Metaphorical Statements Research Articles

Addressing the challenge of a “common” Future: The French contemporary mobilizations against injustice in face of the ecological and social emergencies

In face of the ecological and social emergencies, how the French contemporary mobilizations against injustices does address the issue of a fair and sustainable future? We will answer this question from a qualitative survey conducted in 2019–2020 of 130 association officials and activists on social and environmental justice, fight against racism, sexism, and /or speciesism. These mobilisations combine a radical denunciation of inequalities that goes back to their root causes with an attachment to fluidity concerning the “who”, the “what”, the “how” and the “when” of emancipation. We will examine in particular the way in which the emancipated common is part of a radical and fluid renewal of the relation to utopia by promoting both the diversity of tactics (advocacy, civil disobedience, border violence/non-violence) and the making (in) common. The activists interviewed address the link between local alternatives and the advent of a new global order in an elliptical, even enigmatic way, through metaphorical statements – “no big night, but shared gardens”, “the islets will make the archipelagos”.

Metaphors and Realities

ABSTRACT The notion that metaphorical statements are strictly false suggests that all statements, even those that seemed ‘literal’, are false, as none can ‘literally’ reflect reality. Statements about what we perceive or could perceive rely on evoking sensory images of such ‘visibles’, even though we have no direct access to what others, may perceive. In addition to what is visible, we must also deal with ‘invisibilia’ (both the fantasms that respectable moderns now reject and the realities that lie beyond or before all sentient experience). Talking about such distant or long-ago realities must always be ‘metaphorical’, as they cannot have any of the merely ‘subjective’ properties of experience, nor do they explain those latter properties. Is there some way of confirming the brute conviction that there is a ‘real and intelligible world’, and that we can find it out or describe it ‘literally’? May ‘Reason’ be a route to understanding? But this too is an illusion: we seem never in practice to escape contradictions and had perhaps better turn again to consider the worlds of experience to which we are confined. What we experience is conditioned by our imagination: whether that metaphorical imagination points beyond experience remains uncertain.

Metaphor in Biosemiotics and Deconstruction

This article stages a critical-philosophical encounter between Derridean deconstruction and Peircean biosemiotic theory focussing on the role and status of metaphor within each. It argues that the biosemiotic understanding of metaphor as a structuring principle informing the sign-activity of living organisms and processes offers an alternative understanding of a generalised metaphoricity of life as such and an account of what might be called biological text, textuality or even, biosemiotic intertextuality. The article argues that biological textuality obeys a logic of semiotic immanence that is distinct from the logic of différance and of the quasi-transcendental as thought by Derrida. On this basis it elaborates the way in which metaphor in biosemiotic theory, and also the generalised biological metaphoricity informing the text of life, function as radically non-representational, inferential, and hermeneutic operators which model the semiotic processes of life and thereby enable an epistemologically weak or, in a certain sense, non-philosophical realism.

Attention to the source domain of conventional metaphorical expressions: Evidence from an eye tracking study

This study investigates whether the metaphorical status of conventional expressions can be reactivated when elements of the source domain are present in the context. In indirect metaphors the source domain (or literal meaning) is not expressed (e.g., The father cut the budget). The literal meaning of cutting remains latently encoded in the predicate and readers' attention is not required to move from the finance domain to the domain of physical cuts. Such conventional metaphoric expressions are likely to be processed via lexical disambiguation of a polysemous (metaphorical) verb. Using an eye tracking combined with a forced-choice semantic relatedness task we investigated whether by adding linguistic material referring to the source domain (e.g., father cut the budget like grass), we can direct readers’ attention to the source domain of the metaphorical predicate and stimulate them to interpret conventional metaphorical expressions by means of cross-domain mapping. The results indicate that in the reactivated condition participants dwell on the object (budget) significantly longer in their second run and when they regress to it after the final region than where there is no source domain activation. These findings may offer new insight into the limited experimental evidence related to the deliberate metaphor theory.

Gestural Embodiment of Intensifiers in Iconic, Metaphoric, and Beat Gestures.

This study aimed to examine the gestural embodiment of intensifiers in iconic and metaphoric gestures when these words are used with literal and metaphoric statements. We asked a group of Persian native speakers to listen to and then retell a set of Persian stories. In these stories, a number of intensifiers were used with literal and metaphoric sentences. The results showed that when an intensifier was used with a literal sentence, there was a higher probability of using an iconic or beat gesture than when there was no intensifier in the sentence. Also, when an intensifier was used with a metaphoric sentence, there was a higher probability of using a metaphoric or beat gesture than when the sentence contained no intensifier. These results suggested that an intensifier in a literal or metaphoric sentence can strengthen the mental simulation and the embodiment of objects, ideas, or situations. When an intensifier is used with a literal or metaphoric sentence, the strength of activation in the premotor areas may be amplified and spread to motor areas. In contrast, when no such intensifier is used in a literal or metaphoric sentence, there is a higher probability of simulation in premotor areas without spreading to the primary motor areas. The production of an internal force and expressing emphasis are two other possibilities that may explain the higher use of gestures with intensifiers.

