A friend is like an anchor- sometimes you want to throw them out of the boat:
constraints Foregrounding in poetic discourse: between deviation and cognitive
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Verbal metaphors are fundamentally directional. For example, people commonly refer to social relations in term of temperature (e.g.“She is a warm person”), but the inverse metaphors in which we talk about temperature in terms of social... more
Verbal metaphors are fundamentally directional. For example, people commonly refer to social relations in term of temperature (e.g.“She is a warm person”), but the inverse metaphors in which we talk about temperature in terms of social relations are not usually found. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 1999 )attributes this directionality to an underlying unidirectional “conceptual mapping” between the respective domains, rooted in our bodily experience. However, recent psycho-physical experiments have shown these conceptual associations to be bidirectional: Not only can manipulations of an individual’s experience of physical warmth affect that individual’s judgment of another person or situation as friendly or unfriendly, the reverse is also true, as thinking about a friendly or unfriendly social situation can alter an individual’s judgment of room temperature. To account for this discrepancy, we propose that (i) verbal (unidirectional) metaphors rely on a pre-linguistic, non-directional, association between the two domains and that (ii) language plays an essential role in rendering this association into a directional target–source relation
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Our topic is an under-theorized type of closed simile in which the ground represents a non-salient feature of the source term (e.g., as quiet as a weight, as opposed to a standard simile, e.g., as heavy as a weight). The non-standard... more
Our topic is an under-theorized type of closed simile in which the ground represents a non-salient feature of the source term (e.g., as quiet as a weight, as opposed to a standard simile, e.g., as heavy as a weight). The non-standard simile introduces a semantic difficulty, a result of the unexpected mismatch between ground and source. Since they are highly prevalent in poetic texts there is special interest in investigating the ways subjects attempt to comprehend such similes. To that end, we have asked 62 subjects to interpret pairs of similes distinguished only by the salience of the ground. We identify 5 response types and find that these are unevenly distributed across the two simile types (standard and non-standard). The structural difference between the two kinds of similes, therefore, evokes different interpretational strategies. Additionally, we find that the non-standard simile entails a hit-or-miss potentiality, creating conditions for either an insightful interpretation ...
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It is widely held that the direction of mapping from the source to the target domain in metaphors derives directly from the conceptual relations between its members (e.g., from concrete to abstract, from salient to less salient). In... more
It is widely held that the direction of mapping from the source to the target domain in metaphors derives directly from the conceptual relations between its members (e.g., from concrete to abstract, from salient to less salient). In contrast, the authors propose the following: (1) The relation between the same two concepts/domains can, in principle, be either bidirectional or unidirectional. Hence, even if there is a conceptual asymmetry between the metaphor concepts/domains (so that one of them is a better candidate for being assigned the source function than the other), this conceptual asymmetry in itself might not be sufficient to trigger a unidirectional mapping process. (2) Among those two potential relations, the bidirectional one is more basic than the unidirectional, in that it can be triggered by the mere presence of the two stimuli; in contrast, the unidirectional process requires an additional mechanism for it to be fully realized. The authors survey and analyze several e...
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One of the significant characteristics in machining process is final quality of surface. The best measurement for this quality is the surface roughness. Therefore, estimating the surface roughness before the machining is a serious matter.... more
One of the significant characteristics in machining process is final quality of surface. The best measurement for this quality is the surface roughness. Therefore, estimating the surface roughness before the machining is a serious matter. The aim of this research is to estimate and simulate the average surface roughness (Ra) in high speed end milling. An experimental work was conducted to measure the surface roughness. A set of experimental runs based on box behnken design was conducted to machine carbon steel using coated carbide inserts. Moreover, the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) has been used as one of the unconventional methods to develop a model that can predict the surface roughness. The adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was found to be capable of high accuracy predictions for surface roughness within the range of the research boundaries.
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What is the role played by the human cognitive system in processes underlying the use of figurative expressions in poetic discourse? This question has a long history in modern literary theory and in the cognitive sciences, as well as in... more
What is the role played by the human cognitive system in processes underlying the use of figurative expressions in poetic discourse? This question has a long history in modern literary theory and in the cognitive sciences, as well as in the" interface" areas between ...
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In Indonesia, on the island of Borneo, in the town of Pontianak, there is a supermarket called Harum Manis (shown in Figure 1 above). Harum means 'fragrant' or 'fragrance', while Manis means 'sweet' or... more
In Indonesia, on the island of Borneo, in the town of Pontianak, there is a supermarket called Harum Manis (shown in Figure 1 above). Harum means 'fragrant' or 'fragrance', while Manis means 'sweet' or "sweetness'. The name of the shop may thus be translated into English as ...
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Research Interests: Psychology and Cognition
Conceptual prominence plays an important role in determining word order in metaphorical sentences: conceptually prominent items tend to precede less prominent ones. In:'the farmers sowed seeds and hopes' the order of the... more
Conceptual prominence plays an important role in determining word order in metaphorical sentences: conceptually prominent items tend to precede less prominent ones. In:'the farmers sowed seeds and hopes' the order of the two noun in the conjunctive noun phrase ...
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A hybrid is an entity conceived of as a fusion or inseparable combination of components associated with two or more distinct entities, the hybrid’s parents . A major subtype is visual hybrids , represented in two- or three-dimensional... more
A hybrid is an entity conceived of as a fusion or inseparable combination of components associated with two or more distinct entities, the hybrid’s parents . A major subtype is visual hybrids , represented in two- or three-dimensional images such as drawings or statues; e.g., the mermaid, combining the top half of a woman with the bottom half of a fish. Visual hybrids are ubiquitous in art, religion, folklore and popular culture world-wide, and have been around since the dawn of civilization. Whereas the hybrid’s parents are typically well-known entities belonging to familiar categories, the hybrid itself is, or at least starts out as, a novel and unfamiliar entity whose categorial membership is not immediately obvious. We address the question whether one of the hybrid’s parents is more central to its conceptualization and if so, which one, surveying a series of studies conducted over the past several years investigating the processes involved in the categorization of visual hybrids...
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Metaphors, a ubiquitous feature of human language, reflect mappings from one conceptual domain onto another. Although founded on bidirectional relations of similarity, their linguistic expression is typically unidirectional, governed by... more
Metaphors, a ubiquitous feature of human language, reflect mappings from one conceptual domain onto another. Although founded on bidirectional relations of similarity, their linguistic expression is typically unidirectional, governed by conceptual hierarchies pertaining to abstractness, animacy and prototypicality. The unidirectional nature of metaphors is a product of various asymmetries characteristic of grammatical structure, in particular, those related to thematic role assignment. This paper argues that contemporary metaphor unidirectionality is the outcome of an evolutionary journey whose origin lies in an earlier bidirectionality. Invoking the Complexity Covariance Hypothesis governing the correlation of linguistic and socio-political complexity, the Evolutionary Inference Principle suggests that simpler linguistic structures are evolutionarily prior to more complex ones, and accordingly that bidirectional metaphors evolved at an earlier stage than unidirectional ones. This p...
This paper takes up the much-neglected figure of the closed simile, a simile in which the ground is explicitly stated, as in “the dress is as black as coal.” In the typical case, which we call standard, the ground is a highly-salient... more
This paper takes up the much-neglected figure of the closed simile, a simile in which the ground is explicitly stated, as in “the dress is as black as coal.” In the typical case, which we call standard, the ground is a highly-salient feature of the source term (e.g., black is a salient feature of coal), but our concern is with the non-standard closed similes, those in which the ground is a non- or low-salient feature of the source (e.g., “black as a building”). What is the purpose and the function of using a non-salient ground? We identify and discuss three types of non-standard similes, each exhibiting certain semantic and structural traits as well as a distinct pragmatic or communicative function. In the ironic simile, the ground is the antithesis of a salient feature (e.g., “as clear as mud”). In the humorous simile, the surprising ground comes as a punchline to solve a kind of riddle (e.g., “What do politicians and diapers have in common? Both need to be changed often”). And in the poetic simile, the introduction of a non-salient quality encourages the reader to rethink the source term itself (e.g., “waves as formal as scales on a fish”).
