Humor and metaphors in medical language

Abstract

The study makes an attempt to analyze cognitive models of metaphor and humor developed by Fauconnier and Turner (1994) and Attardo and Raskin (1991). Although metaphor and humor are different categories, their cognitive models demonstrate similarities which may create a joint category, metaphorical humor. The study focuses on the co-existence of metaphorical and humorous characteristics in a single expression taken from medical slang. Similarities between the metaphor and humor can be found in the analogies and implications between the contrasting conceptual domains. The difference between the metaphor and humor lies only in the weights of between- and within-domain relationships (Hillson & Martin 1994). The aim of the paper is to show that the existence of humor and metaphor in a single phrase may reveal common cognitive processes in the creation of metaphorical humor.