230450 Metaphors and Cultural Conceptualisations in World Englishes (BS) (WiSe 2016/2017)

Cultural conceptualisations are developed through interaction between the members of a cultural group. They are theresult of a shared cultural cognition and they are negotiated and renegotiated through time and across generations. The cultural model of KINSHIP, for example, comprises kinship categories such as “mum”, “dad”, “aunty”, “close relative”, “in-laws” etc. and features kinship schemas that embody norms and values related to kinship, such as behaviour rules for every member of the family in view of their status, etc. (e.g. RESPECT FOR PARENTS). At the same time, this cultural model also finds expression in conceptual metaphors that are used in relation to kin, such as the LAND AS KIN, LAND AS A LIVING BEING, or LAND AS PERSON metaphors (see Sharifian 2011: 27, 57f). Thus, identifying single and/or multiple cultural metaphors may uncover coherent, consistent systems that root in underlying cultural conceptualisations
In the course of this block seminar, we will take a cognitive sociolinguistic approach to a number of World Englishes, including Hong Kong English, Aboriginal English, Cameroon English, South African English and Irish English, in order to find evidence for coherent cultural metaphors and underlyingcultural conceptualisations that are both unique to each of these varieties of English and yet to some extent also universally shared between them.

Bibliography

Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Makoni, B. (2016). Labelling black male genitalia and the ‘new racism’: the discursive construction of sexual racism by a group of Southern African college students. Gender and Language, 10(1), 48-72.
Sharifian, F. (2011) Cultural Conceptualisations and Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Wolf, H.-G. (2001) English in Cameroon. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Wolf, H.-G. and Polzenhagen, F. (2009) World Englishes: A Cognitive Sociolinguistic Approach. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Wolf, H.-G. and Chan, Thomas (2016). “Understanding Asia by means of cognitive sociolinguistics and cultural linguistics – the example of GHOSTS in Hong Kong English.” In Leitner, Gerhard, AzirahHashim& Wolf, Hans-Georg (eds.). Communicating with Asia, 249-266. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.