Different Types Of Metaphors Research Articles

Cognitive Operations in Discourse of German Folk Tales

The article provides an overview of the main approaches to studying cognitive operations in discourse of German folk tales (Volkssage in German) based preliminary on works by R. Langacker, Kövecses Z., and G. Lakoff. It describes two paradigms in cognitive operations. The first of the mentioned ones uses cognitive mapping to study German folk tales, the second one preserves usage of cognitive operations based on cognitive grammar: specificity, focusing, prominence, and perspective. The paper gives a detailed description of the presented cognitive operations and describes their unique features in the discourse of German folk tales in relation to the SUPERNATURAL text concept. The used cognitive operations based on the fundamentals of cognitive grammar and the given description of different types of mapping build an instrument of producing and handling the folklore discourse. The following types of mapping are taken into consideration: the attributive, the relative, the situative, the substitutive, and the contrastive ones. The attributive, the relative, and the situative, types of mapping are typical for different types of metaphor. The substitutive mapping occurs when metonymy and periphrases are used. The contrastive mapping is a companion when means of oxymoron, antithesis, hyperbole and zeugma are used. The article proves that the genre of German folk tales can count most of the types of the fictive projecting which are to be found in cognitive operations of mapping and that they are making the cognitive mechanism of the folklore discourse more precise. The two paradigms of cognitive operations described in the article (mapping and cognitive operations based on the cognitive grammar) complement each other and provide a deeper understanding of the cognitive base of the German folk tales.

Selective Metaphor Impairments After Left, Not Right, Hemisphere Injury.

The relative contributions of the left and right hemispheres to the processing of metaphoric language remains unresolved. Neuropsychological studies of brain-injured patients have motivated the hypothesis that the right hemisphere plays a critical role in understanding metaphors. However, the data are inconsistent and the hypothesis is not well-supported by neuroimaging research. To address this ambiguity about the right hemisphere’s role, we administered a metaphor sentence comprehension task to 20 left-hemisphere injured patients, 20 right hemisphere injured patients, and 20 healthy controls. Stimuli consisted of metaphors of three different types: predicate metaphors based on action verbs, nominal metaphors based on event nouns, and nominal metaphors based on entity nouns. For each metaphor (n = 60), a closely matched literal sentence with the same source term was also generated. Each sentence was followed by four adjective–noun answer choices (target + three foil types) and participants were instructed to select the phrase that best matched the meaning of the sentence. As a group, both left and right hemisphere patients performed worse on metaphoric than literal sentences, and the degree of this difficulty varied for the different types of metaphor – but there was no difference between the two patient groups. Tests for literal-metaphor dissociations at the level of single cases revealed two types of impairments: general comprehension deficits affecting metaphors and literal sentences equally, and selective metaphor impairments that were specific to different types of metaphor. All cases with selective metaphor deficits had injury to the left hemisphere, and no known comprehension difficulties with literal language. Our results argue against the hypothesis of a specific or necessary contribution of the right hemisphere for understanding metaphoric language. Further, they reveal deficits in metaphoric language comprehension not captured by traditional language assessments, suggesting overlooked communication difficulties in left hemisphere patients.

Metaphor Comprehension in Schizophrenic Patients.

People with schizophrenia often exhibit difficulties to comprehend figurative expressions, such as irony, proverbs, metaphors and idioms, with a general proneness to neglect the figurative meaning and to accept the more literal one. This inability is usually referred to as concretism and it constitutes a clinical manifestation of the broader language dysfunction called Formal Thought Disorder. The current review focuses on the neuropsychological and neuroanatomical underpinnings of schizophrenics’ misinterpretation of a subgroup of figurative expressions, i.e., metaphors. Metaphors are heterogeneous in nature, classifiable according to various criteria; for instance, metaphors can be conventional and familiar, or conversely, novel and unusual. These linguistic distinctions are substantial because the comprehension of the different types of metaphor entails partially different cognitive strategies and neural substrates. This review gathers studies that have directly investigated which neurocognitive deficits explain the inefficient comprehension of metaphor in schizophrenia. Several impairments have been put forward, such as general intelligence, executive functions and theory of mind deficits. Moreover, the neural correlates of metaphor comprehension in schizophrenia, like the left inferior/medial frontal gyrus and the temporal lobe, match those cortices affected by the neuropathology of schizophrenia. Even though the causal defective mechanism is still a matter of investigation, we provide an attempt to integrate existing findings.

