Zoltán Kövecses (born 23 September 1946 in

Újpest Újpest (; german: Neu-Pest, en, New Pest) is the 4th District in Budapest, Hungary. It is located on the left bank of the Danube River. The name Újpest means "New Pest" because the city was formed on the border of the city of Pest, Hungary i ...

) is a Hungarian linguist and former water polo player. He is a professor emeritus at the School of English and American Studies of the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University.

Academic career

He earned a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree from the Eötvös Loránd University in 1972. His first manuscript was published in Népsort entitled ''Kommunikáció a vízilabdában'' (in English: ''Communication in water polo'') which focused on the communication in water polo. From 1976, he was a lecturer at the

ELTE School of English and American Studies The School of English and American Studies (SEAS) of the ELTE Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Humanities of the Eötvös Loránd University was founded in 1886 as Department of English Language and Literature and it is located in Rákóczi út ...

. In the late 1970s, he also taught the water polo players of Ferencváros. Between 1982 and 1983, he taught at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. In 1988, he earned a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a Habilitation degree in 1996. In 1998, he became a

Full Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at ELTE. He also taught at the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...

and many others. To celebrate his 75th birthday, a volume was edited by his colleagues. In 2014, his edited (co-edited by Frank Polzenhagen, Stefanie Vogelbacher, and Sonja Kleinke) volume entitled Cognitive Explorations into Metaphor and Metonymy was published by Peter Lang. On 30 June 2018, he gave a plenary speech at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. On 6 July 2009, he gave a lecture on Human universals. The Need for Metaphor at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. On 28 August 2022, he was invited by the Magyar Katolikus Rádió (Hungarian Catholic Radio) to talk about

cognitive linguistics Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are con ...

Sports career

He started his sports career in

. However, in 1964 he was signed by Újpest's arch-rival

Ferencváros Ferencváros () is the 9th district of Budapest ( hu, Budapest IX. kerülete), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The development of Fe ...

. In 1965, he was a member of the national team. Between 1964 and 1978, he was a permanent team member of Ferencváros playing in the

Országos Bajnokság I (men's water polo) Országos Bajnokság I ( en, Nationwide Championship I, commonly abbreviated OB I) is the highest level water polo league for men in Hungary, that is administered and supervised by the Hungarian Water Polo Federation. Since 2009, after signed a f ...

. In 1978, he won the

LEN Cup Winners' Cup The LEN Cup Winners' Cup was a European water polo club competition organized by the Ligue Européenne de Natation. National cup winners qualified for the tournament. After 2003, the nationalcup winners qualified for the LEN Euroleague, and the cu ...

with Ferencváros. He won a bronze medal at the

1970 Summer Universiade The 1970 Summer Universiade, also known as the VI Summer Universiade, took place in Turin, Italy. After the city of Lisbon, Portugal failed to host the 1969 Summer Universiade, the games were assigned to Turin to be held next year. Sports at ...

with the national team.

Major works

The following manuscripts are the most cited according to Google Scholar. * Kövecses, Z. (2010). ''Metaphor: A practical introduction''. Oxford University Press. * Kövecses, Z. (2005). ''Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation''. Cambridge University Press. * Kövecses, Z. (2000). ''Metaphor and emotion: Language, culture, and body in human feeling''. Cambridge University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovecses, Zoltan People from Újpest 1946 births Living people Hungarian male water polo players Water polo players from Budapest Eötvös Loránd University alumni