Metaphor Processing Research Articles

Paragon and antonomasia: Similar but/and different?

Paragon and antonomasia share identical constructional devices, namely, proper names that participate in an exchange relation with other entities, or proper names that are modified by various constructional devices, such as definite or indefinite articles, of-phrases, determining adjectives, or epithets. The present paper focuses on two main objectives. The first of these is to unveil the conceptual tools required for the expression of paragon and antonomasia, and determine whether or not these two figures are explained exclusively by means of metaphoric and/or metonymic processes, as has been suggested in previous studies. The second objective is to explore the role of constructional devices that account for instances of paragon and antonomasia. In the present study, it is claimed that proper names modified and enriched by constructional devices activate frames which allow for the emergence of intensified and even hyperbolic interpretations. The difference between the two mechanisms lies in the quality and the function of conceptual frames.

The Effect of Autism Spectrum Disorder on the Processing of Neural Response Metaphors

Objective: The aim of this research is to describe the processing of neural response metaphors in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) speaking Turkish as their native language and to form the basis for further research in this field.
 Methods: In this study, a single case study method was used. The data was collected by means of a structured questionnaire. The answers were recorded with the “Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts” (SALT) program, and the data obtained was summarised using descriptive analysis.
 Results: It was found out that the participant had difficulty comprehending, interpreting and using mimics and gestures. He struggled matching emotions and situations with expressions denoting them as well as determining how a person experiencing these emotions and situations might look like. The participant turned out to have reduced ability to interpret idioms and proverbs related to emotions, decide on what actions can be performed at the given place, and form a situation-effect relationship. The participant experienced problems interpreting and using new, formulaic, and malformed metaphors as well metaphors with literal meaning, and could hardly identify and correctly interpret conceptual metaphors within idioms and proverbs.
 Conclusion: People with ASD experience difficulty with processing of neural response metaphors by the native speakers of Turkish. The disorders identified within the scope of our research result from the deficiencies of the theory of mind in individuals with ASD, which is supported by other studies on individuals with ASD having different mother tongues.

Лингвосемиотические характеристики метафоры в профессиональном дискурсе

The aim of the article is to identify and analyze the linguistic and semiotic parameters of metaphors in the English professional discourse, to reveal the semiotic and linguistic potential of professional metaphors in conveying the business world significance and to study the mechanisms of the impact of professional metaphors on various target audience. This goal is achieved by referring to modern scientific both domestic and foreign studies of metaphor, linguistic semiotics and professional discourse. The relevance of the present study is determined by the necessity to understand the essence and main semiotic features of the metaphor used in the English professional discourse. As an empirical material, a bank of metaphors (1234 units) from the Economist is used. The novelty is the fact that metaphors in professional discourse are described as special signs of the semiotic continuum, 4 semantic groups and 23 subgroups are identified and analyzed. The authors have identified that metaphors are not used only as an independent cognitive resource in business, but also as a special sign that acts as a constructive foundation for business as a whole. They conclude that the metaphorization process in professional discourse provides a special algorithm for understanding social phenomena. Moreover, the authors argue that professional metaphors should be seen as conceptual frames applied to organizations to promote understanding, generate new meanings, and enable business and economic change, considering the advantages of second level professional metaphors.

Comprehension of metaphors in patients with mild cognitive impairment: Evidence from behavioral and ERP data

The ability of metaphor comprehension reflects the cognitive status of elders. This study explored the ability of Chinese aMCI patients to access metaphorical meaning based on linguistic models of metaphor processing. ERPs were recorded from 30 aMCI patients and 30 control participants when judging the meaningfulness of literal sentences, conventional metaphors, novel metaphors, and anomalous expressions. The lower accuracy of the aMCI group revealed an impairment in metaphoric comprehension ability, but this difference was not reflected in ERPs data. In all participants, anomalous endings to sentences evoked the most negative N400 amplitude, whereas conventional metaphors evoked the smallest N400 amplitude. The LPC amplitude might be masked by a metaphor rebound effect when processing novel metaphors, which was consistent with the Graded Salience Model that novel metaphors needed further semantic integration. The results suggest that the aMCI patients may suffer an impairment in metaphorical meaning recognition, which the declined working memory may cause.

Suppression of literal meaning in single and extended metaphors.

Within Relevance Theory, it has been suggested that extended metaphors might be processed differently relative to single metaphoric uses. While single metaphors are hypothesized to be understood via the creation of an ad hoc concept, extended metaphors have been claimed to require a switch to a secondary processing mode, which gives greater prominence to the literal meaning. Initial experimental evidence has supported a distinction by showing differences in reading times between single and extended metaphors. However, beyond potential differences in comprehension speed, Robyn Carston's 'lingering of the literal' account seems to predict qualitative differences in the interpretative mechanisms involved. In the present work, we test the hypothesis that during processing of extended metaphors, the mechanisms of enhancement and suppression of activation levels of literal-related features operate differently relative to single metaphors. We base our work on a study by Paula Rubio-Fernández, which showed that processing single metaphors involves suppressing features related exclusively to the literal meaning of the metaphoric vehicle after 1000 milliseconds of encountering the metaphor. Our goal was to investigate whether suppression is also involved in the comprehension of extended metaphors, or whether the 'lingering of the literal' leads to continued activation of literal-related features, as we take Carston's account to predict. We replicate existing results, in as much as we find that activation levels of literal-related features are reduced after 1000 milliseconds. Critically, we also show that the pattern of suppression does not hold for extended metaphors, for which literal-related features remain activated after 1000 milliseconds. We see our results as providing support for Carston's view that extended metaphor processing involves a prominent role of literal meaning, contributing towards explicating the links between theoretical predictions within Relevance Theory and online sentence processing.

Metaphorical Shift as a Way of Forming Professional Jargonisms of Lawyers in the Countries of the Anglo-Saxon Legal Family

The article is aimed at a study of the process of metaphorization involved in the formation of professional jargonisms in the field of Anglo-American jurisprudence. Distinction is made between motivated and unmotivated metaphorical jargonisms. The author highlighted the main source domains of anthropomorphic, socio-morphic, artefactual, and natural-morphic models of formation of jargonisms of English-speaking lawyers. Professionally significant slang names of subjects, objects, substances, places, actions, quantities, qualities are described in accordance with logical categories. Professionally significant slang names of subjects, objects, substances, places, actions, quantities, qualities are described in accordance with logical categories. In accordance with the part of speech of the lexeme that takes on a metaphorical meaning, legal jargonisms are grouped into the following subgroups: substantive, adjectival, verbal, verbal-substantive, and interjectional. Taking into account the semantic structure of the word, monosemantic and polysemantic metaphorical jargonisms are designated. The paper notes the abundance of synonymic relations in the considered layer of non-standard vocabulary.

Novel Metaphor Comprehension in Brain: Electrophysiological insights

Novel metaphors symbolize the innovation of language, and their processing has become one of the focal issues in the field of cognitive science. This paper summarizes ERP studies and finds that the current processing models for novel metaphor processing are more in favor of the Structure Mapping Model. Relevant empirical studies reveal that the comprehension process of novel metaphors is influenced by syntactic elements, the nature of mapping, contextual cues, subjects' level of creativity, and experimental tasks. Future research should refine the processing of novel metaphors based on controlling for the influence of variables and improve theoretical and empirical studies.

A review of processing and analysing visual metaphors in psychology

IntroductionA visual metaphor is an image depicting an incongruity in the spatial distribution of visual elements, which is not consistent with reality. In this paper, we present an overview of theoretical and empirical studies on visual metaphor processing. ObjectiveFirstly, attention is given to the spatial distribution of visual elements, which defines the type of visual metaphors as well as the meaning operations required to understand the communicative message. The paper then reviews several empirical studies that collect behavioural measures for assessing visual metaphor processing using questionnaires and exploring the role played by cognitive abilities. In line with the contemporary literature, we then present three semiotic dimensions for visual metaphor processing, namely the expression, conceptualisation, and communication. We then present a pilot study that focusses on these three dimensions. Few research studies have collected behavioural data for visual metaphors processing. This may be due to the lack of theoretical framework in the corresponding field of research. These three semiotic dimensions highlight the value of pursuing research on visual metaphors in the scope of psychology. The presented pilot study could be a starting point for the investigation of visual metaphors in the framework of psychology. ConclusionWe propose future avenues of research that consider the visual structure of metaphors and meaning operations while assessing the influence of cognitive abilities in visual metaphor processing.

МЕТАФОРИЗАЦІЯ ПОЕТИЧНИХ ЗВОРОТІВ НА ПОЗНАЧЕННЯ КОНЦЕПТУ MONTE/ BERG/ ГОРА: ЗІСТАВНО-ТИПОЛОГІЧНИЙ АНАЛІЗ

У статті проаналізовано втілення концепту Monte/ Berg/ Гора на матеріалах італійських, німецьких та українських поетичних текстів як засобу розкриття внутрішніх станів людини, передачі емоційних, оцінних та експресивних відчуттів, відтворення філософських ідей у національно-специфічному світобаченні автора. Проведення типологічних досліджень національно-мовних картин дає змогу схарактеризувати особливості експлікації концептів у художніх текстах та їх реалізації на основі процесів метафоризації та символізації.

Embodied Metaphor Processing: A Study of the Priming Impact of Congruent and Opposite Gestural Representations of Metaphor Schema on Metaphor Comprehension

ABSTRACT This study examined the performances of three groups of participants in interpreting metaphors in three different conditions: congruent gesture-prime conditions, opposite gesture-prime conditions, and no-prime conditions. In congruent gesture-prime conditions, each metaphor was preceded by the congruent gestural representation of metaphor schema. In opposite gesture-prime conditions, each metaphor was preceded by the opposite gestural representation of metaphor schema. The results showed that participants of congruent gesture-prime conditions had the best performance in interpreting metaphors, while participants of opposite gesture-prime conditions had the worst performance. It is suggested that metaphor schema is an important part of metaphorical meaning of a metaphor. Therefore, when this part of meaning is activated by a gestural prime, metaphor comprehension is facilitated. Furthermore, when a schema is used to metaphorically describe a concept or an event, that schema and the neural network that represents it become one part of a larger interconnected neural network that represents the meaning of the metaphor. It could mean that the activation of one part of it could facilitate the activation of the whole of the network. Finally, it is emphasized that a gesture that depicts the schema of a metaphor is in fact the embodied realization of that metaphor.

Semantic-Syntactic relations and cognitive features of Russian and Uzbek pseudonyms

This article discusses and analyzes the semantic-syntactic relations and cognitive features of Russian and Uzbek pseudonyms, national and cultural originality of pseudonyms. If we compare the languages and cultures of different peoples, we can distinguish matching and non-matching elements. An analysis of the semantics of pseudonyms showed that a pseudonym retains a pre-onomastic meaning and has a peculiar semantics, and the bases of pseudonyms inform about the character of a person, about physical properties and shortcomings, about behavior, about origin, about comparing a person with various objects, animals, plants, about a profession, an occupation, a social position, a particular life event, etc. It should be also emphasized the role of metaphorization in the formation of pseudonyms, since the process of metaphorization (as it is defined by cognitive linguistics) is a very important tool in the creation of pseudonyms. It is closely connected with the literary text, as it predetermines the special position of the context, acting as an aesthetically significant component of the literary text.

«Noah's Ark» by Halyna Hordasevych: How Metaphor Reveals Trauma

The subject of the research in this article is a metaphor that reveals unresolved trauma. The process of metaphorization is part of shaping a trauma narrative, in which metaphor works as a protective mechanism that allows one not to talk about the traumatic experience directly, but still talk about it. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how, in fiction about traumatic experiences, metaphor can seem like a way to give meaning to events, but instead highlights the inability to express personal experience. The methodological basis of the research is trauma studies, in particular the works of K. Carut, M. Wilkinson, B. Van der Kolk, K. Brewin, V. Williams. Literary studies by J. Anker and T. Grebeniuk were also productive for the analysis of the problem. The relevance of the study is determinate by the need to study the peculiarities of the trauma narrative, in particular, based on the material of the literature about the Second World War. As a result of the analysis of H. Hordasevych’s story “Noah’s Ark”, it was concluded that metaphor in a traumatic text can be the category that determines narrative features and generates meaning even when the story itself has already ended. The metaphor of “Noah’s Ark” compares the life of Father Hilary’s family during the occupation to the Old Testament story. War is depicted as a natural disaster (flood) and punishment for sins. The priest’s house, where representatives of various national and social groups gather, is likened to an ark, and Ukraine’s independence should become a rainbow after the flood. At the same time, the metaphor of Noah’s ark reveals an incompleteness in the text — the narrator stops the story before the end of the flood, refusing to talk about the fact that salvation did not happen. This incompleteness of the metaphor marks the trauma — the inability to talk about the loss of family, social group, and national environment. That is, the story about the war and the occupation managed to be embodied in a coherent narrative, but the story about the arrival of Soviet power and its consequences was left out of the text. A frozen metaphor allows the narrative to begin, but the discrepancy between the known pretext and reality prevents it from continuing and verbalizing the trauma. At the same time, it is the metaphor that marks the existence of trauma, a silenced experience that the author is unable to translate into a story. The motive of silence as a consequence of trauma is accentuated by its thematization in the text.

A new understanding of metaphors: From collective data to individual cases

Most theories on metaphor processing are categorical, focus on semantics, and ignore important empirical findings. In this paper, we show how complex systems science can help us understand the apparently contradictory findings in the literature. We claim that metaphors are best understood as processed by the dynamic interaction between different factors, with dynamically shifting weights, in different time scales. To understand what a metaphor means, we must consider the multidimensional aspects of meaning: a) schemas, frames, scenarios, etc.; b) attributes (e.g., big, cruel, etc.); c) phenomenological schemas (e.g., mappings of visceral sensations); d) valence (positive, neutral, negative), etc. These constructs are not an object in the mind or the same for everyone. They are formed by experiences — with some overlaps, depending on people’s sharing of cultural and embodied similarities. We never know how one person will interpret a metaphor but can make informed guesses based on empirical findings.

Geometrical Images in Lexis and Phraseology of Modern Russian Language

The article reviews geometrical objects as a factor forming the image system of modern Russian language, and explores the lexical units motivated by the concept of geometrical objects and phraseological units with geometrical components. This approach reveals multiplicity of geometrical objects participating in the process: there are three-dimensional (sphere, spatial angle, etc.), two-dimensional (circle), one-dimensional (line, etc.) and geometrical objects without dimension (point). When considering the language material the author uses the concept of the inner form of the word. Numerous examples are given demonstrating the process of geometric metaphorization. The analysis has shown that circle and spatial angle demonstrate high activity in forming lexical and phraseological units under consideration. Many of those geometrical images have an ancient origin. The article also touches on the issue of national characteristics of the perception of angles and circles. Some examples given by the author indicate the further development of language phenomena motivated by the concept of those geometrical objects in our time. Modern trends in the development of geometric imagery in the Russian language have been identified. The role of such geometric objects as a point, line, edge, etc. in the modern process of enriching the figurative structure of the Russian language is noted. The issues of lexical compatibility of the studied words are considered, the tendency of its change and expansion is traced. Modern trends of development of geometrical imagery in Russian language as a systematic process reflecting essential features of national view of the world are revealed.

SECONDARY NOMINATION IN THE ENGLISH TERMINOLOGICAL SYSTEM FOR ANIMAL DISEASES

This paper explored the problem of forming a secondary nomination in the English veterinary terminology on the example of terms for animal diseases. The aim of this study is to reveal the secondary nomination as one of the ways to replenish the terminology denoting animal diseases. Methods applied were continuous sampling of language material, classification, definition analysis and a descriptive-analytical method. Based on the collected lexicographical material, selected from the English veterinary dictionaries, the features of metaphorical and metonymic transferences, which serve for the formation of the English terms, nominating animal diseases have been revealed. The thought processes aimed at the formation of the secondary nomination are described. Layers of vocabulary that are sources of metaphorization and metonymization, such as metaphor, types of metonymic constructions, are considered. A conclusion was made about extraordinary activity in the term creation of metaphorization processes based on the use of signs of some subject areas to denote others. Based on the theory of conceptual metaphor, the main donor domains that served as a source of metaphorical nominations denoting animal diseases were identified. Terminological units for the designation of animal diseases arising as a result of metonymy are analyzed; the most productive models of metonymic transpositions are highlighted, which is important for their systematization and standardization. The study of metonymic transpositions in veterinary terminology makes it possible to clarify the specific features of the nomination of new concepts in veterinary medicine. Metonymic reinterpretation, compared to metaphorical, is a less common form of semantic transformation, including veterinary terms. Terminological units arising as a result of secondary nomination constitute a special part of the veterinary terminology vocabulary denoting animal diseases and reveal a close connection between language and thinking in the acts of secondary nomination.

