Parabolic thinking: story as mental instrument

Jean-Rémi Lapaire (1)

1 CLIMAS - Cultures et Littératures des Mondes Anglophones

A central – but often underestimated – feature of human cognition is narrative imagining (Turner 1996), a process best defined as the adoption of narrative format to report and analyse experience, and more generally to make sense of the world. Humans are fundamentally storytelling creatures that are constantly engaged in the socio-cognitive process of giving narrative accounts or rationalizations2 of their lives (Johnson 1993: 150-84). The narrative framing of self and action requires the conversion of experience into mental, perceptual, physical, or communicative events3, involving actors, plots and settings. As Mark Turner (1996) hypothesizes, story could well be the backbone of syntax, and participant roles the foundation of argument structure.

Mots clés: Parable; Cognitive stylistics; Cognitive semantics; Metaphor making; Narrative frame; Parabolic projection

Domaines: Linguistique; Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Psychologie

Jean-Rémi Lapaire. Parabolic thinking: story as mental instrument . Marie-Hélène Fries. Métaphore et Anglais de spécialité, Collection Travaux 20.25, pp.21-44, 2005. ⟨halshs-01633131⟩