The aim of this study is to discover basic principles underlying linguistic figurativeness and to develop a theory that is capable of capturing conventional figurative language (referred to as CFLT, i.e. Conventional Figurative Language Theory). The rich empirical data analysed for this publication include, among other things, idioms, proverbs, lexicalised metaphors, and figurative compounds, drawn from ten standard languages with widely different genetic relationships and/or cultural backgrounds (English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Russian, Lithuanian, Greek, Finnish, Japanese) and one...

Languages and language varieties around the globe have been diminishing at an astonishing rate. Despite great efforts at language documentation, scholarship on metaphors and figurative units often particularly fragile parts of language has been largely neglected until recently. This book, like its predecessor Endangered Metaphors (CLSCC 2, 2012), focuses on disappearing metaphors and idioms from languages of diverse continents. Moreover, the book analyzes work from online social interaction, discusses topics such as language maintenance, educational practice and revitalization, as well...

The existence of formulaic patterns has been attested to all languages of the world. However, systematic research in this field has been focused on only a few European standard languages with a rich literary tradition and a high degree of written norm. It was on the basis of these data that the theoretical framework and methodological approaches were developed. The volume shifts this focus by centering the investigation on new data, including data from lesser-used languages and dialects, extra-european languages, linguistic varieties mostly used in spoken domains as well as at previous...

The book develops a Theory of the Figurative Lexicon. Units of the figurative lexicon (conventional figurative units, CFUs for short) differ from all other elements of the language in two points: Firstly, they are conventionalized. That is, they are elements of the mental lexicon - in contrast to freely created figurative expressions. Secondly, they consist of two conceptual levels: they can be interpreted at the level of their literal reading and at the level of their figurative meaning - which both can be activated simultaneously. New insights into the Theory of Figurative Lexicon relate,...