Abstract Index Conference Index

ABSTRACT

2. TITLE OF PRESENTATION:
Are we having pun yet? A re-view of tropes in dreams

3. AUTHOR/SCHOOL/BIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION:

Author: Dr. Patricia Kilroe
School: University of Louisiana at Lafayette (on leave 2000-01)

Bio: Patricia Kilroe, Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, has been a student of dreams for the past twenty years and has been writing about the role of language in dreaming since 1995. She is assistant professor of linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Dr. Patricia Kilroe
E-mail: pak4201@louisiana.edu

4. SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION:

Metaphor, metonymy, punning, irony, and hyperbole: Traditionally referred to as rhetorical figures, in recent decades these tropes have come to be understood from broader cognitive and semiotic perspectives. This paper re-views the appearance of these five tropes in dreams and, along with idioms, explores their relationship to language.

5. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

(A) Learning objectives:
1. Provide a clear definition of idioms and of the tropes metaphor, metonymy, punning, irony and hyperbole.
2. Sharpen the ability to recognize tropes and idioms in dreams.
3. Increase understanding of the role of language in dream idioms and tropes.

(B) Evaluation questions:
1. Define idioms, metaphor, metonymy, punning, irony and hyperbole.
2. Name several ways to recognize an idiom or trope in a dream report.
3. Identify the dream tropes which necessarily involve language, and those which do not.

8. ABSTRACT:

Tropes, otherwise known as rhetorical figures, occur in both dreams and language. Looked at here are the tropes metaphor, metonymy, irony, hyperbole and punning, as well as idioms. The central issue is whether tropes originate in thought or in language. In recent years, serious attention has been devoted to this question by cognitive scientists (e.g., Katz 1998, Gibbs 1998, Lakoff 1993a), but, with the exception of Lakoff (1993b, 1997), none have considered dreams as source data for investigating the issue at hand. (Other scholars have contributed to the discussion of tropes and dreams, e.g. States 1988, 1997; Silverman 1983, but from a somewhat different viewpoint than that taken here.)
First one must be convinced that these tropes exist in dreams. Examples of each are given for both language and dreams.
The position taken in this paper is that some tropes originate in thought, some in language. By thought is meant what Freud (1900) referred to as mentation, i.e. mental activity. It is important to clarify that in the present context, thought can be verbal or nonverbal.

If tropes originate in thought, that is, in the cognitive processes that enable mentation, then they are part of our conceptual architecture, our means of structuring perceptual experiences into concepts. The manifestation of cognitively-based tropes in language is just one way in which tropes can be expressed. From this point of view, tropes are just as likely to be expressed through dream imagery as through language.

But if all tropes originate in language, then their appearance in dreams is a result of their translation from verbal thought to dream imagery. This implies that some dream imagery originates in verbal thought.

The claim put forward here is that metonymy, hyperbole, irony, and some kinds of metaphor are cognitive, semiotic processes which are tools for the structuring of concepts. The results of these processes may appear in language or dreaming, without any dependence of one on the other. But puns (both those based on homonyms and those based on polysemy), idioms (which by their nature are linguistic), and metaphorical expressions (including conventional and dead metaphor) are grounded in language. When they occur in dreams, it is as an illustration of (nonconscious) verbal thought. This type of dream imagery is comparable to the literal depiction of idioms and conventional metaphorical expressions in advertising images.

References
Freud, S. (1900/1965). The interpretation of dreams, trans. James Strachey. New York: Avon Books.
Gibbs, R. (1998). The fight over metaphor in thought and language. In A. Katz, et al., Figurative language and thought. New York: Oxford University Press.
Katz, A. (1998). Figurative language and figurative thought. In A. Katz, et al., Figurative language and thought. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lakoff, G. (1997). How unconscious metaphorical thought shapes dreams. In D. Stein (Ed.), Cognitive Science and the Unconscious (pp.89-120) Washington: American Psychiatric Press, Inc.
Lakoff, G. (1993a). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought, 2nd ed. (Pp.202-251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, G. (1993b). How metaphor structures dreams: The theory of conceptual metaphor applied to dream analysis. Dreaming (3).
Silverman, K. (1983). The subject of semiotics. New York: Oxford University Press.
States, B. (1997). Seeing in the dark. New Haven: Yale University Press.
States, B. (1988). The rhetoric of dreams. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.