Metaphor Lab Amsterdam

Group coordinator

• Gerard Steen

Members
ACLC members

• Gerard Steen (ACLC), senior researcher, coordinator;
• Marianna Bolognesi (ACLC, then Oxford University, member MT MLA, affiliated to ACLC), senior researcher;
• Andreas Finsen (ACLC), PhD candidate on Gerard Steen’s ‘Resistance to metaphor’ project  subproject: “Resistance to metaphor in science”, September 2016 – September 2020;
• Jie Fu (ACLC), PhD candidate on CSC scholarship subproject: “Metaphor and aphasia”, September 2016 – September 2020;
• Romy van den Heerik (ACLC), PhD candidate on Gerard Steen’s ‘ Resistance to metaphor’ project subproject: “Metaphor in health communication”, September 2016 – September 2020;
• Roosmaryn Pilgram (ACLC), post-doc on Gerard Steen’s ‘Resistance to metaphor’ project  subproject: “Testing resistance to metaphor”, January 2017 – December 2018;
• Lotte van Poppel (ACLC), post-doc on Gerard Steen’s ‘Resistance to metaphor’ project  subproject: “Modeling resistance to metaphor”, January 2017 – December 2018;
• Gudrun Reijnierse (ACLC), PhD candidate on Gerard Steen’s ‘The value of deliberate metaphor’ project subproject: “The value of deliberate metaphor”, September 2012 – September 2017;
• Kiki Renardel de Lavalette (ACLC), PhD candidate on Gerard Steen’s ‘Resistance to metaphor’ project subproject: “Resistance to metaphor in politics”, September 2016 – September 2020;
• Dunja Wackers (ACLC), PhD candidate on Gerard Steen’s ‘Resistance to metaphor’ project  subproject: “Resistance to metaphor in the media”, September 2016-  September 2020;
• Jean Wagemans (ACLC), senior researcher

External members

• Anke Beger (Universität Flensburg), PhD candidate on Gerard Steen’s project subproject: “The role of (deliberate) metaphor in communicating knowledge in academic discourse”;
• Amber Boeynaems (VUA), PhD candidate on Christian Burgers’ Veni project subproject: “Dynamics of figurative frames in Dutch public discourse”, September 2013 – September 2018;
• Britta Brugman (VUA), PhD candidate on Christian Burgers’Veni project subproject: “How metaphorical frames influence political decision-making: Explaining processing and persuasion”, September 2016 – September 2020;
• Christian Burgers (VUA, member MT MLA, affiliated to ACLC), senior researcher;
• Giulia Frezza (NWO bezoekersbeurs), postdoc on Gerard Steen’s ‘Resistance to metaphor’ project  subproject: “Resistance to metaphor: Risk and responsibility”, July 2017 – November 2017;
• Tina Krennmayr (VUA, member MT MLA, affiliated to ACLC), senior researcher;
• Pia Sommerauer (VUA), PhD candidate on Piek Vossen’s ‘Resolving distortions in semantic spaces defined by words [etc.]’ project subproject: “Resolving distortions in semantic spaces defined by words [etc.]”, September 2017 – August 2021;

Description

The Metaphor Lab Amsterdam is an interuniversity research group based at UvA and VUA investigating how metaphor works in discourse. We distinguish between five themes:

1. Deliberate metaphor (theme coordinator: Gerard Steen) — when, how, and with which functions and effects is metaphor used deliberately as metaphor, drawing people’s attention to the source domain as a basis for comparison?
2. Metaphor and multimodality (theme coordinator: Marianna Bolognesi) — when, how and with which functions and effects is metaphor used in other codes and modalities than language, such as gestures, visuals, sounds, and music? How does multimodal metaphor compare with verbal metaphor?
3. Variation in metaphor (theme coordinator: Tina Krennmayr) — when, how and with which functions and effects does metaphor use vary between text, context and code categories of discourse?
4. Figurative framing (theme coordinator: Christian Burgers) — when, how and with which functions and effects are metaphor and other figures such as irony and hyperbole used for framing particular messages from a figurative perspective?
5. Metaphor and argumentation (theme coordinator: Jean Wagemans) — when, how and with which functions and effects are metaphors used to suggest patterns of reasoning and argumentation by nonliteral comparison?

In answering these questions we start out from a framework in which language use enables discourse. For language use, we examine the validity of a three-dimensional model of language use, comprising metaphor in language (or some other code), thought, and communication. For discourse, we examine the validity of a genre-driven model for people’s use of text-in-code-in-context. The way metaphor works in discourse is explained by processes of language use, of discourse, as well as their interaction. It is our aim to produce research that contributes to the description, explanation and application of the configuration of these processes. To this end, we conduct theoretical, methodological, empirical and applied research with a wide range of disciplines, methods, and techniques.

Events

Every year, the Metaphor Lab organizes the Metaphor Festival, a conference on the use of figurative language and other modes of figurative expression.
Bi-weekly research meetings are held on Tuesday mornings from 9 – 11 AM (see calendar on the Metaphor Lab website).

More information about the Metaphor Lab Amsterdam can be found at http://metaphorlab.org. The center is a joint venture of the Network Institute at VU University Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication at the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC).