Metaphor and image building in Emily Dickinson`s I Like To See It Lap The Miles to express a private experince : a cognitive study - USD Repository
METAPHOR AND IMAGE BUILDING IN EMILY
DICKINSON’S “I LIKE TO SEE IT LAP THE MILES” TO
EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE : A COGNITIVE STUDY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI.
Student Number: 034214113
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
2011
METAPHOR AND IMAGE BUILDING IN EMILY
DICKINSON’S “I LIKE TO SEE IT LAP THE MILES” TO
EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE : A COGNITIVE STUDY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI.
Student Number: 034214113
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
2011
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
METAPHOR AND IMAGE BUILDING IN EMILY
DICKINSON’S “I LIKE TO SEE IT LAP THE MILES” TO
EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE: A COGNITIVE STUDY
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
METAPHOR AND IMAGE BUILDING IN EMILY
DICKINSON’S “I LIKE TO SEE IT LAP THE MILES” TO
EXPRESS A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE: A COGNITIVE STUDY
Courage is not the absence of fear, but more to the judgement
that somethingelse is more important than fear(Pierre Dulaine – T ake the L ead)
Dedicated to My beloved parents
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the works or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, August 30, 2011 (Cisilia Peni Triindriastuti)
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Sanata Dharma : Nama : Cisilia Peni Triindriastuti Nomor Mahasiswa : 034214113
Dengan ini saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
Metaphor and Image Building in Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to See It Lap the
Miles” as Tool to Express a Private Experience: A Cognitive StudyBeserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma Hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 30 Agustus 2011
Yang menyatakan (Cisilia Peni Triindriastuti)
ACKNOWLEGMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Jesus: “Thank you.. for being my Lord”.To my beloved parents, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to them for their support in everything: for their prayers, for their unexhausted encouragement and so much compassion.
I would like to thank my advisor, Bu Luluk, for her encouragement, suggestion, evaluation and critics during the process of this thesis. I would also like to thank Bu Tata, who gives me her insight and correction.
For all my friends ’03, thanks for the moment we have shared and the friendship we have. And for all my friends who are still struggling: “Keep fighting, guys! I will be waiting to hear good news from you”. For Wahmuji, thanks for sharing a great website for many great books I hardly could find before and for his willingness to spent his time to read and give suggestion, especially at the beginning of the process. Thanks Mei Ratri, with her way, for pushing me to finish my study.
I would like also to thank Margaret H. Freeman who is generously posting and making free many of great works on dealing with cognitive study and Emily Dickinson. A lot of inside I was desperately looking for I could finally find and learn in her works.
Finally, I would like to thank my Marietta Sinaga and Duma Simbolon for the motivation and precious friendship. Hopefully, this thesis will be useful.
TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………… i
APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………………………… ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE …………………………………………… iii
MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………… iv
DEDICATION PAGE .............................................................................. v
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ...................................... vi
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA
ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ................................ vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …………………………………………… viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………… ix
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………… xi
ABSTRAK …………………………………………………………… xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………
1 A. Background of the Study ……………………………………
1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………
7 C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………………
8 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………
8 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW…………………………… 10
A. Review of Related Studies……………………………………
10 B. Review of Related Theories…………………………………..
12
1. Theories on Cognitive ........................…………………. 12
2. Theories on Metaphor ......….……………...................... 13
3. Theories on Image Schema ...................................…….. 15
4. Theories on Poetic Iconicity ...............................………. 18
C. Biographical Background ............................................................19
D. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………. 21
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………… 23
A. Object of the Study…………………………………………..23 B. Approaches of the Study …………………………………
24 B.1. Cognitive Approach………………………………..
24 B.2. Biographical Approach …………………………….
27 C. Method of the Study………………………………………….
28
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS…………………………………………....... 30
A. Projection from the of Imagery to Metaphor, and Its Establishment..........................................................................30 B. Metaphor and Its Image Building …………………………..41 C. Emily Dickinson and “I Like to see it lap the Miles”............... 58
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ..................................................................62
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………….………………………………... 64
ABSTRACT
CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI. 2011. Metaphor and Image Building in
Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles” as Tool to Express A
Private Experience: A Cognitive Study. Yogyakarta: Department of English
Letters, Faculity of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
“I Like to see it lap the Miles” is a poem written by Emily Dickinson. This poem is well known as a poem about a train with strong metaphorical language. It consists of four stanzas with each stanza employs quatrin except for the third one.
