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Gerard Steen

University of Amsterdam, Dutch, Faculty Member

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I am Professor Emeritus of Language and Communication at the Department of Dutch at the University of Amsterdam, where I worked from 2015 until 1 January 2023. Before then, I was professor of Language Use and Cognition at VU University Amsterdam from 2007 through 2013, and professor of Language and Communication at that same university from 2013 through 2014. My main research interest is metaphor in discourse. My other great hobby is the role of genre in discourse processing. I am the founding director of the Metaphor Lab Amsterdam (Sept 2010), http://metaphorlab.org, an expertise centre for interdisciplinary metaphor studies across the humanities and the cognitive and social sciences. For my publications and other activities, please see my separate CV.

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Books and special issues by Gerard Steen

Slowing Metaphor Down: Elaborating Deliberate Metaphor Theory

Dynamism in Metaphor and Beyond

Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication

Perspectives on abstract concepts: From cognitive processing to semantic representation

Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this... more Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this system, we can talk about things we can physically see, such as cats and tables, but also about more abstract entities, such as theories and feelings. But how are these abstract concepts grounded in human cognition and represented in the mind? How are they constructed in language? And how are they used in natural communication settings? This book addresses these questions through a collection of studies that relate to various theoretical frameworks, ranging from Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Words as Social Tools. Contributors investigate how abstract concepts are grounded in the mind, represented in language, and used in verbal discourse. This richness is matched by a range of methods used throughout the volume, from neuroimaging to computational modeling, and from behavioral experiments to corpus analyses

Visual metaphor

Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics

Genre in language, discourse and cognition

by Ninke Stukker and Gerard Steen

A method for linguistic metaphor identification: From MIP to MIPVU

実　践　認　知　詩　学 Japanese tr of Cognitive Poetics in Practice

実　践　認　知　詩　学 Japanese tr of Cognitive Poetics in Practice

Finding metaphor in grammar and usage: A methodological analysis of theory and research

Structural-Functional Studies in English Grammar

by Gerard Steen and Mike Hannay

فهمالاستعارة في الأدب؛ مقاربة تجريبية تطبيقية

From Shakespeare to propaganda: Four papers for Rod Lyall, on the occasion of his early retirement from the Vrije Universiteit

Metaphor across languages

Cognitive poetics in practice

Metaphor identification

The psychology and sociology of literature

Metaphor in cognitive linguistics

Understanding metaphor in literature

Metaphor in literary reception: A theoretical and empirical study of understanding metaphor in literary discourse

Slowing Metaphor Down: Elaborating Deliberate Metaphor Theory

Dynamism in Metaphor and Beyond

Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication

Perspectives on abstract concepts: From cognitive processing to semantic representation

Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this... more Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this system, we can talk about things we can physically see, such as cats and tables, but also about more abstract entities, such as theories and feelings. But how are these abstract concepts grounded in human cognition and represented in the mind? How are they constructed in language? And how are they used in natural communication settings? This book addresses these questions through a collection of studies that relate to various theoretical frameworks, ranging from Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Words as Social Tools. Contributors investigate how abstract concepts are grounded in the mind, represented in language, and used in verbal discourse. This richness is matched by a range of methods used throughout the volume, from neuroimaging to computational modeling, and from behavioral experiments to corpus analyses

Visual metaphor

Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics

Genre in language, discourse and cognition

by Ninke Stukker and Gerard Steen

A method for linguistic metaphor identification: From MIP to MIPVU

実　践　認　知　詩　学 Japanese tr of Cognitive Poetics in Practice

実　践　認　知　詩　学 Japanese tr of Cognitive Poetics in Practice

Finding metaphor in grammar and usage: A methodological analysis of theory and research

Structural-Functional Studies in English Grammar

by Gerard Steen and Mike Hannay

فهمالاستعارة في الأدب؛ مقاربة تجريبية تطبيقية

From Shakespeare to propaganda: Four papers for Rod Lyall, on the occasion of his early retirement from the Vrije Universiteit

Metaphor across languages

Cognitive poetics in practice

Metaphor identification

The psychology and sociology of literature

Metaphor in cognitive linguistics

Understanding metaphor in literature

Metaphor in literary reception: A theoretical and empirical study of understanding metaphor in literary discourse

Cognitive and emotive properties of methaphor

Poetics and linguistics again: The role of genre

“Life is life”: Changing perspectives in linguistics

Oratiereeks, 2016

The role of source credibility in metaphor framing

Review of Metaphor and gender in business media discourse (Veronika Koller) [Review of: Veronika Koller (2004) Metaphor and gender in business media discourse]