Metaphorical Modeling of Negotiations on ‘Jamaica Coalition’ in Mass Media of Germany

The article deals with the metaphoric modeling of media discourse by the example of the negotiations on ‘Jamaica coalition’ in mass media of Germany. Such spheres-sources of metaphorical expansion as Disease, Sport, Nature and Food/Kitchen and Theatre and their activity are analysed in the article. It is shown that the metaphor helps publicists to solve any communicative tasks they need. The metaphor possesses a pragmatical function in media discourse, it can attract and provide simplicity of perception of information and, therefore, form a positive or negative attitude towards it. According to the analysis the process of coalition creation is presented by means of different types of metaphors as a set of rehearsed actions in advance, spectacular performances of various emotional character, sometimes with unpredictable, obscure results.

The Importance of Metaphorical Thinking in the Teaching of Mathematics

This communication assesses the relevance of metaphorical thinking in helping to develop students’ comprehension of mathematical concepts. It is of utmost importance to examine the role of metaphors in the understanding of mathematical concepts as well as how different types of metaphors can provoke interpretations of mathematical problems for students before looking at the relevance of metaphorical thinking in the teaching of mathematics. This acts as a basis for grasping the importance of metaphorical thinking in fostering the transition of mathematical perceptions to theory and its applicability to day-to-day life.

FURROWING PROWS: VARRO OF ATAX'SARGONAVTAEAND TRANSGRESSIVE SAILING IN VIRGIL'SAENEID

Discussing different types of metaphor, Isidore of Seville quotes an anonymous fragment that uses agricultural vocabulary to describe the sailing of a ship in order to illustratemetaphorae ab inanimali ad inanimale‘metaphors taken from inanimate objects and applied to inanimate objects’ (Etym.1.37.3 = inc. fr. 63 Blänsdorf):1

Metaforyka pojęć wchodzących w skład pola semantyczno-leksykalnego miłosierdzia

The aim of the article is to present metaphors depicting concepts from the semantic field of MERCY in the Quran. The theory of metaphors developed by cognitive linguistics was applied to examine types of metaphors. As a result, seven types were distinguished: MERCY IS AN OBJECT, MERCY IS UP, MERCY IS A LIVING CREATURE, MERCY IS A CONTAINER, MERCY IS A SUBSTANCE, MERCY IS A PROCESS, MERCY IS FOOD. The article analyzes the ways in which these metaphors were used in the Quran. Furthermore, relations between different types of metaphors and the relevant concepts, as well as relations between metaphors and different meanings of the concepts in the semantic field of mercy have been presented.

Metaphorical Modelling of the Concept “Technology”

Abstract The article explores the metaphorical models Russian researchers (the authors of scientific papers) employ in the presentation of technology. A cognitive approach to the metaphor is emphasized. The study is focused on different types of metaphors which are crucial in the corpus-based analysis and defines particular characteristics of the concept “Technology”. The analysis is based on various sources (online, journals, conference proceedings) on information technologies. The present investigation should be seen as a part of the project “Metaphorical conceptualization in the process of terminological system formation: epistemological universals of the Russian scientific worldview” supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities.

한영 속담 번역에서의 은유 처리 - 관용적 등가로서의 번역을 중심으로

The present study aims to explore how metaphors in proverbs are translated from Korean into English and identify effective and preferred translation strategies theoreof. A total of 344 Korean and English proverbs were compared with a view to tracking the respective numbers of occurrences of metaphors and identifying different types of metaphors employed. The major findings of this study are as follows. First, the proportion of the metaphors in proverbs that are translated as others is much higher than expected in the literature, which can probably be attributed to the genre of the texts compared: proverbs. Second, the types of the metaphors that are dominant in Korean proverbs and their English translations are different. While orientational metaphors are dominant in Korean, ontological metaphors are prevalent in English. These findings show that metaphors in proverbs tend to be preserved throughout the translation process as much as possible, and that the specific types of metaphors, however, vary reflecting the specific characteristics of the languages involved. This is related to the nature of metaphors, which are universality and peculiarity. Metaphors are universal, which is why metaphors in proverbs are mostly translated. However, metaphors are also peculiar, which is why there are language-specific metaphor translation strategies.

Interpreting built cityscape: Deconstructing the metaphorical messages of futuristic buildings

This article examines the metaphorical messages and interpretations of futuristic buildings and construction projects, with examples from several parts of the world, especially from Europe and Asia. Based on the research material gathered in the MEDEIA project, some examples of buildings representing various metaphors will be provided together with reflections on their implications and interpretations from an individual and societal point of view.11The origin of this article derives from the presentation held at the seminar of the Finnish Society for Futures Studies in August 2014 (Heinonen, 2014). The method of causal layered analysis (CLA) is applied in the analysis to deconstruct the messages of the buildings and to illustrate the connections between their manifest appearance and the underlying metaphors. The article addresses two central questions. Firstly, how does a building, in addition to its main functions, act as a messenger and mediator of future-related meanings by embodying different types of metaphors? Secondly, which kinds of buildings present conventional metaphors and used futures, and which kinds of buildings suggest novel metaphors and alternative futures?

