Conceptual Metaphors and Proverbs as Interactive Communicative Strategies in a XVII-century Ballad

The article analyzes the presence of Conceptual Metaphors (CMs) in a XVII-century ballad in their interaction with popular proverbs as supplementary symbolizing patterns. The article will try to show the complexity of the mental processing involved in a special case of love disputation, in which CMs are made to interact with proverbs in order to produce implicatures. The use of CMs in the text and their interplay with proverbs and popular wisdom produce some unpredictable perlocutionary effects, which are not only significant indicators of the speakers’ ideology and point of view, but also trigger communicative effects and a “proliferation of meanings” which confirm, or disrupt, certain socially ‘inherited’ conceptual structures both reflecting and shaping the thought patterns of a community.

1 The text, licensed by Richard Pocock and printed for Philip Brooksby at the Golden Ball in Pye-Corner probably in 1680, can be found in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge (III, 130). A shortened version is included in the Additional notes to Ebsworth ([11]: 869). 2 For an overview of CMT see Goatly [21], Grady, Oakley, & Coulson [22], Knowles & Moon [28], Gibbs [20], Kövecses [29], Lakoff [31]. See also Fauconnier & Turner [14]; Charteris-Black [3], Deignan [6], Gentner & Bowdle [18]. Douthwaite [10] convincingly argued in favor of Sperber & Wilson's idea that metaphors are analyzed as any indirect linguistic expression and that Linguistic Metaphors (LMs) must be understood by deploying an inferential process which cannot be limited to the mere identification of CMs. On the other hand, Kintsch ([27]: 129) maintained that "the simplest metaphors are processed in the same way as literal statements, while more complex metaphors require analogical reasoning". This means that metaphorical expressions are inherently intertwined with other linguistic mechanisms which provide additional non-literal meanings and conversational implicatures. It is therefore necessary to have a "mixed approach" which takes into account the mental processing of stylistic and pragmatic elements such as the ones highlighted by the cooperative principle (Grice [23]) or Relevance Theory (see Sperber & Wilson [40], Goatly [21]; Vega Moreno [44], Tendahl & Gibbs [41]), but also the other analytical frameworks employed in text analysis, if this allows a more in-depth and fulfilling appreciation of the text under scrutiny.
CMs perform various functions related to communication: as Gibbs ([19]: 124-5) demonstrated, apart from helping comprehension, they may "provide a way of expressing ideas that would be extremely difficult to convey using literal language" (the inexpressibility hypothesis; see also Gwyn [24]); they produce compact and vivid textual clots presenting rich and suggestive messages in a concise formulation; they perform "affective work" 3 ; they are particularly suitable to persuasion 4 . Thus, the interpretation of a text cannot be limited to singling out the individual CMs and LMs, but must necessarily rely on pragmatic inferencing and stylistic analysis to account for the mechanisms that are activated by the addressee in order to understand the message in all its aspects.

1.2
Various levels of CMs have been identified (see Kövecses [30]: 95), from primary metaphors (representing a high level of generalization) to complex metaphors (representing the lowest level of generalization), which means that a metaphoric linguistic expression may actually be made up of a complex metaphor 5 . More than this, metaphors may be "blended": according to Turner ([43]: 10) "conceptual blending is the mental operation of combining two mental packets of meaning … to create a third mental packet of meaning that has new, emergent meaning", and Fludernik too ([16: 926) stressed that "Blending consists in fusing two scenarios together and thus I S S N X X X X -X X X X V o l u m e … N u m b e r … N a m e o f t h e J o u r n a l 4 | P a g e c o u n c i l f o r I n n o v a t i v e R e s e a r c h J a n u a r y 2 0 1 6 w w w . c i r w o r l d . c o m creating new meaning effects" and blending theory "aims at combining metaphor and narrative under one cognitive umbrella". Blending theory 6 in its original formulation maintained that, in processing language, the mind creates four mental spaces: the combination of the pertinent features of the target, the source and world knowledge produce a "blended" space that creates the interpretation of the specific linguistic expression being processed (see Grady, Oakley, & Coulson [22]; Fauconnier & Turner [14]). Blending, in other words, refers to a conceptual superimposition, a functional interaction between two "mental spaces" which produce new meanings by provoking a sort of mental change of perspective. It thus entails the capacity to use linguistic symbols in new combinations in order to produce new meanings (for this reason many speak of Conceptual Integration Theory).
In addition to this, LMs may provide more than two input spaces because they may be a composite of several CMs, or "multiple blends" as Fauconnier & Turner ([14]: 279) define them: "there are two main ways in which networks can be multiple blends: either several inputs are projected in parallel, or they are projected successively into intermediate blends, which themselves serve as further inputs to further blends". More specifically, Fludernik [15]: 10) has pointed out that a metaphor may be a "semantically enriched construct" creating "new meanings not contained in either the source or target domains". This "proliferations of meaning" (Fludernik [15]: 11) has a direct effect on the structure of the analogies that can be made between source and target domains, creating numerous possible connections between the two domains, so that the same message can be legitimately read in very different ways (see the convincing example provided by Fludernik [15]: [10][11]. Source and target domains, in other words, can also be seen as input spaces which allow the blend to produce new meanings.

