Body-part metaphors: a cross-cultural survey of the perception of translatability among Americans and Japanese

What kinds of linguistic resources do people utilize when they try to translate metaphors into a foreign language? This investigation of the perception of translatability of body-part metaphors examined the effects of the following factors: the similarity between the human body part and the metaphorical expression (e.g., "eye" in "electric eye") in appearance and function; the frequency of the use of the metaphor in the native language; and the perceived distance between the first language and the target language. The results of a survey of American (n = 151) and Japanese (n = 116) university students showed that both Similarity in Appearance and Similarity in Function correlated positively with Translatability, while the effect of the former was stronger than the latter. Frequency correlated positively with Translatability for the Americans, although the correlation was weaker when the target language is "distant" (Japanese or Chinese) than when the target language is "close" (Spanish). Among the Japanese, Frequency did not correlate with translatability regardless of the target language.     

On regulating what is known: A way to social epistemology

This paper lays the groundwork for normative-yet-naturalistic social epistemology. I start by presenting two scenarios for the history of epistemology since Kant, one in which social epistemology is the natural outcome and the other in which it represents a not entirely satisfactory break with classical theories of knowledge. Next I argue that the current trend toward naturalizing epistemology threatens to destroy the distinctiveness of the sociological approach by presuming that it complements standard psychological and historical approaches. I then try to reassert, in Comtean fashion, the epistemologist's credentials in regulating knowledge production. Finally, I consider how social epistemology may have something exciting and relevant to say about contemporary debates in the theory of knowledge.A version of this paper appears as chapter one of Fuller (1988). My warmest thanks goes to Fred Schmitt, who saved me from many unclarities and howlers, as well as provided many probing remarks and criticisms with which I have barely begun to grapple.     

The social epistemologist in search of a position from which to argue

The relevance of Fuller's version of social epistemology to argumentation theory is highlighted, in response to critics who claim that I am not sufficiently critical of the social grounds of knowledge production. Responding to Lyne, I first consider the strengths and weaknesses of relying on economic images to capture the social. Then, I tackle two contrary objections: Brian Baigrie claims social epistemology is not social enough, while Angelo Corlett wonders whether it may be too social. Finally, I counter Malcolm Ashmore, who argues that social epistemology is not sensitive to reflexive implications of its own doctrines. I conclude that a rhetoric needs to be forged that enables those wishing to transform knowledge production to make their case plausibly to those whose behavior needs to be changed most. At the moment, science critics preach to the converted, a fate that the social epistemologist should not wish to share.     

A dark talent: silence in analysis

This paper is presented jointly by two analysts who have worked with patients whose silence stretched over years. They taxed our professional selves and our therapeutic repertoire of responses and techniques to the limit. Partly in response to these experiences, each analyst found herself needing to talk with another who could verify disturbing countertransference reactions from the standpoint of similar experience. The patients' (largely silent) attacks on analysis and their inability to use it conventionally constellated the need in us to talk, in an effort to relieve projected anxiety. Our conversations provided some containment of the destructive fantasies which we found developing in response to lack of verbal interaction with our patients. Unlike patients who project into an analyst in the unconscious hope of finding containment, silent patients project the need for containment, which they then disavow, leaving the analyst carrying the need, and feeling helpless, baffled and undermined in their therapeutic identity (Colman, private communication). In keeping with the theme of this conference, we found that our collaboration about what chronic analytic silence may mean helped to counteract its destructive effect on the analyst-patient relationship     

Comparison of culturally deprived school achievers and underachievers on memory function and perception.

To compare the memory function and perception of culturally deprived achievers with underachievers, 36 culturally deprived children were assigned to one of two groups according to their achievement level, in relation to their age and IQ. Underachievers were children achieving 6 mo. or more below expected level. Achievers were children achieving within at least 5 mo. of expected level. All subjects were between the ages of 8 and 12 yr. and were in Grades 4, 5, or 6. Four tests were administered, the Block Design and Digit Span subtests of the WISC, Memory-for-Designs, and the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test. The two groups did not differ on the first three tests, but the achievers performed significantly better on the last test than the underachievers. It was speculated that the differences were related to level of motor execution.     

Gender differences in orthographic, verbal, and compositional fluency: Implications for assessing writing disabilities in primary grade children

Measures of oral verbal fluency (word finding), written orthographic fluency (alphabet task), and written composition (narrative and oral expository) were administered to 300 children (50 girls and 50 boys each in the first, second, and third grades). Both oral verbal fluency and written orthographic fluency correlated significantly with the number of words (fluency) and the number of clauses (microorganization) in the compositions, but boys performed significantly better than girls on oral verbal fluency and girls performed significantly better than boys on written orthographic fluency. Girls consistently outperformed boys on the number of words and the number of clauses produced in narrative and expository composition. Thus, in beginning writing, orthographic fluency may be relatively more important than verbal fluency and boys may be at greater risk for writing disabilities. However, more boys were identified as having a disability in composition when absolute criteria (lowest 5% of normal distribution) were used, but about the same number of boys and girls were identified as having a disability in composition when relative criteria (significant discrepancy between Verbal IQ and compositional skill, based on the Mahalanobis statistic) were used. School psychologists are encouraged to use standardized measures of othographic, verbal, and compositional fluency to identify primary grade children needing early intervention to prevent more severe writing disabilities.