TY - CONF

T1 - The role of mental images in metaphor comprehension

AU - Аванесян, Марина Олеговна

N1 - Conference code: 10

PY - 2017/9/10

Y1 - 2017/9/10

N2 - The role of mental images in metaphor comprehension is one of the controversial issues ofmetaphor theory. To find out what are the mental representations of the components ofmetaphor (topic and vehicle), we compared the comprehension of verbal metaphors and their"literal" pictorial analogs ("dive into a book", "reading is a road", "reading is a flight").Subjects of one group received three verbal metaphors, subjects of another group - threepictorial metaphors (23 people in each group, students, 18-21 years old). The task was toanswer the question: "What is the meaning of this picture / this metaphor?"When working with the pictorial metaphor to "Jump into the book", the subjects actualizedthe associative field related to diving and swimming: the importance of training for thereader-diver (30.4 % for pictorial metaphor vs 0% for verbal metaphor), the danger for notgaining the end of the book (13% vs 0%). For the pictorial metaphor "Reading is a road", thetortuosity of the road was mentioned as the difficulty of reading (21.7% vs 0%). With thepictorial metaphor "Reading is flight", it was noted that reading helps to see something new(43.1% vs 0%), rise above the world of fuss (39% vs 0%), get new opportunities (56.5 % vs0%), for verbal - flight of fantasy (52.1% vs 21.7%).Conclusion: when working with verbal metaphors, subjects do not actualize the detailed andfully extended images, associated with vehicle (the process of jumping, swimming, flying ortraveling). Their understanding is guided by own experience of reading and linguisticconnotations, associated with the topic of metaphor.

AB - The role of mental images in metaphor comprehension is one of the controversial issues ofmetaphor theory. To find out what are the mental representations of the components ofmetaphor (topic and vehicle), we compared the comprehension of verbal metaphors and their"literal" pictorial analogs ("dive into a book", "reading is a road", "reading is a flight").Subjects of one group received three verbal metaphors, subjects of another group - threepictorial metaphors (23 people in each group, students, 18-21 years old). The task was toanswer the question: "What is the meaning of this picture / this metaphor?"When working with the pictorial metaphor to "Jump into the book", the subjects actualizedthe associative field related to diving and swimming: the importance of training for thereader-diver (30.4 % for pictorial metaphor vs 0% for verbal metaphor), the danger for notgaining the end of the book (13% vs 0%). For the pictorial metaphor "Reading is a road", thetortuosity of the road was mentioned as the difficulty of reading (21.7% vs 0%). With thepictorial metaphor "Reading is flight", it was noted that reading helps to see something new(43.1% vs 0%), rise above the world of fuss (39% vs 0%), get new opportunities (56.5 % vs0%), for verbal - flight of fantasy (52.1% vs 21.7%).Conclusion: when working with verbal metaphors, subjects do not actualize the detailed andfully extended images, associated with vehicle (the process of jumping, swimming, flying ortraveling). Their understanding is guided by own experience of reading and linguisticconnotations, associated with the topic of metaphor.

KW - mental image, pictorial metaphor, verbal metaphor, comprehension

KW - mental image, pictorial metaphor, verbal metaphor, comprehension

M3 - Abstract

SP - 1

Y2 - 10 September 2017 through 12 November 2017

ER -