Academic literature on the topic 'Metaphors'

Metaphor representation theory posits that people often think, rather than merely speak, metaphorically. Particularly, concrete domains (e.g., tactile experiences) are recruited to represent abstract concepts (e.g., love). Based upon this theory, three assumptions can be derived. The first assumption is that metaphors should be common in speech and are not relegated to the realm of poetics. Second, the manipulation of metaphoric mappings should activate associated domains. The final assumption is that the use of conceptual metaphors facilitates the understanding of concepts with no physical referents (e.g., emotion). Research has supported the first two assumptions. The current studies were the first empirical test of the third assumption. A metaphor usage measure was developed and validated in the first study. Two additional studies directly tested the third assumption. Study 2 demonstrated that the metaphor usage measure predicted emotional understanding. Study 3 demonstrated that low metaphor usage predicted dysfunctional responses to negative daily events to a greater extent than high metaphor usage. Those scoring higher in metaphor usage also showed the established sweetness-pro-sociality metaphor effect to a greater extent than those low in metaphor usage. These findings empirically support the idea that metaphor use is associated with an increased understanding of concepts lacking physical referents, an important theoretical question in the metaphor literature. A foundation for future research is provided.

In this dissertation I defend a non-indexicalist contextualist account of metaphorical interpretation. This theory, which works within Kaplan’s double-index semantic framework, claims that context does not have the only role of determining the content expressed by an utterance, but also the function of fixing the appropriate circumstance of evaluation relative to which that content is evaluated. My claim is that the metaphorical dimension of an utterance can be found in the circumstance of evaluation, and not in the content which is expressed by the utterance. To that effect, I introduce a parameter in the circumstance of evaluation of an utterance, which I call ‘thematic dimension’. I show how the introduction of this parameter is in harmony with a class of theories that have proposed a relativistic semantic treatment of other phenomena such as predicates of taste and knowledge ascriptions. At the same time, I question a number of other proposals, both semantic and pragmatic, which, I believe, do not reach the same level of empirical adequacy and formal correctness as my proposal.

This project seeks to serve two purposes: first, to investigate various semantic and grammatical aspects of mixed conceptual metaphors in reference to anger; and secondly, to explore the potential of a corpus-based, TARGET DOMAIN-oriented method termed metaphor pattern analysis to the study of mixed metaphor. This research shows that mixed metaphors do not pattern in a manner consistent with statements made within conceptual metaphor theory. These metaphors prove highly dynamic in their combinability and resist resonance between SOURCE DOMAINS used. Also shown is the viability of metaphor pattern analysis as a methodology to approach mixed metaphor research.

Le metafore sono un meccanismo pervasivo che gli individui usano nel linguaggio di tutti i giorni. Le metafore rappresentano la mappatura di due concetti, ed è imperativo trovare un modo efficace per rappresentarle in un ambiente computazionale. Questo studio mira a esplorare una possibile rappresentazione per aumentare l’accuratezza delle macchine nell’interpretazione metaforica. In particolare, investiga l’uso di vettori per ottenere degli aggettivi che possano descrivere le suddette metafore. Inoltre, poiché nel marketing l’uso delle metafore visive è esteso, lo studio incorpora una classificazione di immagini, formando una pipeline per l’interpretazione di metafore visive. Gli aggettivi sono stati recuperati con la creazione di una funzione in Python, mentre la classificazione di immagini è stata raggiunta grazie al training di ResNet50 su un dataset personalizzato. Per esaminare l’accuratezza nello scegliere gli aggettivi, è stato distribuito un questionario a persone con un livello di inglese almeno B2. Le risposte sono state analizzate attraverso precision at k. I risultati si dimostrano generalmente concordi con le scelte della macchina, provando quindi la teoria. I risultati inoltre suggeriscono che la funzione creata per lo studio funziona, e che vale la pena implementare l’approccio in modelli più estesi di NLP. Perciò, il concetto teorico alla base dello studio dovrebbe essere tenuto in considerazione nella creazione di modelli per l’interpretazione metaforica.

Adults commonly use spatial motion to talk about time. These metaphors are of at least three different types: moving-time, moving-ego, and sequence-as-relative-position-on-a-path. But when children grasp the meaning of spatial metaphors for time and what cognitive factors account for this understanding? In this study, we aim to answer these questions by studying young children’s comprehension of three different spatial metaphors for time. Our findings show that children begin to understand metaphors for time by age five and to explain the meaning of these different metaphors by age 6. Additionally, children’s comprehension varied by metaphor type, with moving-time and moving-ego metaphors being mastered earlier than sequence-as-relative-position-on-a-path metaphors. Moreover, we found children’s comprehension ability to be associated with their understanding of the time concept. Overall, these results suggest that comprehension of time metaphors is an early emerging linguistic ability that has strong ties to children’s cognitive understanding of the time concept.

<p>This dissertation suggests that metaphors are a powerful learning tool in education and a way to develop as a professional educator. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a deeper understanding of how teachers utilize metaphors during reflection. I addressed their experience with metaphors, how they use metaphors, how metaphors play a critical role in their teaching, how students benefit from their use of metaphors, why they use metaphors, and if through technology they are able to use metaphors to reflect. I, individually, interviewed educators to understand the overall process and the emotions they encounter because they are teaching our students. My involvement in this project led me to discover that metaphors are a way of addressing social justice and expanding the following: (a) an ethic of choice, (b) an ethic of virtue, (c) an ethic of identity and above all else, and (d) an ethic of care. All of my participants expressed both literally and metaphorically that utilizing metaphors validated students individually, allowed them to connect on a personal level, and above all else showed an ethic of care towards student learning. Our educators are leading the way in a metaphorical world that must be taught literally as well. </p><p> <i>Key Words:</i> metaphor, reflection, educators, students, education. </p>

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa<br>Metaphor has been widely researched within the realm of Cognitive Linguistics, having as major landmarks Lakoff’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Fauconnier and Turner’s Mental Space based analysis. Nevertheless, specific aspects that pertain to the dynamic character and flexibility of metaphorical relations, enabled by the concepts involved, remain rather un-treated in literature thus far. In this light, the aim of the present work is to propose a model that may account for a more dynamic process of integration in metaphoric constructions. Major attention is paid to the participation of the target as a conceptual entity capable of selecting aspects of the source in order to elaborate a final interpretation. To this end, the study designed a set of five metaphors whose constitutive concepts were inverted and mixed up in all possible combinations. The pairs generated were presented to 150 participants, who were divided into 6 groups of 25 people, and each participant provided an interpretation for 15 different combinations, ending in a total of 2250 answers. Based on this large number of answers, an elaborated and detailed account of the metaphors’ mechanics was pursued. The quantitative analysis of the results yielded measures of the difficulty and easiness of interpretation, concentration of responses and dispersion as well as frequency of sanctioned domains across the metaphoric pairs. The aforementioned indicators were in turn thoroughly correlated with the conceptual makeup of both sources and targets. Subsequently, the qualitative analysis of the results show that intrinsic characteristics of the concepts such as the level of schematicity, entrenchment and concreteness, play a fundamental role in the construction of meaning. Following the consequences of the findings, it is concluded that metaphorical interpretation is the product of a bidirectional interplay between the source and target concepts. Also, metaphorical interpretation is not an absolute conceptual construct but metaphorical answers can be placed along a scale of interpretations that represents different levels of metaphoricity.