Core Metaphor Research Articles

Standards of Fiction Writing: Norms, Principles, Rules. Review of the Book by E. Zvontsova «Comb Me. Your Text. Editing Fiction: from Style to Plot». M.: Myth Publishing House, 2022. 352 р

The article is the review of the book «Comb me. Your text. Editing fiction: from style to plot» written by the writer and editor Ekaterina Zvontsova. The reviewer notes plausibility along with brightness and vivacity of the text which appear due to personification and zoomorphization of the elements and organizing the text around the core metaphor of a shaggy dog that needs combing. Mastery of language and definitions is mentioned as the advantage of the book along with the usefulness of chapter appendices in which the author guides fiction writers from philosophy of language to text formatting, formulates five general laws of language, speech and text and teaches how to plot imaginary lands on a map.

Metaphorical fields in V. Kaverin’s novel "The two captains" (to the 120th anniversary of the birth)

The paper focuses on the identification and description of text-building and meaning-forming (world-modelling, conceptual) metaphorical fields in V. Kaverin’s novel "The Two Captains". The metaphorical field is viewed as a hierarchical structure. The core zone is comprised of the conceptual metaphor "life/world – creativity"; the centre zone includes metaphors extending the core metaphor, in the first place, the metaphors "book of life/life – book" and "world – theatre" (read life, a page of life, the main character and others). The linguistic units which are used simultaneously in their literal and figurative meanings (history) constitute the periphery zone. The world-modelling metaphor forms a system of "figurative parallels" in the novel. Due to this, the form of a trope can vary though its stable semantic significance remains unchanged. "Figurative" parallels include cover not only tropes, but also words in their literal meaning. Owing to continuous repetitions and associative connections with metaphorical contexts, such words support and expand the sphere of influence of extended metaphors. Life as such is perceived in the novel as creative work harmonizing reality due to the expansion of the metaphor scope with the help of intertextual inclusions (The world is a theatre, people are actors and others) and as a result of the reconceptualization of the metaphors theatre, game. They change their negative connotation ("acting") to positive ("creativity"). The metaphors (book of life –) theatre and (book of life –) fairytale receive the additional meaningful connotations "realisation of a dream, fulfilment of passionate desires". Although the subject and image of the metaphors included in the metaphorical field differ, the seme ‘creativity’ enters the comparison feature of each of them.

« Les enfants d’Atatürk » dans Die Brücke vom Goldenen Horn (1998) d’Emine Sevgi Özdamar : une légende transnationale

Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s novel Die Brücke vom Goldenen Horn has been read by many literary critics as a Bildungsroman. The depiction of the transnational historical context has only recently been considered in a series of scholarly contributions in English that highlight the link between the protagonist’s gradual political and sexual emancipation. The question is re-examined here by looking more closely at the core metaphor of virginity (keyword “Diamant”/ “Diamond”) with its hitherto neglected religious intertext: the eastern-western legend of St George.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Post-Traumatic Growth in Dialectical Perspective: Implications for Practice

This article provides the conceptualization of the post-traumatic development (PTD) in terms of a dialectical unity of the processes of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and post-traumatic growth (PTG); practical implications for eco-centered facilitation of post-traumatic growth and development. The results of the research indicate that the process of personality development is paradoxical, irreversible and scarcely predictable. In dialectical perspective the attractor of change is not about the content of transient forms (such as trauma, success, flow) but the stabilization of their change: thesis – antithesis – synthesis. As compared to PTG, PTD’s outcome is the systemic transition to the novel (not better or positive) identity. PTSD as well as PTG constitute minor cycles within the major cycle of PTD. The core metaphor of change as personality development is the work of the immunity system (SPI) which has an ambivalent nature: on the one hand, it defends the personality from the influence of adversarial agents and on the other – proactively guards it from stagnation and lack of confrontation and discontinuity. Principals of PTD facilitation: (a) the situation of psychological help (PH) is a case of a transition to a social level of personality self-regulation; (b) an inquiry for PH contains a narrative with necessary and sufficient elements for post-traumatic growth and development; (c) these elements are objectified in paradoxes, contradictions, incongruences as the source of personality development; (d) the task of PTD facilitator is to support the explication of internal change programs by maintaining the position of ambiguity tolerance and sensitivity to accidental flow of events.

