Positive Metaphors Research Articles

Conceptual Metaphors and Image Schemas in the conceptualization of Neoliberalism and Socialism in Presidential Inauguration Speeches. An infometric approach

Introduction: This study explores how neoliberalism and socialism are conceptualized through image schemas in political discourse. These conceptual frameworks are best analyzed using the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, specifically its analytical tool of image schemas. The metaphorical structures identified in the analyzed texts reflect a polarized stance, particularly opposing right-wing ideologies. Neoliberalism is metaphorically framed as something negative, associated with darkness, evil, and positioned downward. Objective: To analyze how neoliberalism and socialism are conceptualized in political discourse using image schemas. Methods: The study employed a bibliographic review to collect and analyze political texts, focusing on metaphorical language. Articles were selected based on relevance and discarded if they lacked clear metaphorical usage or did not align with the research focus. The analysis utilized the Conceptual Metaphor Theory to identify image schemas in the discourse. Development: The study highlights that the conceptual metaphors present in political discourse shape public perception by framing neoliberalism as inherently negative, using metaphors of darkness and downward movement. Conversely, socialism is portrayed through positive metaphors, symbolizing light and upward movement. This metaphorical polarization reflects broader societal and political divisions, where language reinforces ideological opposition. Conclusions: The study concludes that political discourse consistently uses conceptual metaphors to portray neoliberalism negatively and socialism positively. These metaphors contribute to reinforcing ideological divisions, emphasizing the role of language in shaping political perspectives. The objective of understanding these conceptualizations was met through the identification of recurring metaphorical patterns

Perception Of The Concept Of Death Among Children, Young And Older People And The Comparison Of These Perceptions: A Qualitative Study

Death is one of the most important concepts that make life meaningful and it is the inevitable end. From the moment we are born, we are one step closer to death with every passing second, and this creates the stage of consciousness that enables people to connect and make sense of life more tightly. Death, which means the definitive end of life, has been seen as an important event in all societies and in every period of life. The purpose of the current study is to determine and compare the perceptions of children, young people and older people about death through metaphors. The study is a qualitative research. A total of 192 people, 57 children, 63 young and 72 older people, determined on a voluntary basis constituted the sample of the study. A questionnaire form consisting of open-ended questions was used in the study. Descriptive analysis technique, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the analysis of the data. It was tried to determine with which metaphors the participants would present their perceptions of death and the common characteristics of the metaphors that would emerge. In the evaluation of the data obtained, content analysis method was used in accordance with the qualitative research design. According to the research findings, 29 metaphors were produced by the children, 37 by the young people and 46 by the older people to express the concept of death. The children compared the concept of death most with old age, sadness, grave, accident, earth, sleep, ending, separation; the young people compared it most with beginning, extinction, exam, loneliness, longing, leaf, fear and the older people compared it most with migration, destiny, happiness, reunion, longing, salvation, bridge. The children predominantly expressed death with negative metaphors, the young people used lively metaphors drawn from life experiences while the older people often portrayed death with positive metaphors. The metaphors created by the children, young and older people were categorized into groups. The metaphors generated by individuals regarding the concept of death and the categories formed from these metaphors reveal how the concept of death is perceived..

On Singing Metaphorical Perceptions of Conservatory Students

Today, the perceptions of individuals who are performing the teaching profession are very considerable. The objective of this research is to examine the metaphorical perceptions that conservatory students have regarding the concept of singing. The study is a qualitative study, and the data is examined by content analysis. As a data collection tool, eighty-two conservatory students were asked, ‘Singing it is like....... Because......’ They were asked three times to complete the sentence. In accordance with the results of the study; the number of metaphors produced by conservatory students are forty-two and all are valid. The created metaphors are collected in nine diverse categories. By the results of the study, it was observed that the conservatory students who participated in the study produced metaphors frequently in the categories of freedom, breathing, life, and heart. It was seen that the participants mostly created positive metaphors concerning the singing.

Turkish Language Prospective Teachers’ Perceptions of Metaphors Regarding Artificial Intelligence

The concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) initially emerged as a term in the field of computer science. In the subsequent years, this concept transcended its origins and became relevant across various domains of human life. Nowadays, it’s possible to encounter AI in nearly every aspect of human life. In this context, it’s considered noteworthy to examine individuals’ metaphorical perceptions of AI. Accordingly, the purpose of the research is determined as the investigation of Turkish prospective teachers’ metaphorical perceptions of AI. Phenomenology, a qualitative research method, is employed in the study. The study group consists of 115 voluntary Turkish prospective teachers, 94 of whom are female and 21 are male, studying at the Faculty of Education at Artvin Çoruh University. Among the prospective teachers, 36 are first-year students, 37 are second-year students, 26 are third-year students, and 16 are fourth-year students. Data for the research are collected through semi-structured interview forms prepared by the researchers. Content analysis method is used for data analysis, and the data are presented by tabulating them along with frequency values. The analysis reveals that 115 Turkish language prospective teachers produced a total of 110 metaphors. Among these metaphors, 21 belong to male prospective teachers, while 89 belong to female prospective teachers. Metaphors such as human (f19), robot (f10), future (f4), ocean (f3), storm (f2), spring (f2), assistant (f4) are found to be generated by both female and male prospective teachers. In addition to positive metaphors, Turkish language prospective teachers also generated negative metaphors like threat (f2), massacre (f1), monster (f1), etc., concerning AI. Consequently, although Turkish language prospective teachers developed some negative metaphors, it’s observed that their perceptions of AI are predominantly positive.

Semiotic Interpretation of Literary Metaphors in Henry James’ Psychological Fiction under the Semantic Association Network Modeling

Abstract Henry James enriched the representation of realism with the aesthetic practice of psychological realism theory, and his literary metaphors revealed the colorfulness of the human consciousness field. In this paper, under the background of semiotics, based on two algorithms, Semantic Association Network, Associative Component Analysis, and Dependent Syntax, we constructed a tensor representation model of literary text, extracted the symbolic information of sentences in the scholarly text, and combined the information of textual words through the association coefficients for the tensor representation of sentence metaphors. Quantitatively calculating the metaphoric semantics in the extracted literary sentences is followed by labeling and recognition of the literary sentences based on the metaphoric information. Take Henry James’, the Aristocats as an example and interpret the symbolic information in it using the model constructed in this paper. The symbolic scene of the “garden” in the novel represents the meaning of innocence and simplicity, which has the highest conceptual similarity enhancement of 3.415. Most of the emotions behind the readers’ evaluations of Henry James’s novels have positive metaphors, and the favorable rating range is mainly concentrated in the range of 0-100. In Henry James’s novels, the emotional metaphor of “repression” is more characteristic than other metaphors, with a maximum of 1.896. This paper investigates the interpretation of metaphors in Henry James’s novels, which can assist in the comprehension of the books.

ՏՆՏԵՍՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ ՀԻՎԱՆԴ ՕՐԳԱՆԻԶՄ Է ՓՈԽԱԲԵՐՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՀԱՍԿԱՑԱԿԱՆ ԱՐՏԱՊԱՏԿԵՐՈՒՄԸ / CONCEPTUAL MAPPING OF «ECONOMY IS A SICK ORGANISM» METAPHOR

The aim of the article is to study the conceptual mapping of the metaphor ECONOMY IS A SICK ORGANISM within Armenian economic discourse. The primary goals of the study encompass analyzing the semantic-structural characteristics of the source domain "sick organism" and exploring the cross-domain mappings of metaphorical patterns derived from the conceptual domains "sick organism" and "economy." The topicality of this article arises from the increasing scholarly attention to conceptual metaphors within economic discourse, both as cognitive instruments and as influential tools for manipulation. The selection of linguistic analysis methods is justified by the nature of the examined data and the research objectives. The examination of the material was carried out through linguistic descriptive analysis and contextual analysis. The research findings led us to conclude that the metaphor ECONOMY IS A SICK ORGANISM gains increased relevance in the press during periods of external economic shocks such as pandemics or wars. The primary intent behind employing this metaphor in press publications is to elucidate the country's economic condition to the non-professional audience through the most familiar source domain ("sick organism"). Throughout the phases of economic crisis, negative metaphors predominated, depicting the economy as weak and vulnerable, with symptoms similar to diseases. Conversely, during post-crisis periods, positive metaphors emphasizing economic recovery become more prominent.

