Re-Viewing Space W DE G Applications of Cognitive Linguistics 2 Editors Gitte Kristiansen Michel Achard Rene Dirven Francisco J. Ruiz de Mendoza Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York Re-Viewing Space Figurative Language in Architects' Assessment of Built Space by Rosario Caballero Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin ® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Caballero, Rosario, 1963- Re-viewing space : figurative language in architects' assessment of built space / by Rosario Caballero. p. cm. — (Applications of cognitive linguistics ; 2) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-3-11-018520-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 3-11-018520-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Architecture - Language. 2. Description (Rhetoric) 3. Meta- phor. I. Title. NA2543.L34C33 2005 720'.l'4-dc22 2005024609 Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at <http://dnb.ddb.de>. ISBN-13: 978-3-11-018520-1 ISBN-10: 3-11-018520-2 © Copyright 2006 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Germany For Jose Vicente and Fiona Acknowledgements This book is based on research done for my PhD dissertation Cognition and shared cultural models. The role of metaphor in the discourse of architects. In the four years that have passed, the views of architectural metaphors sustained there have changed considerably. As a result, this book offers a better and, I hope, more accurate description of how and why architects - or, as I refer to them, architecti verborum - use metaphor for commenting on their practice in building reviews. Various people and institutions have contributed to making this book pos- sible. In the first place, I am indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science for the financial support provided through a research grant from 1999 to 2002. Thanks also to the Universität Jaume I (Castellon, Spain) for giving me the motivation I needed to write this book. I have had the pleasure to work with many architects, and I want to thank both those answering the questionnaire on reading habits that initiated the PhD research, and those discussing some of the metaphors found in the corpus with me for sharing their time and comments (unfortunately, too many to list here). I am also grateful to the architects who have kindly provided the plans reproduced in this book: Zvi Hecker and Peter Hübner. I am deeply obliged to my friend and colleague Fiona MacArthur, whose unabated enthusiasm, support and encouragement as well as insightful com- ments have contributed a great deal to this book. My thanks also to Donald C. Freeman, Graham Low, Francisco J. Ruiz de Mendoza, and Mary Ellen Ryder for spending their time reading some of the chapters of this book, and for their critical eye on some of the points here discussed. Thanks are also due to Mou- ton de Gruyter and the anonymous reviewers whose help and advice have been exemplary. Last, but not least, I want to thank Viviana Cortes for helping me edit and format the manuscript for this book. Finally, if somebody has undergone - indeed, endured - every aspect of the research here reported (the endless discussions on how architects use metaphor, my insecurities, doubts, and little triumphs) this is my husband Jose Vicente who, in many ways, is in every page of this book. For one thing, his bellied wall sparked my interest in architectural metaphors, so the contribution that my work may provide to the study of figurative language in architectural communication is, in fact, largely due to him. Table of contents Acknowledgements vii Table of contents ix Chapter 1 What this book says about metaphor, architects, and the assessment of building design 1 1. Introduction 1 2. A genre approach to metaphor 4 Chapter 2 Architectus Verborum. An introduction to architectural discourse 10 1. Rendering space: The multimodal quality of architectural texts 12 2. Thinking and talking about space: Metaphors architects live by 16 2.1. Metaphors from the natural sciences 18 2.2. Metaphors from linguistic description 19 2.3. Metaphors from spatial mechanics 20 3. This building is a fridge: The thinking eye of architects 22 Chapter 3 The cognitive and rhetorical dimensions of metaphor 27 1. What is metaphor? Defining metaphor 28 1.1. Interaction views 30 1.2. Comparison views 31 1.3. Experientialist views 32 1.3.1 Blending theory 37 2. What are metaphors for? The rhetorical dimension of metaphor 43 2.1. Ideational focus 44 2.2. Interpersonal focus 45 2.3. Textual focus 47 Chapter 4 Exploring metaphor in the building review genre 51 1. The building review 51 1.1. The rhetorical organization of building reviews 53 1.2. The building review versus other reviewing practices 59 1.2.1. Viewing or re-viewing? 60 1.2.2. Professional status 62 2. Building a text corpus for analysis 64