the English essays, but the Japanese essays had 27. See Table 7. The number in the conversational genre was low in both languages with 2 in Japanese and 6 in English. See Table 8. Because of the relative paucity of patterns in conversation in contrast to writing, one could argue for metaphoric density as a genre feature. The greater diversity of pattern use in writing also suggests the flexible power of alternative modes used in writing to further
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understanding. The fact that active feedback is available in conversational genre may obviate the need for diversity in expression. Conversation is known for its low lexical density of nouns and verbs which parallel the metaphoric-conceptualization pattern density suggested above. How the conceptual pattern density is utilized in an individual’s style would also be of interest. Caroll’s writing (1964) tended to be repetitively restricted to LEARNING IS PHYSICAL CONTROL and LEARNING IS DIALOG in contrast to Brunner (1960) who used a greater variety of patterns. Table 9 summarizes the genre types in the data and the conceptual patterns found in them. Table 6. Conceptual patterns appearing in academic writing (B) Shared Patterns
Tokens
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
E (62) E (46) E (47) E (12) E (26) E (12) E (9) E (6) E (5) E (1)
LEARNING IS AN ENTITY LEARNING IS A PATH LEARNING IS AN ACTIVITY LEARNING IS A CONTAINER LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE LEARNING IS AN AREA LEARNING IS AN ACT OF COMMUNICATING LEARNING IS A PROCESS GOOD LEARNING IS DEEP LEARNING HAS LEVELS
English Only Patterns 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
LEARNING IS PHYSICAL CONTROL LEARNING IS A LIVING THING LEARNING IS CONCIOUSNESS LEARNING IS A CONDUIT LEARNING IS CULTIVATION LEARNING HAS POWER LEARNING IS HUNTING
Japanese Only Patterns 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
LEARNING IS INGESTING LEARNING IS GIVING BIRTH LEARNING IS A GROWING PLANT LEARNING IS BEING ALIVE USING HANDS IS A MEDIUM FOR LEARNING
J (52) J (23) J (14) J (17) J (3) J (10) J (1) J (2) J (1) J (3) Tokens 17 11 7 6 2 2 1 Tokens 10 4 3 2 1
Intersections and diverging paths
Table 7. Conceptual patterns appearing in essay writing (C) Shared Patterns
Tokens
1. 2. 3. 4.
E (4) E (3) E (2) E (3)
LEARNING IS AN ENTITY LEARNING IS AN ACTIVITY LEARNING IS A PATH LEARNING IS A CONTAINER
J (10) J (11) J (8) J (5)
Japanese Only Patterns 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Tokens
LEARNING IS A GROWING PLANT GOOD LEARNING IS DEEP LEARNING IS WAR LEARNING IS AN AREA LEARNING IS BEING ALIVE LEARNING IS LIKE RAISING BIRDS LEARNING IS INGESTING LEARNING IS A CHANGE OF STATE LEARNING HAS LEVELS LEARNING IS GIVING BIRTH LEARNING IS A CONDUIT LEARNING IS A FIRE
8 7 6 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 1 1
English Only Patterns
Tokens
1. LEARNING IS A LIVING THING
1
Table 8. Conceptual patterns appearing in conversation (D) Patterns and Tokens 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
LEARNING IS A PATH LEARNING IS AN ENTITY LEARNING IS AN ACTIVITY LEARNING IS A CONTAINER LEARNING IS AN ACT OF COMMUNICATING LEARNING HAS LEVELS
E (5) E (4) E (4) E (3) E (2) E (1)
J (3) J (1) – – – –
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Table 9. Genre types and conceptual patterns Reference Works (A) English: 162 tokens / 18 patterns – – – – – – – – –
Entity 43 Light 36 Path 15 Container 14 Control 12 Activity 12 Ingesting 5 Area 4 Levels 4
– – – – – – – – –
Hunting 4 Consciousness 3 Conduit 2 Living Thing 2 Preservative 2 Cultivation 1 Power 1 Fire 1 Liquid 1
– – – – – – – – –
Ingesting 12 Plant 12 Container 12 Change of State 9 Birth 9 Levels 2 Light 2 War 2 Power 1
Japanese: 207 tokens / 19 patterns – – – – – – – – – –
Entity 59 Activity 41 Path 21 Area 16 Communicate 14 Conduit 8 Birds 8 Process 7 Depth 6 Hands 6
Academic / Technical Writing (B) English: 271 tokens / 16 patterns – – – – – –
Entity 62 Path 44 Activity 42 Light 26 Control 17 Living Thing 12
– – – – –
Japanese: 125 tokens / 14 patterns – Entity 52 – – Path 18 – – Container 17 – – Activity 14 – – Ingesting 10 –
Container 12 Area 12 Communicate 9 Consciousness 7 Conduit 6
– – – – –
Process 6 Depth 5 Power 2 Cultivate 2 Levels 1
Area 9 Birth 4 Light 3 Levels 3 Plants 3
– – – –
Alive 2 Process 2 Depth 1 Communicate 1
Intersections and diverging paths
Essay Writing (C) English: 15 tokens / 6 patterns – Entity 4 – Container 3 – Activity 3
– – –
Path 2 Process 2 Living Things 1
– – – – – – – –
Alive 5 Birds 4 Ingesting 3 Change of State 2 Birth 2 Levels 2 Conduit 1 Flame 1
English: 19 tokens / 6 patterns – Path 5 – Entity 4 – Activity 4
– – –
Container 3 Dialog 2 Levels 1
Japanese: 4 tokens / 2 patterns – Path 3
–
Entity 1
Japanese: 85 tokens/ 17 patterns – Activity 11 – Entity 10 – Path 8 – Plants 8 – Depth 7 – War 6 – Container 5 – Area 5 – Process Conversation (D)
Implications Lakoff (1987) argued that certain underlying conceptualisation patterns should be universal across cultures and be represented in their language expressions, since the patterns reflect the fundamental experiences of persons. Such experiential foundations include the experiences of our bodies which generate conceptual patterns such as cognisance of things (COMMODITY and CONTAINER) as well as spatially related awareness (AREA, LEVELS, DEPTH, PATH). In the analysis of the conceptual patterns found in expressing LEARNING in the English and Japanese data, the top patterns not only were mostly shared but also largely reflect such universally fundamental experiencing of reality that Lakoff and Johnson argued for. While the data was selected to represent the contemporary communicative genre in the domain of learning, it cannot be said to be exhaustive. Nonetheless, the range of conceptual pattern typologies is a good starting point to see how our communication
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is shaped by them. The frequency tabulations also indicate the priorities in how we prefer to express ourselves in the domain of learning. As individuals we have, of course, the potential to choose and create patterns to express our ideas. An examination of the diversity of underlying conceptual patterns used in both English and Japanese on LEARNING is a tribute first to the power and flexibility of communication. This is particularly evident in the more technical writing than in conversation. The predominance of the more universally fundamental concepts is significant for the possibilities of shared cross-cultural communication. There is, however, also ample evidence in the data that the diversity in the subgroup patterns as well as divergent use of conceptual patterns provide potential sources of miscommunication. While the issue of linguistic relativity comes to mind (Whorf 1956, Lucy 1992, Lee 1996, Gumperz and Levinson 1998), the use of divergent aspects of conceptual patterns may still be cross-culturally cognizable, providing an exotic flavour in translation. Still the possibility of the intent being incomprehensible in translation needs to be also recognized when too literal a transliteration from one language to another is done without regard for the features which are highlighted in the patterns. Perhaps most important in examining the underlying conceptual patterns is the fact that in a particular culture writers or speakers in a language make choices of values in choosing expressions reflected in the patterns. These choices may be unconscious. In English the fairly high frequency of expressions related to LEARNING IS PHYSICAL CONTROL (e.g. Training, discipline, etc.) and the Japanese patterns related to IMITATING (e.g. manabu 学ぶnarau 習う) indicate values preferences in how to learn in the respective cultures. In both cultures the high frequency of LEARNING AS AN ENTITY suggests very materialistic goals in learning and the commodification of learning in our commercial, cost-performance world, although this may be counter-balanced by other high-ranked patterns: LEARNING AS AN ACTIVITY and LEARNING AS LIVING THINGS. The conceptual patterns related to the latter suggest a potential cultural-values conflict in education with the ENTITY COMMODITY pattern. An essay topic in the data “Is higher education a commodity?” 4 reflects this conflict. Culturally specific focus on particular conceptual patterns, such as the “bird” and “hand” metaphors in Japanese or the divergent foci of expressions related to the ways of communicating (English focuses on dialog whereas Japanese on passive listening and observation mainly) illustrate cultural-values differences in the domain of learning which may impact the perceived roles of the teacher and the student. Some culture-bound conceptual patterns occur more in the reference lists than in the productive genre. In Japanese RAISING BIRDS, USING THE HANDS, 4.
4
G.K. Smith (ed.), 1971, p. 241-244
Intersections and diverging paths
CHANGE OF STATE and CONDUIT, and in English INGESTING, PRESERVATIVE, FIRE and LIQUID occur mainly in reference lists. Similarly HUNTING and WAR, while showing divergent perspectives in the respective languages, can be made too much of, if one considers the prevalence of both conceptual patterns in other discourse domains (e.g. ARGUMENT IS WAR in English). Both of these conceptual patterns, however, are also quite low in frequency of use. The values implied in the conceptual patterns could probably be placed into three dominant groups: (i) Learning is seen as a thing or commodity which is acquired, has value and is exchanged/transmitted, a kind of cultural capital; (ii) Learning is a doing or activity requiring effort, having direction or path and goals; (iii) Learning is a living thing, changing, growing and developing. These value groups are high in both languages. In English, however, there are two other groups of values occurring with fairly high frequency. The LEARNING AS DISCOVERY with the values of seeking out what is hidden or unknown and LEARNING AS PHYSICAL CONTROL with values of discipline and repetitive training. The latter could be seen as similar to the Japanese expressions related to the value of repetitive IMITATING in learning. It has been argued that the underlying conceptual patterns are not only generating sources for the development and elaboration of specific expressions but also act as frames for understanding. Domains, such as LEARNING, are dependent on their effective communication in the conceptual patterns used. Such conceptual patterns are as much bridges to understanding as barriers to be crossed and have implications for cross-cultural understanding and translation. Note: This paper is a revision of an earlier study by Berendt and Souma (1997–8) “Using Cultural Values as a Measure of Intercultural Sensitivity” published in Learning: East and West Erich Berendt (ed.) by Intercultural Communication Studies VII:2 (1997–98), International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX. Bibliography 1. General References Berendt, E. A. (1991). A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphoric Patterns in English and Japanese. Cross-Cultural Communication: East and West. Vol. III. P.G. Fendos (Ed.). Taiwan: National Cheng-Kung University. Berendt, E. A.& Y. Souma (1997–8). Using Cultural Values as a Measure of Intercultural Sensitivity. Intercultural Communication Studies VII:2. San Antonio TX: Trinity University. Berendt, E. A. (Ed.) (1997–98). Learning: East and West. Intercultural Communication Studies VII:2. San Antonio TX: Trinity University.
Erich A. Berendt Gumperz, J.J. & S.C. Levinson (Eds.) (1998). Rethinking linguistic relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hall, E.T. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Press Doubleday. Hiraga, M.K. (2005). Metaphor and Iconicity: A Cognitive Approach to Analyzing Texts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Kant, I. (1781). Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings. (Ed). Lewis Beck White. Indianapolis IN 1963. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of Metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (second edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. & M. Turner (1989). More than cool reason. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lee, P. (1996). The Whorf Theory Complex: A critical reconstruction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lucy, J.J. (1992). Grammatical categories and cognition: A case study of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Miyamoto, Y (1988). New Kanji Dictionary. Glendale CA: Nihongo Institute. Ortony. A. (Ed.) (1993). Metaphor and Thought (2nd ed.) Cambridge University Press. Sweetser, E. E. (1990). From Etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Whorf, B.L. (1956). Language, Thought & Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. J.B. Caroll (Ed.). Boston MA: MIT Press. 2. Data Sources English (A) Reference Works Corwin, C. (Ed.) (1968). A Dictionary of Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents. Tokyo: Kodansha International. The Oxford Universal Dictionary (1995). London: Oxford University Press. Peter, L.J. (1977). Peter’s quotations: Ideas for Our Time. New York: Bantam Books. Rodale, J.I. (1970). The Synonym Finder. Emmaus PA: Rodale Press. Roget’s II The New Thesaurus (1988). Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin Co. (B) Technical Works Brunner, J.S. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Caroll, J.B. (1964). Language and Thought. Eaglewood NJ: Prentice-Hall. Gudschinsky, S.C. (1967). How to Learn an Unwritten Language. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston. Michel, J. (Ed.) (1967). Foreign Language Teaching. London: Macmillan. Weintraub, D.J. & E.L. Walker (1966). Perception. Belmont CA: Brooks /Cole Publishers. (C) Essays Smith, G.K. (Ed.) (1971). New Teaching New Learning. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. (D) Conversation Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (1985). Anne of Green Gables (2 Episodes) Sullivan Films, Inc.
Intersections and diverging paths Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (1987). Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (2 episodes) Sullivan Films, Inc. 3. Data Sources: Japanese (A) Reference Works Ono, S. & H. Masato (1981). Kadokawa Ruigo Sin Ziten. Tokyo: Kadokawa Syoten. (B) Technical Works Inagaki, K. & H. Giyoo (1984). Hito wa ikani manabuka—Nitizyoteki ninti no sekai. Tokyo: Chuko Sinsyo. Kurokawa, K. (1994). Dokugakuzyutu nyumon. Tokyo: Goma Books. (C) Essays Koyasu, M. (1993). Watasi to Syutaina Kyoiku—Ima gakko ga usinattanmono. Tokyo: Asahi Bunko. (D) Conversation Shochiku K.K. (1954). Nizyuusi no hitomi. Script/Director Kinosita Keisuke. Shochiku K.K. (1993). Gakko. Script/Director Yamada Yoji. Toho K.K. (1990). Syonen Zidai. Script by Yamada Taichi. Directed by Sinoda Masahiro.
Appendix A: English Data Samples 1.1 LEARNING IS AN ENTITY (A) – to grasp/ – to lay hold of/ – to get the idea of/ – to have (it)/ – to receive/ – the object of education/ – to learn things (B) – to learn lessons/ – to grasp the structure of/ – to give students an understanding/ – to take thought/stock in trade (C) – Is higher education a commodity? (D) – to learn this thing 1.2 LEARNING IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY (A) – Education is a debt due. (B) – Learning requires considerable investment of time. 1.3 LEARNING IS THE ACQUISTION OF THINGS (B) – a well-stocked mind/ – acquire new information/ – the rewards of learning 1.4 MORE IS BETTER (A) – A little learning is a dangerous thing
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1.5 LEARNING HAS A PATTERN (A) – Students should be given the best possible maps of … (B) – to design curriculum 1.6 LEARNING IS AN INSTRUMENT (A) – Education is to open their minds. – equip our people 2.1 LEARNING IS A PATH (A) – to educate (someone)/ – the way to bring up children/- The surest way is a liberal education/ – There is no royal road to learning. (B) – new paths to learning/ – To what ends shall we teach?/- learning proceeds/ – Learning takes us somewhere./- The student moves ahead rapidly. 2.2 LEARNING IS A RACE (A) – those who fall behind in the educational race (B) – How fast can he learn a language? (C) – win a scholarship 3.1 LEARNING IS DOING/AN ACTIVTY (A) – If you don’t learn, you’ll always find someone else to do it./ – education for making a living/- learn to write – easy/difficult/hard learning 3.2 LEARNING IS WORK (B) – A child learns how to work/- learning task/- work with my students 3.3 LEARNING MAKES PRODUCTS (C) – to shape education/ – fashioning curriculum/ – to tailor knowledge/ – a carefully wrought understanding/ – products of the minds of …/ – learn to produce speech/ – shaping new responses 3.4 LEARNING IS CONSTRUCTION (B) – through instruction to build upon/ – the role of structure in learning/ – to build on ideas/ – teaching fundamental structure (D) – structures support learning
Intersections and diverging paths
3.5 LEARNING IS PERFORMANCE (B) – learn to perform tasks/ – the act of learning/ – the role of learning 3.6 LEARNING IS ASSISTING (D) – to help you with your lessons 4.1 LEARNING IS DISCOVERY (A) – find out/ – uncover/ – dig up/ – get wise to/ – detect (B) – Learning is the excitement of discovery./ – learn to unmask information/ – find (patterns) 4.2 LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE (A) – see the light/ – bring to light (B) – illuminating explanations 4.3 LEARNING IS A WAY OF SEEING (A) – get the picture/ – to learn through observation (B) – Language study gives insights into…/ – Learning is a matter of revising perceptions. 5. LEARNING IS A CONTAINER (A) – get through one’s head/ – have in one’s head (B) – Many things go into learning./ – Learning can contain many or few ideas./ – fully understand 6. LEARNING IS PHYSICAL CONTROL (A) – to master/ – discipline/ – train/ – gain mastery of (B) – intensive practice of patterns/ – learn to obey commands 7. LEARNING IS AN AREA (B) – limits placed on education/ – field of study/ – to broaden knowledge 8. LEARNING IS A LIVING THING (B) – growing effort in education/ – School should be life. (C) – teacher’s growth pattern 9.1 LEARNING IS A DIALOGUE (B) – responses can be claimed with verbal responses (D) – ask questions/ – pepper me with questions
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9.2 LEARNING IS A NARRATION (B) – learning episode 10. LEARNING IS CONSCIOUSNESS (A) – Learning is to open the minds of the young. (B) – how to arouse the interest 11. LEARNING IS A CONDUIT (A) – Education is the transmission of civilization. (B) – A good theory is a vehicle for understanding. 12. LEARNING IS A PROCESS (B) – Learning involves three processes./ – Learning renders performance more efficient. 13. LEARNING HAS LEVELS (A) – to bring up (children)/ – educational levels (B) – upgrading of teaching 14. GOOD LEARNING IS DEEP (B) – to deepen knowledge/ – Learning is to deepen understanding. 15. LEARNING IS HUNTING (A) – to get a fix on/ – hunt down/ – the aim of education 16. LEARNING IS INGESTING (A) – digest/ – drink in/ – take in 17. LEARNING HAS POWER (A) – Education should allure the interest… of children. (B) – (Motives for) learning will become feebler. 18. LEARNING IS CULTIVATION (B) – Education cultivates excellence./ – fertile hypothesis (in learning) 19. LEARNING IS A PRESERVATIVE (A) – Learning preserves the errors of the past as well as wisdom. 20. LEARNING IS A FIRE (A) – inflame their intellects
Intersections and diverging paths
21. LEARNING IS A LIQUID (A) – Learning requires us to absorb… Appendix B: Japanese Data Samples 1.1 LEARNING IS AN ENTITY (A) – 助言 zyogen (=advice): 助言を与える zyogen o ataeru (=to give advice) – 掴む tukamu (= to grasp): 文章の大意を掴む bunsyoo no taii o tukamu (= to grasp the summary) (B) – 知識をつくりだす tisiki o tukuridasu (=to produce knowledge) – 知識 の消費者 tisiki no syoohisya (= the consumer of knowledge) (C) – 授業を持つ zyugyo o motu (=to have a class) 1.2 MORE IS BETTER (A) – 研究 kenkyuu (= research): 研究を積む kenkyuu o tumu (= to pile up the study) (B) – 知識の量 tisiki no ryoo (=quantity of knowledge) (C) – 学ぶということは、ぜんぶ情報の集積だと思っている。 manabu to iukotowa zenbu joho no tikuseki da to omotteiru (= they think that to learn is to pile up information) 1.3 LEARNING IS ACQUIRING THINGS. (A) – 習得 syuutoku (= acquisition): 技能を習得する。 ginoo o syuutoku suru (= to acquire technique) (B) – 情報がとれる。 zyoho ga torero (= to be able to acquire information) (C) – 知識を自分のものにする。 tisiki o jibun no mono ni suru (= to have knowledge of one’s own) 1.4 LEARNING IS A VALUABLE THING. (D) – 黄金の情報 oogon no zyoho (= golden information) 1.5 LEARNING IS AN INSTRUMENT / MACHINE. (A) – 教鞭を執る。 kyooben o toru (=to teach with whip in hands): 母校で 教鞭を執る。 bokoo de kyooben o toru (=to teach with whip in hands at the alma mater) (B) – 即有知識を駆使する。 kiyuu tisiki o kusi suru (=to manipulate acquired knowledge) -エンジンがかかりやすい。 enjin ga kakariyasui (= The engine is easy to start.)
