Metaphorical Phrases Research Articles

Stylistic Feature of Aref Chahabi’s Lyric Poetry

The current study aims to investigate the linguistic, rhetorical, and ideological aspects of Aref Chahabi's lyric poetry in order to determine its stylistic features. The goal is to pinpoint the most important tactics used to mould the style inside these levels. Aref has creatively used English sounds in the phonetic layer to create musical proportions that are relevant to poetry themes. Aref has also thoughtfully created a unified environment and area to effectively communicate the material through the repetition of vowels and consonants. The person has used a linguistic vocabulary in the lexicon layer, which is primarily made up of identical, frequently occurring terms that are objective in character. With the help of this lexicon's useful correlations with certain meanings and senses, a variety of events and places can be vividly portrayed. Aref's lyric poems hemistiches and verses exhibit a variety of syntactic forms. Generally speaking, the verb comes before other elements of the phrase. This feature of his lyric poetry can be recognized as an important grammatical feature. The poet uses a lot of verbs in the informative mode, which suggests that he is examining his ideas with determination and assertiveness. Sentences with a high percentage of active grammatical voice convey energy, vigour, and a proactive attitude towards being creative and productive in society.
 The writer has utilized rhetorical devices such as figures of speech and metaphors to create striking poetic imagery, bolster the persuasiveness of their arguments, and elicit dramatic situations within their discourse. The author's lyric poems display a wealth of creative and metaphorical phrases that work to communicate the author's higher concepts and ideas, the visual attractiveness of their perspective, and the sophisticated quality of their imagination as they explore the world of meanings and experiences.

Metaphorical Meaning of Taylor Swift’s Reputation Album: A Semantic Approach

Taylor Swift is a famous singer-songwriter, and her songs are enjoyed by people worldwide. One of her well-known works is a studio album called Reputation. This album is composed of many metaphors as figurative language, which is sometimes hard to understand. However, to run the communication well, listeners have to understand the message the songwriter wants through this album. Due to this importance, the researchers studied the Metaphorical Meaning of Taylor Swift’s Reputation Album study. This study aims to examine the meaning of the metaphorical phrases in the album based on Leech’s metaphoric rule and Yule’s meaning theory. The data were analyzed by the qualitative method along with a questionnaire, as a part of the quantitative approach to support data validation, mainly filled by Taylor Swift fans and people who often listened to her songs. The research findings show that all denotative meanings are like the connotative ones in the sense of semantic properties, which are abstract and build patterns. The findings are expected to make listeners better know and understand the metaphors and their meanings in the Reputation Album.

Выразительная модификация терминов в современном законодательном дискурсе (на примере немецкого Уголовного кодекса)

The paper is devoted to the study of various linguistic ways and means acting as textual expressiveness in German criminal provisions. The aim of the research is to identify the expressive capabilities of the legal language realised through an emotional-evaluative component embedded in the semantic content of terminological units in the analysed term system. The authors consider the features of subjectivism as a desire to achieve the aesthetics of a professional translation text enhancing affectivity, which manifests itself in the evaluative perception of certain actions and situations. At the same time, the scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the attempt made allows identifying and analysing the emotional and expressive features of the legal language taking into account the subjective interpretation of the content of legal concepts. As a result of the study, it has been found that the Criminal Code of Germany, despite the objective and dispassionate language peculiar to this form of actualisation of professional scientific discourse, is characterised by the presence of a sufficient amount of expressive vocabulary. The explicit methods of expressiveness verbalisation in this subject area include terminological definitions with a specific emotive meaning, attributive evaluative vocabulary, emphatic and metaphorical phrases.

‘A pretty sublime mix of WTF and OMG’. Four explorations into the practice of evaluation on online book reviewing platforms

The article uses a corpus workbench (Sketch Engine) to investigate practices of evaluation in online book reviews. The reviews were taken from Goodreads, Amazon, bol.com and a number of Dutch online book discussion platforms. We look at tools that have been used to study online book reviews. Then we investigate our own collection of reviews. Findings suggest (1) that online reviews are not just centred on the reviewers’ experiences but include solid discussion of the merits of books; (2) that reviewers of suspense prefer plot and character while reviewers of literary books prefer style and story; (3) that literal and metaphorical phrases referring to the body are often used in describing positive reading experiences; and (4) that positive reviews recount parts of the story, while negative reviews try to explain why the book was a disappointment.

The off-Record Politeness Strategy and Cultural Values of the Belis Negotiation Speech Event: A Sociopragmatic Study

This study aims to find out the language politeness strategies applied by the tongka (spokesperson) and other parties involved in the belis negotiation speech event in the Manggarai community, the Pasat-Ruis dialect, Indonesia. This study used a phenomenological approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with five key informants with experience as spokespersons (tongka) and adequate knowledge of the Manggarai language and culture. Data were analyzed using the interactive model proposed by Miles and Haberman (1992). The study found that the off-record politeness strategy was applied in two patterns; (1) The use of metaphorical phrases to refine the speech. Knowledge and the ability to interpret the meaning of speech through metaphorical phrases is an important aspect that must be possessed by a tongka (spokesperson) by connecting the phrase with the context of its use so that it can be understood and fulfills the elements of Politeness. (2) The use of sopi while conveying speech. The patterns show Politeness and the distinctive and authentic characteristics of Manggarai culture. Meanwhile, the cultural values of the utterances of belis negotiations include kinship, brotherhood, responsibility, appreciation, and respect. Thus, the findings indicate that the spokespersons selected in the belis negotiation process need to consider the knowledge of Manggarai culture and the ability to use metaphorical phrases in cultural speech so that the belisnegotiation process runs smoothly according to the expectations of the two extended families.