Semantic features in English print advertisements: a Xitsonga translation perspective

Authors’ writing styles and diction applied in advertisements give the language a specialised aspect in translation. The translation of advertisements from English into Xitsonga is still undervalued, based on the observation that Xitsonga newspapers prefer to advertise in English. This article explores a corpus of two print advertisements and employs a descriptive qualitative design by document analysis to provide an in-depth analysis of the translation of both metaphoric statements and subtle words from English into Xitsonga. The study is underpinned by the functionalist approach of translation theory to illustrate the dynamic nature of the selected advertisements. The article exposes the confusion, threats, prejudice and linguistic motives of domination by and hegemony of English as the often-hidden attempts to discredit Xitsonga. The question is: How can Xitsonga advertisements be appropriately couched in English semantic features and still make sense to the target reader? The article observes that the translation of advertisements from English into Xitsonga is at the cusp of being declared ‘adaptation’ or ‘transcreation’. However, it posits that since advertising is characterised by persuasive meaning, it requires the translator’s skilful manipulation of the functionalist approach in translation.

Conceptual metaphor activation in Chinese–English bilinguals

AbstractAn episodic memory experiment was conducted to examine whether “conceptual metaphors” influence how metaphorical expressions are processed and encoded into memory. Forty Chinese–English bilinguals read lists of expressions in their L1 and L2. The data revealed that after reading a series of metaphorical expressions based on the same underlying conceptual metaphor, participants falsely recognized new sentences that instantiated the same conceptual metaphor mapping more often than control sentences that did not share this mapping. This false memory effect was robust in both participants’ L1 and L2, with the only difference between languages being that participants showed more memory errors for literal sentences related to the source domain of the conceptual metaphors when reading in their second language (i.e., English). These data suggest that although bilinguals can access the appropriate conceptual metaphors in their second language, they have difficulty inhibiting literal meaning when processing metaphorical statements.

Thomas R. Schreiner. Hebrews

Thomas R. Schreiner. <i>Hebrews</i>

Is theology more of a field than a father is a king? Modelling semantic relatedness in processing literal and metaphorical statements

One major question in the study of metaphors historically is: Are different mechanisms involved in the comprehension of figurative statements versus literal statements? Many studies have addressed this question from a variety of perspectives, with mixed results. Following Harati, Westbury, and Kiaee (Behavior Research Methods, 53, 2214-2225, 2021), we use a computational (word embedding) model of semantics to approach the question in a way that allows for the quantification of the semantic relationship between the two keywords in literal and metaphorical “x is a y” statements. We first demonstrate that almost all literal statements (95.2% of 582 statements we considered) have very high relatedness values. We then show that literality decisions are slower for literal statements with low relatedness and metaphorical statements with high relatedness. We find a similar but smaller effect attributable to the cosine of the vectors representing the two keywords. The fact that the same measurable characteristics allow us to predict which metaphors or literal sentences will have the slowest literality decision times suggests that the same processes underlie the comprehension of both literal and metaphorical statements.

Fictional Narratives as a Laboratory for the Social Cognition of Behavioral Change: My Ajussi

Fictional narratives cannot be considered as mere escapist entertainment, and have a significant social cognition potential. Their study is also important in understanding the mechanisms of behavioral change, as many fictions focus on processes of personal transformation of the main characters. Romantic fictions are of special interest in this regard, as the formation of a new couple entails negotiation and mutual adaptation between partners, with possible transformation of personal attitudes, value orientations, and behaviors: ‘marrying’ a new idea or cause is, tellingly, the strongest possible metaphorical statement of adoption. Korean TV series (K-dramas) are a particularly interesting source of case studies in this regard due to the specific characteristics of their production system. We analyze a K-drama, My Ajussi, where the lead characters go through a complex process of personal change, through the lens of the so-called Tie-Up Theory, which has proven useful in the analysis and interpretation of fictional representations of human mating processes, and show how the context provided by the potential formation of the couple between the two main characters provides us with valuable insights about human behavioral change and for policy design strategies to tackle societal challenges.