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– 頭を切り換える。 atama o kirikaeru. (=to switch one’s mind)
1.6 LEARNING IS WEARING (A) – 身に着く。 mi nituku (to wear): 技術が身に着く。 gizyutu ga mi ni tuku (=to acquire techniques) – 身に付ける。 mi ni tukeru (=to put on): 知識を身に付ける。 tisiki o mi ni tukeru (=to put on knowledge) – 稽古をつける。keiko o tukeru. (=to put lessons on > To give lessons): 弟 子に稽古をつける。 desi ni keiko o tukeru = to put lessons on a pupil > to give lessons to the pupil) 1.7 EDUCATION HAS A PATTERN / DESIGN (C) – きれいな解法。 kirei na kaiho (= clear way of answering) 2.1 LEARNING IS AN ACTIVITY (A) – 仕立てる sitateru (= to tailor): – 一人前の人間に仕立てる。 itininmae no ningen ni sitateru (= to tailor a person as a whole individual) (C) – 理解活動。 rikai katudo (= activity of understanding) 2.2 LEARNING IS CARVING (A) – 刻む。 kizamu (=to carve): 刻むように覚える。 kizamu youni oboeru. (=to memorize (something) as if it is carved) – 肝に銘じる。 kimo ni meiziru (=to carve (something) on the liver): 彼の 忠告を肝に銘じる。 kare no tyukoku o kimo ni meiziru. (= to take his advice to heart) (C) – 子どもの明瞭な意識にちゃんと刻みつける。 kodomo no meiryona isiki no tyanto kizamitukeru. (= to carve the child’s clear consciousness > to have the child memorize clearly.) 2.3 LEARNING IS POLISHING. (A) – 磨く。 migaku (= to polish): 腕を磨く。 ude o migaku. (= to polish the arm > to improve skills) – 切磋琢磨。 sessa takuma (= to polish and hit > to improve): 互いに切磋琢 磨する。 tagai ni sessa takuma suru. (= to polish and hit each other > improve each other) (B) – 学問を磨く。 gakumon o migaku (= to polish scholarship > to improve one’s study)
Intersections and diverging paths
2.4 LEARNING IS IMITATING (A) – 独学 dokugaku (= self-education): ピアノを独学で学んだ。 piano o dokugaku de mananda. (= he learned to play the piano by himself.) (B) – 見よう見まね。 miyoo mimane (= seeing and imitating > learning from the example of others) – 学ぶことは、真似ること。 manabu koto wa maneru koto. (= learning is imitating) 2.5 LEARNING IS WORK (A) – 作る。 tukuru. (= to make): 優れた人物を作る。 sugureta zinbutu o tukuru. (= to make an outstanding person) – 薫陶 kunto (= scenting the clay when making pottery > to make an outstanding person by the teacher showing virtue): 師の薫陶を受ける。 si no kunto o ukeru. (= to receive the teacher’s scenting of the clay > to be stimulated by the teacher’s virtue) – 焼きを入れる。 yaki o ireru. (= to forge the edge of the sword by cooling in water after being heated in the fire > to discipline): 新人に焼きを入れ る。 sinzin ni yaki o ireru. (= to discipline a new person is like an edge of a sword forged by cooling in water after being heated in the fire). 2.6 LEARNING IS CONSTRUCTION (B) – 構造化された知識。 kozoka sareta tisiki (= structured knowledge) – 学習の仕組み。 gakusyuu no sikumi (= framework of study) 2.7 LEARNING IS PERFORMANCE (A) – 合点。 gaten (= score of waka or haikai): どうしても合点がゆかな い。doositemo gaten ga yukanai. (= I don’t understand the score/situation at all) 3.1 LEARNING IS A PATH (A) – 分かる wakaru (= divide): 物分かりが良い子供 mono wakari ga yoi kodomo (= a child who can divide things well > a child who can understand well) 3.2 LEARNING REQUIRES A GUIDE (A) – 手を取る。 te o toru (= take hands): 手を取って教える。 te o totte osieru. (= to teach by taking hands> to teach well) – 導く。 mitibiku (= to guide): 後進を導く。 kosin o mitibiku. (= to guide the followers)
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(D) – 手とり足とり教える。 te tori asi tori osieru (= to teach by taking hands and legs> to teach well) 3.3 LEARNING HAS A DIRECTION (B) – 成功への航路を進める。 seiko e no kooroo susumeru (= to move the ship forward to success > to lead one’s life to success) – 探索（学問上の）を方向づける。 tansaku o hookoo zukeru (= to choose one’s direction of scholarly search) 3.4 LEARNING HAS A GOAL (A) – 達する。 tassuru (= to reach): 一芸に達する。 itigei ni tassuru. (= to teach the ultimate goal of art) – 至る。 itaru (= to reach): 精進の結果、今日に至る。syooiin no kekka konniti ni itaru. (= As a result of devotion, he has reached what he is now.) (B) – 学習は、進まない。 gakusyuu wa susumanai. ( = One’s study doesn’t make progress.) – 文法獲得が進行する。 bunpo kakutoku ga sinko suru: ( = The acquisition of grammar progresses.) 3.5 LEARNING IS WALKING (B) – 自分の登ってきた道を振り返り、 zibun no nobotteta miti o hurikaeri (= to look back on the way one has climbed > to look back on one’s progress) – 目標に向かって歩き続ける。 mokuhyou ni mukatte aruki tuzukeru (= to walk towards the goal) 3.6 LEARNING IS A RACE (C) – 落ちこぼれ otikobore (= drop out) 4. LEARNING IS A CONTAINER. (A) – 詰め込む。 tumekomu (= to pack in): 知識を詰め込む。 tisiki o tumekomu. (= to pack in the knowledge) – 注入。 tyuunyuu (= to inject): 知識を注入する。 tisiki o tyuuyuu-suru (= to inject one’ s head with knowledge) (B) – 仮説を引き出す。 kasetu o hikidasu. (= to draw out an hypothesis) – 頭の中の知識 atama no naka no tisiki (= the knowledge in the head) (C) – 詰め込み教育。 tumekomi kyoiku. (= education that “crams in” know ledge > education stressing rote learning)
Intersections and diverging paths
4.1 LEARNING HAS AN AREA (A) – 踏む。 humu (= to tread on): 実地を踏む。 zitti o humu. (= to tread on an actual spot > to have practical experience) – 老熟。 rozyuku (= to get old and matured): 老熟の域に達する。 rozyuku no iki ni tassuru (= to reach a maturing area > to attain maturity) (B) – 井の中の蛙、大海を知らず。i no naka no kawazu taikai o sirazu. (= The frog in the well doesn’t know the ocean.> Someone who lives in a small world doesn’t know the outside world.) (C) – 頭の中を白紙の状態にする。 atama no naka o hakusi no zyotai ni suru. (= to have the brain as white paper > One’s mind becomes open.) 4.2 LEARNING HAS A GATE (A) – 門前の小僧習わぬ経を読む。 monzen no kozo narawanu kyo o yomu. (= A Buddhist disciple in front of the temple gate recites a Sutra without being taught. > to learn something by watching/listening) (B) – 難関を突破する。 nankan o toppa suru. (= to break through a tough checkpoint > to clear the hurdle) 5. LEARNING IS INGESTING (A) – 消化。 syoka (=ingesting): 外国文化を消化する。 gaikoku bunka o syoka suru. (= to ingest foreign culture> to assimilate foreign culture) – 噛んで含める。 kande hukumeru (= to chew and feed mouth to mouth): 噛んで含めるように教える。 kande hukumeru youni osieru (= to teach (knowledge) by chewing and feeding mouth to mouth > teaching painstakingly) (B) – 知識を吸収する。 tisiki o kyuusyuu suru (= to absorb knowledge) – 自分なりに咀嚼する。 zibun nari ni sosyaku suru (= to chew in one’s own way) (C) – 噛みしめて読む。 kamisimete yomu (= to read by chewing well > to read carefully) 6. LEARNING IS LIKE A GROWING PLANT (A) – 熟す。 zyukusu. (= to ripen): 経理に熟した人。 keiri ni zyukusita hito. (= someone who is ripened in accounting > someone who is skilful in accounting) – 枯れる。 kareru. (= to wither): 枯れた芸。 kareta gei. (= withered art > matured art) – 培う。 tutikau.(= to cultivate): 思考力を培う。 sikooryoku o tutikau. (= to cultivate the ability to think)
Erich A. Berendt
– 落ち込みの芽を早く摘んで otikomi no me o hayaku tunde (= to nip at an early stage the dropping buds off the stem > to find and support probable drop outs in an early stage)
(C) – 芽が出る。 me ga deru. (= to come into bud)
7. LEARNING IS GIVING BIRTH (A) – 育てあげる。 sodate ageru. (= to bring up): 子供を一人前に育てあ げる。 kodomo o itininmae ni sodate ageru. (= to bring up the child) (B) – 理解が生まれる。 rikai ga umareru. (= understanding is born > to come to understand) 8. LEARNING IS AN ACT OF COMMUNICATING (A) – 伝える。 tutaeru. (= to convey): 学問を伝える。 gakumon o tutaeru (= to convey learning) (B) – 知識を伝達する。 tisiki o dentatu suru. (= to convey the knowledge) 9. GOOD LEARNING IS DEEP (A) – 深い認識。 hukai ninsiki (= deep perception) (B) – 理解を深める。 rikai o hukameru. (= to deepen the understanding) (C) – 理解が浅い。 rikai ga asai. (= Understanding is shallow.) 10. EDUCATION IS RAISING BIRDS. (A) – 習う。 narau.(= to learn): 習うより慣れよ。 narau yori nare yo. (= Practice makes perfect.) (B) – はばたく。 habataku.(= to flap the wings > to have developed an ability and to become a working member of society) 11. LEARNING IS PROCESS (A) – 教養。 (kyooyoo (= refinement): 教養がにじみ出る。 kyooyoo ga nizimi deru. (Refinement oozes out. > Refinement is shown.) (B) – やる気がどんどん湧いてきて。 yaruki ga dondon waitekite (= Willingness to study is flowing out.> to be rapidly highly motivated) (C) – 自分の中で発酵し、 zibun no nakade hakko si (= What s/he has learned ferments in his/her own ability.) 12. LEARNING IS A CHANGE OF STATE (A) – 感染。 kansen (= infection): グループの悪に感染する。 guruupu no aku ni kansen suru. (= to be infected by the malice of the group) – 染む。 simu ( be dyed): 悪習に染む。 akusyuu ni simu (= to be dyed by bad habits> to be influenced by bad habits)
Intersections and diverging paths
(C) – 脱皮してゆく。 dappi siteyuku (= to shed its skin > to grow up) 13. LEARNING IS A CONDUIT (A) – 通じる。 tuziru( go through): その土地の事情に通じた人。 sono toti no zizyo ni tuzita hito. (= someone who has gone through the circumstances of the place> someone who is well informed about the circumstances of the place) – 失敗を通して学ぶ。 sippai o toosite manabu. (= to learn through failure) 14. LEARNING IS WAR (C) – 目標に挑戦する。 mokuhyo ni tyoosen suru. (= to attack the target >to try to achieve the aim of a lesson) – 的を得ている。 mato o atairu. (= to hit the target > be right to the point) 15. USING HANDS IS A MEDIUM FOR LEARNING (A) – 腕試し。 ude damesi (= try one’s hand at): 腕試しにやってみる。 ude damesi ni yattemiru (= to try one’s hand at > to test one’s own ability) (B) – 勉強の手を抜く。 benkyo no te o nuku. (= to pull one’s arm out from studying > to neglect one’s studies) 16. LEARNING HAS LEVELS/GOOD LEARNING IS UP. (A) – 手が上がる/下がる。 te ga agaru/sagaru. (= arm is raised/lowered.): 習字の手が上がる。 syuuzi no te ga agaru. (= The arm of calligraphy is raised.> The skill of calligraphy has improved.) (B) – 学力が低い。 gakuryoku ga hikui. (= The scholastic ability is low.) – 自分がどの程度の高さに達したのか、 zibun ga dono teido no takasa ni tassita noka (= to see how high one’s own ability has reached) 17. LEARNING IS BEING ALIVE (C) – 知識は、死んだ知識ではなく、 tisiki wa sinda tisiki dewa naku (= knowledge which is not dead> knowledge which is effective) – 活きた知識。 ikita tisiki (= living knowledge > effective knowledge) 18. LEARNING IS A LIGHT SOURCE. (A) – 判明。- hanmei (= be clear in light): 実験の結果、この仮説は正しい ことが判明した。 zikken no kekka kono kasetu wa tadasii koto ga hanmei sita (= As a result of testing, the hypotheses turned out to be clear in the light.> As a result of testing, the hypotheses turned out to be right.) (B) – 情報に照らして、 zyoho in terasite (= to shed light on information)
Erich A. Berendt
19. LEARNING IS A FLAME (C) – （体験し吸収したものが）熱をもって燃えて燃えてそして炎の ようになって、 netu o motte moete moete sosite honoo no youni natte (= What has been absorbed got heated, burned and burned and finally became like a flame.) 20. LEARNING HAS POWER (C) – ねじり鉢巻きで neziri hatimaki de (= try hard with a twisted headband > try hard with a spirit of determination/perseverance)
Cultural messages of metaphors Judit Hidasi
Budapest Business School, International Management and Business College Conceptualization of attitudes to perception and learning is both universal and culture-specific. This study examines proverbs and sayings with regard to acquiring and transmitting knowledge in Hungary and in Japan. A selection of 55 proverbs and metaphoric sayings is discussed from the point of view of their implications on social expectations toward learning and knowledge. Assuming that Hungarian culture goes back to Asian origins, the study aims at investigating the common and contrastive elements of the two cultures in metaphoric conceptualization. It is difficult though to find scientific evidence for whether the similarity of particular metaphors is attributable to their universal nature or to the common Asian heritage.
Keywords: Learning proverbs, Hungarian and Japanese comparison, universalities in conceptual metaphors, Asian heritage of the Hungarian culture The cultural function of metaphors The genius, wit and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs. (Francis Bacon) Culture’s first purpose, as we usually understand it, is to guide us through a physical, social and moral world fraught with ambiguity and a bewildering number of hermeneutical possibilities by limiting our choices. Culture offers us a locally standard way of relating to the complexity of the world surrounding us (Hidasi, 2005). The cultural heritage and accumulated wisdom of a people has to be transferred from one generation to the next. This is essential for two reasons: one, to preserve the culture, and two, to facilitate the perception and understanding of the world for the new generation. One way to transfer knowledge and experience is through the use of metaphors. In this study we will use the concept of metaphor to cover proverbs, sayings and idiomatic expressions involving metaphorical elements. It is assumed that proverbs and sayings reflect a good deal of wisdom and cultural heritage of the
Judit Hidasi
people using them. All kinds of metaphors – proverbs, sayings and idiomatic expressions – are hence often used to convey the common-sense wisdom and experience of a certain cultural group. In a certain sense, these metaphors serve as “guides” in coping with the complexity of the surrounding reality. As Lakoff and Johnson pointed out, “Yet, as rich as these experiences are, much of the way we conceptualize them, reason about them, and visualize them comes from other domains of experience”. (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, p. 45.) Metaphors therefore serve the purpose of rendering the unknown world more structured and comprehensible. Abstract ideas and concepts become comprehensible through the use of images that are familiar to us. These are called “conventional metaphors.” Many of them appear in the form of proverbs. A metaphor is a phrase that is used connotatively, in other words, the symbol is tied primarily to its concept and not to its object. In many cases, it is actually necessary to ignore the symbol’s usual object and to apply the concept to a new object or phenomenon according to the context in which it appears. Metaphors expand the literal meaning of words, or more precisely, expand the concept of the original symbol. In proverbs, words are often used as symbols that trigger the concept associated with something concrete. However, through the long-term use of various metaphors formulated as proverbs, the concept of the word broadens considerably so that the symbol ultimately develops a far greater reference of meaning than it originally had. Due to this more encompassing, broader reference of meaning, metaphors embedded in proverbs serve as vehicles for transmitting a certain concept. Proverbs, in their turn, often develop a life of their own. The origins and the types of metaphoric sayings Proverbs and aphorisms – as a particular subgroup of metaphors – are short statements of general validity often used in a community. In their apparent simplicity, they state complex truths. In most cases, they refer to human attitude, nature or action, and they often have no known author. They are considered “collective wisdom” and as common cultural heritage. As pointed out, however, by Taylor (Taylor 1931, p.1.) in Europe and by Chen Zuo-chun (1973, p.1.) in Hong Kong, many of them can be traced back to literary origins. Paczolay in his comprehensive study (2002, p. 669.) argues that some 57% of the European proverbs in current common use in fact go back to writings mostly from the literary heritage of European culture: writings of the Greek and Roman classics, or the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, or to medieval Latin writings. Poetic metaphors – or “living metaphors,” as Makiuti (1994) labeled them – are attributable to a certain author or source. However, some of the metaphors that
Cultural messages of metaphors
originated in literary works have, in the course of history, come to be generally accepted as “wisdom” and they became gradually “folklorized” due to their frequent use. Thanks to their idiomatic nature, today they have the same rank as conventional metaphors and proverbs, both in terms of familiarity and in terms of frequency of usage. A good example would be the (1) L1: Non omne quod nitet aurum est {All that glitters is not gold} H: Nem mind arany, ami fénylik
that as a proverb has its equivalent in all languages of Europe (Paczolay, 1997, pp. 125–130.). In Asian cultures with a Confucian legacy, many sayings of Confucius have been transformed to become truisms of common thinking. The Chinese (2) Ch: 闻一知十）Wen yi zhi shi {Hear one, understand/know ten } J: ｢一を聞いて､十を知る｣ Iti wo kiite, juu wo shiru
is a good example as it is believed to originate from the （孔夫子---论语）Lun Yu {The Analects of Confucius}, and to have spread to most cultures of Asia in the form of a proverb (Paczolay, 2002, p.672.). Sanskrit scriptures and other Chinese philosophers or thinkers constitute another rich source of sayings, often quoted as proverbs in current use in many countries of Asia (Takasima, 1985). The aim and method of this study Since the number of metaphoric sayings and expressions is extremely great in any culture, we will restrict our study to a certain subcategory. First, we will confine our attention to metaphors of the conventional category, irrespective of their origin. Secondly, within the rich inventory of metaphoric expressions and sayings of a given language, we will limit our focus on proverbs that are in current use. Thirdly, we will limit our study to proverbs in the contemporary Hungarian and Japanese cultures respectively. Finally, we will limit our semantic study to metaphors related to knowledge acquisition. Hence, in this study, Hungarian and Japanese proverbs and sayings associated with knowledge acquisition – teaching and learning – are analyzed and compared. The reason that these seemingly distant cultures have been selected is based on the notion that Hungarian culture – in spite of the country’s present location in the Central-Eastern part of Europe – ultimately goes back to Asian origins (Nanovfszky, 1.
Ch=Chinese; H=Hungarian; J=Japanese; L=Latin
Judit Hidasi
2004). By focusing on metaphors having to do with acquiring and transmitting knowledge in the above-mentioned two cultures, we will attempt to determine the common ground, if there is any, as well as identifying the ones that set the two cultures apart. The Hungarian language is fairly rich in sayings and proverbs. The opus magnum in the field of proverb research, published by the famous Hungarian linguist O. Nagy, contains over 23,000 entries (O. Nagy, 1985). In Paczolay’s shorter collection of present day Hungarian proverbs (Paczolay, 1991), out of the 750 entries listed, more than 170 can be related to messages on learning, acquiring knowledge, accumulating experience, ways of gathering skills and memorizing things. They often imply advice, warning or encouragement – in other words, how to acquire knowledge in an efficient way, how to keep and store it and how to apply it. The Japanese proverbs and sayings related to acquiring knowledge are even greater in number: they constitute a huge part of the cultural messages that metaphors carry (Takasima, 1985). The great dictionary of Japanese proverbs (Kotowaza Daiziten, 1982) contains 43,000 entries, out of which some 1,200 can be related to learning in the broad sense. This is presumably attributable to the fact that the importance and impact of the parent-child relationship is particularly articulated in Japanese traditions, partly as a consequence of the Confucian legacy in general and partly as a consequence of the historically unique nature of the human relationship development in Japanese society (see also Okutu, 2000, p. 143.). The parent-child relationship involves many elements of education, the family being the primary social setting where a child acquires culture. The frequency of proverb usage also sets cultures apart. People in the West who overuse maxims tend to come across as old-fashioned or bookish. In presentday Hungarian language proverbs are used sparingly, but metaphoric idioms are abundant both in the common language and in literary works. In Hungary, when proverbs are used in writing or in speech, they are likely to serve as a conclusion to a piece of discourse. In Japan, where the knowledge of proverbs is a highly valued cultural asset and the common reaction to them is a solemn nod of respect. It is also appreciated if one begins a story or an essay with a proverb. In Japan, entertainment utilizing verbal games used to be part of the pastime in popular culture prior to the cartoon era. The tradition of playing karuta games (some versions of which are based on proverbs or aphorisms) teaches proverbs to children from an early age. In this game, pairs of cards containing the beginning and the end of a saying or proverb are separated. Somebody reads the first part out aloud and the players have to find other half of that saying among the randomly scattered pairs – the faster the better. The winner is the first player to correctly identify the pairs. Although personalized video games are pervasive nowadays, surprisingly, the average Japanese is still a connoisseur of proverbs and sayings.
Cultural messages of metaphors
Since most educated people are familiar with famous sayings and proverbs from an early age, references are made to them in everyday conversation as well as in political debates and academic discussions. As a recent example the ｢米百俵精 神｣ kome hyappyō seisin {the spirit of the one hundred bales of rice} phrase can be mentioned. It was used by Prime Minister Koizumi in 2001 in one of his speeches (Koizumi 2001), and has often been quoted ever since. Originally the title of a play from the Meiji era (1868–1912), the phrase refers to an event when instead of consuming their rice, people sold it to build a school (Yamamoto, 2001). The metaphor tells us that immediate sacrifices are needed for future gains. Another reason why frequent references to proverbs and wise sayings are popular in Japan has to do with the particular communication style of the Japanese. Instead of giving laborious explanations, the Japanese often make a brief reference to a proverb, which can function as a proxy for the elaboration of thought. This serves the purposes of the listener-oriented communication style (Hidasi, 2003) of the Japanese and provides ample room for interpretation. Wisdom and skills referring to ways of acquiring knowledge – perception, interaction; input, output; discovery, appropriation; contact, integration; confrontation, distillation; feeling, acting, etc. – are transferred from one generation to the next as part of the cultural heritage transmission. Acquiring knowledge can be explicit (conscious process) or implicit (unconscious process) (De Keyser, 2003). When explicit, it is usually connected to education, which in turn implies teaching and learning – the two sides of the same coin. In most people's expectations, teaching means conveying reliable and condensed (“canned” or at least "cannable") information. Metaphors of learning can be conceived of as teachings about the ways of learning or about knowledge acquisition in a broader sense. Layers of meanings in metaphors It is assumed that there are three layers of meanings in metaphors that are instrumental in their comprehension. They are as follows: – Meaning of the message – Meaning of the image – Meaning of the linguistic formulation On each level, both universal and culture-specific metaphors are to be found. The first layer is the level of message. A message conveying a common wisdom of learning and doing, such as “to err is human” is universal. The way it is expressed, however, is rather less universal – actually, in most cases, it is culture specific. This stands to reason, since the circumstances and the environment that
Judit Hidasi
people live in are always different. Consequently, the reality on the basis of which experiences are formulated, changes from culture to culture. Hence the same (universal) message can be conveyed in different (culture specific) forms of expression. The following expressions are culture specific: (3) J:
｢猿も木から落ちる｣ Saru mo ki kara otiru {Even a monkey falls from a tree}
4) H: A lónak négy lába van, mégis megbotlik, hát akinek kettő {Even a horse with his four legs stumbles, let alone (people) with their two }.
The message being the same, the expression – both the mental image and the linguistic formulation – is culture specific. Hungarians would never use an expression referring to monkeys, since monkeys have never been (not even in their Asian past) a part of their cultural habitat. One cannot state with certainty that all messages of metaphors – and for that matter of proverbs – are of a universal nature. For instance, one of the most often quoted Japanese proverbs is: (5) J:
｢出る杭は打たれる｣ Deru kui wa utareru {The nail that sticks out is to be hammered in}.
The concept itself – also known as the tall poppy syndrome – seems to have equivalents in some other cultures (Australian, Scandinavian, etc.) as well, but not in its Japanese reading. This proverb conveys a fundamental rule of behavior in Japanese society – “not to stand out from but to blend in with the group” – which in a sense is a behavior pattern unique to the Japanese. It applies to conforming to social conventions, to finding harmony with others – even at the price of giving up common sense or individual interests. While most other cultures would also sanction standing out in the “bad way” or in an aggressive way, Japanese thinking censures standing out even in the “good way.” Hence the phenomenon is unique because it does not allow for excellence over the others in any way. Many other societies encourage demonstrations of excellence, a drive to compete and to stand out from the group and they would not wish to convey messages contradicting their values. Accordingly, there is no need in these cultures to have proverbs for conveying this particular message. Therefore they also lack verbal expressions for conveying this idea. In this sense, the Japanese proverb (5) can be considered a culture specific one even on the level of the message.
Cultural messages of metaphors
The methodology of the study Proverbs and proverbial sayings related to knowledge acquisition in the Hungarian and Japanese languages will be compared in three semantic groups. The first group contains proverbs that refer to acquiring and structuring knowledge in general, the second group contains those that refer to teaching and learning, while the third group contains proverbs that refer to the lack of knowledge or lack of education. Usually the Hungarian proverb is given first, followed by the Japanese – if there is an equivalent in meaning. In some cases only the Hungarian proverb is introduced without a corresponding Japanese phrase and in a few cases only Japanese proverbs are presented – if so required by reason. Proverbs are generally followed by short comments or explanations shedding some light on their metaphoric elements. In cases where the metaphor is self-evident due to universal usage, no elaboration follows. As a second step of analysis, the very same Hungarian and Japanese proverbs will be regrouped into three categories according to the level of equivalency in meaning – either on the level of message or on the level of image, or on neither. Metaphors in Hungary and in Japan Acquiring knowledge and skills in general Many Hungarian proverbs give some advice about the benefits of patience and perseverance in acquiring knowledge and skills, such as: (6) H: Sok csepp követ váj {Many drops hollow the stone} (7) J:
｢石の上にも三年｣ Isi no ue ni mo sannen {Three years upon a rock}.
The image of the stone and the rock respectively stands for hardiness, although the linguistic formulation is slightly different: raindrops, no matter how small, if applied consistently might produce a hole; perseverance and endurance is above all. Both tell us that diligent effort produces results. The Hungarian (8) H: Senkinek sem röpül szájába a sült galamb {No roast pigeon will fly into one’s mouth}.
uses the image of roast pigeon which was a luxury dish in old Hungarian cuisine. It represents a goal that is hard to achieve. One has to work hard to attain something
Judit Hidasi
– one cannot wait for things to happen by themselves. Hence the message is that one has to work hard, one has to learn hard in order to achieve something special. There are certain techniques to be suggested for reaching one’s goal, such as (9) H: Ha rövid a kardod, toldd meg egy lépéssel! {If your sword is too short, let your feet make it longer!}
Hungarians, traditionally skilled in the technique of fighting, have often made use of metaphors from the martial arts. The application of physical force does not exclude, however, the importance of thinking, as in (10) H: Többet ésszel, mint erővel {More to be gained by wit than by force}.
The idea of the necessity of prior thinking is reinforced by the Japanese proverb. (11) J:
｢学なびて思わざれば則ちくらし､思いて学ばざれば則ち殆うし｣ Manabite omowazareba sunawati kurasi､omoite manabazareba sunawati ayausi {Learning without thinking: darkness; thinking without learning: danger}.
The idea that hardships are good educators is well articulated in a number of Japanese proverbs and sayings as well, including (12) J:
｢可愛い子には旅をさせよ｣Kawaii ko ni wa tabi o saseyo {If you love your child, make him travel}.
Travel here stands for unforeseen hardships that one might experience in new, unusual environments often accompanied by misery and the feeling of loneliness. To learn new things, one must bear with these difficulties. The message here is that people who are exposed at an early age to the hardships of an unfamiliar environment are likely to develop perseverance. As a consequence of this preparation, they are assumed to be able to successfully overcome hardships in the future and to better cope with difficulties in their adult life. A good many Hungarian proverbs warn about the dangers of heedless utterances, with the projection of meaning about the dangers of uncontrolled action. (13) H: Előbb járjon az eszed, utána a nyelved {Use your mind before you use your tongue}. (14) J:
｢念には念を入れよ｣ Nen ni wa nen wo ireyo {Double-check before taking action}.
Cultural messages of metaphors
Considering one’s words is not the same as being overly stingy with them, as reflected in (15) H: Jobb kétszer kérdezni, mint egyszer hibázni {It is better to ask twice than to err once}. (16) J:
｢聞くは一時の恥じ、聞かぬは一生の恥じ｣ Kiku wa ittoki no hazi, kikanu wa issyōno hazi {To ask once is shame for one time, not to ask is shame for all one’s life}.
It is interesting to note here that the act of asking – i.e. acknowledging one’s ignorance – is thought of as shameful in Japanese culture. Hungarians – unlike the Japanese – are not trained in the skills of isin-densin ｢以心伝心｣ {communication by tacit understanding}, hence as an encouragement for speaking up, the following proverb is often used (17) H: Néma gyereknek az anyja sem érti a szavát {Even a mother cannot understand the words of a silent child}.
This also expresses the idea that one has to stand up for his own interests and take the initiative in interactions with others if he wants to get things done. A piece of wisdom warning of the deleterious nature of ambition is expressed in the Hungarian and in the Japanese respectively as (18) H: Aki magasra hág, nagyot esik {He who climbs high, makes a great fall} (19) H: Ki sokat markol, keveset fog {He who grabs much will hold little} (20) J:
｢二兎を追う者は一兎も得ず｣ Nito wo ou mono wa itto wo mo ezu {Chase after two hares and catch none}.
The Hungarian (21) H: Lassan járj, tovább érsz {Go slow, get far}.
corresponds to the Japanese (22) J:
｢急がば回れ｣ Isogaba maware {If you are in a hurry go round-about}.
The concept of development is symbolized in both cases by the idea of forward motion. Changes take place in the course of development: the idea of change is represented by verbs of motion. Both proverbs express the same idea: ample time is needed for real achievements – a warning which pertains to the field of learning as well.
Judit Hidasi
Proverbs on teaching and learning Teaching and learning are sometimes difficult to separate. It is better to learn as much as possible at an early age, as expressed in Hungarian (23) H: Tanulj tínó, ökör lesz belőled! {Learning makes an ox out of the calf}.
One has to learn while young to become a respected adult. The metaphor taken from cattle breeding reflects the Hungarian tradition of livestock farming. The same idea is often expressed in Japanese by gardening metaphors. In a culture rich with traditions of bending and shaping trees, experience shows that trees and plants should be shaped while young: (24) J:
｢老い木は曲がらぬ｣Oi ki wa magaranu {An old tree does not bend}.