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Humor, Metaphor, Linguistics, and 3 moreVerbal Irony, Simile, and Irony
A novel distinction is proposed between two types of closed similes: the standard and the non-standard. While the standard simile presents a ground that is a salient feature of the source term (e.g. meek as a lamb), the non-standard... more
A novel distinction is proposed between two types of closed similes: the standard and the non-standard. While the standard simile presents a ground that is a salient feature of the source term (e.g. meek as a lamb), the non-standard simile somewhat enigmatically supplies a non-salient ground (e.g. meek as milk). The latter thus violates a deep-seated norm of similes and presents interpreters with unexpected difficulty, whereby the concept set up to be an exemplar of a quality is actually less than ideal to fulfil this role. The main question addressed here is how these two simile types are relatively distributed across poetic and non-poetic corpora. We elaborate the criteria for what constitutes the non-standard simile, including separating it out from adjacent phenomena like the ironic simile (e.g. brave as a mouse), and go on to explain our operational criteria for salience. Then, we report culling 329 closed similes from an anthology of poetry and 350 closed similes from two corp...
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Poetic discourse poses one of the most fascinating challenges to cognitive theories of figurative language. It is commonly assumedby literary critics, psychologists of art, and philosophers alike (eg, Shklovsky, in Lemon & Reis,... more
Poetic discourse poses one of the most fascinating challenges to cognitive theories of figurative language. It is commonly assumedby literary critics, psychologists of art, and philosophers alike (eg, Shklovsky, in Lemon & Reis, 1965; Van Peer, 1986)that the ...
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It is widely held that the direction of mapping from the source to the target domain in metaphors derives directly from the conceptual relations between its members (e.g., from concrete to abstract, from salient to less salient). In... more
It is widely held that the direction of mapping from the source to the target domain in metaphors derives directly from the conceptual relations between its members (e.g., from concrete to abstract, from salient to less salient). In contrast, the authors propose the following: (1) The relation between the same two concepts/domains can, in principle, be either bidirectional or unidirectional. Hence, even if there is a conceptual asymmetry between the metaphor concepts/domains (so that one of them is a better candidate for being assigned the source function than the other), this conceptual asymmetry in itself might not be sufficient to trigger a unidirectional mapping process. (2) Among those two potential relations, the bidirectional one is more basic than the unidirectional, in that it can be triggered by the mere presence of the two stimuli; in contrast, the unidirectional process requires an additional mechanism for it to be fully realized. The authors survey and analyze several empirical findings that can be accounted for by this proposal. Then the authors introduce and discuss the ways the linguistic structure in which the metaphor is embedded may function as the mechanism by which bidirectional metaphors may turn into unidirectional ones.
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Various theories invoke the notion of" point" to distinguish between" narratives" in general and" stories", defining the latter as narratives with a point (eg, Brewer and Lichtenstein, 1981; Labov, 1972;... more
Various theories invoke the notion of" point" to distinguish between" narratives" in general and" stories", defining the latter as narratives with a point (eg, Brewer and Lichtenstein, 1981; Labov, 1972; Wilensky, 1982). The point of a story is its raison d'etre (Labov, 1972), ...
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The paper focuses on the relations between metaphor use and a particular kind of conceptual organization: taxonomic categorization. The introductory section reviews some recent studies suggesting that various aspects of the use of... more
The paper focuses on the relations between metaphor use and a particular kind of conceptual organization: taxonomic categorization. The introductory section reviews some recent studies suggesting that various aspects of the use of metaphorical mapping (in, eg, ...