The objectives of this study are to find out how this poem is built through its metaphor and image building (imageries and form) and what is its significance to Emily Dickinson’s world. Those two question are proposed to consider that so far analysis to this poem were not involving its form as the performance of its author in building the poem.
This study is done by using library research method. Cognitive approach and biographical are applied in this study. Cognitive approach is applied to analyze the metaphorical and its image building, while biographical is applied to strengthen the argument by providing evidence from the author contextual background.
From the analysis, the writer finds that MIND IS IRON HORSE is the main metaphoric schema which structures “I Like to see it lap the Miles” poem as a whole, not TRAIN IS IRON HORSE which stands independently from the form on the page. The form on the page shows the autonomy of the author to display it whatever she thinks is right. The result from the analysis “I Like to see it lap the Miles” is a creation of semblance of the felt experience from the interrelationship between IRON HORSE concept and its image building which is so much influenced by the real experience of the author in experiencing the train and performing the respond. The appearance of the speaker maps the author’s performance in creating its lines and structuring its comparisons (simile or metaphor).
ABSTRAK
CISILIA PENI TRIINDRIASTUTI. Metaphor and Image Building in Emily
Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles” as Tool to Express A Private
Experience: A Cognitive Study. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas
Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
“I Like to See It Lap the” Miles merupakan sebuah puisi yang ditulis oleh Emily Dickinson. Puisi ini sangat dikenal sebagai puisi yang menggambarkan sebuah kereta dengan pembahasaan metafora yang kuat. Puisi ini terdiri dari empat bait, empat baris pada tiap bait kecuali pada bait ketiga.
Tujuan yang hendak dicapai melalui studi ini adalah mengetahui bagaimana metafora dan pembangunan puisi ini dibentuk dan juga mengetahui apa signifikansi pembentukan tersebut terhadap dunia yang dimiliki oleh Emily Dickinson. Kedua tujuan ini dikemukakan karena analisa terhadap puisi “I Like to see it lap the Miles” sejauh ini tidak menyertakan bentuk puisi dan kehadiran pembicara ke dalam analisa.
Studi ini dilaksanakan menggunakan studi kepustakaan. Pendekatan yang diterapkan adalah pendekatan kognitif dan biografis. Pendekatan kognitif diterapkan dalam menganalisa penggunaan bahasa metaforis dan pembentukan gambar puisi, sedangkan pendekatan biografis diterapkan untuk menghadirkan bukti–bukti yang diambil dari latar belakang penulis sebagai penguat analisa.
Dari analisa, penulis menemukan bahwa MIND IS IRON HORSE merupakan skema metaforis inti pembentuk puisi “I Like to see it lap the Miles”, bukan TRAIN IS IRON HORSE yang berdiri sendiri lepas dari bentuk puisi ini di atas kertas. Bentuk puisi di atas kertas menunjukkan otoritas sang pengarang untuk menyuguhkan apa yang dirasa paling tepat atau pas baginya. Hasil dari analisa yang dilakukan adalah “I Like to see it lap the Miles” merupakan ciptaan yang sesuai dengan pengalaman yang tepat dirasakan melalui penggabungan antara konsep IRON HORSE dengan pembentukan gambarnya yang sangat dipengaruhi oleh pengalaman yang dirasakan saat kereta datang dan respon tindakannya saat itu. Kemunculan sang pembicara memetakan tindakan sang pengarang dalam menyusun baris dan membentuk pengandaian (simile ataupun metafora).
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study
“I can show you more than I can tell you” The above expression was quoted from Breaking Down (2008), a novel written by Stephanie Meyer, which reminded the writer to Emily Dickinson. It shows that things we want to express can not always simply being told. A well expression is not only containing information but it is also containing whole things that the encoder wants to reveal to the decoder: idea, thought, and feeling. The above expression shows that the encoder consciously understands that if he/she directly reacts to the decoder by telling them the information they’ve asked, he/she will not completely reach what he/she wants. There will be something that is still missing unless it is being showed. And by showing, the encoder is displaying or demonstrating it and letting the decoder detects himself/herself. The important thing from the act of showing if it is compared to the act of telling is that the encoder wants to reach more than just giving an information.
