Definition:
The substitution of one grammatical class or structure for another.
See also:
Etymology:
Identified and analyzed by linguist Michael Halliday in An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 1994Examples and Observations:
- "There is a strong grammatical element in rhetorical transference: and once we can recognize this we find that there is also such a thing as grammatical metaphor, where the variation is essentially in the grammatical forms though often entailing some lexical variation as well."
(Michael Halliday, An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Edward Arnold, 1994) - "Examples given by Halliday are Mary came upon a wonderful sight and a wonderful sight met Mary's eyes as metaphorical variants of Mary saw something wonderful."
(Miriam Taverniers, "Grammatical Metaphor in SFL," Grammatical Metaphor: Views From Systemic Functional Linguistics, ed. by A. M. Simon-Vandenbergen et al. John Benjamins, 2003) - "[M]etaphorical vocabulary and metaphor themes structure our experience of concepts such as emotion, education, disease, time or success. Similarly, but in an even more fundamental way, the grammatical clauses of the language we speak structure how we understand, experience and act on our material, social and mental worlds. And just as there are levels of conventionality in our use of vocabulary, . . . so there are usual or conventional clause patterns for conceptualising and constructing events, and rather less typical clause patterns, known variously as 'marked clause structure' or 'grammatical metaphor.' For example, the usual way to refer to a Thing is by a noun, and to a Process by a verb. A marked or metaphorical grammar would use a noun to refer to a process, as in--'John's eating of the banana' rather than 'John ate the banana.'"
(Andrew Goatly, Washing the Brain: Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. John Benjamins, 2007)
Also Known As: GM, marked clause structure
