Part of
Beyond MeaningEdited by Elly Ifantidou, Louis de Saussure and Tim Wharton
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 324] 2021
► pp. 61–76
Edited by Elly Ifantidou, Louis de Saussure and Tim Wharton
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 324] 2021
► pp. 61–76
Metaphor comprehension
Meaning and beyond
Preliminary evidence on non-propositional effects as indispensable to
the informational content of metaphorical utterances is provided in
Ifantidou (2019),
Ifantidou and Hatzidaki
(2019). The idea put forward was that the aesthetic
apprehension of linguistic metaphors extends to enriching
underdetermined aspects of propositional content.In this paper, I further examine the distinguishing aspects of
metaphors during interpretation. Following Sperber and Wilson 2015,
Wilson and Carston 2019, I argue that an emotional response is
triggered to the situation represented by the metaphor (see also
Ifantidou 2019). I
will suggest that metaphors enhance comprehension by being vehicles
for emotions such as affection or dislike, as in texts which present
difficulties in language comprehension. Ιn these cases, metaphors
evoke non-propositional effects, such as images or emotional
responses, by connecting to interpreters’ perceptions, memories,
previous experiences, imagining, and beliefs. Evidence that
addressees are able to derive meaning more frequently from metaphors
than from literal sentences in equally supportive linguistic
contexts (in terms of length, complexity, linguistic
under-determinacy) attenuates the idea that metaphors enhance
understanding as a merely linguistic tool, and reinforces the view
that metaphorical processing involves a blend of language
information with perceptual experience.
Article outline
- 1.The issues
- 2.The role of metaphors in meaning-making
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Expert Judges
- 3.3Designed Test
- 3.4Rating
- 4.Results
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements -
Notes -
References
References
Aristotle
. Rhetoric [The
‘Art’ of Rhetoric
Aristotle]. Translated by
John Henry Freese 1959 London: William Heinemann. Retrieved
from: [URL].
Benedek, Mathias, Roger Beatyb, Emanuel Jauka, Karl Koschutniga, Andreas Finka, Paul J. Silviab, Beate Dunsta, and Aljoscha C.. Neubauer
2014 “Creating
Metaphors: The Neural Basis of Figurative Language
Production.” Neuroimage 90: 99‒106. 
Bowdle, Brian F., and Dedre Gentner
2005 “The
Career of
Metaphor.” Psychological
Review 112: 193‒216.
Carston, Robyn
2010 “Explicit
Meaning and Free Pragmatic
Enrichment.” In Explicit
Communication: Robyn Carston’s
Pragmatics, ed.
by Belen Soria, and Esther Romero, 217‒285. Palgrave
Studies in Pragmatics, Language and
Cognition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Citron, Francesca M. M., and Adele E. Goldberg
2014 “Metaphorical
Sentences Are More Emotionally Engaging than Their Literal
Counterparts.” Journal of
Cognitive
Neuroscience 26: 2585‒2595.
Citron, Francesca, M. M., Jeremie Güsten, Nora Michaelis, and Adele E. Goldberg
2016a “Conventional
Metaphors in Longer Passages Evoke Affective Brain
Response.” NeuroImage 139: 218‒230.
Citron, Francesca, M. M., Nora Michaelis, and Adele E. Goldberg
2016b “Comprehension
of Conventional Metaphors by Second Language Speakers: Do
They Show the Same Degree of Emotional Engagement as Natives
Do?” Paper presented at the
UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference
(UK-CLC), Bangor, UK.
Citron, Francesca M. M., and Emmanouil A. Zervos
2018 “A
Neuroimaging Investigation into Figurative Language and
Aesthetic
Perception.” In Sensory
Perceptions in Language, Embodiment and
Epistemology, ed.
by Annalisa Baicchi, Rémi Digonnet, and Jodi Sanford, 77‒94. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Cope, Meredith Edward
1877 The
Rhetoric of Aristotle with a
Commentary. Vol.3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cunningham, William A., and Tobias Brosch
2012 “Motivational
Salience Amygdala Tuning from Traits, Needs, Values, and
Goals.” Current Directions in
Psychological
Science 21 (1): 54‒59.
