Aptness Of Metaphor Research Articles

Metaphors across cultures

Abstract The way and degree to which people in different cultures consider a metaphor to be appropriate, acceptable, or apt has been the subject of controversy in recent decades. According to structure-mapping models, metaphors are understood by mapping relations from the base domain to relations in the target domain. However, previous research lacks literature on cross-cultural contexts and differences in the degree of acceptability of metaphors in different cultures. To address this gap, in this study we examined cross-cultural differences in metaphor aptness among participants from three different cultures. We developed two questionnaires, an acceptability judgment-task and a parallel-relation test using the COCA (English), PLDB (Persian), and KorAP (German) corpus databases. The results suggest striking differences in the acceptance of a metaphor in different cultures where the vehicle of a metaphor is not present. It is suggested that metaphors are considered apt through the process of categorizing the salient features that are considered structurally similar. This idea is partially consistent with studies that support class-inclusion models which suggest that hearers place the topic of a metaphor in a category in which the vehicle fits. The absence of a domain (whether topic or vehicle) may lead to unacceptability of a metaphor. Lack of cultural background in the use of these words hinders the process of finding a salient feature between them and the counter domain in a metaphor to form an appropriate alignment.

Cognitive processes involved in metaphor aptness

Cognitive processes involved in metaphor aptness

Number of topic-vehicle shared features influences the aptness of metaphors

ABSTRACT This study investigated whether the number of topic-vehicle shared features influences readers’ evaluation of metaphor aptness. Experiment 1 compared the number of topic-vehicle shared features on metaphor aptness. A two topic-vehicle shared features condition showed a higher aptness rating than a one topic-vehicle shared feature condition. Experiments 2 and 3 compared the number of topic-vehicle shared features and unique features on metaphor aptness. The two topic-vehicle shared features condition showed a higher aptness rating than the one topic-vehicle shared feature and the one vehicle/topic unique feature and two unique features condition. There were differences in aptness between the metaphor and simile in a one topic-vehicle shared feature and a one topic/vehicle unique feature condition. Therefore, topic-vehicle shared features determine the aptness of metaphors, and the effect of topic/vehicle unique feature mixed with topic-vehicle shared features were different between metaphors and similes.

Cultural and Cognitive Dimensions of Metaphor Aptness

This paper discusses cultural and cognitive factors that may affect degree pf aptness of metaphors. A given metaphor may have different degrees of aptness across different cultures. Geographical features of the area and the role of base concept in the lives of people are cultural aspects that may affect degree of aptness of a metaphor for people of a culture. A metaphor with ‘lighthouse’ as the base domain would have a higher degree of aptness for people living near the sea compared to people living far away from the sea. Folktale and religion are also important aspects of culture that may have some degree of influence on the aptness of metaphors. In summary, the cultural dimensions of the concepts that are involved in the base and target domains of a metaphor could affect degree of aptness of that metaphor for people of that culture. Finally, the roles of metonymic relations and semantic features in the degree of aptness are discussed.

Is the Social Unrest like COVID-19 or Is COVID-19 like the Social Unrest? A Case Study of Source-target Reversibility

ABSTRACT Hong Kong is undergoing two overlapping crises: social unrest over anti-government protests, and COVID-19. The media has linked these events in both objective and subjective ways. While some liken the social unrest to COVID-19, others do the opposite. This is an intriguing real-world instance of source-target reversibility with interchangeable source and target resulting in two apt variants. This paper reports a survey study of the links between crisis perceptions and the aptness of metaphor variants. Participants (N = 93) rated 30 matched items on the effects of both crises on trust in governance, interpersonal relations, the economy, physical/mental health, and Hong Kong’s future. This determined, for each participant, a correlation coefficient reflecting perceived structural similarity, and absolute/raw difference scores reflecting perceived substantive similarity of the crises. They then explained which (or neither) of two constructed headlines depicting the SOCIAL UNREST as COVID-19 or COVID-19 as the SOCIAL UNRESTwas more apt. Logistic regression analyses showed that i) metaphor aptness was predictable from structural but not substantive similarity, and ii) the worse crisis was preferred as source domain, but only for its more experientially concrete aspects. The study exemplifies socio-culturally situated’ theoretical investigation and how metaphor research can shed light on crisis perceptions.