Metaphor Comprehension in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Core Language Skills Matter

Poor metaphor comprehension was considered a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but recent research has questioned the extent and the sources of these difficulties. In this cross-sectional study, we compared metaphor comprehension in individuals with ASD (N = 29) and individuals with typical development (TD; N = 31), and investigated the relationship between core language and metaphor comprehension. Individuals with ASD showed more difficulty but also a more variable performance in both metaphor and literal items of the task used than individuals with TD did. This indicates that core language ability accounts for metaphor comprehension and should be considered in future research and interventions aiming to improve metaphor comprehension in individuals with ASD.

Transformation for sustainability: a deep leverage points approach

Change and transformation of human systems are increasingly seen as the fundamental solution space for treating the root causes of unsustainability. What does transformation of human systems for sustainability exactly mean and entail, and how to effectively transform human systems? This paper addresses these essential questions in a holistic, systems thinking approach following and extending the leverage points tool for systemic change proposed by Meadows (Thinking in Systems: a primer. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, 2008). The paper focuses on the often unquestioned, largely unconscious, systemic realm of mental models and human intent. It targets Meadows’ deepest leverage points of purpose and paradigm; beyond, it deals with worldview, core metaphor, and human thinking. The fundamental outcome of this conceptual study is that unsustainability roots in a cognitive illusion coupled to a lack of teleological thinking. Transformation needs us to see and reconceive the human–world bond through the systemic lens of dynamic inclusion, aliveness, purpose and value. Learning to think in terms of living systems, physical and mental, and substituting the iceberg metaphor-in-use in conventional systems thinking with a holistic metaphor of nested leverage points are the first transformation steps toward a new sustainability paradigm. Practical evidence and ecological content come from the transformative design discipline of biomimicry, which consciously turns to nature as the source of its conceptual system. The paper concludes that transformative practice for sustainability will gain momentum by braiding together systems thinking in practice and biomimicry thinking. In sum, this transdisciplinary approach opens up exciting research horizons in ontological, epistemological, methodological and teleological directions.

The mental demands of leadership in complex adaptive systems.

After a decade of calls for healthcare transformation, there is a convergence of themes in our general orienting models. The core metaphor of health system as machine (with closed boundaries, linear functions, and controlled predictable outputs) has given way to health as ecosystem (with open boundaries, non-linear functions, multiple interdependencies, and no single locus of control over outcomes). Current developmental psychology theory suggests that people construct their reality, and interact with their world, based on the epistemology (or "action-logic" or "mindset") of their stage of development. Through this lens, the skills for leading large-scale change in our increasingly complex world require significant cognitive and interpersonal development. The concept of vertical development may be an underemphasized aspect of system change. This article will discuss a new set of leadership skills and frameworks that emerge in the nexus of complex adaptive systems and adult development theory.

The Human- Nature Relationship In The Context Of Theo-Centric Environmental Ethics

