In a nutshell, last week (Oct. 12/13) nearly 40 students attended a lecture on Cognitive Linguistics presented by lecturer Nicolette Oladipo where they had to think out of the box.
“Nutshell”, “think out of the box”…these are types of cognitive metaphors, also known as “dead metaphors”, a type of figure of speech used every day. Cognitive metaphors are found in everything from casual conversation to news stories and novels.
While every language has them, cognitive metaphors can be a challenge for non-native English speakers. During the workshop, students were able to learn how cognitive metaphors are constructed, compare common Chinese cognitive metaphors with similar English ones as well as learn dead metaphors unique to English.