Just as in many other social actions, a good start counts for quite a lot in learning as well. This is expressed both in Hungarian and in Japanese with the same idea: (25) H: Jó kezdet fél siker {A good start takes you halfway to success}. (26) J:
｢始め半分｣Hajime hanbun {The beginning is half}.
The success of teaching might well depend on the innate qualities of the learner as well. As the Hungarian saying goes: (27) H: Korán meglátszik, mely tejből lesz jó túró {Which milk makes good curd can be told early}.
Hungarians in their history of nomadic wanderings and since their settlement in the Carpathian Basin have been breeding milk-producing livestock. A high-fat milk produces good curd, but a low-fat one never yields good dairy products – in other words, a child with a good character has a promising future as an adult. Expressions referring to the deceptive nature of sensory experience are abundant both in the Hungarian and in the Japanese cultures, as in (28) H: Többet hiszünk a szemnek, mint a fülnek {More credit is given to the eyes than to the ears}. (29) J:
「百聞は一見に如かず」Hyakubun wa ikken ni sikazu {To see once is worth a hundred words}.
Cultural messages of metaphors
To be on the safe side, one should rely on collective wisdom, as in (30) H: Több szem többet lát {The more eyes, the more seen}. (31) J:
「三人寄れば文殊の知恵」Sannin yoreba monzyu no tie {Three persons have the wisdom of Monzyu (from Buddhism)}.
This in fact reflects the tendency of Japanese people to discuss issues and make decisions in group settings. The Hungarian saying: (32) H: Jól nyisd ki a füledet! {Open your ears wide!}
is a piece of good advice, urging one to listen carefully to what others say or do in order to understand and learn. The way you learn things stay with you forever, as expressed in (33) H: Ki hogy tanulta, úgy járja a táncot {You dance the way you learned to do it}.
The metaphor here is taken from the folk heritage of Hungarians who have traditionally practiced dances as a form of pastime. The advice for ’never give up’ goes like: (34) H: Kiteszik az ajtón, bejön az ablakon {If thrown out the door, he comes back through the window}.
The corresponding Japanese saying for this is: (35) J:
「七転び、八置き」Nanakorobi yaoki {Fall on seven tries, get up for the eighth}.
The term “life-long learning” might be new to our educational and societal vocabulary, but the idea has been around for many centuries in the cultures of both Hungarians and Japanese, as reflected in: (36) H: A jó pap holtig tanul {A good priest keeps learning until his death}.
and in (37) J:
「八十の手習い」 Hatizyuu no tenarai {To learn at eighty}.
Judit Hidasi
Even priests, considered in medieval times to be the ultimate fonts of wisdom, continue to polish their minds, therefore no one can afford to discontinue learning. The proverb: (38) H: A pap is csak diák volt {Even the priest was a student once}.
reminds one of the importance of perseverance in learning with all its difficulties. The corresponding Japanese proverb says: (39) J:
「初心忘るべからず」Syosin wasuru bekarazu {Never forget the beginner’s spirit}.
The famous saying attributed to Francis Bacon “knowledge is power” has an exact equivalent in Hungarian in the form of (40) H: A tudás hatalom.
The same idea can be found in Japanese (41) J:
「知っているに超したことはない」Sitte iru ni kosita koto wa nai {Nothing exceeds knowledge}.
Knowledge should be treasured, since it accompanies you everywhere. (42) H: Jó utitárs a tudomány {Knowledge is a good traveling companion}.
A traveling companion here obviously makes use of the metaphor of life as a journey. Although there is no direct reference made to a journey but the phrase “traveling companion” triggers concepts associated with journeys. Life is often conceptualized as a journey, as one moves from birth to death. As all journeys, this one is accompanied by hardships, by obstacles that one has to overcome. In the process of the journey, knowledge comes in handy – it might help and protect one during his mission. The phrase “traveling companion” hence gains a far broader meaning than it originally had: it refers to the concept of a faithful companion one can rely on during a testing enterprise. Knowledge is accumulated gradually, as expressed in (43) H: Egyik nap a másiknak a tanítványa {Every day is the disciple of the previous one},
Cultural messages of metaphors
meaning that each day adds something new to the body of knowledge acquired before. (44) H: Tanult ember nem pottyan az égből {The educated man does not fall from heaven}.
Knowledge is not come by easily, one has to work hard to become an educated person. One can also learn a lot from watching others, as in: (45) H: Más kárán tanul az okos {The smart one learns from the trouble of others }. (46) J: 「人のふり見て、我がふり直せ」Hito no furi mite, waga furi wo naose {Correct your ways by watching others’}.
A good many proverbs express the futility of teaching someone who already possesses that skill. Not surprisingly many metaphors are taken from the animal kingdom: animals, as a matter of course, possess extraordinary skills. (47) H: Farkasnak mutat berket {To show the wolf around in his lair}
Wolves are not to be found in the territory of present-day Hungary, but were part of the natural environment of the ancient Hungarians. The same idea is expressed in Japanese by sayings such as: (48) J: 「河童に水練」 Kappa ni suiren {To show the water lily to water sprites}
Once in a while, the younger generation might exceed the elders in knowledge, as expressed by (49) H: A borjú akarja az ökröt vezetni {The calf wants to lead the ox}.
which is also often used when trying to refuse unsolicited advice from younger or less experienced people. The corresponding Japanese proverb takes the metaphor from the domain of nature: (50) J: 「負うた子に教えられ浅瀬を渡る」Outa ko ni osierare asase wo wataru {The child whom once you carried on your back shows you the path through the shallows}.
Judit Hidasi
The metaphor here is a complex one: it refers to the Japanese custom of carrying children on the back; it also refers to the act of moving along “life’s dangerous path”. The danger is symbolized by the shallows – an image taken from life in rural Japan. To cross the shallows is not an easy enterprise: it demands wisdom and experience, hence the paradoxical idea of being instructed by a younger or less experienced person. Proverbs on the lack of knowledge A large number of proverbs and sayings referring to the dangers of ignorance point to the rich human experience accumulated in this field. As the Hungarian saying goes: (51) H: Parlagon terem a gaz {The weeds grow on fallow land}.
meaning that wrongdoers tend to come from the uneducated. People of this type are not properly prepared for life, as expressed by: (52) H: Se íja, se tárgya {He has neither the bow, nor the target}.
The metaphor goes back to the times when Hungarians fought with bows and arrows. A person without his combat equipment is not prepared and cannot go a long way. In a figurative sense, it can express total cluelessness, not knowing a thing. (53) H: Aki keveset tud, annak jó az országút {For the one who knows little the main road will do}.
Once again, the road is used as a metaphor for life: people with skills and knowledge can take less well-known paths and shortcuts, but those without these assets are advised to stick to the main road – which might be longer but safer for them. It also makes no sense to rely on instructions from people who themselves are not in possession of knowledge, as in (54) H: Vaktól kérdezi az utat {Ask directions from the blind}.
The road metaphor apart from its etymological meaning of “path” here also connotes the “way to follow,” the road leading forward to a certain destination in the future. The concept of space is hence also connected with the concept of time. Time is seen as linear: a road leading into the unknown and unforeseen future. Those lacking the ability to see (i.e. the future goal and the road leading to it) are of little help in giving useful instructions.
Cultural messages of metaphors
At the end of this overview of Hungarian and Japanese proverbs, a warning is in order: (55) H: Akinek nincs a fejében, legyen a lábában { He who has not enough (wit) in the head, should have (force to make up for it) in the leg}.
“Head” as a metaphor stands for intellectual capacities, whereas the “leg” is associated with physical prowess. As a possible common denominator for head and leg, the concept of motion should be mentioned. Both head and leg can move slowly or fast – as expressed in a number of metaphorical sayings or idioms in Hungarian: gyorsfejű { fast-headed}; sebes lábú {quick-legged}; etc. By presenting over fifty Hungarian and Japanese proverbs we aimed at pointing out the cultural messages inherent in them. Similarities and divergences in Hungarian and Japanese proverbs Theoretically speaking, the use of the layers of meaning (message, image, linguistic formulation) makes it possible to formulate the following scenarios as far as translingual equivalencies are concerned. A trans-lingual comparison of metaphoric equivalencies Case Meaning of the Message
Meaning of the Image
Semantic-linguistic Formulation
1 2 3
same/familiar different familiar
same/similar different cultural interpretation needed
same same unfamiliar
Case 1. In Case 1, we experience similarities on all three levels of meaning, therefore this scenario usually presents no particular problems, as expressions in one language correspond to expressions of the other language. They are practically equivalents, as in proverbs like: (1) all that glitters is not gold, which has its equivalents in most European languages. The proverb (2) hear one, understand ten sounds semantically the same in Chinese and in Japanese. Both the metaphoric conceptualization and the semantic-linguistic formulation being the same we can safely regard them as full equivalents. However, full equivalents, more often than not, are so called “cross-translations,” which usually occur in areas of geographical proximity and/or cultural contact.
Judit Hidasi
Case 2 is more complicated. This group includes proverbs with the same message in both languages (anyone can commit an error = to err is human) but their linguistic formulation is based on the respective “images” familiar to each culture: (3) even the monkey falls from the tree – for the Japanese and (4) even the horse stumbles – for the Hungarian. If the image stays within the limits of comprehension for the speakers of the other language, then the meaning-transfer is possible without difficulties. The difference in the domain of experience results in different images that comprise the basis for the linguistic formulation. Case 3 presents a special case. The image of nails sticking out and needing hammering in is a familiar one in any culture, still the message of the proverb – if not accompanied by an explanation – can be easily misunderstood. As we saw in the Japanese proverb (6), ”to suppress anything that stands out” is a message particular to Japanese social behavior. This case can be a source of intercultural misunderstanding. Hence we can conclude that for mutual understanding the most essential meaning is that of the message – if it does not get through properly or is misunderstood, the social function of cultural transmission is not fulfilled in spite of the successful metaphoric conceptualization. The Hungarian and Japanese proverbs introduced so far can be organized accordingly into three clusters. 1. Proverbs that are semi-equivalents in Hungarian and in Japanese; 2. Proverbs that have similar messages but different linguistic formulations due to the difference in cultural experience and background; 3. Proverbs reflecting divergent values in the Hungarian and in the Japanese cultures. Semi-equivalent proverbs in Hungarian and in Japanese No fully equivalent proverbs have been identified in the survey corpus limited to proverbs associated with learning and acquiring knowledge. However, a number of proverbs might be categorized as “semi-equivalents.” What makes them semiequivalents is the similarity of their metaphoric conceptualization, even if their semantic-linguistic formulations are not fully identical. Both in (6) and in (7) the idea of perseverance is expressed by the concept of a stone, something that represents the apparently eternal and unchangeable – which, however, with diligent effort and patience can be modified over time. In (34) (H: If thrown out the door, he comes back through the window) and in (35) (J: Fall on seven tries, get up for the eighth) respectively, the idea of not losing hope is connected to the concept of human motion – with repetition and unceasing efforts, the goal can be achieved. Forward motion is the common central motif of metaphoric conceptualization of
Cultural messages of metaphors
progress in (21) and (22). Both in (25) and in (26) the importance of a good beginning is emphasized by conceptualizing the process of achievement as a distance that must be traveled. A good beginning constitutes a great leap forward – achieving nearly half of the objective – on a figurative scale of motion. Proverbs that have similar messages in the Hungarian and in the Japanese culture The majority of proverbs compared in our study belong to this group. Hungarian
Japanese
(4)
(3)
Even a horse with his four legs stumbles, let alone (people) with their two (10) More to be gained by wit than by force (13) Use your mind before you use your tongue (15) It is better to ask twice than to err once (18) He who climbs high, makes a great fall (23) Learning makes an ox out of the calf (30) The more eyes, the more seen (36) A good priest keeps learning until his death (40) Knowledge is power (42) Knowledge is a good traveling companion (45) The smart one learns from the trouble of others (47) To show the wolf around in his lair (49) The calf wants to lead the ox
Even a monkey falls from a tree
(11) Learning without thinking: darkness; thinking without learning: danger (14) Double-check before taking action (16) To ask once is shame for one time, not to ask is shame for all one’s life (19) He who grabs much will hold little (20) Chase after two hares and catch none (24) An old tree does not bend (31) Three persons have the wisdom of Monzyu (37) To learn at eighty (41) Nothing exceeds knowledge
(46) Correct your ways by watching others’ (48) To show the water lily to water sprites (50) The child whom once you carried on your back shows you the path through the shallows
In this group, the messages are similar but the images used in metaphoric conceptualization are various, due to the differences in environments and cultures. The proverbs belonging to this group tell us a lot about the particular cultures that they are used in – about the relevant life-styles, artifacts, social institutions, social structure, history and geography. Hence, the same idea is transmitted by metaphors using different images: for instance, Hungarians refer to the “livestock breeding”
Judit Hidasi
domain of experience, while the Japanese to the “gardening” domain of experience in proverbs associated with the function of one’s age in knowledge acquisition. This reflects the traditional importance of animal husbandry in Hungary and of gardening in Japan. This is not to say that there are no proverbs stemming from the experience of gardening in Hungary, or no Japanese proverbs having to do with livestock raising – but scales and trends can be clearly identified. The differences in the various domains of experience are clearly observable in the references to Buddhism or to the Christian Church: the former, of course, related to the Japanese and the latter to the Hungarian language. Proverbs that reflect culture-specific values As pointed out earlier, “solo” proverbs – i.e. proverbs with no equivalent in the other culture – are also to be found in the cross–cultural comparison of Hungarian and Japanese, though their number is not great. The Japanese (5) nails standing out are to be hammered in is unique, not in the sense of conceptualization – for the same image is transferable to many other cultures – but in the sense of its specific cultural message: that standing out from the group in any way is to be avoided. The Hungarian proverbs (8: No roast pigeon will fly into one’s mouth) (9: If your sword is too short, let your feet make it longer!) (10: More to be gained by wit than by force) (34: If thrown out the door, he comes back through the window) (55: He who has not enough wit in the head, should have force to make up for it in the leg) are conceptualized metaphorically in diverse ways but they have a common denominator on the conceptual level. They all convey the message that in order to reach a certain goal or to achieve a particular aim, innovation and initiative are essential. The former idea is represented by “changing strategies” (9: “make your reach longer by adding a step to the length of your sword”; 10: “if force does not work, try to win by thinking”; 34: “if not through the door, then through the window”; 55: “if not intellectually then physically,” etc.). Far-fetched as it may sound, one is attempted, nonetheless, to discover here some sort of culturally nurtured concept about how to acquire things. For many centuries, Hungarians were forced to develop an ability to cope with an ever-changing environment in the course of their wanderings. As a strategy for achieving goals, ingenuity was an imperative, and this has been handed down to new generations ever since. Conclusion Hungarian and Japanese metaphors, proverbs and sayings associated with learning and teaching were analyzed and compared. Differences and similarities in formulations
Cultural messages of metaphors
and expressions with regards to acquiring (learning) and transmitting (teaching) knowledge were presented in the context of metaphoric conceptualization. The number of proverbs and sayings that are similar in their message is striking, especially considering the physical distance separating these two cultures. It is also clear from the comparison that even semi-equivalents – proverbs or sayings identical on all three levels of meaning – are relatively few. This fact can be attributed not so much to a mental but to a physical distance. Full equivalents, as a rule, are the products of cross-translations – an unlikely occurrence between cultures physically so far apart. Hungarian culture and language – in spite of the country’s present location in Europe – are believed by mainstream scholars to go back to Asian origins (Benkő – Imre, 1972). There is linguistic evidence that in the process of moving from East to West, the Hungarian language has accumulated layers of vocabulary from the diverse languages it came into contact with (Hidasi, 1988). The study of “roots and routes” in the lexicon is an exciting academic enterprise. It is much harder, however, to detect the different layers of metaphoric expression for a number of reasons. For one, most of the time metaphoric images are also exchanged between peoples and cultures that come into contact with each other. Further difficulty arises from the lack of written documents. Metaphors of learning in the Hungarian language in the domain of institutionalized education are evidently products of much later periods. By the time the first university was established in 1367 by King Louis the Great in the city of present-day Pécs (the Sopiane of Roman times) the Hungarians had been settled in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe for 500 years. But their contact with cultures and peoples of Asia dates from a much earlier period, going back perhaps millennia. Consequently, metaphors of “learning” in a systematic institutionalized educational context are products of and borrowings from the European cultural sphere. Hungarian metaphors seem to have different layers of linguistic expression depending on their origin. Metaphors depicting wisdom related to general knowledge acquisition, perception or behavior can be considered earlier cultural products than the ones depicting behavior related to institutional education. The latter category, as a European development, exhibits many common features with proverbs common throughout Europe. The metaphors, however, that are thought to convey wisdom of a deeper layer of the cultural past, show great resemblance with Japanese proverbs and sayings. There is no proof, however, that they are products of a common Asian origin. They rather seem to constitute the universal component in the cultural heritage of the Hungarian and the Japanese people.
Judit Hidasi
References Benkő, L. & S. Imre (Eds.) (1972). The Hungarian language. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó – Mouton. Chen, Z. (1973).（中国谚语选集). Zhongguo yanyu xuanji – 1001 Chinese sayings. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chung Chi College. De Keyser, R. (2003). Implicit and Explicit Learning. In C.J. Doughty & M.H. Long (Eds.), The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition ( pp. 313–348). Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing. Hidasi, J. (Ed.) (1988). Contrastive Studies Hungarian Japanese. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Hidasi, J. (2003). On the Capacity to Communicate in Intercultural Settings: Reflections on Japanese Communication Strategies. Human Communication Studies, Vol. 31, 2003, 81–90. Hidasi, J. (2005). Intercultural Communication. Tokyo: Sangensha. Koizumi J. (2001). Policy Speech by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the 153rd Session of the Diet (September 27, 2001). Office of the Cabinet Public Relations, Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet. http://www.kantei.go.jp (Rtr 28 July 2005). Kotowaza Daiziten. 『ことわざ大辞典』(1982). Tokyo: Shogakukan. Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York: Basic Books. Makiuti, M. (1994). ｢詩的隠喩の認知構造｣ Siteki In`yu no Nintikōzō [Cognitive Structure of the Poetic Metaphors] In: 『人間と言葉』Ningen to Kotoba (pp.279–288). Tokyo: Riiberu Syuppan. Nanovfszky, Gy. (Ed.) (2004). The Finno-Ugric World. Budapest: Teleki László Foundation. Okutu, F. (2000). ｢日英ことわざの比較文化｣ Nitiei Kotowaza no Hikakubunka [A comparative cultural study of Japanese and English Proverbs]. Tokyo: Taisyukan. O.Nagy, G. (1982). Magyar szólások és közmondások. [Hungarian Sayings and Proverbs]. Budapest: Gondolat. Paczolay, Gy. (1991). 750 magyar közmondás [750 Hungarian Proverbs]. Veszprém: Veszprém Megyei Nyomda. Paczolay, Gy. (1997). European Proverbs in 55 Languages – with Equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanksrit, Chinese and Japanese. Veszprém: Veszprém Nyomda Rt. Paczolay, Gy. (2002). A közös távol-keleti közmondások kínai forrásai [Chinese origins of common proverbs in the Far-East]. In E.Csonka-Takács, J.Czövek, A.Takács (Eds.), Mir-susnehum (pp. 669–682). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Takasima, T. (1985). ｢ ことわざの泉｣ Kotowaza no izumi [Fountain of Japanese Proverbs]. Tokyo: Hokuseido Syoten. Taylor, A. (1931). The Proverb. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Yamamoto, Y. ｢米百俵｣ (2001). Kome Hyappyō. [Ten bales of rice]. Tokyo: Sintyōbunkō.
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay Imran Ho-Abdullah
School of Language Studies & Linguistics Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia This paper examines the metaphorical conceptualisation of learning and teaching in Malay through a semantic analysis of several lexical items denoting learning and teaching such as didik, ajar, bimbing, asuh, latih. The data for the study is derived from a personal corpus of written Malay consisting of newspaper reports, editorials, articles and short stories. By analysing the collocations and the usage contexts of these words, the conceptualisation and underlying metaphors of learning and teaching in Malay are uncovered. The study reveals that the concept of teaching and learning in Malay as reflected in the lexicalisation of the concepts extend beyond formal acquisition of knowledge to encompass the moral and social dimensions of learning.
Keywords: semantics, Malay, metaphors, teaching & learning.
The concept of learning and teaching is typically expressed in Malay by means of a set of lexical items – ajar, didik, asuh, bimbing, latih – and their derivations. The English equivalents of these words are, respectively, ‘teach’, ‘educate’, ‘nurture’, ‘guide’, and ‘train’. The aim of this paper is to describe the semantic content of these items and their derivations in order to arrive at how the lexis of Malay shapes our views and understanding of “teaching and learning”. Essentially, the paper argues that in many respects, our understanding of “teaching and learning” is constructed (consciously or unconsciously) by the language used to describe “teaching and learning”. Specifically, the paper focuses on these questions: a. what are the conceptions of teaching and learning as embodied by the various lexical items, and b. what are the implications of the various choice of words in relation to teaching and learning.
Imran Ho-Abdullah
The contribution here will describe the meanings that are given to teaching and learning based on a lexical-semantics analysis.1 The description and analysis are primarily based on a corpus of newspaper texts consisting of 2.5 million words. The corpus is a personal compilation of random newspaper reports and articles from two major national newspaper in Malaysia, namely Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian. The main point of this paper is to show that a lexical-semantics of the words used to denote “teaching and learning” can reveal the multifaceted meanings conveyed by the items and the choice of one item over another involves (sometimes subtle) differences in how we conceptualize “teaching and learning”. A better understanding of the conceptualization of “teaching and learning” will no doubt be crucial as the concepts are such an essential part of civilization as we know it. I hope the study here would serve to reveal what is sometimes concealed in the use of the terms. However, the paper does not pretend to be exhaustive in its analysis and addresses only a few issues in the hope that the analysis will be a useful contribution to this volume of “teaching and learning” from various socio-cultural-linguistics perspectives. The paper is structured as follows. First, I present a brief description of the Malay lexical items in the domain of “teaching and learning”. This is followed by a collocational analysis of how these words are used in a corpus. In particular, the verbal collocates of the nominal sense of these words reveal their underlying conceptual metaphors by which we understand “teaching and learning”. The last section of the paper will provide a few conclusions as to the different facets of “teaching and learning” as evident in the lexical-semantics systems of Malay. Lexicalization of “teaching and learning” in Malay The starting point of this research is to identify the various lexical items associated with “teaching and learning”. The Tesaurus Umum Bahasa Melayu (1991) – the leading Malay thesaurus published by the Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, Malaysia’s language and literature agency was consulted for this purpose. Under the concept entry ajar, 13 items are listed including 12 derivations, namely, ajar, “teach”, berajar, “taught”, belajar, “to learn / to study”, mengajar, “to teach”, mengajarkan, “to teach”, ajaran, “teachings”, pelajaran, “lesson / education”, berpelajaran, “educated”, pembelajaran, “learning”, pengajar, “teacher”, pelajar, “student”, mempelajari and “to learn”, and terpelajar, “educated”. 1. The study presented here is a part of a larger project, which aims to describe and under stand the phenomenon and the processes of learning from a multi-cultural perspective.
