《Adolescents’ use of spatial TIME metaphors》.pdf

Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 723–734 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Pragmatics journal homepage: ww w.els evier .com/locat e/pragma Adolescents’ use of spatial TIME metaphors: A matter of cognition or sociocommunicative practice? Eva-Maria Graf * ¨ ¨ Institute for English and American Studies, Alpen-Adria Universitat Klagenfurt, Universitatsstrasse 65-67, A – 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: The present article maps out the spontaneous use of spatial TIME metaphors in the Received 31 March 2009 language of older children and adolescents. The goal is to uncover if and how types of Received in revised form 8 January 2010 spatial TIME metaphors and the metaphorical strength of their tokens develop across time. Accepted 12 August 2010 To this end, the language of three age groups, namely 10–13 years, 14–16 years and 17–19 years, is compared. The categorical framework for the assessment of the metaphorical Keywords: strength centers on the syntagmatic co-occurrence of multi-word units. This concept Spatial TIME metaphors Conventionality integrates both cognitive and social communicative factors such as entrenchment and Metaphorical strength frequency of use, and helps to explain differing