Linguistic Metaphor and Its Indications in Nahj al-Balagha

Şerîf er-Radî tarafından derlenen Hz. Ali’ye (r.a) nispet edilen Nehcü’l-Belâga, dil ve belagat çevrelerinde değeri bilindiği için değişik vesilelerle sık sık araştırma ve inceleme konusu yapılmış ve günümüz edebiyat çevrelerinde hala güncelliğini korumaya devam etmektedir. “Belagat yolu” anlamına gelen “Nehcü’l-Belâga”ya Arap dilindeki söz sanatının inceliklerine vakıf olmak amacı ile modern çağ dahil dâhil olmak üzere çeşitli mahfillerde pek çok şerh yazılmıştır. Şerhlerde Nehcü’l-Belâga’da anlamı kapalı kalan lafızların şerh eden tarafından çağın gereklerine göre yeniden yorumlanması sayesinde Arap edebiyatının temel taşlarından kabul edilen bu eserin hep güncel ve taze kalması sağlanmıştır. Eseri şerh edenler mecaz, istiare kinaye vb. söz sanatlarının inceliklerine değinmişlerdir. Biz bu çalışmada Nehcü’l-Belâga lafızlarında meydana gelen anlam kaymalarını göstermeye çalışacağız. Çalışmamızda delalet değişimine neden olan başta lafzın mecazi anlamda uzun süre kullanımı olmak üzere, anlam kayması, anlam daralması ve anlam genişlemesi, somut anlamlı lafızların soyut anlam için kullanılması veya soyut anlamlı lafızların somut anlam için kullanılması gibi lafızların delaletinin farklılaşmasına neden olan etmenleri irdeledik. Başta iki büyük Nehcü’l-Belâga yorumcusu ve şarihi el-Bahrânî ve el-Hûî’nin şerhleri olmak üzere ulaşabildiğimiz yaklaşık yirmi şerhten istifade ettik. Bu bağlamda lafızlarda meydana gelen anlam değişimlerini ayrıca modern dil, anlam ve gösterge bilimin yaklaşımı ile irdeleyip Arap dili bilginlerinin görüşlerine yer vererek meseleyi açıklamaya çalıştık. Çalışmamızın sonucunda gördük ki Nehcü’l-Belâga yorumcuları lafızları hakikat-mecaz çerçevesinde ele almışlardır. Genel yaklaşım bu minvalde olmakla birlikte hangi lafızların mecaz hangilerinin hakikat olduğuna dair genel bir uzlaşı yok gibidir. Fakat lafzın asli anlamına dair yaklaşım klasik bilgin ve yorumculara göre farklılık göstermekte olup modern anlam bilimin yaklaşımı ile çelişmektedir. Nitekim modern anlambilim lafzın aslına bakmaksızın “lafzın yaygın anlamdaki kullanımını” temel alıp buna hakikat bunun dışındaki kullanımı mecaz sayarken; klasik dil bilimcilerinin çoğunluğu ve kimi Nehcü’l-Belâga yorumcusu dil bilgini ise ilk vaz’ı temel alıp, bunun dışındaki kullanımları mecaz saymaktadırlar. Buna göre yaptığımız çalışmada gördük ki lafızların mecaz veya hakikat diye nitelenmesi durağan bir dil anlayışının yansımasıdır. Sanırız bunda Aristoteles’ten beri dil ve edebiyata hâkim olan sabit dil anlayışının da etkisi vardır. Klasik anlayış lafızları ilk vaz’da anlamları sabitlenen mekanik birer cisim olarak görür. Bu sabit anlamda meydana gelen en ufak bir değişimi bu anlayış “lafzın mecaz diye nitelenmesinin sebebi” olarak görmüştür. Lafzın bu mecazi kullanımı asırlar boyu sürse, hatta ilk vaz’daki hakiki anlamı unutulsa bile lafzın bu anlama delaleti hakiki değil mecazi olmaya devam edecektir. Çalışmamızda gördük ki modern dil bilimin yaklaşımına göre, mecaz ve hakikat dile sonradan eklemlenen arızi/geçici birer vasıftır. Dillerde asıl olan lafzın belirli bir anlamda uzun yıllar kesintisiz olarak kullanılmasıdır. Bu sağlanırsa lafız ve kullanıldığı anlam hakikat olmaktadır. Şarihler tarafından dile getirilen ve Nehcü’l-Belâga’da gerçekleştiği saptanan diğer bir gerçeklik, lafızlarda meydana gelen anlam kaymalarıdır. Bu anlam kaymaları lafızların anlamlarında görülen daralma veya genişleme veya lafzın bir duyu alanından (somut-soyut veya tersi) diğerine kayması şeklinde gerçekleşebilmektedir. Lafızların anlam değişimlerinde daralıp genişlemesinde veya somut-soyut gibi delalet alanlarında meydana gelen birtakım kaymalarının ana sebebi lafzın mecazi kullanımının yaygın bir hal almış olmasıdır. Yukarıda tespit ve teyit ettiğimiz, uzun süre tedavülde kalan mecazi lafızların manaya delaletleri hakikat olmaktadır. Lafzın aslı hakikat veya mecaz olsun fark etmez, lafzıdili yaşatan ve koruyan kullanım sıklığıdır. Kullanılmayan lafız hakikat bile olsa zamanla unutulacaktır. Unu-tulduktan sonra ilk vaz’daki anlamın da kullanılsa bile mecaz sayılacaktır. Buna karşın kullanıldığı anlamı mecazi olduğu halde lafız belirli bir süre sonra hakikate katılacaktır. Asıl anlamı kullanılmadığı için unutulacaktır. Bu durum hakikat-mecaz sarmalına hatta bir tür kısır döngüye bile neden olacaktır.

SYNTACTIC METHAPHOR AS ONE OF THE GRAMMATICAL EXPRESSIVENESS MEANS IN POETRY OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Purpose. This article is devoted to the consideration of the linguistic essence of syntactic metaphor as one of stylistic techniques of linguistic imagery and expressiveness, as well as the analysis of the main metaphorical structures – metaphorical phrases and metaphor sentences in the texts of German romantic poets of the 19th century. Scientific originality of the research lies in the common interest of modern linguistics in the study of stylistic expressiveness techniques as well as the lack of study on this subject.
 Method or methodology of the work. The research is based on structural-descriptive, linguistic-ethical and linguistic-stylistic methods of text analysis.
 Results. In the course of the study, it was found that the main type of syntactic metaphor is formed by the definitional metaphorization of adjectival and geпitive phrases, in which the expanded metaphorical translations are based on synesthesia, objectification and denaturalization. A feature of metaphorical sentences is personification and objectification. According to the results of the analysis, it is concluded that the syntactic metaphor in poetic texts expresses the subjective attitude of the poet, gives the meaning a sensual appearance, creates the effect of persuasion, emotional reaction and aesthetic expressiveness.
 Practical implications. The results of the research can be used at the classes of stylistics of the German language, text interpretation, in seminars on the study of features of the language of German poetry.

«Battle of Vaccines» and «Battle For the Vaccine» as a Metaphorical Field of Media Information Struggle

Introduction. In the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, the metaphorical phrases «battle of vaccines» and «battle for the vaccine» were involved in the field of information struggle. Discursive strategies of the media coverage of the processes of production and distribution of vaccines, as it is presented in the discursive practices of using those key metaphors, require special attention from researchers. Relevance of the study. From the standpoint of critical discourse analysis, the use of those metaphors as a reflection of the informational struggle in media discursive practices is considered. The purpose of the investigation is to identify the specifics of their use in the discursive practices of the Ukrainian media in 2020–2021, in comparison with the discursive practices of Russian propaganda regarding the promotion of the «Sputnik V» vaccine. Methodology. Based on the approach of critical discourse study, the analysis of the strategies of using the conceptual metaphors «battle of vaccines» and «battle for the vaccine» in the discursive practices of domestic and foreign media is carried out. The article presents the results of a comparative analysis conducted within the framework of a joint project of an international team of scientists, i.e., an online dictionary «In Other Words – A Contextualized Dictionary to Problematize Otherness». Results. The «battle of vaccines» and «battle for the vaccine» as a metaphorical field of informational struggle demonstrate fundamentally different approaches on the part of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, bring to the fore different priorities and content dominants in official, political, and media discursive practices. The content dominants are determined by the internal and external policy of the state, as well as the editorial policy of the media. Conclusions. In the Ukrainian media environment, discursive strategies of multifaceted critical coverage of the processes of invention, testing and production of vaccines, their testing and distribution, as well as the organization of the vaccination process are involved in the metaphorical field. Information about the «Sputnik V» vaccine which had significant military potential in its content was used by the authorities of the Russian Federation as a weapon of hybrid warfare.

Automatic Sentiment Annotation of Idiomatic Expressions for Sentiment Analysis Task

Users of social media may use words and phrases literally to convey their views or opinion clearly. However, some people choose to utilise idioms or proverbs that are implicit and indirect in order to make a stronger impression on the audience or perhaps to catch their attention by utilising a funny, sarcastic, or metaphorical phrases. Idioms and proverbs are examples of figurative expressions with a thematically coherent totality that cannot be understood literally. In a previous work, the extension of IBM’s Sentiment Lexicon of Idiomatic Expressions was proposed to include around 9,000 idioms; both lexicons are manually annotated by crowdsourcing service. Therefore, in this research, we provide knowledge-based expansion approach to avoid human annotation of idioms. For sentiment classification, the proposed method has the advantage that it does not require any fine-tuning for the BERT model. Experimental comparisons show that the automated idiom enrichment and annotation are very beneficial for the performance of the sentiment classifier. The expanded annotated lexicon will be made available to the general public.

Фразеологія публіцистичних творів В. Яворівського

The article analyzes the phrasemics of V. Yavorivskyi's journalistic works of the early and mature period of his work, reveals the peculiarities of the stylistic use of the phrasemicon in each of them. To realize this goal, the materials for the dictionary of phraseological units used in the works of V. Yavorivskyi, which includes more than 520 vocables (200 stable combinations of words were found in the works of the early period of creativity, 320 were taken from the works of the late period of creativity). However, the specificity of V. Yavorivskyi's journalism is revealed in the fact that a significant role in it is played by stable combinations of words built according to the word combination scheme, the core word of which is a noun, and the dependent word is an adjective, rarely two nouns. By analogy with these stable combinations of words, the author himself forms metaphorical phrases, the main function of which is not so much in nomination, but in expressive characteristics of some kind.