Cognitive Linguistics, 2007

Finding Metaphor in Grammar and Usage

Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 2007

Catalog Search. Advanced Search. My shopping cart cart icon. Your cart is empty. My wish list wis... more

Thinking by metaphor, fast and slow: Deliberate Metaphor Theory offers a new model for metaphor and its comprehension

Frontiers in Psychology, Sep 4, 2023

The immense increase in metaphor theory and research over the past decades is posing a threat of ... more The immense increase in metaphor theory and research over the past decades is posing a threat of fragmentation to the field, which has been responded to by calls for new and more encompassing approaches to virtually all aspects metaphorical. This article argues that the opposite response may be more productive. By focusing on a different way of theorizing metaphor and its comprehension, existing theories and data can be re-ordered in an alternative and coherent way, which moreover breaks new grounds in tying up both with a general theory for all utterance comprehension as well as a general theory for all cognition as involving fast and slow thinking. The core of the new theory highlights the differentiation between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphor use, related to how people see the use of a metaphor as a metaphor in communication, that is, as a metaphor that counts as a metaphor between language users. It shows how this distinction can be employed to make sense of many insights about metaphor and its comprehension in innovative ways. The article outlines the foundations of the new theory and discusses how existing data, old and new, can be seen as supporting the new proposals.

Thinking by metaphor, fast and slow: Deliberate Metaphor Theory offers a new model for metaphor and its comprehension

Frontiers in Psychology, 2023

The immense increase in metaphor theory and research over the past decades is posing a threat of ... more The immense increase in metaphor theory and research over the past decades is posing a threat of fragmentation to the field, which has been responded to by calls for new and more encompassing approaches to virtually all aspects metaphorical. This article argues that the opposite response may be more productive. By focusing on a different way of theorizing metaphor and its comprehension, existing theories and data can be reordered in an alternative and coherent way, which moreover breaks new grounds in tying up both with a general theory for all utterance comprehension as well as a general theory for all cognition as involving fast and slow thinking. The core of the new theory highlights the differentiation between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphor use, related to how people see the use of a metaphor as a metaphor in communication, that is, as a metaphor that counts as a metaphor between language users. It shows how this distinction can be employed to make sense of many insights about metaphor and its comprehension in innovative ways. The article outlines the foundations of the new theory and discusses how existing data, old and new, can be seen as supporting the new proposals.

How do scientists criticize the computer metaphor of the brain?

Journal of Argumentation in Context

The central metaphor in cognitive science is the computer metaphor of the brain. In previous work... more The central metaphor in cognitive science is the computer metaphor of the brain. In previous work, we reconstructed the metaphor in a novel way, guided by the assumption that it functions as an explanatory hypothesis. We developed an argumentative pattern for justifying scientific explanations in which this metaphor functions as a standpoint supported by argumentation containing abduction and analogy. In this paper, we use the argumentative pattern as a heuristic to reconstruct recent scientific criticisms against the computer metaphor. The pattern generates expectations about the nature of these criticisms, and we show those expectations to be met in most respects. We then discuss the extent to which our findings render the reconstruction offered by the argumentative pattern feasible. A central question emerging from our analysis is whether the computer metaphor can be adequately characterized as an explanatory hypothesis based on abduction. We suggest some possibilities for future...

The use of clarificatory metaphors in argumentative discourse in British Public Bill Committee debates

Text & Talk

In this paper, we aim to explain how metaphors can be employed for clarificatory purposes in Brit... more In this paper, we aim to explain how metaphors can be employed for clarificatory purposes in British parliamentary debates. These debates typically involve an exchange of arguments concerning complex issues, which more often than not may require clarification. In clarifying something complex, metaphors are often employed in which an unfamiliar and abstract concept is compared to a more familiar and concrete concept. Because the choice of metaphor affects how an issue is understood and reasoned about, discussants may wish to oppose such a metaphor to avoid biased conceptions or even misunderstandings of the issue under discussion. We present a number of cases in which metaphors used for clarificatory purposes are opposed in a British Public Bill Committee debate on the Digital Economy Bill. Our analyses uncover which metaphors are used for clarificatory purposes, to what extent these clarificatory metaphors contribute to furthering the resolution of a debate on the acceptability of l...