A study of cross-cultural variations of metaphor aptness and their implications in foreign language teaching

The aim of this study was to investigate cross-cultural variations of metaphor aptness and their implications in foreign language teaching. Two groups of English and Persian native speakers were selected for this study. Three tests were administered. In each item of test one, participants produced a parallel relation for a given relation. In each item of test two, participants made judgment on the acceptability of a metaphor. In test three, participants made judgment on the acceptability of parallel relations. The results indicated that degree of aptness of a metaphor had a significant positive correlation with the number of corresponding parallel relations for that metaphor. Furthermore, degrees of aptness of some metaphors were different for English and Persian native speakers. It is suggested that cultural dimensions of the concepts that are involved in parallel relations in the base and target of a metaphor could affect degree of aptness of that metaphor.

A study of cross-cultural variations of metaphor aptness and their implications in foreign language teaching

The aim of this study was to investigate cross-cultural variations of metaphor aptness and their implications in foreign language teaching. Two groups of English and Persian native speakers were selected for this study. Three tests were administered. In each item of test one, participants produced a parallel relation for a given relation. In each item of test two, participants made judgment on the acceptability of a metaphor. In test three, participants made judgment on the acceptability of parallel relations. The results indicated that degree of aptness of a metaphor had a significant positive correlation with the number of corresponding parallel relations for that metaphor. Furthermore, degrees of aptness of some metaphors were different for English and Persian native speakers. It is suggested that cultural dimensions of the concepts that are involved in parallel relations in the base and target of a metaphor could affect degree of aptness of that metaphor.

Number of topic-vehicle shared significant features influences the aptness of metaphors

Number of topic-vehicle shared significant features influences the aptness of metaphors

The Correlation Between Metaphor Density and the Message Persuasive Power

The article considers the problem of the communicative power of a metaphor, namely, how the density of metaphors in a message affects the persuasiveness of a given message. The author analyzes the research in the field of the speech impact of metaphorical messages, as well as studies that are aimed at analyzing the density of metaphors in the text. An empirical study based on the original technique checks the hypothesis that a larger number of metaphors in the text increases the power of speech exposure. In this case, the relationship of speech exposure with the metaphor perceived aptness is also investigated. As a research methodology, a survey of 80 respondents is used, who, after reading high-metaphorical, low-metaphorical and non-metaphorical texts, should have made a choice. An important feature of the methodology is the fact that the texts used in the experiment were almost identical in content, but at the same time they were distinguished by metaphor density and perceived aptness. The results showed that metaphorical expressions in all cases were more persistent than non-metaphorical ones. The correlation coefficient between the number of metaphors and the persistence of the message was 0.69, and taking into account perceived aptness - 0.73. The main conclusion of the study is that the higher the density of metaphors in the text, the higher the persuasiveness of a given speech message. However, to achieve a high level of speech exposure, the number of metaphors in the text should be consistent with the perceived aptness, that is, the specific density of metaphors in the text is determined by the genre and style features of the speech message. If the level of perceived aptness of metaphors is low, then increasing the number of metaphors has the opposite effect on persuasiveness. Communication with a low level of metaphor aptness becomes less pervasive, despite the number of metaphors.

Appetitive augmental functions and common physical properties in a pain-tolerance metaphor: An extended replication

Relational frame theory claims that the tacit understanding of metaphorical language rests upon our ability to derive relations based on relevant contextual cues; with metaphor aptness being a function of learning history and the number and nature of contextual cues presented. Recent experimental research has explored whether metaphor aptness plays a role in changing behaviour. Sierra, Ruiz, Flórez, Riaño Hernández, and Luciano (2016) demonstrated that the presence of common physical properties (herein common properties; “cold”) within a perseverance metaphor increased pain tolerance to the cold pressor task. When the metaphor also specified appetitive augmental functions (herein augmentals; “something important to you”), pain tolerance also increased. We tested the replicability of these findings under more stringent conditions, using a stratified (by sex) double-blind randomised-controlled experimental design. Eighty-nine participants completed baseline measures of psychological flexibility, cognitive fusion, generalised pliance, and analogical reasoning ability. Participants were then allocated to a pre-recorded audio-delivered metaphor exercise containing either: (i) common properties; (ii) augmentals; (iii) both; or (iv) neither (control condition). Participants completed the cold pressor task before and after intervention. We found no change in pain tolerance following intervention in any condition. Given potential implications for apt metaphor use for changing behaviour, further work is required to establish why the original study's findings were not replicated, to identify boundary conditions for the putative effect, and test metaphor use in ecologically valid settings.

