Framing the Sacred: Semantic Frames in Religious Metaphor Interpretation
CERES-Palais, Raum "Ruhrpott" (4.13)
Lecture by Marjan Afshari Rad.
Metaphor analysis often prioritizes identifying the source domain in a given text. However, with religious texts, in many cases, the source domain is already apparent; the key challenge lies in understanding how words associated with it function within the text. Simply recognizing metaphorical expressions with a known source domain is insufficient. A more rigorous approach requires analyzing how words related to a semantic domain behave within the text and how they interact with other sentence components.
Frame semantics offers a systematic method for addressing this challenge. This presentation will introduce frame semantics as a methodological tool and discuss FrameNet, an analytical platform that aims to 'build a lexical database of English that is both human- and machine-readable, based on annotating examples of how words are used in actual texts.'
FrameNet’s semantic frames help identify how words contribute to meaning construction by situating them within a structured network of relationships. This allows a more nuanced understanding of how metaphorical expressions operate within a given textual framework.
By applying these methods, we can develop a more refined understanding of metaphorical language in religious discourse. This talk will outline the theoretical and practical implications of this approach and its advantages over conventional metaphor analysis.