Processing of different types of metaphors for polysemous words in Russian

Theories of storing the multiple senses of polysemous words in the mental lexicon suggest three key approaches. Some theories assume that only literal senses are stored, while non-literal senses are derived from them via rules; other theories suggest that all senses are stored separately. There is also a hybrid approach which assumes that some non-literal senses can be stored as separate units, while others are derived from literal ones. However, the evidence in favor of hybrid models has been obtained mainly from data comparing either metonymy and metaphor, or else proximal and distal metonymy. In this paper, the predictions of hybrid models are tested on proximal and distal metaphors. With the help of an experiment involving a group of adult native speakers of Russian, we demonstrate a difference in sensicality judgment and processing speed between proximal and distal metaphors, as compared to the literal senses of verbs and adjectives. Adjectival distal metaphors are treated almost in the same way as literal senses. Proximal metaphors are processed more slowly and less accurately. For verbs, both proximal and distal metaphors are processed slower than literal senses and are more likely to be evaluated as nonsensical. Such results suggest that verbal metaphors and adjectival proximal metaphors are derived via a reference to the word’s literal sense during processing. Adjectival distal metaphors, in turn, are processed independently. The difference between adjectives and verbs in the processing of metaphors can be associated with the different nature of the mechanisms involved in the development of polysemy.

漢語史를 기반으로 한 ‘角’의 인지언어학적 분석

This article is based on the history of the Chinese language and discloses the characteristics of the meaning derivation and main mechanism of Jiao(horns) at the individual level. The main contents of this article are as follows:First, from the point of view of the history of the Chinese language, this article re-establishes the order of the semantic clauses and derivations in the meaning of Shuowen Jiezi, Ancient Chinese Dictionary, The capitalist age Dictionary, Modern Chinese Dictionary, Chinese Dictionary and Chinese Origin Dictionary to construct a semantic map of Jiao(horns)Next, this article discusses the meaning derivation tendency and interpretation of Jiao(horns) from a cognitive semantic point of view based on the semantic map of the history of the Chinese language:First, referring to the derive-in-meaning process of Jiao(horns), it was classified into macroscopic and microscopic categories. Macroscopically, it was revealed that there are tendencies of people, things, activities, space, and cultural elements. Microscopically, the conceptual hierarchy of terms of meaning belonging to each category and the conceptualization process of metaphor, metonymy, and metaphtonymy were discussed. Second, the N-V conversion of Jiao(horns’, its meaning derivation, and metaphtonymy were revealed. Third, the case where the semantic term corresponds to two or more concepts was confirmed through the diagram, and it was revealed that it was conceptualized as metaphtonymy. Fourth, the process of derive the meaning of Jiao(horns) due to cultural factors was discussed together in the pragmatic aspect of connotation. Fifth, the grammaticalization process in which Jiao(horns) diverges into a measure word was analyzed, and it was confirmed that it was in the hierarchy of the most abstract concept.