The environmental problems are one of the issues that intensively occupy the agenda of humankind. This fact mainly derives from the ambiguity of the span and the content of the issue. The concept of environmental problems can not be confined to the soil, air and water pollution for the reason that it covers a scope wider than a classical pollution issues. Initially the form of the relationship between human and nature has been relying on the “consumption at the level of content” which stands for a level that is enough to sustain the living. The perception of the nature used to be described with the metaphor of mother while natural environment was defined as the “mother earth”. However subsequent to natural environment definition of the Cartesian philosophy with its approach to the human nature relationship, the core metaphor to describe the natural environment has changed from the metaphor of “mother” to the “slave” which should serve by any means. The human- nature relationship within the context of ethics, both the parties and their respective statues bear an importance. In terms of ethics of human- nature relationship, it is possible to mention three main approaches. First one is the anthropo-centric approach. Within the scope of historical process, human- nature relationship is addressed according to anthropo-centric ethics comprehension so human has remained at the center of discussion. Following the change of the perception regarding the issue of environment, new approaches have emerged that give emphasis not only on human beings but also others; on living and non-living beings within the eco-system. In principle, this represents a departure from an anthropo-centric ethics to a new ethic approach which falls into two categories, bio centric and eco-centric. The theo-centric ethics should also be included to these ethics approaches that are shaped within the sphere of positive sciences. The Abrahamic religions, particularly Islam’s human- nature relationship conception do not fall within the scope of these three approaches. This study stands for the assumption that the theo-centric approach is applicable to explain the human-nature relationship of the religion of Islam. Within this framework, initially the core of environmental problems which is the transformation of human-nature relationship from organic to mechanic relationship will be touched upon whereas the mechanic world view will also be examined. Later on, around the main sources of religion of Islam, the content of human-nature relationship will be elaborated. In this context, a new paradigm will also be proposed for current global environmental issues.

Stories and metaphors in the sensemaking of multiple primary health care organizational identities

BackgroundThe Quebec primary health care delivery system has experienced numerous reforms over the last 15 years. In this study, we sought to examine how managers and primary care providers made sense of the creation of successive new primary care organizational forms.MethodsWe conducted a longitudinal qualitative case study in a primary care practice group located in Montreal, Quebec, for over 6 years (2002 to 2008). The data sources for the study include 31 semi-structured interviews with key informants, in-situ observations of group meetings, as well as documents and field notes. Textual material was submitted to narrative and metaphor analysis.ResultsThe core metaphor of the journey came from a set of stories in which the members of this primary care group depicted the processes undertaken towards developing a multidisciplinary cooperative practice, which include an uneasy departure, uncertainty about the destination, conflict among members who jump ship or stay on board, negotiations about the itinerary, and, finally, enduring challenges in leading the way and being pioneers of change in the organization of primary care in their institutional context. Identification with the initial family medicine unit identity was persistent over time, but successive reforms further enriched its meaning as it became a multidisciplinary primary care practice pioneering organizational change.ConclusionsIn order to support primary care reforms in complex institutional fields, this study proposes that decision-makers undertake a journey in which they recognize both the need to capitalize on existing meaningful and legitimated organizational identities, as well as the necessity for collective leadership in the management of multiple organizational identities over time.

The Empty Call for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Financial Regulation

The call for benefit-cost analysis in financial regulation is a category mistake that misunderstands the origins and utility of benefit-cost analysis as a guide to administrative rulemaking. BCA has its core metaphor an omniscient social planner who can calculate costs and benefits from a “natural” system that generates prices (cost and benefits) that do not change (or change much) no matter what the central planner does. For example, the toxicity of chemicals, the health hazards of emissions, the statistical value of life — these do not change in response to health and safety regulation. For the financial sector, by contrast, the system that generates costs and benefits is “constructed” by financial regulation itself and by the subsequent processes of adaptation and regulatory arbitrage. An important new rule will change the system beyond our calculative powers. Instead of a weighing of costs and benefits, financial regulation necessarily is based on a series of trade-offs of normatively-derived values, which may entail principles of pragmatic design.

Marketing Netnography: Prom/ot(Ulgat)ing a New Research Method

This paper builds upon a core metaphor of scientific methodological diffusion as a specialized form of the marketing of ideas. Using as an illustrative the development and spread of netnography, online ethnography of social media data, this paper explores the nature of the creation, legitimation, adoption, and spread of a new scientific method. Viewing method diffusion as a type of marketing suggests a range of implications. Ideas about the method can be viewed, treated, and managed as a type of ‘brand’. The method is not created in a vacuum but, like a marketed new product, is engineered to satisfy a particular scientific or investigative need, and its success depends on how well it satisfies that need. A particular ‘research-oriented segment’ can be investigated, reached, and deliberately targeted. In this article, I explore how institutional waves of academic, geographic, and pragmatic target research audiences helped to reinforce the adoption of a new scientific approach. The method can be positioned intentionally in a particular methodological category, and as superior to other methods. Once the strategy for marketing the method is intact, the tactics for its spread can be introduced. The ideas for the method and methodology can be brought to their audience in a particular form, with particular attributes, through certain distribution or publication channels, promoted through various means, and offered through for a ‘price’ that encapsulates the difficulty of adopting it. The article explores these ideas about the promulgation of a new method using the development of netnography as an extended case study example.

世紀的沉思——《空間的馳想》釋讀

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 林庚先生的晚年詩作《空間的馳想》由“空間之思”與“生命之思”兩部分組成。詩人以20世紀出現的相對論、宇宙學爲知識背景，對時間與空間作出新的思考，彰顯了不要以時間感遮蔽空間感的思想感悟。詩中對空間的弘揚以及對時間虛化的藝術處理，融入了詩人對當下時代精神貧困的現實感受。科學不僅啓發了詩人的靈感，而且被詩人點化爲核心的隱喻。生命之思則闡發了詩人獨特的青春美學的意蘊，並在對藝術和美的思索中，指明生命的真諦乃在於對物的超越、對世界的覺醒，在於精神的自由和解放。詩章秉承了浪漫主義的詩學傳統，對深陷於物質主義之中的世紀病進行了批判性的反思，呼籲突破物的滯累與羈絆，邁向物質與精神、科技與文藝平衡的澄明之境。全詩體現了科學精神與人文精神的統一、邏輯語言與詩性語言的統一，是詩性的沉思録，是從詩美學出發的一種宇宙觀的掃描。
 In his final years, Professor Lin Geng (1909-2006) composed a poem entitled A Spiritual Gallop in the Spatial Realm. This poem is comprised of two parts, namely “Meditation on Space” and “Meditation on Life”. The poet uses Relativism and Cosmology, two scientific theories that appeared in the twentieth century, as the intellectual background in his poem and presents new findings of his contemplation on the theme of time and space. The main thrust of this is “not letting the sense of time overshadow the sense of space”. The artistic arrangements of praising space and demeaning time are derived from the poet's sentiment on the common lack of spirit in the era that he lived. Science was not only the poet’s inspiration but also treated as the core metaphor in the poem. His philosophy of life expresses the significant meaning of what he terms “aesthetics of youth.” In his contemplation on art and beauty, moreover, the poet points out that the real meaning of life lies in Iwo aspects: transcendence of material goods and awakening in the secular world. In other words, it relies fully on the freedom and liberation of one’s spirit. The poem inherits the poetics of romanticism. It criticizes and reflects on people’s indulgence in material enjoyments, a common trend that is regarded as “illness of the era” by the poet. He calls to break free from the entanglement and impediment of materialism, whereby one may enter a limpid realm where one finds the balance between the material and the spirit, and the balance between science and the arts. The poem illustrates the unity of scientificity and humanity, as well as the unity of logical language and characteristic language. It is a record of poetic meditation and a scanning of the cosmologic landscape triggered by a poetical aesthetics.

School violence, school differences and school discourses

This article highlights one strand of a study which investigated the concept of the violence‐resilient school. In six inner‐city secondary schools, data on violent incidents in school and violent crime in the neighbourhood were gathered, and compared with school practices to minimise violence, accessed through interviews. Some degree of association between the patterns of behaviour and school practices was found: schools with a wider range of well‐connected practices seemed to have less difficult behaviour. Interviews also showed that the different schools had different organisational discourses for construing school violence, its possible causes and the possible solutions. Differences in practices are best understood in connection with differences in these discourses. Some of the features of school discourses are outlined, including their range, their core metaphor and their silences. The authors suggest that organisational discourse is an important concept in explaining school effects and school differences, and that improvement attempts could have clearer regard to this concept.

Pots, Kettles, and Interpretations of Blackness

Like any folklorist: would be, I was honored by the invitation to deliver the 2001 Archer Taylor Memorial Lecture. I first attended a California Folklore Society meeting in 1980, during one of my first years in graduate school. Although I eventually selected a different dissertation topic on African-American discourse, I became very interested in proverb study during that intellectually stimulating time. Because they are one of the most popular genres of everyday speech, proverbs encapsulate the appeal of folklore study to scholars dedicated to analyzing the worldview of peoples whose cultures are more oral than written. For those of us interested in African-American folklore, the omnipresence of proverb use in everyday speech indicates that studies of African-American world view may be incomplete without proverb analysis. At the UC Berkeley Folklore Archives, I ferreted out the files on African-American proverbs as well as the folders on Anglo ones. I was looking for commonality. I wanted to know which proverbs were commonly repeated and reported by both blacks and whites. And were there similarities in the interpretations of meaning? The most frequently reported proverb in the African-American files was some version or another of Don't let your mouth write a check your ass can't cash. But I didn't find versions of it in the Anglo file. That's like the pot calling the kettle was the most frequently reported proverb in the African-American files that also had a thick folder in the Anglo files. But while the proverb is clearly familiar in both cultures, informant interpretations vary. I began with my personal understanding of the proverb's meaning. For me, the proverb is probably the most appropriate idiom to use when I catch someone making a hypocritical statement. Since my family, my father in particular, did not suffer hypocrites gladly, I certainly grew up hearing this proverb and had it directed at me whenever I might accuse someone of a fault I possessed. Proverbs were teaching tools and by pointing out hypocrisy in this fashion, my parents were trying to mitigate this attribute in me. Another common usage in my own family is to utter the proverb itself in order to get away with a sharp observation. An example here might be, This is sort of like the pot calling the kettle black, but I heard that Jan was working on his paper right up until the California Folklore Society meetings. Here I've called myself a hypocrite before anyone else can level the accusation but also managed to get in a jab at Jan. The coloring of pots and kettles posed no problems. I grew up in kitchens adorned by black cast iron cookware and my own still fledgling culinary skills are rooted in the use of these imposing tools. My father's farm kitchen didn't have electricity until I was around eleven so when I ate there, it was food cooked in a cast iron pot on a wood stove. There was always a kettle of water on the stove because of the need to add moisture to the air in the house. I had no trouble understanding the proverb's core metaphor. My own interpretation of the proverb did not differ that much from those collected from black informants and submitted to the archives. The impulse to check hypocrisy permeates these texts. In 1976 a male African-American student explained the proverb by saying, person says this proverb when someone has made a hypocritical statement. It means that one person is accusing another person of a fault that the accuser already For example, if John said Mary is dumb because she got a D on her midterm and John also got a D on the same midterm, then John has accused Mary of a fault that John also possesses. As is often the case, informants and collectors assumed that this proverb so familiar to them belonged to their particular ethnic tradition. A 32-year-old black journalist explained to a student collector in 1974 that This expression originated in the south in the days of slavery. …

A Handbook of Integrative Psychotherapies for Children and Adolescents

A Handbook of Integrative Psychotherapies for Children and Adolescents

The role of metaphors in the strategic change consultancy process: the case of Sir John Harvey-Jones

This paper conducts a detailed analysis of the metaphor exchanges between a notable strategic change consultant — Sir John Harvey-Jones and managers and owners from eight companies. The following principal themes emerge from the analysis: Metaphors can be used as a way to demonstrate the disparity between the current position of the business and how it needs to change. Traded metaphors in an interview may reveal the fundamental issues facing an organization and the need to embrace strategic thinking to address them. The exchange of metaphors appears to be at the heart of disagreements and agreements between the change consultant and the managers and owners in the firms examined. Disagreement on traded metaphors between the change consultant and the other parties to the conversations suggest that advice will not be heeded. Trading metaphors may offer a less threatening way to explore sensitive strategic and organizational change issues with managers and owners. A core metaphor can be developed to communicate and legitimize the new desired corporate direction to all stakeholders. A core metaphor can also become a beacon for the strategy implementation process. Metaphors are not just a mechanism of persuasion but are an integral part of the strategic consultancy performance. The presence of humour in traded metaphors can save face for all concerned. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Through the Doorway: Experiences of Psychotherapists in an Intensive Week of Training

