Conceptual clusters in figurative language production

Although most prior research on figurative language examines comprehension, several recent studies on the production of such language have proved to be informative. One of the most noticeable traits of figurative language production is that it is produced at a somewhat random rate with occasional bursts of highly figurative speech (e.g., Corts & Pollio, 1999). The present article seeks to extend these findings by observing production during speech that involves a very high base rate of figurative language, making statistically defined bursts difficult to detect. In an analysis of three Baptist sermons, burst-like clusters of figurative language were identified. Further study indicated that these clusters largely involve a central root metaphor that represents the topic under consideration. An interaction of the coherence, along with a conceptual understanding of a topic and the relative importance of the topic to the purpose of the speech, is offered as the most likely explanation for the clustering of figurative language in natural speech.     

Rhetorical Argumentation in Italian Academic Discourse

The recent trend in institutional communication research seems to foster the image of the University as a private organization significantly oriented towards a policy of customer satisfaction. Following the concept of organizational culture, institutional settings too are conceived as organizational contexts, where discourse is a privileged vehicle to convey and spread values, traditions and artifacts, both through internal and external communication practices. Thus, within academic discourse organizational culture is shaped and perpetuated by specific devices of rhetorical argumentation. The corpus of data consists of two different examples of academic discourse: the self promotional endorsement letters of the academic candidates to the chancellor’s position on occasion of the elections and the inaugural speeches proclaimed by the chancellors in charge during the opening celebration of the academic year. The first kind of academic discourse could be meant as an example of political discourse since the candidates use communication strategically and manipulate their academic membership as a rhetorical device to support their aims. On the other hand, the second example is a mere celebration of academic culture which through linguistic rituals recalls and perpetuates the basic values of this microcosm. The data have been analysed with the critical discourse analysis and diatextual analysis which pay particular attention to the context of speech. Moreover, attention has been focused on the metaphors and on the meta-discursive cues. The results show that although with different purposes academic discourse use similar discursive and rhetorical strategies as both belong to the same organization.     

汉语时间-空间隐喻加工垂直偏向性的稳固性

前人的研究发现,汉语时间-空间隐喻的加工表现出一定的垂直偏向性。本文两个实验采用空间启动的范式,考察汉英双语者二语（英语）经验对汉语时间-空间隐喻加工偏向性的影响。实验1以中国内地汉英双语大学生为被试,结果发现,在垂直空间启动条件下,被试的反应时更快,垂直性时间问题的反应时最短,正确率最高,即表现出时间-空间隐喻加工的垂直偏向性,这说明英语经验未影响汉语时间-空间隐喻加工的垂直偏向性。实验2采用英语熟练程度更高,来自我国港、澳地区的汉英双语大学生为被试,得到了和实验1类似的结果。两个实验结果表明,对于非平衡的汉英双语者而言,英语经验并未对汉语母语时间-空间隐喻加工的偏向性产生影响,汉语时间-空间隐喻加工的垂直偏向性表现出相当程度的稳固性。     

Teaching by Convincing: Strategies of Argumentation in Lectures

The aim of this article is to show the argumentative component in the discourse of teachers. This is done on the basis of an analysis of the argumentative strategies used by teachers during the first class of a university course in order to increase their discourse efficiency. The analysis of the corpus studied shows that in such a session teachers use argumentative strategies in order to control the social distance which separates them from students. In doing so, they make a double movement, one of distancing and one of approximation, with the aim of achieving a balance which permits them to consolidate their authority in the eyes of the students and, at the same time, present an accessible and well-disposed image to them.     

基于统计的汉语隐喻生成模型及其系统实现

隐喻是一种在语篇中普遍存在的语言现象.用计算机模拟隐喻这一带有创造性的人类语言,对隐喻计算化乃至自然语言处理的研究都具有十分重要的意义.本文介绍了一个汉语隐喻自动生成系统.在对大规模语料库进行统计研究的基础上,建立基于向量空间的模型,进行了词义相似度和词义相关度的计算,并构建了支持三种输入模式的隐喻句生成系统.实验结果表明,该系统初步实现了生成汉语隐喻句的目的,并具有一定的自学习功能.     

儿童和青少年的空间—时间隐喻图式

研究考察儿童和青少年是否具有“左-右”空间-时间隐喻图式。以泉州市惠安县4所学校小学三年级、小学六年级、初中三年级和高中三年级共100名学生为被试,完成时态-按键匹配任务。结果发现,各年级被试均对“左-过去,右-将来”的按键匹配比对“左-将来,右-过去”的按键匹配反应更快,准确率更高,表明自小学三年级起,儿童和青少年在时间隐喻图式上表现出和成人一致的模式,未发现年龄发展效应。该发现支持隐喻结构观。     

儿童和青少年的空间—时间隐喻图式

研究考察儿童和青少年是否具有“左-右”空间-时间隐喻图式。以泉州市惠安县4所学校小学三年级、小学六年级、初中三年级和高中三年级共100名学生为被试,完成时态-按键匹配任务。结果发现,各年级被试均对“左-过去,右-将来”的按键匹配比对“左-将来,右-过去”的按键匹配反应更快,准确率更高,表明自小学三年级起,儿童和青少年在时间隐喻图式上表现出和成人一致的模式,未发现年龄发展效应。该发现支持隐喻结构观。     

My evangelical conviction

There are three things that may serve to disrupt the casual habits of intellect operative within a majority of studies that address American religion: (1) poesis must be practiced as a challenge to flat-footed analyses invested in common-sense literacy; (2) there must be an open and honest discussion of how scholars conceive of the characters they study and how they represent those subjects in print or other media; and (3) subtle attention must be paid to issues of discourse, that is, to issues of how people make themselves up even as they are made up by ideas, concepts, and words that have nothing essentially to do with them.     

Metaphorical sense-making: visual-narrative language portraits of South African students

This article reflects on a creative visual-narrative approach to understanding South African students’ lived experiences of languages. Data were collected in two interviews: the first entailing a biographical history and the drawing of a linguistic portrait on a simple body outline and the second a narrative interview utilising the portrait generated in the first as a basis for talking about language and identity. Framing the research process in this creative visual mode shifts the focus of narrative talk, simultaneously grounding it in affective, embodied experience, and enabling a reflexive position from which to analyse the taken-for-granted role of language in the minutiae of everyday life. The theoretical lenses of identity and subjectivity are invigorated through these metaphorical representations, and new creative possibilities are released for analysing the role of language in mediating shifting power dynamics in post-apartheid and postcolonial South African life.     

Metaphor and the Reshaping of Our Cognitive Fabric

Mary Gerhart and Allan Russell view our world of meanings as a fabric of concepts and relations. Metaphor bends this fabric, superimposing one concept on another. While Gerhart and Russell are right to view metaphor as a cognitive rather than a purely linguistic phenomenon, their model misses the danger inherent in a cognitive restructuring that leaves some features of a concept highlighted and others backgrounded. When the bending of the conceptual fabric becomes permanent, the essential metaphorical insight is lost, leaving a skewed understanding of reality. We have a tendency to retain the metaphorically altered cognitive topography while forgetting its nonliteral genesis. Thus, the metaphoric process is one from which proceeds not only insight but also, necessarily, misconception.