Drawing with Metaphors. Mediating ideational content in drawing through metaphors

It is not easy to express abstract concepts, such as time and society, in a drawing. The subject of this article is rooted in the educational issue of visually expressing themes represented by abstract concepts. However, it is possible to find means and devices to express such ideas. This article shows how metaphors can be used to express such ideas visually. Cognitive linguistic research argues that metaphors are crucial in the verbal communication of abstract concepts. This article also attempts to show that metaphors are important in visual communication. The cognitive linguistic metaphor theory of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson is used here to investigate how metaphors are used to construct meaning in the drawings of cartoonist and illustrator Finn Graff and artist Saul Steinberg. The article presents a few examples of how visual devices structure the abstract concept of time. It then proceeds to explain how symbols function as metonymies and provides an overview of the different types of metaphors and how they are used to express meaning in drawings. The article concludes by attempting to provide new insights regarding the use of visual metaphors.

Development of novel metaphor and metonymy comprehension in typically developing children and Williams syndrome

This study investigated the development of novel metaphor and metonymy comprehension in both typically developing (TD) children and individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). Thirty-one TD children between the ages of 3;09 and 17;01 and thirty-four individuals with WS between the ages of 7;01 and 44 years old were administered a newly developed task examining novel metaphor and metonymy comprehension, as well as a range of standardised tests that assess semantic knowledge. This age range and the background measures allowed construction of developmental trajectories to investigate whether chronological age or mental age, represented by word knowledge, relate to novel metaphor and metonymy comprehension. The results showed that comprehension of figurative language did not increase with chronological age in WS, in contrast to TD. Although there was no difference for the different types of metaphors, certain metonymy expressions were found to be easier than others in the TD group. In addition, semantic knowledge was a reliable predictor for novel metaphor and metonymy comprehension in the TD but only for metonymy in the WS group. In sum, development of novel metonymy in the WS group is only delayed while comprehension of novel metaphor is both delayed and atypical. However, future research should further investigate differences between sub-types, as well as what cognitive factors relate to novel metaphor comprehension in individuals with Williams syndrome.

Metaphorically speaking: cognitive abilities and the production of figurative language

Figurative language is one of the most common expressions of creative behavior in everyday life. However, the cognitive mechanisms behind figures of speech such as metaphors remain largely unexplained. Recent evidence suggests that fluid and executive abilities are important to the generation of conventional and creative metaphors. The present study investigated whether several factors of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model of intelligence contribute to generating these different types of metaphors. Specifically, the roles of fluid intelligence (Gf), crystallized intelligence (Gc), and broad retrieval ability (Gr) were explored. Participants completed a series of intelligence tests and were asked to produce conventional and creative metaphors. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the contribution of the different factors of intelligence to metaphor production. For creative metaphor, there were large effects of Gf (β = .45) and Gr (β = .52); for conventional metaphor, there was a moderate effect of Gc (β = .30). Creative and conventional metaphors thus appear to be anchored in different patterns of abilities: Creative metaphors rely more on executive processes, whereas conventional metaphors primarily draw from acquired vocabulary knowledge.

Event-related potential evidence for the early activation of literal meaning during comprehension of conventional lexical metaphors

Among different types of metaphors, lexical metaphors are special in that they have been highly lexicalized and often suggested to be processed like non-metaphorical words. The present study examined two types of Chinese metaphorical words which are conceptualized through body parts. One has both a metaphorical meaning and a literal meaning actively in use, with the former dominant over the latter, referred to as the Met+Lit words. The other has only metaphorical meaning, referred to as Met-only words. In two experiments, lexical metaphor words were presented following a body-related picture and participants judged whether the picture and word were semantically related (Experiment 1) or made lexical decision on the word ignoring the picture (Experiment 2). The N400 ERP responses showed a clear semantic priming effect for the Met+Lit words compared with the non-ambiguous neutral words, with latencies comparable to that in Met-only words in both experiments. The results were interpreted to indicate that the literal meaning as a subordinate meaning was activated during the early comprehension of conventional lexical metaphors, supporting the notion of dual access to metaphorical meaning and literal meaning in metaphor processing.