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay
For the sub-entry ajar, 8 words – latih, asuh, tunjuk, beritahu, bimbing, didik, jaga and pelihara are listed. This is followed by another 5 words for a different sense of ajar – pukul (to beat), marah (to scold), belasah (to rough up), tumbuk (to punch) and gasak (to wallop). The second sense is itself interesting in that it presents a metaphorical use of the word ajar akin to “teach someone a lesson” meaning to punish someone for something they have done so that they do not do it again. The five words listed for the second sense refer to different modes of punishment. This will not concern us any further in this paper. Instead, the focus will be on the main sense associated with “teaching and learning”. The richness of the concept of “teaching and learning” is apparent in the derivations and the various synonyms and expansion of the concept of ajar in Malay. These include the words for various modes of “teaching and learning” such as mengulangkaji (to revise), mengkaji (to study), menyelidik (to research), menyiasat (to investigate), menelaah (to rationalise), memeriksa (to examine), membaca (to read), meninjau (to survey), meneliti (to examine in detail), menaklik (to comprehend / to read in detail / to study) etc.. Ajar through the derivation pembelajaran (learning) is associated with comprehension (pemahaman), development (pengembangan) and acceptance (penerimaan). Apart from acquisition of knowledge, ajar is also associated with the concept of beradat (cultured or well-mannered according to the norms or mores of the society). Thus, the concept of ajar extends beyond that of formal teaching and learning. The purpose of ajar, apart from imparting, gaining and acquiring knowledge (mendapatkan ilmu, menimba ilmu, menuntut ilmu) also encompasses moral and social dimensions. In fact, the teacher (pengajar) is known by a basic term guru which is borrowed from Sanskrit. The term consists of two words namely “Gu” meaning darkness and “Ru” meaning knowledge or light. Thus, the word epistemology of guru refers to knowledgeable individuals who are able to remove the darkness of (spiritual) ignorance. Within such a paradigm, the guru is normally a knowledgeable person who is able to enlighten the learners. However, since the guru can be referred to in so many ways such as pengajar, pembimbing, pengasuh, jurulatih, pendidik which are derived from the various lexical items denoting “teaching and learning” in Malay, there are different conceptualizations of what the role and function of the teacher should be. Some of these roles based on the root word of the “teacher” above include to enlighten, to show, to train, to inform, to guide, to nurture and to inspire. For the purpose of the paper, the five most common and generic root words for “teaching and learning” will be discussed further in the following section. The five words (and their derivatives) chosen for further analysis are latih, asuh, bimbing, didik, and ajar. The morphological derivations of these five words are presented in Table 1. It is obvious that the morphological productivity of the five
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items differs to some degree. Ajar is morphologically the most productive item, whereas latih, asuh, bimbing, didik have about equivalent numbers of possible derivations. Ajar is also the only item that has a complementary pair in belajar, which is derived from the same root. Table 1. The root words of “teaching & learning” and their derivations
Base Active voice Passive Agent Patient Nominal Nominal Nominal Nominal Complement pair
ajar
asuh
bimbing
didik
latih
ajar ajar diajar pengajar pelajar ajaran pelajaran pengajaran pembelajaran belajar
asuh asuh diasuh pengasuh – asuhan – pengasuhan – –
bimbing bimbing dibimbing pembimbing – bimbingan – pembimbingan – –
didik didik dididik pendidik anak didik didikan pendidikan – – –
latih latih dilatih jurulatih pelatih latihan – – – –
The methodology of analyses of keywords to reveal the conceptual grids for thinking and talking about “teaching and learning” utilised in this section has its tradition in semantic-discourse analysis of Fairclough (1992) and Stubbs (1996). The method, essentially, identifies keywords associated with a concept or issue and examines how these keywords are used in context. According to Stubbs (1996 :158), “the vocabulary and grammar provide us with the potential and resources to say different things. But often this potential is used in regular ways, in a large number of texts, whose patterns therefore embody particular social values and views of the world. Such recurrent ways of talking do not embody thought but they provide familiar and conventional representation of people and events, by filtering and crystallizing ideas, and by providing pre-fabricated means by which ideas can be easily conveyed and grasped.” In the present case, the lexicon of Malay provides us with many possibilities of talking about “teaching and learning”. An analysis of how these words are used in everyday discourse (as represented in the newspaper corpus) should reveal how “teaching and learning” is conceptualized in the language. The frequency of the various items and their derivations in the sub-corpus is presented in Table 2. As expected ajar and its derivatives are predominant, the exception being the agentive use where jurulatih appears more frequent than pengajar and the occurrence of pendidik is also high (n = 45). Pendidikan, the nominal of didik, is more frequent than pelajaran, the nominal form of ajar. Likewise, to
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay
denote someone who is educated, berpendidikan is more common than berpelajaran. These phenomena will be discussed in the relevant sub-sections below. Table 2. Frequency of the words and their derivations ajar
87
belajar
asuh
-
bimbing
1
didik
27
latih
9
349
diajar
64
diasuh
dibimbing
19
dididik
17
dilatih
pengajar
69
pengasuh
9
pembimbing
10
pendidik
45
jurulatih 405
201
mengasuh
5
membimbing 45
mendidik
145
mengajar pelajar
2617
ajaran
195
pelajaran
547
terpelajar
9
mempelajari
asuhan
12
23
bimbingan
81
didikan pendidikan
terasuh
1
terbimbing
2
terdidik
39
40
melatih
107
pelatih
151
latihan
826
terlatih
44
1643 2
130
berpelajaran
13
pengajaran
226
pembelajaran
183
berpendidikan
26
Ajar As mentioned earlier, ajar is the only word in the group that has a complementary pair in belajar (to learn / to study). Essentially, this word can be taken to be the prototype of the concept of “teaching and learning” in Malay and forms the root for items such as lesson (pengajaran, pelajaran), student (pelajar), study / learn (belajar), learning (pembelajaran). The notions of ajar and belajar are most often associated with the formal aspects of learning and teaching in modern Malay. For instance, pelajaran is commonly used in the phrase mata pelajaran (“subject” as in Mathematics, Science, English). The word also denotes “lesson” as a unit of teaching and learning and is used in the phrase sukatan pelajaran to denote the syllabus. However, the concept of ajar extends to the notions of the informal learning associated with the norms and ethics of Malay society. For instance, the phrase kurang ajar (literally: less taught) is used to mean “ill-mannered” or “uncultured” which is associated with the acquisition of informal socio-cultural mores. Likewise, the phrase tunjuk ajar (literally: “show + teach”) denotes that learning is a process whereby one “learns the rope” or is guided or shown by others who are more knowledgeable or elder. This is clear in the Malay pantun (four-line poem with abab rhyming scheme) on “teaching and learning”: Buah cempedak di luar pagar, [the jack fruit is outside the fence]
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Ambil galah, tolong jolokkan [take a stick and shake it down] Saya budak baru belajar, [I am just beginning to learn] Kalau silap tolong tunjukkan. [If I make mistakes, please show me how.]
In the instance above and with the phrase tunjuk ajar, the prevailing metaphor of learning is a practical one – teaching and learning by means of showing or illustrating. The teacher in this instance is a model to be mimicked. The support for a model-based “teaching and learning” metaphor is also seen in the Malay proverb “Bapa kencing berdiri, anak kencing berlari” [If the father urinates while standing, the child will urinate while running] and its variation “guru kencing berdiri, murid kencing berlari” ” [If the teacher urinates while standing, the pupils will urinate while running] which emphasises the importance of the role model and their actions. The scope of ajar, as the proverb illustrates extend beyond formal learning. It also encompasses the teaching and learning of the norms and mores of society. In fact, the most frequent occurrences of ajar are in the phrase kurang ajar (illmannered). With ajar and belajar, there is also an emphasis on learning from experience and learning from one’s mistakes apparent in the meaning of pengajaran as in the expression jadikan satu pengajaran [let it be a lesson]. This notion of learning via one’s experience is notably absent in the other lexical items for teaching and learning. The verbal collocates of ajar also reveal other conceptual metaphors underlying “teaching and learning” in Malay. In the case of ajar, the most frequent verbal collocates are memberi (to give) and mendapat (to receive). The two collocates suggest that the act of teaching is conceived in terms of the exchange metaphor or acquisition metaphor (Sfard 1998). Another metaphorical conceptualization of ajar that is evident from the collocates is the use of daripada (from). This preposition is commonly associated with the notion of source or origin. In the case of teaching and learning, the source of the knowledge that is imparted or taught to the students is also frequently highlighted in Malay. Didik In terms of morphological productivity, didik is the second most productive item after ajar. Didik forms the root for “education” in Malay, namely pendidikan. Tajul Ariffin (1989) argues that pendidikan deals with “teaching and learning” in a more holistic and comprehensive manner in contrast to pelajaran. Teachers as pendidik also sound more euphemistic and prestigious than pengajar or guru. The word also provides a different conceptualization of learners as members of the “learning”
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay
family via the compound anak didik (literally: children taught or students). The same phrase cannot be used with the other terms (*anak ajar, *anak asuh, *anak bimbing). It is not surprising then that the most frequent collocate of didik is anak and anak-anak (child, children). It would not be wrong to say that pendidikan (as education) encompasses the process of teaching and learning but also places emphasis on the importance of nurturance (asuhan) and formation (pembentukan) of the young towards a goal or norms. It is this phrase that is used in the Malaysian Education Philosophy: Pendidikan di Malaysia adalah satu usaha berterusan ke arah memperkembangankan lagi potensi individu secara menyeluruh dan bersepadu untuk mewujudkan insan yang seimbang dan harmonis dari segi intelek, rohani, emosi, dan jasmani berdasarkan kepada kepercayaan dan kepatuhan kepada Tuhan. Usaha ini adalah bagi melahirkan rakyat Malaysia yang berilmu, bertanggungjawab dan berkeupayaan mencapai kesejahteraan diri serta memberi sumbangan terhadap keharmonian dan kemakmuran masyarakat dan negara. [Education in Malaysia is an on-going effort towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral standards, and who are responsible and capable of achieving a high level of personal well-being, as well as being able to contribute to the betterment of the family, the society and the nation at large.] Latih Latih (to train) can be viewed as a particular mode of “teaching and learning”. As with the English word, latih is associated with the acquisition of skills rather than with formal education or knowledge acquisition. In fact, the most frequent collocate of latih is pekerja (workers). In such use, learning is achieved by doing the actual job or a simulation of the actual job. Not surprisingly, the word is also associated with sports and military service where on-the-job training and training to improve one’s skills (meningkatkan kemahiran – a hierachical and linear order image schema) becomes the main process of learning. With latih, experience (pengalaman) becomes the cornerstone of the teaching and learning process. In such a form of learning, the notions of kemahiran (proficiency) and kecekapan (competency) become the goals for the learning process. Apart from the image schema of hierarchy and linear order, frequent collocates of latih include the following “latih dalam …” (to train in …); latih untuk …
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(to train for …); latih supaya … (to train in order to …) which indicate the specific scope or purpose of latih as a “teaching and learning” process. In contrast to the other terms, the agentive prefix (pe + _ ) refers to the patient in the case of latih (pelatih = trainee). The prefix juru- is used instead to indicate the trainer (or the teacher). Juru is more often used to indicate a profession as in juru rawat (nurse), juru ukur (surveyor) or juru gambar (photographer). Asuh The fourth lexical item associated with teaching and learning is asuh. Asuh is usually associated with the teaching and learning process of the young. The notions of caring and nurturing are most prevalent in asuh. The word also commonly goes hand in hand with didik and is used principally in the upbringing of a child. In most cases, there is a religious and moral dimension to the asuh process. Thus, the care-giver of young children is commonly referred to as pengasuh. However, it is also not uncommon to use the word for adult “teaching and learning” and in fields other than that of religious / moral teachings as in the examples below:
1. Ulama juga akan diasuh supaya dapat menguasai kemahiran teknologi maklumat dan mempunyai keupayaan untuk mencipta perisian-perisian baru yang lebih mempunyai substances dan bersifat mendidik. [Religious figures will also be asuh in order that they become competent in the use of information technology …] (Source: Utusan Malaysia, 25 July 1997) 2. Nampak jelas beberapa pemain mampu menjadi pemain hebat jika diasuh dengan baik seperti pemain pertahanan, Zulharisam Awang dan pemain penyerang Badrul Afzan Razali yang baru diserapkan dari Piala Presiden. [… can become excellent players, if they are asuh with the good players …] (Source: Berita Harian, 5 February 1998)
Bimbing The fifth and final word dealt with in this paper is bimbing. In the case of bimbing, (guidance) the teaching and learning concept is as the English translation suggests, namely that teaching and learning involves guidance towards a particular goal ie. achieving some desired result. As with the word asuh, bimbing suggests a passive role on the part of the learners. In the case of bimbing, the learners are guided or more literally “steered” by the teachers (pembimbing). A common preposition collocate of bimbing is oleh (by) to indicate the agent of the process. The process of bimbing (in its physical sense) involves someone doing the leading (the leader or pemimpin cf. pembimbing). Thus the word is com-
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay
monly associated with panduan (guidance: from the word pandu – to lead or to drive). However, bimbing also suggests facilitation where the learning and teaching process is seen as a process of facilitation, moderation, discussion and negotiation. In the next section a contrast of the various nominal derivatives of the items will be considered. Ajaran, asuhan, didikan, bimbingan and latihan In the development of pre-school education in Malaysia, the term for kindergarten has evolved in recent years from Tadika (a blend from Taman Didikan Kanakkanak) to Tabika (a blend from Taman Bimbingan Kanak-kanak) and lately Taska a blend from Taman Asuhan Kanak and Pasti (Pusat Asuhan Islam). The changes in the name for these pre-school centers are very much linked to the different conceptualisation of the process of (pre-school) learning and teaching. I propose that the changes in the name for these pre-school centres is related to the conceptualisation of and perception of the educational process of young children and the emphasis on the content of pre-school teaching and learning. Commonly in the tadikas the emphasis is more inclined towards the preparation for formal education. As such, pre-schoolers are taught to read and write the alphabets and to count with a liberal dose of art work and socialisation skills. The switch to tabika and taska involve a shift in the philosophy of pre-school from the formal to one that is more in line with the Islamic notions of teaching and learning where young children are to be shaped and nurtured to achieve their potentials. The process required entails guidance and nurturance rather than more formal teaching. An examination of the nominal counterparts of the words of “teaching and learning” to some extent confirms the hypothesis above. For instance, the most frequent verbal predicates for the word didikan are memberi didikan (to give), perlu didikan (need), mendapat didikan (to receive). In other words, the teachers give and the children receive didikan because they need it before they can proceed to formal school education. The exchange metaphor in this situation is more a benefactor-beneficiary relationship, with those who know (the teachers) giving to those who do not know. However, the term Taman Ajaran Kanak-kanak has never been used in Malay to refer to pre-schools. This could be because the term ajar and belajar is seen to be too formal for pre-schoolers. Didikan, on the other hand, is less formal and also co-occurs naturally with asuhan (nurturance). The subsequent preference for tabika or Taman Bimbingan Kanak-kanak over the term tadika signifies a change in how pre-schoolers should be “taught”. Although, as with didikan, the children are given (memberi) and receive (mendapat) bimbingan, the prevalent metaphor for “teaching” through bimbingan is one of
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control whereby someone is considered to be “under” the guidance of another as the phrase di bawah bimbingan implies. The young children not only receive guidance but they are also to be under the guidance (notion of control) of the kindergarten teachers. Tabika also provides an alternative conceptualisation of the teaching and learning process as a conduit metaphor in the phrase melalui bimbingan (through the guidance of). Hence, bimbingan, in the corpus examined, is also associated frequently with sports whereby the trainees are said to be in “under” the bimbingan of a person (the coach / trainer) and success is achieved “through” the bimbingan of a coach. Bimbingan can also be used in the sense of tutelage as in kelas bimbingan for tuition classes. The latest vogue in naming pre-school and child care centers is the use of Taman Asuhan Kanak-kanak or Taska. These are mainly Islamic based pre-schools which provide the additional support of child-care and religious instructions for working parents. In the newspaper corpus, the term asuhan is primarily associated with young children (kanak-kanak) as in pusat asuhan (center for asuhan) and taman asuhan (garden of asuhan). The process involved in asuh encompasses guardianship (albeit temporary guardianship) as the collocates for asuh such as pelihara, jaga and awas (to look out for, to care for, to guard, to monitor) imply. Two terms that are not used in relation to pre-school are latihan and ajaran. In the case of ajaran, the most frequent verbal collocates are bertentangan (literally: opposed to), (bertentangan dengan ajaran), kembali (literally: to return), (kembali kepada ajaran) menyebarkan (literally: to spread), menurut (literally: according to), mengamalkan (to practise), mengikut (to follow). In contrast to the items examined above, the notion of exchange is not as prevalent. Instead with ajaran, the notion of a journey metaphor as in to follow (mengikut), to return (kembali) and spread (sebar) is much more frequent. There is also a tendency for ajaran to denote religious teachings as seen in collocates such as beramal [practices], difatwakan [religious edicts], ajaran Islam, ajaran agama [religion] and their counterparts – ajaran sesat [false teachings], ajaran tarikat, ajaran salah [wrong teachings]. With latihan, the range of frequent verbal collocates is wider. Common collocates include mengikuti (literally: to follow), mengadakan (literally: to hold), mendapat (literally: to receive), memberi latihan (to give) menjalani (literally to undergo but derived from jalan = walk or path; hence journey metaphor). One can also menyediakan latihan (provide or prepare). Latihan unlike the other terms prevalent metaphor for “teaching” has a sense of duration or temporal span whereby there is a clear point where the process begins and ends as these collocations reveal – memulakan latihan [to start], menamatkan latihan [to end]. In addition one can continue to be in training meneruskan (continue) latihan. Apart from the temporal span, the spatial manifestation of training as “teaching and learning” is
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay
expressed in the phrase dalam latihan (in training). Thus the concept of space and time span is very apparent in latihan. Our examination of the nominal derivatives of the words of “teaching and learning” in Malay has revealed some the differences in the conceptualisation of education. With ajaran the predominant metaphor is one of the follower (journey metaphor) while with didik, bimbing and asuh the metaphor of exchange as in give and receive is more apparent based on an examination of the verbal collocates of these words. With bimbing there is also the sense of control by showing and leading. After all, bimbing is literally the physical act of guiding someone, as in holding one’s hand with the intention of leading or guiding the person. In the case of latihan, the metaphor of teaching blends the journey metaphor (menjalani latihan [to (under)go training] and mengikuti latihan [to follow training]) with the temporal and spatial space of training. Notably absent in our discussion of these five words of “teaching” words in Malay is the emphasis on the development of the self and the quest for knowledge. Instead, the predominant metaphor of learning is one where knowledge is given and received. Expressions of knowledge acquisition in Malay which might reveal other metaphors of learning in Malay would have to look into the word knowledge (ilmu). Some of the collocates would include mencari ilmu (to seek knowledge) and menimba ilmu (to scoop up knowledge). Pendidikan versus Pelajaran The analysis of these two words is of particular interest in Malay because the two terms have both been used to denote the government ministry and departments overseeing “education”. In particular, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Malaysia has been called Kementerian Pelajaran and Kementerian Pendidikan at various times. Prior to 1987, the MOE was officially known as Kementerian Pelajaran. In the Cabinet reshuffle in 1987, the MOE was renamed Kementerian Pendidikan. Recently, in 2004, the MOE of old was split into two ministries, namely a Ministry of Education and a Ministry of Higher Education (MHE). Interestingly, the 2004 restructured MOE reverted to pre-1987 Kementerian Pelajaran while the new MHE was called Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi [Ministry of Higher Education], choosing the word pengajian for “education”. Interestingly, the institutions of higher learning such as universities and university colleges are normally referred to as Institut Pengajian Tinggi (Institutes of Higher Learning) instead of Institut Pendidikan Tinggi [Institutes of Higher Education]. The corpus collocates for pendidikan must be contextualised in the scenario mentioned above. It is no surprise that the most frequent collocate of pendidikan with a capital “P” is Kementerian (ministry), Menteri (Minister), Jabatan, sistem,
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Pengarah, Pejabat, dasar to denote the formal infrastructure of the Malaysian education system. Not surprisingly, the change in the name of the Ministry has drawn comments from the public. It would seem that more are in favour of retaining pendidikan for education rather than pelajaran. The arguments put forth are related to the perceived differences between the concept of ajar and didik. This section will examine this issue in some detail. Based on an examination of the verbal collocates of these two words, it would seem that the perception is not unfounded. For instance, the most prevalent verbal collocates for pendidikan are mendapat (to receive) and memberi (to give). This suggests that pendidikan is primarily viewed as an exchange metaphor or an acquisition metaphor involving someone giving and another party receiving (Sfard 1998). Another model that is prevalent with pendidikan is that of the conduit metaphor (melalui and menerusi: both meaning “through”). Apart from that, pendidikan is also viewed as a “concoction” which needs to be prepared – menyediakan (to prepare). Pendidikan also has a hierachical (spatial) orientation in meningkatkan (literally to improve, but from the root tingkat which denotes “level”). With pelajaran, the emerging image is one of formal education. The common collocates are peperiksaan, sijil, (which reveals an exam oriented education system). The verbal collocates for pelajaran include melanjutkan (continue), menyambung (continue, bridge or link), meneruskan (continue); mengikuti (to follow); mengulang (to repeat). Based on the verbal collocates, it would seem that pelajaran is conceptualised differently from pendidikan. Pelajaran triggers a journey or path metaphor where one continues or embarks on this journey. With respect to the name change, Tajul Ariffin (1990) comments that teachers and educators prefer and have long fought for MOE (Kementerian Pendidikan) in place of MOE (Kementerian Pelajaran). The fact that both terms could be used to denote education is interesting. Pendidikan, according to Tajul, better reflects the nature of education, as Malaysians understand it, namely that the education process must ultimately lead to the formation of the insan (human beings) that are oriented towards good virtues and knowledgeable. Although Tajul (1990) acknowledges that the change in name by itself is not significant, the conceptualization of what constitutes education (and hence the curriculum etc.) will need to be re-examined with the change from pelajaran to pendidikan. This is because pelajaran is deficient and limited in its connotation. The concept is limited in its scope and hence limits our views of the problems and solutions in education. Pendidikan, on the other hand, expands the notion of teaching from mengajar to mendidik, which is a much wider and more comprehensive concept. Likewise, the role and responsibilities of pengajar are confined and limited whereas that of pendidik is considered to be more encompassing. Pengajar is something one does, a profession or vocation, (much like pensyarah (lecturer) a person who lectures). However,
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay
with the notion of pendidik, there is an in-built value, a sense of respect and nobleness. Tajul Ariffin (1990) links this to the concept of ibadah (worship, reverence or devotion) that is inherent in the semantics of pendidik. Pelajaran also does not reflect the unity between the function of teaching and the process of learning. It creates a dichotomy between the two processes as being separate. This is true as there are two separate derivations, pengajaran (teaching) and pembelajaran (learning). The same cannot be said of pendidikan where the two processes are seen as one and there is an amalgamation between the educator (pendidik) and his charge (anak didik). Teaching and learning are two parts of the same coin and the role of the teacher (inherent in the meaning of pendidik) is to “build” character and to see to it that his anak didik becomes good human beings from both the intellectual and spiritual standpoints. With pendidikan, the teachers are responsible for the teaching and learning process (as opposed to pelajaran, where the teachers are responsible for the teaching). He also claims that pelajaran as opposed to pendidikan does not reflect or create a harmonious and cheerful relationship between the teacher and the students. This is so because pelajaran creates an image of seriousness, difficulties, tension or stress. Tajul is not far off the mark, as the present analysis reveals that pelajaran collocates frequently with peperiksaan (examination). Pendidikan is more user-friendly and emphasizes calmness and fun in “teaching and learning”. Thus, it would seem that the reversion back to Kementerian Pelajaran might be a step in the wrong direction. The choice of Pengajian Tinggi (instead of Pendidikan Tinggi) for Higher Education also needs further examination in terms of the metaphors of learning but is beyond the scope of this paper. It suffices to say that pengajian (studies) which is derived from kaji (to examine, to investigate) has been used in phrases such as Pusat Pengajian to denote Centre of Studies or Schools in institutes of higher learning in Malaysia. The root word denotes primarily a mode of inquiry in the acquisition of knowledge. Conclusion The concept of teaching and learning as manifested in the linguistics forms available to the Malay language is indeed rich and varied. The aim of this paper has been to present the conceptualisation of learning and teaching as evident in the lexicalisation of these concepts in the Malay language. To this end, five major lexical items denoting “teaching and learning” have been described and their occurrences in a corpus examined. The first item ajar is the most frequent and morphologically the most productive word in the set. Ajar (to teach) is also the only item that has a complementary pair derivative in belajar (to learn / to study). With the
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other items there are no such complementarities and the linguistic means of indicating the complementary process to them is by means of the passive structure. Ajar is also the most formal of the “teaching” words in Malay but ajar and its derivatives reveal aspects of informal socio-cultural teaching and learning such as the inculcation of social norms and manners as well as learning via experience. The second word didik deals with the development and the nurturance (especially of young children). There is a sense of nobleness in didik, which is absent in, ajar. While there are separate derivational words for ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ in the case of ajar, there are none for didik. The process of teaching and learning is one in the word didik emphasizing the union of the two processes. Thus, didik is a more comprehensive and holistic teaching and learning. The third word asuhan is closely associated and collocates with didik. The kind of “teaching” that is denoted by this word merges nurturance, caring for, and an assumption of responsibility for the welfare of the child. The fourth word bimbing conceptualizes teaching as a process of leading and guiding. The fifth word, latih is specific to the acquisition of skills as opposed to knowledge or religious and socio-cultural values and manners. In talking about “teaching and learning” in Malay, the choice of lexical items to denote the “teaching and learning” and the conceptual metaphors underlying the expressions we use affect and shape how we view and comprehend “teaching and learning”. In fact, some expressions have become commonplace in the discourse on education and are used largely without us being conscious of their meanings and the organizing conceptual metaphors. It is vital to understand that within the choice of lexical items to describe “teaching and learning”, the utilization of a particular item can lead us into different understanding of “teaching and learning”. The present study has revealed that the concept of teaching and learning in Malay as reflected in the lexicalisation of the concepts extend beyond formal acquisition of knowledge to encompass the moral and social dimensions of learning. Some of the more salient aspects and concepts of learning and teaching related to the various lexical items are summarised in Figure 1. Certain metaphors such as learning is a journey, knowledge is a commodity are shared by all lexical items. These patterns are placed on the left of the items, while certain conceptualisations are more particular and salient for certain items. These are placed on the right of the items concerned. The discussions of the evolution of various names for “kindergarten” and also in the choice of word to denote the Ministry of Higher Education bring to light the significance and relevance of the different lexical choice and their corresponding conceptualisation of the teaching and learning process. The choice (along with their different conceptualisation of teaching and learning) will surely have an impact on the approach and the content of the teaching and learning process and outcome.
The many facets of teaching and learning in Malay
Knowledge is a commodity which is given (memberi) and received (mendapat) Learning is a journey which has a starting point (mula pengajian) and end (tamat pengajian). Teaching and learning is the process of “a quest” for knowledge (mencari ilmu) There is a source of knowledge and domains of knowledge are conceptual space e.g kepakaran dalam bidang (expertise in particular fields) Teaching and Learning is a building – membina ilmu (to construct knowledge) and pendidikan membentuk insan (education forms the person) Teaching and Learning has an agent (agentive prefixation pe – and juru-)
AJAR
Formal teaching & learning e.g.sukatan pelajaran (syllabus), mata pelajaran (subject). Acquisition of informal socio-cultural mores e.g. tunjuk ajar (advice), kurang ajar (rude) Experiential learning, learning from mistakes e.g jadikan satu pengajaran (let it be a lesson)
DIDIK
Holistic and comprehensive learning involving the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical domains Nurturance
LATIH
Teaching and learning in the vocational, technical, sports domains with emphasis on proficiency and skills Experience, practice and drills as cornerstones of the teaching learning
ASUH
Teaching and learning of the young (nurturance) especially in the domains of religious education and also moral and social education Teaching and learning as a process of guidance
BIMBING
Learners as passive “containers” or recipients of knowledge and guidance The conduit metaphor of learning
Figure 1. The facets of “teaching and learning” in Malay
References Berita Harian.. http://www.bharian.com. (Rtr 5 February 1998). Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity. Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher 27, 4–13. Stubbs, M. (1996). Text and corpus analysis. Oxford: Blackwell. Tesaurus umum bahasa Melayu. (1991). Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka. Tajul A. N. (1990). Pendidikan. Satu pemikiran semula. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka. Utusan Malaysia. http://www.utasan.com. (Rtr 25 July 1997).
