3. Objects Animalized
Inanimate objects often take animals as their prototypes and source domains. They are animalized in the following examples:
(7) The long road climbed the hills.
(8) The river snaked its way through the jungle.
(9) The yellow fog rubs its back on the window panes.
(10) I looked up; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the spyglass.
In these sentences, inanimate objects are modeled on animals. The long road in (7) is considered as an animal and hence can climb the hills. The river in (8) is metaphorized as a snake and the yellow fog in (9) is thought of as a cat, which often rubs its back upon other things. In (10) a pale glimmer of moonbeams is modeled on a bird, so it can alight on the summit of the spyglass.
4. Abstracts Animalized
As discussed above, abstract notions are concretized when one refers to them or talks about them. They are supposed to be existing. Animalization is one type of concretization and naturally applies to abstracts. For instance:
(11) Prices are climbing day by day.
(12) Pleasant hours fly fast.
(13) Cold chills of fear crept over me.
Abstract notions in the above sentences are animalized. Prices in (11) and cold chills of fear in (12) are considered as animals that can climb and creep. Pleasant hours in (13) are experienced as birds, so that they can fly fast.
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