{"title":"Mental Simulation in the Processing of Literal and Metaphorical Motion Language: An Eye Movement Study","authors":"Emilia Castaño, G. Carrol","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1794318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1794318","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT An eye-tracking while listening study based on the blank screen paradigm was conducted to investigate the processing of literal and metaphorical verbs of motion. The study was based on two assumptions from the literature: that language comprehension by default engages mental simulation, and that looking behavior (measured through patterns of eye movements) can provide a window into ongoing cognitive processes. This study specifically compared the comprehension of sentences that depicted actual physical motion (the curtain is rising) and sentences that described changes in quantity or emotional states in terms of vertical motion (prices are rising). Results showed that eye movements were selectively biased upward or downward in accordance with the direction implied by the verb, regardless of the context (literal or metaphorical) in which they appeared, and in the absence of any visual stimuli or explicit task. Thus, these findings suggest that literal and metaphorical language drive spontaneous, direction-specific mental simulations captured by eye movements and that at least in the case of verbs presented in the present progressive, which emphasizes the ongoing nature of actions, visual biases along the vertical axis may start during the verb itself.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1794318","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41664753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“She Starts Breakdancing, I Swear!”: Metaphor, Framing, and Digital Pregnancy Discussions","authors":"Janet Ho","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1767335","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1767335","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In health communication metaphor studies, mental and terminal diseases are often the center of attention. Yet, one of the most important life stages especially for many women, pregnancy, has received little attention to date. This paper seeks to close the gap by investigating the use of metaphors in 411,362 words of internet pregnancy discussions. In particular, it compares how forum contributors used metaphors to frame different gestational issues across the three trimesters of pregnancy. Using a corpus-assisted approach, we found that various types of metaphors, namely objectification, personification, violence, and constraint metaphors, performed different discursive roles in portraying such issues as fetal development, pregnancy discomforts, and birth-giving stages. While we demonstrated that metaphor is a staple tool for enhancing maternal–fetal attachment that empowers oneself and one’s fellow pregnant mothers, we also proposed the new term “attachment personification” for the use of unconventional metaphor not merely to personify but, furthermore, to foreground the personification of fetal movement in the womb. We also found that the interaction of metaphors with humor and hyperbole conveyed the uniquely expectant attitude of pregnant women toward their pregnancy discomforts, which is worth further attention in health communication studies.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1767335","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43345316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To “Face the Powder” or “Powder the Face”? Contemporary Metaphor Theory and the Art of Chinese to English Translation","authors":"L. Ritchie, Xuede Zhao","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1769269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1769269","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this article, we examine how cognitive metaphor theories might contribute to the theory and practice of poetry translation. We focus on translations from Chinese to English by Xu Yuanchong, both because he is regarded as one of China’s premier translators and because he has published a detailed theoretical framework and justification for his translations. We argue that Xu’s theory and practice of translation is based on a traditional approach to figurative language in which metaphor is regarded as purely decorative, adding no independent meaning. By identifying underlying conceptual metaphors and potential perceptual simulations in both the original Chinese and Xu’s translations, we show that the metaphors Xu substitutes for those in the original poem (often in place of sparser, more ambiguous language), changes and limits potential meanings in ways that are sometimes subtle but in other cases quite striking. We argue that contemporary cognitive linguistics theories, particularly Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Perceptual Simulation Theory, can contribute in important ways both to creating and to evaluating translations of Chinese poetry into English.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1769269","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43065731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Flusberg, Mark Lauria, Samuel Balko, P. Thibodeau
{"title":"Effects of Communication Modality and Speaker Identity on Metaphor Framing","authors":"S. Flusberg, Mark Lauria, Samuel Balko, P. Thibodeau","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1767336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1767336","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT People regularly encounter metaphors in a variety of different communicative settings, but most studies of metaphor framing have relied exclusively on written materials. Across three experiments (N = 2399), we examined the relative power of metaphor framing in different communication formats. Participants read, heard, or watched someone report a series of metaphorically framed issues. They answered a target question about each issue by selecting between two response options, one of which was conceptually congruent with the metaphor frame. Results revealed a similarly-sized metaphor framing effect in each communication modality. Neither speaker gender nor race reliably moderated the effects of metaphor framing for audiovisual messages, though framing effects were stronger when the gender of the speaker and observer matched. We also replicated the finding that metaphors are more effective when they are extended into the response option language. These results provide new insights into the efficacy and generalizability of metaphor framing.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1767336","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46549249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Whether Verbal or Visual, Affirmative or Negative, Tautologies are Not Tautologies","authors":"R. Giora, Ofer Fein, Vered Heruti","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1784509","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1784509","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper we test the hypothesis that tautologies (An X is an X; X is X) are actually not tautologies (i.e., not repetitive). Indeed, when exploring natural language use, it seems that, having expressed such “uninformative” statements, speakers, most often, spell out their specific intended interpretation, rendering these messages informative (Section 2). Visual/pictorial tautologies are also informative; either they allow the observers to come up with their own interpretation, or often, the artists use language to spell out the intended message (Section 3). Whether in language or in picture, artists tend to deautomatize the familiar, thereby rendering tautologies Optimally Innovative. Additionally, they often produce tautologies that convey figurative messages, whether metaphorical or sarcastic, thus allowing these tautologies to be highly creative (Section 5). Tautologies, then, communicate innovative messages, even when implicitly so. In fact, tautologies may often covertly reject the default salient meaning, while explicitly enlarging on it by using a novel, nondefault alternative.