METAFORA ATI ‘HATI’ DALAM BAHASA JAWA

Other than as a communication tool, language is also used as a means of thinking and expressing ideas. Such language functions with regard to language as a cognitive process. The lexical selection in the metaphor is able to embody how human experiences are reflected and how human cognition is described. This research concerns about the Javanesse ATI metaphor. This research intends to describe how the Javanesse people comprehend the concept heart through the metaphor. The data are metaphorical phrases that conceive the heart concept in various texts. The data includes spoken and written text. Thus, the data are analyzed by padan method and PUP technique. It shows that Javanesse ATI metaphor is conceptualized as human, animal, plant, and material.

Plans Versus Political Priorities

Problem, research strategy, and findings Local elected officials play a leadership role in setting plan directions and can jeopardize implementation if they are not committed to plan goals. In this research, we apply topic modeling, semantic networks, and sentiment analyses to Calgary’s (Canada) plans and candidates’ social media communications in the 2017 Calgary municipal election to assess alignments or divergences between plans’ and candidates’ priorities. Though the mayor, ward representatives, incumbents, and challengers prioritized different topics, we find overall support for transit infrastructure, development, and improving the downtown and the municipal tax base. However, candidates showed little interest in environmental issues, growth management, and regional cooperation, which are important plan goals that may not be addressed. The methodology has limitations: Using social media posts underrepresents the views of some candidates; text data processing may miss metaphorical phrases; elected officials’ priorities during campaigns may not determine their actual votes once in office; and this cross-sectional analysis does not capture the ever-changing relations between officials’ priorities, plan-making, and implementation. Takeaway for practice Candidates focused mainly on transit and taxes to the detriment of regional and environmental issues (energy, watershed, and growth management), revealing the incoming municipal administration’s priorities and its potential blind spots. Planners may use this methodology to analyze large text data from both online and offline sources, understand local implementation barriers, explain shifts in municipal policy directions, and engage elected officials to build support for important plan components.

"Colour-Based Phrases in Romanian, Russian and English"

The use of phrases is a linguistic as well as a cognitive act. Phrases contribute to structuring discourse, thus aiding, at a general level, in the conceptualization of essential parts of the world surrounding us. At a more specific level, they play a vital role in understanding the moral and mental behavior of a particular linguistic community and could, therefore, be investigated from the point of view of cognitive linguistics. In this paper, in an attempt to validate this point of view, we will analyze a small corpus of colour-based idiomatic/ metaphorical phrases in Romanian, Russian and English.

AXIOLOGICAL MARKING OF MODERN MASS MEDIA METAPHOR

The article analyzes the metaphor (in a broad sense) functioning in the modern language of mass media. The study was performed in line with accolate pragmatic, in particular through the prism of social not – «one of the main stylistic traits of newspaper and journalistic style, due not only informative but also – mostly – powerful nature of journalistic broadcast» (L. Duskaeva). The aim of the article is – to identify produced and functioning metaphors in the modern mass media language, to determine their axiological potential and ways of its formation. The source base was the dictionary of metaphorical phrases of the Ukrainian press and materials of television and electronic media, which were not included in the dictionary due to its reliable, thematic and time constraints. The analysis attracted more than 4000 metaphors. The study identified implicit and explicit ways of formation of evaluative semantics: explicitating the words, the assessment of which is included in the semantic structure of the word, preserving the evaluative overtones out of context; implications to consider the words, which is observed only under appropriate conditions of context. The means of formation of implicit not consider use of medical, domestic, educational, military, cultural, traffic, sports and other bits of vocabulary, each of which is in the process of metaphorization gets its unique flavor axiological; the formation of axiological opposition «own / someone else», «old / new». The lexical system of the language of mass media has an open character, the relative constancy can be determined only for a certain period, which is due to the constant need (relevance) of its study, and hence the prospect of further research. Therefore, the analysis of mass media metaphors in the axiological aspect is a synchronous section of the study of the vocabulary of mass media in 2000–2019.