T h e “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct Joanna Radwańska -Williams Macao Polytechnic Institute
This paper deconstructs the discourse of the concept of the native speaker. It critiques the logic of Chomsky’s theoretical idealization of the native speakerhearer, which leads to a suppression of consideration of individual variation. In applied linguistics, the linguistic competence of the native speaker has either been the assumed target of L2 acquisition, or, more recently, has been abandoned as the target and replaced by various models of communicative proficiency. The paper adopts a non-dichotomous position with respect to the possibility of attainment of linguistic competence. It argues that the opposition between ‘native speaker’ and ‘non-native speaker’ is metaphorically grounded in social variables of group identity, and in particular, in the conceptual metaphor BIRTH IS SOCIAL IDENTITY. Individual life histories might or might not conform to a single social identity, and in today’s era of globalization, the attainment of multilingual competence is possible and even prevalent. The native vs. non-native dichotomy subtly sustains social discrimination against ‘non-native speakers’ and NNS educators. Therefore, it is advocated that the discourse of applied linguistics use the more neutral term ‘linguistic expertise’ and focus on the process and conditions of attainment of bilingual and multilingual competence.
Keywords: native speaker, language competence, nationality, birth, identity, metaphor
The concept of the native speaker is a cornerstone of theoretical linguistics, and a benchmark for the evaluation of language proficiency in applied linguistics and language teaching. Theoretical linguistics, in the Chomskyan framework, is viewed as the study of the native speaker’s linguistic competence. By implication, this has excluded data from non-native speakers as somehow imperfect, unreliable, degenerate, and hence, outside the scope of investigation, leading to a demarcation between theoretical linguistics on the one hand and applied linguistics on the other. Applied linguistics and language teaching have focused on the concepts of com-
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municative competence and language proficiency, with application to the nonnative speaker, while conceding the theoretical point that the non-native speaker is somehow imperfect and inferior in linguistic competence to the native speaker. This paper aims to muddy the waters by challenging the theoretical construct of the native speaker. 1 The native/non-native dichotomy The concept of the native speaker has widely been acknowledged as problematic. The problem, in a nutshell, is whether the native/non-native opposition is a dichotomy or is non-dichotomous. Below, I summarize these two positions. It may seem old hat to point to Chomsky as the source of the dichotomous position, but my reason for doing so is to examine the historical origins of theoretical premises, in an effort to deconstruct these premises. According to Chomsky (1965), linguistic competence is defined as the knowledge of a language of an idealized speaker-hearer in a homogeneous speech community. Chomsky excludes the variables of performance error, language variation and multilingualism in a consciously heuristic idealization as an aid to constructing his theory. However, in practice this idealization becomes equated with the concept of the native speaker, and the native speaker, thus constructed, is taken as the authoritative and reliable source of grammaticality judgments indicative of linguistic competence. The definition thus becomes circuitous: linguistic competence is defined as knowledge possessed by the idealized native speaker, while a native speaker, implicitly, is one who possesses linguistic competence. By virtue of the conscious exclusion of other variables from the idealization, there seems to be no external check on this logical circuit. Thus the construct of the native speaker acquires the status of analytical truth arrived at by deduction from the definition of linguistic competence. While Chomsky pointed to Descartes’ rationalism as a precursor of his deductive approach to linguistic theory, an alternative analysis of its historical origins is possible. In structuralist theory, the linguistic system was viewed as coherent in its synchronic aspect, un système où tout se tient (a term usually attributed to Antoine Meillet, 1903: 407; for a discussion on the origin of this term, see Koerner, 1999: 183-202). The cohesion of the system was seen as due to the social fact of participation in the system by the aggregate of the speech community, which transcended the individual use of language. Individual use was seen as the source of variation 1. I would like to express my grateful thanks to Erich Berendt, George Braine, Angela Cheater, Peter Crisp, Paulina Cheung, Teresa Dobrzyńska, Masako Hiraga, Li Yongyan, Mao Sihui, Ting Yenren and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
The “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct
and diachronic change. The spirit of the synchronic approach was that it allowed for the examination of the relationship of elements of the system abstracted away from their historical change, as it were, as a slice across time. However, in Chomsky’s approach the linguistic system, viewed as linguistic competence, becomes embodied in the individual brain. Heuristically, he also abstracts the system away from any possibility of variation. Subtly, the possibility of a logical fallacy creeps in: surely, an individual’s knowledge of language does undergo variation over the course of a lifetime? The lifetime of an individual usually extends over two or three generations (one can become a parent and a grandparent). I think that many structuralists would be hard put to count two or three generations as part of the same synchronic slice of time without variation or change. Thus, in the construct of linguistic competence there seems to be a projection from the social to the individual dimension which may not be totally valid. In its biological orientation, this projection may be a continuation of what Tsiapera (1990) has termed the “organic metaphor” of 19th century linguistics. In the 19th century, Schleicher viewed language as an organism; the evolution of different languages was analogous to the Darwinian evolution of different species. For Chomsky, the locus of language is the individual brain. What, however, assures that different individuals speak the same language? It is input from the society, but that is tautological, since it requires that other individuals in the society (the homogeneous speech community) also speak exactly the same language. Thus, implicit in the biological projection from the social to the individual dimension, is the view that different languages have somehow evolved so that individuals belong to them as members do to a biological species. Chomsky’s position is dichotomous because it sets the native speaker apart as an unassailable ideal. Much SLA research has struggled under the yoke of this construct without rejecting it. Even the most substantive voices seem to accept the dichotomy. Rather, the debate has been couched in terms of whether native-speaker competence should or should not be the target of second language learning. For example, Davies (1989) places native English speakers at one end of the interlanguage continuum, and correspondingly, native English-speaking countries (ENL) on one end of the “English as an international language” continuum. He equates the latter with Kachru’s (1985) circles of English model, with ENL countries being the “inner” circle, ESL countries being the “outer” circle, and EFL countries being the “expanding” circle. Although Kachru’s model is widely accepted, there is implicit within it a problematic territoriality, as pointed out by Davies (1989, p.458): But it is worth noting that there is a no-man’s land between the ESL and the EFL, just as there is between the ENL and the ESL. Examples of gray-area situations are, first, the Netherlands, where the use of English is very wide (does that turn it from an EFL to an ESL situation?), and, second, Singapore, where English operates for many people as their first language (does that make Singapore in some sense an ENL situation?)
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In Davies’ statement, the problem of territoriality is not entirely solved; there is simply a kind of promotion or re-classification of a territory (from EFL to ESL status), moving it closer along the assumed continuum towards ENL. Along this continuum, ENL is the target, the status of ESL countries and ESL speakers is ambivalent because of the development of local varieties of English, and EFL is assumed to be not at the target (Davies 1989, p.462): Most users of EIL who belong to the EFL centers are operating on some kind of diminished proficiency, and they will commit errors, however advanced they may be.
Here, the unassailability of the native speaker has been reinforced by an implicit PATH schema/ cognitive metaphor: speakers in ESL countries have some chance of reaching the end of the path (the target), but speakers in EFL countries are assumed by virtue of the discourse metaphor to be far away from the end of the path. Recent counterarguments to the status of ENL as the learning target share the basic terms of the discourse highlighted above. Thus, Cook (1999) rejects the idea that ESL learners are “failed native speakers” and argues that the “multicompetence” of ESL learners is qualitatively different and should be valued in its own right. But this seems to be simply a refusal to reach the end of the path, or a belief that the end cannot be reached by people who are perceived to be far away. If ENLlike linguistic competence cannot be reached, then learners should abandon this unrealistic target and adopt more realistic, closer targets. One is left wondering whether this perspective is truly liberating or profoundly pessimistic. By contrast, the non-dichotomous position advocates deconstructing the terms of this discourse. Nayar (1994, cited in Cheung 2002, p.7-8) critically examines a list of defining features associated with the concept of the native speaker:
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) (ix) (x)
primacy in order of acquisition; manner and environment of acquisition; acculturation by growing up in the speech community; phonological, linguistic, and communicative competence; dominance, frequency, and comfort of use; ethnicity; nationality/ domicile; self-perception of linguistic identity; other-perception of linguistic membership and eligibility; monolingualism.
Nayar (1994, p.3) concludes that only the last feature, monolingualism in language X, can never be present in non-native speakers of X, and that therefore monolingualism is the only feature which redundantly validates the term “native speaker” of X, since “the person has no other language to be native of ”. Adopting a similarly
The “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct
critical position, Rampton (1990) argues that the terms “native speaker” and “mother tongue” are politically exploited as group labels, and are sociolinguistically inaccurate because they “spuriously emphasize the biological at the expense of the social” (p.98). The following is Rampton’s list of “strongly contested” connotations associated with these terms (p.97): 1 A particular language is inherited, either through genetic endowment or through birth into the social group stereotypically associated with it. 2 Inheriting a language means being able to speak it well. 3 People either are or are not native/mother-tongue speakers. 4 Being a native speaker involves the comprehensive grasp of a language. 5 Just as people are usually citizens of one country, people are native speakers of one mother tongue. Instead, Rampton (1990) proposes the more neutral terms language expertise, inheritance and affiliation. Language expertise is the extent of knowledge of the language one has learnt as an “accomplished user”. Inheritance and affiliation are social terms which express the individual’s membership in a group claimed according to birth or to personal loyalty (e.g., original nationality or naturalized citizenship; parentage or marriage). My own position as presented in this paper is close to that of Nayar (1994, 2001) and Rampton (1990), and is intended as a contribution to the deconstruction of “native speaker” discourse. Identifying the metaphor First, let us examine the literal meaning of the phrase “native speaker”. I take the literal meaning of “native” as “having to do with birth”; thus, one’s “native land” is the land where one was (literally) born, and being a “native New Yorker” or “native Shanghainese” means having been born in New York City, or Shanghai. Without the literal sense of “native”, these phrases would not make sense. However, one is not literally born a speaker of any language, the theory of Universal Grammar notwithstanding. As Chomsky would have it, one is born with a human brain that is somehow equipped for language acquisition. Linguists and non-linguists alike freely admit that one is not literally born a speaker of English, Polish, Russian, Chinese, or any other language. Therefore, the phrase “native speaker” can be identified as using the word “native” metaphorically, and it remains to be seen exactly what is metaphorical about it. Actually, the expression ‘native speaker’, when used to refer to a person who speaks a language, is a peculiarly English nominalization. The inexactness of translation equivalents in other languages may be taken as evidence for the non-literal-
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ness of the term. For example, in Russian there is the expression rodnoj jazyk, equivalent to ‘native language’, but the term for ‘native speaker’ is nositel’ jazyka, which means ‘carrier of the language’ and does not make reference to birth. In Polish, the expression for ‘native language’ is język ojczysty, which can be roughly translated into English as ‘the language of the fatherland’. This expression is laden with patriotic value; thus, it is possible for Polish-American heritage learners of Polish to go to Poland to study their język ojczysty because they do not know it, while in English, it is semantically anomalous to say that a native speaker does not know his or her native language. Similarly, it is natural to say in Chinese that Chinese-American students are going to China to study 國語 guóyǔ (literally, the ‘country language’, one of the terms used for standard Mandarin Chinese) or 中文 zhōngwén (the usual expression for the Chinese language, which however includes the wider idea of Chinese culture and the written language), because they are Chinese, even though they may be American-born speakers of English. Thus, the ideas of ‘speaking’ and ‘birth’ are not as closely associated in Polish and Chinese as they are in English. To help establish more explicitly the non-literalness of the term / concept “native speaker”, let me refer briefly to the procedure for metaphor identification proposed by the PALA Special Interest Group in Metaphor (PALASIGMET). The PALASIGMET group proposes a procedure for parsing discourse/text in such a way as to identify the specific bits of text which are non-literal and which offer a potential ground for a metaphorical interpretation (Crisp 2002; Crisp, Heywood and Steen 2002; Steen 2002). The procedure proposes three levels of analysis: the linguistic level, the propositional level, and the conceptual level. Its innovation consists of the interposition of the propositional level between the linguistic and the conceptual level. The propositional analysis of meaning as literal or non-literal identifies potential thought structures which may become psychologically realized as metaphorical mental representations, but the analytical framework is neutral with respect to whether such a realization actually takes place. Thus, in this framework, to identify a metaphorical sense it is sufficient to show that the text provides the pro positional ground for a metaphor, rather than to show the psychological intent of the speaker/writer that a metaphorical meaning is intended. The propositional content itself can be analysed for literal or non-literal use (Steen, 2002, p.18): In translating language into a list of thoughts, or propositions, it is easier to see which elements of these propositions have been used literally and which ones have been used metaphorically. This can be done by determining the nature of the referents of the concepts participating in the propositions: if a concept directly designates a referent in the projected text world (Werth, 1999), it has been used literally; if it is not, it may be metaphorical. The criterion for metaphorical usage is the well-known Lakoffian one of a conceptual mapping between two domains (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1986, 1987, 1993).
The “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct
While the PALASIGMET framework is proposed in application to text/discourse, in my opinion it is possible to apply it also to decontextualized metaphors. For example, let us consider the metaphor “This man is a lion.” It can be argued that it is not necessary to embed the sentence in a wider piece of discourse to determine that it is metaphorical. The word “man” and the word “lion” designate two concepts which do not directly have the same referent. To achieve coherence with the same situation, i.e., identity between the referent of “man” and the referent of “lion”, as suggested grammatically by the copula “is”, we would have to interpret “lion” indirectly, e.g., by thinking of the attributes of a lion as strong, fierce, etc. Whether such an interpretation takes place or not is a question of psychological realization; however, the propositional structure itself provides the ground for a metaphorical interpretation. A metaphorical interpretation is possible when (Steen, 2002, p.19): [the] concepts do not directly relate to default referents in the situation model, but instead indirectly designate other literal referents in the situation, which are conventionally classified as entities, attributes of entities, or relations between entities. What these are is not our concern here; the main issue is that we can see that we need metaphorical mappings to get from the activated concepts to the intended referents in the projected situation.
Now let us consider the phrase “native language”. I would like to show that the propositional structure of this collocation of adjective plus noun is itself metaphorical, even before the phrase gets embedded in a wider bit of text or in the “projected situation” to which the wider bit of text may refer. The adjective “native” means “having to do with birth”, and is thus an “attribute of an entity”, the entity being birth. The noun “language” refers to a different entity, from a different conceptual domain. The propositional notation used by the PALASIGMET group and borrowed from Bovair and Kieras (1985) would strip the proposition of its surface syntax. Tautologically, the proposition would be: P (NATIVE LANGUAGE)
However, since this notation does not tell us anything more about the semantic structure than the surface form of the phrase, I suggest that the proposition can be phrased as: P (BIRTH LANGUAGE)
In this proposition, LANGUAGE is the argument and BIRTH is the predicate. Moreover, BIRTH is an “attribute of an entity”. The proposition creates the ground for a mapping from BIRTH (the source conceptual domain) onto LANGUAGE (the target conceptual domain), a mapping that would be guided by the thought
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structure that BIRTH is to be interpreted as somehow being an attribute of language. This thought structure could be paraphrased as “LANGUAGE has something to do with BIRTH”, or “LANGUAGE has a similar attribute as an attribute of BIRTH”. We can see that the structure is similar to “This MAN has a similar attribute to the attribute of a LION”. It is not at all direct in its reference, but requires indirect interpretation. It could be contrasted with the literal type of reference in the expression “birth mother”, with the proposed propositional structure: P (BIRTH MOTHER)
A birth mother is the natural mother who performed the literal act of giving birth to a child, as opposed to an adoptive mother. The phrase is used in the social situation of the natural mother abrogating her parental rights to the adoptive mother. In this projected situation, “birth” and “mother” are referents in the same situation and the same conceptual domain: the mother is the person who literally gives birth. The thought structure “MOTHER has something to do with BIRTH” can be interpreted literally, without the need for the metaphorical interpretation of a mapping between two domains. One can perform an analysis on the phrase “native speaker” analogous to the above analysis of “native language”. The propositional structure would be: P (BIRTH SPEAKER)
This could be paraphrased as “SPEAKER has something to do with BIRTH” or “SPEAKER has an attribute of BIRTH”. However, the reference is not direct, because it cannot literally refer to the same situation – the baby that is born is not a speaker, and “birth” itself is a different referent than “speaker” or speaking. One could imagine the mother speaking (saying something), but that already goes into the realm of interpretation, and has nothing to do with the literal sense of birth (I take the literal sense here to be the physical act in which the child comes out of the mother’s body). Therefore, the propositional structure is the ground for a non-literal interpretation, in which we would have to conceptualize the implied mapping or similarity between the two referents from different domains: “SPEAKER has a similar attribute to an attribute of BIRTH”. The exact characteristics of the similar attribute are not literally given in the proposition. To reiterate, the phrase native speaker is a metaphor, and it remains to be seen “exactly what is metaphorical about it”, i.e., to be seen how the potential propositional ground becomes interpreted in its psychological realization.
The “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct
The ground of the native speaker metaphor If the term “native speaker” is so clearly a misnomer, what motivates the persistence of the metaphor? Let us return to the literal meaning of “native” as “having to do with birth”. If the phrase “native speaker” is metaphorical rather than literal, then “birth” is the ground of the metaphor. But why would “birth” be the ground of a metaphor for language? Traditionally in human society, an individual is identified according to his/her birth and parentage (the parents are the agents of his/her birth). The birth certificate, which typically states the date and place of birth and the parents of the child, is the fundamental identity document, and serves as the basis for other ID documents, such as the passport. The right to nationality can be transmitted through the parents, i.e., if the parents are outside the country of their nationality at the time of the child’s birth, e.g., outside of Poland, the child can still be registered at the appropriate embassy, viz., have Polish nationality.2 The right of inheritance is transmitted automatically from parent to child in most jurisdictions (unless the parent’s will/testament contradicts this assumed right). Thus the ground of the “native speaker” metaphor is the attribute of birth as a mark of social identity, an identity which includes parentage and nationality. This attribute of birth is a connotative rather than a denotative sense, since it goes beyond the primary literal meaning of birth as the physical act of a mother giving birth to a child. Thus, using a Lakoffian notation, the connotative sense can itself be identified as a conceptual metaphor, BIRTH IS SOCIAL IDENTITY. This connotative sense is the source domain which gets mapped onto the target domain of language, shaping our conceptualization (or even: generating a folk theory) of language itself. Thus, “native speaker” is a metaphor which is itself grounded in a metaphor! Traditionally, language has also been a mark of social identity, just as birth in its connotative sense has. This is shown very well in the Biblical story of the Pentecost, a counterpoint to the story of Babel (Acts of the Apostles 2: 1-13, New American Bible): When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which 2. According to Polish law, “a child acquires Polish citizenship through birth from parents at least one of whom has Polish citizenship, irrespective of the place of birth in Poland or abroad” (http:// www.uric.gov.pl/index.php?page=1110100000, accessed March 6th, 2007; translation JRW). For an example of US law rectifying a previous injustice in this regard, see the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Citizenship_Act_of_2000, accessed March 6th, 2007).
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parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the spirit enabled them to proclaim. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travellers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.” They were astounded and bewildered, and said to one another, “What does this mean?” But others said, scoffing, “They have had too much new wine.”
In the story of the Pentecost, the traditional conception of native language is clearly apparent: it is the language/tongue/speech/dialect/accent of one’s birth place, the place where one is “from”, which also determines the name/social label of our nationality. It is the mark of both regional and national affiliation. Whenever a label attaches itself to a language and locality, it marks off the individual as belonging to a social group. The group is a speech community and is recognized as such by other social groups. The Pentecost story can be juxtaposed to the story of the Tower of Babel, in which God confused men’s tongues, and scattered them as different nations all over the earth. Interestingly, when one reads the story of Babel in context, one finds a close association between nationality and parentage. In Genesis 10-11, the story of Babel is sandwiched in the middle of a detailed genealogy which traces the origins of different nations from the sons of Noah: Shem (from whose name we derive the word Semitic), Ham (hence Hamitic) and Japheth, down to Abraham, the forefather of both the Arabs (from his son Ishmael) and the Jews (from his son Isaac). The final verse of Genesis 10 sums up the intent of these chapters (Genesis 10:32, New American Bible): These are the groupings of Noah’s sons, according to their origins and by their nations. From these the other nations of the earth branched out after the flood.
Thus in the Biblical story of Genesis, the origin of the nations is derived from the birth of the progeny of the forefathers of mankind. The sons are each given their inheritance, which apportions to them land which comes to belong to different nations. The story of Babel is interposed in the middle of this genealogy, as an explanation of how the different nations came to speak different tongues (Genesis 11:1-9): The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled
The “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct
there. They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.” Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built. Then the Lord said: “If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what the other says.” Thus the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That it why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.
It seems that divine intervention was necessary to beget this nativity of the world’s languages, because the metaphorical grounding of the conception of the native speaker would otherwise break down: how could brothers, by birth of the same father, speak different languages? The Babel story collapses the timeline necessary for the “scattering” of brothers to result in different languages arising in different localities on earth. Ingeniously, the Babel story is not at all linguistically inaccurate; in the verses of the story quoted above (Genesis 11:1-9), it is not the specific brothers and their offspring who are mentioned, but “people”, and this allows for the interpretation of a longer historical time span. Nevertheless, the interposition of the story, a kind of fable, into a more directly historical account, serves to conceal the metaphorical nature of the concept of “native tongue”. The scattering of tongues is mapped onto/blended with the conceptual space of the scattering of the descendants, by birth (the ground), of the fathers of mankind. This conceptual blending of the scattering of tongues and the scattering of peoples, tracing their birth lineage, corresponds to the social reality before the age of the mass media and global travel. Migration has existed throughout history. The contrast between the age of globalization and the pre-modern world (or, between today and as recently as fifty years ago) is not in the lack vs. presence of migration, but in its pace. Today, communication and travel are practically instantaneous, relative to the human lifespan. Whereas in the past one tended to go “from” one place to another and settle there, today one can literally be “from” several places at once, or even from no place in particular, if one does not attach (affiliate) one’s identity to one’s birthplace or one’s place of current residence. Intermarriages and the mixing of tongues within a single family are becoming quite common; for example, my own extended family, insofar as we can trace it back to the generation of our great-grandparents, is now “scattered” in Poland, Russia, Belarus, Austria, France, the United States and China, and intermarriages with the originally Polish/ Russian line include spouses who are American, French/Dutch (of mixed
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parentage), Filipino and Bangladeshi. The youngest generation includes children who are native speakers (i.e., dominant in the language of the locality of their birth) of French and German, but whose bilingualism/multilingualism includes Polish. Among the dozen or so members of my own generation, who are now adults aged 25-45, five reside outside Poland and Russia and are functionally native/near-native bilingual/multilingual in the following combinations of languages (given here in order of probable dominance for each speaker): English/Polish/Russian (myself; immigrated from Poland to England at age 9 and to the US at age 15; moved to China at age 35); English/Russian (two third cousins; immigrated from Russia to the US at age 9); French/Polish/English (one first cousin; lived in the Ivory Coast at age 12-14; returned to Poland and moved to France at age 18); Polish/English/ German (one second cousin; moved to the US at age 25). Therefore, the native speaker metaphor no longer matches the social reality of today. One is not permanently scattered; families such as mine are constantly on the go visiting their relatives in different countries. One’s “nativity” does not match one’s residence, and one’s residence may be maintained in several places at once. The customary social question “Where are you from?” becomes either annoying and troublesome, or a prompt to a lengthy explanation. One’s parentage may also be mixed, and thus, one has a right by birth, as well as a right by residence, to claim more than one native language. The ideas of “birth”, “residence”, and “language” no longer map onto each other; thus, they are no longer a good fit for a conceptual blend. Social discrimination Whether one adopts a view of the native/non-native opposition as dichotomous or rejects the dichotomous terms of the “native speaker” discourse may be “just a matter of semantics”, to use an unfairly derisive cliché. This “matter of semantics”, however, is crucial, because it implies alternative social worldviews. The worldview characteristic of the dichotomous position can roughly be summarized as follows. There are different languages and there are native speakers of these languages. The native speakers have privileged social rights of a kind of ownership of their native language. It is an inheritance they are born into. Other speakers who attempt to learn the language are outsiders; they acquire the language by other means than by right of birth. On the other hand, the worldview characteristic of the non-dichotomous position can be characterized as follows. There are different languages and there are speakers of these languages. Many of the speakers of a given language are native speakers who learned that language in childhood and who are more proficient in that language than in other languages. There are other speakers who have become
The “native speaker” as a metaphorical construct
proficient in a given language, whether by speaking more than one language in childhood, or later in life, through study or migration. They are not outsiders; their ability to speak the language is potentially equal to native speakers. It can be argued that the first of these two alternative positions, the traditional view of the native/non-native opposition as a dichotomy, is inherently discriminatory. Semantically, the dichotomous position is one of absolute antonymy or plus/ minus opposition, with the plus value being unmarked and the minus value being marked. It is analogous, for example, to the semantic relation above/below or up/ down (“down” is “not up”). The non-dichotomous position is one of gradable antonymy, analogously to hot/cold (the meaning of “cold” is not entirely the same as “not hot”). In a dichotomous position of absolute antonymy, the marked term is defined by its relation to the unmarked. Thus, “non-native” is defined by its relation to “native”; the implication is that somehow “native” has salient semantic content which can be defined in its own terms, and, once that has been done, the negation of “native” is sufficient for a definition of “non-native”. Thus, subtly, “non-native” is robbed of the chance of an autonomy of meaning in its own terms. This creates the semantic potential for social discrimination. The Lakoffian conceptual metaphor “GOOD IS UP” is endowed with psychological and social potential e.g., “lift up your heart”, “he’s an upstanding member of society”, “I’m feeling down”, “he’s down and out”. The unmarked member of the opposition, “up”, is positively valued; the bodily experience which is the ground of the metaphor is that of getting up and learning how to walk as a child, a fundamental part of “growing up”, conceptualized as good. If the semantic opposition native/non-native is analogous to up/down, the potential exists for a mapping of the psychologically and socially instantiated value pattern which metaphorically differentiates “up” from “down” onto “native” vs. “non-native”. Thus, “non-native” speakers would be “down” in relation to the native speakers’ being “up”, which in social terms translates to a position of inferiority, being “looked down upon”. Moreover, the same kind of transference would hold for “out”, the marked term of the absolute antonyms in/out, with the implicit embodied conceptual metaphor GOOD IS IN (for example, it is good to be inside the house, because one is safe and sheltered). Thus, “native speakers” are “in”, the insiders of a privileged social group, while “non-native” speakers are “out” (“not-in”), outsiders, e.g., excluded from jobs which favor native speakers. An instance of discrimination against nonnative teachers of English in Japan is given by Oda and Takada (2005).
