Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T00:24:38.352Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Using semantic feature norms to investigate how the visual and verbal modes afford metaphor construction and expression*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2016

MARIANNA BOLOGNESI
MARIANNA BOLOGNESI*
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this study, two modalities of expression (verbal and visual) are compared and contrasted, in relation to their ability and their limitations to construct and express metaphors. A representative set of visual metaphors and a representative set of linguistic metaphors are here compared, and the semantic similarity between metaphor terms is modeled within the two sets. Such similarity is operationalized in terms of semantic features produced by informants in a property generation task (e.g., McRae et al., 2005). Semantic features provide insights into conceptual content, and play a role in deep conceptual processing, as opposed to shallow linguistic processing. Thus, semantic features appear to be useful for modeling metaphor comprehension, assuming that metaphors are matters of thought rather than simple figures of speech (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The question tackled in this paper is whether semantic features can account for the similarity between metaphor terms of both visual and verbal metaphors. For this purpose, a database of semantic features was collected and then used to analyze fifty visual metaphors and fifty verbal metaphors. It was found that the number of semantic features shared between metaphor terms is predicted by the modality of expression of the metaphor: the terms compared in visual metaphors share semantic features, while the terms compared in verbal metaphors do not. This suggests that the two modalities of expression afford different ways to construct and express metaphors.

Keywords

semantic featuresconceptual similarityvisual metaphorsverbal metaphors
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 525 - 552
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

references

Barsalou, L. W., Santos, A., Simmons, W. K., & Wilson, C. D. (2008). Language and simulation in conceptual processing. In De Vega, M., Glenberg, A. M., & Graesser, A. C. A. (Eds.), Symbols, embodiment, and meaning (pp. 245–283). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binder, J. R., Desai, R. H., Graves, W. W., & Conant, L. L. (2009). Where is the semantic system? A critical review and meta-analysis of 120 functional neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex, 19(12), 2767–2796.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Black, M. (1979). More about metaphor. In Ortony, A. (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 19–43). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boroditsky, L., & Prinz, J. (2008). What thoughts are made of. In Semin, G. & Smith, E. (Eds.), Embodied grounding: social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientific approaches (pp. 98–115). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bounegru, L., & Forceville, C. (2011). Metaphors in editorial cartoons representing the global financial crisis. Visual Communication, 10(2), 209–229.Google Scholar
Bright, P., Moss, H., & Tyler, L. (2004). Unitary vs. multiple semantics: PET studies of word and picture processing. Brain and Language, 89, 417–432.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brysbaert, M., Warriner, A., & Kuperman, V. (2014). Concreteness ratings for 40 thousand generally known English word lemmas. Behavior Research Methods, 46, 904–911.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chee, M., Weekes, B., Lee, K., Soon, C., Schreiber, A., Hoon, I., & Chee, M. (2000). Overlap and dissociation of semantic processing of Chinese characters, English words, and pictures. Neuroimage, 12, 392–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cree, G. S., McNorgan, C., & McRae, K. (2006). Distinctive features hold a privileged status in the computation of word meaning: implications for theories of semantic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 32, 643–658.Google Scholar
Cree, G., & McRae, K. (2003). Analyzing the factors underlying the structure and computation of the meaning of chipmunk, cherry, chisel, cheese, and cello and many other such concrete nouns. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 132, 163–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cree, G. S., McRae, K., & McNorgan, C. (1999). An attractor model of lexical conceptual processing: simulating semantic priming. Cognitive Science, 23, 371–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidoff, J., & De Bleser, R. (1994). Impaired picture recognition with preserved object naming and reading. Brain and Cognition, 24, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farah, M. (1990). Visual agnosia: disorders of object recognition and what they tell us about normal vision. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Forceville, C. (1996). Pictorial metaphors in advertising. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forceville, C. (2011). The JOURNEY metaphor and the Source–Path–Goal schema in Agnès Varda’s autobiographical gleaning documentaries. In Fludernik, Monika (Ed.), Beyond Cognitive Metaphor Theory: perspectives on literary metaphor (pp. 281–297). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Forceville, C. (2016a). Pictorial and multimodal metaphor. In Klug, N. & Stöckl, H. (Eds.), Handbuch Sprache im multimodalen Kontext [The Language in Multimodal Contexts Handbook] (Linguistic Knowledge Series). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Forceville, C. (2016b). Visual and multimodal metaphor in film: charting the field. In Fahlenbrach, K. (Ed.), Embodied metaphors in film, television and video games: cognitive approaches (pp. 17–32). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gates, L., & Yoon, M. (2005). Distinct and shared cortical regions of the human brain activated by pictorial depictions versus verbal descriptions: an fMRI study. Neuroimage, 24, 473–486.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gentner, D. (1989). The mechanisms of analogical learning. In Vosniadou, S. & Ortony, A. (Eds.), Similarity and analogical reasoning (pp. 199–241). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, R. J. (2006). Embodiment and cognitive science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goodall, C., Slater, M., & Myers, T. (2013). Fear and anger responses to local news coverage of alcohol-related crimes, accidents, and injuries: explaining news effects on policy support using a representative sample of messages and people. Journal of Communication, 63, 373–392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gorno-Tempini, M., Price, C., Josephs, O., Vandenberghe, R., Cappa, S., Kapur, N., & Frackowiak, R. (1998). The neural systems sustaining face and proper-name processing. Brain, 121, 2103–2118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grondin, R., Lupker, S. J., & McRae, K. (2009). Shared features dominate semantic richness effects for concrete concepts. Journal of Memory & Language, 60,1–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hasson, U., Levy, I., Behrmann, M., Hendler, T., & Malach, R. (2002). Eccentricity bias as an organizing principle for human high-order object areas. Neuron, 34, 490–497.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hidalgo, L., & Kraljevic, B. (2011). Multimodal metonymy and metaphor as complex discourse resources for creativity in ICT advertising discourse. In Gonzálvez García, F., Peña, S., & Pérez-Hernández, L. (Eds.), Metaphor and metonymy revisited beyond the contemporary theory of metaphor (pp. 153–178). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Louwerse, M., & Hutchinson, S. (2012). Neurological evidence linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation in conceptual processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 385.Google ScholarPubMed
McRae, K., & Boisvert, S. (1998). Automatic semantic similarity priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24, 558–572.Google Scholar
McRae, K., Cree, G. S., Seidenberg, M. S., & McNorgan, C. (2005). Semantic feature production norms for a large set of living and nonliving things. Behavior Research Methods, 37, 547–559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McRae, K., Cree, G. S., Westmacott, R., & de Sa, V. R. (1999). Further evidence for feature correlations in semantic memory. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology: Special Issue on Models of Word Recognition, 53, 360–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, C., & Price, C. (1999). Three distinct posterior basal temporal lobe regions for reading and object naming. Neuroimage, 10, 181–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortiz, M. J. (2011). Primary metaphors and monomodal visual metaphors. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 1568–1580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: a dual coding approach. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Paivio, A. (2010). Dual coding theory and the mental lexicon. The Mental Lexicon, 5, 205–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez Hernández, L. (2014). Cognitive grounding for cross-cultural commercial communication. Cognitive Linguistics, 25(2), 203–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pexman, P., Holyk, G., & Monfils, M. (2003). Number of features effects and semantic processing. Memory & Cognition, 31, 842–855.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pexman, P. M., Lupker, S. J., & Hino, Y. (2002). The impact of feedback semantics in visual word recognition: number of features effects in lexical decision and naming tasks. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 542–549.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, B., & McQuarrie, E. (2004). Beyond visual metaphor: a new typology of visual rhetoric in advertising. Marketing Theory, 4, 113–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randall, B., Moss, H., Rodd, J., Greer, M., & Tyler, L. (2004). Distinctiveness and correlation in conceptual structure: behavioral and computational studies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 393–406.Google ScholarPubMed
Recchia, G., & Jones, M. (2011). The semantic richness of abstract concepts. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, Article 315.Google Scholar
Reinholz, J., & Pollmann, S. (2005). Differential activation of object-selective visual areas by passive viewing of pictures and words. Cognitive Brain Research, 24, 702–714.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shelton, J. R., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Deficits in lexical and semantic processing: implications for models of normal language. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 6, 5–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simmons, W., Hamann, S., Harenski, C., Hu, X., & Barsalou, L. (2008). fMRI evidence for word association and situated simulation in conceptual processing. Journal of Physiology Paris, 102, 106–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steen, G. (2008) The paradox of metaphor: why we need a three-dimensional model of metaphor. Metaphor and Symbol, 23(4), 213–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steen, G., Dorst, L., Herrmann, B., Kaal, A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A method for linguistic metaphor identification: from MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A. (1977). Features of similarity. Psychological Review, 84, 327–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinson, D., & Vigliocco, G. (2008). Semantic feature production norms for a large set of objects and events. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 183–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warrington, E. (1985). Agnosia: the impairment of object recognition. In Frederiks, J. (Ed.), Handbook of clinical neurology (pp. 333–349). New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Wu, L., & Barsalou, L. (2009). Perceptual simulation in conceptual combination: evidence from property generation. Acta Psychologica, 132, 173–189.Google ScholarPubMed
Yu, N. (2008). Multimodal manifestation of conceptual metaphors in multimedia communication. Intercultural Communication Studies, 17(1), 79–89.Google Scholar