Nacey S. Metaphors in Learner English

John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 2013, 290 pages, ISBN: 9027202060, 9789027202062Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and CommunicationThe monograph by Susan Nacey, inspired by a Norwegian student’s excuse for inadequate exam answers, “I’m sorry, but I had a brain curtain”, addresses three kinds of research questions: 1) an empirical and quantitative description of metaphor use in L2 as compared with L1 writers, 2) questions of a more qualitative nature, such as to what extent and how do L2 writers use metaphors creatively?, and 3) questions of methodology, for instance how can metaphors be detected in authentic data and how can metaphorical creativity be identified? To answer
these and related questions, the author applies a modified version of the Metaphor Identification Procedure, which she refers to as MIP(VU) (instead of ‘MIPVU’), to approximately 40,000 words of argumentative texts taken in equal proportions from NICLE, the Norwegian Component of the International Corpus of Learner English, and LOCNESS, the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays.Foundations
Metaphor in Europe
Introduction to MIP(VU)
MIP(VU) in practice
Evaluation of MIP(VU)
Quantitative portrait of metaphors in learner language
Metaphorical creativity
Prepositions.