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Mother tongue It could be argued that the expression “mother tongue”, which is often used synonymously with “native language”, is less metaphorical, in that it can be interpreted as “mother’s language”, the language in which the mother literally speaks to the baby, thus providing its “first language” (L1), its first linguistic input. While this is certainly true for monolingual speakers, the same problems as pointed out above exist for bilingual and multilingual speakers, whose life circumstances undermine a neat mapping between “birth”, “residence” and “language”. For example, as pointed out by Pattanayak (1998), Mahapatra (1990, cited in Graddol 1999, p. 63) and Agnihotri & Khanna (1997, cited ibid.), census-taking in a multilingual society like India has encountered serious problems of definition of what exactly is to be counted as a speaker’s mother tongue. Pattanayak (1998, p.126) gives the following example: In the Indian context, in the patrilocal family it is usually the father’s dialect which dominates and the child grows with it. In the matrilocal family however, it is the environment of the mother which is pervasive and as such the child grows with the language spoken in that environment. This is best illustrated in the case of a Bihari mother tongue speaker (as declared in the census) marrying a Hindi speaker. Assuming that the mother was a speaker of a language/dialect which she would have declared as Bihari in the census, then if she were living that would probably be recorded as the mother tongue of the child even if she was married to a man who would have recorded his mother tongue as Hindi. However, if at the time of recording the mother tongue the mother was dead, the language mostly spoken in the person’s home (being Hindi) would be recorded as the child’s mother tongue.
As this example shows, in a bilingual or multilingual setting, the terms “mother tongue” and “first language” are not necessarily equated with each other, and also, may not have an unambiguous referent. Moreover, in situations of migration, language shift, diglossia or differentiation of use according to functional domain, the “first language” of infancy and early childhood may not be the language which the speaker uses the most, nor the language of best competence (in terms of level of expertise), later in life or in adulthood. Thus, if the more literal terms “mother tongue” and “first language” are problematic, how much more so is the non-literal term “native speaker”? Implications I have argued that the concept of the native speaker is a metaphor. It is a metaphor because, rather obviously, it is not literal: one is not born a speaker of one’s “native” language. As the Latin roots of the word infant indicate, one is born unable to
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speak at all. If the concept is so self-evidently not literal, then why has it enjoyed such staying power? An analysis of the semantics of the concepts of “native speaker” and “native language” suggests what the ground of the metaphor may be. The semantic area of these concepts has slightly different, culturally conditioned connotations in different languages. These connotations seem to be more directly concerned with national identity than with literal birth. For example, one knows 中文 zhōngwén (“Chinese”, including Chinese culture and the written language) and one is 中國 人 Zhōnggúo rén (“Chinese”, literally, “China person”). The connotations have to do with birth as a mark of social identity, a non-literal sense of birth which is probably inherent in the polysemy of the word “birth”. Our social identity, as recorded in identity documents such as birth certificates and passports, includes our date and place of birth and our parentage. Nationality is transmitted to us through our parentage; it is socially rather than biologically inherited. These may be taken as literal facts of social identity. However, language is not literally inherited; it is acquired. Therefore, the polysemous connotation of birth as social identity is the conceptual metaphor which becomes the ground of the native speaker concept: BIRTH IS SOCIAL IDENTITY. The language of our parents, the nationality of our parents and ancestors, are something that we are (socially) born with (or born into). By a metaphorical mapping, the concept of the native speaker becomes an identity label, seemingly unalterable, like one’s date and place of birth. Armed with the above analysis, let us briefly dissect the premises of the dichotomous position which segregates native and non-native speakers into two classes of people. In his excellent summary of the literature on the definition of the native speaker, Vivian Cook (1999, p.186-7) writes (my emphases in bold font): Davies (1991) claims that the first recorded use of native speaker is the following: “The first language that a human being learns to speak is his native language; he is a native speaker of this language” (Bloomfield, 1933, p.43). In other words, an individual is a speaker of the L1 learnt in childhood, called by Davies (1996) the “bio-developmental definition” (p.156). Being a native speaker in this sense is an unalterable historical fact; individuals cannot change their native language any more than they can change who brought them up. […] The indisputable element in the definition of native speaker is that a person is a native speaker of the language learnt first; the other characteristics are incidental, describing how well an individual uses the language. Someone who did not learn a language in childhood cannot be a native speaker of the language. Laterlearnt languages can never be native languages, by definition. Children who learn two languages simultaneously from birth have two L1s (Davies, 1991), which may not be the same as being a monolingual native speaker of either language. L2 students cannot be turned into native speakers without altering the core meaning of native speaker. Asserting that “adults usually fail to become native speakers”
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(Felix, 1987, p.140) is like saying that ducks fail to become swans: Adults could never become native speakers without being reborn.
At first glance, Cook’s argument seems very convincing. However, upon closer inspection, we can see that he falls into the trap of the conceptual metaphor BIRTH IS SOCIAL IDENTITY. Consider the last sentence: “Adults could never become native speakers without being reborn.” The implicature seems to be that children become native speakers by being born; however, I have argued that it is metaphorical to say that children become native speakers literally through the act of birth. When a child is born, it is an infant, unable to speak. If we substitute the ground of the metaphor into the sentence, suddenly the meaning becomes more transparent: “Adults could never become native speakers without changing their social identity.” Now, the sentence sounds like a hypothesis which can be verified or falsified, rather than like an incontrovertible truth. The impression of incontrovertible truth was a result of the apparent analytical truth of the term “native speaker” referring to one’s being born. However, when we rephrase this reference as a metaphorical mapping rather than as a direct literal reference, the sentence no longer expresses an analytical (incontrovertible) truth. There is a similar problem with the assertion that “L2 students cannot be turned into native speakers without altering the core meaning of native speaker.” If the “core” meaning of “native speaker” is the connotation of “birth” as social identity, then we could paraphrase this sentence as: “L2 students cannot be turned into native speakers without altering the metaphorical meaning of native speaker as labelling social identity.” This statement is rather tautological, but it could be verified or falsified if we parse the implicature: if L2 students can be turned into native speakers, this would alter the meaning of native speaker as labelling social identity. Now, if this statement expresses a hypothesis which could be verified, the term native speaker would have to have a more neutral meaning, like the corresponding Russian term nositel’ jazyka (literally, “carrier of the language”), i.e., simply a competent speaker. The first highlighted sentence in Cook’s argument is even thornier: “Being a native speaker in this sense is an unalterable historical fact.” The key to its deconstruction is to unpack what is meant by “in this sense”. What is meant is being a speaker of “the first language a human being learns to speak” in childhood, which is the “bio-developmental definition”. This seems very reasonable, except that it is mapped onto the assertion of “an unalterable historical fact”. The following are equated: birth = childhood, development = upbringing: “individuals cannot change their native language any more than they can change who brought them up.” Biological reality and social reality are mapped onto each other. Again, a paraphrase would make the meaning more transparent: “Individuals cannot
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change the language in which they are competent any more than they can change who brought them up.” Now, the statement can be verified or falsified, rather than seeming to be an incontrovertible truth. The literal “unalterable historical fact” is the act of birth itself, one’s date and place of birth and one’s parentage, not the act (process) of language acquisition. The metaphor serves to collapse a large portion of one’s lifespan (at least from birth to puberty), with the concomitant biological and social changes, into the “unalterable fact”. Thus the term “native speaker” becomes a class label and precludes, or excludes, the verification of the variables of individual change. The analysis of the definition of native speaker given by Cook (1999) is well intentioned; he sets off the native speaker, defined as the Chomskyan idealization of “a monolingual person who still speaks the language learnt in childhood” (p.187), from the L2 user, and goes on to argue that the “multicompetence” of the L2 user needs to be valued in its own right. Nevertheless, his position is dichotomous: there are native speakers and there are non-native speakers, re-labelled “L2 users”. By the very way the definition is set up, L2 users are precluded from being equal to native speakers. By contrast, the scholars who adopt a non-dichotomous position tend to favor a re-definition or replacement of the term “native speaker”. I have argued that the term “native speaker”, by virtue of its grounding in the conceptual metaphor BIRTH IS SOCIAL IDENTITY, carries a subtle social bias. Therefore, rather than focusing on birth and social identity, I think we should approach the question of language acquisition not from the perspective of its inception, but of its outcome, and focus on a closer scrutiny of the dynamics of linguistic expertise. References Agnihotri, R. K. & A.L. Khanna (1997). Problematizing English in India. New Delhi: Sage. Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Bovair, S. & D. Kieras (1985). A Guide to Propositional Analysis for Research on Technical Prose. In B. Britton and J. Black (Eds.), Understanding expository text: A theoretical and practical handbook for analyzing explanatory prose ( pp. 315-362). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Cheung, Y. L. (2002). The attitude of university students in Hong Kong towards native and nonnative teachers of English. Unpublished M.Phil thesis. Department of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Cook, V. (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33 (2), 185-210. Crisp, P. (2002). Metaphorical propositions: a rationale. Language and Literature, 11 (1), 7-16.
Joanna Radwańska -Williams Crisp, P., J. Heywood & G. Steen (2002). Metaphor identification and analysis, classification and quantification. Language and Literature, 11 (1), 55-69. Davies, A. (1989). Is International English an interlanguage? TESOL Quarterly, 23 (3), 447-467. Davies, A. (1991). The native speaker in applied linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Davies, A. (1996). Proficiency or the native speaker: What are we trying to achieve in ELT? In G. Cook & B. Seidlhofer (Eds.), Principle and practice in applied linguistics (pp.145-157). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Felix, S. (1987). Cognition and language growth. Dordrecht: Foris. Graddol, D. (1999). The decline of the native speaker. In D. Graddol & U. H. Meinhof (Eds.), English in a changing world (= The AILA Review, 13) (pp. 57-68). Oxford: The English Book Centre, Catchline. Kachru, B. B. (1985). Institutionalized second-language varieties. In S. Greenbaum (Ed.), The English language today (pp. 211-226). Oxford: Pergamon. Koerner, E. F. K. (1999). Linguistic Historiography: Projects and Prospects. (= Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, Vol. 92). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. (1986). The meanings of literal. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 1, 291-296. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought, second edition (pp. 202-251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mahapatra, B. P. (1990). Multilingualism in India: a demographic appraisal. In D. P. Pattanayak (Ed.), Multilingualism in India. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Meillet, A. (1903). Introduction à l’étude comparative des langues indo-européennes. Paris: Librairie Hachette. Nayar, P. B. (1994). Whose English is it? TESL-EJ, 1 (1), F1 http://berkeley.edu/~TESL-EJ.html. (Rtr November 1st, 2004 from http://curriculum.calstatela.edu/NNestCaucus). Nayar, P.B. (2001). Ideological binarism in the identities of native and non-native English speakers. In A. Duszak (Ed.), Us and others: Social identities across languages, discourses and cultures (pp. 463-480). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. New American Bible (Catholic version). (1991). New York: American Bible Society. Oda, M. & T. Takada (2005). English Language Teaching in Japan. In G. Braine (Ed.), Teaching English to the world: History, curriculum and practice ( pp.93-101). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Pattanayak, D. P. (1998). Mother tongue: An Indian context. In R. Singh (Ed.), The native speaker: Multilingual perspectives (pp.124-147). New Delhi: Sage. Rampton, M. B. H. (1990). Displacing the ‘native speaker’: expertise, affiliation, and inheritance. ELT Journal, 44 (2), 97-101. Reprinted in T. Hedge & N. Whitney (Eds.), Power, pedagogy & practice (pp. 17-23). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Steen, G. (2002). Towards a procedure for metaphor identification. Language and Literature, 11 (1), 17-33. Tsiapera, M. (1990). Organic metaphor in early 19th century linguistics. In E. F. K. Koerner & H‑J. Niederehe (Eds.), History and Historiography of linguistics ( pp. 577‑587). Papers from the fourth international conference on the history of the language sciences. Trier 24‑28 August 1987. Volume 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, Werth, P. (1999). Text worlds: Representing conceptual space in discourse. London: Longman.
Part 3
Metaphors and the Classroom
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment Lynne Cameron
The Open University, UK This chapter analyses the use of metaphor by teachers and students in the spoken discourse of a primary (elementary) school classroom, where English is used as first language. It adopts a dynamic and ecological perspective to explore the nature of metaphor in classroom discourse and how metaphor contributes to learning. The findings show that metaphor tends to occur in classroom talk when teachers have something difficult to do, such as giving students negative feedback or explaining unfamiliar concepts. Metaphor in the classroom not only offers ‘learning affordances’ for students to understand ideational content, but is also importantly affective, carrying values and attitudes. Over time, this affective content builds up to create the particular ‘learning climate’ in which teacher and students operate.
Keywords: metaphor, classroom discourse, education, affective, dynamic Theoretical background The research takes a socio-cognitive approach to the analysis of classroom language. Drawing on Vygotskyan socio-cultural theory, students and teachers are seen as members of various socio-cultural groups and, at the same time, cognitive beings who conceptualise and learn from the world they encounter. The particular socio-cultural context of the classroom, in which teachers work intensively over a school year with a group of children is described in dynamic and ecological terms. The children in the study reported here spent from 8.45 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. in their classroom, week after week, from September to July. Most of that time they were interacting with two key teachers. We can think of the class, and all that happens in it, as a dynamic system, in which all components – students, teacher, activity, talk, understandings – are continuously changing. The classroom discourse data, collected towards the end of the school year, display the state of the
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system at that point. Talk and activity have evolved over that time into certain stable patterns of interaction. From an ecological perspective (van Lier, 2000), these patterns of interaction both construct and constrain the student’s ‘learning environment’ in the ecology of the classroom. Spoken interaction, in which people try to explain their thinking and conceptualisations to each other, can, through the process of trying to understand each other and themselves, contribute to learning or the development of new conceptualisations. Understanding the learning environment created by teachers and their students is crucial to understanding learning processes. Various factors interact to form the learning ecology or environment of a particular class group, including: – physical spaces and objects – curriculum and other requirements imposed by the larger educational system – expectations, values and attitudes – teacher-student interactions. A learning environment can be seen as including two dimensions, ‘learning climate’ and ‘learning affordances’. Affordances (Gibson, 1979) are what we might call dynamical opportunities – something that the environment offers to those operating within it, who use it in ways particular to their own nature. For example, in the ecology of a forest, a tree offers different affordances to people and to birds. Birds may use the tree to build a nest, while humans might use it for firewood or building materials. In the classroom, the metaphor of affordances gives an interesting way to think about what teachers do and say, and how children respond. Since students may make use of learning opportunities in many different ways, evidence of affordance or opportunity is not the same as evidence of learning outcomes. Learning climate is less tangible than affordances, but tries to capture the idea that motivation and emotions also evolve in the dynamics of the classroom. Over time, students come to understand what the teacher expects of them in terms of behaviour and participation, while the teacher adjusts and adapts her expectations of the students. Activities and talk in the classroom create, and take place within, this evolving affective ‘climate’. The question to be explored in this chapter is how metaphor contributes to the learning environment of the case study classroom through its use in spoken interaction. Metaphor here refers to linguistic metaphors, or what are sometimes called ‘metaphorical expressions’ (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). Linguistic metaphor is a phenomenon of talk or text – of the surface of discourse, rather than underlying mental activity – and identified through the use of words or phrases with the potential for metaphorical interpretation, called Vehicle terms. The idea being talked
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
about, which may or may not be explicit in the talk, is labelled the Topic of the metaphor. No a priori assumption is made of underlying conceptual metaphors in the minds of the users of linguistic metaphors. Instead, the talk is analysed for evidence of systematicity in the use of metaphor through identifying groups of linguistic metaphors with connected Topics and Vehicles. Systematic metaphors can then be said to be characteristic of the particular socio-cultural group in interaction. The discourse context The data was collected in a small primary (elementary) school in a rural area in the north of England with a white, monocultural population. There were 15 children in the class, aged between 9 and 11 years. Two teachers worked with the class: the main teacher was the Head of the school and another part-time teacher taught the class for three mornings each week. The students sat in small groups around tables, rather than at separate desks, although most of their work was undertaken individually. To understand the data extracts used in the chapter, readers need to know that the students had recently been on a school visit to the English Lake District. In several observed lessons, the children were engaged in writing and illustrating a personal diary of their visit, taking each day separately and describing what they had seen and done. They also had a lesson on the geology of the area, referring back to different types of rocks that they had seen. Also during the data collection period, the students were preparing for annual May Day celebrations, which involved the parents watching the students perform traditional English dances around the village maypole. Data collection and analysis The data consists of tape recordings and observation notes made in the school over a six week period. The recording was carried out by means of a small microphone and cassette recorder worn by one of the students, which captured talk by the teacher, talk by the focus student, and talk taking place around her. 13 hours of recordings produced around 26,000 words of transcribed talk. The first step in the analysis was to identify the ‘linguistic metaphors’ in the talk. Identification of linguistic metaphors is a rather complicated issue once we go beyond obvious, strongly poetic metaphors into more prosaic uses of language. The analyst is required to make many decisions, particularly about technical language, delexicalised verbs like make or give, and prepositions. Identification issues
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and procedures are described in detail in Cameron, 2003. Similes are included as linguistic metaphors where the comparison is metaphorical rather than literal. Once identified, the linguistic metaphors were further analysed for their grammatical form and semantic content. To explore the function of linguistic metaphor, the classroom discourse was separately analysed in terms of teacher action. Each episode of teaching was classified as primarily belonging to one of a set of types of teaching actions, listed in Table 1. Each lesson was described in terms of these teaching actions, and the analysis of teacher action was then mapped against use of linguistic metaphor to produce a picture of when metaphors were used. Table 1. Types of Teaching Action sequences (from Cameron, 2003: 83) 1. 1.1 1.2
Framing Organisation Teacher gives instructions or information about hardware and logistics of classroom activity. Agenda Management Teacher talks about the content or process of an upcoming discourse event.
2. 2.1 2.2
Explanation Explication Teacher explains a concept, action, skill etc to pupils Exemplification Teacher uses language, realia, or physical action to give an example of a concept, idea etc
3. Checking understanding Teacher asks question to check understanding of previous discourse content. 4. Summarising Teacher recaps or reformulates all or part of preceding discourse content at the end of a lesson or stage of a lesson. 5. 5.1 5.2
Feedback Evaluative feedback Teacher comments on quality of pupils’ work or performance Strategic feedback Teacher suggests how to improve performance
6. Control Teacher uses language to stop or pre-empt unwanted behaviour. 7. Problem setting Teacher helps pupils to solve a problem through asking them a set of questions whose responses build up a structuring and solution to the problem. 8. Information search Teacher asks for genuinely unknown information 9. Other Teacher talk not covered by the other categories
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
General features of metaphor in use The first set of findings is presented in this section through an extract from the classroom talk that exemplifies features of linguistic metaphor found across the discourse. Extract 1 comes from one of the dancing practice sessions. The teacher has stopped the dance and the music to explain to some of the boys how they should place their feet. Extract 1 Teacher explains a dancing position to students1 1 5 10
boys (. ) can you try and have your feet in what’s called (. ) first position (. ) where your heels are just touching (1.0) and your knees are straight (3.0) and your toes are a little bit out (. ) but not that much (2.0) about at five to one (. ) not like this (. ) [stands with feet wide apart] it looks funny (. ) like Charlie Chaplin
The extract shows a feedback sequence (category 5 in Table 1), in which the teacher gives negative feedback by describing the position their feet should be in and contrasting this with what they have been doing. The underlined words or phrases are identified as Vehicle terms of linguistic metaphors. Vehicle terms serve to identify linguistic metaphors through their anomalous position vis a vis the on-going content of the talk – both clocks (five to one) and Charlie Chaplin are in contrast to the Topic of the linguistic metaphors (the position of the toes and a child in a maypole dance respectively). The following features of metaphor use, seen in the extract, were typical across the discourse: The interplay of metaphor and non-metaphorical language Both metaphor and non-metaphorical language are employed in the teaching sequence. As was found in many other sequences, linguistic metaphors are used towards the end of this episode, rather than at the beginning, and after the teacher has explained what she means in non-metaphorical language (lines 2–7). She uses the technical term “first position” (line 3), and then explains in non-metaphorical 1.
Metaphor Vehicle terms are underlined.
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language how to position the heels, knees and toes (lines 4–6). The first metaphor at five to one serves to summarise these specific details, creating a visual image of the hands of the clock. In the last part of this episode, the teachers builds on this metaphor with a physical demonstration and a second metaphor, contrasting what she does not want with (like Charlie Chaplin) what she does (at five to one). Metaphorical language is interwoven, not just with non-metaphorical language, but also with physical demonstration and visual input. Metaphor to summarise Both metaphors in this extract act to summarise the feedback. Metaphor is particularly suited to summarising. When using a metaphor, speakers can choose a Vehicle term to capture key points about the Topic. The linguistic metaphor is a kind of ‘information package’, in which the Topic and Vehicle terms are the surface referents to semantic domains and conceptual schemata, and their juxtaposition in the talk serves to select and highlight key aspects of those domains and schemata. In the kind of summary we see in this extract, ideas mentioned in previous talk are ‘packed up’ into the metaphor which offers students a memorable re-formulation (Heritage & Watson, 1979). More than one metaphor This extract is also typical in using more than one metaphor. Across the data, there was a tendency for metaphors to occur in groups of two or three, and sometimes in larger clusters (Cameron, 2003: 122). While larger clusters often occur at significant points in talk, smaller clusters of repeated or re-lexicalised metaphors are a normal feature of talk. The Charlie Chaplin metaphor uses a contrasting Vehicle with the same Topic as the previous linguistic metaphor, at five to one. Metaphor and affect Although I had expected metaphor to play a primarily ideational role in educational discourse, its affective role was found to be much more prominent and frequent. The affective impact of the two metaphors in this extract comes from the choice of Vehicle terms – they are both familiar to children, and the Charlie Chaplin comparison also evokes humour and hyperbole. The affective impact of the metaphor becomes clearer when we consider its pragmatic role in giving negative feedback. In this situation, the teacher is carrying out a potentially face-threatening act – telling the boys that their footwork was
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
inadequate – and we can hypothesise that the humour and familiarity of the Vehicle terms helped to mitigate some of the threat to face. Metaphor offers an indirect way to convey feedback and other potentially negative messages. Again, we should note that it was not just the metaphor, but also the non-verbal actions that acted to mitigate threat to face through shared laughter. Summary The short extract from the dancing lesson has illustrated general features of metaphor that were found across the classroom discourse, in different types of lessons and at different stages of activities: – the interweaving of metaphor with non-metaphorical language – the use of metaphor to re-formulate and summarise – the clustering of several metaphors together – the use of metaphor with affective impact in potentially difficult situations. These are stable patterns of metaphor use that have evolved over the school year as teacher and students work and talk together. The extract also illustrates several ways in which metaphor contributes to the learning environment, through the affordances it provides and through the climate it helps to develop. The use of metaphors to explain and summarise offers affordances as a way to access the content of the teaching sequence (how to position the feet) and to learn from teacher feedback on performance. The lexical choices of Vehicle terms and the talk around metaphor contribute to an affective climate of expected behaviour and responses that influence motivation and action. The learning climate seen here, and throughout the discourse, is one where teachers take a supportive, positive approach, avoiding direct negative feedback, often through the use of humour and metaphor. When are metaphors used? The cross-mapping of teaching actions and linguistic metaphor showed the following: – The teaching actions (listed in Table 1) most likely to involve metaphor were Summarising, Agenda Management and Evaluative Feedback. More than half of these sequences contained at least one metaphor. – Metaphors occurred in about one-third of Control, Strategic Feedback and Explication sequences.
