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
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
3. Material and Methods
4. Analysis and Results
4.1 +LOVE IS FIRE+ as a feeling of comfort
4.2 +LOVE IS FIRE+ as falling in love
4.3 +LOVE IS FIRE+ as a measurement of intensity
4.4 +LOVE IS FIRE+ as falling out of love
4.5 +LOVE IS FIRE+ as a feeling of discomfort
5. Discussion
5.1 Meaning-Making of the Metaphor +LOVE IS FIRE+
5.2 The +LOVE IS FIRE+ Metaphor in Numbers
5.3 Reflection
6. Conclusion
Research Objectives & Topics
This paper examines the conceptual metaphor +LOVE IS FIRE+ within popular Anglophone music to demonstrate how abstract emotional concepts are understood through sensorily tangible bodily sensations of heat and light. By analyzing a corpus of 50 memorable love songs from the 1960s to the present, the study explores the cognitive comprehensibility and cultural conventionality of this metaphorical mapping.
- Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as a framework for understanding love.
- The duality of fire as both a comforting, life-preserving and a destructive, painful force.
- Analysis of specific song lyrics mapping fire-related source domains to love-related target domains.
- Quantitative assessment of the metaphor’s ambivalence and productivity in pop culture.
Excerpt from the Book
4.1 +LOVE IS FIRE+ as a feeling of comfort
The most natural interpretation of the +LOVE IS FIRE+ metaphor is based on positive features associated with both LOVE and FIRE. With FIRE as a symbol of survival, safety, and comfort, the metaphorical usage can reflect the very same associations of something that ensures human well-being. The pleasant bodily sensation of warmth after a period of coldness, which presumably must be universally and culturally independently entrenched functions as the basis of the following excerpts:
Both M.1 and M.2 describe a change in the bodily state via the sudden occurrence of love induced warmth. M.1 plays with the notion of reviving something that used to be snap-frozen and beyond it being a source of warmth it evokes feelings of empowerment (‘Make me strong/ bold‘), which alludes to the human discovery of fire, hence the title which then translates to ‘experiencing something for the first time‘. M.2 evokes the formula of +LOVE IS THE SUN+ with sunrays or the light emitted by fire warming and protecting the receiver of love. M.3 poses a different change in sensory perception. After a period of darkness (+NO LOVE IS DARKNESS+) the FIRE of the newly acquired LOVE is now the light that illuminates the morning sky. The conceptual metaphor of +LOVE IS FIRE+ attributes warmth, light, protection, and overall hope onto the target domain LOVE. The stated positive changes of bodily sensations are well-entrenched all throughout every culture since they embody basic needs of human corporeality: Light and warmth as life-preserving instruments.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the research scope regarding conceptual metaphors in popular music and establishes the +LOVE IS FIRE+ formula.
2. Theoretical Background: Introduces Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and the mapping of abstract domains to concrete, bodily experiences.
3. Material and Methods: Describes the selection of 50 memorable love songs from Spotify and the search methodology for fire-related metaphors.
4. Analysis and Results: Categorizes song lyrics into different manifestations of the metaphor, ranging from comfort and falling in love to intensity and discomfort.
5. Discussion: Evaluates the meaning-making processes, critiques previous academic assumptions, and presents quantitative survey data regarding the metaphor's connotation.
6. Conclusion: Summarizes the findings, affirming the metaphor's significance and productivity while acknowledging study limitations.
Keywords
Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Love, Fire, Popular Music, Cognitive Linguistics, Metaphor Mapping, Song Lyrics, Bodily Sensation, Cultural Conventionality, Semantic Ambivalence, Source Domain, Target Domain, Emotional Expression, Musicology.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this research paper?
The paper investigates the conceptual metaphor +LOVE IS FIRE+ and how it is used to express abstract romantic emotions through concrete sensory experiences in popular music.
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
The research covers cognitive linguistic theories, the analysis of popular music lyrics, the bodily basis of emotional metaphors, and the ambivalent nature of metaphorical connotations.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to prove the significance, conventionality, and wide spectrum of meaning of the +LOVE IS FIRE+ metaphor within a corpus of memorable love songs.
Which scientific methodology is employed?
The study uses a corpus-based approach combined with qualitative analysis of lyrics and a quantitative survey involving 125 participants to test metaphorical perception.
What topics are discussed in the main body?
The main body covers the theoretical foundations of metaphors, the analysis of specific song excerpts categorized by emotional nuance, and a discussion on the ambivalence of the metaphor.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Key terms include Conceptual Metaphor Theory, +LOVE IS FIRE+, Cognitive Linguistics, Song Lyrics, and Semantic Ambivalence.
How does the author define the "ambivalence" of the +LOVE IS FIRE+ metaphor?
The author argues that the metaphor is not limited to positive feelings of comfort, but also encompasses negative connotations such as danger, pain, and heartbreak, reflecting the destructive potential of fire.
Why does the author use a survey in this linguistic study?
The survey was conducted to eliminate subjective interpretation and to empirically verify whether the metaphor is perceived as positive, negative, or neutral by native and non-native English speakers.
- 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
