The Canonical Place: an implicit (space) theory in Italian idioms

Abstract

Traditional views of idiomaticity assume that idioms are semantically inanalizable and arbitrary, since their meanings cannot be predicted from the meanings of their individual words. Recent linguistic and psycholinguistic research has taken issue with this view, showing that there is often a relationship between individual words of an idiom and overall idiomatic meaning. Within the cognitive theory of metaphor it has been suggested that many idioms are motivated by conceptual metaphors which map the literal meaning of the idiom, the conventional image that the idiom fits, and the knowledge associated with the image, onto the idiomatic meaning. An analysis of Italian idioms that I have undertaken adopting the cognitive approach has shown that most idioms are motivated by, and coherent with, conceptual metaphors; it has also revealed information about beliefs and folk theories involved in the semantics of idioms. In this paper I will discuss some idioms linked to a set of beliefs that I call the Canonical Place Theory.