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– Very few metaphors were used in Exemplification, Checking Understanding, Organising and Information Search sequences (Cameron, 2003: 126–7). We have seen how metaphors are used in Feedback in Extract 1, and the summarising capacity of metaphor in the same extract helps to understand why it should be so prevalent in longer sequences that summarise the content or activity of a lesson, as in the following sequence from the end of a maths lesson: Extract 2
Metaphor in Summarising
and all of this (.) arose out of me (.) wanting you (1.0) to know (.) how to work out (5.0) an average
The next extract shows an Agenda Management sequence from the same dance lesson as Extract 1. The teacher is telling the students what they are going to do in the next part of the lesson (Spider’s Web is the name of a dance that they are going to practise) and why. Extract 3 1 5
Metaphor in Agenda Management
now (.) I’m really pushing you this afternoon (.) because the more we can get practised and worked out (2.0) the more time we have (.) to really (.) polish it up (.) and make it look professional (2.0) so (.) if you all feel up to it (.) I thought we’d have a go at Spider’s Web
In Agenda Management, metaphor is used as the teacher offers students a view of what is to come. As an affordance, such sequences allow students to understand and share the teacher’s agenda. It has long been argued that this kind of ‘advance organizer’ helps learning by preparing students’ minds for upcoming conceptual content (Ausubel, 1960). The affective role of metaphor and its contribution to learning climate is also clear in this extract, in interplay with non-metaphorical language. The teacher takes the time to persuade the students that hard work (pushing, polish up) will be worth the effort (make it look professional). Moreover, in both lines 1–4 and lines 5–6, she moves from a somewhat distanced role as motivator to a position of alignment with the students by using the personal pronoun we in lines 3 and 6. The linguistic metaphors in lines 5 and 6 up to it and have a go at use colloquial and indirect language that seems to downplay the challenge of the activity, making it less of a threat to the students; alternative ways of saying have a go at such as dance or do
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
sound more direct and less empathetic with the possible tiredness of the students. These ways of aligning with students were found throughout the talk. Metaphor in the explanation of lesson content In this section, I report how metaphor contributes to learning affordances in situations where students meet new or unfamiliar ideas or concepts. Metaphor theory often emphasizes metaphor’s cognitive role e.g. Kittay (1987), while downplaying the affective role that was prominent in this data. The cognitive role of metaphor was less significant than expected in the classroom discourse but still of relevance in the construction of the learning environment. In Extract 4, the class teacher is explaining to the students about the derivation of a man’s name, in connection with their diary writing. Extract 4 Metaphor in Explanation 1 5
for people who are writing about Skidda (. ) um (. ) remember it actually comes from the word Skiddaw which is a hill (. ) but (. ) he’s been named after it (. ) but (. ) it’s been????? you drop the W and it’s Skidda (. ) and it’s a sort of nickname (. ) a sort of corruption of Skiddaw
In this short explanatory episode, we again see, as in Extract 1, metaphor clustering and the use of metaphors to summarise the content of earlier talk. We also see here the use of two different types of linguistic metaphors: conventionalised and deliberate. The term ‘deliberate’ is used instead of ‘novel’. I had expected to find novel metaphors in the classroom talk, but there were very few. In fact, the only really novel metaphors came from the very small number of linguistic metaphors produced by students and occurred in their ‘underground’ or unofficial talk, outside of the on-going classroom activity. Some of these metaphors might have been conventional within their peer group, and only appeared novel to me as outsider to that socio-cultural group. Rather than take an absolutist view of novelty, I therefore took a socio-cognitive and functional approach to it and tried to contrast metaphors that were deliberately selected for some purpose with those that were ‘just the way to say it’. Initial intuitive judgements were converted into a cluster of identificational conditions, including frequency and purpose of use and semantic
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content. ‘Deliberate metaphors’, such as at five to one in Extract 1 and nickname in Extract 5, have the following features: – They were used only on one occasion in the data – They have strong lexical content – Vehicle terms are usually nouns or lexical verbs – They are often accompanied by hedges or ‘tuning devices’ (Cameron & Deignan, 2003) such as like, kind of and sort of. Deliberate metaphors accounted for about 10 % of the linguistic metaphors in the data. They are likely to impact on the learning environment because they are striking and noticeable. The contrasting category was labelled ‘conventionalised metaphors’ to try to capture the idea that what is conventional varies across different socio-cultural groups or discourse communities, and is dynamic. For example, it was conventional for the teachers and students to use the preposition on to talk metaphorically about the piece of work they were busy with, but this use would sound rather odd outside the classroom: I’m on the circle part which one (question) are you on?
Conventionalised metaphor Vehicles were often prepositions and delexicalised verbs, with the verbs come and go particularly frequent. Conventionalised metaphors are likely to impact on the learning environment because they are used so often and use such high frequency lexis. In Extract 4, metaphors comes from (line 2), after (line 4), drop (line 6) are conventionalised across the broader speech community. The summarising metaphors nickname and corruption are, in contrast, deliberately used. The latter is of course a technical term in the field of name derivations, and, for experts in the field, could be said to be conventionalised. However, the way it is used here, with the parallelism with the preceding utterance and its final position in the episode, suggests that the teacher thought it was a new term for the students. Conventionalisation is a process that takes place on different timescales and relative to particular discourse communities; time and discourse community are thus parameters of metaphor conventionalisation. Technical and sub-technical metaphor In this section, we look more deeply into the role of metaphor in the learning of the technical language of disciplines or subject areas. Technical language can be
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
seen as a conventionalised way of talking for a discourse community which is the expert group in that field, and which has become conventional on a long timescale, often decades or centuries. For example, in mathematics, the technical terms for arithmetical operations (multiply, add, subtract, divide) are long established. School students come to the discourse of mathematics and other subjects as novices, and learn the meaning, form and use of technical language as part of their discipline knowledge. In data collected at the end of primary education, we might expect to find some technical language being used and other terms still in the process of being learnt (e.g. corruption in Extract 4). Metaphor, and in particular ‘sub-technical metaphor’, was found to be a major device for supporting the learning of technical language. While technical language is sometimes metaphorical in its derivation, talk used to support unfamiliar technical language was very likely to be metaphorical. This use of metaphor to support unfamiliar technical terms was called ‘sub-technical metaphor’ and played an important role in the discourse of the learning environment. Compare the following (constructed) piece of ‘expert’ mathematics language with Extract 5, which shows maths talk from the classroom: Example of the technical language of mathematics: We want to measure the length of time a customer spends in the shop and plot it against the amount of money spent.
The underlined words are well-established metaphors of mathematics and form part of the technical language of the discipline (Lakoff & Núñez, 1998). In contrast, Extract 5 shows the teacher working through a maths problem on the board in front of the class. We see the teacher mediating the expert language of mathematics, replacing technical terms with more familiar, sub-technical, metaphors: Extract 5 Sub-technical metaphor in a maths lesson
take away 6 you can’t so you borrow 1 and that makes14 14 take away 6 is 8
This use of sub-technical metaphor as a stepping stone to technical language was found across subject areas, including literacy. We can note two further points in connection with metaphor and technical language. The first is that some technical metaphors will appear to children as novel or even poetic metaphors, and they need also to learn them as technical
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terms. For example how is a child to know that the earth’s crust is not just a metaphor but also a technical term? The second point to note is the concrete and literal origins of much sub-technical metaphor. The metaphorical words and phrases in Extract 5 can be traced back to non-metaphorical descriptions of the operations that children will have performed with bricks or other concrete aids to calculation in their early primary years. In my own experience as a primary teacher, younger children would be helped to understand the concept of take away by using small bricks; a subtraction task such as 8–5 would be modelled by having them count out eight bricks and physically take five bricks away from the 8, counting the number remaining to find the answer. As the children get older, the concrete aids are left behind but the same words and phrases are used in talk about the subtraction process. Some children may pass through a stage in which the concrete aids are visualised in their minds as they speak or listen. If they do this, then the use of words like take away is metonymic, the visualised operation standing for the physical operation. When the words are used without mental image or concrete objects, we label them as metaphor. A socio-historical view of language use shows us a literal to metaphorical shift, via metonymy, as concrete aids to thinking are discarded and language becomes disembedded from the concrete. While concepts are being internalised, language is not only appropriated but metaphorised. Animating metaphors Around 10% of the linguistic metaphors in the data involved some kind of animation or personification of non-human entities or processes. These were often verb metaphors:
where does the time go? where marble comes from minerals come out of rocks the music helps measles kill the baby my brain won’t manage that this tape is telling me something
Two types of animating metaphors can be seen in the set of examples. The first three exemplify a weaker level of animation, in which inanimate objects undertake something like intentional action. The last four examples show the stronger type of personification metaphors, in which inanimate entities act as people do. Personification metaphors contributed more to learning climate than to concept development,
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
being used mainly to comment on classroom activity. Animating metaphors were used more in explanations of unfamiliar ideas, and serve as learning affordances by making formalised abstract concepts and theories more accessible and concrete. For more on animating metaphors see Cameron & Low (2004). Systematic metaphor: Classroom activity as a guided trek Animating metaphors were one type of systematicity in metaphor use across the dataset as a whole. Another way to look for systematic patterns in metaphor use is to identify a set of metaphor Vehicles that are semantically connected, and then to examine their Topics and organise these into groups. The result is an extended, systematic mapping between a set of Topic domains and a particular Vehicle domain, or a ‘systematic metaphor’. When the semantic grouping of Vehicles across the data was carried out, a large number of terms relating to various kinds of movement, physical progress or journey were found. Most often, the Topics of these metaphors referred to short classroom activities, including the stages of a lesson, writing a text, mathematical calculations and reading a book. This systematic metaphor classroom activity is a journey was the largest set of mappings and also yields insights into the learning climate constructed through the use of metaphor in the discourse of the classroom that are reported in this section. While these systematic mappings may look like ‘conceptual metaphor’ as developed from the original work of Lakoff and Johnson (Lakoff, 1993; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), I argue that they are essentially different in kind. Systematic metaphors are empirically warranted relative to a particular socio-cultural group or discourse community. They are, like linguistic metaphors, language phenomena, with no claims made for the underlying thought patterns of the people who use them. Conceptual metaphors are claimed to exist in thought, and are warranted by language evidence abstracted across a whole speech community (but see e.g. Deignan, 1999 for counter-evidence from corpus studies). The people who use systematic metaphors may or may not have conceptual metaphors in the thinking that underlies their talk. My point is that it is impossible to know this (or at least that knowing this would require very different types of evidence), and further that we do not need to know, or believe, this in order to investigate the way ideas are patterned in their discourse. Analysts and theorists working with conceptual metaphor will also often have very different aims from applied linguists and other researchers investigating metaphor use in discourse communities. Much of the theoretical work in cognitive metaphor studies is concerned to generalise and abstract away from the surface of
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talk to the highest level, so that what may have started as a systematic metaphor love is a journey, is abstracted into a purposeful life is a journey and then into ‘the event structure metaphor’, so as to cover the widest number of cases (Lakoff, 1993 p. 222). Applied research into the use of metaphor in the talk of particular socio-cultural groups may not be helped by generalisation and abstraction; it may be important to stay quite close to the actual words used if we want a valid description of how ideas are talked about. Extract 6 shows teachers’ typical use of journey 2metaphors in teacher talk to organise a writing lesson. The activity of writing is formulated as a movement (go from here) in lines 1 and 9, with the students’ understanding of the activity is formulated as seeing where to go. In the last line, the amount of writing completed is described in terms of distance (how far on..). In this linguistic and semantic context, the phrase at some point (line 6) also takes on a semantic prosody or connotation of a place on a journey. Extract 6 journey metaphors in organising a writing lesson 1 5 10
well you can see where you’ve got to go from (. ) here on can’t you? what I’m trying to do is to get (. ) diary for day one and an illustration (. ) day two and an illustration (. ) so you’ve got some writing and a picture to go into your personal record (. ) of the week (. ) alright? (2.0) some of it (. ) at some point all of you will have done some computer work (. ) for your writing (. ) but a lot of it’s going to be done by hand isn’t it? (. ) can you see where you’ve got to go from here? um we’ll let Ellen and (. ) Heather carry on with their writing now (. ) … Marie … how far how far on are you with that?
The systematic metaphor thus maps the Topic domain of writing a text on to the Vehicle domain of physical progress on a journey, with the student’s understanding of the writing process mapped on to seeing the route of a journey, and writing goals and interim stages mapped on to final destinations and places en-route. Table 2 shows mappings from across the data between Topic and Vehicle domains, with examples of talk that generated them. The mappings begin to suggest the kind of journey the teachers and students might be taking as they progress through the educational year. 2. Italics are used with the small capitals to mark the distinction between systematic and conceptual metaphors.
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
Table 2. Aspects of the systematic metaphor classroom activity is a journey Vehicle domain – aspects of journeys
Topic domain, classroom activity
Examples of classroom talk
Discoveries, destinations, sights
Goals of activities, lessons and projects
Temporary stopping places on a journey
Interim goals
Return visits
Return to topic or activity
Directions Effortful journeys
Getting something right Mathematical calculation
how would you find an average? that’s what we’re aiming at two things we’re going to look at this half term where are you on to with the writing let’s go into that a little bit more we’ll come back in a moment to how… you’re on the right track let’s do it the long way
Classroom activities are formulated as journeys where things (answers, understandings) are found or looked at, and where stop-off points allow for deeper exploration (going into things). There is much re-tracing of paths (going and coming back to). The affective role of metaphor noted throughout this chapter is also clear in the systematic metaphor, with examples in Table 2. We have already seen how metaphor was employed to reduce potential threats to face in giving feedback to students, and on the right track in Table 2 is a further example of this. Describing subjects to be studied metaphorically as things we’re going to look at, acts to reduce another possible threat, this time of the mental challenge of the classroom work. The same teacher made frequent use of phrases such as a little bit, or ‘diminishing determinatives’ (Cameron, 2003 p. 139), in which chunks of knowledge or information were talked about in non-threatening terms. It was as if the teacher wanted students to think about their learning as straightforward and easy, with both metaphor and non-metaphorical language contributing to this learning climate of reduced effort. To investigate the teachers’ role further, instances of journey-related metaphors were extracted and grouped (Table 3). To capture the multiple dimensions of the teachers’ role – coach or encourager, starter, companion and judge / rewarder – we need to see them as supportive guides or instructors, whose long term aim is to get the children to be independent, but who will be there with them for as long as needed. When we put this view of the teachers, as evidenced by the metaphors, together with the view of classroom activity, a systematic metaphor emerges in which classroom activity is a kind of adventure holiday or guided trek. The learning
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climate is as warm and supportive; the learning affordances are described as largely stress-free, consisting of finding, looking at, arriving, going over through and back, with the occasional struggle. Table 3. Aspects of the teacher’s role in the journey systematic metaphor Vehicle domain – aspects of journeys
Topic domain – the teacher’s role
Examples of classroom talk
Starter Companion
Starting a reading activity Understanding child’s point of view
Coach or encourager
Encouraging in dancing practice and maths Praising behaviour
off you go I’m with you now we’re going to go over them now I’m really pushing you take it step by step I think you all deserve a medal
Judge / rewarder
Summary and implications This chapter has shown how investigation of linguistic metaphor in the talk of teachers and students can help understand their learning environment. Learning affordances offered through metaphor take particular forms and occur in particular types of activities: – Metaphor is combined with non-metaphorical language, often coming at the end of a stretch of non-metaphorical talk. – Metaphor is particularly suited to reformulation and summarising. – Often several metaphors occurred together, reinforcing ideas through repetition or through contrast. – Deliberate and conventionalised metaphors both impact on the learning environment, although in different ways. – Metaphors occurred most frequently when teachers gave feedback, when they set out the agenda of an upcoming lesson or activity, when they summarised the content of a lesson or activity, and, somewhat less frequently, in explanations of unfamiliar ideas and when they needed to control the behaviour of students. – Sub-technical metaphor is an important support for children’s development of technical language of subject areas. – Animating metaphors were used to talk about unfamiliar processes and ideas.
Metaphor in the construction of a learning environment
The heavy use of metaphor in the particular teaching actions mentioned above raises questions about access to learning opportunities. It seems that use of metaphors can influence access to lesson agendas, subject area content and language, to learning from teacher’s feedback on performance, and to recognising appropriate behaviour and participation. This is a formidable list covering most key learning opportunities that occur in classrooms. There is some evidence that metaphors may hinder access to these opportunities through lack of comprehension, on the part of students with socio-pragmatic disorders (Hampshire, 1996) or using English as a second language (Cameron, 2003), and this is an area ripe for further investigation. Metaphor plays an important affective role in constructing the learning climate of a class: – Humour, hyperbole, expressions of alignment and solidarity, simple lexis were used in and around metaphor, adding to an overall effect of a warm and supportive climate. – Metaphor was frequently used in situations where teachers were mitigating potential threats to face, such as giving negative feedback or proposing challenging activities. The picture of the learning climate of the case study class generated through analysis of linguistic metaphor is consistent with findings from other research in similar contexts, and contrasts with more directive, less child-centred environments in other countries and cultures (Alexander, 2001). There may be important educational implications from the finding that, not only potential threats to face, but also potential ‘threats to intellect’ were downplayed through the use of metaphor, in situations such as mediating technical language and organising learning tasks. We might question why the teachers saw learning tasks as in need of mitigation, rather than as challenges for students to rise to. We might also ask if alternative perspectives might lead to an even more effective learning climate. For while the supportive climate is no doubt quite a comfortable one, some children might respond well to being challenged to take on difficult intellectual tasks and might come to see learning as exciting and positive, rather than as something to be feared and helped with. References Alexander, R. (2001). Culture and Pedagogy: International comparisons in primary education. Oxford: Blackwell. Ausubel, D. (1960). The use of advance organizers in the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 51, 267–272.
Lynne Cameron Cameron, L. (2003). Metaphor in Educational Discourse. London: Continuum. Cameron, L. & A. Deignan (2003). Using large and small corpora to investigate tuning devices around metaphor in spoken discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 18(3), 149–160. Cameron, L. & G. Low (2004). Figurative variation in episodes of educational talk and text. European Journal of English Studies, 8(3), 355–373. Deignan, A. (1999). Corpus-based research into metaphor and its application to language reference materials. In L. Cameron & G. Low (Eds.), Researching and Applying Metaphor (pp. 177–199). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin. Hampshire, A. (1996). The development of sociolinguistic strategies: Implications for children with speech and language impairments. Current Issues in Language and Society, 3(1), 91– 94. Heritage, J. & J. Watson(1979). Aspects of the properties of formulations in natural conversations: Some instances analyzed. Semiotica, 30, 245–262. Kittay, E. F. (1987). Metaphor: Its Cognitive Force and Linguistic Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (second edition, pp. 202–251). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. & R. Núñez (1998). Conceptual metaphor in mathematics. In J.-P. Koenig (Ed.), Discourse and cognition: Bridging the gap (pp. 219–238). Stanford CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information. van Lier, L. (2000). From input to affordance: Social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning (pp. 245–260). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Trancription conventions: (.)
indicates a micro pause
(1.0)
indicates a pause of around one second etc
????
indicates an indecipherable stretch of talk.
underlining indicates metaphorically-used words or phrases, i.e. Vehicle terms of metaphors.
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning Lixian Jin & Martin Cortazzi
De Montfort University, UK; University of Warwick, UK. & Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China In this paper we examine Chinese educational metaphors and argue that, as part of cultures of learning, these images frame participants’ interpretations of classroom practices. To establish historical continuity, the paper analyses metaphors in traditional popular sayings about teachers and learners. These are related to contemporary data sets of metaphors about ‘good teachers’ elicited from students and to questionnaire data about teachers and classroom questioning from students in China, Britain and Malaysia. Further cross-cultural perspectives are derived from comparison of images of learning in China, the USA, and Taiwan and comments on the physical stances taken up by students learning in China and Lebanon. We conclude that there is an interplay between culture-specific and universal aspects of these educational metaphors.
Keywords: metaphors, Chinese learners, teachers, questioning, cultures of learning. Introduction The use of metaphors, images and analogies has a long history in Chinese learning: the Li Ji （礼记）, the Book of Rites, an ancient classic text transmitted by Confucius, maintains that the scholars of ancient times learned the truth about things from analogies (Lin 1938: 50). Today, the importance of Chinese cultures for the study of learning internationally is beyond doubt, given several millennia of a continuous literacy and scholarship, the current economic development and status of China, the fact that China has the world’s largest education system and that, in many countries, there are increasing numbers of international students from China besides those from Chinese heritages who are often highly successful. Chinese beliefs and practices of learning should thus be of interest to those involved in
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education and the images of learning used by Chinese speakers are potentially valuable sources of insight for the study of metaphors of learning. Here we explore images and metaphors in Chinese cultures of learning. We analyze data concerning the roles of teachers and learners in mainland China, compared with brief examples from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore and data from the UK, USA, Lebanon and Malaysia. We locate the analysis of linguistic data within classroom practices through commentary based on extensive observations of Chinese classrooms and interviews with participants. To develop the link between images of learning and classroom interaction we examine data related to asking questions, since the practices and beliefs about classroom questioning are crucial for constructing learning interactively. This approach therefore differs from purely linguistic studies of Chinese metaphors (e.g. Yu 1998) or of Chinese word associations for educational themes (Szalay et al. 1994). We use the term ‘culture of learning’ to describe taken-for-granted frameworks of expectations, values and beliefs about what constitutes good learning, how to teach or learn, how language is used for learning, among other aspects (Cortazzi & Jin 1996). A culture of learning frames what teachers and students expect to happen in classrooms and how they interpret classroom processes and language. Some aspects of a culture of learning, e.g. metaphors of learning, may be verbalized as part of a process of language socialization at home and in early schooling so that learners internalize notions of learning and how it should be accomplished as part of a socially constructed educational discourse system. Chinese metaphors of learning represent Chinese conceptions of practices of learning, which in turn represent aspects of what it is to be Chinese. We use ‘cultures’ as a plural form, as a reminder that Chinese peoples embrace a wide range of both social and individual diversity. ‘Chinese’ characterizes people with a range of ethnic backgrounds (including 55 recognized minorities in China) with a relatively homogenous linguistic and cultural heritage that is held to be common among Chinese, though it is known to embrace diversity. A culture of learning is among the elements which construct educational identities (Cortazzi & Jin 2002), so that literacy in Chinese – widely considered a badge of identity by Chinese – is acquired with well defined practices of learning (including demonstration, modeling, tracing, repeated copying, and subsequent memorization of the precise movement, direction and order of strokes to comprise the skill to write several thousand characters of the Chinese script with associated aesthetic awareness and socio-cultural knowledge). Chinese students studying internationally will have a framework of cultural expectations about learning, built up from previous experience in Chinese contexts. These may differ markedly from the expectations of other participants in cross-border education. Subsequent interaction between cultures of learning may involve changing or supplementing ways of study.
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning
The approach taken here is to examine traditional and contemporary metaphors used by Chinese educators, teachers and students and to relate these to classroom practices and beliefs about learning. Our approach takes account of cognitive approaches to metaphor, which examine connected systems of conventional metaphors as instantiations of basic conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Lakoff 1993), but our emphasis is on the educational expectations of learning in classrooms, rather than on the underlying cognitive systems. We highlight these expectations through contrasts between Chinese and other cultures of learning. Although we do not suppose that metaphors define, constrain or limit approaches to learning, we take them as emblematic representations which influence or frame practices of learning; however, such practices are influenced by situational constraints, including the expectations of other participants – a point which is crucial in multicultural learning contexts. We also examine some key visual images in the form of photographic data; these represent bodily enactments of metaphor through the physical stance adopted by students when they are learning. Physical stance and the context of Chinese cultures of learning An outsider who visits Chinese classrooms is likely to note a number of features, which, in the use of space, time, and bodily enactment of participants, constitute physical metaphors of learning. Schools throughout China are remarkably consistent in these features, which will be showcased for visitors yet they represent the ideals (modeled by experienced teachers to observing colleagues in schools and demonstrated at local, provincial and national levels for staff development) towards which teachers strive in their practice. Such features can be enumerated drawing on photographic data. They include: large classes – 40 to 50 students is normal – of consistently achieving learners (the ‘tail’ and ‘head’ of under-achieving or more advanced learners are numerically smaller or less visible than in schools elsewhere); the teacher-fronted and teachermodeled nature of the predominantly whole-class instruction (teachers are often literally on a wooden stage and give detailed, well-prepared explanations and examples with a firm, disciplined, attention-holding stance); the diligence, dedication and discipline shown by most learners (visible through an upright, alert stance, a straight gaze, a listening-centred orientation of the body), as they sit in closely packed rows.
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Photo 1. A Chinese teacher holding the book up high in teaching
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning
Photo 2. Chinese students in rows reading and holding books up high
Other features are: the centrality of books (physically prominent, perhaps held at chest height for oral reading, open at identical pages and frequently referred to); the orchestration of much classroom talk (teacher-conducted choral repetition; learners reading text extracts, reciting memorized statements or answering questions in unison; brief prepared pair discussion) with the teacher-directed use of time and intensive pace with minimal wastage on transitional activity, paradoxically combined with extended one-to-one discourse through which teachers will explore particular questions with individuals (to which other students listen attentively, knowing they may be quizzed on them later). Further enquiry shows that teachers see themselves as ‘models’ of authoritative learning and of moral behaviour: they are ‘upright’ in this double sense. This embodied metaphor takes up two aspects of ‘teaching’ which are lexicalized in Chinese: jiao shu (教书‘teaching the book’) and jiao ren (教人‘teaching the person’), which might be summarized as TEACHING IS AN UPRIGHT STANCE. Embodying this metaphor, the physical stance of teachers keeps the book high in hand while mediating its content authoritatively to learners through oral reading, explanation, questioning and recitation, but this is done is a humane and person-centered manner, within a moral framework.
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Photo 3. Chinese students reciting & memorizing in the early morning on campus - solitary & concentrating
For learners, too, this stance is visibly embodied in independent learning and selfstudy. Drawing on photographic data, observers see an early morning learning activity outside on a university or school campus: on a bench, near grass or flowers, learners sit very straight or stand upright, alone or evenly spaced from others similarly engaged, and repeat aloud parts of English and Chinese texts while holding a book out at chest level. Verbally, the students are memorizing through repetition. For many this is not ‘rote-learning’; it is ‘memorizing as a way of understanding’ in which input is internalized but may be understood later through reflection (see Watkins & Biggs 1996). This might be summarized as LEARNING IS AN UPRIGHT STANCE, which entails LEARNING IS RECITING ALOUD, ALONE, WITH CONCENTRATION AND REFLECTION. Chinese students in interviews validate our proposals for these metaphors in their comments on photos of their practice. On the time: in the early morning we are fresh and it is quiet; if we have a few minutes before class, we will use the time in this way – we will come early to do this. On the location: we all live on campus in dormitories where there is very little space and it is too crowded to study. If we all recited in our room, it would be noisy and confusing. Outside, we find a peaceful
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning
place with trees, flowers or water. When we recite in a loud voice we know others will not interrupt us. On the stance and reciting: this is partly cultural: we are taught in a disciplined manner. We stand up and speak in class in this way. It is also because of the custom of our teachers: we prepare for the class by reciting because the teacher often requires us to recite a paragraph, in both English and Chinese classes. We find that repeating aloud, with concentration, helps our memory. Chinese teachers confirm a continuity of practice: we remember doing this when we were students. We regarded it as a kind of independent learning or self-study for practising, a continuation of the self-study we did in middle school. It is beneficial so we continue.