Metaphors and heuristic-driven theory projection (HDTP)

A classical approach of modeling metaphoric expressions uses a source concept network that is mapped to a target concept network. Both networks are often represented as algebras. In this paper, a representation using the mathematically sound framework of heuristic-driven theory projection (HDTP) is presented which is—although quite different from classical approaches—algebraic in nature, too. HDTP has the advantage that a structural description of source and target can be given and the connection between both domains are more clearly specified. The major aspects of the formal properties of HDTP, the specification of the underlying algorithm HDTP-A, and the development of a formal semantics for analogical reasoning will be discussed. We will apply HDTP to different types of metaphors.

Functional MRI of conventional and anomalous metaphors in Mandarin Chinese

This study looks at whether conventional and anomalous metaphors are processed in different locations in the brain while being read when compared with a literal condition in Mandarin Chinese. We find that conventional metaphors differ from the literal condition with a slight amount of increased activation in the right inferior temporal gyrus. In addition, when the anomalous metaphor condition is compared with the literal condition, increased activation occurs bilaterally in the frontal and temporal gyri. Lastly, the comparison between the anomalous and conventional metaphor conditions shows bilateral activation in the middle frontal gyrus and the precentral gyrus, and right-hemisphere activation in the superior frontal gyrus. Left hemisphere activation is found in the inferior frontal gyrus and fusiform gyrus. The left hemisphere activation in the frontal and temporal gyri point to the recruitment of traditional language-based areas for anomalous metaphor sentences, while the right-hemisphere activation found suggests that remote associations are being formed. In short, our study supports the idea that metaphors are not a homogenous type of figurative language and that distinguishing between different types of metaphors will advance theories of language comprehension.

The Politics of Nature: Constructing German Reunification During the Great Oder Flood of 1997

Abstract Natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, hailstorms and floods always lead to massive media coverage, as a close look in the fait divers of daily newspapers proves. They seem to have a short-lived but extreme effect on society as well as on the media. One point that is often neglected is the fact that disasters occur in unique socio-historical contexts which determine the patterns of interpretation. This also seems to be the case concerning the Great Oder Flood of 1997, inasmuch as the disaster occurred within the singular process of German Reunification. The Oder Flood occurred at the time Reunification was really being experienced, and therefore efforts to dam the rising waters were metaphorically interpreted, especially in the German newspapers, as the joint fight of East and West against the flood. The flood gained its political dimension particularly via different types of metaphors that blend synchronic domains of discourse. This paper investigates the metaphorical patterns underlying the news coverage of the Flood in order to trace their constitutive role in the 'news speak'. The main hypothesis is that the metaphorical discourse about the disaster and nature in general serves as a metaphorical reservoir for illustrating and legitimising the abstract political process of the German Reunification.

Toward a Life-Span Account of Metaphor

Rorty (1989) viewed the history of languages in the sciences and arts as a history of metaphor. He adopted Davidson's (1986) controversial account of metaphor as a pragmatic rather than a semantic language entity. Unfortunately, Rorty overgeneralized about the unpredictability and poetic open-endedness of metaphors and therefore effectively precluded an account of their limited role in the more cautious and reflective process of scientific language change. However, Rorty's (1987) sketch of a sequence of different types of metaphors invites the possibility that we might detail an idealized series of steps or stages in the life and ultimate death of successful metaphors. An outline is presented of an actual example of the life and death of the metaphor "Psychologists are psychic seers".

Metaphor and Associated Phenomena: Specifying the Boundaries of Psychological Inquiry

A theoretical survey is presented, introducing a distinction between structural and functional characterizations of metaphor. Although conclusions must be qualified, the present analysis suggests that (a) nominal, predicative, and perhaps sentential metaphors are psychologically distinct for children and adults, (b) different types of metaphor are related to judgments of similarity, although theories differ in their emphasis on this relation, (c) fantasy and magical interpretations of language are related to metaphor during development, and perhaps during metaphorical interpretation by adults, and (d) functionally distinct classes of metaphor, such as those defined as "elite" and "mundane," may require different theoretical principles.

Autumn leaves and old photographs: The development of metaphor preferences

In order to determine the development of preferences for different types of metaphors, a metaphor preferences task was designed. Subjects at seven ages, from 6 through 20 years, received incomplete sentences followed by metaphorical and literal completions, and were asked to select their preferred completions. The pattern of preferences shifted with age. Metaphors based on grounds involving color or shape were preferred by the youngest subjects; metaphors based on movement or sound were preferred by subjects of intermediate age; and metaphors based on nonperceptual, conceptual grounds were preferred by the oldest subjects. At all ages the most frequently chosen metaphors were those based on a combination of two grounds (e.g., color and shape). Preference for literal completions declined with age, but there was an increase in literal selections in the 8th and 10th grades. This study demonstrates the systematic development of aesthetic preferences in the domain of figurative language.