Sticking one’s nose in the data: Evaluation in phraseological sequences with nose

1 Introduction 1.1. Background With the realization that introspection and the use of dictionaries constitute a precarious foundation for studies of metaphor and metonymy, corpora have in recent years been used increasingly in the endeavour to explore the authentic use of figurative language (see, e.g. Deignan 2005; Stefanowitsch and Gries 2006). Similarly, investigations of phraseology (e.g. Moon 1998) have come to rely heavily on modern large-scale corpora, while analyses of evaluative lexis in the tradition of John Sinclair (e.g. Sinclair passim; Hunston and Thompson 1999; Stubbs 2001) have a theoretical commitment to the corpus as an indispensable tool. The present paper brings together these theoretical strands. It is commonplace in cognitive linguistics that human cognition is embodied Therefore it is no surprise that many phraseological sequences are built up around words related to the body, and in this corpus-based case study we have chosen to focus on the evaluative functions of metonymic and metaphorical sequences containing the noun nose. In comparison with other body parts, such as the hand and the mouth, the nose is fairly restricted in its use. Whereas in some cultures, like Maori and Inuit, the nose has an additional social importance as it is used for greeting, in western societies the nose seems to have predominantly negative or humorous connotations (cf. Gogol's The Nose). One can only speculate about the reasons for this: perhaps it is the predominance of bad smells, or the association with snoring and the excretion of mucus. Some sequences containing nose also imply that the agent is behaving like an animal. As an example of the latter type of connotations , consider (1) to (3) with the metonymic sequence stick one's nose somewhere. This sequence is most frequently negative, as in (1), sometimes slightly ironic, as in (2), and occasionally positive, as in (3) (see further section 4.1.1).