Metaphor Comprehension Research Articles

Metaphor Comprehension in Low and High Creative Individuals.

The comprehension of metaphors involves the ability to activate a broader, more flexible set of semantic associations in order to integrate the meanings of the weakly related parts of the metaphor into a meaningful linguistic expression. Previous findings point to a relation between levels of creativity and efficiency in processing metaphoric expressions, as measured by reaction times (RTs) and error rates. Furthermore, recent studies have found that more creative individuals exhibit a relatively more flexible semantic memory structure compared to less creative individuals, which may facilitate their comprehension of novel metaphors. In the present study, lower and higher creative individuals performed a semantic relatedness judgment task on word pairs. These word pairs comprised four types of semantic relations: novel metaphors, conventional metaphors, literal word pairs, and meaningless word pairs. We hypothesized that the two groups will perform similarly in comprehending the literal, unrelated, and the conventional metaphoric word pairs. However, with respect to novel metaphors, we predicted that higher creative individuals will demonstrate better performance compared to lower creative individuals, as indicated by smaller RTs and more accurate responses. Our main finding shows that higher creative individuals were faster in comprehending both types of metaphors, conventional and novel, compared to lower creative individuals. Furthermore, higher creative individuals were significantly more accurate than lower creative individual only in comprehending novel metaphors. The findings are discussed in light of previous findings regarding the relation between metaphor comprehension, semantic memory, and creativity.

Role of implicit learning abilities in metaphor understanding.

Although the use of metaphors is a central component of language, the processes that sustain their comprehension have yet to be specified. Work in the fields of both metaphors and implicit learning suggests that implicit learning abilities facilitate the comprehension of metaphors. However, to date, no study has directly explored the relationships between the understanding of metaphors and so-called implicit learning tasks. We used a meaning decision task comparing literal, metaphorical and meaningless expressions to assess metaphor understanding and a probabilistic serial reaction time task for assessing implicit learning. Our results show that implicit learning positively predicts the time gap between responses to literal and metaphorical expressions and negatively predicts the difference between metaphorical and meaningless expressions. Thus, when confronted with novel metaphors, participants with higher implicit learning abilities are better able to identify that the expressions have some meaning. These results are interpreted in the context of metaphor understanding and psycholinguistic theories.

Spoken metaphor comprehension: Evaluation using the metaphor interference effect

ABSTRACTThe metaphor interference effect (MIE) is a response time phenomenon wherein judging whether metaphorical sentences are literally true or false takes significantly longer than judging control sentences, indicating simultaneous generation of literal and nonliteral meanings during the integration stage. For written metaphor comprehension, word interactions during early processing, the contribution of working memory and IQ, and processing in clinical populations have been evaluated using written MIE tasks. Despite metaphor prevalence in everyday conversation, however, research aimed at understanding the MIE with spoken stimuli is absent. Our study determined whether the MIE would be elicited for spoken stimuli and compared the spoken and written conditions. In line with our primary objective, we provided evidence, for the first time, of the MIE in the spoken modality. We also found differences between the size of the spoken and written MIE, and for scrambled metaphor sentences. Scrambled metaphor differences may indicate processing differences for spoken versus written meaningless sentences, but this requires further investigation. Results are discussed in the context of metaphor processing.

Hemispheric processing in conventional metaphor comprehension: The role of general knowledge

This study explored the relation between general knowledge and the hemispheric processing of metaphoric expressions in college age students. We hypothesized that prior knowledge influences how the hemispheres process metaphors in these individuals. In this study, 97 young (college-aged) adults completed a general knowledge and vocabulary test, and were then divided into high-knowledge/high-vocabulary and low-knowledge/low-vocabulary groups. Next, participants viewed word pairs consisting of conventional metaphors, novel metaphors, word pairs with a literal meaning, and unrelated word pairs. The first word in each pair was presented centrally, and the second was presented to the right visual field-left hemisphere (rvf-LH) or the left visual field-right hemisphere (lvf-RH), and participants indicated whether each pair was a meaningful expression. Accuracy results showed an interaction between general knowledge and visual-field hemisphere. Low-knowledge participants were more accurate for metaphors presented to the rvf-LH than the lvf-RH, whereas high-knowledge participants showed no accuracy differences between the hemispheres. We also found an interaction between vocabulary and visual field-hemisphere for conventional metaphors. Specifically, low-vocabulary participants showed a left-hemisphere accuracy advantage, but high-vocabulary participants showed similar accuracy patterns in both hemispheres. These results suggest that young adult readers who have more general knowledge process conventional metaphors similarly in both hemispheres, whereas young adult readers who have less general knowledge may rely more heavily on left-hemisphere processes during conventional metaphor comprehension.