1.3
Lakoff & Johnson [32]) already pointed out that CMs are necessarily partial: on the one side, CMs highlight one or more specific aspects of a phenomenon; on the other side, a given abstract concept may be conveyed by more than one CM (in terms of blending theory this means that there are more than two input spaces). Not all of the source domain features are mapped onto the target domain, but only those which are deemed pertinent to underscore certain aspects of the target CM, hiding others. As a consequence, CMs are not only dependent on contextual variables (such as type of speech event or its goal 7 ), but inherently ideological, since they reveal the speaker's point of view 8 (see Douthwaite [8], [9] and [10]; Charteris-Black [3]). As I will try to demonstrate, the interplay of CMs in the text conveys a specific world view and is aimed at achieving a specific goal. The different worldviews of the two protagonists are conveyed by their different use of metaphor, revealing not only a deliberate 6 For a survey of critical discussion on CMT and blending theory in particular, see Eubanks [12]; Coulson & Oakley [4]; McGlone [35]; Charteris-Black [3]; Deignan [6]; Crisp [5]; Tendahl & Gibbs [41] and the special issue of Language and Literature [34]). 7 As Lakoff & Johnson [32] argued, the CM ARGUMENT IS WAR is typical in informal argumentation, while the CMs AN ARGUMENT IS A JOURNEY or AN ARGUMENT IS A BUILDING are more commonly found in more formal argumentative settings. See also Cameron [2] for a discussion of how metaphor density is affected by genre and topic. 8 As Eubanks [12] convincingly argued, the selection of a certain CM does not necessarily mirror an individual's, but can be the expression of a culture, a given social class, even a gender.

1.4
If abstract subjects are generally talked about using metaphor, as linguistic evidence demonstrate, love has certainly been one of the most productive from this point of view. In this sense, The Youngmans careless Wooing belongs to a well-established genre, being basically a love skirmish between a young man and a girl. However, it stands out in that it features a conspicuous use of proverbs, pseudo-proverbs, "polluted" proverbs or refrains from a ballad or a dance song, maxims, sayings and jokes, with non sequiturs as part of the mockery. It thus displays a gamut of rhetorical strategies, including "illicit" emotive arguments and ad hominem attacks, not to mention humor and word play.
In fact, this use of proverbs is not unique, and can obvious be deployed for ironical purposes: Howell [25], for example, includes in his collection of proverbs, a letter composed of French, Italian, and Spanish proverbs.
Nevertheless, this ballad presents a highly original use of proverbs which is particularly interesting from the vantage point of cognitive linguistics. The proverbial lore should reflect popular wisdom and general, commonly accepted opinions, and as such are consensus-assuming forms, the expression of the established truths of a given society (see Toolan [42]: 64-65).
But proverbs are also pervasive in thought and communication, and they have cognitive bearings, in that they help explain, reinforce or enrich the meaning and implicatures of abstract concepts, acting as a sort of bridge from two domains. This has particularly interesting consequences in those cases in which proverbs interact with metaphors: not only proverbs are often used as LMs, helping create a "blended" space where the features to be interpreted in the specific linguistic expression are produced; as Kövecses ([30]: 45) demonstrated, a metaphor "can give us a generic-level interpretation of a specific-level proverb and then allows us to apply the generic interpretation to a specific case that has the appropriate underlying generic structure".
In The Youngmans careless Wooing, the ballad form is not only a speech event consisting of a schematic exchange of views and arguments between the two speakers, since its heavy reliance on proverbs is much more On the basis of these introductory remarks, the article will try to demonstrate the complexity of the mental processing involved in communication, the role of metaphor in the process and its interplay with proverbs and popular wisdom, which in turn can produce some unpredictable perlocutionary effects.