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1784509","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48660781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring Perceptions of Novelty and Mirth in Elicited Figurative Language Production","authors":"S. Skalicky","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1820763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1820763","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Most research of figurative language production examines naturalistic discourse. However, laboratory studies of elicited figurative language production are useful because they provide insight into whether specific individual differences are associated with differences in figurative language production ability. In this sense, elicited figurative language production studies mirror the approach many studies of figurative language processing and comprehension take. Accordingly, this study is an investigation into perceptions of novelty and mirth associated with figurative language production. Data in this study come from elicited figurative language production tasks for metaphorical comparisons and sarcastic replies, which were rated based on perceptions of novelty and mirth as well as conceptual distance (metaphors) and incongruity (sarcastic replies). Two individual differences, Need for Cognition and Abstract Thinking, along with other differences such as prompt type and production time were used to predict the novelty and mirth ratings. The results demonstrate a significant effect of Need for Cognition on metaphors but not for sarcastic replies, whereas no significant effects were observed for Abstract Thinking. Moreover, longer production times were associated with higher ratings for both metaphors and sarcastic replies. Finally, the results highlighted the manner in which prompt characteristics influenced participants’ responses, especially so for sarcastic replies.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1820763","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44385714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Source Domain Verification Using Corpus-based Tools","authors":"K. Ahrens, M. Jiang","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1712783","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712783","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Source domain verification has not received as much attention as criteria for metaphor identification in the study of conceptual metaphor. In this paper, we provide a replicable approach to source domain verification which we hope will provide a foundation for new approaches to this important question. We adopt an empirical method extended from previous research that used corpus-based linguistic tools such as SUMO (Suggested Upper Merged Ontology), WordNet, collocational patterns and an online dictionary. We present a new, step-by-step procedure to verify which keywords may be categorized in the source domain of building, using data from the Corpus of Hong Kong Political Speeches which contains parsed Chinese-language speeches by Hong Kong Chief Executives of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1997–2014). Following the verification of a number of keywords in the building source domain, we discuss how this method may be adapted for other source domains and languages and discuss its application to various areas of study within metaphor research as well as the current limitations of this approach.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712783","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41719008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ploke","authors":"Randy Allen Harris","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1712781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712781","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Ploke, the scheme of perfect lexical repetition, is utterly fundamental to language and thought. If that sounds like someone talking about metaphor, it is because ploke is to schemes as metaphor is to tropes. Like metaphor, ploke is the linguistic reflex of a neurocognitive pattern bias (repetition to metaphor’s similitude). Like metaphor, ploke is not a single figure but many (epanaphora, epiphora and epizeuxis, for instance, to metaphor’s personification, anthropomorphism, and reification). Like metaphor, there are “dead” ploke as well as live ploke (for instance, the number of repeated instances of ploke and metaphor in this abstract that likely escaped your figurative notice, just as leg of a table and head of lettuce regularly escape our figurative notice). Like metaphor, the processes that give rise to ploke, are also highly productive – in word formation, in the acquisition and dissolution of language, in construction and idiom formation, in large patterns of thought and discourse, often leveraging iconicities (the principle of quantity and the principle of identity). I offer each of these analogies to support the superordinate analogy, Ploke : Scheme :: Metaphor : Trope, and argue for the centrality of this neglected figure.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712781","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49311250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"My Great Life with “Metaphor and Symbol”","authors":"R. Gibbs","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1712779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712779","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712779","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46637180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Distinctive Features Influence Perceived Metaphor Aptness and Preference for Metaphor Use","authors":"Ryunosuke Oka, T. Kusumi","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2020.1712780","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712780","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The present study investigated whether distinctive features influence speakers’ evaluations of metaphor aptness and their preference for metaphor use. We examined three types of topic-attributed features: (i) distinctive features of the target metaphor, (ii) distinctive features of the competitive metaphor (unique features of a metaphor that has the same topic as the target metaphor but a different vehicle), and (iii) common features (features that are shared by both the target and competitive metaphors). Both metaphor aptness (Experiment 1: N = 132) and preference (Experiment 2: N = 90) were more pronounced when the distinctive features of the target metaphor rather than those of the competitive metaphor and common features were attributed to the topic. These results suggest that distinctive features determine the use of a specific metaphorical expression. These findings have implications for metaphor production and use because they can be used to identify the most apt vehicle.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10926488.2020.1712780","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44502535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}