Expression is a personal way to respond something. It takes a fundamental
part in human’s life because it is a tool to force out emotion, ruling taste, feeling, or thought which is somehow repressed in human’s mind, from simple thing to complex thing. Therefore, a well expressed expression would release a man’s feeling but expressions that are not well expressed or not expressed at all would bring difficulties to the person who feels it. In general, there are two kind of expression: verbal and non-verbal. Verbal expression can be manifested in utterance or written form, while non-verbal expression can be manifested in facial look or body language.
According to Joanna R. William (William, 1993: 94), in her essay
Expression and Communication as Basic Linguistic Functions, there is a
difference between verbal expression such in utterance and in written form. In an utterance, the process of encoding of the thought is more spontaneous than in a written form. We often hear people saying, writing down feelings would release one’s emotion. “Writing focuses on the process of expression as the conscious composition of a text. It confronts the individual with their own word” (1993: 94). There is no one presence to wait their respond. The benefit of writing from utterence lays down on the process of encoding the thought which can be more conscious and reflective.
Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest American poets, but her popularity arouse not in her lifetime. It was only after her death, more than seventeen hundreds poetry and eleven hundreds letters was found, published and well known. In her life time, she rarely met her relatives and spent most her lives in her father’s house or even in her own room. But, eventhough she withdrew herself from her surrounding, it doesn’t mean that she was completely disappearing. It was seen from her continuity to send her relatives and companions a letter or poem. A written form was chosen to communicate and express something which somehow repressed her.
Emily Dickinson is well known of having a unique character, the way she saw the world actively can hardly be argued in contrast to her reluctance to socialize herself to the society. She placed herself between existence and non existence. Throughout her life, the letters she had sent and poem attached to it contributed her to maintain a connection with the outside world and impressed them by her original style (Lied, 2008: 25). This unique character often establishes curiosity among the readers and up till this time still creates various inspirations for many writers to get to know about her unique world and understand her poems better.
Poetry, conservatory, and family were the priority of Emily Dickinson’s responsibility and life, and the biggest of all was poetry. In poetry she adored, argued, and sought life. She dedicated herself into boundless of lexicons. As someone who rarely met other people, and spent most of time privately in her house, she was surprisingly able to capture the outer world extravagantly through her works (2008: 51). Ironically her works were unnoticed by public during her lifetime. It was because she kept large amounts of her works mostly for herself, and decided not to publish them continually to be known by other. One of the reasons of her rejection to publication was to protect the original elements that has often been edited by the editor before a text will be published. Yet, she just persisted to write, seeking life and remain her world untouchable.
On one hand it is obviously not easy for someone who has difficulty in socializing herself with the society like Emily Dickinson to express her world in a common way, such in utterances but on the other hand Emily Dickinson realized that she needed it. How Emily conducted herself and did not sigh about her life, her ‘weird’ behavior in others’ eyes, were just reflection and loyalty to her believe which brought her to the stick decision to where she would live her life. Never she would escape her believe and disobey the believe she embraced. Justina I.F Lied (2008) interestingly called the way Dickinson conducted her life as living in the private bubble. It allowed Dickinson to see the outside and it also allowed the outside to see her but remained to be untouchable. This makes the writer interested to know her poem.
Considering the fact above, it is not surprising the poems that Emily Dickinson wrote are as unique as her character. The sacredness of all elements in poems cannot be argued, no changes can be made without distracting its function in the poem. Each element would become important to capture the whole meaning of the poem. As Emily Dickinson strongly expressed her complaint when there were some changes that the editorial made seen as followed: Edited Original Success is counted sweetest Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed By those who ne’er succeed To comprehend a nectar To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need Requires sorest need Not one of all the purple host Not one of all the purple Host Who took the flag to-day Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition Can tell the definition So clear, of victory, So clear of Victory As he, defeated, dying, As he defeated –dying-- On whose forbidden ear On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph The distant strains of triumph Break, agonized and clear Burst agonized and clear! Even “when two editor of newspapers had asked her if they could publish some of her poem, she used the expression: they asked for my Mind” (2008: 29) Punctuations, dashes, and capitalizations are markers of Emily
Dickinson’s poems, there are also two other elements which become the material in building the concept of her thought into a poem, namely: metaphor and imagery. These two elements cannot be separated from Emily Dickinson’s poems; it gives such a vivid representation. In poetry, metaphor may perform various functions. From the mere noting of likeness to the evocation of associations; it may exist as a minor beauty or it may be the central concept and controlling image of the poem (Merriam, 1995: 756). While imageries, in The
Literary Heritage, “..are used to create concrete picture of experiences so that it
can be seen, heard, tasted or felt” (Guth, 1981:721).Metaphor lies at the heart of poetry. As unique as Emily Dickinson’s character, metaphor is a unique language. Metaphor is a unique language not only because it presents something as something else but also because it reflects of how people actually conduct their life. As stated by cognitive linguists, Lakoff and Johnson “…metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action” ( Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 3). For example, a person who accepts LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor would have different action and thought from a person who accepts LIFE IS A GAMBLING GAME metaphor. And words or images that would be presented for each single concept of metaphor would be very different, it depends on what they decide to accept in mind.