He catapulted his words from the dais: An ERP investigation of novel verbal metaphors

Many ERP studies have highlighted greater semantic processing difficulty for novel metaphors than for literal expressions, reflected by a more negative N400. However, most of these findings were for nominal metaphors, and studies have rarely looked at other types of metaphors, such as verbal predicative metaphors, which involve the metaphorical use of verbs in verb/patient expressions. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate the nature and time course of the cognitive processes involved in the comprehension of novel predicative metaphors. Participants were asked to make semantic judgments about metaphorical (“to catapult the words”), literal (“to catapult the stones”) and meaningless (“to color dust”) expressions. Results revealed greater N400 amplitude for meaningless expressions than for either literals or metaphors, and showed that literals and metaphors differed at posterior right electrodes. Late frontal positivity was also observed. This was greater for novel predicative metaphors than for either literal or meaningless expressions at frontal electrodes.

Comprehension of Spatial Metaphors After Right Hemisphere Stroke: A Case Report

Abstract Studying how spatial information interacts with figurative language processing in right-hemisphere (RH) stroke patients is a relatively neglected area of research. The goal of the present case study was to establish whether an ischemic lesion in the right temporo-parietal region causing spatial neglect would affect comprehension of sentence-level spatial metaphors, since some evidence indicates the crucial role of the RH in metaphor processing. The patient under study showed some degree of cognitive impairment (e.g., in spatial and verbal working memory, executive control, visuo-spatial matching skills). However, his comprehension of spatial metaphors was preserved. This case illustrates that RH damage does not necessarily affect comprehension of sentence-level spatial metaphors.

경도지적장애 학생의 은유 이해 특성

연구목적: 본 연구는 경도지적장애 학생의 은유이해 능력을 은유 유형에 따라 살펴보고자 하였다. 연구방법: 언어연령 7-9세 경도지적장애 학생 15명과 이들과 언어연령이 일치하는 일반아동 20명을 대상으로 ‘A는 _ ’로 구성된 문장의 빈칸에 은유적 의미를 형성하는 단어를 고르도록 하는 과제를 실시하였다. 은유 유형으로는 시각, 속성, 심리적 은유가 포함되었다. 각 은유 유형별로 10점 만점으로 채점되었고, 이를 기초로 하여 집단(2) x 은유유형(3)의 반복측정 분산분석을 실시하였다. 연구결과: 집단, 은유 유형에 따른 주효과가 나타났으며 시각, 속성, 심리적 은유 순으로 수행이 높았다. 경도지적장애 학생은 일반 아동과는 달리 속성과 심리적 은유 간에는 차이가 나타나지 않았다. 결론: 경도지적장애 학생들은 은유이해의 어려움으로 숨은 의도나 함축적 의미를 이해하는데 어려움을 겪을 가능성이 있다. 본 결과에 대해 비유 언어 처리과정, 어휘와 세상지식, 추론 등과 함께 논의하였다.

Characterisation and social impact of urban youth languages on urban toponymy: S’ncamtho toponomastics in Bulawayo

This article focuses on the characterisation of S’ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and it goes on to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population of Bulawayo dwellers. S’ncamtho is an urban youth variety that is built on urbanity and streetwise style. The study assumes that, as S’ncamtho is the language of the youth in Bulawayo, people are exposed to S’ncamtho toponyms as the youth are found in all spheres of urban life in Bulawayo, especially the taxi industry which is used by the majority of people in the city. The research collected S’ncamtho verbal toponyms from Godini taxi rank in Bulawayo through undisclosed nonparticipant observations and some from the intuition of the researcher. Intuition and interviews were used to get the etymology of the toponyms and questionnaire tests of familiarity and usage were used to measure the impact of these toponyms on the population. Content analysis is used to characterise and classify S’ncamtho toponyms in Bulawayo and the metaphor comprehension test is used to measure their impact on the population. This article assumes that S’ncamtho has its own toponyms for locations in the city and that these are popular, especially with the youth, but people across age groups now use them.

