A Dictionary and Thesaurus of Contemporary Figurative Language and Metaphor
Author: Stockdale, Joseph Gagen, III
Date: 2020-10-19
Type: Reference Materials - Vocabularies/Classifications
Subjects: Dictionaries,Reference Materials,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Figurative Language,Phrase Structure,Psycholinguistics,Language Teachers,Theater Arts,Definitions,Vocabulary,Classification

The purpose of this dictionary and thesaurus of contemporary figurative language and metaphor is to identify all the words and phrases used figuratively and metaphorically in everyday contemporary English and to categorize each word or phrase not only by meaning but also by what cognitive linguists and others have described variously as figure and ground, target and source, physical basis and domain, in order to provide a reference for English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. The compiler is a lifelong EFL teacher of adult military students in Saudi Arabia. First, he identified and recorded words and phrases used figuratively, along with short examples of use that highlight collocates to create the alphabetized dictionary of collocations: the first entry is &quot;ablaze (adjective)&quot; and the last entry is &quot;zoom out (verb).&quot; Second, he used the tags to create the thesaurus. Examples of tags include container; allusion; direction; weight; movement; temperature; theater; sports &amp; games; person; increase &amp; decrease; resistance, opposition &amp; defeat, etc. The result reinforces the important role figurative language plays in common and everyday language and the importance that collocation plays in distinguishing such language. The work provides many insights. For example, while much figurative language has arisen from the domain of the theater, the thesaurus shows the majority relates to three areas: development; attention, scrutiny &amp; promotion; and performance. Another insight is to show how often words for people are used figuratively: outcast, butcher, author, guide, cheerleader, etc. The work has implications for ESL / EFL teaching, which tends to focus on the literal meanings of words, usually the first sense in a dictionary. Clearly, more attention should be paid to other senses of words, and this work will help to identify and classify them. Besides ESL / EFL teachers, the work will interest ESL / EFL curriculum developers and materials writers. It could be a part of an ESL / EFL teacher-training course. It provides a model for similar works created in the future by lexicographers and applied and cognitive linguists. Preliminary short discussions based on the work include (1) 60 + common metaphors (2) Collocation (3) Epithets (4) Persons (5) The &quot;container&quot; metaphor (6) Grammatical metaphor, fictive verbs, etc. (7) Past, present and future (8) Allusions (9) Euphemisms (10) Gestures and bodily reactions (11) Shapes and parts-whole (12) Animacy (13) Persistence, survival and endurance (14) Old and new clichés (15) Quotations (16) Synonyms and opposites (17) Lessons and exercises (18) To the ESL / EFL teacher, which focuses on how the dictionary and thesaurus impacts the knowledge and experience base of the ESL / EFL teacher and (19) An alphabetized list of the thesaurus categories. [For the 2019 edition, see ED594968.]