Tanító metaforák a mondattan oktatásában

Abstract

The paper gives an overview of instructive metaphors that may be adopted for the purpose of teaching syntax in the L1 classroom. In line with cognitive linguistics, it is assumed that the understanding of abstract target domains such as sentence structure has a metaphorical basis, crucially relying on the activation of more concrete source domains. The paper first discusses metaphors supporting a dependency grammatical conception of sentences. These include Tesnière’s view of the sentence as a theatrical performance and Brassai’s construal of sentences as feudal societies or solar systems. Finally, the paper also touches on the building block metaphor as a metaphorical basis for phrase structure grammars. It is suggested that for offering students a coherent picture of sentences, it is necessary to be mindful of the different metaphorical source domains and therefore (at least partially) incompatible assumptions associated with dependency- and constituency-based approaches.