Enhancing the comprehension of visual metaphors in individuals with intellectual disability with or without down syndrome

This study is the first to investigate the effectiveness of deep and shallow intervention programs in the acquisition of visual metaphor comprehension in individuals with non-specific intellectual disability (NSID; aged 15–59, N = 53) or Down syndrome (DS; aged 15–52, N = 50). The deep intervention program was based on dynamic assessment model for enhancing analogical thinking. The shallow intervention program involves memorizing a metaphorical relationship between pairs of pictures. Visual metaphor comprehension was measured by the construction of a metaphorical connection between pairs of pictures. The results indicated that both etiology groups exhibited poor understanding of visual metaphors before the intervention. A significant improvement was observed in both interventions and both etiology groups, with greater improvement among individuals who underwent the deep processing. Moreover, the latter procedure led to greater generalization ability. The results also indicated that vocabulary contributed significantly to understanding unstudied metaphors and that participants with poorer linguistic abilities exhibited greater improvement in their metaphorical thinking. Thus, individuals with ID with or without DS are able to recruit the higher-order cognitive abilities required for visual metaphor comprehension.

La place de la compréhension des proverbes et des métaphores dans la compréhension des troubles du cours de la pensée dans la schizophrénie : apport de l’évaluation clinique, de l’imagerie cérébrale fonctionnelle et de la neurophysiologie

According to Bleuler (1911), language impairments were indicative of thought disorders, a fundamental feature of schizophrenia. The objectives of the present review are twofold: (1) to present the clinical interest of the use of the tests of proverbs and metaphors comprehension for the evaluation of the characteristics of thought disorders in schizophrenia, and to highlight the heterogeneity of the forms of their interpretations; (2) to present the results from neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies of metaphor comprehension in order to identify the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying metaphorical language comprehension of patients with schizophrenic disorders. Results from the reviewed clinical applications of proverbs tests showed that thought disorders in individuals with schizophrenia are illustrated by different forms of proverb interpretations: literal, concrete, idiosyncratic, over-inclusiveness and unconventional. Results from the reviewed brain imaging and neurophysiological studies showed that these different forms of figurative misinterpretations may be related to different neurocognitive mechanisms: concreteness appears to be related to the dysfunction of the left inferior frontal gyrus and inverted brain lateralization during metaphor processing in individuals with schizophrenia compared to healthy individuals. During novel metaphor comprehension, which is highly effortful, individuals with schizophrenia, relative to controls, demonstrate increased activation of the right precuneus, a region that mediates complex and highly integrated functions including retrieval of episodic memory and mental imagery. These results may suggest that individuals with schizophrenia use mental imagery to support comprehension of both literal and metaphoric language. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that over-inclusive thinking, which is exhibited by individuals with schizophrenia during figurative language comprehension, could be related to very early right hemispheric hyper-activation (when a left early activation is expected) and to reduced bilateral brain activity during semantic processing. Such as reversed brain activation may explain why the individuals with schizophrenia are relatively over reliant on early-stage coarse or large semantic processing and may be prone to form meanings that are idiosyncratic and highly unconventional.

The Comprehension of Familiar and Novel Metaphoric Meanings in Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study.