There is an interesting thing about cognitive study to language, it sees phenomenon of language that is firmly rooted from human thought. This study is an expansion of cognitive science or the science of human mind which studies they way information is presented and transformed in the brain. The earlier cognitive study to language namely Cognitive Linguistics, it primarily analyzes the conceptual and experiential basis of linguistic categories the formal structures of language that are studied ‘.. not as if they were autonomous, but as reflections of general conceptual organization, categorization principles, processing mechanisms, and experiential and environmental influences.’ (Geeraerts and Cuykens, 2007 : 3). In other words, they work from the assumption that language reflects patterns of thought which means to study patterns of conceptualization that we get from our understanding of our experience with the external world. The next cognitive study to language taking a birth is Cognitive Poetics. Cognitive Poetics is literary criticism that applies cognitive linguistics concept and insight, in an attempt to explore more systematically their explanatory potential and cognitive poetics in analyzing literary texts. The difference between the two is that cognitve poetics assumes that poetic texts do not only have meaning or convey thought, as often been concerned by cognitve linguist, but also display emotional qualities.
In this thesis the writer chose “I Like to see it lap the Miles””, a poem written by Emily Dickinson that has received little critical attention, perhaps because this poem is taking for granted to be a poem about a train (iron horse) alone. The interesting thing about this poem is that it presents such a vivid picture, with mixed images pictures on it, but apparently its reference is displayed to be “in-visible” by the speaker who only appear once in the first line and consequently left the poem with no specific reference about the object that is mentioned. “In- visible” here borrow from Margaret Freeman’s term for pointing the thing which is “lying latent, hidden as another dimensionality” (Freeman 2009b: 176). This arouses a curiosity to analyze the mixed images pictures further in its form and its metaphorical expression, and then reflect it to Emily Dickinson’s life to generate possibility/ies since she, as an author, is known of her well awarness about the detail of her poem to be important.
Considering the facts above, the writer will apply cognitive approach to unfold the poem due to its basis focuses on language as an embodied understanding within the cognitive processes that enable the human mind to conceptualize experience based on the interaction with our knowlegde of the world; and its explanatory power, which according to Margaret Freeman, ‘ for making explicit our reasoning processes and for illuminating the structure and content of literary text’ (2000: 253). That is why it seems to be worth study as a provocation to the study of cognitive theory to a literary text, since its newness and insightfulness, especially in English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How are metaphor and imagery in Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles” built?
2. How can the metaphors and image building in Emily Dickinson’s “I Like to see it lap the Miles” be seen as an expression of her private experience?
C. Objective of the Study
The objective of this thesis is to study the cognitive processes of the embodied human mind that include conceptualizing, forming and feeling from the metaphor of a poem in constructing its image and how the image could reveal the hidden expression of the speaker.
This thesis is aimed to answer and explain the question mentioned in the problem formulation above. First, the writer wants to find out how such concept or reason was built through the presented metaphor and image building. Second, is to find out how the metaphors and image building were used as an expression of Emily Dickinson’s private experience in revealing an idea.
D. Definition of Terms
- Metaphor The definition of metaphor is developing , in Merriam Webster,
Encyclopedia of Literature , the word metaphor is [Greek metahorá change
of a word to a new sense, metaphor, a derivative of metaphérein to transfer, change, from metá after, beyond + phérein to carry] that is figure of speech in which a word or a phrase denoting one kind of object/action is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them; it is an implied comparison of simile (Merriam, 1995: 756) to the recent study as Lakoff and Johnson stated that metaphor is a property of concept, not of words (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 25).
- To express
The term to express is used in contexts indicating a revival of the root meaning ex-pressus, from ex-premere, which means ‘to press out’.
Abrams takes one statement about expression from Aristotle that says “Poetry is indirect expression in word, most appropriately in metrical words, of some of overpowering emotion, or ruling taste, or feeling, the indirect indulgence where of is somehow repressed (Abrams, 1953: 48).