An argumentative reconstruction of the computer metaphor of the brain

Journal of Argumentation in Context, 2019

The computer metaphor of the brain is frequently criticized by scientists and philosophers outsid... more The computer metaphor of the brain is frequently criticized by scientists and philosophers outside the computational paradigm. Proponents of the metaphor may then seek to defend its explanatory merits, in which case the metaphor functions as a standpoint. Insofar as previous research in argumentation theory has treated metaphors either as presentational devices or arguments by analogy, this points to hitherto unexplored aspects of how metaphors may function in argumentative discourse. We start from the assumption that the computer metaphor of the brain constitutes an explanatory hypothesis and set out to reconstruct it as a standpoint defended by a complex argumentation structure: abduction supported by analogy. We then provide three examples of real arguments conforming to our theoretically motivated construction. We conclude that our study obtains proof-of-concept but that more research is needed in order to further clarify the relationship between our theoretical construct and th...

Figurative analogies and how they are resisted in British Public Bill Committee debates

Metaphor and the Social World, May 20, 2019

This paper studies metaphor use in British Public Bill Committee debates. It focuses on the way i... more This paper studies metaphor use in British Public Bill Committee debates. It focuses on the way in which legislators frame their arguments in metaphorical terms under the form of figurative analogies. Because these figurative analogies can be misleading by oversimplifying the issue under discussion, resisting them by putting forward counter-argumentation is a crucial and necessary skill. The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of countering figurative analogies in legislative debates, and to show that resistance to figurative analogies is a complex phenomenon comprising various types of criticisms to different types of metaphor. To this end, we present qualitative analyses of a number of case studies of resistance to figurative analogies found in the British Public Bill Committee debates on the Education Bill 2010-11 by employing the three-dimensional model of metaphor (Steen, 2011) and the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation (Van Eemeren, 2010).

Violence metaphors for cancer

Metaphor and the Social World, 2020

The use of violence metaphors for cancer has been widely criticised both in academic and non-acad... more The use of violence metaphors for cancer has been widely criticised both in academic and non-academic contexts (see Harrington, 2012; Semino et al., 2015). Whereas previous research on violence metaphors for cancer has focused on the use and functions of these metaphors by and for different stakeholder groups, no studies to date have examined the (various) arguments that are raised in public discourse that is critical of said metaphors. Applying concepts from pragma-dialectical argumentation theory (Van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 1992), this paper sets out to analyse types of argumentation occurring in critical public discussions of violence metaphors for cancer. Close argumentative analyses of actual discourse examples will be provided in order to illustrate the differences between two types of argumentation in particular, i.e. pragmatic and symptomatic argumentation.

Editorial: Experimental Approaches to Pragmatics

Frontiers in Psychology, Apr 19, 2022

Chapter 1. MIPVU in multiple languages

Metaphor Identification in Multiple Languages, 2019

Metaphor is booming business" (Steen, Dorst et al. 2010b 1 : 1). This statement is as true today ... more Metaphor is booming business" (Steen, Dorst et al. 2010b 1 : 1). This statement is as true today as it was years ago when it first appeared in the groundbreaking volume, A Method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification-from MIP to MIPVU. The number of publications, conferences and workshops dedicated to metaphor only seems to be increasing, as do the number of contributions that are explicit about the metaphor identification method that has been applied. And, perhaps inspired by the emerging rigor in the field, additional explicit methods for identifying figurative language have emerged, such as methods for the identification of verbal irony (Burgers et al. 2011), hyperbole (Burgers et al. 2016), and deliberate metaphor (Reijnierse et al. 2017). Protocols or guidelines also now exist for identifying metaphor in

Chapter 2. MIPVU

Editors' Introduction: Abstract Concepts: Structure, Processing, and Modeling

Topics in cognitive science, Jan 22, 2018

Our ability to deal with abstract concepts is one of the most intriguing faculties of human cogni... more Our ability to deal with abstract concepts is one of the most intriguing faculties of human cognition. Still, we know little about how such concepts are formed, processed, and represented in mind. For example, because abstract concepts do not designate referents that can be experienced through our body, the role of perceptual experiences in shaping their content remains controversial. Current theories suggest a variety of alternative explanations to the question of "how abstract concepts are represented in the human mind." These views pinpoint specific streams of semantic information that would play a prominent role in shaping the content of abstract concepts, such as situation-based information (e.g., Barsalou & Wiemer-Hastings, ), affective information (Kousta, Vigliocco, Vinson, Andrews, & Del Campo, ), and linguistic information (Louwerse, ). Rarely, these theoretical views are directly compared. In this special issue, current views are presented in their most recent a...

