The paper at hand is meant to contribute to Lakoff and Johnson’s stance on how mundane, yet abstract domains are understood in terms of another more concretely realized concept. With the analysis of a distinct corpus of popular love songs from the 1960ies until today, the manifold interpretations and utilizations of the "Love is Fire" metaphor will be investigated. To outline the extent of the scientific contribution and of the present paper itself, the following bullet points give a description of the major aims of my research: Explaining the "Love is Fire" metaphor and proving its cognitive comprehensibility in Lakoff and Johnson’s understanding of a conceptual metaphor. Providing evidence of the significance of the metaphor by naming and analyzing love metaphors in a selected corpus of popular love songs from the 1960ies up until now, proving its conventionality and its wide spectrum of meaning.
Its presence makes us feel warm, its absence makes us freeze from within: The rather abstract notion of what love is can be conceptualized in many different, yet oftentimes sensorily tangible ways. Lakoff and Johnson already proposed in their groundbreaking work "Metaphors We Live By" (1980) how highly abstract concepts such as LOVE can become graspable through conceptual metaphors and their mapping between target and source domains. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) quite vividly illustrate how extensive and oftentimes subconsciously established the use of conceptual metaphors appear in everyday language, especially when it comes to everyday mundane topics like the omnipresent concept of LOVE. In the tradition of the post-Lakoff-and-Johnsonian wave of linguistic studies on mundane conceptual metaphors (like ARGUMENT and TIME) this paper reworks the metaphorical concept of LOVE as a sensorily tangible sensation, best pronounced by the formula "Love is Fire" via analyzing popular love song lyrics which draw comparisons between the inexplicable sensation of love and the actual bodily sensation of heat, which both seem interconnected within the Anglophone music culture of at least the past 50 years.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Theoretical Background
- Material and Methods
- Analysis and Results
- +LOVE IS FIRE+ as a feeling of comfort
- +LOVE IS FIRE+ as falling in love
- +LOVE IS FIRE+ as a measurement of intensity
- +LOVE IS FIRE+ as falling out of love
- +LOVE IS FIRE+ as a feeling of discomfort
- Discussion
- Meaning-Making of the Metaphor +LOVE IS FIRE+
- The +LOVE IS FIRE+ Metaphor in Numbers
- Reflection
Objectives and Key Themes
This paper aims to explore the conceptual metaphor "+LOVE IS FIRE+" within the context of popular Anglophone love songs from the 1960s to the present day. It seeks to demonstrate the metaphor's cognitive comprehensibility within the framework of Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and to analyze its varied interpretations and applications across different musical contexts. The research contributes to the understanding of how abstract concepts are understood through more concrete analogues.
- Explanation of the "+LOVE IS FIRE+" metaphor and its cognitive comprehensibility within CMT.
- Analysis of the "+LOVE IS FIRE+" metaphor's significance and prevalence in popular love songs.
- Examination of the diverse interpretations and meanings associated with the "+LOVE IS FIRE+" metaphor.
- Investigation of the cultural context and historical evolution of this metaphor in Anglophone music.
- Contribution to the broader understanding of how abstract concepts are understood through concrete analogues.
Chapter Summaries
Introduction: This introductory chapter establishes the central research question concerning the conceptual metaphor "+LOVE IS FIRE+" in popular music. It grounds the study in Lakoff and Johnson's work on conceptual metaphors, highlighting the use of sensory experiences to understand abstract concepts like love. The chapter outlines the paper's objectives: to explain the metaphor's cognitive comprehensibility and to demonstrate its significance and diverse interpretations in a corpus of popular love songs. The introduction frames the study as a contribution to the understanding of how abstract concepts are made concrete through metaphorical language.
Theoretical Background: This chapter provides the theoretical foundation for the study, drawing on Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Schmid and Ungerer's work on cross-domain mapping. It explains the concept of metaphors as a way of understanding one concept in terms of another, and discusses the three types of conceptual metaphors: structural, orientational, and ontological. The chapter also explores the importance of well-entrenched knowledge and cultural context in the understanding of metaphors, using the example of "+LOVE IS A JOURNEY+" to illustrate the concept of cross-domain mapping.
Material and Methods: This chapter describes the methodology used in the research. It details the selection and rationale behind choosing a specific corpus of popular love songs. The methods of analysis used to identify and interpret instances of the "+LOVE IS FIRE+" metaphor in the chosen songs are explained. This ensures transparency and allows for critical evaluation of the study's methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions: Analysis of the "+LOVE IS FIRE" Metaphor in Popular Anglophone Love Songs
What is the main topic of this research paper?
The paper analyzes the conceptual metaphor "+LOVE IS FIRE+" in popular Anglophone love songs from the 1960s to the present. It investigates how this metaphor functions cognitively, its various interpretations, and its prevalence in musical contexts.
What theoretical framework is used in this study?
The research is grounded in Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and explores concepts of cross-domain mapping to understand how abstract concepts like love are grasped through concrete analogies like fire.
What are the key objectives of this research?
The paper aims to explain the cognitive comprehensibility of "+LOVE IS FIRE+" within CMT, analyze its significance and diverse interpretations in popular music, examine its cultural context and historical evolution, and contribute to a broader understanding of how abstract concepts are understood through concrete analogues.
What is the structure of the paper?
The paper includes an introduction, a theoretical background section explaining CMT, a methodology section detailing the corpus and analysis methods, an analysis and results section exploring different interpretations of "+LOVE IS FIRE+", and a discussion section reflecting on the findings and their implications.
How is the "+LOVE IS FIRE" metaphor analyzed in the results section?
The analysis explores various interpretations of the metaphor, considering "+LOVE IS FIRE+" as a feeling of comfort, falling in love, a measurement of intensity, falling out of love, and a feeling of discomfort.
What aspects of the "+LOVE IS FIRE" metaphor are discussed in the discussion section?
The discussion delves into the meaning-making process behind the metaphor, its prevalence as shown by numerical data, and provides overall reflections on the study's findings.
What kind of data is used in the research?
The research utilizes a corpus of popular Anglophone love songs from the 1960s to the present. The specific songs are not detailed in the provided preview, but the methodology section would provide that information.
What is the overall contribution of this research?
This research contributes to the understanding of how metaphorical language shapes our comprehension of abstract concepts. It sheds light on the cognitive processes involved in understanding love through the lens of a powerful and widely used metaphor.
Where can I find more detailed information about the methodology?
The complete research paper would provide a comprehensive description of the methodology, including details about the corpus selection, criteria for including songs, and the specific analytical methods employed.
- Quote paper
- Isabell Rieth (Author), 2020, The "Love is Fire" Metaphor in Selected Popular Music. Lakoff and Johnson’s Understanding of a Conceptual Metaphor in "Metaphors We Live By" (1980), Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/882754