- Cognitive Study Cognitive study here is a study to know the way language characterize meaning, a study of psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning (Freeman, 2007a: 1179). Cognitive study mainly turns the figure of speech to the figure of thought (Freeman, 2009b: 11).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies This part contains reviews of some studies that related to the study. Study
on expression, Emily Dickinson, metaphor and imagery. These studies are chosen to support the argument in this undergraduate thesis.
First chosen study is written by Joanna R. Williams, Expression and
Communication as Basic Linguistic Functions , different from the common
modern linguistic theory which is based on the assumption that the primary and fundamental function of language is communication, she argues that there are two basic linguistic functions of a language; besides the function of communication, there is also other more fundamental function of a language that is the function of expression. She noted that a thought has to be expressed verbally before it can be verbally communicated. Therefore, “expression is a prerequisite to communication” (Williams, 1993: 94).
The second study is on the way Emily Dickinson lived which is suggested by Justina I.F. Lied, in her doctoral thesis Emily Dickinson in Her Private Bubble:
Poems, Letters and Condition of Presence (2008). In her thesis, Lied is using an
interesting term, bubble, to picture the way how Emily Dickinson lived. There are some reasons behind the term bubble. Lied explains that Dickinson’s reason in
living within her bubble is because by being in her bubble Dickinson could protect
and developed her own perception and apprehension of nature from the interference of the outside world. She wanted to only allow the thing which was important to her and then continued it to the production of her poems. Because of that reason, Lied added:
…she has at her disposal the lenses through which she can bring nature to focus and control the caption she wants to apprehend. From that position Dickinson can concentrate her personal feelings, anxieties, and visions (Lied, 2008: 14).
Emily Dickinson withdrawal from the outside world is not merely disappearing; she could accept the thing she wanted to see and being seen by the outside world but without being touched.
John B. Pickard in Emily Dickinson: An Introduction and Interpretation said that “I Like to see it lap the Miles” is a poem about train that consists of breathless accumulation of action verbs lap, lick, stop, feed, and step in the first stanza alone. And then he adds ‘These run-on lines and the internal rhyme rush the poem to its painting finish’ (Pickard, 1967: 76). Melanie, an academic teacher who concerns a lot about Emily Dickinson’s works stated ‘…adopting a childlike wonder and enthusiasm, Dickinson plays with the metaphor of the train as an "iron horse." In her day, the similarities would have had vividness and immediacy that have been lost in ours’ (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/train.html).
“I Like to see it lap the Miles” is known of its vividness through the metaphor and imageries, but rarely been analyzed further. This thesis, tries not only to explore the poem through its the metaphor, vivid images, but also through its reason and function because, different from John B. Pickard’s and Melanie’s study, the writer believes that this poem is not only talking about train but also the process her creativity in producing this poem by also analizing its form on the page.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theories on Cognitive
Theoretical frameworks which are applied in this study are taken from the Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Poetics insight. Both are using the word ‘cognitive’ to analyze language, and supposedly there is a doctrine about what ‘cognitive theory’ really is to analyze language. Apparently, the cognitivists in both areas agree that there is no single uniform or single person’s enterprise doctrine to define ‘cognitive theory’ itself. Instead, cognitive study “embraces a broad array of theoretical frameworks..” (Freeman, 2006: 404), and “...it arises from the combination of various pioneering ideas, that acting as a separable strands of one whole, that have drawn together..” (Dirven and Ibanez, 2010: 13).
Although there is no specific cognitive theory, but from the different frameworks they have applied, they believe and seek the same thing. They believe that we are an embodied being and they seek how language characterizes meaning.
Characteristics of meaning from cognitive theories, according to Dirk Geeraert (2006: 4-5), are:
Perspectival : Meaning is not just an objective reflection of the outside world, it is a way of shaping that world.
Dynamic : Meaning changes. New experiences and changes in our environment require that we adapt our semantic categories to transformations of circumstances. Encyclopedic:
It arises from the cumulative association of experience, conceptualization, context, and culture. It is not separate from other from other forms of knowledge that we have. These characteristics of meaning are important to have in mind, especially in dealing with ‘figurative’ or indirect language because one picture can be described variously or even one picture can be used to refers something else. The meaning then, is basicly based on the scene that is being described by the producer. Perspectival forces to evaluate from which stand point or position the scene is described, dynamic forces to imagine the mental spaces presented and see the creativity, and encyclopedic demands not only knowledge of word meaning but knowledge of word in context from the producer of situation. Following are the theories under cognitive theory that are applied to seek the meaning to prove the cognitive believe of the embodied being and language.