Hemşirelik Öğrencilerinin Mesleki Algılarının Metafor Analizi Yöntemiyle Belirlenmesi

In this study, it is aimed to determine the perceptions of first and fourth year nursing students about the nursing profession by using the metaphor analysis method. Qualitative research design was used in this study. The study was conducted in the Nursing Department of a university. The study was concluded with data obtained from 87 nursing students. Purposive sampling method was used in the selection of the sample and this sampling method; The data were analyzed through metaphor analysis. The data were collected between September 15 and September 30, 2022 in the classroom environment with Personal Information Form and Semi-Structured Interview Form. To ensure good quality in presenting the study, the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) was used as a guide. Fifty two first-year nursing students and thirty five fourth-year nursing students participated in the study. Forty six different metaphors related to the "nurse" profession were forming by the first and fourth year nursing students, and these metaphors were classified under two categories as positive and negative according to their common aspects. It was observed that fourth-year nursing students used positive metaphors regarding the concept of nursing more frequently than first-year students. Nurses; in clinical practice, students should use effective communication techniques and have good observation skills in order to positively affect their perceptions of the nursing profession.

Elementary school students' metaphor perceptions of foreign students

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the metaphor perceptions of Turkish students who have foreign students in their classrooms about foreign students. In the study, phenomenology design was used as the qualitative research method. Criterion sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used to determine the study group. In the selection of the participants in this study, the main criterion was the presence of Turkish students with foreign students in their classrooms. According to this criterion, a total of 84 primary school students constituted the study group. As a data collection tool, two sentences were used as the data collection tool: "In my opinion, foreign students are like .... Because ..." form consisting of two sentences was created. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data. According to the findings obtained from the analysis of the collected data, a total of 39 metaphors were produced in the study group. These metaphors were categorized as positive and negative. While the positive metaphors of the students were divided into 6, that is, categories diversity, kind-heartedness, equality, industriousness, beauty and protectiveness, no negative metaphors were found. It can be concluded that Turkish students who have foreign students in their class have positive perceptions towards their foreign friends. In order to enrich and reinforce positive perceptions, value-sensitive education plan practices are recommended.

Par dažām vakcīnas pret Covid-19 apzīmēšanai lietotajām metaforām

The article deals with metaphors that have positive emotional connotations and those that are connotationally negative, as were used during the COVID-19 pandemic to label the vaccine against this disease and helped officials, journalists, social media users and commentators of articles on internet portals to create a positive or a negative attitude of the society towards the vaccine. The study contrasts metaphors that characterize the vaccine as something desirable, expected (saved lives, a ray of hope, etc.) or a means (tool) to achieve something desired (magic wand, magic ticket) vs. dysphemistic metaphors that describe the vaccine as a low-quality, unnecessary, dangerous thing, including gastronomic ones (instant soup, kefir, porridge, foul drink, etc.) and names of deadly things (poison, death, cancer dose, euthanasia load; poisoner, killer, etc.). The article does not discuss vaccine designations, in which the author of the article does not see any figurative, metaphorical meaning (for example, a chip, a trigger for a lurking disease) or where the meaning is not readily understood (for example, the biblical mark of the beast), although such designations with negative connotations have been used to form a negative attitude towards the vaccine. Connotationally positive metaphors describing the vaccine as something desirable that were used in an official communication to generate positive opinions have been found to have hallmarks of the solemn emotional expressive style, but metaphors that define the vaccine as a means for achieving something desirable and used in informal communication have been used with ironic emotional expression, thereby contributing to a negative treatment of the vaccine. Dysphemistic metaphors show only a negative attitude towards the vaccine, a delicately hidden or incisive jab, a typical attribute of the ironic or satirical emotionally expressive style. Such metaphors also contain informal vocabulary (colloquialisms, slang and jargon words, vulgarisms) and dialectal words with a negative connotation. This is also a feature of both the ironic and the satirical emotionally expressive styles. The Lithuanian and German examples for the groups of metaphors discussed in the article show that such metaphors are not exclusive to the Latvian language alone.