Deonna, Julien A., and Fabrice Teroni
2012 The
Emotions: A Philosophical
Introduction. London: Routledge.
Ferrari, Gloria
1997 “Figures
in the Text: Metaphors and Riddles in the
Agamemnon.” Classical
Philology 92 (1): 1‒45.
Garavan Hugh, Jo
Cara Pendergrass, Thomas J. Ross, Elliot A. Stein, and Robert C. Risinger
2001 “Amygdala
Response to Both Positively and Negatively Valenced
Stimuli.” Neuroreport 12: 2779‒2783.
Gibbs, Raymond W.. Jr
2010 “Idioms
and Formulaic
Language.” In The Oxford
Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed.
by Dirk Geeraerts, and Hubert Cuyckens, Oxford Handbooks Online. .
.Golding, Alex
2015 “Mental
Imagery and Metaphor.” Porto
Alegre 8 (1): 20‒32.
Green, Nancy, and Sandra Carberry
1999 “Interpreting
and Generating Indirect
Answers.” Computational
Linguistics 25 (3): 389‒435.
Hamann, Stephan, and Hui Mao
2002 “Positive
and Negative Emotional Verbal Stimuli Elicit Activity in the
Left
Amygdala.” Neuroreport 13 (1): 15‒19.
Hassabis, Demis, and Eleanor A. Maguire
2007 “Deconstructing
Episodic Memory with
Construction.” Trends in
Cognitive
Science 11 (7): 299‒306.
Ifantidou, Elly
2019 “Relevance
and Metaphor Understanding in a Second
Language.” In Relevance,
Pragmatics and Interpretation, ed.
by Kate Scott, Billy Clark, and Robyn Carston, 218‒230. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ifantidou, Elly, and Anna Hatzidaki
2019 “Metaphor
Comprehension in L2: Meaning, Images and
Emotions.” Journal of
Pragmatics 149: 78‒90.
Indurkhya, Bipin
2016 “Towards
a Model of Metaphorical
Understanding.” In Metaphor
and Communication, ed.
by Elisabetta Gola, and Francesca Ervas, 123‒146. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Lacey, Simon, Randall Stilla, and Krishnankutty Sathian
2012 “Metaphorically
Feeling: Comprehending Textural Metaphors Activates
Somatosensory Cortex.” Brain
and
Language 120 (3): 416‒421.
Lacey, Simon, Randall Stilla, Gopikrishna Deshpande, Sinan Zhao, and Krishnankutty Sathian
2017 “Engagement
of the Left Extrastriate Body Area during Body-Part Metaphor
Comprehension.” Brain and
Language 166: 1‒18.
McIntyre, Ronald, and David Woodruff Smith
1989 “Theory
of
Intentionality.” In Husserl’s
Phenomenology: A Textbook, ed.
by Jitendra Nath Mohanty, and William R. McKenna, 147‒179. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Ricoeur, Paul
1978 “The
Metaphorical Process as Cognition, Imagination, and
Feeling.”Critical
Inquiry 5 (1): 143‒159.
Smith, Joel
2014 “Are
Emotions Embodied Evaluative Attitudes? Critical Review of
Julien A. Deonna and Fabrice Teroni’s The Emotions: A
Philosophical
Introduction.” Disputatio 6: 93‒106.
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson
2015 “Beyond
Speaker’s Meaning.” Croatian
Journal of
Philosophy 15 (44): 117‒149.
Wharton, Tim, and Claudia Strey
2019 “Slave
to the Passions: Making Emotions
Relevant.” In Relevance,
Pragmatics and Interpretation, ed.
by Kate Scott, Billy Clark, and Robyn Carston, 253‒266. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, Deirdre, and Robyn Carston
2019 “Pragmatics
and the Challenge of ‘Non-propositional’
Effects.” Journal of
Pragmatics 145: 31‒38.
Vincent, Justin L., Abraham Z. Snyder, Michael D. Fox, Benjamin J. Shannon, Jessica R. Andrews, Marcus E. Raichle, and Randy L. Buckner
2006 “Coherent
Spontaneous Activity Identifies a Hippocampal–Parietal
Memory Network.” Journal of
Neurophysiology 96: 3517‒3531.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Ifantidou, Elly & Anna Piata
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.