DISCUSSION
As the title states, the ballad should be sung to the tune of another famous ballad, The Lovers' Battle usually known as Mars and Venus 9 , centered on the usual verbal combat between the two gods and ending with the shameful "defeat" of Mars. As a co-text, this apparently neutral piece of information already triggers expectations and guides the reading process. This function is further reinforced by the external narratorial comment that opens the text itself 10 and frames the disputation between the young man and the maid: (V) proposes an extremely elaborate interplay of complex CMs which, despite their variety, all contribute to dismissing sex and love: the first sentence has a perfectly acceptable literal meaning, presenting love in its tender, thrilling aspect. The verb shake, however, has an obvious sexual overtone ("To coït" and, as a reflexive, "to masturbate"; see Partridge [38]: 4688), which introduces the CM HUMANS ARE OBJECTS (confirmed by the material process fit) and what is perhaps the most shocking CM in the text: the proverb alluded to is "A turd's as good for a Sow as a Pancake", usually utilized to say that good things are not for fools, but here it is presented in a different guise, in order to evoke once again the vulgar term in what could be considered a case of foregrounding through ellipsis. Moreover, the term pancake is used to allude to "the female pudendum" (Farmer-I S S N X X X X -X X X X  (meaning "certainly, indeed"), it was also mistakenly written as I wis, and often confused with the verb to wit. The young man's version is thus deeply ambiguous: it could mean "That's what I wish to you, goodbye", "That's certainly a goodbye", but also "That's I know is a good buy", a hermeneutic hypothesis which provides an interesting clue whose relevance will appear at the end of the text.
The first part of the ballad, then, seems curiously at odds with the title, in that it is difficult to consider the young man's words as an example of wooing: love is conceptualized through various source domains as a radically negative phenomenon, women as standardized, devilish objects, and female sexuality as filth and excrement. The maid's wit will be apparent not so much in her rebuttal of these apparently cynical and bitter conceptualization, but in her hermeneutic capacity of exposing the real motivations behind this "wooing".
The Witty MAIDS Answer.
(VII) I S S N X X X X -X X X X Another external narratorial comment introduces the maid's answer. The editor of the Roxburghe Ballads (see Ebsworth [11]: 869) describes this part as follows: "After three more stanzas he gets 'The "Witty Maid's Answer.' At first she was "drown'd in tears of vexation," tearing her hair and falling to the ground, but she soon makes reply in his own fashion." In fact, her reply will not be made in his own fashion at all; more importantly, the external point of view provides a fundamental perspective on the maid, by explicitly stating that her dramatic reaction (drown'd in Tears of vexation, tearing her hair to the ground she did fall) is the one of a silly girl pester'd with passion. The real, witty answer is the one that comes from an undaunted woman who rises up. By juxtaposing so openly the classic CMs DOWN IS BAD vs. UP IS GOOD, the external voice makes clear that the young woman will not comply with the young man's rhetoric and attitude, even less his cynical and vulgar approach conveyed through disturbing CMs. It is as if the text wanted to assert that if the maid had been a silly girl, she would have swallowed the bait and behaved in that irrational way induced by passion pestering; on the contrary, she is not impressed by the young man's "wooing" and progressively deconstructs it exposing its true rationale. organs, but they also signify the property which is given to a woman on her marriage (see Partridge [38]: 4407).
The same is true for the proverb Near is my petticoat but nearer is my smock, which undoubtedly means "Some friends are nearer to me than others" as Kelly ([26]: 112) argues, but also keeps its literal meaning denoting the two basic women's clothes.
The allusion to Jack Drum's Entertainment was a proverbial expression for a rough reception, but once again its intertextual dimension triggers a "proliferation of meaning" which is worth considering: the phrase comes from John Marston's homonymous drama (1601) which presents a love triangle in which a rejected suitor smears poison on a girl's face, who is about to commit suicide until she is rescued by her true love, her face is miraculously restored and the two lovers finally get married. The allusion not only allows the maid to dismiss the young man, but also underscores the physical consequences that her yielding might have: she would lose her honor, but more importantly, her livelihood. This is confirmed by the last line, whose proverb 'Tis need that makes the old Wife trot, confirms the simultaneous presence of the symbolic and literal planes, implying that a concrete source domain is not only projected onto an abstract target domain to explain and make it more comprehensible, but also maintains its concrete, real meaning. In other words, the maid identifies her virtue with her property: her virginity is strictly tied to economic aspects, and her vision of love could be summarized by the CM LOVE IS BUSINESS. (XII) And thus to conclude upon our conferring, The definitive rebuttal of the young man's "wooing" in (XII) is then carefully built and comes as the inevitable consequence of the denunciation of the falsity of men. The young man had said very early in his argumentation I S S N X X X X -X X X X V o l u m e … N u m b e r … N a m e o f t h e J o u r n a l 13 | P a g e c o u n c i l f o r I n n o v a t i v e R e s e a r c h J a n u a r y 2 0 1 6 w w w . c i r w o r l d . c o m that Most Maids are false (III), presenting this claim as a general truth but without any evidence. On the contrary, the maid's similar accusation comes on top of a long analysis of the young man's real motivation, and the fact that his love hides something else: the obsessive presence of excrements and anal intercourse is a telling indication of the young man's perspective on love as a vulgar, essentially physical act, but more importantly, it is a sort of smokescreen hiding the real motivation and the real nature of his "desire", that is the economic element exposed by the maid's answer.
The concluding CMs are the logical outcome of this: reversing the young man's accusation, the maid recurs to the proverb neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring not to imply that men are hesitant but to suggest that MEN ARE ANIMALS, and if the young man had put forward the commonplace denunciation of the women's devilish nature, the maid rightly points out that in fact MEN ARE DEVILS: by exposing the real motivation of the young man, she really speaks truth and gives the Devil his dew by repelling him for good.