This paper explored the experiences of 10 participants in a week of training by Bill O'Hanlon (July 5–9, 1996) using interviews of participants both before and after the training, observations of group process, and audiorecordings of the training. “Going through a doorway” was a core metaphor used to describe the training, and participants talked about having a sense of being “immersed” in the training through experiential processes. Participants also gained an appreciation of new ways to language with clients through naturalistic, Ericksonian approaches to hypnosis. The training process was isomorphic with the possibility-oriented, inclusive approach to therapy being taught. Participants appreciated the trainer's ability to flexibly individualize the training and experienced resolution of both personal and professional concerns.

Dreaming and the impossible art of translation.

This essay identifies translation both as an historically core metaphor in Euro-American dream theory and as a contemporary ally for dream teaching and research. It also traces the mutuality of translators' reliance on Freud, Jung, and other dream theorists in their metaphorical expression of the art and craft of translation. The sustained interaction of oneiric and linguistic metaphor-making stems from the fact that virtually all of our knowledge about dreams has been mediated through language and that all dream reporting is itself an act of intersemiotic translation. In an attempt to stimulate further comparative inquiry, the overlapping concerns and often uncanny affinities between language/translation studies and dream/interpretation studies are presented.

The ‘head dance’, contested self, and art as a balancing act in Tuareg spirit possession

AbstractAmong the Kel Ewey Tuareg of north-eastern Niger, particularly in noble circles, spirit possession is associated with Sudanic/servile cultural origins; so, too, are dancing and drumming. I argue that, in performing a sideways swaying motion of the head and shoulders referred to locally as a dance, women in possession trance transform Sudanic culture. The head dance as flowing, controlled movement, and its central trope of ‘swaying like the branch of a tree’, encapsulate key cultural symbols to make them almost acceptable in traditional noble Tuareg aesthetic/symbolic terms. Yet this motion implies that one is ‘ill’ or ‘in solitude or in the wild’, in need of exorcism that has to be performed on the fringes of the camp or village, outside the tent, after dark, yet in public with an audience.This article uses a synaesthetic approach to show the interconnectedness of symbols. It illustrates the tensions and contradictions of a traditionally stratified society where women now perform a range of semi-servile activities, activities that Moslems, nobles and men generally disapprove of and sometimes oppose. The ‘head dance’ is an elegant compromise that blurs the line between dance and possession, takes on acceptable images from song and the ‘proper’ ways of moving, and ‘grafts’ them on to a particular drum pattern—the whole complex making use of the homonym ‘song/branch’ as the core image or metaphor. Symbols work synergistically in this process.

Fuzzy-trace theory and children's acquisition of mathematical and scientific concepts

We summarize the historical background of fuzzy-trace theory along with its major assumptions about cognitive development. The theory is a product of two forces: the current dissatisfaction with Piagetian and information processing metaphors for cognition and the basic processes movement in memory development research. Intuition is the theory's core metaphor for cognition. Its key explanatory constructs are (a) gist extraction, (b) fuzzy-to-verbatim continua of memory representations, (c) the fuzzy-processing preference, (d) hierarchies of gist, (e) simple readout versus reconstructive retrieval, (f) readout and reconstruction in both short- and long-term memory, (g) memory limitations as a function of the time courses of verbatim and gist representations, and (h) output interference. We define these constructs and discuss their implications for developmental and individual differences in cognition with special reference to mathematical and scientific reasoning.