Eliciting Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Views on Coursebooks Through Metaphorical Language

Unearthing pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards coursebooks might well have important implications both for pre- and in-service teacher education since of all the wide range of materials used in English language teaching (ELT), coursebooks are still the most widely used materials in school settings. In this regard, this study aims to surface pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ beliefs on coursebooks through metaphorical language. Data gathered from 129 Turkish pre-service teachers of English are presented and discussed in the present study. Qualitative content analysis was employed in this study to analyze the metaphors provided by the pre-service EFL teachers. The participants produced 70 different metaphors for coursebooks and data analysis revealed seven conceptual categories: Guidance, Resource, Support, Access to New Opportunities, Worthlessness, Restrictions and Boredom. The participants produced mostly positive metaphors for coursebooks and saw coursebooks as a support and guide for language education.

IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS FOR COUNSELING PROFESSION: METAPHORICAL PERCEPTIONS OF CANDIDATE COUNSELORS

This study was conducted for analyzing metaphors stated by preservice counselors about the importance of ethical rules for field of counseling. The qualitative method were used for analyzing metaphors and convenience sampling technique were used for determining participants. 79 preservice counselors (45 females and 34 males) who were studying last year at department of guidance and counseling were the participants. An open-ended question form were conducted for qualitative data and the responses were taken in written form. After analyzing the responses, metaphors were grouped as themes and frequency and percentage of these themes were determined and found out that 75 metaphors were produced regarding counseling career ethics. These metaphors were categorized as four themes according to meaningful similarities among them. These themes are “sense of morality”, “keeping the justice”, “showing the path” and “providing information”. Moreover, it was determined that most common metaphors which preservice school counselors produced were moral (n=5), compass (n=4), moral rules (n=3), scales (n=3), traffic light (n=3). Because preservice counselors have produced meaningfully positive metaphors for counseling profession, it is obvious that preservice counselors are aware of that taking action according to the principles of career ethics is necessary for practices related with counseling profession.

Stoma Perceptions of Adults with an Ostomy: A Metaphor Analysis in a Single Center.

To use metaphor to evaluate stoma perceptions among adults with ostomies to conceptualize and portray their lived experiences using a figurative approach. A qualitative research design was used. Participants were 27 adults with an ostomy who were followed up in the stoma therapy unit. Individuals were included in the study if they had had a temporary or permanent ostomy for at least 2 months and spoke Turkish. Participants were asked to complete the sentence: "Stoma is like…/similar to… because…." The researchers used content analysis to evaluate participants' responses. Interpretation of the metaphors developed by participants was carried out in five phases: coding, example metaphor compilation, theme development, ensuring trustworthiness, and transferring. Participants expressed a total of 17 unique and 10 repeated metaphors for the concept of "stoma." These metaphors were grouped under three different themes: positive (lifesaving), negative (punishment/enemy), and neutral (temporary/necessity for life). The most commonly used metaphors were life, savior, comfort, difficulty, fear, punishment, and necessity. Individuals with an ostomy mostly had negative metaphorical associations with stomas. The authors recommend that hospitals implement multifaceted interventions to bring positive metaphors to individuals with ostomies.

OVERVIEW OF ONLINE SHOPPING THROUGH METAPHORS DURING THE PANDEMIC PERIOD

With this study, it is aimed to examine the metaphorical perceptions of the teachers participating in the research regarding the concept of "online shopping" during the pandemic period. In the literature review we conducted, no metaphorical research was found to determine the perceptions of teachers about the concept of online shopping of any person or institution.
 
 A total of 138 teachers, who are the teachers of our school as a participant group, constitute the research. The teachers participating in the research were asked to complete the statement "Online shopping is like/similar to………… because……" in order to reach the findings regarding the teachers' use of online shopping during the pandemic period and the metaphors they have regarding the concept of online shopping, through an online form. Of the 138 teachers participating in our research, 131 of the questionnaire forms were evaluated; The metaphors produced by the teachers for the concept of online shopping were first categorized under 2 main headings as positive metaphors about online shopping and negative metaphors about online shopping, and after this categorization, positive metaphors about online shopping were divided into 6 different categories; Negative metaphors were grouped into 3 different categories. According to the results of the research, 70.2 of the metaphors used by teachers for online shopping were in the positive category and 29.8 in the negative category. In the positive metaphor category, food, poetry, friend, need; In the negative category, it was seen that the themes such as swamp, closed box, poison, laziness were emphasized.
 
 Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in the analysis and interpretation of the data obtained at the end of the study. The process of analyzing and interpreting data; It was carried out in five stages: (1) coding and elimination stage, (2) metaphor identification stage, (3) category development and classification stage, (4) validity and reliability stage, and (5) transferring the data to the SPSS package program for quantitative data analysis.
 
 After the findings obtained from the research were categorized, they were also evaluated in terms of gender, age and professional experience variables; It has been observed that a total of 9 metaphorical categories, positive and negative, created by teachers regarding the concept of "online shopping" during the pandemic period differ in terms of these variables.

Mental Images of Nurses with and without Patient with COVID-19: A Metaphor Study

Abstract Introduction: The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of nurses who had COVID-19 disease and recovered and who were not sick through metaphors. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out with 50 nurses who were recovered from COVID-19 disease and 50 nurses who were not sick during the pandemic process who were working as nurses in a university hospital 3 months after the first wave of pandemics started in Turkey. The study is the qualitative research, which is as data collection technique, metaphors were used. The data collection form consists of six questions containing personal information and one metaphor question. The metaphors developed by nurses regarding the “COVID-19 disease” and the common features of these metaphors were tried to be determined. The content analysis was made. Results: It was determined that the answers given by the nurses were total of 75 metaphors in seven categories. It was determined that all of the metaphorical perceptions of the nurses regarding the “COVID-19 disease” were negative metaphoric perceptions, and the meanings of the metaphors that were seen as positive metaphors such as marriage, friend, life partner, love, hope under the emotions main theme, and relationship/moods sub-theme were negative when the content was examined. Conclusion: The results show that the metaphors expressed by the nurses include pessimism and negativity. This study reflects the ideas of nurses working with all their strength during the COVID-19 pandemic and puts forth the psychological state of nurses.

The Views of Undergraduate Students and Faculty Members: Distance Education during COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to examine the views of undergraduate students studying in and their faculty members teaching in distance education during COVID-19 pandemic. The sample consisted of 35 undergraduate students and 34 faculty members. The 'typical case sampling' method was used for selection of participants from different faculties of a foundation trust university in Türkiye. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation (until no new information was obtained from participants). Data was collected through online focus group interviews. Data was analyzed inductively by repetitive data collection cycles, data coding with multi-step processes and comparative analysis. Findings revealed negative, neutral and positive metaphors which described distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, these metaphors indicated the existence of a continuum in the form of three higher order categories including the Experience of Loss, Transformation and Neutrality under which a number of themes and sub-themes were present. The present findings present a user-derived evidence base for improving distance education and therefore these findings could be considered as targets for systems aiming at improving distance education that would be delivered in the future in similar difficult circumstances.

Preschoolers and Adults Learn From Novel Metaphors

Although adults use metaphors to guide their thinking and reasoning, less is known about whether metaphors might facilitate cognition earlier in development. Previous research shows that preschoolers understand metaphors, but less is known about whether preschoolers can learn from metaphors. The current preregistered experiment investigated whether adults (n = 64) and 3- and 4-year-olds (n = 128) can use metaphors to make new inferences. In a between-subjects design, participants heard information about novel artifacts, conveyed through either only positive metaphors (e.g., “Daxes are suns”) or positive and negative metaphors (e.g., “Daxes are suns. Daxes are not clouds.”). In both conditions, participants of all ages successfully formed metaphor-consistent inferences about abstract, functional features of the artifacts (e.g., that daxes light up rather than let out water). Moreover, participants frequently provided explanations appealing to the metaphors when justifying their responses. Consequently, metaphors may be a powerful learning mechanism from early childhood onward.