2. Theories on Metaphor
Metaphor generally is known as calling one thing into another, from one domain of thought to another. As commonly known, in the theory of imagery, imagery could vividly picture an object. But when we go further and try to picture some abstract feeling in an experience, then that imagery would not stand for an image alone because in vividly picturing an experience there was always a concept behind our picture in our mind that derives us to the image. “An image alone does not make a poem. The image has to refer to a complex field of thought and feeling beyond itself; it has to suggest or to call up a parallel idea, to become what we call metaphor” (Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 36).
Moreover, Lakoff and Johnson in Metaphor We Live By explain that metaphor is not only used as an instrument to express an experience. According to them metaphor have entailments that organize our experience, uniquely express that experience and create necessary realities. For example in “TIME IS MONEY metaphor, it entails that TIME IS A LIMITED SOURCE, which entails that TIME IS A VALUABLE COMMODITY” (1980: 9).
From the above example it is inevitably seen that the concept behind a metaphor leads us the come to an action based on that concept. Here for Lakoff and Johnson, metaphor primarily matters of thought and action: “… metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action” (1980: 3). The "isolated similarities" are indeed those created by metaphor, which simply create a partial understanding of one kind of experience in terms of another kind of experience. They are grounded in correlations within our experience. As hiding and highlighting, for example in ARGUMENT IS WAR metaphor, the metaphor would highlight the action toward the argument therefore word like attack,
defense , shoot, strategy, etc are used and would hide other aspect of the concept
for example its value (cooperative aspect).Metaphor in poetry is not different phenomenon from metaphor in everyday language but Lakoff and Turner (Lakoff and Turner, 1989) poetic metaphor exploits and enriches the everyday metaphors available to any competent speaker of the language. Therefore, the same as metaphor in ordinary language, poetic metaphorical expressions must also be based on basic metaphorical concept.
The term conceptual metaphor is derived from the nature that metaphor always involves understanding one domain in terms of another domain.
‘Technically, metaphor can be understood as a set of mappings from a source domain to a target domain’ (Lakoff, 1992: 4) or across the conceptual domains in way that the projected source domain is consistent with the inherent target domain structure (1992: 10). According to Lakoff, there are two types of mappings: conceptual mappings and image-mappings (1992: 40). Concept derives the image, so that from that image/s we can understand the concept. Image mapping is mapping of the motor-sensory images evoked by linguistic expression. Thus, metaphorical expressions are used not only just for talking about thing but also for reasoning about it as well.
3. Theories on Image Schema
“Image schemas derive from sensory and perceptul experience as we interact with and move about in the world ...” (Evans and Green, 2006 : 178). The term ‘image’ in ‘image schema’ is equivalent to an imagistic experience relates to and derives from our experience of the the external world (sensory experience) because it comes from sensory-perceptual. The term ‘schema’ in ‘image schema’ is also very important. It means that image schemas are not rich and detailed concepts, but rather abstract concepts consisting of patterns emerging from repeated instances of embodied experience.
Image schema is pre-conceptual. One the recurrent patterns of sensory information have been extracted and stored as an image schema, sensory experience gives rise to conceptual representation. This means that:
Image schema are concepts, but of a special kind: they are the foundations of conceptual system, because they are the first concept to emerge in the human mind, precisely because they relate to sensory-perceptual experience, they are particularly schematic (2006 : 180).
The central idea is that image schemas, which arise recurrently in our perception and bodily movement, have their own logic, which can be applied to abstract conceptual domains. It is not merely mental or merely bodily, but body-mind because there is an underlying continuity that connect our physical interaction in the world with our activities of imagining and thinking. Image-schematic logic then serves as the basis for inferences about abstract entities and operations.
Allan Cienki (2005: 431) gave description to some example of image schemas as follows : CONTAINER : A container has boundary that separates an insides from the outside. It can hold things. We can be contained (e.g. in a room), and our own bodies are containers.
CYCLE : A cycle begins, proceeds through a sequence of connected events, and returns to the original state to start a new. We experience
FORCE : Force ussually implies the exertion of physical strenght in one or more directions. We can experience force in terms of compulsion, attraction, blockage, or enablement.
