7 - Language play

Summary

Although metaphors are often used with very serious intent, as in Obama’s phrases, “carries the blood of slaves and slave-owners” and “incendiary language,” they are also used in a playful way, as when the scientists in the discussion of communicating science to the public extended and developed the metaphor “ivory tower” (Ritchie and Schell, 2009). The scientists’ play with “ivory tower,” including the teasing that began the passage, also illustrates how metaphors can be developed into stories, and how the playful use of metaphors can contribute to humor. A similar blend of metaphors, storytelling, and humor appears in the “throwing crockery” passage from Tony Blair’s Gateshead speech, and several other examples will appear in the next few chapters. Research on the use and understanding of metaphorical language in actual discourse must often consider language play, humor, and storytelling as well. In this chapter I will review theories and research related to language play and humor, and show how they can contribute to understanding metaphors that appear in actual discourse.

PLAY

From the infant’s earliest babbling, play is part of communication (Kerr and Apter, 1991). As soon as they master them, children distort linguistic forms, semantic meanings, and pragmatic uses – and adults continue this language play, usually but not always in more sophisticated forms. Metaphor invention and use often seems to be a form of language play, for example in the “ivory tower” conversation and Blair’s “throwing crockery” story. In the example from Blair, the playfulness also serves a serious purpose, but sometimes playfulness is indulged purely for its own sake. Even when the tone is serious, speakers and writers often “play” with language and with idiomatic metaphors, as is illustrated by Willard’s transformation of ‘we’re all in the same boat’ into a brief hypothetical story about a person “knocking a hole in the boat” to “get me some water” in a conversation about police–community relations among a group of four middle-class Black men (Ritchie, 2010a).