Photo 4. Lebanese students preparing & revising in the morning before going to class on campus - casual & chatting
A contrast with Lebanese students confirms how physical stance embodies metaphors in cultures of learning. Photos of early morning study activities in Lebanese universities show relaxed sitting, with students in informal groups whose membership shifts constantly. Within such groups, the study is through collaborative talk to exchange understanding, sometimes with joint reading. Learning is interspersed with chatting, drinking and eating; few students sit silently or stand alone. Outdoor oral recitation is unknown. The Lebanese metaphor might be LEARNING
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IS INFORMAL TALK and LEARNING IS A STANCE OF SHARING WITH FRIENDS. Chinese students who see photos of the Lebanese practice are puzzled: Are they really studying? They don’t look serious or disciplined – it seems they are only chatting and relaxing! Lebanese students who see the Chinese recitation are amazed: We could never do that here. It is impossible for us. We try to learn from others through discussion in groups. We need to learn through talking to classmates and friends, not through reading. The power of the Chinese metaphors for learning stance is evident when they are supported by linguistic data. Word associations on educational themes in Chinese One approach to studying metaphors for learning is to ask students to give free associations for keywords, such as ‘teacher’, ‘knowledge’, and ‘study’, in their first language, then to analyse the frequency, groupings and underlying cultural meanings of the associations. Szalay et al. (1994) used this associative group analysis method with university students in China, Taiwan and the USA (N = 100 in each site). Their data include metaphors, though this aspect is not discussed. For ‘teacher’ (Szalay et al.1994: 222–235), the predominant Chinese image is that a teacher is a dear, kind friend who is above all knowledgeable and talks, instructs, gives lectures, solves difficult questions and confusing problems, cultivates students for daily life, whereas the Americans saw the teacher as one who teaches, guides, lectures and gives help. Chinese students, far more than Americans, held teachers in respect and esteem; the Chinese were more enthusiastic about cherishing and wanting to take every care of their teachers. This indicates a reciprocal relationship: teachers and learners should care for each other. Interestingly, the major metaphor used by both the Chinese (38 cases) and Americans (45 cases) was the TEACHER IS A PARENT. However, Mainland Chinese added other metaphors not used by the Americans: the TEACHER IS A SPIRITUAL ENGINEER (33), A GARDENER (22), and A DOCTOR (13). Taiwanese added the TEACHER IS A SAGE (25), which is closely linked with the TEACHER IS CONFUCIUS (15), the paradigm of a sage educator. The Chinese metaphor of the TEACHER IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE (10) (not used by the Americans) had variant realizations in Taiwan: the TEACHER IS A TREASURE OF KNOWLEDGE (47) and A SOWER OF KNOWLEDGE (23). The Chinese associated ‘knowledge’ with studying and reading books. ‘Studying’ entailed making great efforts and concentrating intensely (Szalay et al. 1994: 210–213). For Americans, knowledge resulted from combining intelligence with education. For the Chinese (but not the Americans), KNOWLEDGE IS A TREASURE (21), which is abundant (33), precious (22) and magnetic (10). For the
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning
Taiwanese, KNOWLEDGE IS CULTIVATION (41) to cultivate the essentials or the self. The Chinese, especially in Taiwan, saw study as an opportunity for growth and progress, which was interesting, joyful and cheerful; few Americans said this – they saw study as hard and work. The Chinese associations with ‘education’ (Szalay et al.1994: 201–205) stressed the social, moral and interpersonal dimensions much more than the Americans. The Chinese emphasized EDUCATION IS CULTIVATION (41 cases) (a metaphor not mentioned by Americans), including EDUCATION IS A TREE (14) and GROWTH (13), cultivating good talents and a good character. The teacher-student relationship is central: students paid attention to the student role much more than the Americans did; for the Chinese, particularly in Taiwan, the ‘teacher’ was the first association when education was mentioned. For Americans, the image of ‘teacher’ had little reference to students and that of ‘student’ made little reference to the student-teacher relationship. Chinese metaphors for a good teacher Much reporting of Chinese attitudes toward teachers indicates that students follow a long-standing tradition of holding teachers in respect, as authorities, in a somewhat formal relationship (Harvey 1985; Yum 1988; Dzau 1990; Wang 1990; Ross 1993). This is consistent with a TEACHER IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE metaphor but it does not account for the TEACHER IS A PARENT. However, in Confucian heritages the learner-teacher relationship is a close and enduring relationship of reciprocal responsibility in which teachers are expected to exercise a role of strong parental care (Cortazzi & Jin 1996), seen in the saying, My teacher for a day is a parent for a lifetime (一日为师，终身为父). This expresses more than parental closeness; given the concept of ‘filial piety’ (xiao) it implies that teachers as parents deserve long-term respect and obedience. Other sayings bracket teachers with parents: heaven and earth are great, parents and teachers are to be respected. Yet, strands of the Chinese tradition show that this respect is not simply for the position of teachers, but for their role and timing within the tradition. Every one can learn from some other person, hence there is an equality in respect – an attitude of reciprocal modesty – of both teacher and learner since anyone may teach another who is learning within the tradition, so that the TEACHER IS THE TRADITION. As Han Yu, a Tang dynasty poet (768–824), writes: My teacher is the tradition. It makes no difference if someone was born before or after me…where the tradition is, there the teacher is… what separates the Sage and the fool is their different attitudes towards teachers…The teacher of this child assigns him books and rehearses his memorizations. This is not what I would call passing on the tradition or
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resolving doubts. To take a teacher when one cannot memorize and yet to reject the same when one cannot resolve doubts is to study what is of minor significance and neglect what is major. I do not see the wisdom of this. Shamans, musicians and craftsmen are not ashamed to call each other teacher. If one asks why, the answer is that the two parties are about the same age, or that their understanding is about the same, or that the teacher’s official position is lower than the disciple so it’s too demeaning, or higher so it verges on flattery… A Sage has no constant teacher… Confucius said, ‘When three people walk together, there will certainly be one who can be my teacher.’ So disciples are not necessarily better than their teachers, nor are teachers necessarily worthier than their disciples. One has simply learned the tradition earlier than the other or is more specialized in his scholarship and learning (Hartman 1986 :164–164). In this comment, memorization is noticeably balanced by asking and answering questions. There is some continuity of official metaphors and titles for teachers, widely promulgated in public campaigns. In official speeches and the media, the TEACHER IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE, or EXPERT, and A GARDENER (entailed by EDUCATION IS PLANT GROWTH). Yet since 1949 some official metaphors have changed to reflect official policies, though many of these examples are now inevitably dated. We follow Buley-Meissner (1991) in relating metaphors for teachers to national developments (Cortazzi & Jin 1999). During Reconstruction (1949–1957) teachers were gardeners and brain-power labourers. In the First Five Year Plan (1953–1957) they were people’s heroes, advanced producers, engineers of the soul. The latter is ironic in an officially atheistic context. In the Great Leap Forward (1958– 1959) teachers were negatively termed obstacles or, positively in socialist ideology, common labourers. Later, in a period of Retrenchment (1960–1965) industrial metaphors were popular: teachers were machine tool makers, and again engineers of the soul. In the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) when schools and universities were closed for long periods, teachers were seen negatively as freaks, monsters, or stinking number nines (a reference to teachers at the bottom of a numbered list of ‘enemies of the people’) or positively as warriors, weapons in the class struggle, or red thinkers. In the 1980s, in more industrial metaphors, teachers were technicians, machinists, and people’s heroes. By the 1990s, with modernization consolidated, teachers were candles, lamps (emphasizing self-sacrifice to give light), golden key-holders (opening the doors of knowledge), and still engineers of the soul, but with the market economy rapidly developing new metaphors arose as teachers, along with other workers, took to xia hai (下海 ‘plunging into the sea’, i.e. understanding something by personally experiencing it) of private business, including private schools, and some teachers (particularly English teachers) have chao geng (炒更‘stir-fry night’) by taking evening work for second jobs or lao wai kuai (捞外快 ‘use a sieve or net’ for ‘fast’ extra money) and moonlighting. A second job was often necessary when teachers’ salaries
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning
were low, shown in the revived saying: Jiaoshou jiaoshou, yue jiao, yue shou, (教授教 授，越教越瘦Professors, professors, the more they profess the thinner they get). With improvements in salaries by the early 2000s, many continued to teach extrahours classes for extra pay in the ‘market system’. Some Chinese metaphors for teachers may be framed in polarity using a double metaphor, whose two ‘poles’ are in complementary tension. An example of this is a TEACHER IS RED AND EXPERT (Paine 1992; Ross 1993; Schoenhals 1993). Here the polarity lies between the teacher as two kinds of models. First, the teacher should be oriented to red – a socio-political but also a moral model of ‘correct’ behaviour and thinking. Red symbolizes the Communist Party so a ‘red’ teacher supports the official programme for education (traditionally red is also associated with luck, happiness and weddings). Second, the teacher needs to be expert as a model of authoritative knowledge. This includes the TEACHER IS A VIRTUOSO or PERFORMER when the expertise is not only in knowledge per se but is enacted when the teacher brings this knowledge to students through a performance of demonstrating and explaining with carefully thought-out classroom examples, and in how the teacher predicts learners’ problems with any given concept. More recently, the TEACHER IS A CONDUCTOR is evident where the teacher orchestrates the learners’ encounter with knowledge by coordinating their responses in recitation, question and answer sessions, and pair or groupwork. The balance between the two poles of the TEACHER IS RED AND EXPERT has shifted so that now the teacher as expert is emphasized. Both poles are evident in the common Chinese expressions for ‘to teach’: jiao shu (‘teach the book’) and jiao ren (‘teach people’), where the first emphasizes content knowledge and the second emphasizes teaching learners how to live (seen more socially as ‘red’), combined in the expression jiao shu yu ren (教书育人 ‘teach the book and teach people how to live’). This clarifies how teachers are not just conduits of book knowledge but should provide moral insights and guidelines necessary for the proper functioning of society. This resonates well with the TEACHER IS A PARENT. Metaphors for ‘a good teacher’ elicited in English from university students in China (see Table 1) include some of the above, but students also create their own. The range is quite narrow and the TEACHER IS A FRIEND and A PARENT are dominant. These entail, for Chinese, cherishing, showing closeness, care and concern, and solving problems. These metaphors are rare among British students (Cortazzi & Jin 1999). The TEACHER IS A GUIDE is a metaphor that seems relatively new alongside other professions used for comparison to highlight teachers’ multiple roles, such as an actor or judge, but the guide metaphor has a long history, as quoted in the Li Ji classic Confucian text (the Book of Rites), which links ‘a good teacher’ with guiding students to think for themselves: in his teaching, the superior man guides his
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students but does not pull them along; he urges them to go forward and does not suppress them; he opens the way, but does not take them to the place. Guiding without pulling makes the process of learning gentle; urging without suppressing makes the process of learning easy; and opening the way without leading the students to the place makes them think for themselves. Now if the process of learning is made gentle and easy and the students are encouraged to think for themselves, we may call the man a good teacher (Lin 1938: 247). Table 1. ‘A good teacher’: metaphors from university students in China, including Hong Kong, given in English in 2003 (N = 385) A good teacher is: A FRIEND: a good friend (168): a respected friend, a close friend, a strict friend, a kind friend. A PARENT (OR RELATIVE): a parent (58): a (good) mother (20), a (good) father (9), a strict father and a patient mother, my mother, a father with patience, a father and a friend, a strict mother and a good friend, an elder sister / brother (5) a relative (2). A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE: a source of knowledge (7), a knowledge resource, a key to open up the door of knowledge. A MEMBER OF ANOTHER PROFESSION (ROLES): a guide (15), a facilitator, motivator or trainer (10), gardener (4), counsellor (3), model (3), actor or entertainer (3), judge (2), farmer to nurture students (2), salesman, gold digger, philosopher, caretaker, mentor, time keeper. A RELIGIOUS OR SUPERNATURAL FIGURE: God, the Saviour, divine inspiration that grows (6), superman (4), an idol (2), angel, Confucius, a UFO – I have no idea of it. LIGHT: lamppost (4), the sun (3), a lighthouse, a light, lightbulb. A TOOL or RESOURCE: dictionary (2), book about life, computer, The Internet, bank, pair of glasses, yardstick, compass. ANIMALS: a hen laying eggs, tiger, fox, a kind owl. VALUABLES: a treasure box, jewel, money.
For Chinese, the animal metaphors for teachers are mostly positive, but in Chinese sayings there are negative animal metaphors if parents ignore children’s education: Bringing up a daughter without educating her is like raising a pig; bringing up a son without educating him is like raising a donkey. The Table 1 examples can be compared with the wider variety and range of elicited metaphors for ‘a good teacher’ which were given in Chinese (Wang, personal communication, 2005), shown in Table 2. Some of these give students’ own explanations or entailments.
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning
Table 2. ‘A good teacher’: metaphors from Chinese university students, given in Chinese in 2005 (N = 800) A good teacher is: A PARENT: a mother, a father, A MEMBER OF ANOTHER PROFESSION (ROLES): gardener; engineer; guide, leader; sculptor: a student is a piece of wood, the teacher uses a knife to carve different figures; a murderer: often a talented teacher comes to us with a loud shout, ‘You’re so stupid, you’ll never be successful,’ consequently there is one less talented person in this world because you believe the teacher’s words. A TOOL OR RESOURCE: key; door, a piece of chalk: teachers use themselves up and destroy themselves willingly so that we can understand; a flight of stairs: whenever you need to go higher, the teacher bends willingly so that you can step higher and higher; a pair of glasses: through the teacher, sometimes an unclear world comes into focus, sometimes the teacher lets the clear world become fuzzy; an injection mould: the teacher always wants to make the students into certain shapes; a gun: knowledge is like a bullet which is shot into our brain, some bullets pass right through our head, leaving only pain, some bullets remain like seeds, growing and bearing fruit. ANIMALS: a silkworm in spring; a robot cat: which has a small bag with a treasure hoard of tricks – it can always take out a magic spell to control students (exams are powerful spells). A RELIGIOUS FIGURE: a prophet: almost tells the truth, sometimes this truth does not apply or it can even be a mistake in some contexts, but even if there’s only one answer to the exam – and you write what the teacher told you – you can get high marks, which shows there’s only one truth. LIGHT: a candle, the sun, a star, a lighthouse, a cigarette: teachers burn themselves out but they give you mental comfort. NATURE: a bee; the earth: people need the earth, teachers are our earth. FOOD: spare ribs soup: teachers are popular wherever they go (soup is popular).
The TEACHER AS SCULPTOR metaphor (see Table 2) is reminiscent of a saying, things learned in childhood are things inscribed in stone and an ancient classic commentary: The only way for the superior man to civilize the people and establish good social customs is through education. A piece of jade cannot become an object of art without chiseling, and a man cannot come to know the moral law without education (Lin 1938: 241). This is TEACHING IS CARVING JADE, which is known to be a difficult, time-consuming and artistic activity that leads to a high-value product. The metaphors in Table 2 are supported by spontaneously produced metaphors given in Chinese by Chinese language teachers in Singapore (Huang 1999, personal communication), which include wider responses under the TEACHER AS MEMBER OF ANOTHER PROFESSION: a gardener, counselor, caretaker, maid, doctor, a first aider, cleaner, coach, artist, clown, translator, typist, a computer operator who keys in materials, a printing worker, a copy cat, a dumb person, a scapegoat, a debt recoverer who presses for payment of fees. These stress teachers’ multiple roles.
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Chinese sayings Further metaphors for learning can be found in Chinese sayings, including chengyu (fixed four-character expressions), geyan (maxims, often quoted as guidelines in education), yanyu (common colloquial proverbs) and xiehouyu (enigmatic similes and truncated witticisms). These are widely used in speech and because they are easy to understand, remember and recite, they have been used for teaching early literacy for centuries and are still quoted in schoolbooks. We quote these from established collections (Gong & Fung 1994; Chen & Chen 1995; Hu 2001; Rohsenow 2002). Table 3. Chinese sayings about making an effort in education If you make enough effort, you can grind an iron pillar into a needle (只要功夫深，铁棒磨成 针). Tempering for a hundred times makes steel (百炼成钢). You can remove a mountain by carrying the sand away in baskets (愚公移山) [This refers to a story of an old man called Yu Gong who moved a mountain]. If you want to see for a thousand leagues, you must climb even one story higher (欲穷千里目，更 上一层楼). Personal practice with effort (身体力行); work diligently and tirelessly (孜孜不倦). Learning only comes from diligence, without diligence, one ends up with an empty belly (学问勤 乃有，不勤腹空虚). If you want to be well-known, be diligent in studying; if you don’t want to be known, never do anything bad (要认知，重勤学；怕人知，事莫做). The master leads the learner to the door, but attainment depends on the learner’s own efforts (师傅 领进门，修行在个人).
Table 3 portrays effortful images behind the often-noted high achievement motivation among Chinese (Lau 1996; Bond 1996). Key notions are: perseverance spells success, constant effort brings successful achievement, and making continuous small steps, if sustained, brings results in learning. They illustrate the metaphors MAKING AN EFFORT IN LEARNING IS MAKING STEEL, MAKING AN EFFORT IS CLIMBING HIGHER or MOVING MOUNTAINS. In Chinese cultures of learning, students cannot rely solely on the efforts of teachers but must ultimately depend upon their own efforts, including self-study and autonomous learning. Significantly, the most frequently mentioned attribute of a ‘good student’ in our data from students is hard-working. Crucially, success is open to all: it depends on hard work and study (see Table 5) rather than on talent: thirty percent talent, seventy percent study (三分才，七分学). To be intelligent is not enough without study, although an arrowhead is sharp, if it is not shot from a bow it will not fly;
Images of teachers, learning and questioning in Chinese cultures of learning
although a person is intelligent, without studying they will not be knowledgeable. STUDY IS SHOOTING AN ARROW. Table 4. Chinese sayings about teachers and teaching A strict teacher produces talented students (严师出高徒). Pull up the seedling to help its growth (拔苗助长). Wells must be repeatedly dredged, people must be repeatedly taught (井要掏，人要教). Teaching and learning grow together or Teachers and students mutually benefit (教学相长). To teach students for three years is to teach oneself (教书三年教自身). Three people in a group, one must be my teacher (三人行必有我师). If one misappropriates Taoism without learning from a master, even with wings one cannot fly up to heaven (道道无师，有翅不飞) [you need a teacher for proper guidance to get effective results].
The sayings in Table 4 stress how teachers need to practise discipline, control and constructive criticism oriented towards student learning: to teach people you blame their weaknesses and the person who criticizes you is often your teacher. Recalling the caring metaphor, the TEACHER IS A PARENT, it can be seen that this disciplining is not authoritarian. There is a profound reciprocity between teaching and learning, since good teachers continue to learn for themselves, from students – or anyone else. As Confucius (the paradigm Educator) put it, When you are together with another two, you can find at least one who can be your teacher in some way. Teaching and learning involve mutual growth so that LEARNING IS GROWTH and TEACHING IS CAUSING GROWTH, and TEACHING IS GROWTH and, since teachers learn from and with students, and through the act of teaching, TEACHING IS LEARNING. This last metaphor is confirmed in the sayings: The processes of teaching and learning stimulate one another and teaching is the half of learning. This reciprocity is underlined by another saying, which indicates how learners have a function relevant to teachers’ professional development, those who teach and those who learn may improve each other. In the images in Table 5, study is portrayed as a hard, long-term activity which should be started while one is young but not abandoned when one is old: STUDY IS CONTINUOUS UNENDING GROWTH. Paradoxically, greater learning brings greater modesty: knowing that there is always more to learn drives the learner towards more learning. Study is a high-status activity which brings eventual wealth (There are a thousand measures of grain in books) through future employment: STUDY BRINGS WEALTH. Young people should study hard since the period of childhood and youth is the best time for studying, no money can buy back childhood. LEARNING IS A JOURNEY and READING IS ENDLESS TRAVEL because BOOKS ARE RIVERS to carry the learner everywhere; LEARNING IS LIGHT because BOOKS ARE CANDLES.
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Table 5. Chinese sayings about studying Ten years to grow a tree, a hundred years to educate a man (十年树木，百年树人). If one works to an old age, one should continue studying to an old age (做到老，学到老). Study for three years and you think you’ve learned everything and can go anywhere in the world; after you’ve studied for another three years, you feel you haven’t learned enough and can hardly budge an inch (先学三年，天下去的；再学三年，寸步难行). Only when you have studied to the point where you feel ashamed of how little you know will you realize that you have not learned enough (学到知羞处，方知艺不精). All jobs are low in status except study, which is the highest (万般皆下品，唯有读书高). If you are full of learning, do not fear that fortune will not visit you (有了满腹才，不怕运不来). When one has black hair one does not know how important it is to study hard, only later with white hair is there regret that it is too late to study (黑发不知勤学早，白首方悔读书迟). Books are like flowing rivers, they carry one in all directions (书籍好比河流，使人四通八达). One can never read all the books and never travel all the roads (读不尽的书，走不完的路). Make candles to get light, read books to seek truth (造烛求明，读书求理).
In Table 6, LEARNING IS AN ENDLESS JOURNEY – it is continuous through old age because there is more to learn beyond any institutional period of study. LEARNING IS EXTENSIVE WATER to which more water can naturally be added (or it is A SACRED MOUNTAIN [Mount Tai] to which more earth can be added in continual virtuous learning): Oceans do not dislike too much water; mountains do not dislike too much earth; Rivers and seas do not reject small streams joining them; Mount Tai does not refuse to receive earth and stones. Learning involves difficulties and setbacks – LEARNING IS SAILING AGAINST THE CURRENT (or NEGOTIATING A RIVER BEND). However, one can learn from mistakes (one’s own or others’) since EXPERIENCE IS A TEACHER. Elaborating the journey metaphor, LEARNING IS DRIVING A CART – a driver learns from observing others’ tracks or their mistakes and overturning. Moral learning is a long-term and difficult matter but it can be undone quickly; it is affected by the social environment (‘good people’ or ‘eagles’; negatively, ‘tigers’): if you follow a tiger, you will go into the mountains; if you follow an eagle, you will fly up into the sky. This LEARNING IS ASSOCIATING also elaborates the TEACHER IS A CRAFTSPERSON: stay close to a blacksmith and you will learn to hammer out nails; stay close to a carpenter and you will learn how to use a saw.
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Table 6. Chinese sayings about learning Live to old age, learn to old age (活到老，学到老). There is no stopping place for learning (学无止境). After one has studied, one knows one’s learning is not enough (学然后知不足). Learning is like sailing a boat against the current, not to advance is to drop back (学如逆水行舟， 不进则退). If the rivers do not bend, the waters will not flow forward (江河不曲，水不流). It takes three years to learn to do good, but only three days to learn to do evil (学好三年，学坏三天). To learn badness is easy but to learn goodness is difficult (学坏容易，学好难). When one keeps good company, one learns to be good; when one keeps company with tigers, one learns to bite people (跟着好人，学好人；跟着老虎。学吃人). Learning without reflecting is like eating without digesting (学而不思犹如食而不化). Learning without reflecting gains nothing, thought without learning is dangerous (学而不思则 罔，思而不学则殆). If previous experiences are not forgotten, they are teachers for later (前事不忘，后事之师). Driving a horse cart for three years, one knows the nature of horses (赶车三年，知马性). The overturned cart ahead is a warning to the cart behind (前车之鉴). If there is a cart in front, there must be tracks behind it (前有车，后有辙).
In other sayings, LEARNING IS DIGESTING, particularly when it includes reflection. While memorizing is encouraged (Repeat from memory as fluently as a stream), memorizing without reflecting is LEARNING IS INAPPROPRIATE SWALLOWING: swallow a date whole, without thinking (囫囵吞枣). Memorizing as rote-learning is deprecated as stuffing ducks (填鸭). Something of the linkage between images of learning and classroom relationships and practices of learning can be seen in questionnaire data. Questionnaire data To investigate contrasting perceptions of students of their cultures of learning we administered questionnaires to university students in China, Britain and Malaysia. First we asked 135 students in two premier universities in China to write essays in English on ‘What makes a good teacher’ and ‘Why students do not ask questions in the classroom’ (Cortazzi & Jin 1996). A content analysis of these was used as the basis to formulate a questionnaire using a five point Likert scale to ascertain other students’ agreement with the most frequently mentioned items (a score of 5=strong agreement; 1=strong disagreement); since this was basically a Chinese questionnaire we added a few items concerning discipline, effective teaching methods and independent study which were more appropriate to other contexts. The questionnaires were then administered to university students in China, Britain and Malaysia
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(to Malay students). The students were all undergraduates studying a foreign language or education in well-known universities; they were selected as volunteers via their normal teachers. Mean scores and statistically significant differences between the groups were calculated using SPSS software. That the responses from the three countries fall into three fairly distinct groups was confirmed by a discriminant analysis in which 80.64% of grouped cases were correctly classified. Regarding conceptions of ‘a good teacher’ (see Table 7), a comparison of the mean scores shows that all three groups of students broadly seem to agree with each other (mean scores above 3 imply that most respondents agree with items). However, testing these scores for statistically significant differences (with a significance level set at p