#PrayForDad: Learning the Semantics Behind Why Social Media Users Disclose Health Information

User-generated content in social media is increasingly acknowledged as a rich resource for research into health problems. One particular area of interest is in the semantics individuals’ evoke because they can influence when health-related information is disclosed. While there have been multiple investigations into why self-disclose occurs, much less is known about when individuals choose to disclose information about other people (e.g., a relative), which is a significant privacy concern. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework to investigate how semantics influence disclosure routines for 34 health issues. This framework begins with a supervised classification model to distinguish tweets that communicate personal health issues from confounding concepts (e.g., metaphorical statements that include a health-related keyword). Next, we annotate tweets for each health issue with linguistic and psychological categories (e.g. social processes, affective processes and personal concerns). Then, we apply a non-negative matrix factorization over a health issue-by-language category space. Finally, the factorized basis space is leveraged to group health issues into natural aggregations based around how they are discussed. We evaluate this framework with four months of tweets (over 200 million) and show that certain semantics correspond with whom a health mention pertains to. Our findings show that health issues related with family members, high medical cost and social support (e.g., Alzheimer's Disease, cancer, and Down syndrome) lead to tweets that are more likely to disclose another individual's health status, while tweets with more benign health issues (e.g., allergy, arthritis, and bronchitis) with biological processes (e.g., health and ingestion) and negative emotions are more likely to contain self-disclosures.

Опыт применения корпусных методов при изучении метафоры (на материале библейского «корпуса Иоанна»)

This article deals with the application of corpus research methods in metaphorology. The authors evaluate the perspectives of corpus instruments in the context of cognitive linguistics and pedagogy. The authorы present the development of an algorithm for complex analysis of metaphor, including the stages of identification, interpretation and translation of metaphorical statements, as well as identifying their connection with the conceptual bases of thinking. The results of comparative analysis of the implementation of paternity metaphor in the Ancient Greek original and translations into English and Russian of John’s Corpus are presented. The authors have shown that the key words identified by the corpus analysis are representatives of conceptual metaphors determining the author's word usage. A classification of translation models by the criterion of preserving the word — concept connection is proposed. The prospects for adapting the algorithm for studying foreign language and special pedagogy are described separately.

Andrzej Stasiuk, tekstowe figury doświadczenia

The aim of the article is to show the role of various metaphorical practices that are a dominant structural feature of Andrzej Stasiuk’s prose, used to construct his textual reality. Comparisons, metaphorical statements, and enumerations represent textual figures that transform the described experience of the world from the perspective of the speaking subject, subjectivising and constructing reality, rather than merely representing it. In both his novels and feuilletons, Stasiuk relates his experiences of the world in different temporal orders, constructing them on a textual level. Yet his thoroughly subjective prose preserves the conventions of realism. At the same time, Stasiuk quite often refers to the genre of the road novel, both in his fiction and in his journalism. Textual figures of experience are his basic means of describing the presented world.

Who Profits From Global English? Reply to Hultgren

In my reply to Hultgren, I suggest introducing further aspects into the discussion of ‘global English’, like the question not only of ownership of a language but also of ownership and control of the communication channels, the problematic status of metaphors like ‘market’, the connection between global English and the narrowing of the base of available knowledge, the importance of a shared language, and the relevance of the ideology of globalism for discourses of global English.

Аттрактивная функция метафоры в современном англоязычном и русскоязычном финансовом дискурсе

Статья посвящена сопоставительному анализу метафорических высказываний в англоязычном и русскоязычном финансовом дискурсе. Экономика и финансы, будучи взаимосвязаны, разделяют информацию, при этом финансовый дискурс, содержащий сведения о потоке денежных средств, финансовых рынках, доходах, налогах и кредитах, формируется в рамках экономического дискурса. Для концептуализации событий в мире финансов как экономической категории, выражающей существующие в обществе отношения и объединяющей все экономические связи, возникающие в процессе зарождения, распределения, перераспределения и применения денежных потоков, употребляются метафорические выражения, что объясняется стремлением автора дать оценку финансового положения в социуме не при помощи «сухой информации» с обилием цифр, а в образных выражениях. Установлено, что в исследуемых текстах широко используются концептуальные метафоры со сферой-источником «Мир животных». В статье отдельно анализируются фреймы «Птицы» и «Хищники», основанные на метафорическом переносе, свойстве ассоциативности метафоры. Метафоризация финансового дискурса выполняет аттрактивную функцию, привлекая внимание читателей экспрессивностью описываемых событий, проблем в современной экономике. Метафоры, построенные на основе ядра «Мир животных», в яркой форме раскрывают процессы, происходящие в современной финансовой системе, способствуют реализации авторской интенции. В статье представлены характеристики выявленных метафор как ассоциативного механизма для передачи образов политических деятелей, предпринимателей и экономистов, участников финансового дискурса, и осуществления ими денежно-кредитной политики. Проведенное исследование на примере англоязычного и русскоязычного дискурсов позволило подтвердить положение о фундаментальности и универсальности метафоры, проявляющейся в структуре различных языков.

