Cognitive Linguistic Studies - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2021

This paper demonstrates that, when interpretation is at stake, it is only degree of defaultness that matters. Neither degree of Negation, nor degree of Affirmation, nor equal degree of Novelty, nor equal degree of Literalness/Nonliteralness, nor equal strength of Contextual support, whether linguistic or pictorial (see Heruti et al. 2019), makes a difference. Instead, it is only degree of defaultness that counts. Indeed, having established degree of defaultness of negatives and affirmatives (Experiment 1.1) and their processing cost when in isolation (Experiment 1.2), we further attested to the speed superiority of default negative interpretations, which seemed more pronounced in the Left Hemisphere rather than in the Right Hemisphere (Experiment 1.2; see Giora, Cholev et al. 2018).We then further attested to the speed superiority of these negatives, when embedded in equally strong supportive contexts. Here, we also show that default Negative Sarcasm is processed significantly faster than nondefault Affirmative Sarcasm (Experiment 2). And when embedded in equally strong sarcastically biasing contexts, both hemispheres reflect the superiority of default Negative Sarcasm over nondefault Affirmative Sarcasm (Experiments 2.1–2.2). However, given Affirmative Sarcasm’s nondefaultness, it is only nondefault Affirmative Sarcasmthat is expected and shown to rely on cueing for its derivation (Corpus-based Studies 1–2, Section 3). Still, when hedonic effects are considered (see Section 4), it is only utterances’ nondefault interpretations, whether in linguistic (Experiment 3) or pictorial contexts (Experiment 4), that are entertaining, given that they make up Optimal Innovations, while involving default interpretations in the process (see Giora et al. 2004, 2017). It is degree of defaultness, then, that affects both (i) processing speed (whether in or out of context), (ii) reliance on cueing, and (iii) hedonic effects. Finally, in Section 5, our results and conclusions are summarized.

Durative events by default are atelic. However, temporal targets are typically required for durative verbs with a rushing manner, such as ‘We are catching the 3:30 flight’ and ‘The farmer rushed to harvest before the storm’. Why and how does manner introduce delimiting temporal concepts to durative verbs? This puzzle is addressed by our current study of two near-synonymous Mandarin durative verbs describing events carried out in a rushing manner: 赶 gǎn and 抢 qiǎng. Our event-based account will examine both their compositional meanings and their constructional patterns. We will show that 赶 gǎn and 抢 qiǎng not only coerce eventive readings from their nominal objects, but also require certain delineating temporal targets. The verb 赶 gǎn requires an understood deadline, while the verb 抢 qiǎng requires the presupposition of the limited availability of the object. As neither temporal targets mark the time of the actual activities, these are exceptional cases of aktionsart. We will show that the different ways to delineate event meanings of the constructions [gǎn/qiǎng+ noun] can be predicted from the lexical meaning of the two verbs and can in turn predict the event types represented by the object with the MARVS theory. Based on this lexical semantic representation, we further show that the Generative Lexicon theory predicts the coercions of the rushing meaning from the original activity verb senses, and that the Construction Grammar theory accounts for their sharing of the same syntactic configuration.

The metaphor time is space (Lakoff & Johnson 1999) and the pervasiveness of metaphor and image-schematic structure in human conceptualization (Johnson 1987; Hampe 2005) have been widely accepted among cognitive scientists as constructs that help explain non-spatial and temporal linguistic constructions. However, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) might not be the whole story. While it is acceptable that moments in time can be construed as being analogous to points in space as in utterances such as at the corner vs. at 2:30, there seems to be much more temporal cognition than previously thought. It turns out that time exhibits its own structure (following Evans 2004, 2013; Galton 2011) that is based on transience. This idea has made some scholars support the weak version of CMT which posits that the temporal meaning of prepositions is represented and processed independently of the corresponding spatial meanings (see Kemmerer 2005 for such a view). The present article supports the idea that spatial and temporal structures complement each other in order to achieve temporal conceptions. This is indeed a conceptual pattern showed by the English preposition at that makes use of an extrinsic temporal reference to activate its temporal semantics. To analyze the different temporal realizations that at may have, the paper aims to identify the topological structure that underlies the conceptual basis of this preposition. This allows us to appreciate how the spatio-conceptual structure of at partially structures temporal conceptions. The paper also identifies the nature of the temporal structure that is involved in temporal realizations. The article concludes with some remarks, among them the pivotal role of the schematic temporal structure that is captured by the extrinsic temporal reference, and the role of conceptual metaphor in underdetermining temporal thinking.

Aside from metaphor being an important language device reflecting human cognition, it also provides a window into the understanding of culture (Kövecsec 2019). Language is a function of culture because it is a form of the verbal and nonverbal systems by which a group member can communicate with another member. Language connects people of the same cultural identity because it functions as a common bond between people who have the same linguistic heritage. As argued in Verhagen (2008), values of one’s understanding of the world he lives in may in turn be influenced by the conceptual metaphors he unconsciously holds to visualize his world. Verhagen has provided a valuable standpoint, yet it is western-centered and European-oriented. Through metaphors identified in Chinese in proverbs, food, marriage, and time expressions, this paper intends to address the following questions: Does conceptual metaphors reflect any specific Chinese mode of thinking? Does such conceptualization give a taste of Chinese culture? What kind(s) of theoretical and pragmatic implications can be derived from our line of investigation? It is thus hoped that this paper may provide empirical evidence with reference to mappings between thought and language, which in turn, may serve as a way to explore culture.

