Anaphoric Reference to Entities and Places in Literal and Metaphorical Contexts

Abstract

This article reports on corpus research into the occurrence of [from + anaphor]. Developing distinctions derived from the typology of entities and qualities in Functional Grammar as well as the notion of metaphoricality found in the work of Lakoff, we find that in the syntactic context chosen for analysis the anaphor there is applied when the language-user conceives of the antecedent as a metaphorical place, whereas the occurrence of anaphoric it indicates a non-metaphorical conceptualization. The suggestion is advanced that choice of anaphor could be used as a test for metaphoricality where the source domain is location or movement in space.