Breastfeeding perceptions of first time mothers: A metaphor analysis

Our purpose in the present study is to determine mothers’ perceptions of breastfeeding through metaphors. This is qualitative, cross-sectional and descriptive study. The present study included 33 volunteer mothers who gave birth vaginally for the first time, received care in the postpartum service, and breastfed their babies at least 10 times. To reveal the metaphors related to the concept of breastfeeding, each mother was asked to complete the sentence “Breastfeeding is like… because….” The perceptions of the mothers about breastfeeding were gathered under three main themes: positive, negative and neutral metaphors. The identified metaphors were divided into five categories: indescribable emotion, peace, healing, task and inflicting pain. The mothers produced more positive metaphors about breastfeeding.

Metaphors Related to Out of School Learning

The aim of this study is to determine pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the concept of “Out of School Learning” through metaphors. The study is carried out with phenomenology method of Qualitative Research Design. Data were obtained from 131 pre-service teachers studying the 3rd year of the Department of Preschool Teacher of the University of Sakarya, in 2019-2020 fall semester of the academic year. Participants were asked to complete these sentences, “Out of School Learning is like……… Because………” Obtained metaphors were analyzed with content analysis with packaged program NVIVO 12. This analyzed was done in 5 stages; 1) coding and debugging, 2) collecting metaphor image samples, 3) developing category and theme, 4) calculating validity and reliability, 5) comments. It is observed that Pre-service teachers generate well-formed and mostly positive metaphors. Metaphors generated by the participant pre-service teachers gathered under 6 conceptual category as; “experiencing”, “authentic learning”, “completing”, “freedom”, “amusement”. As a result of the study it is observed that, pre-service teachers perceived the concept of “out of school Learning” as positive, heuristic, accruing by practicing, amusing and life itself.

The perceptions of international students learning Turkish through distance education on Turkish language course and language skills: A metaphor study

In this study, the perceptions of international students who were learning Turkish through distance education regarding Turkish language course and language skills were examined. The research was designed in accordance with the phenomenology pattern. The study group of the research consisted of 27 international students who received Turkish preparatory education at a state university in Türkiye. To collect the data of the study, the students were asked to create a metaphor for the Turkish language course and language skills and to write the reason for this metaphor. The data of the research were collected electronically. The form created for this purpose was transferred to electronic media via Google Forms and sent to the e-mail addresses of the students. As the result of the study, it was seen that the metaphors created by international students about Turkish language course were gathered in six categories. Two of these categories consisted of positive and four of them were negative metaphors. When the students' metaphors for language skills were examined; three of the five categories created for reading skill were positive and two were negative; three of the four categories for writing skill were positive and one was negative; three of the four categories for listening skill were positive and one was negative. It was also determined that four of the five categories created for speaking skill consisted of positive metaphors and one of them consisted of negative metaphors.

SINIF ÖĞRETMENLERİNİN BEDEN EĞİTİMİ DERSİ VE OYUN KAVRAMI İLE İLGİLİ ALGILAMALARININ İNCELENMESİ

Classroom teachers are the most important people who lay the foundation for education and prepare students for life during their school years. The curriculum requires that class teachers provide 1 (one) hour of physical activity every weekday as part of physical education and games classes. Our study was conducted with the aim of investigating classroom teachers’ perceptions of physical education and play lessons and the concept of play. The qualitative research method was used for the study. The study group was formed by teachers teaching in Bandırma district in Balikesir province in the school year 2021-2022. In the study, classroom teachers said, “Teaching sports and games... It is like...” and “The game is like... because...” collected through the metaphor form asking them to complete their expressions. The data were analyzed using the content analysis method. As a result of the analysis, 53 metaphors for physical education and play and 41 metaphors for the concept of play were produced. In the study of metaphors used by classroom teachers for the perception of physical education and play, the factors of “expectation and desire”, “rule”, “health, entertainment and comfort”, “physical agility”, “freedom” and “basic life” were categorized into themes. When metaphors for play perceptions were examined, they were categorized into themes such as “recreation factor,” “education factor,” “life/basic life factor,” “freedom factor,” “comfort factor,” and “health factor.” The study found that positive metaphors emerged when examining physical education and play metaphors and teachers’ concept of play.