Distinctive Features Influence Perceived Metaphor Aptness and Preference for Metaphor Use

ABSTRACTThe 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.

Aptness and beauty in metaphor

abstractMetaphors are comparisons that link dissimilar conceptual domains. We hypothesized that the aptness of a metaphor is linked to the reader’s experience of beauty, and that age and expertise influence these aesthetic judgments. We had young adults, literary experts, and elderly adults rate metaphors for beauty or aptness. Experimental materials consisted of single-sentence novel metaphors whose familiarity, figurativeness, imageability, interpretability, and overall valence ratings were known. Results suggest that beauty and aptness of metaphors are linked for elderly adults but are orthogonal for young adults and literary experts. Elderly participants seem to conflate emotional content with aptness. Young adults are most swayed by a perceived feeling of familiarity when rating for aptness, but not for beauty. Literary experts are relatively unaffected by the psycholinguistic variables, suggesting an emotionally distanced approach to these sentences. Individual differences in literary training and life experience have varying effects on the aesthetic experience of metaphor in regard to beauty and aptness.

The importance of being apt: metaphor comprehension in Alzheimer's disease.

We investigated the effect of aptness in the comprehension of copular metaphors (e.g., Lawyers are sharks) by Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients. Aptness is the extent to which the vehicle (e.g., shark) captures salient properties of the topic (e.g., lawyers). A group of AD patients provided interpretations for metaphors that varied both in aptness and familiarity. Compared to healthy controls, AD patients produced worse interpretations, but interpretation ability was related to a metaphor's aptness rather than to its familiarity level, and patients with superior abstraction ability produced better interpretations. Therefore, the ability to construct figurative interpretations for metaphors is not always diminished in AD patients nor is it dependent only on the novelty level of the expression. We show that Alzheimer's patients' capacity to build figurative interpretations for metaphors is related to both item variables, such as aptness, and participant variables, such as abstraction ability.

Metaphor Aptness and Conventionality: A Processing Fluency Account

Conventionality and aptness are two dimensions of metaphorical sentences thought to play an important role in determining how quick and easy it is to process a metaphor. Conventionality reflects the familiarity of a metaphor whereas aptness reflects the degree to which a metaphor vehicle captures important features of a metaphor topic. In recent years it has become clear that operationalizing these two constructs is not as simple as asking naïve raters for subjective judgments. It has been found that ratings of aptness and conventionality are highly correlated, which has led some researchers to pursue alternative methods for measuring the constructs. Here, in four experiments, we explore the underlying reasons for the high correlation in ratings of aptness and conventionality, and question the construct validity of various methods for measuring the two dimensions. We find that manipulating the processing fluency of a metaphorical sentence by means of familiarization to similar senses of the metaphor (“in vivo conventionalization”) influences ratings of the sentence's aptness. This misattribution may help explain why subjective ratings of aptness and conventionality are highly correlated. In addition, we find other reasons to question the construct validity of conventionality and aptness measures: for instance, we find that conventionality is context dependent and thus not attributable to a metaphor vehicle alone, and we find that ratings of aptness take more into account than they should.

Computational Exploration of Metaphor Comprehension Processes Using a Semantic Space Model

Recent metaphor research has revealed that metaphor comprehension involves both categorization and comparison processes. This finding has triggered the following central question: Which property determines the choice between these two processes for metaphor comprehension? Three competing views have been proposed to answer this question: the conventionality view (Bowdle & Gentner, 2005), aptness view (Glucksberg & Haught, 2006b), and interpretive diversity view (Utsumi, 2007); these views, respectively, argue that vehicle conventionality, metaphor aptness, and interpretive diversity determine the choice between the categorization and comparison processes. This article attempts to answer the question regarding which views are plausible by using cognitive modeling and computer simulation based on a semantic space model. In the simulation experiment, categorization and comparison processes are modeled in a semantic space constructed by latent semantic analysis. These two models receive word vectors for the constituent words of a metaphor and compute a vector for the metaphorical meaning. The resulting vectors can be evaluated according to the degree to which they mimic the human interpretation of the same metaphor; the maximum likelihood estimation determines which of the two models better explains the human interpretation. The result of the model selection is then predicted by three metaphor properties (i.e., vehicle conventionality, aptness, and interpretive diversity) to test the three views. The simulation experiment for Japanese metaphors demonstrates that both interpretive diversity and vehicle conventionality affect the choice between the two processes. On the other hand, it is found that metaphor aptness does not affect this choice. This result can be treated as computational evidence supporting the interpretive diversity and conventionality views.