Metafory w badaniach edukacyjnych – propozycja metodologiczna

The aim of the article is to present a methodological approach of implementing metaphor analysis in educational research. Having characterised some examples of pedagogical empirical projects, including the research conducted by the author of the article, three levels of the metaphors’ epistemological conceptualisation are described. The first of which is the dimension of fairly individualistic nature called the cognitive dimension that outlines the fact that cognitive processes are very much metaphorical in nature, as well as strengthens the difference between the cognition of literal and metaphorical phrases. The second level of metaphor analysis is connected with intersubjectivity of metaphors which are collectively shared and distributed within a given culture. They are not, however, simply something that characterise a given group of people but predefine the relations and, as a consequence, influence the acts and behaviours of social actors. Critical metaphor analysis, being the third described perspective, shows that metaphors can be treated by the researchers as a form of tacit knowledge redistributed and mediated culturally and therefore might be explored in the search for hidden mechanisms of social positioning and disclosing power relations in given structures.

‘Brandspeak’: Metaphors and the rhetorical construction of internal branding

Metaphorical phrases appear frequently in practitioner and academic texts on internal branding and depict employees as ‘brand ambassadors’ who ‘embody the brand’ and ultimately turn into ‘living brands’. In this article, I examine how these metaphorical phrases rhetorically construct the concept of internal branding and thereby also impact our thoughts on organizations, employees and their relationships to one another. The findings show that complex metaphorical phrases provide linguistic framing for internal branding and simultaneously convey conflicting messages to different stakeholder groups. These metaphors describe internal branding as empowering employees to be autonomous and encouraging them to take control over the brand, whereas connotations paint a picture of employees being controlled by the brand. This article contributes to studies on internal branding, branding more generally, and on language in critical management studies by highlighting that internal branding metaphors point to a hidden value system that values brands higher than employees. This value system reflects tensions around the increasing financial value of brands and increasingly precarious working conditions.

Hand matters: Left-hand gestures enhance metaphor explanation.

Research suggests that speech-accompanying gestures influence cognitive processes, but it is not clear whether the gestural benefit is specific to the gesturing hand. Two experiments tested the “(right/left) hand-specificity” hypothesis for self-oriented functions of gestures: gestures with a particular hand enhance cognitive processes involving the hemisphere contralateral to the gesturing hand. Specifically, we tested whether left-hand gestures enhance metaphor explanation, which involves right-hemispheric processing. In Experiment 1, right-handers explained metaphorical phrases (e.g., “to spill the beans,” beans represent pieces of information). Participants kept the one hand (right, left) still while they were allowed to spontaneously gesture (or not) with their other free hand (left, right). Metaphor explanations were better when participants chose to gesture when their left hand was free than when they did not. An analogous effect of gesturing was not found when their right hand was free. In Experiment 2, different right-handers performed the same metaphor explanation task but, unlike Experiment 1, they were encouraged to gesture with their left or right hand or to not gesture at all. Metaphor explanations were better when participants gestured with their left hand than when they did not gesture, but the right hand gesture condition did not significantly differ from the no-gesture condition. Furthermore, we measured participants’ mouth asymmetry during additional verbal tasks to determine individual differences in the degree of right-hemispheric involvement in speech production. The left-over-right-side mouth dominance, indicating stronger right-hemispheric involvement, positively correlated with the left-over-right-hand gestural benefit on metaphor explanation. These converging findings supported the “hand-specificity” hypothesis.

Prayers for the Community: Parallelism and Performance in San Juan Quiahije Eastern Chatino