The role of co-text in the analysis of potentially deliberate metaphor

Drawing Attention to Metaphor, 2020

Taking Deliberate Metaphor Theory (Steen, 2015) as a starting point, this chapter investigates th... more Taking Deliberate Metaphor Theory (Steen, 2015) as a starting point, this chapter investigates the way in which co-text influences the identification and analysis of potentially deliberate metaphor in discourse. While co-text plays a role in the identification and analysis of the linguistic and conceptual dimensions of metaphor, its role in the identification and analysis of metaphor as metaphor at the communicative dimension is more complex. In a series of analyses, we first examine metaphors in relative isolation (at utterance level), and subsequently take additional textual information into consideration. We demonstrate how co-text can play an indispensable role in the identification and further analysis of potentially deliberate metaphor, thereby providing important new insights into the complexity of deliberate-metaphor analysis.

Chapter 3. VISMIP

Visual Metaphor, 2018

Chapter 5. Behavioral evidence for VISMIP

Visual Metaphor

De machinemens. Maar hoe werken die metaforen nou eigenlijk?

Het onderzoek van Nel van den Haak 2 is een filosofisch onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van de mac... more Het onderzoek van Nel van den Haak 2 is een filosofisch onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van de machinemetafoor in de geneeskunde en in het denken over ziekte en gezondheid. Het is daarmee een onderzoek naar metaforische modellen met een bepaalde status en een bepaalde functie in twee gespecialiseerde communicatiedomeinen, wetenschap en filosofie. Zo'n filosofisch onderzoek richt zich op het blootleggen en bevragen van aannames, 1 Dank aan Marca Schasfoort voor haar nuttige commentaar. 2 Van den Haak, N. (2013), De machinemens. De machinemetafoor in de geneeskunde en in het denken over ziekte en gezondheid. Delft: Eburon. 2 hun relaties en hun consequenties in de logica van de machinemetafoor. Die metaforische modellen met een machine als uitgangspunt zijn expliciet geformuleerd door gezaghebbende denkers en onderzoekers, zij zijn officieel aanvaard als bruikbare metaforisch modellen, en ze hebben een heuristische en theorievormende functie in de geneeskunde en de filosofie. Die communicatiedomeinen behoren tot het elite discours van onze samenleving, cultuur en geschiedenis. Daarmee is het onderzoek van Nel van den Haak een heel specifieke vorm van metaforenonderzoek. Wat ik in dit verhaal wil doen, is laten zien hoe dit onderzoek zich verhoudt tot ander metaforenonderzoek. Er bestaat namelijk heel veel niet-filosofisch onderzoek naar de conceptuele functie van metaforiek in een waaier van wetenschappen, waaronder de taalwetenschap, de psychologie en de communicatiewetenschap, dat nog een andere kijk verschaft op de mogelijke werking van de machinemetafoor. Dat onderzoek houdt zich ook bezig met de globale vraag hoe metaforiek ons denken kan beïnvloeden en hoe dat zich over de tijd heen kan ontwikkelen. De kwestie die ik in deze korte lezing wil aanroeren, is welk licht dat andere, empirische metaforenonderzoek kan werpen op de filosofische analyse van de machinemetafoor en haar rol in de geneeskunde en het denken over ziekte en gezondheid. Mijn doel is om te voorkomen dat in de discussie over van den Haaks boek verbanden worden gelegd tussen dit filosofische werk en het empirisch metaforenonderzoek die onterecht zouden kunnen zijn. De relatie tussen van den Haaks filosofische analyse en het breder bekende empirische

Wanneer denken wij in metaforen?

Op zondag 29 april van dit jaar hoefde AZ nog maar van Excelsior te winnen om landskampioen te wo... more

Abstract Concepts symposium 2016 - Book of Poster Presentations

by Marianna Bolognesi, Євгенія Бондаренко, Francesca Franzon, Diego Frassinelli, Pia Sommerauer, Anna Jelec, Liu Pei, Claudia Mazzuca, Gerard Steen, Lidiia Melnyk, Gregory Mills, Elliot Murphy, Alessandro Panunzi, Lewis Pollock, Maria Rosenberg, Elisa Scerrati, Sylvia Springorum, Yao Tong, and Sally Zacharias

This document collects the posters that have been presented at the International symposium Abstra... more This document collects the posters that have been presented at the International symposium Abstract Concepts 2016, Amsterdam.
The authors have agreed to share their posters on this platform, in this collection, but the copyright of each poster remains their personal property. (https://abstractconceptsnet.wordpress.com/)