КОГНІТИВНА МЕТАФОРА ЖИТТЯ/СМЕРТЬ КРІЗЬ ПРИЗМУ МОВНОЇ КАРТИНИ СВІТУ ВАСИЛЯ ШКЛЯРА

The anthropocentric approach to studying of language and speech causes linguists’ turn to literary discourse, since at the present stage of linguistic science development, it is relevant, in our opinion, there are researches of discursive phenomena, verbal conceptual models and their infl uence on the functioning of language units. This is manifested in the fact that the study of metaphorical mod-els in the cognitive and discursive structure is of particular interest. Attention to the problem of metaphor, certain aspects of its studying, is pri-marily due to the complexity of the speech phenomenon, the desire of linguists to fi nd hidden mechanisms that control the metaphorical process, the laws of its existence. In the system of linguistic structures, metaphor is considered as a dynamic linguistic phenomenon, which is characterized by such concepts as dis-course, dialogical discourse in cognitive-discursive, systemic-active and func-tional-communicative approaches, which is based on a dual orientation towards the author, the creator, who is considered as a universal language personality, and on the society represented by the addressee, the reader.Such an approach to the study of metaphor based on the formation of a com-municative-discursive paradigm indicates the need for theoretical and practical study of metaphor in a cognitive-discursive context aimed at substantiating the implementation of the language system taking into account lingual and extralin-gual factors. This is the relevance of scientifi c research, the purpose of which is to investigate the cognitive counter-metaphor LIFE / DEATH in the discursive dialogic structures of Vasyl Shkliar’s text «Zalyshents. Chornyi Voron». The study of cognitive metaphor makes it possible to make generalizations about the functioning tendencies of ideas about life and death, the embodiment of the ethnic uniqueness of world perception and the conceptual presentation of the analyzed metaphor through the prism of archetypal manifestations. The interpretation of LIFE / DEATH as a natural phenomenon is motivated by human empirical experience.In the Ukrainian picture of the world, the researched metaphors have a strong connection with archetypes, which is explained by paganism, the tradi-tions of which are deeply rooted in the Ukrainian linguistic consciousness. Prospective directions for further research should include revealing and de-termining the scope and content of the cognitive metaphor LIFE / DEATH in other works of this author.

The effect of incongruous contextual cues on pictorial metaphor processing.

An eye-tracking experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of incongruous contextual cues, both perceptual and conceptual, on pictorial metaphor processing. In a metaphoricity decision task, 38 participants independently viewed a total of 36 pictures equally divided into three different conditions: metaphoric pictures (MP), anomalous literal pictures (ALP) with perceptual congruity, and congruous literal pictures (LP). By initiating the midway condition ALP, the effect of contextual cues of conceptual incongruity were distinguished from that of perceptual incongruity. The eye movement data during each picture viewing were collected before the participant made a decision whether the picture was metaphorical or not. The behavioral results showed that the more abundant incongruous contextual cues were there, the more likely the pictures would be judged as metaphors. It took longer for the participants to make decisions on the literal pictures, be them in congruous or incongruous condition. The results of eye-tracking statistics showed that the perceptual incongruity cues were detected earlier than the conceptual ones. The perceptual-conceptual incongruity cues evoked more fixations and longer duration than the perceptual incongruity alone. The processing of conceptual incongruity proceeded after that of perceptual incongruity. The overall result of the study supports the contextual cues of perceptual incongruity as triggers for pictorial metaphor processing, whereas the contextual cues of conceptual incongruity play a decisive role in the metaphoric interpretation, which in turn renders the processing of MP more mental effort consuming than that of ALP or LP. The present findings have vital implications in revealing the triggering and determining mechanisms of pictorial metaphor processing, which are significant in exploring human cognition and have great impacts on various facets of social and cultural communications.

Investigation of the effects of computer-aided animations on conceptual understanding through metaphors: An example of artificial intelligence

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the change in the conceptual understanding of "artificial intelligence". For this purpose, the determination of the metaphors related to the concept of artificial intelligence in the stages before and after watching the artificial intelligence-themed computer-aided animation developed within the scope of the study, and the assessment of change between them constituted the research problem. During the 2021-2022 academic year 39 Information Technologies (IT) teachers and 103 fifth grade students studying in a secondary school in Nilüfer District of Bursa participated in this study. A phenomenological design pattern was adopted throughout the research. In the first stage of the study, many concepts were revealed as a result of the questionnaire applied to determine the concepts that were difficult to teach by IT teachers, and among them the concept of "artificial intelligence" was determined. In the second stage of the study, students were asked to complete the statement "Artificial intelligence is like … because ..." to determine the metaphorical perceptions on the concept of artificial intelligence. Based on the themes obtained from the metaphor results, computer-aided animation on the concept of artificial intelligence was developed by the researchers. After the animation demonstration to students, the metaphorical data collection process was repeated and it was attempted to determine the change in the students' understanding of the concept of artificial intelligence. As a result of the study, although the conceptual categories regarding artificial intelligence generally had similar characteristics, it was observed that the justifications in the post-animation conceptual perceptions were more meaningful.