Metaphor's validity in marketing research

AbstractUsing metaphor is widespread in management and marketing because it provides creativity. However, metaphor's validity is seldom investigated. This article offers an analysis of the validity of metaphor using three steps: (1) analysis of the metaphor's source concept, (2) analysis of the metaphor's aptness, and (3) analysis of the process of metaphor generation. These three steps have been applied to investigate the validity of two very well‐known metaphors in marketing: product life cycle and brand personality. Results show these two metaphors lack validity when analyzed using the three steps. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Role of Feature Emergencein Metaphor Appreciation

This study examined how emergent features, which are made salient in the interpretation of metaphor, are related to metaphor appreciation. According to an incongruity resolution model of poetic appreciation, the role of emergent features in metaphor appreciation is predicted to facilitate poetic appreciation by constituting a richer interpretation when topic-vehicle similarity is lower. Two experiments demonstrated that this prediction was supported for comprehensible metaphors. In Experiment 1, more emergent features were generated when comprehensible metaphors with lower topic-vehicle similarity were interpreted, and richer interpretations included more emergent features. In Experiment 2, poeticality rating of comprehensible metaphors was positively correlated with richness of interpretation. Furthermore, Experiment 2 found that conceptual aptness of metaphor also affected poeticality of comprehensible metaphors but, in contrast, that only emotive value of metaphor affected poeticality of less comprehensible metaphors. This finding suggests that the process of poetic appreciation may differ between comprehensible and less comprehensible metaphors.

Metaphors and Categories

Despite the obvious affinity between the study of metaphor and the study of categorization, the link between these two fields of research has received little attention in cognitive psychology or in other disciplines. The purpose of the present study is precisely to establish and develop that link between those two research fields. After outlining the main recent developments in the modern study of categorization, focusing on the introduction of ad hoc categories, six major observations made in recent studies of metaphor comprehension (concerning, for example, the distinction between metaphors and non-metaphors, the asymmetry of metaphors, interpretation preference in metaphors, and the aptness of metaphors) are introduced. The main argument holds that these observations can be accounted for in a parsimonious and coherent way by assuming that metaphor comprehension is, in fact, a process of (ad hoc) category formation. The final section relates this proposal to alternative theories.

Effects of categorical dissimilarity and affective similarity between constituent words on metaphor appreciation

This study examines the effects of categorical and affective similarities between the constituent words of sentence (Noun-A is like Noun-B) on metaphor appreciation. In the preliminary studies using 48 words to be used later, the two kinds of similarity were measured separately by either sorting or semantic differential technique. In the main study, a set of five rating tasks concerning three types of formulaic sentences (literal, metaphorical, and anomalous) was given for each of 28 subjects in relation to (a) similarity between the words in a pairing, (b) similarity of the words in a particular formulaic sentence, (c) sentence comprehensibility, (d) sentence novelty, and (e) metaphor aptness. The application of path analysis for the above data revealed the following: (1) Categorical dissimilarity affects novelty [N], (2) affective similarity influences comprehensibility [C], and (3) [N] and [C] affect metaphor aptness.

Reformation Attitudes toward Allegory and the Song of Songs

Common generalizations about Reformation attitudes toward allegory are based on polemical denunciations by reformers of medieval “dialectical” exegesis. But Reformation definitions of the senses of Scripture are basically in accord with the definitions of medieval theologians. The reformers' attempts to draw a radical distinction between typology and allegory never succeeded and Reformation commentaries continued to allegorize, as demonstrated in the numerous Protestant commentaries on the Song of Songs. The crucial difference between medieval and Protestant spirituality in the Song commentaries lies not in their attitude toward allegory but in their conception of the nuptial metaphor, wherein human love symbolizes the love between God and man. Some Protestant commentators deny there is any reference to carnal love at all; those that do not, regard the metaphor as too dangerous for explication. Generally, they see that the aptness of the metaphor lies in the moral, domestic virtues of the marriage contract. In contrast, the mystical tradition of the Song, epitomized in Bernard, sees that the metaphor's aptness lies precisely in the passionate nature of the sexual union: it is the union of two in one flesh that is the most perfect symbol of the love of God.