CONCLUSION
In this article I tried to demonstrate how the analysis of the relationship between CMs and proverbs produces interesting communicative effects which, in their turn, become carriers of certain socially 'inherited' conceptual structures (the traditional sexual roles) but can also hide deeper motivations and more covert implicatures. Two basic types of "argumentative genre" which characterize the text are enriched by the presence of many proverbs which should render the argumentation more cogent and convincing but that in fact produce unexpected perlocutionary effects.
Far from performing the role of conventional or dead metaphorical expressions, whose processing is relatively automatic and unconscious as matter-of-fact truths, proverbs and saying can thus also be deployed as LMs, requiring a far more refined and time consuming processing effort for their comprehension because they convey other implicatures. It is also of particular interest to study the tensions and contradictions that emerge once we start mapping metaphors, not only because the choice of a source domain highlights only certain aspects of a concept, thus presenting the target domain from a very precise ideological point of view, but also because the "philosophy" conveyed by the proverb, its use as a specific linguistic metaphor and its blending are sometimes at odds with CM they should produce.
Interestingly enough, the young man's wooing contains in most cases creative, unexpected though shocking CMs, whose purpose is, however, to obtain his sexual and economic desire; the maid's CMs are less creative, but more effective in deconstructing the young man's conventional wisdom and in exposing the young man's specious arguments.
I S S N X X X X -X X X X V o l u m e … N u m b e r … N a m e o f t h e J o u r n a l 14 | P a g e c o u n c i l f o r I n n o v a t i v e R e s e a r c h J a n u a r y 2 0 1 6 w w w . c i r w o r l d . c o m