The goal of this paper is to further our understanding of how novel metaphor sentences are processed at a discourse level. Previous studies have focused on contextual issues during the processing of sentences containing conventional metaphors, with the effect of context on sentences with novel metaphors less studied. Accordingly, we determined the effects of contextual congruency on novel metaphor sentences in short texts by conducting two on-line reading experiments. We adopted Conceptual Mapping Model in order to create sentences with two types of novel metaphor (1) sentences with novel metaphors that follow mapping principles (considered to be comparatively less novel) and (2) sentences with novel metaphors that do not follow mapping principles (considered to be comparatively more novel). In Experiment 1, conventional metaphor scenarios were preceded by congruent novel metaphor sentences following mapping principles and those not following mapping principles. In Experiment 2, conventional metaphor scenarios were preceded by incongruent novel metaphor sentences following mapping principles and those not following mapping principles. Results showed that congruent novel metaphor sentences following mapping principles were read faster than those not following mapping principles in conventional metaphor scenarios (Experiment 1), while there was a marginal difference in reading times between incongruent novel metaphor sentences following and those not following mapping principles, but not in the expected direction (Experiment 2). Our research supports previous work that shows that congruency plays a large role in assimilating new information, and also provides further evidence for the role of mapping principles in the creation and processing of novel metaphors.

This article is concerned with metonymy as a cognitive mechanism underlying our best and worst instincts. In particular, I consider two seemingly opposite processes of metonymy: (1) conceptual bypassing of sensory percepts, which leads to an intuitive leap to abstract insights and judgments and (2) conceptual oversimplification of a social category by stereotyping. By directing attention to that which metonymy is apt to obscure, I encourage the reader to rethink existing models of metonymy that focus on its referential and mental access functions. I offer an complementary account of the functions of metonymy by arguing that mental simplism is central to conceptual bypassing and social stereotyping and by pointing out the social psychological reality of an expressive function of metonymy.

Metaphors play an important role in contemporary approaches to grief therapy by helping clients (re)construe their continuing relationship with the deceased. Relevant studies have illustrated the substantive elements of metaphors (i.e. sources, targets, and mappings) in this regard, often focusing on localized bursts of intense metaphoric activity. This paper highlights the extended nature of metaphoric conceptualizations and their relationship with key meaning-making processes, following the principle of ‘correspondent analysis’ as a collaborative move between language analysts and therapy practitioners. Three specific phenomena are detailed through a mixed methods analysis of 18 motivated segments in a single session of grief therapy: (i) sporadic sources, (ii) persistent sources, and (iii) metaphor ‘chaining’ across embodied and verbal activity. Their respective links to treatment objectives and processes demonstrate how metaphor theoretic constructs dovetail with therapeutic work, and suggest future avenues for modeling unfolding metaphoric activity as a time series.

Philosophy of dialogue is primarily concerned with the relation of I to you, alternatively as the I-and-you (I ⇄ you) sphere of relation, in Martin Buber’s terminology, on the basis of primary words such as I, you, and it. It is convincingly held that the primary words do not refer to or denote or signify things but they intimate human relations. Grounded on primary words, metaphorical expressions are created to bridge over the cognition gaps encountered in the process of dyadic interaction between I and you. To interpret the spontaneously created metaphorical expressions has become intuitive responses frequenting the participants I and you in the ongoing dyadic interaction. In what way I and you collaboratively predict the meaning of metaphorical expressions is an ontological question which might be tackled from the perspective of epistemology. Therefore, it is in epistemology assumed that the semantic predictability of metaphorical expressions in any dyadic interaction can be conceptually realized by means of the four types of coherence in dialogism such as dictional coherence, emotional coherence, intentional coherence and rational coherence. The four types of coherence might be created saliently either in combination with each other or in isolation. No matter what kind of salience is identified, the I-and-you sphere of relation has at most sixteen channels for predicting the semantics of metaphor created in actual dyadic interaction.

eating plays a pivotal role in Chinese culture as echoed in the saying mín yǐ shí wéi tiān “Eating is everything for people”. In Chinese, a multitude of expressions related to eating are metaphorically used to talk about aspects of living and we call them “eating metaphors”. eating metaphors are largely motivated by the primary metaphor living is eating. This paper focuses on three prominent elements of the eating activity (i.e., living as “a process of eating”, living as “a kind of food” and living as “a tool for eating or cooking”) which give rise to the following metaphors: social activity is a process of eating, mental activity is a process of eating, social activity is food, mental activity is taste of food, humans are food, social activity is a tool for eating/cooking, and mental activity is attribute of tools for eating/cooking. The mappings from the domain of eating to the domain of living are largely based on their similarities on the generic level. Using the apparatus of clics³, we find that the concept of eat in Chinese can colexify drink, intake, chew, learn, consider, understand, invade, possess, deprive, absorb, coitus, depend, and consume, and all cases of colexification can be accounted for by the living is eating metaphor. It is the experiential similarities between the living activity and the eating activity that make the structural mappings between two domains possible and that people can use one domain of experience to talk about another.