Miscomprehension of nonliteral (“figurative”) language like metaphors, proverbs, idioms, and ironic expressions by patients with schizophrenia is a phenomenon mentioned already in historical psychiatric descriptions. However, it was only recently that studies did differentiate between novel and conventional metaphors, a factor that is known to influence the difficulty of comprehension in healthy subjects. Further, familiarity with stimuli is an important factor for comprehension, which was not recommended in utmost previous studies. In this study, 23 patients with DSM IV schizophrenia and 19 healthy control subjects performed a newly-developed German metaphor comprehension test with three types of stimuli: novel metaphors, conventional German metaphors, and meaningless statements. During the test procedure, participants indicated familiarity with the stimulus and then matched the meaning with one out of four given alternatives. Familiarity rankings did not significantly differ between patients and control subjects. However, on descriptive level, there was a tendency for healthy controls to be more familiar with conventional metaphors than schizophrenic patients. Further, comprehension of conventional and novel metaphors differed significantly between the groups, with higher performance in healthy controls. Considering only those metaphors that had been ranked as familiar, patients only revealed significant lower performance opposed to controls regarding novel metaphors, while they did not differ in conventional metaphors. Taken together, the results indicate that patients with schizophrenia might show an altered way of comprehension in novel metaphors, leading to more misunderstandings. However, their previously reported impairments in conventional metaphors might rather be due to a lack of familiarity with the stimuli—making conventional metaphors to novel metaphors in the individual case.

Comprehension of novel metaphor in young children with Developmental Language Disorder

Background and aims Difficulties with aspects of morphosyntax, phonology and/or vocabulary are the hallmark of Development Language Disorder (DLD). Yet, little is known about the linguistic-pragmatic abilities of young children with DLD. Previous studies suggest that children with DLD are experiencing difficulties with idioms, sayings and slang expressions, often interpreting them in a literal or unconventional fashion. However, it is unclear whether this is caused by difficulties to make pragmatic inferences in general or whether it stems from their semantic abilities. We therefore investigated novel metaphor understanding in young children with and without DLD. Methods We assessed novel metaphor comprehension using a reference assignment task with 15 children with DLD diagnoses (ages 42–49 months) as well as typically developing peers matched on chronological age (n = 15) and on language (n = 15). Results Children with DLD performed worse than their age-matched peers but in a comparable manner to the (younger) language-matched typically developing children. Performance was not related to non-verbal intelligence in the children with DLD. Conclusion The findings indicate that young children with DLD have difficulties with metaphor comprehension but also suggest that these difficulties are in line with their general language difficulties and linked to their overall linguistic competence rather than reflecting additional specific issues with deriving pragmatic inferences. Implications Our study adds to a growing body of literature showing that children with low language abilities are also likely to display more difficulties in understanding figurative language independently of any other symptomatology of their clinical diagnosis. It also supports the argument that deficits in the pragmatic domain are a secondary impairment rather than a core deficit in children with DLD. Nonetheless, children with DLD do show difficulties in understanding metaphors. Understanding figurative language is necessary for everyday communication and should therefore be targeted alongside traditional treatments by clinicians treating children with DLD.

Cultural and individual differences in comprehension of sports metaphors

Cultural and individual differences in comprehension of sports metaphors

Cultural and individual differences in comprehension of sports metaphors

This paper attempts to find out the effect of controlled input and rate of retention of sports metaphors by Bengali speakers of English over a period of 4 weeks. Metaphors are non-literal expressions that contain culture-specific information that does not correspond with what they state (Cooper, 1998). It has been a constant site of struggle for L2 speakers of English to understand metaphors that readily mean something for a native speaker of English. A metaphor brings up an image in the native speaker’s mind but even an imagable idiom some time fails to conjure up images in the L2 speaker’s mind. (Boers and Deemecheleer, 2001). To address this question, a four-week long research is conducted in order to find out the acquisition and retention of 10 sports metaphors from the specific domains of Baseball and American Football. To conduct the study, The Boers (2004) model have been followed. That is: i) by making the figurative language literal ii) by employing learners’ problem-solving skills for retention of the metaphors, and iii) grouping idioms under a broad metaphoric theme for clearer understanding. The results show that controlled and repeated input along with factors like motivation and frequency have instigated into acquisition and retention of the sports metaphors by the participants.  It also shows that metaphor acquisition is a socio-cognitive process where a learner learns in the context by analyzing contextual clues and by exchanging between several mental domains.&nbsp