Metaphor Analysis as a Window into How Japanese Entry-level Medical Students Conceptualize Their Future Profession as Physicians

Metaphor analysis is a useful tool for uncovering tacit assumptions and beliefs. In education, metaphor analysis of students' attitudes and motivations can provide useful insights for educational discourse and curriculum development. The current metaphor analysis of Japanese entry-level medical students' conceptualizations of their future profession of physician was conducted to determine what insights might be derived therefrom for medical educational discourse and curriculum development. For the analysis, the students filled in the blanks of a metaphorical statement, A physician is like _____ because _____, and the metaphors thus collected were coded using content analysis procedures. Ninety-one metaphorical statements were included for analysis. Two generic-level conceptual metaphors were identified: the physician as deeply caring figure (49/91, 53.8%), in which metaphors relating to family members were predominant (25/49, 51.0%), and the physician as specially able and skillful figure, in which just over half of the metaphors related to a super being (22/42, 52.3%). The predominantly positive metaphors elicited by this study reflect high levels of idealism in this group of students about to embark on their medical studies. However, the high number of metaphors relating the physician to a super being emphasizes the need for space in the medical curriculum devoted to discussion of the realities of uncertainty and fallibility in medical care. Extrapolating more broadly, metaphor analysis may be used in other areas of the medical profession, such as for exploring values and beliefs about medical practice and for comparing cross-cultural perspectives in medical teams composed of members from different countries.

Stereotype-forming potential of metaphors in creating the image of Russia in German mass media discourse

The paper considers metaphor as a tool of forming and/or maintaining stereotypes about Russia in German mass media discourse. The actualization of stereotypes in media texts plays a key role in creating the image of a country in the mind of the recipient, while researches pay attention to both extralinguistic factors and linguistic ways of introducing a stereotype into the text. Metaphor is one of the effective ways to actualize stereotypes, as it has the ability to influence the perception of information, it can have a strong effect on the recipient, including the formation of his/her world outlook. The author analyzes the implementation of stereotypes about Russia in German mass media through various metaphorical models. The empirical material comprises metaphorical statements selected from online versions of the most popular social and political newspapers and magazines in Germany.

Metaphorical language processing and amygdala activation in L1 and L2

The present study aims to investigate the neural correlates of processing conventional figurative language in non-native speakers in a comparison with native speakers. Italian proficient L2 learners of German and German native speakers read conventional metaphorical statements as well as literal paraphrases that were comparable on a range of psycholinguistic variables. Results confirm previous findings that native speakers show increased activity for metaphorical processing, and left amygdala activation increases with increasing Metaphoricity. At the whole-brain level, L2 learners showed the expected overall differences in activation when compared to native speakers (in the fronto-temporal network). But L2 speakers did not show any distinctive activation outside the caudate nucleus as Metaphoricity increased, suggesting that the L2 speakers were less affected by increasing Metaphoricity than native speakers were. With small volume correction, only a single peak in the amygdala reached threshold for L2 speakers as Metaphoricity increased. The findings are consistent with the view that metaphorical language is more engaging for native speakers but not necessarily for L2 speakers.

Nature in Metaphors as a Manifestation of the Creativity of 9-Year-Old Students. Research Reports

&lt;p&gt;Celem artykułu było ukazanie przyrody w wypowiedziach metaforycznych uczniów w wieku 9 lat. Jako metody badawcze zastosowano narracje oraz wywiad narracyjny. Prezentowane wyniki badań są częścią większego projektu badawczego przeprowadzonego na potrzeby rozprawy doktorskiej pt. „Doświadczanie wartości estetycznych w kontakcie z przyrodą uczniów kończących edukację wczesnoszkolną”. Metafory tworzone przez dziecko są przejawem kreatywności, bogatej wyobraźni i swobody posługiwania się językiem. Metafora jest niejako symbolem „przejścia” między światem rzeczywistym a indywidualnym światem wyobraźni dziecka. W artykule przedstawiono fragmenty narracji badanych uczniów ukazujące ich możliwości metaforyczne wykorzystane do opisu przyrody i doświadczeń przyrodniczych.&lt;/p&gt;

The phenomenon of metaphor in Russian language studies: from the past to the future

The article analyzes the tendencies in scientific views on metaphor in Russian language studies in the past and present with a forecast for the future. Different stages in the study of metaphor, starting from traditional rhetorical approach, going back to ancient rhetorics, to the recognition of the interdisciplinary status of metaphor as one of the universals of language and thinking, the mechanism of generating meanings in the continuum from word to text are identified and described. The author uses methods of explanatory analytical description, critical analysis, generalization, systematization and classification basing on works of leading representatives of traditional and modern Russian language studies (M.V. Lomonosov, A.A. Potebnya, A.N. Baranov, O.N. Laguta, V.A. Maslova, A.P. Chudinov, etc.). The prospects of linguometaphorology (linguistic study of metaphor) as an independent direction of modern linguistics interacting with text/discourse linguistics, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, cultural linguistics and other relevant branches of modern linguistics are noted in the article.