Prayers for the Community:Parallelism and Performance in San Juan Quiahije Eastern Chatino Hilaria Cruz (bio) Introduction This essay examines parallelism and other essential features of ritual discourse in San Juan Quiahije, Eastern Chatino. The Chatino languages are spoken in the highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico. The essay focuses on the poetic and discursive features found in two impromptu prayers within a corpus of civic/religious ritual petitions that the members of the community refer to as La42 qin4 kchin4,1 or "Prayers for the Community."2 The "Prayers for the Community" are part of a ritual carried out regularly by elders and traditional San Juan Quiahije (SJQ) authorities in their official capacity as community representatives. These dignitaries come together at dawn on the first day of each month and on high holidays—the most important feast day is that of the patron saint of SJQ, Saint John the Baptist, June 24th—to petition for the well-being of the entire community, and especially for the younger generations. Both of the petitions analyzed in this essay were made at the same ceremonial event on June 24, 2009 at 5:00 a.m. in the Catholic church. The prayers were said by Simón Zurita and Wenceslao Cortés, two elders from the SJQ community. On the evening prior to the prayers, a group of municipal envoys visited select elders of the community, including Simón Zurita, and formally invited them to join the municipal officials and participate in the worship. Wenceslao Cortés, serving his final elected position in the SJQ municipality, had instructed the envoys to invite the elders to the ceremony. The elders who agreed to accompany the authorities to the ceremony were instructed to come to City Hall at around 4:15 a.m. to begin the ritual. A total of six elders participated in the petition and began to arrive at City Hall by 4:00 a.m. At 5:00 a.m. the group walked together from City Hall to the church. Upon arriving at the doorsteps of the church, they all knelt and crossed themselves. Then all proceeded to walk on their knees for three to four minutes toward the main altar holding the offerings in their hands while reciting their individual prayers. The church attendants (catechists), lower ranking authorities (including helpers of City Hall), and members of the community who wished to be blessed by the elders' supplications were present at the church. Upon concluding their prayers, the community representatives stood in a row facing the church door, clutching their candles and flowers, in order to allow residents to touch and kiss the offerings they had brought for their petition. The petitioner's goal is to move and persuade the spiritual intermediaries (such as saints and ancestors) to grant his wishes. Translation is as much an art as a science. Literary and cultural translations are challenging because cultural concepts frequently do not map one to one from one language to the next. When translating a poetic text, the translator must take into account the different layers of meaning in the source text including aesthetics, phonics, and polysemy (Barnstone 2010:4). These challenges are exacerbated when the source and target languages come from completely different language families. For example, Chatino and English idioms and metaphorical phrases have very little in common. One of the challenges I encountered when I translated the two prayers studied here is that Chatino poetics make extensive use of positional and existential predicates to achieve poetic tension, imagery, and metaphor. Verses 1-2 of example (7) illustrate this point. The positional expression tyi20 ton1 literally means "s/he or they will stand," and tyi20 tqen24 means "s/he or they will exist or spread out on the ground." However, in this context these expressions are being used metaphorically to express that the new generation will one day take charge and step up and stand for the community. For this reason I have chosen to translate these expressions as "now they are about to rise up and now they are about to establish themselves," to convey the movement and agency that form part of the...

Element Order in Metaphorical and Literal Phrases

The present study examines the role of a noun’s concreteness in determining the order of nouns within literal and metaphorical conjunction constructions. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, 45 participants were asked to recall sentences with canonic and non-canonic order. In Experiment 2, 41 participants performed a lexical decision task to the final word of a canonic or non-canonic sentence. The results show that concreteness plays an important role in recalling word order in both literal and metaphorical sentences. In addition, canonic metaphorical sentences were processed faster than were non-canonic metaphorical sentences. Our findings suggest that concreteness affects element order in conjunction constructions but that the effect of concreteness is more pronounced in metaphorical phrases. These findings are discussed in the context of the class inclusion framework (Glucksberg & Keysar, 1990).

Metaphor Identification in Large Texts Corpora

Identifying metaphorical language-use (e.g., sweet child) is one of the challenges facing natural language processing. This paper describes three novel algorithms for automatic metaphor identification. The algorithms are variations of the same core algorithm. We evaluate the algorithms on two corpora of Reuters and the New York Times articles. The paper presents the most comprehensive study of metaphor identification in terms of scope of metaphorical phrases and annotated corpora size. Algorithms’ performance in identifying linguistic phrases as metaphorical or literal has been compared to human judgment. Overall, the algorithms outperform the state-of-the-art algorithm with 71% precision and 27% averaged improvement in prediction over the base-rate of metaphors in the corpus.