PATH : A path is a route for moving from a starting point to an end point. We can follow an existing path, or make a path with our own movement.
These image schema emerge within our daily experience along with our perception and
bodily movement:we explore physical objects by contact with them; we experience ourselves and other objects as containers with other objects inside or outside of them; we move around the world; we experience physical forces affecting us; etc. It structures our sensory motor-experience and serves as the basis of many of our metaphorical thinking. For example, in metaphorical expression ‘The customer is boiling with anger’ or ‘He just exploded when i told him that’. This metaphorical expressions employs CONTAINER schema which comes from our encounter with our body when we are eating (we put the meal into our mouth) and our encounter with boiling water in the kettle.
4. Theories on Poetic Iconicity
“Poetic Iconicity is the means by which poetry creates the semblance of felt life” (Freeman, 2007b: 472) or illusion of experience. Our intentional relationship and our consiousness is realized by our bodily experience with the world is called phenomenological world. Semblance of felt life means that poetry is an attempt to capture this experience in its sense and significance through the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling. Feeling, when we aware of the world around us and we interact with them, arises from two sources: the first is sensation, the interaction with the external world through senses, and the second is emotion, which are internally generated (2009b: 174). These two are effecting one another with sensation from the external world triggers emotion and emotion colors sensation. Whereas form is the existance of words on page, this is the medium that pictures feeling or shows our certain intentional relationship with the world. It makes the invisible to be visible in various ways.
This Poetic Iconcity theory is appliying the cognitive process of the embodied mind that not just includes conceptualizing but forming and feeling too.
The relation between form and feeling in poetic iconicity is a total integration. “It would be misleading to think of them as separate attributes, just as it is misleading to think of form and meaning as separate entities” (2009b: 175). Then, it involves mapping between meaning and form. When a poem achieved poetic iconicity means that the writer in compossing poetry conceives the feeling from which form-meaning emerges: feeling of sense-emotion creates form-meaning which embodied or employed in the language of the text. Morover, Freeman also stated
(2009a: 14-15), when poetry when acheives poetic iconicity or becomes icon of the of the reality, it bridges the gap between language and the world, between conceptualization and senses experience. She also stated that poetic iconicity occurs when seemingly meaningless poetic attributes like sound pattern, meter, etc, all work together with imagery and emotion in making a poem which does not mean but be. Then, the effects of poetic iconicity is to create sensation, emotion and images that enable the mind to encounter them as phenomenally real (exist in the here and now moment). It would moves the reader “from the semiotic world of the poem-world to the phenomenological (world as we experience it) of the poet- world” (2009b: 189).
C. Biographical Background
Emily Dickinson is well known as a private poet. Her companions, as she mentioned to Higginson: You asked of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown and dog as large as my self, that my father bought me. They are better than beings because they know, but do not tell; and the noise in the pool at noon excels my piano <http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/essays/authors/higginson/twh_dickin son2.html >. And, she eventually rarely met other people and rarely went outside the house. But, over one thousand poem she had produced proves that her mind is so active in contrast to her physical presence in the society. Dickinson proclaimed the freedom of her active mind, no matter how tight she was being ‘shut’, in one of her poem: “They shut me up in Prose/As when a little Girl/They put me in the closet/Because they like me ‘still’-/ Still! Could themselves have peeped/And seen my Brain –go around–” (Franklin, 1999: 206).
‘Prose’, throughout Dickinson’s works is associated with “..sermons, religious practices, patriarchy, and constrain” (Martin, 2002: 5). These are things that she did not like because she placed herself in a resistance toward dominant discourse. But ‘poetry’ which in one of her letter to Higginson she refered it as her mind: “ Two editors of journals came to my father’s house this winter, and asked me for my mind” <http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/essays/authors/higginson/twh_dickinson2.ht ml>, throughout her works “.. is allied with liberating darkness and inner freedom” (2002: 5).
The interrelation between poetry, mind and her inner freedom can be seen in:
The Heart is the Capital of the Mind – The Mind is a single State – The Heart and the Mind together make A single Continent – One – is the Population – Numerous enough- This ecstatic Nation Seek – it is Yourself (Franklin, 1998: 1202)
Means that her writing and her mind accomadate her to reach her ownself and finally liberate her inner freedom. This circle was her main concern, things she dedicated her life to, which gave her joy and even power of living: