Metaphors: the evolutionary journey from bidirectionality to unidirectionality

Abstract

Metaphors, a ubiquitous feature of human language, reflect mappings from one conceptual domain onto another. Although founded on bidirectional relations of similarity, their linguistic expression is typically unidirectional, governed by conceptual hierarchies pertaining to abstractness, animacy and prototypicality. The unidirectional nature of metaphors is a product of various asymmetries characteristic of grammatical structure, in particular, those related to thematic role assignment. This paper argues that contemporary metaphor unidirectionality is the outcome of an evolutionary journey whose origin lies in an earlier bidirectionality. Invoking the Complexity Covariance Hypothesis governing the correlation of linguistic and socio-political complexity, the Evolutionary Inference Principle suggests that simpler linguistic structures are evolutionarily prior to more complex ones, and accordingly that bidirectional metaphors evolved at an earlier stage than unidirectional ones. This paper presents the results of an experiment comparing the degree of metaphor unidirectionality in two languages: Hebrew and Abui (spoken by some 16 000 people on the island of Alor in Indonesia). The results of the experiment show that metaphor unidirectionality is significantly higher in Hebrew than in Abui. Whereas Hebrew is a national language, Abui is a regional language of relatively low socio-political complexity. In accordance with the Evolutionary Inference Principle, the lower degree of metaphor unidirectionality of Abui may accordingly be reconstructed to an earlier stage in the evolution of language. The evolutionary journey from bidirectionality to unidirectionality in metaphors argued for here may be viewed as part of a larger package, whereby the development of grammatical complexity in various domains is driven by the incremental increases in socio-political complexity that characterize the course of human prehistory. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.

Tense–aspect–mood marking, language-family size and the evolution of predication

“…[27] and Nettle [19] argue that larger languages tend to have larger phonemic inventories than smaller languages. In the domain of metaphor comprehension, Gil & Shen [28] present evidence to the effect that more highly complex polities tend to be associated with languages whose metaphors are of more complex directional structure. Finally, work in progress, some preliminary results of which are reported in Gil & Shen [29], shows that more highly complex polities tend to be associated with languages with a greater degree of grammaticalization of thematic-role assignment.…”

Language evolution: examining the link between cross-modality and aggression through the lens of disorders

“…3See also Gil & Shen [49] for a detailed discussion of spatial metaphors, as well as for a novel take on the evolution of metaphors.…”

Reconstructing prehistoric languages

“…The contributions in this section focus on reconstructing prehistoric behaviour, cognition and/or the brain organization with the aim of inferring structural and functional aspects of prehistoric languages. Two contributions (Gil & Shen [11] and Benítez-Burraco & Progovac [8]) address the question of the concrete versus abstract nature of the first vocabularies and the role of metaphoricity/cross-modality in the shaping of the first grammars. Gil & Shen [11] consider a hypothesis that unidirectionality/asymmetry in the metaphorical domain evolves gradually, in several steps, with the first step correlating with the emergence of asymmetrical grammars universal to all humans (but not found in other species).…”

“…Two contributions (Gil & Shen [11] and Benítez-Burraco & Progovac [8]) address the question of the concrete versus abstract nature of the first vocabularies and the role of metaphoricity/cross-modality in the shaping of the first grammars. Gil & Shen [11] consider a hypothesis that unidirectionality/asymmetry in the metaphorical domain evolves gradually, in several steps, with the first step correlating with the emergence of asymmetrical grammars universal to all humans (but not found in other species). In this respect, the authors give grammars an active role in shaping cognitive abilities.…”

“…In this respect, the authors give grammars an active role in shaping cognitive abilities. Furthermore, in an experimental setting, Gil & Shen [11] found that there is variability between speakers of two different languages in this respect, concluding that the development of unidirectionality in the metaphorical domain is a gradual, ongoing process. As for Benítez-Burraco & Progovac [8], they focus on the nature of selected proxies (fossils) of the earliest grammars, specifically those relevant to metaphoricity (cross-modality) and verbal aggression (insult), as found in living languages, including in disordered language.…”