The Conceptual Blending Analysis of Metaphorical Copulative Compounds

The purpose of this paper is to consider how meanings of metaphorical compounds, especially metaphorical copulative compounds are constructed through the mechanism of conceptual blending. It is usually said that the constituent components of a compound are usually combined to have its literal meaning. However, there are compounds that do not necessarily succumb to the compositionality principle. To a large degree, these compounds are called figurative compounds, which are divided into metaphorical and metonymic compounds. In this paper, I have managed to identify four types of metaphorical compounds by examining in the ways conceptual metaphor acts upon noun-noun compounds in English: (1) metaphorical compounds where the modifier is metaphorical; (2) metaphorical compounds where the head is metaphorical; (3) metaphorical compounds where both the modifier and the head are metaphorical; (4) metaphorical compounds where the relation between the two constituents is metaphorical. Of these four types of metaphorical compounds, I specifically analyze the meaning construction of the forth type of metaphorical compounds, which is called metaphorical copulative compound in my own terms, based on the mechanism of conceptual blending.