Literal vs. figurative language: Different or equal?

Giora, Rachel

doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(01)00045-5

Cited by 214 publications

(149 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Gibbs and Moise (1997) suggest that in a sufficient context people understand nonliteral meanings without first analyzing the complete literal meaning. This direct access model is also supported by the study of Ivanko and Pexman (2003), while Giora (1997Giora ( , 2002 suggests that the salient literal meaning is interpreted first except in cases of familiar irony.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…There are several theories that try to explain how irony is processed (e.g., Gibbs & Moise, 1997;Gibbs, 2002;Giora, 1997Giora, , 2002 and, in addition, traditional pragmatic theories (Grice, 1975;Sperber & Wilson, 1995) have been used when explaining ironic comprehension. At the moment researchers do not entirely agree on whether what is said literally should first be analyzed before inferring a contextually consistent meaning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of comprehension of ironic utterances in 3- to 9-year-old Finnish-speaking children

Loukusa¹,

Leinonen²

2008

Psychology of Language and Communication

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This study explores the comprehension of simple ironic utterances in 210 Finnish children aged from 3 to 9 years. If the child answered the question correctly, he/she was asked to explain correct answers. The results indicated that there was large individual variation within age groups both in answers and explanations. In terms of correct answers there was a significant difference between 6-and 7-year-olds and in correct explanations between age groups of 3-4, 6-7 and 7-8. Analysis of incorrect answers showed that literal interpretation of an utterance was the most common incorrect answer type in all age groups. Totally irrelevant answers occurred only in children aged 3 and 4. In terms of incorrect explanations, "turntaking" and "incorrect focus" categories were the most common incorrect explanation types. Contrary to previous studies, in this study already some of the 3-and 4-year-olds showed an emerging ability to comprehend irony.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of comprehension of ironic utterances in 3- to 9-year-old Finnish-speaking children

Loukusa¹,

Leinonen²

2008

Psychology of Language and Communication

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“…Many theoretical models and studies on metaphor comprehension indicate that metaphors appearing frequently in speech are processed differently than unconventional ones. For example, the graded salience hypothesis (Giora, 1997(Giora, , 2002 claims that it is not the metaphorical character of an expression but its saliency which determines how easy (or difficult) it is to process. According to Giora (1997), only new metaphors are processed differently than literal language: While in the case of conventional metaphors the figurative meaning is processed before the literal, with new metaphors, activating the literal meaning before the figurative is more likely (review e.g.…”

Section: Influence Of Conventionalization On Metaphor Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Processing Metaphors in the Elderly: Does Valence Matter?

Bartczak

2017

Psychology of Language and Communication

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Much evidence from theory and research points towards difficulties in processing metaphors by elderly people. These difficulties are usually associated with working memory and inhibitory control deficits observed in this age group, as these very functions play a crucial part in efficient metaphor processing. However, results of research on understanding metaphorical content by elderly people are inconclusive. The following article reviews studies showing that metaphor processing relies on a set of complex variables, which might explain the inconclusiveness of previous results. Though we acknowledge the role of interindividual factors (differences in cognitive functioning among the elderly), we focus on the properties of the metaphor stimuli themselves, especially those of conventionalization and valence, as they might influence the processing of verbal metaphors by people in older age groups.

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“…In such CVs the meaning is established on the basis of an asymmetrical double-scope network of frame blending (e.g. overcome, underrate, outnumber) [X Y]V -symmetrical double-scope blending where the generic space is a newly emergent one in which the features to be projected from the two input frames are selected in keeping with the graded salience hypothesis (Giora 1997(Giora , 2002Huang 2009) and in which pragmatically driven mapping principles of relevance motivate the relevant elaboration of the blend.…”

Section: Semanticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond dichotomies : on the nature and classification of compound verbs in English

Bagasheva¹

2011

linguistica

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The study of compound verbs in English poses numerous problems, among which even their recognition as compounds on grounds of their derivation. Resulting from at least three different word-formation patterns, compound verbs constitute a heterogeneous class of complex lexemes. Their status as actual compound lexemes invites the differentiation between compounding as a word-formation process and compounds as a special class of lexemes. Even within the latter, compound verbs display marked properties at least in relation to the inability of standard classifications of compounds to capture and compromise their lexical uniformity and their heterogeneous origin. The adoption of a position in which it is argued that compound verbs in English constitute a constructional idiom and the application of scalar analytical notions which combine word-formationist and lexical-semantic accounts cast in the general framework of the cognitive linguistic enterprise yield informative generalizations concerning the linguistic and conceptual properties of compound verbs in English. In view of Radden and Dirven's (2007: 41-46) claim that we do not need "more than two basic types of conceptual units things and relations" in order to establish linguistically relevant conceptual distinctions, compound verbs pose a problem for neat dichotomous treatment as they very often both conceptually and in terms of form include a "thing" (e.g. to flat-hunt, to house-sit, to fellow-feel, to case-harden, etc.) and thus come closer to a "situation" than to a "relation". Exactly because of the fact that compound verbs profile/perspectivize "situations" as "relations", they function as special construal mechanisms and as such do not fit the subordinate/coordinate distinction, because they name situations. In view of the above the paper treats compound verbs as a constructional idiom whose analysis necessitates the recognition of the role of conceptual conversion mechanisms, scalar classificatory and interpretative criteria and uniform lexico-semantic treatment.

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Literal vs. figurative language: Different or equal?

Cited by 214 publications

References 52 publications

Development of comprehension of ironic utterances in 3- to 9-year-old Finnish-speaking children

Development of comprehension of ironic utterances in 3- to 9-year-old Finnish-speaking children

Processing Metaphors in the Elderly: Does Valence Matter?

Beyond dichotomies : on the nature and classification of compound verbs in English

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