Meaning Relatedness in Polysemous and Homonymous Words: An Erp Study in Russian

Previous research showed that polysemous and homonymous words are processed differently. However, mechanisms underlying processing of ambiguous words are still unclear. The goal of the present study was to investigate comprehension of metonymies, metaphors, and homonyms using priming paradigm and the method of event-related potentials (ERPs). We asked participants to read two-word phrases with ambiguous words and make a sensicality judgement. The results demonstrated the difference between metonymic and metaphorical senses of polysemous words in the amount of priming for the literal sense. The priming effect between metonymic and literal senses supports the idea that these senses share a single representation in the mental lexicon. In contrast, metaphorical senses of polysemous words showed a very limited priming effect on literal senses of the same words. Similar results were observed for different meanings of homonymous words. We conclude that metaphorical senses should have separate representations in the mental lexicon similarly to homonyms.

Factors Affecting the Metaphor Comprehension of Intermediate and Advanced Japanese Language Learners from India

Factors Affecting the Metaphor Comprehension of Intermediate and Advanced Japanese Language Learners from India

The Relationship between Working Memory and Metaphor Comprehension in Patients with Right Hemisphere Damage

배경 및 목적: 본 연구는 우반구 손상 환자들이 어려움을 보이는 화용 기능 중 은유이해 특성을 살펴보고, 작업기억과의 관련성을 확인하고자 하였다. 방법: 본 연구의 참가자는 실어증이 동반되지 않은 우반구 손상 환자 12명, 일반 성인 12명이었다. 은유이해 과제는 친숙도를 기준으로 관습적 은유와 새로운 은유로 구분하였으며 각 15문항으로 구성하였다....

EFL Students’ Difficulties in Metaphor Comprehension: A Case from Korean College Students

Metaphors, usually regarded as “culturally-loaded,” are likely to cause more difficulties for readers, especially those from different cultural backgrounds, as shared knowledge is required to fully understand them (Littlemore, 2003). Based on this assumption, this study aims to examine specifically what clues readers use to interpret L2 metaphors and how Korean college students struggle with L2 reading. Through qualitative analysis, this study seeks to identify exactly what makes metaphor-reading easy or difficult for its participants. After completing a questionnaire and a reading task, participants were asked how they responded to the reading task, followed by a semi-structured interview. The findings reveal that in order to infer metaphorical meanings, Korean college students looked at syntactic structure, images of the metaphors, literal translation, and grammatical structure. In addition, culture and context appeared as factors affecting the relative ease or difficulty with which participants understood the metaphors in the reading task. Word knowledge also appeared as another important factor affecting understanding, functioning both as a cue and a hindrance as participants interpreted metaphors. In terms of the pedagogical implications, instructors’ primary focus on easily imaginable metaphors is highly recommended. Then, materials or teaching methods assisting the memorization of them can be also complementarily used.

Метафорические модели коррупции в русском и болгарском медиадискурсе (на материале публикаций СМИ ЗА 2008-2017 гг.)

The article reveals and systematizes ways of metaphorical comprehension of the phenomenon of corruption outside the legal discourse based on the publications of Russian and Bulgarian media in the period from 2008 to 2017. The method of comparative analysis determines the field of coincidence of metaphorical models of political interdiscourse, which demonstrate the similarity of conceptualization of political and social reality. The article defines metaphorical models that are dominant for each of the related languages. It is concluded that formulating the official definition of corruption and state anti-corruption strategy, it is necessary to rely on national features of perception of corruption as a social phenomenon.

Suppression of semantic features in metaphor comprehension

Looking at Glucksberg’s class-inclusion model of metaphor comprehension, this article suggests that metaphorical classes are created by a suppression-oriented mode of comprehension. To give a picture of this mechanism, it draws on a model according to which every metaphorical class is formed by the inhibition of the majority of semantic features and maintaining a very small set of those features. The product of this suppression-oriented mode of comprehension is a broad class which might include a lot of entities. All these entities create a metaphorical class which is defined by one, or at most, a few aspects of meaning. The suppressed aspects of meaning do not have any role in the creation of metaphorical classes. In other words, broad metaphorical classes are produced by a suppression- or inhibition-based mechanism through which the majority of semantic aspects are completely filtered out. Those semantic features which have a high degree of co-occurrence with other semantic features are not good...