Evaluating metaphor accounts via their pragmatic effects
A prominent pragmatic effect of metaphor is
meaning enhancement (Colston,
2015). Relative to comparable non-metaphorical language,
metaphors can provide stronger, richer, or more poignant delivery of
a proposition, idea, attitude, emotion, schema, or other meaningful
construct. Metaphor constructions also alter their component
parts (e.g., source and target domains). The paper measures
pragmatic effect performance when metaphors are assembled in
different ways, as a means of evaluating metaphor accounts. In four
experiments metaphors were altered by using; (1) weak versus strong
SDs, (2) mixed versus unmixed SDs, (3) single versus double
instantiations of SDs, and (4) using standard metaphor versus simile
constructions. Observed differences (e.g., in meaning enhancement)
support the idea that metaphor understandings arise in part due to
embodied simulations.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Metaphor accounts
- 2.1Similarity
- 2.2Categorization
- 2.3Conceptual metaphor
- 2.4Blending
- 2.5Embodied simulation
- 3.Varyingly structured metaphors
- 4.Predictions of metaphor accounts
- 4.1Similarity predictions
- 4.2Categorization predictions
- 4.3Conceptual metaphor predictions
- 4.4Blending predictions
- 4.5Embodied simulation predictions
- 5.Experiments
- 5.1Participants
- 5.2Materials
- 5.3Results
- 5.5Discussion
-
Notes
-
References
-
Appendix
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