Reuven Tsur †

List of John Benjamins publications for which Reuven Tsur † plays a role.

Titles

Subjects Cognition and language | Phonetics | Phonology | Semiotics | Theoretical linguistics | Theoretical literature & literary studies
Subjects Cognition and language | Phonetics | Theoretical literature & literary studies
Subjects Cognition and language | English linguistics | Germanic literature & literary studies

Articles

Gafni, Chen and Reuven Tsur † 2019 Some experimental evidence for sound–emotion interactionScientific Study of Literature 9:1, pp. 53–71 | Article
This paper describes a structural account of phonetic symbolism and submits it to empirical investigation. To enable testing for possible iconic sound–emotion relations, participants compared pairs of syllables (e.g., ma – ba) as well as pairs of emotional states (e.g., joyful – sad) on various… read more
Tsur, Reuven † and Chen Gafni 2019 Methodological issues in the study of phonetic symbolismScientific Study of Literature 9:2, pp. 195–229 | Article
There is a growing research literature on phonetic symbolism in poetry, sometimes with incongruent results. Through a theoretical structural analysis we show that, (a) individual speech sounds have (sometimes conflicting) potentials to suggest elementary percepts, such as abruptness, hardness,… read more
In the performance of poetry, some performers occasionally use a certain ‘softened’ voice quality, deviating from that of the context, for emotive expression. We explored how listeners perceive such instances through a combined methodology of eliciting open-ended descriptions and ratings of… read more
Tsur, Reuven † 2012 The Neurological FallacyPragmatics & Cognition 20:3, pp. 429–446 | Article
This non-article explores the limitations of applying brain science in “higher” disciplines. Many brain scientists believe that it is only a matter of time that everything human will be accounted for by the findings of brain science. Michael Polányi in the nineteen-sixties and recently Michael… read more
Tsur, Reuven † 2011 Aesthetic qualities as structural resemblance: Divergence and perceptual forces in poetrySemblance and Signification, Michelucci, Pascal, Olga Fischer and Christina Ljungberg (eds.), pp. 231–250 | Article
When we say “The music is sad”, we report that we have detected some resemblance between the structure of the music and the structure of an emotion. In this sense, “sad” refers to an aesthetic quality of the music. In poetry, “sad” may refer either to the mere contents of the poem, or to an… read more
This paper assumes that crucial mental activities involved in scientific discovery and literary reponse are nonconceptual. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries were made in states of extreme mental passivity induced in “the Bus, the Bath, or the Bed”(Köhler 1972: 163). Universities usually… read more
Tsur, Reuven † 2008 Deixis in literature: What isn’t cognitive poetics?Pragmatics & Cognition 16:1, pp. 119–150 | Article
This is a theoretical and methodological statement of what isn’t and what is Cognitive poetics. It is focused on Peter Stockwell’s discussion of deixis; but, I claim, much of what I have to say on Stockwell’s work would apply to some degree to the work of many other critics. I argue that Stockwell… read more
Tsur, Reuven † 2002 Aspects of Cognitive PoeticsCognitive Stylistics: Language and cognition in text analysis, Semino, Elena and Jonathan Culpeper (eds.), pp. 279–318 | Chapter
Meditative poetry has the ability to reproduce aspects of the meditative experience. In this paper we explore this ability, trying to clarify the phenomenon by pointing out the cognitive processes involved. We focus on Christian Jesuit meditation and pinpoint one of its most effective elements:… read more
Tsur, Reuven † 1999 Lakoff's roads not takenPragmatics & Cognition 7:2, pp. 339–359 | Article
This paper is a critique of George Lakoff's theory and practice as presented in his "Contemporary Theory of Metaphor" (Lakoff 1993). It addresses the issue on several planes, on each plane comparing Lakoff's approach to some alternative. The highest plane, affording the widest perspective,… read more
This paper assumes that the literary work of art is a "stratified system of norms", and that the description of each stratum may require a different kind of logic. One of the main problems is the meaningful integration of these descriptions. A speech sound may be described on an acoustic, a… read more